Church growth, mission, and evangelism

Welcome to the late edition of of the church growth, mission, and evangelism blog. I couldn't get on the net today and I had a two hour band rehearsal tonight. So I'm late.

Let's continue with our discussion of death and the life there after.

What ever happened to Hell? As attitudes toward death and dying changed, another significant shift began to take place within the human family. The reality of Satan was increasingly ignored or discarded as myth. Hell, in the eyes of unbelievers and even some believers, was abandoned. As hell was becoming for many no more than a swear word, sin was also an accepted way of life. If people can ignore what the Bible calls sin, then they can quite logically discount what it says about the reality of Hell.

Why do members of organized churches have such a low assurance of heaven? Could it be that in our description of heaven that we have failed to mention the horrors of its alternative? Or have we even neglected the whole question of life after death by emphasizing only this life? Just because people don’t believe in hell doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. If there is no Hell, then Jesus lied.

If the Bible is true, we know that there is abundant life after death for the followers of Christ. Those who have accepted His grace and been saved will be with Him in heaven.

Jesus said to fear him who after the killing of your body has the power to throw you into Hell. It refers to God because Satan cannot throw you into Hell. Sin is eternal separation from God and can only be pardoned by the death of Christ on the cross.

The king of terrors. Age and circumstances often dictate the degree of fear a person may feel when facing death. Sometimes the fear of death grows significantly with age. Fear is universal in all times and places. It is a normal human response to the unknown. And the experience of death is an unknown.

Eighty percent of people die in hospitals or convalescent centers. Dying has become a lonely business. Most hospitals do their best to conceal the fact that a patient might be dying and when the end draws near, they isolate him or her from family and friends.

Some believe that telling the truth to a person who is dying is destructive to his morale. This deception is practiced by the medical community thinking that they are being kind. The conspiracy of silence is based on the assumption that people don’t want to talk about death, especially their own.

The truth is that all of us are going to die and the conspiracy of silence cannot change that fact. Most of us have a desire to hang on to physical life as long as possible. Many stories abound about a person’s desire to hang on for a certain event. Terminally ill people tend to hang on to life until they reach some date that is important to them-a wedding anniversary, a birthday, or religious holiday.

There are many who die prematurely, having reached a point in their lives when they feel that they have no more goals left. Idle retired people reportedly have a shorter life span than those who continue with purposeful activity. More than likely it is the process of dying that frightens people and not death itself. Death may be like that. Its power to terrorize fades as we near the actual moment of passing.

One of the most common attitudes toward death is denial. Another approach to death is to laugh. Humor becomes the protective mechanism that allows us to laugh at ourselves and defy the specter of death. Then there is irrational fear. Christ, through His death on the cross, broke the power of the devil to hold us in the fear of death.

Fear is a very painful emotion, one which may immobilize us or cause more pain than a physical blow. The greatest fear comes when God is a stranger. When we fear God, we don’t cringe before Him like a prisoner. Our fear is a love which causes us to treat Him with respect. Like a little child putting his little hand in the bigger hand of his father, it is the sort of fear that fosters trust. Likewise God asks us to put our trust in Him.

Again thanks for visiting. Please stop by www.thegreatcommissionchurch.org . Look for our podcast tomorrow. It will be a good one. Thanks and God bless.

Pastor Bob Emery

Monday is upon us. A new opportunity to learn about church growth, mission, and evangelism. Today we are going to start a discussion of death and the life thereafter. The Rev. Billy Graham just happens to have a book called Death and the Life Thereafter. Get it. It's terrific.

If we are in a battle with this enemy called Death, I believe we should learn about it, in order to learn about the dying experience. We need to know how to face that enemy on our own behalf, and how to deal with the inevitable deaths of loved ones and friends.

Death is perennial. CS Lewis pointed out during WWII that war does not increase death; death is total in every generation. Why me? Why now? Why this?

