My Favorite Posts of 2011

Here are my favorite posts on going Beyond Outreach from 2011, a year with few posts.

1. Daily Evangelism

   The best evangelists I know are not pastors or preachers. They are not ordained. They are not very good public speakers. They are not “leaders” in the business sense of the word. Most of them work full time jobs, but they are lower-middle class at best.
   
   What separates these evangelists from the rest of the pack, including me, is that they can not have a conversation about anything without including Jesus. Read more ...
   
   

2. Excluding People from the Good News!

   Ninety Percent of church evangelism methods, discipleship materials, and ministry strategy targets the highly literate. In fact, the overwhelming majority of church ministry is done in such a way that it is difficult or impossible for an oral preference learner to follow.
   
   Many churches have not addressed the need to evangelize and disciple using oral methods because they have not felt the need. There are always enough literate prospects in the area to grow a church. The result is, that a great number of people are selectively excluded from the gospel message.  Read more...
   
   

3. When Values Collide

   It is among those outside of traditional church culture that the fields are white unto harvest. This is where the lost sheep have gone...[Unfortunately,] many Christians think that crossing cultures is a step beyond the general mandate. 
   
   
   One of the great challenges for churches, however, is to make that transition to real evangelism among those who don’t readily fit. Many churches don’t even understand that a transition is needed because they have a skewed perspective of who they really are... But the values a church claims to hold are not always the values a church demonstrates by its actions. A church’s true values are revealed in their behavior, not their mission statements. Read more ...
   
   

4. Top Evangelistic Churches–Things to Copy

   Just 3% of the churches in the Georgia Baptist Convention accounted for more than 26% of  all the baptisms in the state association in 2008. These churches reached and baptized nearly ten times as many people as the typical Georgia Baptist church of the same size.
   
   These churches were studied and the Georgia Baptist Convention published a booklet revealing the statistics and lessons learned from these churches...  Here is my summary of the top ten observations underscored in this booklet. Read more...
   
   

5. Daily Telling

   All day long I will tell the wonderful things you do to save your people. But you have done much more than I could possibly know. -Somewhere in Psalm 71

   One of the greatest means of evangelism is a daily broad-based telling of what you have learned of God each day. Like scattering or sowing seed, some will land on good soil and produce a harvest of souls. It is neither argumentative nor manipulative (a straw-man argument many make against witnessing). Read more...
   
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Daily Telling

All day long I will tell the wonderful things you do to save your people. But you have done much more than I could possibly know. -Somewhere in Psalm 71

But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all your works. –Somewhere in Psalm 73

Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul.  - Somewhere in Psalm 66

One of the greatest means of evangelism is a daily broad-based telling of what you have learned of God each day. Like scattering or sowing seed, some will land on good soil and produce a harvest of souls. It is neither argumentative nor manipulative (a straw-man argument many make against witnessing).

Start your day with meditation on God’s Word and prayer. Spend the rest of the day telling people, everyone, as you can and as it fits, what you learned from God. If there is no natural in, just say “Today I learned something about God,” or “God taught me something today,” or “I read something interesting in the Bible today.” Just leave it out there. Some will ask, “What was it?”

Share.  Do this daily.

If you don’t meditate of God’s word regularly, you won’t have much to share, and you will keep quiet. So, build this habit too, if you haven’t already.

(Oh, and if you are the singing type, by all means, sing!)

I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations. –Somewhere in Psalm 89

An Example from Ecuador

I posted earlier in A Guide to Getting Beyond Typical Church Outreach about good soil producing a minimum 2,900% increase. (By the way, now that I am recovered from surgery and travel, I plan to post the rest of that guide soon.)

I also posted an example of this in post WWII China in the post An Observation of Good Soil.

Guy Muse, one of our IMB missionaries serving in Ecuador relates another great example of this declaration of Jesus. This story is so simple and personal. A great read. Here is an excerpt.

What follows is an attempt to briefly describe how seed planted in the life of just one person has produced well over the 100-fold described in Matthew 13...

Marlene was a member of a local Baptist church in Guayaquil. For several years she tried to motivate her fellow brothers and sisters to be more engaged in evangelism, discipleship, and church planting. Excuses were always along the lines of "it is not in this year's budget," "we have a meeting planned to discuss this next month," "we have several outreach activities planned this year that will hopefully bring some new people into our church," "we don't have the money to plant a new church." No surprise that little to nothing was being done.

Marlene was part of an organic church planting training we were asked to do at her church through an invitation made to us by the pastor.
At the end of the training, Marlene respectfully requested permission to start a new house church, explaining to her pastor she wanted to put into practice what had been learned during the training. Her pastor gave his blessing.

Within a few weeks Marlene had won several friends and neighbors to the Lord through her house-to-house visitation, and through contacts made in her local business.

The first year Marlene baptized 18 and spent many hours discipling these new believers. They began meeting several times per week in Marlene's home as a new church start. The "mother church" with all their programs, budget, and paid ministry staff baptized three people that same year.

