Tag: challenge

  • Letter #57 (The Body’s Members–4)

    Dear Small Church Congregation,

         Okay.  You’ve repented of your sins, asked God to forgive you and placed your eternal future into the hands of Jesus as your Lord and Savior.  You’ve decided to become a participating part of the Body of Christ.  You’ve decided to seek the anointing of the Holy Spirit to determine your gifts, talents and calling from God.  You’ve found a local congregation with which to worship.  Now what?  Now I challenge you to make the commitment that you will regularly associate with the other disciples in that local congregation.

         I ran into a rather disheartening statistic recently during a forum designed to instruct and equip pastors of small churches for ministry in their respective communities.  Across all Christian denominations in this country, an attender to worship services is considered a regular member if he/she is present 1.6 times a month.  Let that number sink in—1.6 times a month.  That’s obviously less than half the time if the local congregation meets an average of four times monthly.  (Many meet more often than that.)

         This brings into focus a very serious question—Why do people who claim to be disciples of Jesus not earnestly seek every opportunity available to worship God in a corporate setting?  The answer to this question could be presented as being quite complicated.  However, allow me to present one approach to the answer that might be simpler than expected.

         At the end of the first paragraph of this letter, I challenged you to commit to something.  That something was to regularly associate with other disciples in a local congregation.  I do not mean to say that regular association involves attending worship services 1.6 times a month.  In fact, I mean to challenge you to attend more often than that.  Associate with other disciples of Christ every chance you get.

         Why would I urge you to do this?  Associating with disciples of Jesus does more than place you in an atmosphere of worship.  It brings encouragement into your life from people who are experiencing the same trials and joys you are experiencing.  It gives you a place to ask questions, receive advice and to give advice to others.  It opens to you new opportunities to serve in the local body.  It also puts you in a position to experience new things in life in general as you interact with folks who know things you don’t know or do things you don’t usually do.

         Worship is great and should be experienced every time possible.  Joining in with other disciples to be encouraged in your faith and to receive ministry or to be a blessing to others should never be underestimated.  Worship is essential to your Christian walk.

         Meeting with other disciples of Christ for worship and other activities is important as you all learn to live for Jesus in a world that does everything it can to keep you from doing that.  Be aware that the devil wants to keep you from joining others in worship, Bible study or just living life together as Christians.  He will distract you, put more to do in a day than you can do while awake, place numerous temptations in your path, bring persecutions against you and delay answers to prayers whenever he can.  Satan will do anything he can to keep you away from other disciples of Jesus.

         He wants to isolate you from any source of spiritual strength.  Satan knows isolation yields spiritual weakness.  He knows worship, Bible study, prayer meetings, etc. bring you victory over him.  He knows corporate spiritual strength spreads to the individuals present and becomes personal spiritual strength.  And Satan does not want you to be spiritually strong.

         This is why I challenge you to commit to do the associating that will give you the faith and spiritual power to overcome the enemy of your soul.  This is why you need to do everything you can to be in attendance at the local congregation more than 1.6 times a month.  Be in attendance on a regular basis that surpasses that statistic.

    Sincerely,

    A Small Church Pastor

  • Letter #47 (Announcement)

    Dear Small Church Pastor,

         This letter is more of an announcement than it is a topical letter directed to small church pastors.  The first forty-six letters were designed to encourage and motivate those individuals who lead small congregations.  Beginning with Letter #48, I will address small church congregations, including their lay leaders and members at large.

         It is my prayer that the Holy Spirit will direct my thoughts as I attempt to encourage and challenge small church congregations in several areas that have a direct impact on the operation of a small church. 

         In way of introduction to Letter #48, allow me to challenge every member of a small church to do something that will be difficult to do, but will benefit their congregation immensely.  I challenge you to drive onto your facility and to look at it as if you were attending a service there for the very first time.  Look at the buildings and grounds.  Look at the signage directing people to where things will occur during the service.  Look at the foyer, the bathrooms, the overall appearance of the sanctuary and even the walls from the entrance to the back of the platform.

