Re-opening part 2

Join Pastor Mike and Cory as they talk with Dr. Dino Pedrone on the re-opening of the church part 2

Hello, and welcome back to the Next Level Podcast, and we’re here with part two of our conversation with Dr. Dino Padron regarding reopening the church following the lockdowns. What would you say to people who say, you know, the church has got to change its mission, the church’s, you know, goal needs to be different now, just because of the new, you know, you’re talking about a new world, not just with COVID,

but with everything else with social unease and distress, you know, political unease now. And you know, everybody, you know, you’re either on one side or the other, there’s no compromise or anything for lack of a better word.

So has, as the last six, seven months, how, has this affected the church’s mission? Should we change it? Or, you know, so I’ll just kind of leave that open to you guys. What, what should the church’s mission be now?

Well, my answer to that is you don’t ever change the mission. Jesus gave us the mission. So the answer is just a flat no, you don’t change it. Now methods change, how we go about doing things change.

I’m in a lot of different churches and I have different ways of doing worship. And most of them I like, I think they’re very good. Having certain ministries for those who are addicted, having ministries for those who have been through crisis with marriages and children, all of those things are good.

But the mission is very clear. It’s given six times or five times in the scripture, we are to go, we are to teach, we are to baptize and to teach all nations. And that’s, that’s the mission of the church.

I can never imagine the discussion even about changing mission. Mission is set. Jesus gave us our orders. The methods of doing that will change. It changes from place to place. I remember I was in Israel one time and asked to speak at a church and the service was at six o ‘clock at night and their service went from six to ten.

Now most people would think six to ten, you know, people are falling asleep and all of that, but they did everything in those four hours that you do an entire week of church. They had birthdays gifts given to those who had birthdays that month.

They had people baptized. They had people join their church. They had children singing songs. I think they gave me 30 minutes to do a sermon. I mean, it was an unbelievable amount of stuff that went into that.

I would never do that in America. The method was different, but the mission has got to be the same, and the mission is based upon the authority of the Word of God. And I would hear, and Cory, I appreciate so much your question there.

I think it’s a really right on target question. I would hear say that we need to give priority to preaching and the practicality of how you live out the Christian faith. The Christian faith has got to be addressed.

How do we live it out during the COVID? How do we live it out during times of crisis? How do the Christians in China live out when they’re underground? I think there’s a lot of things to learn. but the mission is still go teach baptized teaching them to observe all things.

What’s where I’ve commanded you and the fact is this is to be done home and abroad and around the world. The Bible says Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the other most parts of the world. And I just talked to a pastor earlier today who was in a conference and he said there were 10 missionaries there.

He said there were 10 of the finest missionaries he’s ever met doing an incredible amount of works in different places of the world, but it’s all with the same mission in mind. You know, I would concur and I would say that we don’t need to replace the mission.

We need to reconnect to the mission. And what I’m hoping is that through COVID -19 that pastors, ministry leaders, organizational leaders are recognizing that this is a great opportunity to get back to the simplicity of the gospel.

And yes, we’re called to revamp how we deliver the gospel to people. And like for instance, through the internet or through different means that God has provided for us. And we certainly need to rethink how we’re going to connect with others and share the gospel with them.

But the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. And we can’t retreat from that wonderful truth and that wonderful message that is redeeming. And we just recently baptized a man 60 years old, came to Christ and just before COVID his daughter and son -in -law came to Christ.

And how did that all that happen? They were invited to a special event at the Open Door Church. We had a big Christmas banquet and they get saved and then they come, they’re growing and now they invite family members.

They come and hear the gospel. They get saved. That just needs to keep on happening even through COVID -19. And we need to stay on mission for Christ. Yeah, I think you guys hit the nail right on the head there so kind of kind of similar to that in the same vein, you know, how should we respond to, you know, maybe outsiders people in our communities or, you know, even members, I’m sure, who are saying,

who think it’s unsafe to open back up or how do we respond to people who are saying well you guys are breaking the law and Christians are supposed to obey authorities and you know that that kind of talk how, how should we as pastors, how should we as, you know, churchgoers, how do we respond, how do we respond to those, to those, to those critics.

