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Take a moment and answer these questions to gain an awareness of where your church is at today. There are always opportunities awaiting us in the Kingdom of God!
Take a moment and write down what your personal dream or vision is for your church and then see how they fall into the categories below.
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| Evangelism | |||||||||
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The Great Commission Matt.28:And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19Go 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, 20teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. How much does your church budget for evangelism? This can be very telling! Did you notice that we don't call this the good commission or a great suggestion. This passage has always been called by the church; "The Great Commission". There is only one thing that Jesus said that should stand above this passage.Mark 12:30And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. 31And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Through these verses we see that God wants us to love Him, love others and win them to the kingdom. What should your church budget for evangelism? What are you willing to do to be obedient to Christ? Don't just be a good church, be a great church by submitting to the great commission. |
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| Missions | |||||||||
| Has God commissioned us to stay in our church
buildings and trade sheep from church to church? NO! What did Jesus tell
His disciples?
Acts 1:8But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Jesus promised the Holy Spirit and with the Holy Spirit He promised the church "power" to go forth into four distinct areas of missions;
Has your church reached out in a tangible way to all of these? Perhaps your church donates to a missions organization for this purpose and that is good. You are however missing out on a huge blessing by not being personally involved in the mission field. |
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| Community | |||||||||
| How close to your building is nearest member? How
many of your members are within 1000 yards of your church? How do you
reach out to the neighborhood? Jesus healed, fed, taught, welcomed the
children, and sacrificed for the people around Him.
James, the half brother of Jesus, the man who was the head of the early church in Jerusalem wrote these words; James 2:18But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. We must seek to be relevant and real not only to those we "choose" to love but also to those who are all around us. They must see Jesus in us. We shall love God, love people and win souls to Christ. |
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| Senior Citizens | |||||||||
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Prov. 16:31The silver-haired head is a crown of glory, If it is found in the way of righteousness. Leviticus 19:32You shall rise before the gray headed and honor the presence of an old man, and fear your God: I am the Lord.Our elder citizens are a golden asset that should not be ignored. The Word of God instructs us to honor them and not rebuke them. We have the opportunity to minister to their needs, learn from their experience and tap into their many personal contacts. With the baby boomers just beginning to reach the age of retirement, we can expect to see our largest segment of population will be in the senior citizen category. |
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| Families | |||||||||
| There are various ways of reaching out to families. Some
would recommend that you reach the kids and the parents will follow.
This approach is sometimes referred to as the "McDonalds"
method. The only drawback to this concept is that all too often, parents
will drop off their children and never attend the church. Another
way to reach families is to win the parents who will instruct the entire
family to attend. In order to retain families we must offer relevant and
meaningful sermons, worship, music, Bible discussions, children's
programs and youth activities. Small groups can contribute to this
outreach as well as sports and community projects.
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| Youth | |||||||||
| Cool, cutting edge, extreme, intense, and real.
These are but a few of the elements that teens are looking for. There is
no room for dogma, religion, or hypocrisy. The youth of today seek to
benefit the community. They desire truth in relationships. Music is a
core feature of youth ministry. Many youth groups create their own band.
Youth groups will attend Christian concerts and other fun venues. A
youth pastor must be called to this kind of ministry.
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| Children | |||||||||
| As a former Children's Pastor I have some definite
opinions about reaching children for Christ. You will find a full page
of information at my Kid's Ministry
web page.
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| Music | |||||||||
Every generation of people have their own music. One of
the greatest controversies today in the church is fought over what kind
of music to use in worship. The 60's and over group prefer hymns and
traditional Christian music. The 50's and under crowd prefer mostly
contemporary worship music. There is an ever wider gap of music style
for those under 25 years of age. Some of the ways churches have dealt
with this tension have been;
Whatever solution your church chooses, there must be agreement from at least 90% of the congregation. There is 10% that will not be satisfied with any decision.
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| Media | |
| We have become a media driven society. How many TV's do
you own? We are a visual society which looses focus or attention
rapidly. We must try to merge media into our church and we must
strive to utilize media in training, winning and reaching out to the
world for Christ. Today it is not difficult to broadcast your worship
service to cable TV or the internet or both. Radio has always been
available from the earliest days. Does your church offer cassette
recordings of the sermon? What about CD's or DVD's? All of this and much
more are readily available to the church with vision.
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| Technology | |
You will find a more complete overview of this topic at; Church Technology
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| Christian Education | |
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Prov. 1:1-6 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel: 2 To know wisdom and instruction, To perceive the words of understanding, 3 To receive the instruction of wisdom, Justice, judgment, and equity; 4 To give prudence to the simple, To the young man knowledge and discretion— 5 A wise man will hear and increase learning, And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel, 6 To understand a proverb and an enigma, The words of the wise and their riddles. 7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction. What would have happened if the Israelites had packed up their kids each day and sent them off to the Philistines for school? This is essentially what we as Christians do everyday when we send our kids to public school. With great prayer and a few resources, we can all have Christian schools in our educational wings. |
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| Bible Institute | |
| Do you have men and women in your congregation who desire
to go much deeper into the Word of God:? Do you have men and women
who have been called by God late in life to the ministry or mission
field? Why not develop your own Bible Institute with courses
parallel to seminary?
Visit www.JesusSaves.TV for a neat vision... |
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