The story continues, relating how the discipling of one specific couple led to an entire family network coming to Jesus (30 fold), then how relatives, friends and neighbors were reached (60 fold), and finally how this turned into a network of new churches of new believers (100 fold). Read it all in the post 30,60 and 100-fold on The M Blog.

Where do we go from here?

In one of the Looney Tunes cartoons, Wiley Coyote was giving chase to the Roadrunner through a series of pipes. These pipes became wider and wider, or narrower and narrower. The gag was that the two grew or shrank proportionally as they ran through them.

In a ironic moment, Wiley Coyote had gone through a small pipe while the Roadrunner had gone through a big one. It was at that moment that Wiley finally caught the Roadrunner. After standing there for a second next to a bird 10 times bigger than he was, Wiley Coyote held up a sign that said: “Okay, wise guys, you always wanted me to catch him. Now what do I do?”

Christians and churches sometimes go through moments like these along the journey: A moment of glorious success, followed by a complete loss for what to do or where to go from that point on.

The church building is filled to capacity. – “Well, we wanted a full sanctuary, now what?” At this point churches can flounder. Should they go to a two-service classic/contemporary model? Should they invest in an expansion of the sanctuary, or a new building? Should they just let it be, knowing that at some point the numbers will drop? Should the church start a mission?

The neighbor accepted Jesus. – “Well, Rashaad decided to follow Jesus, now what?” At this point Christians often flounder. Should I try to disciple him myself? What do I teach him? Should I refer him to the discipleship director at the church?  Should he be baptized while he is still living with his girlfriend? Maybe if he can just start attending church he will be discipled naturally?

John surrendered to the ministry. – “Well, John surrendered to full time Christian service or to missions, now what?” At this point churches sometimes flounder. Do we send him off to seminary? Do we let him preach a few times to see if he’s “got it?” Should we put him over a Sunday School class? Do we send him to Mexico for a week?

The people we invited to church came. – “Well I invited them and they started coming, now what?” At this point both churches and Christians can flounder. If they like the service enough, they will keep coming, right? Then they will get saved, right? Should we send the pastor to visit them? Should the family that invited them start discipling them? Who is responsible?

Can you think of any other successful moments in ministry that often get followed up with “Oops, now I just don’t know what to do?”

About Me in 2011

These blogs are a hobby of mine. I have a history of updating them in spurts, and taking long unannounced breaks when other projects come up. There are a number of posts on the backburner right now, but I just haven’t had the time to write them out.

This year, 2011, started with a number of challenges for us. We returned from our Christmas visit to the US, only to find that we had to make some quick adjustments.

We found out that we had to move from our apartment and in short order. We prepared and moved into a house in a nearby neighborhood. Our son’s afternoon preschool closed down, so we enrolled him in a new preschool near our new place. We had to make a significant change in our budget and so we reduced it by a third and I started working teaching English again.

Though we have been planning to move to the US for a while now, our church search process has taken longer than we expected. We’ve come close, but God guided us in others directions. Following His lead, we have set a definitive date to move to the US even if that means moving without a church position. We are still watching for God’s assignment there.

In the meantime, there is much to do here. Loaise continues to run and manage her company, and plan for our transition. I am preparing to travel to a few different places in Brazil and lead training workshops this year. I am helping a local church to learn the ropes of starting daughter churches in nearby neighborhoods, and assisting its pastor and deacons in better organizing the church’s committee structure. I continue to teach Bible storying and oral discipleship methods in this city.

Those of you who know me, know of my challenges with hearing. I was born with hearing impairment and have used a hearing aid for 30 years. Even so, I have been able to learn other languages and work effectively in ministry and missions. Most of the time I don’t remember I am hearing impaired.

This year, I learned that I could receive a cochlear implant and hearing rehab through the Brazilian One Health System. I had never considered this surgery in the past, as it was both extremely expensive and indicated only for my hearing ear. This would mean destroying the hearing I already had.

Technology has advanced. I can now receive an implant for my deaf ear instead. By using both my health insurance and the One Health System, I can have this surgery without charge, and in my own city! This could significantly improve my hearing range and comprehension, and there is no risk to my hearing as it is now. What a blessing!

We continue to work hard in mission and ministry in Jesus name. There are many who need to hear, and many who need to follow. We are working steadily on transition as well. I also have a number of online projects that I will be revealing in the coming months. We continue to talk with churches in Louisiana, mostly in the Baton Rouge area, and believe that God has been preparing a church for us, as he also prepares us.

Where ever you live, continue to serve God, doing the hard work of evangelism and disciple making to the glory of Jesus. We are coworkers in his Kingdom.

Keep watching this blog and my others as I will be bringing new blog articles and updates.

http://stephenmyoung2.blogspot.com

http://smy2brazil.blogspot.com

http://beyondoutreach.blogspot.com

Churches are Unique

When I began serving as a Minister to Single Adults, our church was deeply involved in a grief and divorce recovery ministry. That ministry has been going strong for nearly 15 years now. It has been a steady tool of evangelism and discipleship for the church, and will continue to be as long as the ministry continues.

