I attend a small church located in the midst of an inner city neighborhood in Shreveport, Louisiana. The congregation has about an average of 25 members of which approximately 15 attend service regularly. Demographically, the church’s attendees are primarily: black female, within the age range of 16 to 42, single parent household, low income, have not graduated high school or have some college. Most were not raised in the church, so presently their biblical perception is of individuality.
The pastor is a 60 year old female from a rural background. She has the equivalent of a fourth grade education with no theological training. Her faith is unequivocal and she has a love and passion for the Church that at times may seem a little neurotic. Her church foundation is old school Pentecostal/ Apostolic Faith based. So, her message is hard lined. It is apparent an anointing from God has compensated for lack of education. She has been endowed with the gifting of Wisdom and Knowledge. It is quite impressive the way God gives her revelatory insight.
The vision God has given the pastor for this particular ministry is to: spread the Gospel throughout the nations, train disciples for the continuity of the Message, and the improvement of self. How can a church small in stature with few resources accomplish this mission? How can this ministry become motivated enough to move away from individualistic ideology and make progression towards solidarity? My suggestion: preparation of disciples and defining and implementing Holistic Ministry.
One major mission of the church is to bear witness to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Before Christ’s physical death, he recruited men to carry on his message. “Come follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matt 4:19). These fishers of men would become known as disciples. The term disciple has been derived from the Greek mathētēs, meaning student or pupil. It is even suggested that some ancients believed a disciple imitated the life of his teacher. If we the Church are to become “fishers of men”, then we are to answer the call of personal commitment. How can we lead others to Christ unless we have come to know him? Step one to becoming a disciple is developing a personal relationship with Christ.
In a survey conducted in 2012, LifeWay.com inquired about the importance of evangelism among members of the Christian faith. The results of the survey showed that 80 percent of people who claimed to follow Jesus Christ and had openly devoted themselves to the teaching of Christianity, felt that they had a “personal responsibility to share their religious views and beliefs about Jesus Christ with non-christians” (Wilke, LifeWay.com). Surveys such as this reflect the Christian doctrine of evangelism and the weight it holds within the Christian faith. As can be seen back in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus Christ commanded His followers “to go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19).” However, Jesus never told His followers how doing this.
This chapter was removed from Reimagining Church due to a lack of space. But there’s a footnote to this document in the book. See also God’s View of a Woman.
This part is adapted from “Developing Programs for Senior Citizens—A Handbook for churches,” produced by the Delaware County of (PA) Services for the Aging, and is included here with their permission. We gratefully acknowledge the editors: Judy Oerkvitz, Louis Colbert, Norma Thomas and Verne Dalton.
Maffly-Kipp, L. (2001). The Church in the Southern Black Community: Introduction. The Church in the Southern Black Community: Introduction. Retrieved March 17, 2014, from http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/intro.html
Mark's Gospel and Nature of Discipleship In Mark's Gospel, there are many accounts of Jesus' disciples and Apostles which are helpful to Christians as examples of the nature of discipleship. In this part of my coursework essay I hope to address questions involving what Mark's Gospel tells us about Jesus' disciples and Apostles, as well as defining the principle of what being a disciple entails, and defining also who the apostles were. This is because by learning about past disciples and the Apostles, a modern disciple of the Church can learn about the nature of discipleship. A disciple is somebody who is inspired enough by somebody to learn about them, listen to their ideas and follow them and their way of life.
