by Les | Jun 1, 2022 | Click Date to Respond
Every new Christian needs an opportunity to grow in their faith. Unless a new Christian, a newbie, has a mentoring Christian’s influence in their life they will likely continue to think and act as they did prior to experiencing God. Those of us who are more mature Christians have an opportunity to influence new Christians.
To effectively have a mentoring influence in a person’s life, Christian or not, the mentor must spend time with the one to be mentored. A newbie can come to worship services every Sunday, greet and shake hands with mature Christians every week, but not have their life influenced for lack of opportunity to spend meaningful time with a more mature Christian. Without an opportunity to spend quality time together there is limited opportunity for a newbie to meaningfully connect with mature Christians.
Connection is vital in the development of any new Christian’s faith development. Without a connection to others who are attending the Sunday service the newbie remains the newbie and often feel unnoticed or detached from others attending worship service. This is one of the reasons that Pastor Dick has mentioned small groups, connection groups, several times.
Gathering in smaller groups provides opportunities that will never exist during a worship service. In a small group the newbie is one of the few present rather than another face in a crowd. Small group gatherings are more intimate. A small group allows an opportunity for the new Christian to be noticed as well as an opportunity to get to know the others in the small group. It is an opportunity to learn about each other’s families, jobs, hobbies and, of course, to grow in faith.
In a small group it is easier to share your faith experiences which new Christians need to hear as well as an opportunity for the newbie to ask questions he or she might have. Small groups become like an extended family, a family that every member can ask advice from and seek support.
Also, in a small group, more mature Christians have an opportunity to grow. They learn from the experiences of others and from the God given knowledge that others have. There is also an opportunity to learn to communicate the Good News that is Jesus with others more effectively.
The skills gained in a small group can also be used outside of a small group. You never know when God will put you before someone in the checkout line at a grocery store or next to someone in a department store that needs to hear something from your faith journey.
Small groups allow more mature Christians to help guide those who have recently come to Christ (Experienced God), as well as an opportunity for all to grow in faith while learning to better serve others.
by Les | Jun 1, 2022 | Click Date to Respond
How does one experience God, where does one experience God and when does one experience God? These are three questions that are hard to give a good answer to.
All experiences with God, every one of them, are subjective. Everyone comes to know Him in a unique and special way. The experience, the first time knowledge of His presence, is always personal. If you get right down to the basics, the Bible is a book that records the history of how God reveals himself to people. Moses met God through a burning bush, Jacob wrestled with God and Isaiah met God in a vision. Still, there is one place today that we can experience God’s presence, a place that Jesus promised to be. That place is during worship. In Matthew 18:20, Jesus said, “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
Jesus wants us to come to know Him and to accept him as our Savior. He wants us to seek Him and to pursue him and to have a share in his eternal kingdom. It is His wish that we feel his magnificent presence in our lives through the Holy Spirit; the inseparable trinity of God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that connects us to the individual member of the trinity as well as connecting each of us to one another.
It is God’s desire that we come to experience him and to grow in faith to become mature and able servants that are empowered to serve others.
by Les | May 18, 2022 | Click Date to Respond
A number of years ago our family was vacationing in West Virginia. On a Sunday evening we, and the people we were visiting, entered a small country church for evening services. As services began the music leader said that he remembered the day that he was saved (pronounced save-ed), some thirty years prior, like it was only yesterday. I later mentioned the speaker’s zeal to the people we were visiting and got a response similar to this, “It is too bad that he hasn’t moved forward and grown since that day.”
This reminds me of something another friend once said to me. He said that there are only three things that a Christian is to do. The first is to make disciples and the second is to help the new disciple to grow in faith and knowledge. The third and final thing a Christian is to do is send the prepared, mature disciple out to make more disciples.
Far too many churches concentrate on the first step, making disciples, and fail to mentor new Christians. New disciples need patient guidance and instruction if they are to grow in their faith.