What amazed me, though, was how so many other churches wanted to implement the exact same ministry. Our pastoral care pastor wanted so much to break out and expand to ministry to chemical abuse addictions, sexual addictions, homosexuality issues, etc. He is always looking for the edge. The other churches just wanted a reliable, predictable ministry that they could copy.

I often wondered why smaller churches never specialized.(The one I served in and with whom I maintain membership while on the mission field is a larger church.) It seems logical that one church targeting a specialized ministry area and another targeting another would be extremely beneficial to the overall goal of evangelism in a city. This is not something that can be organized from a hierarchy, however. Even so, if churches payed attention, each one could find a niche ministry, and that would be a good thing.

This concept of churches being unique is explored by Will Mancini. Here is an online version of his book you can browse through Issuu. (Issuu is a great web resource I will be using more in the future.)

The Church Unique Visual Summary is an engaging overview of the key concepts from the book Church Unique by Will Mancini. Have a look.

Open publication - Free publishing - More church unique

Pastors, Look Here!

Okay, now that I’ve got your attention, I want to point you to a wonderful resource. Joe McKeever is the retired Director of Missions of the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans. He is very active preaching and blogging.

Dr. McKeever’s blog is full of more good, Godly and practical advice for pastors and ministers than I have found in any other place. Here are just some of his articles that I have found interesting, helpful and challenging.

Ten Foundational Principles to Tell Your People Again and Again - If you have pastored for more than four or five years, or if you are in your second (or more) pastorate, you have learned the hard way that saying something one time to your people does not suffice. Some lessons--the most important ones, particularly--have to be said again and again.

The Trap That Snares Assistant Pastors – Church leaders told the preacher, "From now on, when you see you're going to be out of town, there's no need to bring in guest preachers. Joe can handle it." And that's when it began to happen. That snare that traps all assistant pastors at one time or the other began to be set for me.

Dealing With The Preacher-Eaters in the Pews - Pity the new pastor who walks into a church unprepared to deal with carnal leaders who enjoy their power positions and cannot wait to let the new minister know who's in charge.

Why I'm Angry At Some Preachers - You've heard them, I'm sure. Some well-intentioned but thoughtless man of God stands before a gathering of the Lord's people and in urging us to evangelize our communities will overstate the case. “Jesus told us to become fisher’s of men! He did not tell us to be keepers of the aquarium!”

Twenty Things I Wish I Had Known As A Young Pastor - I found this list the other day, written perhaps a dozen years ago. As a veteran of 42 years in the pastorate, I have made my share of mistakes and have compiled a lengthy list of regrets.

What To Tell A Hurting Church - One of the best parts of serving as a Director of Missions for a Baptist association is that churches in trouble call on you for assistance. That's also one of the worst aspects of the job.

The Ultimate Phobia: Why Christians Fear to Witness - Why are good, normal, otherwise confident Christian people scared to death of knocking on a door? I think I know, and it's not just that we don't know what to do or don't love the Lord enough or lack holiness. Sorry, Henry Blackaby, my dear brother. I think it's something else.

When Values Collide

The heart of this blog is evangelism.

Baptisms have been trending down each year, and churches really are shrinking. Specifically, this blog is about evangelism and discipleship among those who don’t readily fit into a church’s culture. The American church is has been negligent in cross-cultural evangelism. As a result, in many churches evangelism is anemic at best.

It is among those outside of traditional church culture that the fields are white unto harvest. This is where the lost sheep have gone. As Jesus said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."

Many Christians think that crossing cultures is a step beyond the general mandate. There is a myth that only select missionaries are called to cross cultures in order to make disciples. The rest of us should only focus on people like us. But, the Great Commission actually commands otherwise! Jesus commanded his mostly Jewish audience to go to a mostly Gentile people and make disciples. In other words, the Great Commission itself is a mandate to cross cultures.  --Joey Shaw via Guy Muse (reposted)

Churches are not transitioning.

One of the great challenges for churches, however, is to make that transition to real evangelism among those who don’t readily fit. Many churches don’t even understand that a transition is needed because they have a skewed perspective of who they really are. These churches readily make bold declarations and purpose statements. “We are a Great Commission church.” “Our purpose is to win the entire city for Jesus.”

But the values a church claims to hold are not always the values a church demonstrates by its actions. A church’s true values are revealed in their behavior, not their mission statements. This is the reason transition is so difficult. Churches try to implement new programs without understanding the conflicting values in the church.

Wayne Key gives a good example.

One church brought in a new youth pastor to reach out to the community. But when he began a skate park initiative, the trustee board stalled action so long that the initiative was killed. We helped the church discover it held an unspoken value—“Protect our Christian kids from worldly kids”—that directly counteracted its stated value—“Reach out to youth.”

When values collide, churches stagnate.

