3ABN On the Road

Characteristics of a Healthy Church

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Geoff Youlden

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Series Code: OTR

Program Code: OTR001035


01:01 Well, good evening, everybody.
01:03 We're happy that you're here.
01:05 I'm delighted I'm here.
01:07 I've just been in Melbourne, running a series of meetings
01:10 for the last six weeks and the weather is nothing like
01:13 the weather here.
01:15 So I'm delighted to be here.
01:17 Some years ago I visited Nablus which is over in Israel
01:23 and I got up very early on the morning,
01:27 in fact about 4 o'clock.
01:28 I'd hired a car and I was driving up to Nablus.
01:32 Now Nablus, in case you don't know,
01:34 is in what we call the West Bank.
01:37 Now that's highly, highly ignited area,
01:42 it's where no Israeli would go
01:47 if he values his life
01:49 and up there you don't hire a Jewish car,
01:52 otherwise you'd get stoned.
01:56 I mean, literally stoned.
02:00 Make sure your numbers on your car are Arabs
02:06 because it's highly volatile.
02:09 But I wanted to go to Nablus
02:11 because Nablus is the place
02:14 where Jesus met the woman of Samaria.
02:19 And you remember His meeting with her,
02:23 she had come down to get some water at the well
02:28 and Jesus met her there and if you have your Bibles,
02:31 and I hope you do, I want to turn to John 4:35.
02:38 The fourth Chapter of John and verse 35
02:40 and He said these words to the disciples.
02:43 John 4, after the woman had left to get back to Samaria.
02:47 By the way Samaria is only within walking distance
02:50 of Jacob's well.
02:54 And Jacob's well is famous, of course,
02:55 for two things not only because of what Jesus did
02:58 with the woman at the well but also going back to the time
03:02 when Jacob actually dug it
03:04 and the water is still drinkable
03:08 after all of these long years
03:10 and I had a drink of that water there at Nablus.
03:15 But Jesus made a statement which I want to
03:20 preface my remarks today with John 4:35
03:25 and He says "Do you not say,
03:28 'there are still four months and then comes the harvest'?
03:32 Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes
03:35 and look at the fields,
03:37 for they are already white for harvest!"
03:41 In other words as far as Jesus was concerned,
03:44 the harvest was now.
03:46 It wasn't in the future.
03:50 And if those words were true 2,000 years ago,
03:52 they are even more true today.
03:57 The harvest is ready.
04:00 The harvest is ripe but the problem is,
04:04 Jesus stated the problem over here in the Book of Matthew,
04:09 the 9th Chapter and I'd like you to turn there to
04:12 if you wouldn't mind talking of the harvest
04:14 and the issue of the last days,
04:17 Jesus said in Matthew Chapter 9 and verse...
04:24 Well, verse 37 and 38.
04:27 He said, "Then He said to His disciples,
04:30 'The harvest truly is plentiful,
04:35 but the laborers are...'" what?
04:38 "Few."
04:41 So when it comes to wining souls,
04:43 is there a problem with people
04:46 that are looking wishfully to heaven.
04:48 Is there a problem with that? Not a problem at all.
04:52 There are plenty of people outside who want to know
04:56 the truth, they may not be able to articulate
04:59 that that's their need because they don't really understand
05:03 but they have a longing in their heart
05:04 there's something better than they've got at the moment.
05:08 And Jesus said here, the harvest is plenteous
05:12 but He said the laborers are few and then He said,
05:16 verse 38, "Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest
05:20 to send out laborers into the harvest."
05:26 So what is the need?
05:28 The need is for laborers and in the church today
05:33 that's what we need to understand,
05:35 we need people.
05:38 We need young people like you.
05:41 We need men and women who will devote their life
05:46 to the work of winning souls.
05:49 That's our greatest need.
05:51 You know, I visited India some years ago
05:55 and I went there to see a number of things
05:57 but one of the things that I wanted to see
05:59 above all things was the Taj Mahal.
06:03 One of the most magnificent buildings in the world.
06:07 And I was intrigued and also...
06:14 not only intrigued but rather shocked to hear
06:18 the story of the Taj.
06:21 I remember it was built by Shah, a Mughal,
06:25 Shah Jahan for his wife,
06:29 his favorite wife who died.
06:33 And he was so devastated by her death
06:36 that he wanted to build something in honor
06:38 of his favorite wife.
06:42 So when her remains were placed in a box,
06:46 he put this box in the field
06:50 and then he began construction of the building
06:54 around the box.
06:58 And of course as the days went into weeks
07:02 and then they went into months,
07:06 gradually the grief that he had for his dead wife
07:14 was surpassed by the desire to build
07:18 and the passion to build this building.
07:23 And on one occasion he was walking around the field
07:27 sizing up the building and his foot kicked this box
07:34 and it was so dusty and everything,
07:36 it just threw dust all over his shoes and over his trousers
07:41 and he said to one of the servants
07:44 that he had there, get rid of that box.
07:48 Little did the Shah realized
07:50 that the box was the remains of his wife.
07:55 It had been forgotten in the building of the Taj
08:00 because he had become so consumed with the building,
08:03 he'd forgotten the reason for the building.
08:06 Now when I read that experience,
08:09 I thought that's exactly what can happen to us.
08:16 That the church today existed originally for winning souls
08:24 and the greatest danger is, as we have become occupied
08:28 with the church and building the church,
08:32 all good, the same as building the mausoleum by the Shah,
08:37 nothing wrong with that, but the danger is
08:42 that in the building of the institutions
08:45 and the building of the church,
08:47 that we can forget the reason that we're here
08:51 and the reason is not the buildings,
08:54 the reason is not the institutions,
08:56 important as good as they are,
08:59 the reason is soul winning, to grow the church,
09:02 that's the reason we're here.
