Watch This Please!
By klyphmac On April 10th, 2009 in Evangelism /
You need to watch this and remember TODAY & EVERYDAY JESUS WANTS THE ROSE!
This was a very interesting post that Tony Morgan form Newspring Church posted on his blog.
Differences Between Big and Small Churches?
Sep212008 Filed under: Other Stuff Author: tony
Baylor University released a survey last week that summarized research on spiritual issues in the U.S. The results may surprise you. Among other things, they researched big churches and found some interesting results.
“Their members are also younger, they share their faith more with strangers, and they perform more volunteer work than do members of small churches”
“There are many critics who think the megachurches thrive on people who enjoy dramatic Sunday services with fine music but don’t wish to become very ‘religious’ on a day-to-day basis – that the megachurch appeal is a mile wide and an inch deep,” said “What Americans Really Believe,” a companion book to the survey.
“But it is not true. Those who belong to megachurches display as high a level of personal commitment as do those who attend small congregations.”
Rodney Stark, the co-director of Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion, added, “Apparently they are preaching Jesus and that’s why they get so big.”
Check out the rest of the Washington Times article. There are other spiritual topics that the survey addressed that certainly deserve attention.
Yesterday we talked about the first part of what it means to be a member/partner of Lighthouse Assembly and today we are looking at part 2:
2. I will share the RESPONSIBILITYof my church
- By praying for its growth
- By inviting the unchurched to attend
- By warmly welcoming those who visit
In every healthy family each member has a role and responsibility, the church is no different. As members of this family we all share in the responisiblity of church.
So what are we as members responsible to do?
-Each member should pray daily for the church that it will be “healthy and growing and full of love” (Ephesians 4:16)
-Each member should be investing their lives in their friends, neighbors, coworkers, etc and when the Lord open the door INVITE them to attend Lighthouse.
***Side note: IF you are a member/partner of Lighthouse that means the church has made a difference in your life and you agree with what we are trying to accomplish for the glory of God. If that is the case you should want others to experience the life change that you have expereinced in Jesus Christ. So if Lighthouse is where you are growing and being feed you should want others to expereince it as well. IF not why are you a member of Lighthouse? Fare question!
-Each member should warm and welcoming to ALL who visit!!! You never know will walk through the door on any given Sunday, this may be their first time in church EVER or it may be the LAST TIME they will ever come back to any church. How we treat people really matters! We need to be warm and welcoming of everyone who walks through our doors. See them as Jesus sees them.
The responsibility of every member is to pray for health and growth, invite people, and be warm & welcoming to all who attend.
Are you doing your part?
Very Interesting Numbers
By klyphmac On August 2nd, 2008 in Church Growth, Church Life, Culture, Evangelism, Favorite Blogs, Ministry /
One of my favorite blogs (Church Relevance) posted these Interesting Stats:
Thom S. Ranier’s book Surprising Insights from the Unchurched. It discusses the following three surveys.
Top 13 Reasons that Unchurched People Choose a Church
(research conducted by Ranier)
- 90% – Pastor/Preaching
- 88% – Doctrines
- 49% – Friendliness of Members
- 42% – Other Issues
- 41% – Someone Church Witnessed to Me
- 38% – Family Member
- 37% – Sensed God’s Presence/Atmosphere of Church
- 25% – Relationship Other than Family Member
- 25% – Sunday School Class
- 25% – Children’s/Youth Ministry
- 12% – Other Groups/Ministries
- 11% – Worship Style/Music
- 7% – Location
Top 9 Reasons that Church-Attenders Choose a Church
(research conducted by the Barna Group in 1999)
- 58% – Doctrine/Theology
- 53% – People Caring for Each Other
- 52% – Preaching
- 45% – Friendliness
- 45% – Children’s Programs
- 43% – Helping the Poor
- 36% – Denomination
- 35% – Like the Pastor
- 26% – Sunday School
Top 6 Things that Keep the Formerly Unchurched Active in the Church
(research conducted by Ranier)
- 62% – Ministry Involvement
- 55% – Sunday School
- 54% – Obedience to God
- 49% – Fellowship of Members
- 38% – Pastor/Preaching
- 14% – Worship Services
What was most intersting about these numbers in your opinion? What is most surprising?
Anyone that knows me at all know I am a music lover, and I like my music on the heavy side. I’m a guitar player, loud and crunchy is GOOD! So back in 05′ when the news broke that Brian Welch aka “Head” quit Korn it was a surprise, but the shocking part was that he had given his life to Jesus Christ. WOW that was awesome. Here is a guy that is on top of the music world, swimming in millions of dollars, adored all over the world by millions of devoted fans and he walked away. I have always loved his music when this all happen I read every article I could find, now I am reading the story straight from Head himself.
Yeah, Perry Noble came over the web and verbally kicked my butt.
If you have a chance YOU NEED TO check out a couple of the sessions from New Spring’s Unleashed Leadership Conference. Perry shares some awesome, challenging, encouraging, and hilarious stuff. They also have PDF’s for all the Breakout sessions available for download too.
SO CHECK IT OUT, it Rocked my world and I hope it rocks yours too!
I was reading through some of my favorite Blogs, one of which is Evotional by Mark Batterson pastor of National Community Church in Washington DC. In a post entitled “Turning Attenders into Inviters” Mark shared this:
- “I went into church planting with a driving desire: help create a church that people felt comfortable and confident inviting their unchurched friends to! And I think we’re getting there. Last year, 80% of NCCers invited 5+ friends. I honestly feel like people who aren’t inviting friends aren’t using NCC the way it was designed to be used.”
Yes it does say 80% invited 5 or more friends to church. To me that is encouraging and challenging at the same time. So my question is when was the last time we invited anyone to church? The statistics say that most people would go to church if someone simply invited them.
Another question, if we are not inviting friends to church, why not? Please share you thoughts.