Why must we die? The Bible says that all men are appointed to die once. We can fight it, we can avoid it, we can ignore it, but death ultimately intrudes into our well planned lives and change things around. We want to deny death, but the fact that the body is in the ground and the soul of the deceased has departed is more than we like to admit.

Today we are confronted with so many voices telling us how to live and this is a reasonable ambition, but they indicate that we are desperately trying to cling to this present world. Life is transitory. If we want to make the most of life, we need to face the fact that it is going to end. Only those who are prepared to die are prepared to live.

Can we afford to ignore the warnings of our ultimate enemy? We need to break the conspiracy of silence about the subject with a biblically sound, realistic approach. While death was not part of Godâ??s original plan, we cannot escape it. Death never takes a holiday.

Adolescents are notorious for denying the reality of death; it is the farthest thing from their minds. In the vigor of youth they take life for granted, and perhaps they should at that age, but all of us tend to take life for granted when times are good. Death is the last thing on our minds when we have full stomachs. But, if the individual has a mind and feelings, there is no way to deny the reality.

Paul proclaimed that death is the last enemy, but it need not be feared. The Bible stresses that death is an enemy both of God and us. We are not talking about a death that is a release from pain, debilitating disease, or advanced age, but death that leaves fragments of many promising careers and lives, children who have not yet learned to play in the sunshine.

Why is death an enemy of God? Because it destroys life, in contrast to God who is the creator and author of life. The Bible tells us that neither sin nor pain, disease nor death were part of Godâ??s original plan for man. Death was the penalty for sin.

Death is the common lot of every human being and of every other living thing-both plant and animal. Sin and death, the Bible tells us, have afflicted the whole of Godâ??s creation, including the natural world, and only when Christ comes in His glory at the end of the present era will sin be eradicated and creation restored to Godâ??s original plan. There will be a generation of believers who will not die. Those who are alive when Christ returns in glory will not die but will be changed in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye.

Christians are not immune to the fear of death. Death is not always a beautiful release, but an enemy that separates. It does not respect the young or the old, the good or the evil, the Christian or the heathen.

The way of Christ assures us that, while death is a certainty, so is heaven. For the Christian, death can be faced realistically and with victory for he knows that nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ our Lord. It is not a sign of weakness for the Christian to face death with reluctance. We can find peace, assurance, triumph, and even humor in a subject that is avoided by many but vitally important and inevitable to everyone.

Thanks again for joining us. And be sure to visit our sponsor's website: www.thegreatcommissionchurch.org. They always appreciate company. Send your comments to: bob@thegreatcommissionchurch.org

Until tomorrow, thanks, and God bless.

Pastor Bob Emery

Welcome to our church growth, mission, and evangelism podcast. Today we finish up our series on when God builds a church. Hope you enjoy it.

As always we will finish up with some good news. Take time to visit: www.thegreatcommissionchurch.org. Send your comments to: bob@thegreatcommissionchurch.org. See you next week when we will start a new series in our blog.

Thanks and God bless.

Pastor Bob Emery 

Thank goodness it's Friday. We've survived another one. Welcome back to our church growth, mission, and evangelism blog. We're glad you're here.

Today we will finish up talking about when God builds a church.

Make the church experience something for which people will want to return. Do everything that you can to make it easier for your church members to bring people with them to church. Make a special effort to see that everything is done with excellence. Do everything with a bent to the evangelism process. We should do everything with excellence so that people will want to come back!

We exist to evangelize the lost, edify the saved, minister to the needs of others, and be a conscience in the community. Make your mission statement visible and repeat it often. Have several sermons dedicated to reinforcing the mission statement of the church. It is imperative that all staff members agree with the primary mission of the church so that they can communicate that mission effectively to the congregation.

Every ministry needs to find ways to implement evangelistic outreach in their departments. Remind people to invite their friends and acquaintances to weekly services and special events. Remind the congregation about upcoming events and opportunities for the come and see method of evangelism. Unchurched people are more likely to come with you to a special event than they are to come to a regular church service.

