Church Growth?

Do we really want church growth?  That is the question, but it may be possible that we are quite satisfied with the “status quo.”  It may be possible that we don’t want to pay the cost of growth.   The truth is that real growth will always encroach on our comfort zone.  I’m talking about the growth that comes when we really win lost and un-churched people to Christ. 

Now we could choose instead to just try to “do church” better than the other folks in town.   We could polish our program in such a way to appeal to the “church” crowd, people who know the language of the church, watch Christian TV, know the hymns by heart, and would fit so well with other Christians.  We could treat church growth like tying get a larger part of the “market share” of Christians to come to our church.  Is that what Jesus wants?

Jesus put it this way, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."  Mark 2:17.  The sad truth is that we often do not reach the lost and un-churched, because we are trying to reach the righteous instead.  It is quite possible that they won’t look like us, nor speak like us, nor act like us.  Let me quote a very good friend of mine who came to Christ and Christian Fellowship in recent years.  She said, “What do Christians do for fun?  How do they party?  What do they do on Friday and Saturday nights?”  She was serious.  She didn't come from a church background.

How do we reach these people?   Are we focusing our ministry around reaching them, or are we just trying to compete for the “church” business? 

Are we ready for them to come?  Will we be shocked if they come in with tattoos and body piercings?  What if they come dressed in dark gothic clothing, wearing a dog collar, with their hair died strange colors?  Are we ready for them?  I know that everyone who is lost and un-churched doesn’t look like the description above, but if God sends them, can we love them?  Can we share Christ with them, or would we just rather not have to deal with “those kind of people?”  I’m just asking.  Do we want to reach those lives that need to be transformed?  Are we really ready to pay the price?  If we reach them, will they immediately understand church language, love the old hymns, and King James English? 

Who are we trying to reach?  Can we love the unlovable?  Well that’s who we were, and I am so glad that Jesus does. 

You see, at just the right time, when we were still

powerless, Christ died for the ungodly .

Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Romans 5:6-8

 

Yes, that is the way Jesus loves us, and that’s how he wants us to love others.  This is the mission he has given to us.

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:  that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them.  And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

              2 Corinthians 5:18-19

 

It’s not just time; it’s past time.  In fact we have so little time to win those around us to Christ.  We must do all that we can while we can.  The time is now!  Today is the day of salvation.  We dare not wait.  Eternity is in the balance.  The souls of men, women, and children depend on us to fulfill our purpose, to reach them with the message of salvation.

 

Blessings.

The Day is Almost Here

God spoke to us so strongly this past Sunday Morning at Christian Fellowship, that we are living in the last days and need to be busy with the mission He has given us to reach our neighbors for Christ.  The Holy Spirit spoke to us through the gift of tongues and interpretation of tongues, that we need to focus on evangelism reaching out to our neighbor on the right and our neighbor on the left.  That message was confirmed in the Word as God directed us to focus on our mission, from 2 Corinthians 5:18, “All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”  Then our purpose was further emphasized as we listened to Jesus’ own words in Luke 5:31-32, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Consider this. While God is leading us to focus on evangelism, reaching our neighbors and friends for Christ, He is also reminding us that we are living in the last days.  We have so little time left to reach them for Christ.  The focus of our mid-week bible study on Bible prophecy, the coming four blood moons, and the harbinger, reminds us that we are living in that generation that Jesus spoke about in Matthew 24:34, “I tell “I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.”

Let us understand the times in which we live, and act now.  As Paul wrote in Romans 13:11-12,

“And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.  The night is nearly over; the day is almost here.”

Blessings,

Pastor Dan

Nothing's Too Hard for God

The prophet records these words in Jeremiah 32:17, "Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm.  Nothing is too hard for you."  In a world full of hopelessness people need to know that whatever struggle they face today, it is not too difficult for God.  If you know the God of the Bible, who revealed himself through his Son, Jesus Christ, then you know that there is absolutely nothing too hard for him.  Today I have been meditating on his amazing grace.  We sang the old hymn in worship this morning, "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.  I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind but now I see."

 Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 1:14-16:

The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.  Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance:  Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am the worst.  But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.

Today I want you to know that God loves you and extends his amazing grace to you.  He can and will forgive you, even though you may have trouble forgiving yourself.  There simply is "nothing too hard for God."

Blessings,
Pastor Dan

Prayer of National Repentance

          In my Sunday Morning Sermon this week I shared a prayer which was originally written by Bob Russell in 1995 who shared it at the Kentucky Governor's Prayer Breakfast.  In January of 1996, Pastor Joe Wright adapted the same prayer when he was asked to be the guest chaplain at the Kansas State House.  Later the same year its was used as an invocation in the Colorado House of Represntatives.  Eventually Paul Harvey got hold of the prayer and read it on his program.  Here is what he prayed from Bob Russell's Website www.bobrussell.org:

O God, we know that your Word says, “Woe to those who call evil good,” but that’s exactly what we’ve done.
We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values.
We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of your Word and called it moral pluralism.
We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism and New Age spirituality.
We have committed adultery and called it an affair.
We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have neglected the needy and called it frugality.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn children and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem.
We have failed to execute justice speedily, as your Word commands, and called it due process.
We have failed to love our neighbor who has a different color of skin and called it maintaining racial purity.
We have abused power and called it political savvy.
We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
We have made the Lord’s Day the biggest shopping and entertainment day of the week and called it free enterprise.
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our parents and called it enlightenment.
Search us, O God, and know our hearts today. Try us and see if there be some wicked way in us; cleanse us of every sin and set us free. Though our sins be as scarlet, may they become white as snow. Though they be as crimson, may they be as wool.

As appropriate as it was in 1995, it is even more today.  In a time when the Supreme Court, (or as Huckabee recently dubbed them, "The Extreme Court") reverses the will of the people of California on the Defense of Marriage Act, effectively allowing one homosexual judge to reverse the will of the majority of the people of California and in the process also declares DOMA unconstitutional.  This Act of Congress was passed by both houses and signed into law by Bill Clinton! Yes, in a time when atheists unveil a 1500 pound granite bench for the sole purpose of protesting the nearby placement of the ten commandments monument, we need national repentance more than ever.   Blessings