Value conflicts, especially between these unstated, unperceived values and the stated values of a ministry can lead to much dissension. The sad thing is, those on both sides of the issue feel like the other side is completely out of touch with what is really important. This can lead to distrust and disunity. It can kill a ministry and split a church.

The unspoken values of a church, revealed only by behavior will always win out over the stated preferred values of a church, unless they are recognized and brought to light. Only then can a church honestly wrestle through what they really value most. Once they have done that, they can change their actions, policies and perhaps even authority structures.

Help me out here in the comments section by suggesting some of the unspoken values that churches may have that can be barriers to real outreach and evangelism when they are prioritized to an unhealthy degree (or at all in some cases). Here are some that I have thought of.

• Financial Stability
• Cleanliness
• Orderly Church Growth
• Protect our Christian kids from worldly kids
• Control
• Convenience
• Prominence in the Greater Community
• Formality,
• Being “Dignified”
• Being a Pretty or Picturesque Church
• Familiarity,
• Protect our singles from singles of other races
• Entertainment
• Please add to this list and suggest ways of lovingly exposing these values to the church.

I was right about 50 to 1

In my previous post I said “Years of church baptism reports seem to indicate that in a year’s time, typical church outreach wins about one person to Jesus for every 50 church members.” I was worried about that opening line, because it wasn’t sourced. I figured it out with a calculator and several annual reports from various state conventions.

Now, I can cite Lifeway as a source: http://www.lifeway.com/article/170781/

According to this article evaluating the 2010 SBC statistics on baptism and church membership, Southern Baptist churches reported 332,321 baptisms in 2010. Total membership was reported at 16,136,044.

That means that last year our churches won just one person to Jesus for every 49 church members. My observation was right on target.

This is sad. 

Getting Beyond Typical Church Outreach. (Update)

I posted “A Guide to Getting Beyond Typical Church Outreach, Part One” a couple of weeks ago. This article has become larger than a typical blog post and needs to be divided up even more. When I conclude I will likely post the entire article as a PDF download. This is an update of part one.

Years of church baptism reports seem to indicate that in a year’s time, typical church outreach wins about one person to Jesus for every 50 church members.

Of course there are many churches above and below the curve. Very large churches with a full spectrum of ministries, large budgets, and multiple staff members are generally able to reach a very predictable number of people each year. (It is actually kind of scary to see how some churches have the almost exactly same number of baptisms year in and year out.)

Sometimes, small churches with part-time staff and virtually no resources are able to out baptize the big ones. I recommend paying attention to those churches.

There are a number of churches, though, that do the outreach programs and follow them faithfully and struggle to baptize more than a handful of people in a year's time. When a church is not evangelistic, it is doing something wrong.

As I counsel churches to begin to break new ground evangelistically, these are things I believe to be essential.

1. Begin with Prayer.

Prayer is essential to reaching a city for Jesus. It is the starting point for everything we do, and should permeate everything that is done. Prayer ought to take up a significant portion of our daily time. When do not pray, our thoughts, our affections, and our work all serve our own interests rather than God’s. Without prayer it is impossible to succeed in ministry. You might as well not even try.

In my experience most Christians do not spend even ten full minutes in prayer each day. They may say prayers at meals, when getting up and going to bed, and during weekly church prayer meetings, but they do not spend as much time praying as they do talking on the phone or even watching commercials on TV.

Change this one thing and watch the Kingdom of God advance.

For further reading, see “Praying for Others as Outreach,” “How to Pray for Other Christians” and by Paul Watson,  "Growing Closer to God through Facebook Prayer.”

2. Elevate Scripture

Scripture is our final authority for faith and practice. It is the source for all preaching and teaching. Everyone should be conditioned to go directly to the Bible for instruction, answers, examples and warnings. If dependence is established on any teacher (or Bible study guide or book), other than holy scripture and the holy spirit, then evangelism will stagnate.

Elevate scripture over constitution and by-laws. Lovingly challenge church leaders to compare policies with those of Scripture as they relate to evangelism, church planting, and providing for leadership. Let this comparison be the subject of prayer and an open forum. If church policies put burdensome prerequisites on obedience to commands in scripture, reproduction will be stifled.

Elevate scripture by teaching obedience. Passive learners, hearers only, are not only disobedient, but they model disobedience to new Christians. Obedience is more important than knowledge. Every Bible study should end with an opportunity for people to share what they will do in obedience to the passage learned. Gaining insight is not spiritual growth, obedience is.

For further reading see: Obedience Based Discipleship by David Watson, and Three Levels of Church Authority, by George Patterson (PDF)

3. Set a Goal for 10,000% Reproduction

That sounds silly, but it is biblical. Through the parable of the sower, Jesus likened the gospel to seed falling on the ground. On good soil the seed sprouts, grows and reproduces 30, 60, and even 100 times. That corresponds to a 2,900%, 5,900%, and 9,900% increase.

By comparison, my home association, the Baptist Association of Greater Baton Rouge, reported just over 42,000 church members in 2010 and just under 700 baptisms for the year. That is about a 1.6% increase. Over a generation of 40 years that corresponds to a 64% increase. According to Jesus, the worst yield in good soil should be a 2,900% increase.

