With huge numbers of Americans staying away from church on Sunday it easy to find someone who needs Christ and His Church. Barna reports that nearly 60% of Americans avoid the church building each week. (http://www.gallup.com/poll/113452/evidence-bad-times-boosting-church-attendance.aspx)

How can we increase the growth rate of these churches is the big question these days. I believe that are answers for us to consider. First of all we need to believe that God wants to reach more souls and that we should always be focused on the people for whom Christ died… especially the ones that are not in the church. There are millions of souls that need to come to Christ and let’s face it, we are the only ones that can make that happen. It is our task to bring the Gospel to the lost and hurting world.

We need 1000’s of new successful churches to reach the un-churched in America. Churches that are life-giving, evangelistic and disciple-making at their core. This means there needs to be a whole new breed of pastors that are true shepherds that are interested in the lost sheep. True shepherds would have the following characteristics.

1. Authentic – Give people the real person, not just a “persona.”

2. Compassionate – Love the people more than just the work that he does.

3. Accepting – Loving and accepting people where they are. (This does imply that you approve of their lifestyle)

4. Gospel oriented – He must know that the Gospel of Christ is the only way salvation and freedom.

5. Relevant – He would preach messages that are grace-filled and applicable to everyday life.

6. Equipper – Pastors need to equip the members to “do” the work of the ministry, not possess the ministry.

7. Pray – Pastors must lead their congregation in prayer and fasting.

The hope of the world is the Church… and the hope of the Church is Christ and His under-shepherds. Let’s pray that the Lord of the Harvest will send laborers into the harvest.

Q. How can we get more leaders to plant life-giving churches in the USA?

Billy

God doesn’t waste anything that He does. In the 1970’s there was a great move from religion to power. In the 1980’s  it was a move to empower preaching and teaching ministries. In 1990’s it was all about Small Groups and Cell Group; a time when thousands of people all over the USA we equipped to lead the church. Then in 2000-2010 there was, and still exists, the Church Planting movement. In each of these eras God was preparing men and women for a great 21^st Century harvest. Let’s focus on the 1990’s in this article.

From 1990 till 2000 I was very involved in training churches that wanted to transition from a program based church to a “cell” based churched. The idea was to put all programs into small groups (cells). In order for this to be successful it was necessary to train church members to do several things. We actually equipped church member to become small group leaders that helped pastor the church. For us it was a huge church growth experience that shared about around the world. Here is what we trained each leader to do.

They learned:

1. How to gather people.
2. How to lead a meeting.
3. How to share a lesson, lead a Bible study,  and pray.
4. How to pray with people and minister to their needs.
5. They also learned how to raise up associate leaders.
6. They learned how get in touch with God and intercede for group members.
7. Finally, they learned how to multiply their group.

As we grew to several hundred groups some wonderful things began to happen. There was a new emphasis on evangelism and thousands came to Christ in the homes of our leaders. Some of the groups grew to 50 people or more and would multiply into several groups. Our members became “pastors” in the truest meaning of the word. The leaders grew spiritually and in experience. It was wonderful.

Over the years several of our leaders actually launched out and planted churches. They saw that the small group was their training ground but that God had something bigger for them. In other words, their ministry was bigger than just their home and God wanted to add many other souls to their care and leadership. All they needed was permission.

Now, you may be totally suited to a small “house church” and should never venture out. On the other hand, you may feel God is saying, “Go launch a church, an Attractional church that is missional.” You have the call of God and now you are ready. ARC can help.

At our website www.arcchurches.com you can find out what the process is to become an ARC church plant. We provide the knowhow, the coaching, training and resources for you to launch a new church. Let’s work together to reach this nation with vibrant, refreshing and relevant churches that reach lost souls in our communities.

In this blog post I want to give you permission to do something bigger, something wider, broader, and more impactful than a small group experience. Pray and ask God if He will also grant you that permission. – Billy

“A man’s converts are always a disgrace to him. It is only those that God converts that
will last. When we go fresh into a place, there is always a number of people who hear
with a degree of profit, and who are affected by us. But let that minister be taken
away, and they go back again. One wave washes them up on the shore, and the
return wave sucks them back again into the great deeps.”

“Oh,” writes one to me this week, “I have believed that Jesus died for me, but it does
not keep me from sinning in any way whatever. Our minister says that if we believe
that Jesus died for us we shall be saved.” No, no, but that is not the gospel, and such
a belief is not faith at all. I did not wonder that a poor creature should have tried
such a gospel and found it fail. Do not these men say that Christ died for everybody,
and then declare that if you believe he died for you (which he must of necessity have
done if he died for everybody) then that will save you, and yet there are scores and
hundreds who are proofs to the fact that it does not save them, but that they can
believe this universal redemption and live as they did before? ”

“I have known, in my short time, certain churches, in the paroxysms of delirium,
meeting houses crowded, aisles filled, preachers stamping and thundering, hearers
intoxicated with excitement, and persons converted by wholesale—even children
converted by hundreds—they said thousands. Well, and a month or two after, where
were the congregations? where were the converts? Echo has answered, “Where,
where?” Why, the converts were worse sinners than they were before; or mere
professors, puffed up into a superficial religion, from which they soon fell into a
hopeless coldness, which has rendered it difficult ever to stir them again.”

What are you thoughts about these “superficial converts?”

Billy

“But the God we must see is not the utilitarian God who is having such a run of popularity today, whose chief claim to men’s attention is His ability to bring them success in their various undertakings and who for that reason is being cajoled and flattered by everyone who wants a favor. The God we must learn to know is the Majesty in the heavens, God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, the only wise God our Savior. He it is that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, who stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in, who bringeth out His starry host by number and calleth them all by name through the greatness of His power, who seeth the works of man as vanity, who putteth no confidence in princes and asks no counsel of kings.

