Gary Lamb discusses the NUMBER ONE piece of advice he gives to church planters.
Vince Antonucci talks about the problem with a LOT of growing churches.
Filed under: Blogs I regularly read, Church planting, church
A couple of posts worth checking out
Posted on September 1, 2007 by paulpeterson
After reading Vince’s post, a thought is rolling around in my head. If churches are made of people who have only gone from church to church, looking for what ‘fits them’ at that time in their lives, then it simply becomes a society of ‘church goers’. They may grow a bit in their faith, but chances are they just ‘feel good’. Do they turn then and reach out to the lost? Truth is not usually–they still are afraid to share their faith, reach out, and hope for ’someone else to do it’.
However, if we see someone who has been lost and far from God turn their lives around, the ‘once lost’ are the ones that fuel our growth! When God alone is the only explanation, we are more motivated to talk about that person and the changes, reassess our own faith, and look deeper into ‘how could that happen to them’. In addition, the person whose life has been turned around recognizes it as that and can’t wait to share! They are more open with their faith and experiences than most who have been in churches all along!
In reaching those who do not know God, we grow not only ‘churches’ one person at a time, we actually grow Christians exponentially (by influencing present believers more deeply and by influencing those lost). I’m thinking reaching ‘the lost’ is a lot more important than many realize!!