If you are going to preach a sermon series, remind people of the relevance of the topic in their lives and remind them to invite anyone who might benefit from the message. You can print up fancy post-cards describing the upcoming sermon series for your members to pass along to others.

Be sensitive to guests, but don’t program primarily for them. On of the most powerful methods of evangelism is an authentic worship service. Take great pains to make sure the basics of the gospel are clearly explained. A visitor expects to see you worshiping God and fulfilling your purpose, not catering to his need for entertainment.

Offer a “what we believe class�. Have decision counselors who can lead people through a basic understanding of the gospel. You can have a decision day, a chance to make a positive, life-changing decision, early in the year. People who have been procrastinating are often willing to set that weekend aside as a target date and are more likely to respond.

Our only hope is through Jesus Christ. If we really believe that that is true, we are going to do everything we can to persuade as many people as possible to come to Jesus Christ while there is still time.

God wants you to walk by faith and begin to believe that he can do great things through a few faithful people. Pray for a vision of what your church could be. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you to become the church that God wants you to be. Our problem is not so much that God doesn’t give us what we hope for as that we don’t know the right thing for which to hope. Put your hope in a big God who can fulfill big dreams. Determine that you will try something so big that if God isn’t in it, you will fail.

Pray that God will reveal to you any principle your congregation has failed to implement. It’s healthy for every church to set goals and think optimistically, but you must be objective. Some churches have the potential to grow a hundredfold. Others are limited in what they can do because of location barriers, leadership challenges, lack of facilities, or financial difficulties.

Develop a mission statement and communicate it to the congregation. Post it in prominent places where people can be reminded often. Develop a five year plan for change. It usually takes five years for a dead church to be turned around. The reason that most churches stay dead is that very few leaders will stay around long enough to see it happen. They usually leave to go to a church that has already turned around.

Work on the one hour of weekly worship. It is the most important hour of the week. More visitors and members are present and the tone of the entire ministry is usually set in that hour. When that hour is done with excellence members will want to come more regularly because they don’t want to miss.

Find a worship leader who has the heart and talent to lead people to worship God. Get men involved in worship. Start a what we believe class. Give up control. Don’t micromanage. Visit other churches that are alive and growing. Celebrate victories and give God the glory.

Take time to visit www.thegreatcommissionchurch.org. You'll be glad you did. Send your comments to: bob@thegreatcommissionchurch.org. Check back later tonight for our podcast.

Pastor Bob Emery

Hello. Welcome back to the church growth, mission, and evangelism blog sponsored by www.thegreatcommissionchurch.org. Please take time to visit their website.

Today we continue talking about When God Builds A Church. I encourage you to pick up this great book by Bob Russell.

Evangelism. It’s easy for any enterprise to get sidetracked from its main thrust. The church can easily get sidetracked and forget its primary mission. Our primary call is to preach the gospel and bring people to salvation in Jesus. The larger our church becomes, the more some people in our community want us to become politically active. The best thing that could happen in our community is for revival to break out in our churches.

Satan is more intimidated by a church faithfully preaching Christ crucified than by a thousand demonstrators protesting one facet of the devil’s program on the steps of the state capital. Better legislation can’t save anybody-only Jesus can. Not only should the church refrain from being a political action committee, we also are called to be more than just a social agency to care for welfare needs.

The main thing is evangelism. We are bringing them the hope for eternal life. One of the primary ways that a person can grow as a Christian is by sharing the gospel with other people. People ask why we keep trying to grow when we have so many members already. We don’t know how big God wants the church to be. We are still looking for that one lost sheep.

Evangelism should not take precedence over truth. The prerequisite for getting in the ark was you had to believe the message and repent of your sin. We can get so desperate for growth that we dilute the doctrine to make the message more palatable. The church exists to edify Christians and minister to people’s needs as well. You shouldn’t measure your church’s effectiveness totally by the number of new members.