Setting a goal requires your church to be intentional about reproduction and to have a plan. That plan must be bigger than your church and, really, bigger than your association. So many pastors prepare “bold” plans to fill their sanctuaries, or the sanctuaries of the new buildings they envision. Regularly filling a dream sanctuary to seating capacity is not a Kingdom goal.

When we settle for mediocre reproduction, we are negligent. Sinfully so.

For further reading see: How to Measure Success as a Pastor. When a Church Changes Size, An Observation of Good Soil and Grow Your Church or Reach Your Community?  



Coming Soon:

4. Do the Hard Work of Evangelism

5. Become a Master of Group Dynamics.

6. Commission, Commission, Commission.

Top Evangelistic Churches–Things to Copy

Just 3% of the churches in the Georgia Baptist Convention accounted for more than 26% of  all the baptisms in the state association in 2008. These churches reached and baptized nearly 10 times as many people as the typical Georgia Baptist church of the same size.

These churches were studied and the Georgia Baptist Convention published a booklet revealing the statistics and lessons learned from these churches. I missed this booklet when it was first published, but it is free and a worthy read for anyone seriously thinking through what it will take to shift their church evangelistically.

Georgia’s Top Evangelistic Churches: Ten Lessons PDF 2.52MB

Here is my summary of the top ten observations underscored in this booklet.

1. Highly evangelistic churches prioritize evangelism. It seems too simple, but none of these churches were evangelistically passive. Each one had an intentional plan to reach out and this priority worked itself into all of the church body life.
2. The pastors of highly evangelistic churches lead the charge. These pastors all had an obvious passion for evangelism, they consistently preached the gospel and called people to repentance, and they stayed with their churches for longer than most pastors do.
3. Highly evangelistic churches call all of its members to evangelism. In each of these churches, there is a structure of involving and training all of the congregation in evangelism. The work is not set apart for just a few.
4. Highly evangelistic churches pray for the lost by name. These churches sought to identify who needs to hear and who needs to repent and prayed for these individuals and families regularly, by name.
5. All ministries in highly evangelistic churches are connected to evangelism. None of these churches had a unique ministry. All of their ministries were the same as ministries in other churches. The difference is that their ministries are connected to evangelism by design.
6. Highly evangelistic churches reported that a significant percentage of their baptisms came from revivals and vacation bible schools. These two ministries are still a staple of baptisms for many evangelistic churches. Incidentally, these two ministries usually involve the highest level of congregational participation of any ministry.
7. Sunday School and small group ministries are a hub for evangelism in highly evangelistic churches. 90% of the top evangelistic churches responded that they strategically and purposefully connect Sunday School to evangelism.
8. Visiting people in their homes is a key strategy for highly evangelistic churches. Evangelistic churches equip and encourage members intentionally to develop relationships with the unchurched and that extends to the home.
9. Highly evangelistic churches emphasize baptism for new believers. These churches call people from belief to action, from knowledge to obedience with baptism as the first step.
10. Evangelistic churches involve new believers in body life through small groups. These churches immediately put new believers into small groups, sunday school classes, and new-member classes.

Outreach and the Internet.

Churches seeking to have an online presence can do so in many ways. The most obvious is to put up a website or blog. There are a couple of things to consider, however.

First, having an online presence for your church means a lot more than a registering a domain name and hosting a site. Church members must bring Christ with them into social networks, message boards, blogs, comments, instant messenger programs, news sites, video sites and the like.

Second, the target audience of a church web-presence should be unbelievers, not prospective church members. Reaching prospective church members can grow your organization and your budget, but reaching the lost grows the Kingdom.

Unbelievers don't care about your church building location, service schedule, calendar of events, staff members, doctrinal statements or various ministries. They are neither making plans to attend your church nor to listen to your online sermons.

Online outreach strategy should create and take advantage of opportunities for conversation between believers and unbelievers. Churches and believers need to be bringing the the message of the gospel into the daily internet chit-chat.

I will blog on internet outreach and online outreach in the future. A good starting place to learn is Paul Watson’s blog Reaching the Online Generation. Here is a good article: Eight Questions for Starting an Online Ministry.

An Observation of Good Soil

This post is loosely related to my previous post A Guide to Getting Beyond Typical Church Outreach: http://beyondoutreach.blogspot.com/2011/05/guide-to-getting-beyond-typical-church.html

Kenneth Keathley, was a professor of mine at NOBTS. He has posted a very interesting article answering the question of how many Chinese Christians there are in China. He wrote:

[In] a recent First Things article (First Things, May 2011, pp. 14-16), three Baylor sociologists claim they have arrived at a reasonably accurate count, and they place the number at 70 million [Christians].

