# Growing a church



## larryjf (Jan 6, 2006)

Any good ideas on church growth, please


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## crhoades (Jan 6, 2006)

From an email my pastor sent out today.

Dear Flock,

Well, I am trying it with Tuesday Tidbits, so I thought I would dust off Thursday Thoughts. "œIt´s not Thursday," you say? Like I said earlier this week, Monday was officially a holiday, so the math works out. Or, you could just be jaded about it and say that I am a day behind this week.

Here around Bellevue, up and down neighborhood streets, you will see an occasional yard sign that reads: "œEducation Children "“ the Most Important Thing Our Community Does." I don´t know what organization distributes these signs, or if they have ties to a local politician. However, I started thinking that if I could pass out yard signs to each household in our church, I know just what they would say: "œConnecting "“ the Most Important Thing Our Church Does." 


Why would I say this? What do I mean by this? Well, I think this notion of "œconnecting" should become a part of our self-awareness, part of the corporate discourse of Good Shepherd. And, our connecting, if it is to be true connecting must have three components that flow into and out of each other.

CONNECT UP: To begin, we must continue to pursue connection with our God. How do we do this? Nothing new. We stay committed to the ordinary means of grace, and the "œsacred sameness" of our worship (about which I have more to say in another place), and we will enjoy connectedness with God. We do not need to wait for whatever the newest pop-evanjellyfish trend hypes a new experience with God. Again, we stay committed to the ordinary means of grace. Preaching, which is too the Word of God, keeps our souls tuned to hear God´s voice. Prayer, whereby we tune our voices to give expression to our esteem of him, as well as, our longings for his power in our lives. The sacraments, which not only paint a picture of grace, but provide grace. These are the things, established by God, which are fruits of Spirit-wrought union with Christ. These essential facets of worship connect us to the God of the universe, who spins planets in their orbits and watches over the falling sparrows, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of history, the God of the Bible.

CONNECT IN: This connectedness, if we really are connecting with him, will connect us to each other. You know, we speak much of "œcommunity," "œfellowship," we even get fancy and call it by the Greek, koinonia. Actually, being Presbyterian means being connectional. That is the language we use at Presbytery and General Assembly meetings, by which we intend that we are a denomination made up of interconnected and accountably churches, via the church courts of local sessions, Presbyteries, and the Assembly. But, I am saying that we need to continue to plant the seeds and tend the flowers of friendship. Do you realize that, by virtue of your vows of membership, you have taken upon yourself God´s call to receive one another, to love one another deeply from the heart. This manifests when we connect each time we stand and see our babies baptized, every time we make time to have each other over for a meal, when we resist the urge to hit to road right after church, so we can stay around and talk to that person or couple, who may just need your ear or your words, when we go on retreats together or have craft nights together.

CONNECT OUT:Hopefully, our connecting with God and one another will spur us on to desire that those not yet a part of our fellowship would join us. We live, as you know, in a world of connectedness, in terms of e-mail, fax, pagers, mobile phones, satellites, Blackberries, instant messaging, and the like. I once saw a man, who had a pager and two cel phones with him at all times "“ talk about connected! I still find that MSN commercial from a couple of years ago funny. They were advertising their instant messaging feature of their internet service, and one of the actors announced enthusiastically, "œI feel like I am part of a community!" I am not knocking any and all forms of online discussion groups, etc., but it does appear that, despite, or perhaps because of, such technological advancements, people are lonelier and more isolated than ever before. And, still, community evades us. Beloved, do we know the privilege it is to have one single visitor, believer or non-believer, walk through our doors? We must connect with them! We need to have the mentality of a good defensive football team "“ "œSwarm the Ball." Do you what that means? Basically, the underlying task of every defensive player is to get to the offensive guy who has the ball. Not only does this help insure tackles, but will also produce fumble recoveries. Enough with the football analogy (you have seen Jerome Bettis warn against that in those Fed-Ex commercials, haven´t you?). There needs to be a warm swarm every time a new person comes to visit us. We need to connect with them, to find out who they are, what makes them tick, what their needs and questions are. They need to know that Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church, and above all, the Good Shepherd, himself, is the answer to their loneliness and isolation, and the sin that keeps us locked up in it. 



I´ll leave it at that. For now, just think about it: "œConnecting "“ the Most Important Thing Our Church Does."


Yours for the faith, with much love and affection, 

Pastor David Owen Filson

Heb 6:19

We are not our own, but belong unto our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ...


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Jan 6, 2006)

The Reformation was the great church growth period in history since Pentecost. What was the secret to the amazing growth of the church during this period? 

For example, in France, the first national Protestant synod in 1559 involved 15 churches. By 1561, there were over 2000 Huguenot churches in France. These were not fair-weather Christians. Many would lay down their lives for Christ the King. 

Before Luther nailed his 95 theses on the church door in Wittemberg in 1517, Europe, and indeed the whole world, was covered in spiritual darkness. But within a generation, Protestants were multiplying faster than Inquistioners and executioners could keep up. 

