All of us want this for our churches don't we? We want to see growth. I personally, want to see great growth, and I hope you do as well. If we honestly examine our history, I daresay many of us are less than satisfied with our growth.
At my local church, we have been blessed to have a good increase in our attendance in the past year over the year previous to that. A 50% increase to be exact! We thank the Lord for this, but even at this our total attendance would just amount to a large Sunday School class at many churches. Even this year, I believe we are on track for another 50% increase, but there are many out there that are not being reached by our church and the message of Christ, so I am not satisfied with the growth. I am thankful for what we have seen, but I feel that God has more for us.
As a pastor, I must face the following:
When you want something you've never had, then you have to do something you've never done. - John Maxwell,The Difference Maker
If our church want to reach more people in our community, it is sometimes going to involve us doing things we haven't done before. If we want to see the phenomenal growth seen in the Bible it is going to take some more. It definitely takes the Spirit. The Jesus tells us, "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him." But we can also do things to be more effective at reaching the lost. God uses the Spirit to draw those to Him, and He uses cultural situations to His advantage. Paul found where large groups of people were and went there and reached them. He found women washing clothes by a river, philosophers gathered together, and oftentimes went to the Jewish synagogues until he was kicked out.
If we are going to reach people, we have to reach them where they are. If we want to reach more people at our local church, we are going to have to be willing to step outside our comfort zone, and do things we haven't done before. All through the Bible, people were called by God to do things they hadn't done before to see the results that God wanted to bring about.
Are we willing?
At my local church, we have been blessed to have a good increase in our attendance in the past year over the year previous to that. A 50% increase to be exact! We thank the Lord for this, but even at this our total attendance would just amount to a large Sunday School class at many churches. Even this year, I believe we are on track for another 50% increase, but there are many out there that are not being reached by our church and the message of Christ, so I am not satisfied with the growth. I am thankful for what we have seen, but I feel that God has more for us.
As a pastor, I must face the following:
When you want something you've never had, then you have to do something you've never done. - John Maxwell,The Difference Maker
If our church want to reach more people in our community, it is sometimes going to involve us doing things we haven't done before. If we want to see the phenomenal growth seen in the Bible it is going to take some more. It definitely takes the Spirit. The Jesus tells us, "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him." But we can also do things to be more effective at reaching the lost. God uses the Spirit to draw those to Him, and He uses cultural situations to His advantage. Paul found where large groups of people were and went there and reached them. He found women washing clothes by a river, philosophers gathered together, and oftentimes went to the Jewish synagogues until he was kicked out.
If we are going to reach people, we have to reach them where they are. If we want to reach more people at our local church, we are going to have to be willing to step outside our comfort zone, and do things we haven't done before. All through the Bible, people were called by God to do things they hadn't done before to see the results that God wanted to bring about.
Are we willing?
So very true, love what you've said in this post and pray it will stir the hearts of those unwilling or afraid to do something they've never done before.
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