         And pay attention to the attention given to you by people you do not know well.  Notice how greetings are done.  Notice who talks to whom and for how long.  Notice the general attire of the attenders.  Listen to the music and watch the music leader(s).  Pay attention to the flow of the service, the presentation of the sermon and the responses by the attenders to how the pastor ends the service.

         Take a good, long, intentional look at what goes on before, during and after the service.  The title to next week’s letter to small congregations is “First Impressions.”  We’ll deal with that topic after you’ve paid your “first visit” to your worship service.

    Sincerely,

    A Small Church Pastor

  • Letter #16–The Greatest Obstacle

    Dear Small Church Pastor,

         At a recent pastor’s meeting, one of our network leaders gave us a startling statistic.  According to recent research on church attendance in this country, only two percent of new attenders to churches were new converts.  Two percent!!! 

         It is my opinion that the greatest obstacle to church growth that must be overcome is not the facility needs or design, not the programs offered to families, not the charisma of the pastor, not the flashiness of the music team, not the version of the Bible being used and not the use of screens versus song books.  The greatest obstacle to church growth is the lack of personal evangelism.  The average modern-day person sitting on a pew or chair in a sanctuary for worship is not sharing his/her faith with people outside the church building.

         I once asked a congregation how many of them had ever led someone to faith in Jesus.  About 30% of those present raised their hands.  Except for one individual, those hands belonged to people who were over 60 years of age.  The sad thing is that none of those conversions were within the last few years. 

         I am also of the opinion that the Christian church in this country has somehow been convinced that sharing their faith with non-believers is offensive, and, as was reflected in a meme I saw last year, “The greatest offense is to offend.” 

         Where is our boldness under the anointing of the Holy Spirit?  Where is our outspoken commitment to the cause of spreading the good news about Jesus?  Where are the Christians who turned the world upside down?  Have they all died and left no one to continue the work of sharing what Jesus has done in people’s lives? 

         Allow me to share what I consider to be the most ignorant, excuse-making, growth-destructive comment I have ever heard that came from a long-standing member of a church.  In talking about evangelism and leading new people to Christ, the comment was made, “That’s what we pay the pastor to do.”  Your greatest obstacle to church growth is getting your people to understand that if they do not share their faith with others who don’t know Jesus, then the next generation of people will never hear the gospel.  Their own grandchildren will grow up in a place where Jesus is never mentioned.  They will be implicit in condemning future generations to a life without knowledge of God.

         I will be honest with you, getting your people to being willing to share their faith is going to be a challenge.  You will have to pray, preach, encourage, lead and even blatantly challenge them to become involved in sharing their faith.  You won’t be able to convert them quickly or in great numbers, but you will be able to make a difference in how many of your attenders do share their faith.

         This concept of not being offensive to sinners has been so entrenched in our culture that it will take time and persistence to overcome it.  You have to overcome the social pressure to separate faith from public demonstrations of that faith that became prominent in the early 1960’s.  You will have to consistently preach and teach about personal evangelism.  You will have to spotlight and commend anyone who brings a new person to faith.  You will have to always challenge your people to stop relying on someone else to lead people to faith in Jesus and to start talking about their faith to new people themselves.

         Notice this—the devil will not like it that you start doing all this.  He will fight you any time, any place, any way he can.  He’ll use people, politics, social pressure and even threats of violence against those who speak out in public.  He might even use some of your own attenders to try to distract you.  But you are going to have to make up your mind that you will encourage your congregation, regardless of the opposition you receive.  Remember, you have God the Father, God’s Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit on your side.

         I ran up against this obstacle more than once when I was pastoring, and I have had numerous other pastors relate their own experiences with it.  However, there is hope for any congregation.  There is a fantastic experience waiting for you when you are told by a member that he/she had prayed with someone to receive Jesus.  That will make your efforts with it.  It won’t be easy, but you can overcome this obstacle.

    Sincerely,

    A Small Church Pastor