The word of God is able to accomplish the will of its Author (Isa. 55.11). When it goes forth by the unction of the Holy Spirit it is more powerful than a two-edged sword. The five solas of the Reformation were key. Prayer was also key. Prayer and the word of God and holy living are the three elements of godly revival. Reformation in private, family and corporate worship will, by God's grace, bring untold numbers of the elect into the kingdom of God.

A good book on the subject of Biblical revival is _The Puritan Hope_ by Iain Murray.


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## Joseph Ringling (Jan 6, 2006)

> The word of God is able to accomplish the will of its Author (Isa. 55.11). When it goes forth by the unction of the Holy Spirit it is more powerful than a two-edged sword. The five solas of the Reformation were key. Prayer was also key. Prayer and the word of God and holy living are the three elements of godly revival. Reformation in private, family and corporate worship will, by God's grace, bring untold numbers of the elect into the kingdom of God.


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## crhoades (Jan 13, 2006)

Follow-up email my pastor sent out:

Dear Flock,



Many of you had kind and appreciative words for last week´s installment of Thursday Thoughts. I think this is because what I had to say about connecting touched something within us for which we sincerely long. You will recall we spoke of connecting up, in , and out. Up "“ that Godward reach of a people fully confident that he had reached down to us, and continues to do so, for "œsurely goodness and steadfast love shall follow (read: "œpursue") me all the days of my life" (Ps 23:6 ESV). We reach in, as we establish and nurture godly relationships with each other. However, we don´t stop here. We seek to connect with those outside of our fellowship.



Now, all this may sound encouraging to you, yet you wonder if we are really capable of this, when it gets down to logistics, to actually trying to connect. Well, let me begin by saying that, not only are we capable of it, we are it! Wait, did I say that quite the way I wanted to? Yes, I meant it, just as it came out. In other words, connecting is not only what we are to do, it is who and what we are, by grace, as saved individuals comprising a redeemed community of the faith. Let me explain. Do you remember last week, how I said that we sometimes speak of this sort of thing as fellowship? I even mentioned the Greek word, koinonia. Some churches, for instance the church where Diane and I met and married, Kirk of the Hills, in St. Louis, calls their small groups "œK-groups," for Koinonia Groups. What lies at the heart of fellowship? Is it first and foremost something we are to do? Something we are to program? Something we are to announce in the bulletin? Something involving coffee and donuts? While those things are well and good, even necessary (especially the coffee and donuts), koinonia or fellowship, which is the substance of connecting, is something first ontological (essential) before it is economic (functional).



When we turn to the pages of the aged John´s First Epistle, we find a beautiful prologue. This should not surprise us, given the majesty and timeless dignity of the opening of his Gospel (I am teaching Jn 1:1-5 to my children in our family worship times, and it never fails to move me). Anyway, in 1Jn 1:1-4, John, no longer just the "œson of thunder," as he is now the "œapostle of love," speaks of the reality of the incarnation, the literal humanity of Christ. This was because of an insipient form of proto-gnosticism (an early form of docetism, which claimed that Jesus only appeared to have a body) that threatened the faith of the Church in Ephesus regarding Jesus humanity (cf., 4:2-3). After he lays out this rich doctrine, which is essential to our salvation, he writes, "œthat which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you to may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete" (1:1-4 ESV). 



There it is, the word we are talking about "“ koinonia "“ fellowship. He wants the believers in Ephesus to know fellowship with the apostles, he wants there to be a shared, full joy in the Christian community. And all of this will be theirs, if they experience and understand that fellowship between believers is grounded in fellowship with the Father and Son. In other words, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the aged Apostle John is using fellowship as a synonym for salvation, itself!



Now, where am I going with all of this? If true koinonia is a synonym for salvation, then we must consider a couple of things:



1) Salvation is an individual thing. Individual people are predestined, called, regenerated, justified, adopted, sanctified, and ultimately glorified. Yet, salvation must never be conceived of apart from the Church, the communion of saints, the Body. Salvation is fellowship with God, which inevitably and immediately results in the fruit of fellowship with one another. Is it any wonder that 1Jn is the "œone another" epistle?

2) The practical, hands-on, logistical ways in which we practice fellowship together, the "œconnecting in," and even the "œconnecting out," can then be seen by us as much more than just wearing nametags, so visitors will more easily know our names, more than just brining a dish for the after-service fellowship luncheon this coming Sunday, more than just letting a host know that we will be attending the next AF-3 Dinner Party, more than just hooking up for lunch after service. Our connecting in these fun and important ways with each other is really a vital way in which we live out and enjoy, even proclaim, salvation, itself. Again, fellowship with God is synonymous with salvation. That fellowship is bound up with fellowship with each other. Connecting with one another is more than it may appear on the surface. There is a very real sense in which when we connect, when we fellowship, we are doing our theology. It is our coming together in the details of life together, in order to live salvation-life with one another. Salvation both invites and invigorates our connecting.



Think about it. Pray about it. You are invited! Be invigorated! Connect!





Yours for the faith, with much love and affection, 

Pastor David Owen Filson

Heb 6:19

We are not our own, but belong unto our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ...


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