When the Communists came to power in 1949, there were about one million Chinese professing Christians at that time…  The Communist government outlawed religion, so the fledgling Christian church was expected to disappear.  However, by the last quarter of the 20th century it was clear that, rather than dissolving, Christianity was growing in China--and growing rapidly…

What can we conclude about these findings?  On the upside, there is the simple fact that the church in China has grown from one million to 70 million.  A 70-fold increase in 60 years is remarkable by anyone's reckoning.  It also means that in China there are more professing Christians than there are members of the Communist Party.

You can read the full article here: http://www.theologyforthechurch.com/1/post/2011/05/how-many-chinese-christians-are-there.html

This is a 6,900% increase. That fits quite nicely in the curve or a 30, 60 and 100 fold return that Jesus cited in the parable of the sower. Good soil.

Reading Roundup

What are the least churched cities in America? How does giving to missions affect local church budgets? How can one have integrity online? What is an inexpensive way to start a new church? Do churches have a life-cycle? Is each one reach one really the best evangelism strategy?

• DJ Chuang: Least Churched Cities in America http://goo.gl/Ysb0k
• Dan Bouchelle: The Crippling Lie of Zero Sum Math http://goo.gl/F6sDB
• Luke Gilkerson: Internet Accountability Crash Course http://goo.gl/UpCmW
• Les Puryear: How to Plant a Church with Little or No Outside Funding http://goo.gl/X3eYe
• Thom Rainer: Where Have all the Churches Gone? http://goo.gl/pE45H
• Dan Bouchelle: Why You Shouldn’t Try to Save a Single Solitary Person. http://goo.gl/Pvf9N

I want to add an older one to this list, because I think it gets to the heart of oikos evangelism and disciple making. Group dynamics and starting the right way are essential in both discipleship and multiplication. This is one of the best articles with respect to the group process.

• Paul Watson: Small Groups that have the DNA of a Gospel Planting Movement http://goo.gl/VypO7

The Bulletin and the Sunday Morning Pulpit.

Thoughts on Upgrading Church Communication

There was a time when the church was one of the primary social networks of a town. Announcements made from the pulpit were sure to be repeated and disseminated throughout the city. This is no longer the case, yet many churches still rely on the bulletin and announcements from the pulpit as their primary means of communication about upcoming events and as a principle method of recruiting.

Times have changed and churches have adapted to some degree. When I served as Minister to Single Adults, our singles began to work the cutting edge, using email groups (Yahoo Groups) to inform each other about bible studies, coffee socials, church events and the like. This was big, but that was 10 years ago. Now, social networks and text messaging are have joined email in the world of real-time communication.

Smartphones are permeating society and nearly all social classes, they function as one of the primary gateways to social networks and are the fastest growing means information exchange today. Ministries can send instant messages to massive numbers of contacts via smartphones and social networks, like twitter and facebook. It is now possible to create instant conference calls even over cellphones, send location maps for events, and share photos. In fact, nowadays entire books can be sent from one computer to another and one phone to another.

Churches and ministries might do well to learn how to implement group messaging applications for quick and effective communication. They also should consider how smartphones and social networks can be a tool in evangelism and discipleship.

Disclaimer: TECHNOLOGY AND TOOLS DO NOT DO THE WORK OF EVANGELISM AND DISCIPLESHIP FOR YOU. IT IS EASY TO GET DISTRACTED AND END UP DOING A LOT OF NOTHING. BE CAREFUL.

That being said, here are some interesting applications I came across, but have not tried to use yet. 

GroupMe http://groupme.com

Seesmic http://seesmic.com

Google Voice http://google.com/voice

Excluding People from the Good News!

Ninety Percent of church evangelism methods, discipleship materials, and ministry strategy targets the highly literate. In fact, the overwhelming majority of church ministry is done in such a way that it is difficult or impossible for an oral preference learner to follow.

Look at these recent findings:

• The National Institute for Literacy estimates that 47% of adults (more than 200,000 individuals) in the City of Detroit are functionally illiterate, referring to the inability of an individual to use reading, speaking, writing, and computational skills in everyday life situations.
• Approximately half of these individuals have a high school diploma or GED, so this issue cannot be solely addressed by a focus on adult high-school completion.
• A number of municipalities demonstrate illiteracy rates rivaling Detroit: Southfield at 24%, Warren at 17%, Inkster at 34%, Pontiac at 34%.

View a copy of the report in PDF format

Many churches have not addressed the need to evangelize and disciple using oral methods because they have not felt the need. There are always enough literate prospects in the area to grow a church. The result is, that a great number of people are selectively excluded from the gospel message.

To use a fishing metaphor, no one is fishing for Brim because plenty of Bass are biting their bait. The problem with this is that the church is not to be full of fishers of men in the sporting sense. The church is called to fish with nets. The call is to rescue the perishing. All of the “fish” in the water are dying and will die unless pulled out of the sea of death and given the water of life.

So many churches are not genuinely concerned with winning the lost. What they deeply desire is to reach enough people to fill up their sanctuaries and meet their annual budgets. The goal of many churches is not to preach to gospel to every creature. That may be the stated goal, but the real goal is to present the gospel to just enough to win a few each year and keep the church comfortably full. At least, that is what national evangelism and discipleship results seem to indicate.