Pastor why don’t you go ahead on that first I think you’re right in the middle of the I’ve got a lot of things to say in general about a lot of other ministries but what maybe, maybe I think about what’s going on open door would be helpful there.

Yeah, I do feel like churches and Christians have a responsibility. to obey those who God puts in authority. And we’re to render under Caesar the things that are Caesars, but we’re also to render the things that are gods to him.

And it is God who deserves our worship, not any political figure. You know, I see sometimes these rallies and I just wonder if they’re, you know, worshiping people and they really need to understand that Christ deserves our loyalty.

He deserves our love. Now, for those folks that are vulnerable or they are in circumstances that maybe they don’t feel safe to be in a crowd, I think the church has to provide opportunities for them to minister to them in other ways.

And that might be through social media. It might be through the internet. I feel like I do a lot of mentoring discipleship through social media. I feel like the opportunities that I have to minister to many of my folks that I can’t get out because of physical reasons.

I mean, you know, they just love when I call them, they’re just like, can’t believe the pastor would call them. He’s so busy, got a lot going on. And we let our folks, they can call in and hear our service.

This Sunday night, I’ve called our church to a prayer rally, but it’s all gonna be on the telephone. They’re all gonna call on a phone number and I’m doing an all call to the church family and say, let’s pray for our nation because this is a big moment as we’re getting ready for the election.

So I think that you have to kind of be on multiple tracks, sensitive to those who are struggling that the church is reopening and hearing what they have to say, being cautious and careful, but at the same time, keep moving the gospel forward.

Yeah, that’s really, that’s right on target. I look at this, Corey, in this sense too, that every pastor needs to stop and think about who he’s accountable to. There’s the accountability we have to our church family.

the accountability we have to our church leadership, the accountability to the community. I think we as Christian leaders need to be careful to have a good image in the community that we care about the community, not compromise to the world, but that we care about the community, that we were there for them.

And I think in the COVID that needs to be kept in mind and I think there’s a lot of pastors I have met, Pastor Mike, that have done that. They’ve been very careful with their communities. I think because somebody does something in Las Vegas as a pastor, or somebody in Chicago or Los Angeles, they may do something different than what I do or Open Door Church does, but I have to be accountable to the people I’m accountable to.

And I need to protect my people as well, protect the congregation and protect the people. of the community that have issues, perhaps, with the church about other things. Having said that, the Lord of the church, though, is the Lord Jesus Christ, and he is the sovereign Lord.

We are not accountable to the government when it comes to the church’s operation. If we’re building a building, if there’s building codes, we are accountable to that, for the safety of that building.

But when it comes to the gospel message, it comes to what we teach and preach, and when we meet and those kind of things, Jesus Christ is really the Lord of that. And we need to recognize that as pastors and leaders, that Jesus Christ is Lord.

I think wise pastors sit and talk to their leadership and get their ideas, they make their stands. But I think I would be very cautious with churches that say, you must do it like we do it because I don’t really see that as the autonomy of a local church then speaking.

It’s more like a denominational boss telling people what to do. But I think that the lordship of Christ is the heart of the church. It’s interesting, in the last part of the book of John, when Thomas and Philip and Mary Magdalene and Peter and John addressed Jesus, they addressed him as Lord.

The Greek word is kurios, meaning master. They weren’t calling him Jesus or Christ, they were calling him Lord. And we as the people of the local church, you understand that it is Jesus Christ who is our Lord.

It’s not the pastor, it’s not the leadership, it’s not the elders of the church, it’s Jesus. And we need to be led by him, but he’s already given us, we’ve already talked about our mission, and our mission that we need to go forward with and proclaim it strongly and proclaim it very well.

It’s kind of interesting we’re having a conversation about these kind of things because I think a year ago we never would have thought about talking about this kind of stuff. Very true. very true. So then, kind of the next thing, do you think this quarantine, you know, has it had a long -term effect on church attendance?