Unfortunately, through the ages women have been unfairly held back in their ability to lead churches from the pulpit. From a historical perspective this issue is pervasive in mostly all churches whether black or white. The issues of sexism and woman 's rights in the black community often take a back seat to racial issues. It was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Injustices also happen in the church. Discrimination, based on gender bias, in the pulpit is a huge injustice to women, especially black women. The success of past and present churches is largely due to the efforts of women who make up more than a majority of most church congregations. Yet the responsibility to lead those same churchgoers is reserved for a man. What a travesty. The chapter eluded to women holding positions of leadership in Christian churches under titles such as exhorters, evangelists, and missionaries, but this does not do justice to the pivotal work that African-American women perform in the church. Regrettably for the Black Church, many black women have chosen to seek ministry opportunities in white denominations as they have shown more progressive attitudes toward accepting women as leaders in the church setting. Women have shown themselves to be pivotal in the church and are more or less the backbone to the body of believers to whom they serve,
In this day and age, many people tend to not socialize daily about religion as much as before because many people simply do not believe in God as well as others do. Many people agree that our generations thinking is way different from our grandparents. Thus, every community church has its own activities for the youth to participate in outside the church and so does the African American churches. These activities expose the children about the role of religion in ones life and help them grow in it. Some activities can be volunteer work in the church where younger people help before the service. Holding activities to show that the church is not just a place to only show ones devotion to God, but for people to be involved in it as a community. Another way to be involved and show gratefulness is joining the churches choir. Also, some churches form bible study circles as well as prayer circles to teach the kids in a more exciting way. Most churches have found ways to get kids of younger age excited about religion. They hold multiple activities and field trips throughout the year so the kids can reflect what they have learned outside the church on to their daily lives. Children are usually lead by their mothers. African American mothers are one of the most religious people as a group. As Theola Labbe-DeBose stated in the article, Black Women are Among Country's Most Religious Groups, "African Americans
It is apparent that the issues are similar at Willow Creek and New Hope, as both have experienced great growth. They are addressing these issues by adding additional services and by assignment of small groups or small ministries to meet their congregation's needs. They have been successful in addressing the issue based on each church's individual needs. Willow Creek has added services to accommodate the service seekers or the un-churched. New Hope attempts to match congregation member's needs through joining auxiliaries or other ministries of the church.
“Reaching Out without Dumbing Down” seems to be constructed for the church leader, elder, or pastor who is considering altering their current, historic worship style for a more modern one that may attract greater numbers of unsaved people. She provides excellent standards to help Pastors and Worship Leaders plan, execute, and evaluate worship services. These same standards provide a great opportunity to educate the church family on the reasons behind the use of certain worship elements. Although written for church leadership, the everyday church member would also benefit from understanding the very concepts that Dawn is directing at God-empowered leaders.
“The call is something that is an indescribable joy and an indefinable burden at the same time.” (Bryant and Brunson 2007, 32). There is nothing more rewarding than seeing a congregation of the redeemed moving forward in their faith. However exciting this may be, it is usually not the thrill that propels the pastor in his service. It is the burden placed on the pastor by God that compels him in his work. The pastor understands that he is largely responsible for the work of God being accomplished by his faithfulness to his calling. “All through the Word of God and down through the annals of history, when God has moved it has almost always been attended by the preaching of the Word.” (Bryant and Brunson 2007, 31)
As with any ministry, it takes a person who to be selfless and willing to make the sacrifices that have to be made daily as Ms. Lamb does. For example, she quit a f...
The desire to be accepted is prevalent among youth today. In a world that is currently suffering from a famine of love that is intended to be given to today’s youth, more and more we see students that desire to be accepted, yet feel accepted by no one. Because of this we see them decide to reach out, and as they do they become accepted into a group that is not a good influence on them, or simply is wasting their time. Here we will look at what exactly the bible tells us in the issue of acceptance, and how it would look in the average youth ministry today. We will then look into how we will follow up with students past their fist visit and finally what utilizing the idea of acceptance to its full potential will do for a ministry.
Apostle Paul was a man who dedicated himself to the evangelism, church planting, and disciple making. This author will examine the biblical answers of relationship evangelism for contemporary churches through the research on Paul’s ministry revealed in Acts.
Young, D. S. (1999). Servant Leadership for Church Renewal: Sheperds By the Living Springs. Scottdale: Herald Press.
When Jesus called His disciples, His invitation was simple. He invited them to follow Him. The same is true today. In Matthew 28, Jesus gave His last charge to His disciples, and the charge was simple. He called his followers to go and make disciples. Much effort has been placed by Christians to fulfill this charge, commonly referred to as the Great Commission. Jesus chose to fulfill the implementation of the New Covenant through 12 men who He called, appointed, and commissioned, and he only had a few short years to prepare them for the task (Willson, 1990). His methods were unconventional and were revolutionary for that time. His disciples were to be trained extensively by Jesus, living with Him for three years prior to His ascension. He taught about servant leadership and its meaning for both the leader and follower Matt. 20:25-28). From the beginning, Jesus put in place a careful plan, and an examination of His actions in the Gospels showed that Jesus left behind the pattern to be replicated. His methods, which included the incorporation of three different levels of discipleship, included His interaction with Peter, His closest three (Peter, James, and John), and finally the group of 12. This paper identified and analyzed the three levels of discipleship Jesus modeled, these discipleship methods were then measured against modern leadership theories, and Jesus’s level of involvement and interaction with his disciples were critiqued in light of these modern theories in an effort to determine the effectiveness of this approach.