Don’t just preach evangelistic messages. Some preachers mistakenly believe that if their church is to be evangelistic, that every service must be directed to the few in their congregation who don’t yet know Christ. The primary thrust of most sermons needs to be directed to those who are already Christians. Growing Christians are more evangelistic than evangelistic sermons.

Inspire the members of your congregation-get them on fire for Jesus Christ and excited about growing spiritually in your church-and then they can’t help but tell their friends about it. The best evangelism is that which comes as a natural outpouring of believers’ excitement about what they’ve discovered. If they’re inspired, you won’t be able to keep them quiet.

Adopt the come and see method of evangelism. Some of the greatest evangelists in the Bible were those who simply said come and see. When your church adopts the come and see method, suddenly every person who has a role in the church has a part in evangelism. The entire church is a body, attempting together to be a place of evangelism. An evangelist is not just a preacher, or even someone who brings his friend, but any person who has a part in making the church an inspiring place.

The evangelists who are most successful in using this method are the new Christians who are the most excited about what they’ve discovered. The point is to use already existing relationships as contacts for evangelism. The number of contacts outside the church is already large enough so that there is no need to establish new relationships with the unchurched. Your church members need to invite someone to come to church with them!

Be sure to be back tomorrow for our blog and our podcast. Send your comments to bob@thegreatcommissionchurch.org. Thanks and God bless.

Pastor Bob Emery 

Welcome back to our church growth, mission, and evangelism podcast sponsored by www.thegreatcommissionchurch.org. Today we will continue with our discussion of when God builds a church. As always we will end with good news from Joel Osteen's book Your Best Life Now.

Please send your comments to me at bob@thegreatcommissionchurch.org . We need your feedback to get better.

I highly recommend that you read  When God Builds A Church by Bob Russell and Your Best Life Now by Joel Osteen.

Please join us for our blog tomorrow! Until then, thanks, and God bless. Pastor Bob Emery

Happy 4th of July to our visitors from the United States. Once again we thank the men and women of the armed forces of all nations for their service to their countries.

Today we continue discussing when God builds a church. Maybe if we did a better job building churches we wouldn't need to build armed forces, but that's another topic.

The pastor needs to depend on elders, deacons, staff members, and volunteers to help with the pasturing of the flock. You can have a counseling ministry with paid counselors, volunteer professionals, or highly trained mature Christian volunteers. But, not everyone who is hurting needs a counselor. Some times they just need a friend or someone to talk to.

The telecare ministry volunteers call each church household twice a year to ask how they are doing and ask if there is anything that the church could be praying about for them. Volunteers are convinced that the Holy Spirit leads them to families that need a phone call.

The hospital visitation ministry has volunteers who visit any members who are hospitalized. They stay and talk, pray, and offer to help the hospitalized member. The paid staff is not always the greatest at hospital pastoral care. They visit out of duty and often don’t stay long. They have been hired for their talents in other areas.

Wise stewardship of God’s resources is an important part of a healthy church. Biblical stewardship and generous giving can transform lives and significantly advance the kingdom of God. Yet most preachers don’t even want to broach the subject of money. It is fine to excuse your guests from the offering.

It’s important to preach on stewardship because God’s word speaks often about stewardship. Jesus talked about stewardship more than he did about heaven, hell, or even loving your neighbor. There are 2350 passages in the Bible dealing with money and material possessions, but it’s the least talked about subject in the church. If you fail to communicate that truth to people, you are doing them a disservice and failing to preach the whole will of God.

Generosity transforms people. When people release their grip on the things of this world, they are liberated. If you could just get people to give their hearts to Jesus, their treasures would follow. Generosity will result in an overflow of spiritual, emotional, and relational blessings in your life-and God promises to take care of your physical needs too.