Has your church considered orality in its ministry?

Here are some resources for learning how to evangelize and disciple others using oral methods:

Story4All – http://story4all.com Since most of today’s unreached have to, or prefer to, receive information via non-literate means, we believe it is essential that we communicate with them in a style and language that they understand. To this end we have launched the story4all podcast with a weekly show that will bring you news, interviews, discussion, reviews and links to resources that will help you discover the power of storying.

The International Orality Network – http://oralbible.com ION exists to influence the Body of Christ to make disciples of all oral learners and to radically influence the way oral preference learners are evangelized and discipled in every people group.

Simply the Story – http://www.simplythestory.org Most of the Christian discipleship, and even evangelism strategies use literate methods of communication. Importantly, the concepts we use for Simply The Story employ methods that are readily understood by oral as well as literate learners, so this very big gap is filled.

My Bible Storying Journal – http://smy2brazil.blogspot.com This is an on-line journal of some of my experiences teaching the Bible in oral form.

Interview with a Street Evangelist part 1

On Easter Sunday, we had a barbecue here at our new home in Brazil. A friend of mine, Sergio, was one of the ones who came. Sergio is a man who is constantly reaping a harvest of souls for the Kingdom.

I had been unpacking some more boxes and remembered that I had put my audio recorder in a backpack. So, I went downstairs and got it. (We have often barbecues on the roof in Brazil.) I interviewed Sergio for about an hour.

In the next few posts, I am going to share some of his evangelism stories, and some of his thoughts on evangelism. The interview is recorded in Portuguese, and I may make that available at the end of this series.  I will also finish with a post of my own observations from what he shared.

Sergio is an evangelist in the mold of those I wrote about in the post Daily Evangelism.

If only more churches had pastors like this…

 

The covenant and prayer of  A. W. Tozer.

 

This is the prayer of a man called to be a witness to the nations. This is what he said to his Lord on the day of his ordination. After the elders and ministers had prayed and laid their hands on him he withdrew to meet his Savior in the secret place and in the silence, farther in than his well-meaning brethren could take him.

 

And he said: O Lord, I have heard Thy voice and was afraid. Thou has called me to an awesome task in a grave and perilous hour. Thou art about to shake all nations and the earth and also heaven, that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. O Lord, my Lord, Thou has stooped to honor me to be Thy servant. No man taketh this honor upon himself save he that is called of God as was Aaron. Thou has ordained me Thy messenger to them that are stubborn of heart and hard of hearing. They have rejected Thee, the Master, and it is not to be expected that they will receive me, the servant.

 

My God, I shall not waste time deploring my weakness nor my unfittedness for the work. The responsibility is not mine, but Thine. Thou has said, “I knew thee – I ordained thee – I sanctified thee,” and Thou hast also said, “Thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.” Who am I to argue with Thee or to call into question Thy sovereign choice? The decision is not mine but Thine. So be it, Lord. Thy will, not mine, be done.

 

Well do I know, Thou God of the prophets and the apostles, that as long as I honor Thee Thou will honor me. Help me therefore to take this solemn vow to honor Thee in all my future life and labors, whether by gain or by loss, by life or by death, and then to keep that vow unbroken while I live.

 

It is time, O God, for Thee to work, for the enemy has entered into Thy pastures and the sheep are torn and scattered. And false shepherds abound who deny the danger and laugh at the perils which surround Thy flock. The sheep are deceived by these hirelings and follow them with touching loyalty while the wolf closes in to kill and destroy. I beseech Thee, give me sharp eyes to detect the presence of the enemy; give me understanding to see and courage to report what I see faithfully. Make my voice so like Thine own that even the sick sheep will recognize it and follow Thee.

 

Lord Jesus, I come to Thee for spiritual preparation. Lay Thy hand upon me. Anoint me with the oil of the New Testament prophet. Forbid that I should be come a religious scribe and thus lose my prophetic calling. Save me from the curse that lies dark across the modern clergy, the curse of compromise, of imitation, of professionalism. Save me from the error of judging a church by its size, its popularity or the amount of its yearly offering. Help me to remember that I am a prophet – not a promoter, not a religious manager, but a prophet. Let me never become a slave to crowds. Heal my soul of carnal ambitions and deliver me from the itch for publicity. Save me from bondage to things. Let me not waste my days puttering around the house. Lay Thy terror upon me, O God, and drive me to the place of prayer where I may wrestle with principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world. Deliver me from overeating and late sleeping. Teach me self-discipline that I may be a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

 

I accept hard work and small rewards in this life. I ask for no easy place. I shall try to be blind to the little ways that could make life easier. If others seek the smoother path I shall try to take the hard way without judging them too harshly. I shall expect opposition and try to take it quietly when it comes. Or if, as sometimes it falleth out to Thy servants, I should have grateful gifts pressed upon me by Thy kindly people, stand by me then and save me from the blight that often follows. Teach me to use whatever I receive in such manner that will not injure my soul nor diminish my spiritual power. And if in Thy permissive providence honor should come to me from Thy church, let me not forget in that hour that I am unworthy of the least of Thy mercies, and that if men knew me as intimately as I know myself they would withhold their honors or bestow them upon others more worthy to receive them.

