I have often been so consumed on church growth that I have overlooked the fact that there is a greater need for growth in faith as outlined in the book Transforming Evangelism. This is a sometimes hard concept for me because success is often measured on church growth. Wesley demonstrates a model that encourages you to be both inviting and helpful in growing the faith of believers. The Wesleyan tradition had a lot in common with the early church community that is presented in the book of Acts. There is a lot to take for the book of Acts as far as evangelism is concerned. The book of Acts presents the history of a dynamic, growing community of believers from many areas, spreading from believing Jews to non-Jews in cities, countries, islands,
Andy Stanley shows how to become deep and wide by staying simple in a church. First, he accomplishes this by keeping programming simple. By making the programs simple he can get more involvement from those who attend North Point. Secondly, Stanley demonstrates easy simplistic ways to move people through the discipleship process. By making this process simple those who attend North Point can more easily reach the community around them. Even though these are a few of the many applications used by Stanley he effectively helps pastors by giving them simple steps to bring people closer to Christ without a church background.
I agree with Kitchens, Mead, and Roxburgh who all basically say in their own way that one change in ministry that we need to focus on more is the congregational life of the church. However, I think Mead explains it best when he says that the future church must be more intentional in the spiritual formation of its laity (Mead, location 919). According to Mead, the church is moving towards becoming a more missional institution that cares for the needs of the community. Therefore, oftentimes laity will be the ones on the front lines and will need the capacity to minister to people on their own without the help of clergy. In order to do this they will need more directed and intensive training to deal with...
Engagement with others is the most fertile ground for spiritual growth. Yet, salvation cannot come through individual questing nor good works in the community of the world alone. Salvation can only come when the journey and the work become
Goodstein, Laurie. "Pared-Down Episcopal Church Is Looking to Grow Through ‘Inclusivity’." New York Times. N.p., 18 July 2009. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
We recently had a church meeting to articulate changes that will affect the church’s future. This chapter came in handy because I was able to engage the congregation by asking the necessary questions to get their buy-in before actually setting the change in stone. Although I ready to implement the change, it was not executed until the congregation saw it the benefits and rewards. This practice is not always the best way, because time may or may not allow it.
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.
In an age when culture continues to lower standards of intellect, Marva Dawn makes compelling observations and suggestions for the Church to rethink its strategy on impacting society. How do we evangelize without weakening the message of what we are communicating? The majority of her text focuses on the worship environment generally, but later she focuses on music, preaching, and liturgy specifically. According to Dawn, a gathering of believers should emphasize God as the subject and object of worship, challenge each individual to grow in godly character, and accentuate the community of believers (not only in the room, but throughout history as well). Through this grid, she encourages leaders and participants to evaluate each worship element.
and grow in the scope of their experience and understanding of their faith.1 All Christians engage
Wesleyans and Fundamentalist may have different views on different subject matter reguarding the doctrine and the theology because of their presupsitions. Although this book makes comparasionsleyans to between Wesleyans and Fundamentalists , the Authors of this book makes a clear message that although we may have differnt views on scripture tere is no way to be sure which one is correct however, "we recognize that Wesleyans and their sisters and brothers who are fundamentalists share a love for Jesus Christ and his inaugurated kingdom." (8) Meaning that we the readers should not discriminate between the two views because untimently they both love Jesus and it is for the glory of God.
In 1993, Os Guinness wrote a wonderful little book entitled Dining with the Devil. The subtitle was The Megachurch Movement Flirts with Modernity. Guinness pointed out how the megachurch movement was borrowing tools, insights, and strategies from the modern management, business, and marketing world to “reach” people. It was a sort of Babylonian captivity. What these churches often thought were the result of prayer, evangelism, or biblical preaching, were, perhaps, simply the result of good marketing, management, and business principles applied to growing one’s membership (clientele).
...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.
The Book of Acts was written to provide a history of the early church. Acts emphasis the importance of the day of Pentecost and being empowered to be effective witnesses for Jesus Christ. Acts sheds light on the ministry gift of the Holy Spirit, which empowers, guides, teaches, and serves as our Counselor. When reading the Book of Acts many of the readers will be enlightened and encouraged by the many miracles that were being performed during this time by the disciples Peter, John, and Paul. The Book of Acts emphasizes the importance of obedience to God’s Word and the transformation that occurs as a result of knowing Christ. There are also many references to those that rejected the truth that the disciples preached about in Jesus Christ. Power, greed, and many other vices of the devil or evidenced in the book of Acts. Acts 1:8 serves as a good summary of the Book of Acts. Acts records the apostles being Christ's witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the rest of the surrounding world.
Missionary life begins with an act of reception; missionary zeal grows upon knowledge of the Spirit so received; missionary work is the expression of that Spirit in activity. The quest to understand theology as it relate to a church leader, three areas of focus are critical for growth. First, each church leader should care about the health of the church. Second, they believe that the church has a critical role to play in the community given its track record of being the dominant social institution in the community. Third, they believe that the rise and fall of the church depends on its
It may seem a little bit strange, but my favorite place in town in none other than this beautiful Evangelic Church. However, it wasn’t always so.
"…and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth." Acts 1:8 This commandment, given by Christ to his apostles, was one of action. First they were to go into their homes, or Jerusalem, then to their community, or Samaria, and then finally to the ends of the earth. The Christian church of today, however has lost sight of that directive. For too many years now we have sent thousands of missionaries abroad while ignoring the mission field next door. While many may witness in our homes few move out into the community, especially when that community is in an urban area. Joshua 8:7 says "…take the city. The LORD your God will give it into your hand." Now more than ever this call to "take the city" must followed by believers. The current population of the world is 5,983,000,000 (World POPClock, 1:57 p.m., April 28, 1999). Of those estimated 6 billion people, two thirds of them will be living in cities by the year 2000 (Giradet 1). By ignoring the call to evangelize the cities for Christ, upwards of 4 billion people my be lost.