Money is often necessary to advance the gospel. Almost every program, almost every plan for communicating the gospel costs money. How many times have good ideas been turned down and our vision limited because we’re worried about how much it costs. Generous giving is a positive testimony. Sincere efforts to help people overcome their addiction to the stuff of this world will result in attracting people to Jesus Christ, and a congregation of sacrificial givers is a powerful testimony to the community.

People need stewardship advice because money can be such a trap. Focus on regular stewardship, not crisis giving. People may give in response to a crisis, but the goal is to teach them to give out of love for God and a sense of duty to give back to him some of what he has so generously given to them. Conduct stewardship seminars and financial counseling.

Be sure to handle the money wisely. Poor money management will have a devastating effect on your church’s giving. Be sure to have proper accountability measures in place. Prayerfully spend money on the priorities. Financial decisions should always be made with the advancement of the gospel as the top priority. Financial decisions should be made on what is the best for the kingdom of God, not on what will receive the least criticism. A greater part of the church’s offerings should be given to trustworthy missions. The more we give, the more God blesses.

Special campaigns should be for a cause that will generate its own momentum and support. Pray for God’s guidance before a capital campaign. Hire consultants. The leaders need to set the pace. The leaders need to give a personal testimony of what they are giving. Share testimonies of sacrificing along the way. Ask the congregation to pray. Hold prayer vigils. Celebrate the victories.

Please take time to visit www.thegreatcommissionchurch.org . We pray for the ministry of their web site. Send me your thoughts at bob@thegreatcommissionchurch.org . Be sure to watch for tomorrow's podcast! Until then, thanks, and God bless.

Pastor Bob Emery

Today is the 3d of July, the day before Independence Day in the United States. We give thanks to all of the men and women who have given their lives to keep our country free. Of even greater significance is the fact that Jesus gave His life that all who believe in Him might be freed from sin and Hell.

Thanks for joining us today. We will continue to talk about when God builds a church.

Encourage your workers. Volunteers and staff members are motivated by genuine encouragement. Talk about them positively. Mention them frequently in sermons. To be effective and genuine, your encouragement needs to be specific, not general; honest, not flattering; occasional, not incessant; and balanced with occasional correction. If people know that you will tell them the true when they need to be corrected, your encouragement means a lot more to them.

Prepare people properly by making sure that they get proper training. Give them the tools that they need to do their jobs effectively. Volunteers get frustrated if they feel that they have not been properly prepared. On the other hand, they are encouraged when they feel like they have been properly prepared. Reward your volunteers generously with creative thank-you notes and appreciation banquets.

For your church to grow, your members must grow spiritually so they can do the work of the ministry. If your church is going to reach its maximum potential, then all members must begin to see themselves as ministers and priests, doing their part to see that the work of the ministry is done.

If you want your church to grow, then learn how to love one another. You need the fellowship of other believers to grow and to be held accountable and other Christians need you. You can’t have life away from the body. How can you do that unless you regularly fellowship with one another and build relationships with each other? It’s a boost to your spirit if every week you see people who share your values and are trying to walk in the light.

The research of Thom Rainer has shown that the most effective way of closing the back door and assimilating people was the old-fashioned Sunday-school method. That’s where people get to know each other the best. The Sunday-school class is a natural first step for people who want to move from the congregation to deeper relationships. In the classroom setting, you can still maintain a certain amount of privacy and anonymity when you first attend, and you can take the time to develop natural friendships. The Sunday-school is the only environment where a certain type of objective study of God’s Word can be accomplished.

People will join in recreational events like softball leagues and volleyball leagues more quickly then they’ll join a Sunday-school class. If it brings people into the church, then a sports program is beneficial. Recreation also provides wonderful opportunities for relationship building within the church. Have a devotional and prayer before every practice and ask for prayer requests. Recreational ministry is especially beneficial to men.

The church should be a place of healing. Too often the pastor tries to be the only one ministering to the hurting when it should be the duty of the entire church. Those who are battling against sinful habits or who are dealing with deep emotional hurts deal best with those hurts if they can surround themselves with others who are fighting and winning similar battles. Regularly scheduled support groups.