 

And now, O Lord of heaven and earth, I consecrate my remaining days to Thee; let them be many or few, as Thou wilt. Let me stand before the great or minister to the poor and lowly; that choice is not mine, and I would not influence it if I could. I am Thy servant to do Thy will, and that will is sweeter to me than position or riches or fame and I choose it above all things on earth or in heaven.

 

Though I am chosen of Thee and honored by a high and holy calling, let me never forget that I am but a man of dust and ashes, a man with all the natural faults and passions that plague the race of men. I pray Thee, therefore, my Lord and Redeemer, save me from myself and from all the injuries I may do myself while trying to be a blessing to others. Fill me with Thy power by the Holy Spirit, and I will go in Thy strength and tell of Thy righteousness, even Thine only. I will spread abroad the message of redeeming love while my normal powers endure.

 

Then, dear Lord, when I am old and weary and too tired to go on, have a place ready for me above, and make me to be numbered with Thy saints in glory everlasting. Amen. AMEN.

Daily Evangelism

The best evangelists I know are not pastors or preachers. They are not ordained. They are not very good public speakers. They are not “leaders” in the business sense of the word. Most of them work full time jobs, but they are lower-middle class at best.

 

What separates these evangelists from the rest of the pack, including me, is that they can not have a conversation about anything without including Jesus. Before the third sentence about anything and usually in the first, thanks is given to God. Before a conversation ends, there is an, offer, suggestion or even command to pray. Their vocabulary is peppered with words like blessed, love, God, Jesus, repent, forgive, pray, good, can you?, would you?, need, must, help, hurry.

 

Most of these evangelist have a quirk or something in their personality that either rubs people the wrong way or the right way. There is not much in between. These people are not apathetic about anything and to them everyone is valuable.  For them, everyone is living out a decision to follow or reject God, there is no middle ground.

 

I want to be more like these people.

 

Questions like, “Did you share Jesus with someone this week?” or “Have you ever led anyone to Christ?” are very low-bar questions for these kinds of evangelists.  They are like “Did you pray this week?” or “Have you ever read part of the Bible?” The thought is that it is pretty pathetic if you have to answer no and answering yes is nothing to boast about.

 

This is what is really meant by lifestyle evangelism.

Baptism Famine!

During December and January, I visited my home. I spoke at some churches and did a little research about the association. You can see a map of where the churches in the association are located in my post Mapping Out. Here are some of the key findings.

 

In 2008 the average number of baptisms during the year per church was seven. In 2009 baptisms fell to and average of six per church for the year.

 

In all there were just over 600 baptisms for the entire association in 2009, down over a hundred from the year before.  This in an area that encompasses nearly a million people. Worse, more than 300 of those baptisms came from just 13 churches. That means the median number of baptisms (the point at which the same number of churches baptized more as baptized less) was just two.

Preaching it Plainly, but Only in Certain Circles

Are we even communication with those who don’t listen to sermons on Sundays?

A Shocking, Scandalous Message

Reposted from Ernest Goodman’s blog “Mission’s Misunderstood”

 

Joel Osteen was recently a guest on CNN’s Larry King Live Piers Morgan Tonight, where he was asked about his stance on homosexuality (clip here, entire segment here). Joel answered, in a round-about way, that he agrees with the Bible, and that the Bible was clear about homosexuality being “a sin.”

 

Outrage ensued. Joel was labeled “judgmental” and rebuked for “imposing his beliefs on others.” It was as if the audience had never heard a follower of Jesus communicate the belief that homosexuality is less than God’s best for humanity. Even couched in Osteen’s obliviously earnest grin, the Christian perspective on a social issue is foreign to the masses.

 

The truth is, it’s quite possible that millions of Americans have never heard that God has a different plan for humanity. They may never have heard a Biblical understanding of sin. Despite access to the Bible online, a church on every corner, and evangelists on TV, a great many people have never heard the gospel.

 

It would shock them that entry into heaven isn’t based on how good or bad we are. That God has interacted with humanity personally since the beginning of time. That Christianity isn’t about living like Jesus, it’s about dying to our sin-filled selves. The sad fact is that millions of people around us have never heard the gospel presented to them in an intelligible, coherent, and personal way.

The gospel is a shocking, scandalous message. We can never find redemption apart from Jesus. It’s offensive, really. Unfortunately, most people are not offended by the gospel because they don’t hear it.

Mapping Out

I visited home over the Christmas holiday. I spent two months in Baton Rouge and enjoyed the fellowship of many churches. It has been a while since I have posted on this blog.

Today I decided to make a map of the Baptist Association of Greater Baton Rouge.

Click on the map to go to an interactive one, with zooming, panning, church names, etc.