You know, it’s real easy to just wake up Sunday morning at 9 .55 for your 10 o ‘clock service, go from your bed to your living room couch and just turn on Hope Worth Avenue and watch Pastor Mike in your couch in your pajamas.

So do you think that quarantine long -term will have an effect on church attendance? Will we see, you know, even next December, next January, or, you know, two, three years later, do we, do you think that, you know, this will have had an effect on church attendance or do you think we’ll kind of just kind of bounce right back out of it and just, it’s just a matter of time?

From my perspective I’ve looked at this as a two -year journey. I believe new habits have been formed and the regathering of the church and re -engaging our members into ministry as well as making sure that they’re actively not only receiving ministry but they’re engaged in doing ministry in our community and through our church that this is going to take a while and right now we have a generation that is skeptical of their government.

I mean I just heard today they’re talking about we’re not even sure you know they’re political leaders saying we’re not even sure that we trust the vaccine. So I think that there’s you know a lot of new habits, a lot of skepticism, and a lot of fear and things just being cautious.

So I do believe that yes attendance patterns, ministry patterns, people being involved that has dramatically changed. That’s our biggest challenge right now at the Open Door Church is that we’d love to open up more but we really don’t have the volunteer base that we used to have.

I have still the members with me but I don’t have the number of members who are ready to say I’ll get involved and I’ll help out with that particular project or that particular program. So I do believe it’s going to be a while and that’s why pastors are going to have to keep things simple and they’re going to have to be patient and my goal has always been as a pastor is not to judge you where you’re at but to lead you in a greater commitment to Christ from wherever you’re at and so when you take that perspective yes it’s it’s a journey.

Yeah Cory my experience in being in a lot of different churches it depends on the situation. I’ve been in a few churches where they it looks to me like they haven’t really missed a step but I would say that that community they’re living in has had very low numbers of COVID and so what I think Pastor Mike just said to us is a a good lesson to listen to.

Because I think with most churches who have had some experience with COVID, that’s what they’re gonna be dealing with. I preached, I guess it was a week ago, Sunday in a church in Western Florida. And it was packed morning and it was packed again in the evening.

And very few people were massed there and it’s in a very high risk area. But for some reason, the people there have not really taken the position of concern. They’re not really a younger congregation, they’re probably a congregation across the board.

So what my experience has been is that it depends on the church and it depends on the circumstance. Some of it does depend upon the COVID. But I guess I would say at the end of the day, all of this is open for learning.

Because I do think that there are more churches like what pastor Mike mentioned, they’re taking a longer term of approach to this thing. And they’re looking at it from a longer, longer approach. This weekend I’m going to be speaking in a conference, those who Monday and Tuesday, Sunday they have for services lined up.

Now, again, it’s going to be a Bible conference. And I think it’s going to be a bigger attendance than normal but for services is like the old days. And I’ve heard nothing there about the concern with COVID but again it depends on circumstance.

And I think a lot depends upon, and I found that so much age but upon the kind of pride problem there has been with COVID. I’ve heard people commend governors about what they did and other people, these are Christian people now discredit the governors for the very same thing, depending on what their perspective is so my personal view is it’s going to take a while to put this back around together.

And I don’t know if it ever would be like it used to be or not I don’t know that I’m not that good of a profit to tell you that. But I do think there’s going to be some challenges out there but to me, I also see it depending upon the circumstances that we’re at.

Yeah, good, good answers I think you guys again we’re right on point, just kind of a couple more things as we kind of wrapping up. So with that question of getting church attendance you know how will it be, what can we as pastors do to get, you know, people back in church how would you how would you encourage, you know, maybe your congregation members you know, getting back, getting back getting involved,

how would you. What advice would you maybe give other pastors who were, and I just can’t get my people to come back, what, what kind of advice suggestions you know what. How do we get people back in church.

Yeah, I think Pastor Mike has said several really good things to us here I think one of those things is content. I know one pastor who’s got a pretty good sized church. He’s trying to call all of his members and pray with them, answer questions for them, encourage them.

He tells them and it’s right from his heart how much he misses them. I think building relationships are very much an important part of that. I think there’s some people that perhaps are thinking about doing different things.