We are being hypocritical if we attempt to minister to someone’s spiritual needs but are unwilling to minister to their physical needs. The benevolence committee prays with all who interview and gives them a Bible, tracts about how to become a Christian, information about the church, and notices about upcoming financial seminars. You can write checks directly to their creditors, have a food pantry, give gas vouchers, and gift certificates.

Remember to visit www.thegreatcommissionchurch.org our wonderful sponsors.  Until tomorrow, thanks, and God bless.Pastor Bob Emery

Thanks for joining us for the church growth, mission, and evangelism podcast, a companion to our blog by the same name sponsored by www.thegreatcommissionchurch.org. Please take a moment to visit them.

Today I will continue to talk about when God builds a church. As always we will close with some good news from Joel Osteen. I appologize for missing the podcast on Wednesday. My summer schedule is so crazy that I just can't keep up. I'll cover the material today.

Please send your comments to me: bob@thegreatcommissionchurch.org 

Until Monday's blog, thanks and God bless

Pastor Bob Emery 

Welcome to the Friday edition of our blog. We're glad that you could join us. Please visit our sponsor www.thegreatcommissionchurch.org.

Let's build a church with God:

One of the keys to advancing the gospel is for the church to be made up of individuals who consider it their task to do the work of the ministry, rather than having a congregation who expect the paid staff to minister to them. It’s the task of the leaders to train God’s people for ministry.

In a small church, the preacher and a handful of volunteers usually do most of the work themselves, and they directly oversee the rest of it. The leaders are often exhausted and near the point of burnout. If you don’t learn to motivate others and hand the responsibility to them, you might be able to oversee two hundred people. That’s why many churches never grow beyond 150 or so members.

The church should be a circle where members minister to each other. Inside the circle is a series of smaller circles, each one representing another ministry. You grow the church by adding circles of ministry inside the encompassing circle of the church. When the church becomes a circle instead of a pyramid, Christ gets the glory instead of the guy at the top of the pyramid.

As a church begins to grow there is a temptation to hire more staff to do the work of ministry, but this practice runs the risk of reducing the congregation to an audience. If the members of the congregation begin to sense that they are not needed, then growth will be stifled. Healthy churches that are gaining new members expect more out of their members, not less.

Involvement enhances each person’s spiritual growth. Nothing helps you grow as a Christian like service. If your church is not providing opportunities for your members to serve, you are stifling their spiritual growth. If the staff are working too hard, its because they have not recruited enough help. One of the best ways to see members grow in Christ is to get them exercising their spiritual gifts and serving Christ.

Offer a spiritual gifts class. You can talk about the spiritual gifts listed in the New Testament; have participants take personality tests, write about their spiritual journey, and their spiritual passions. If you involve people in their area of giftedness their ministries will be more effective and the chance of burnout is greatly reduced.

Have an annual volunteer recruitment day. It helps congregation members realize the need when every ministry is recruiting at the same time. Volunteers can choose the ministry that best utilizes their gifts. Volunteers are more likely to commit to a one year task. An annual recruitment drive unites the congregation in an effort to accomplish something.

Some positions take a certain skill level and personality that will be a little tougher to find. Some tasks are too important to leave to the first person who volunteers. Once a qualified person is in place, the key to successfully delegating the task is to delegate the responsibility. A qualified volunteer will often do a better job than you would if you give him complete responsibility.

When reliable volunteers oversee a ministry, the volunteers are often more forceful as leaders that the staff people are. They take ownership of that ministry A leader who wants to increase his effectiveness must learn how to work himself out of certain tasks. The senior minister sets the tone for successful delegation in the way he delegates to his staff.

You must trust your leaders and not interfere with their decisions.

Be sure to look for our podcast today! We'll wrap up the week with some good news along with our tips. Until then, thanks and God bless.

Pastor Bob Emery

bob@thegreatcommissionchurch.org