Elder John Bowles has some validity to his objection to the request of the pastor. Although he did not agree with the pastor, I would honor the request of the pastor, since the pastor is not asking the church to do anything that goes against God’s word. “We are committed to include all in fellowship who seek to know Jesus Christ as Savior and who honor the integrity of Christ between us,” according to Anderson. I would suggest that he not disrespect the head, even if he did not agree.
2. What would be your immediate objective? What would be your longer range objective?
As soon as possible, I would have asked for an audience with the pastor for a one to one meeting without the other elders present to express my concern about the direction of the mission outreach. Confronting the pastor with the other elders around only pushes the pastor into a corner and receive the answer he received. This meeting would be to ask the pastor to meet with the leadership to
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Going into the community is to show the love for the people. Anderson shares, “In his ministry Jesus united all of these discrete ministries around the primary motivation and core of love.” Love must be the first tool used. Anderson continues, “Ministry is to relate to people as persons. The church is made for people, people are not made for the church (Mark 2:27). Outreach is to love people as persons. Every person in the world has a right to know that a particular individual loves him or her for Jesus’ sake.” While Jesus tells us to go and teach all nations (Matt. 28:19), we need the proper guidance. “We read very little in the New Testament about the power and presence of the Spirit in the church in Jerusalem, where there is no evidence of a strong mission outreach.” (Anderson). Evangelism is important, but it should be taught to the people, rather than expecting them to catch
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.
The church meeting is for worship and for the growth of the saved. The fellowship on the Sunday is to energize us to reach out to the lost. The primary elements of the Sunday worship is the Lord's Supper, prayer, and preaching. Singing and fellowship are important secondary elements of the Sunday service. However those aspects easily become the primary focus of the service. So I make them lesser and it is easier to achieve balance in the service. My preaching must be understandable to even the most uneducated Christian. Furthermore, preaching must be solidly exegetical. I must never afraid to preach the hard things of the Gospel. We should allow non-Christians in the Sunday service, but do not seek them out for that service.
The most important task you can do as an ambassador for Christ, is to spend time hanging out with God yourself. Even if it cuts into time that you wanted to spend in "ministry." Spending some time enjoying God's presence, aware that God is enjoying yours at the same time, will do more for those around you, than any words you could work up. If you have a sense of intimacy with Christ, you will be able to do more than just talk about God.
Without this theology, not only the believer, but the missionary has no foundation to build upon. Believers in general, but especially missionaries must prepare themselves through prayer in order to lead churches to preach and teach the Word of God. Paul tells us in 1 Timothy that those that labor in preaching and teaching” should be considered worthy of double honor. (1 Tim. 5:17) This is important because Christian’s understanding their role as a believer, or again even more importantly, the role of a missionary is extremely vital in advancing God’s kingdom. Winter and Hawthorne rightly say in our text that “If we in the West insist on keeping our blessing instead of sharing it, then we will, like other nations before us (Israel, Rome, etc) perhaps have to “lose” our blessing in order for the remaining nations to receive.” Although there are times in today’s world that may seem like the world has turned their backs on God, Christian’s should look with great anticipation for the days that are coming when God will reclaim the earth and believers will be redeemed. The reason that believers practice missions is the end result. Redemption from sin, and receiving an inheritance from God including “full rights as sons” is only part of what is in store for the child of
Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every nation. (Mark 16:15)
Not everybody is open to strolling into a congregation building, however accepting a free administration without any strings joined is harder to stand up to.
People these days are so worried about the shape of the ice (the structure of the church) than they are of what kind of soda (faith) they are putting in the cup with it. In this case, push people away from “church”. It is great for fellow Christians to fellowship together, but it does not say in the Bible that that fellowship has to be within the four walls of a known church. In the Bible, it actually states in Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” The same Jesus is among two Christians sitting in a diner talking about His word and testifying about how good He is and the church that is filled with a hundred people each Sunday.
