Sharing my story as a life-long learner of Christ
This is the final post regarding seekers. Previous posts have explored God’s mission in seeking sinners and the church’s role in evangelism. This final post discusses the approach a church takes toward evangelizing the lost. How we evangelize is just as important as who we evangelize and why we evangelize. How Should the Church Perform …
Continue reading “Recruiting Strategy: The Church’s Approach to Seekers”
Recruiting in college athletics is a 24/7, 365-day-a-year task that involves seeking out talent, assessing skills, and evaluating character. Athletic programs live or die by it. The church has been given a task similar to recruiting. We are called to evangelize, sharing the gospel with the lost in hopes they will come to Christ. Evangelism …
I once heard a man say, “The moment you define discipleship, you lose it.” I get what he is saying. Discipleship can’t be placed in a formula or a “one-size-fits-all” solution anymore than a concept like parenting can be. So, my goal is not to describe a step-by-step process of discipleship or to describe a …
All of Jesus’ teachings are summed up in two passages of Scripture. We call them the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. They are the “who” and the “what” of the disciple’s life. The Great Commandment teaches who I am in Christ (Love God & Love Others). The Great Commission teaches what I am supposed …
When missionaries are commissioned to plant a church, they are expected to reach the community to which they have been sent. For instance, a missionary sent to a suburb of Omaha, Nebraska is expected to reach the people in that particular area through community engagement. Many times this takes shape as a service project such …
I am a supporter of church planting. I believe the Great Commission requires it. However, I’m of the opinion that church planters with the wrong motives should stop and re-evaluate. Don’t misunderstand, no church planter is perfect, and certainly all planters have some degree of selfsih motives they struggle with. But if the main impetus …
The Great Commission has at least three key points of emphasis: 1) A Discipleship emphasis (…make disciples…) 2) A Global emphasis (…of all nations…) 3) A Local Congregation emphasis (…baptizing them…) These three points of emphasis are not a checklist of tasks to be performed in order. It is not as if we are to …
The church is called to make disciples. I think most of us would agree on that. Further, I think we would all agree that we are called to make disciples of all nations (people groups). From this perspective, you would assume that every church would have obvious and overt practices, plans, and opportunities for all …
Church planting is a popular topic these days. It’s easy to find examples of large churches planting networks of congregations across a geographical area. Similarly, it seems that there is an influx of church planters teaming up with sending agencies to help plant churches anywhere and everywhere. But the one thing you rarely see is …
“Turf wars” can be brutal –especially within ministry. As a young minister in the Eighteenth Century, John Wesley was chided by the Anglican Church for preaching across parish lines (invading another pastor’s turf). When approached, Wesley famously explained, “The world is my parish.” In other words, Wesley did not draw boundaries for his ministry. He …
Continue reading “Your Church’s Turf May Be Bigger Than You Think”
