When
God Builds a Church
God has ordained the church to be a place of truth. Jesus commanded us to go into all the world and preach the gospel. And that Gospel doesn’t change, regardless of how far the values of our culture erode. Do your best to see that the members of your church, from age 0-100, are grounded in God’s Word. Make sure they understand the Bible and have adopted a biblical view of the world.
I talk to hundreds of
preachers every year. I know it is this
issue—the format and style of the weekly worship service—that is the most
divisive in American churches today.
Churches are split and pastors are run out of town because someone tried
to suggest changes in the style and routine of the worship service. This controversy over styles causes more
divisions than all the other possible issues—doctrine, philosophy of ministry,
character of the leaders, finances—combined.
It was said of the Jerusalem
church, “[They were] praising God and enjoying the favor of all the
people. And the Lord added to their
number daily those who were being saved.”
(Acts 2:47). Evangelism is the
natural byproduct of authentic worship.
When outsiders see Christians genuinely worshiping, they are
attracted. The Holy Spirit works through
worship to draw the seeker to Christ.
In a recent elders’ meeting
we listened to a report on the status of operations after our first year in the
new building. Every category in the
report was far above our expectations.
Our attendance growth was higher than we had projected, offerings were
better than we had hoped for and costs were less than we anticipated. John Foster, chairman of the elder board,
said, “Men, we’re not this good.”
Following his lead, we all went to our knees and offered prayers of
thanksgiving for the blessings God had poured out upon us.
When I first came to
Southeast Christian Church in 1966, the people were meeting in the basement of
a small house. But the basement was
spic-and-span, the bulletin was printed without typos or grammatical errors,
the people were friendly, and the worship was well planned and orderly. There was something attractive about them
from the start, because they cared about what they were doing. And because of their efforts and the
blessing of God, the church was already beginning to grow.
When you come to church and
the grass isn’t cut, the paint is chipping off the walls, the bulletin boards
have missionary letters tacked on top of each other dating back to 1973, the
greeters are sloppily dressed, the children’s classroom has no teacher, and the
service is slipshod, not only is it unworthy of Jesus Christ, it also negates
our effort to evangelize.
When we set a goal of raising
26 million dollars above our regular giving we were told it was the largest
goal of any church in history. One man
with a financial background said, “If we accomplish that goal, it will be the
biggest miracle I’ve ever seen.” That
audacious goal stimulated prayer. We
met in homes by the hundreds and prayed.
Church leaders knelt and prayed.
We had a round-the-clock 48-hour prayer vigil. We knew that raising that kind of money would take a tremendous
outpouring of God’s goodness. God
answered those prayers and we raised well over the 26 million dollars we
needed. A bold faith produces big
challenges; big challenges stimulate prayer; and prayer results in miracles.
--more--
The church that frequently
laughs together is more likely to be healthy because it is more likely to be
harmonious. A healthy, genuine sense of
humor can smooth over hurt feelings, relax tense moods, and make bitter pills
of confrontation easier to swallow. One
of our elders once expressed his displeasure in a board meeting over our
decision to occasionally move the Lord’s Supper to the end of one of the
worship services. “The Lord’s Supper
should be in the center of the worship service. The Bible says the Lord’s Supper is to be the center of
worship.” Somebody said, “Where does
the Bible say that?” He paused, and
then said, “Well, if it doesn’t, it should!”
He laughed, then everybody laughed, and the meeting moved on without
further discussion.
When one of our staff is
working too hard, I’ve observed that it’s often because they’re doing too much
of the work and not recruiting enough help.
I’ll say, “I’m glad you’re working hard, but we didn’t hire you to do
that. We hired you to train others to
do that job.” When someone suggests
their ministry is overburdened and we should consider hiring more staff, the
first question we ask is, “Have you explored all the volunteer options?” We’re not against hiring more staff, but we
want to continue to make every effort to get the members involved in serving at
every level of ministry, because one of the best ways to see each member grow
in hrist is to get them exercising their spiritual gifts and serving
Christ. That’s probably one of the
reasons that in a recent survey, over 98% of our members said they had grown
spiritually since becoming a part of Southeast.
The early church exploded in
growth because the people loved being together. When you get a group of people together who genuinely believe
something and who really enjoy each other, it’s such a contagious atmosphere
that you can’t keep people away. People
assume that smaller churches must have better fellowship and stronger
relationships because everybody knows everybody. But churches that genuinely love one another don’t stay small
very long.
Most preachers I know really
hate to talk about money. A lot of us
make sure there’s a note in the bulletin that says, “If you are a guest, please
feel no obligation to participate in the offering. We want you to enjoy the service.” We don’t say, “If you’re our guest, don’t feel like you have to
sing and don’t feel like the invitation is directed at you.” We don’t say, “This sermon is on sexual
purity; if you’re a guest and that makes you feel uncomfortable, there are ear
plugs available.” Why, then, is money
such a sensitive subject?
Growing Christians are more
evangelistic than evangelistic sermons.
Inspire the members of your congregation—get them on fire for Jesus
Christ and excited about growing spiritually—and they can’t help but tell their
friends about it. The best evangelism
is that which comes as a natural outpouring of believers’ excitement about what
they’ve discovered.
Though I can’t explain why
God chose to bless us in such a miraculous way, this book has been an attempt
to explain the basic spiritual principles that have enabled God to pour out His
blessings upon us. I am confident that
God wants to do even greater works in other places if He is invited and allowed
to do so. It’s my prayer that God will
use the principles in this book to transform congregations so that they will be
prepared for an even greater outpouring of the Holy Spirit in their churches.
For more information on When God Builds a Church,
contact McClure Muntsinger Public Relations at
615.370.0043.