I think some people are not going to go back to the same church. They may go to a different church. My fear is that there are people who have gotten out of the habit of going to church. When it’s time to go to church, they’re going to do what a lot of people did before the COVID.

They’re not going to be in church that much. It’s a common knowledge in the Christian community and leadership with surveys like from Barna and people like that. A lot of people go to church maybe once a month or twice a month and they feel they’re doing well doing that.

Back when I was a small growing up, we went all the time, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. And it was a different environment back in those days. But I do feel like there’s going to be some discipline of people to get back to the House of God.

But I tell you what, if you get back to the House of God with the right spirit, you’re going to love being back because we are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together and to stay out of church and not be doing what we should do is almost in a sense running a little bit from God.

And my encouragement is let’s get let’s get back in the House of God and love the fellowship of the saints. Yeah, that’s good. I just was addressing this issue on Monday. I met her a young pastor in West Virginia and him and I meet in Maryland once a month.

And he kind of just picks up my brain a little bit. And this is what he was asking. How do I get the people back? And I told him that we really need to think about two key words. And that is to be effective and to be efficient in ministry.

So what is it that is effective and what is efficient because all churches probably have a slimmer budget or they have a slimmer staff or a labor volunteer labor force. So we want to focus in on efficiency.

Don’t try to be the jack of all trades. Don’t try to offer every program in the world, but rather focus on what is effective and what is going to be efficient. And then two other words I would add is that we really need to as ministry leaders think about revamping our ministry and repurposing our content.

So when you revamp, you’re looking at your programs, you’re looking at your ministries, you’re looking at your services. And what is it that needs to be revamped? I can tell you at the Open Door Church, we have downsized a lot of what we do in our service.

We keep it very, very simple. We get straight to the point. that people are anxious that even if they come, they don’t want to sit there for an hour and a half, two hours. They want to be able to come in, hear the gospel, be encouraged in their faith, and then we want to get them out and then bring in the next group.

But the point is that we have to do some revamping in all across the board in our ministry, but repurposing our content. So taking what we’re already putting out there and looking for new means that we can share the gospel.

Like one of the things I love is that we have a staff member who takes my sermons on Sunday morning and breaks them down into 40 -second, 60 -second clips, throwing them out there on Twitter. And that is a great, you know, just hitting those highlights, asking particular questions, and then those 60 -second clips answer those questions.

So looking for ways to revamp our delivery of our content and not limit what God wants to do in your ministry and through your ministry. That’s a great answer, that’s a great answer. So just one more thing to wrap up, you know, just kind of, is there anything throughout this kind of whole process, you know, of reopening, being closed that you kind of found and you were like, man, we shouldn’t have been doing this,

you know, a year ago, two years ago, just something kind of positive, something good. Obviously, God works all things out for good, but, you know, a tangible physical result of maybe it’s a way of doing service or, you know, something else that was kind of like, man, I wish it didn’t take a global pandemic for us to figure this out, something that’s going to kind of stick kind of going forward.

Well, for me, you know, the one thing that I’ve enjoyed is the ability to streamline everything from our ministry at our school, daycare, preschool, and the church. It has been exciting for me to put the church in a position where we are getting back to what I call simplicity.

And I kind of am happy about that. Sometimes ministry can get complicated and you can have so many plates spinning that you’re not doing anything good. And you’re almost like just kind of stagnant. And I feel like it has brought a fresh new passion and focus for our church family and ministry leaders, and that it has just been exciting to kind of just say, look, we’re going to, we’re not going to focus on all that other stuff.

We’re just going to get back to the simplicity of the gospel. Yeah, for me, it’s two things that I’ve noticed that have been very helpful. One is, because so many things are closed down, Corey, people are forced to stay home.

Now, I realize for some that don’t get along, that’s been a challenge. But there are many Christian parents I’ve talked to, many relatives I’ve talked to, and friends, and churches that I’ve talked to who enjoy being at home with their families.

