Tag: obstacle

  • Letter #59 (The Body’s Head–2)

    Dear Small Church Congregation,

         In the last letter, I challenged you to take a serious look at your relationship with Jesus to see if there is anything that separates you from following the will of God for your life.  If there is, name it.  This is the first step in overcoming whatever obstacle could interfere with your fulfilling God’s will.

         That obstacle could be anything form self-righteousness to basic selfishness to outright disobedience to scripture and the teachings of Christ.  How might you now overcome this obstacle?  Now that you know what it is, the only way to overcome it is to choose to set that obstacle aside by dying to your self-will, repenting of falling to the temptation to disobey God and seeking His forgiveness.

         Let me be absolutely clear about this—Jesus has taken care of the obstacle already on the cross when He shed His blood so you could be forgiven.  Any obstacle, temptation, trial, or disobedient choice you have made has already been defeated through the shed blood of Jesus.  When Jesus died, was buried and rose from the grave, He conquered every work of the devil.  In fact, Jesus destroyed the works of the devil so you can have victory over the enemy of your soul.  Jesus has already won the victory over sin and all its evil consequences that separate members of His Body from Him.

         Obstacles to our relationships with God, our neighbors and even ourselves have been dealt with by Christ.  The Head of the Body has already done what was necessary for you to get back into right standing inside the Body of Christ.  By doing that, Jesus has given you the pathway to fulfilling God’s will.

         When you admit an obstacle exists, name it, repent of it and seek forgiveness, and choose to live according to God’s instructions on how to live in holiness before Him, you have won.  Allow me to repeat myself—And you have won because Jesus did what was necessary for you to win through faith in His name.  Jesus, the Head of the Body that you belong to because you belong to God now, won the spiritual battle first a very long time ago so you can win your battle today.  (If you feel like shouting a praise to Jesus, now would be a good time to do that.)

         Understand that you will need to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit as you daily live for Christ.  Understand that you will continually need to examine your life, defeat any obstacle that tries to interfere with your relationship with Christ and choose Jesus over the obstacles.  In other words, your walk with Jesus is an ongoing journey in which you intentionally choose to examine yourself to be sure you are fulfilling the call on your life that God has placed in you as part of the Body of Christ.  As you do that, you will win victories over the enemy of your soul, and you will complete your function in the Body.  And you will stay connected to the Body’s Head.

    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