Matthew 28, verses 19 and 20 read as this, “19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Jesus himself instructed Christians to teach new Christians to obey his instructions. If we fail to teach new Christians then we are failing to fulfill His great commission. We, as disciples of Christ, are to help others to experience God, grow in faith and to serve others.
by Les | May 10, 2022 | Click Date to Respond
I came across an interesting blog (a) by Carey Nieuwhof the other day. I have since learned that Carey Nieuwhof is the founding pastor of Connexus Church in Barne, Ontario, Canada. His church is one of the most influential churches in North America.
The blog page that caught my attention was titled, ’10 Predictions About the Future Church and Shifting Attendance Patterns’. In his blog, Pastor Nieuwhof reminds us that every generation experiences change. He cites statistical information (gathered by the Barna Group) that says that North Americans over the age of 30 were born into a Christian culture but very soon those who have no church affiliation will outnumber those who have church affiliation. He further states that “… 48% of Millennials (born between 1984-2002) can be called post-Christian in their beliefs, thinking and worldview”. This means that the church, to be effective in its mission to create disciples, must change because the people the church is attempting to reach think differently that most who attend church.
Predictions are just that, predictions or guesses about what the future will bring. But I am hopeful that Pastor Nieuwhof is right.
Below will be a synopsis of Pastor Nieuwhof’s predictions. If you want further details please visit the link provided at the bottom.
1. ‘The potential to gain is greater than the potential to lose.’
The author reminds the reader that ‘the church’ was Jesus’ idea, not mankind’s. The church has the ability to survive mankind’s and cultural missteps. The church has a history of pulling itself back from extinction.
2. ‘Churches that love their model more than the mission will die.’
This is basically what the book ‘Simple Church’, that Pastor Dick has recommended MABC to read, is saying. You can read more about this in either the blog or the book ‘Simple Church’.
3. ‘The gathered church is here to stay.’
There are those today who suggest that people gathering to worship is an archaic concept and should be abandoned. Pastor Nieuwhof says such a notion is naïve. Christians have always gathered and will continue to do so.
4. ‘Consumer Christianity will die and a more selfless discipleship will emerge.’
Consumer Christianity means, what can I get from God or what’s in it for me? A selfless discipleship is one of service to our fellow Servanthood always trumps selfish motivations in God’s kingdom.
5. ‘Sundays wil become more about what we give than what we get.’
With the death of consumer Christianity, corporate worship will become less about us and more about Jesus.
Currently, many churches in North America are focused on those who gather every Sunday, that is, those who have already accepted Christ into their hearts. Nieuwhof predicts that, in the future, church gatherings will become focused outward, reaching for those who are not yet Christians.
6. ‘Attendance will no longer drive engagement; engagement will drive attendance.’
Most churches today strive to get those who are attending to engage in the church activities. A more powerful church would be one where those who attend are doing so because they are already engaged.
7. ‘Simplified ministries will complement people’s lives, not compete with people’s lives.’
This is what Pastor Dick and ‘Simple Church’ are saying. As a church grows it isn’t necessary to add more ministries. Instead, simplify the method to be a more effective ministry.
A quote from the blog reads, “some churches offer so many programs for families that families don’t have a chance to be families”. Look around and you will see that statement is true for many large churches.
8. ‘Online church will supplement the journey but not become the journey.”
There is a place for streaming a church service online. But to be a church people need to gather, to join into the warmth of fellowship.
9. ‘Online church will become more of a front door than a back door.”
Far too many people today have left the church are substituting a streaming worship service rather than attend a live church service. Streaming church services are an amazing benefit for those who cannot physically attend but it was never meant to be an ‘off ramp’ from corporate worship.
Nieuwhof hopes that streaming services will, in the future, be a place for the curious to sample a church before showing up in person.
10. ‘Gatherings will be smaller and larger at the same time.”
Mega churches will continue to exist but church size will become irrelevant in a church’s effectiveness.
Nieuwhof believes that churches, large and small, will do their most effective ministry in small group gatherings. Small groups allow for a more intimate gathering and offer a wide venue of choices to meet. A small group can comfortable gather in home, coffee shop and even in a room within the church.
Utilizing small group ministry, a church body can grow while individual members of a group meet as smaller churches within it.
Link to blog – https://careynieuwhof.com/10-predictions-about-the-future-church-and-shifting-attendance-patterns/
(a) blog – a regularly updated website or web page that is written in an informal or conversational style.