Knowledge of such a Being cannot be gained by study alone. It comes by a wisdom the natural man knows nothing of, neither can know, because it is spiritually discerned. To know God is at once the easiest and the most difficult thing in the world. It is easy because the knowledge is not won by hard mental toil, but is something freely given. As sunlight falls free on the open field, so the knowledge of the holy God is a free gift to men who are open to receive it. But this knowledge is difficult because there are conditions to be met and the obstinate nature of fallen man does not take kindly to them.”

What saith thou?

Billy

“Foreknowledge and election are not inconsistent with free agency, but are founded upon it. The elect were chosen to eternal life, because God foresaw that in perfect exercise of their freedom, they could be induced to repent and embrace the Gospel.

II. You see why many persons are opposed to the doctrine of election, and try to explain it away; First, they misunderstand it, and second, they deduce unwarrantable inferences from it. They suppose it to mean, that the elect will be saved at all events, whatever their conduct may be; and again they infer from the doctrine that there is no possibility of the salvation of the non-elect. Their understanding of the doctrine would be an encouragement to the elect to persevere in sin, knowing that their salvation was sure, and their inference would drive the non-elect to desperation, on the ground that for them to make efforts to be saved would be of no avail. But both the doctrine, as they understand it, and the inference are false. For election does not secure the salvation of the elect irrespective of their character and conduct; nor, as we have seen, does it throw any obstacle in the way of the salvation of the non-elect.”

 This view of the subject affords no ground for presumption on the one hand, nor for despair upon the other. No one can justly say, If i am to be saved, I shall be saved, do what I will, Nor can any one say, if I am to be damned, I shall be damned, do what I will. But the question is left, so far as they are concerned, as a matter of entire contingency. Sinners, your salvation or damnation is as absolutely suspended upon your own choice, as if God neither knew or designed any thing about it.

Great argument – What would you say to Finney’s comments?

Billy

Election does not supersede the necessity of means for the conversion of the elect. They are chosen to salvation through the sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. They must then hear, believe, and obey the truth. If the end is to be accomplished, the necessary means must be used: would a farmer, because he knew that God had settled it in his own mind whether he should have a crop or not, say that if he was to have a crop he would have it, whether he sowed his land or not? Would a sick man neglect to use means for the recovery of his health, because he knows that God has numbered his days, and that it was settled in the divine mind whether he would die or not? Certainly not. If the farmer is to have a crop, he must sow his field and use the necessary means. So if the sick man is to live, the means requisite for his recovery must be used. So in the cure of sinners, if means be not used, not even the elect can be saved, and those that neglect the means will never make their calling and election sure.

Interesting observation…give me your thoughts.

Billy

As we end the first decade of the 21st Century there are many things that are becoming apparent. Mainly, the fact that doing church the way we did it 20 years ago will not accomplish what God wants to do in our country.
1. God is not leading us the same way.
2. There is little or no fruit in the way it used to be done.
3. It is a different world we live in now.
4. This different world needs a fresh wind of God.
5. The Church needs some new ideas.

What is evident is the 21st Century Spirit Filled Church is re-gathering and asking the hard questions. Streams from many denominations and movements are wanting to know what can be done to change the course from diminishing returns for their efforts to growth and vitality. Following are some thoughts to ponder and that will become the basis for what we as a Spirit-Filled movement will do next to bring revival to our churches and consequently to our Nation.

He wants to empower believers to be His witnesses.

He wants to administer spiritual gifts.

Spiritual gifts must be measured by the fruit of the spirit.

Emphasis will not be on the initial evidence of the Holy Spirit as much as the lasting evidence of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is leading us to be passionately strategic as well as being passionate.

The harvest will be much more important in Sunday services than individual manifestations.

The Holy Spirit will not be defined by our emotional reactions, rather by how we allow Him to impact the world through us.

We will realize that the Holy Spirit is not weird, people are.

Holiness will not come as a result of legalism but by real Holy Spirit sanctification.

What can we say for sure that the Holy Spirit wants to do?

Give me your thoughts.

Billy

1 Peter 5:8 NLT Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.
Why am I so obsessed with numbers? Two reasons: Because of the Great Commission, “preach the Gospel to every creature…” and because of 1 Peter 5:8. Our enemy is vying for souls that we should be passionately trying to reach. Each person on earth is a target of the enemy and he wants to devour them.
Okay, that builds a fire of urgency under me. Am I just wanting numbers for ego or for the Kingdom? I believe in my heart that if we sit around and try to justify our ineffectiveness, regardless of the size of our church, (that is often determined by the size of our town or other issues), we are in essence saying to the devil…I’m big enough, you can have them.
Don’t feel condemned by this….don’t feel inept…get fired up for those whom Jesus died for. An USA Today article headline said, “Young adults less devoted to faith.” It goes on to state that a high percentage of young adults are avoiding church and faith in Jesus. Question: Can we just sit by? Are we going to listen to those who tell us, “numbers are just a pastor’s ego wanting to be stroked?”
Give me your thoughts –
Billy

“And yet the early church grew and grew and grew, even without intentional evangelistic strategy or ministry. How? By being the most attractive community in the Roman Empire. The early Christians rescued abandoned babies and raised them as their own. They gave dignified burials to all, regardless of economic status. They cared for the sick; instead of abandoning the cities in times of plague, they stayed and cared for the sick and dying, even if it meant their own deaths. It was said of the early Christians that “they alone know the right way to live.”

What do you think is the best way to make the Church attractive today to our nation?