And before there were, you know, you have to go to this place, you have to go to that place, you have to see this friend, you got this party to go to. And I have found in my own grandchildren, for example, a sense where they like being home, they’re playing games.

They’re doing things that they like doing before, but they didn’t do enough of them. And I think it’s been a good thing for families. I find that when families really do pray together, it’s important to stay together.

But there’s something about when families play together and enjoy each other together, it builds a history with them. One of the things Joshua said when he was dying and ready to leave the Israelites, he said, build good memories.

And I think that’s what’s happening with families. The second thing I would say is it’s found in the book of Hebrews and I just read it again today. It’s that word endurance. For example, here in Hebrews 1032 he says, we call the former days in which after you were illuminated you endured a great struggle with sufferings.

We’ve learned what endurance is and part of the Christian life is that of suffering. In fact, the way the church grew in the book of Acts more than evangelism was through persecution. There’s a sense when Christians build endurance.

Later on in this chapter it also speaks about an enduring possession we have when one day we’re with the Lord in heaven. That’s found in verse 34 and then in verse 36 he says, for you have need of endurance so that you do the will of God.

I find that there’s a it’s time to do more praying and there’s some really good things. America is such a fast -paced world. When I passed it to Miami we were regularly just going and going and going and going and there’s a good to some of that but it gets way out of hand after a while and I think the family time together and I think the idea of learning endurance as Christians has been a very good positive thing for us during this time.

When I say us I mean the Christian community. Yeah I agree. So Dino thanks for coming on and joining us today. You got some of your own content going on. Why don’t you take a couple a little bit and tell the people about where they can where they can find you know the stuff you’re putting out.

Yeah well we’re we have what we call dino padrone ministries .org. Three or four years ago it’s been my family and I talked about us doing a family ministry and that’s what we’re doing and my best friend was my daughter who said the best thing we can call this is Dino Padrone because there aren’t too many Dino Padrones in the world.

And that’s true. And so we call it Dean of the drone ministries .org you can go there, and we’re helping the number of people overseas, we’re helping pastors who have no income. We’ve written three books this past year one with my son and I, we are doing a lot of things in the area of media and television and radio, and there’s just a number of different things that we’ve been called to do and we’re enjoy doing it speaking in Bible conferences and churches,

all up and down the east coast and now going out through the into the West as well. And so I’m excited about what God has called us to do. And during this period of time the Lord has raised up I think something new in my own spirit to go out into and see the word of God changing people’s lives.

And so Dean of the drone ministries that or you can go there. And if you want to go with us to Israel, for example, Pastor Mike’s going to go with me to Israel this time. You can go there and get the information, get signed up.

There’s just all kinds of things that we’re doing. And I appreciate the privilege of just sharing a moment of that today. I would say to you, I’ve always been busy, but I’ve been as busy now as I’ve ever been with this new ministry that we’re doing.

There’s 11 different aspects to it that we’re going for and we’re very thankful for it. So Corey, you did a good job today. And Pastor Mike, it’s great being on there. I have a question with you, my dear friend.

Thank you, thank you. Pastor Mike, you’re putting out some other stuff as well too. Or if people just want to figure out more about, you know, the Open Door Church, or, you know, this Thanksgiving kind of service push you’re talking about, where can they find some of that information out or some of, you know, maybe some more Pastor Mike content?

Yeah, hopeworthhaving .com, hopeworthhaving .com. And that has everything that we’re doing. And Hope Worth Having is a ministry that is on television, radio, internet, and as well as social media. We are promoting the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We are teaching the Bible verse by verse, and we have all kinds of opportunities for people. They can get as little of Mike Sanders as they want and as much as they want. And they can check out all of our different platforms that we’re on.

And we’re just all about helping people come to Christ, have a real relationship, and growing and thriving in that relationship. That’s hopeworthhaving .com. All right, well, thank you both for taking the time.

Thank you for listening today. If you like what you heard, you know, like, subscribe. This is the Next Level Podcast. You know, we’re here trying to just get you to the next level in your relationship with Jesus and your walk with the Lord, the next level in your churches, next level in your ministries.

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