While a teenager, I was a member of a local Boy Scout troop. Community service is an idea which is central in the Boy Scouts, so much in fact that the Scout slogan is “Do a Good Turn Daily”. Because I’ve been raised in an environment where community service is a way of life, servant evangelism seems to be a natural extension of my time in the Scouts. I also tend to be outgoing with the ability to start a conversation with anyone. Therefore to be able to say “I am doing this to show the love of Jesus in a practical way” would be natural for me. I can then take some time speaking about the gospel and answering any questions they may
Many years ago, a friend and pastor whom I dearly loved and respected told me that there are three areas of responsibility in sharing the gospel. They are ours, the Holy Spirits, and the one that hears the gospel. Our responsibility is to go where we are called. That is it, to go and allow our self to be used. The Holy Spirit’s
I truly believe this is the place in my life I am being called, equipped, and gifted. I also believe it is where I most naturally fit when it comes to the requirements of the job description. My heart feels drawn towards creating unity in a team of creatives who are passionate about worshipping, creating, and leading people to the foot of the cross in worship. Worship music gives people the opportunity to express their heart to God in words that they may not have even known they needed to sing, but also unites the voice of the entire congregation and orients us together towards God. I don’t think there is a formula of how to lead people into worship, but I am so deeply intrigued by the different ways to lead congregations, and I believe worship is a place that is constantly changing and growing in new expressions and voice to give to the church. One part of this job description that I really appreciated was the correlation it expressed in planning worship sets in correlation with the senior pastor. I have not been in a worship position where I actually got to sit and pray through the worship sets with the senior pastor. In my experience the senior pastor has either told us what he wants and we do it, or he just gives us all the responsibility and does not really care how we lead the time. However, I truly believe communication with the senior pastor about worship can be one of the most edifying planning aspects for a meaningful worship service that leads people into worship, the spoken sermon, and response
Introduction Being a member of a non-denominational church for over a decade, and a church-hopper several years before, I chose to interview Pastor Ruben, a twelve year Baptist pastor at the local church. During the interview, he provided insight into the church’s history, the church’s core values, the church’s beliefs as well as some of his own beliefs. In addition to this, we also discussed some of the problems and concerns of the church’s role within a modern day setting. Defining a Baptist Pastor Ruben describes the role of a Baptist pastor as one who is concerned about the relationship between mankind and Jesus Christ as well as the relationship between mankind and the Godhead. He said, “As a baptist, not just a pastor, it is my responsibility to share the message of Jesus Christ and proclaim the works of the living God among the people.”
...tial ideas and theologies that are absolutely the cornerstone to having a healthy ministry. Ideas like community, grace, love, and forgiveness could all have their own paper written for them individually, but acceptance is absolutely essential to any ministry. To accept someone into your family, just like the father in the story of the prodigal son, is to share all of these values listed above. By accepting them we are showing them grace, love, forgiveness and belonging, that each and everyone one of them so desperately desires. If we as youth pastors can embrace acceptance and also use it genuinely and not as a technique for recruiting, then surely our ministry will grow both in numbers and in depth in the knowledge of the word of God. By doing exactly what God does for us, we can show His love, His grace and His mercy by simply accepting others into our family.
“Today, God is creating wave after wave of people receptive to the Gospel; more people are receptive to the Good News. However, churches are missing the spiritual waves because they haven’t been taught the needed skills to bring revival, health, and explosive growth.” We need to ask “What is keeping our church from growing?” not “What will make our church grow?” Some places to start questioning would be - first review the pastor of the church; are they being the example? Then to the church leader(s), staff and volunteers; are they qualified? Followed by the programs of the church; are they supporting your mission statement? There are many more question to be asked and answered. However, I believe through the lectures, training and guidance given from pastoral leadership 201 I will be able to answer this question:
Evangelism is one of the key component for changing people’s lives. McRaney states, “The word evangelism comes from a combination of Greek words for “good” and “messenger.” Evangelism involves bringing the goods. Kent Hunter reminded us that “when Christians witness, they tell how Jesus Christ has changed their own lives. The change in their own lives gives them the desires to share the Good News with others.” Christians must share their testimony to people and spread the gospel so that they can bring lost souls to Christ. God has commissioned every Christian to evangelize so that people will learn about Jesus Christ and accept Him as their personal savior. Matthew 28:19 states, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. Christians are required to spread the Gospel throughout the world and can no longer just attend church. Christians must plant seeds and water the seeds so that lost souls will be saved.
God has called us to make disciples of all nations, and to do this, we must show the love and grace of God to others. I am a firm believer in showing others your feelings and character through actions rather than words. Actions speak when words fail and I know no one who would rather be told they are cared about instead of being shown through acts of kindness and love. One of my friends from home is one example of this. She grew up saying she was a Christian, but she was never at that point of actually being in a relationship with Christ. During our senior year, she told me that, if it had not been for me showing her the way she should be living her faith, she never would have taken that first step. It surprised me to say the least, but I realized after that moment, that God needed me to be that influence for others in my life as well. Not only those who I know personally, but also to those who will only see the actions. What matters most is that He will gain a new relationship with His