09:04 That's the reason the church exists.
09:07 All the other things are there to help us
09:10 in the work of winning souls.
09:16 And today I want to talk to you on the characteristics
09:19 of a growing church,
09:22 because over the years one gain some information
09:26 as one watches what is taking place
09:29 in some areas and what isn't taking place in others.
09:33 And I want to suggest to you that there are
09:36 a number of reasons for a growing church.
09:42 The first reason that I have, if the church is not growing,
09:46 it's not healthy.
09:49 In other words it's a sick church.
09:53 I have a little granddaughter who some years ago
09:57 was three years of age.
09:59 She's a bit older than that now but she was three.
10:02 And she'd come to me and probably she'd say,
10:05 look at my drawing and then because I couldn't understand
10:09 all the scribbles and the lines and so forth,
10:12 just appeared to me scribbles.
10:14 I said to her, Gracie, tell me what does that represent.
10:17 Tell me what is this, what is this
10:19 and she would explain that the scribble represented the trees
10:22 and this scribble represented a house
10:24 and this scribble represented the sky.
10:28 I would never have guessed it, except she told me.
10:32 But I understood at the age of three,
10:35 that's what I'll expect of a three year old.
10:40 But now that she is nine, if she came to me
10:44 with scribbles like that,
10:47 I know there would be something seriously wrong,
10:49 isn't that right?
10:50 Very wrong.
10:53 And so it is with the church.
10:57 The church is not growing, it's not healthy.
11:02 And if the church is still doing scribbles,
11:05 when it should be doing proper paintings,
11:08 there's something very, very wrong.
11:10 The second suggestion I have for a growing church
11:14 is that the church does not grow by accident.
11:19 It just doesn't happen, it's got to be planned.
11:23 Just as a baby grows if it's fed
11:25 and nurtured and trained,
11:27 you see development, the same is true of the church.
11:31 The third reason I want to suggest
11:33 is that the Pastor is the key
11:38 to the growth of the church.
11:41 Now why do I say that?
11:43 Because he or she must be totally committed
11:48 to the fact that the church
11:50 that he or she is in charge of must grow.
11:55 They must be totally committed to evangelism.
11:59 And unless we're committed to that as leaders of the church,
12:02 the church is never going to grow.
12:04 I'd like to think of the paid pastor,
12:06 and by the way when we talk about the pastor,
12:08 we're not necessarily talking about the paid pastor.
12:11 There are two groups of pastors.
12:14 There is that group that are paid,
12:16 that's the small group,
12:18 but then there is the rest of us who're not paid
12:21 but we are called to do the work of ministry,
12:24 to do the work of a pastor.
12:28 And we've all got to work together.
12:31 And the paid pastor is really the CEO,
12:36 if I could use the business model,
12:39 the CEO of the church.
12:41 He sets the tone, he sets the bias of the church
12:46 and if he has that bias, the church will have that bias.
12:51 I was talking to a pastor just recently
12:53 who was very successful and is very successful
12:58 in growing his church.
13:01 And he told me that the successful pastor,
13:03 he must breathe evangelism.
13:06 Now I like that expression.
13:07 He went on to say that he sees the pastor as the...
13:14 what should we say, the...
13:16 playing coach, not just a coach he said
13:18 but the coach must be a playing coach.
13:21 He must get in the trenches with the members,
13:23 he must do what he expects the members to do
13:26 and if he expects the members to get out door knocking,
13:29 he must get out and do some door knocking.
13:32 If he expects the members to entertain,
13:36 he must entertain.
13:38 He must be in the trenches with the members.
13:44 Another in characteristic of a pastor who is having,
13:48 has a growing church is that the pastor must believe
13:51 in the Adventist message, and must preach
13:55 the Adventist message and preach it regularly.
13:58 And he must have a strong,
14:00 and she must have a strong commitment
14:03 and strong convictions.
14:06 And if that pastor has those things,
14:08 the church will get catch that enthusiasm.
14:16 It will catch the disease of evangelism
14:18 if I could use that word because it is contagious.
14:23 The fourth suggestion I have is that the growing church,
14:28 a soul winning church will have a pastor
14:31 who trains his lay folk to be soul winners.
14:37 I want to read you a verse that I'm sure
14:39 you're familiar with over in the Book of Ephesians.
14:41 If you've got your Bibles,
14:43 I'll prefer you to turn them up,
14:44 and not look on the screen,
14:47 because we have television here but...
14:52 you know, I was talking to my group today on Bible studies
14:56 and you know there is a desire
14:59 and there is nothing wrong with this,
15:01 don't think that I'm having a go at iPads and so forth.
15:04 But there are many of us, in particularly the age
15:07 that we are here who have iPhones
15:13 and iPads and all the things that go with it
15:16 and you have the Bible on the iPad.
15:21 Now I heard before, there was a question
15:24 about memorizing scripture.
15:27 I want to suggest if you want to memorize scripture,
15:29 that is not a very good way to try to memorize it
15:32 because memorization is helped by position on the page
15:38 and sometimes your memory will not always be clear
15:42 as to exactly the verse, but you remember,
15:46 uh, it's up the top left hand corner,
15:48 I remember there in the Book of Romans
15:50 but you can't do that
15:51 if you're going to follow it on an iPad.
15:55 And so said I'm not speaking, I'm not here
15:57 riling against iPads because I prefer
15:59 you'd have an iPad than nothing
16:00 but the best is to have the soul here in your hand,
16:03 get the idea.
16:05 So let's turn up Ephesians, the 4th Chapter
16:08 and notice here, Ephesians the 4th Chapter
16:12 and Paul is writing here to the church
16:15 and he's saying in Ephesians the 4th Chapter
16:19 that describes something that's very interesting.
16:23 In Chapter 4 and you'll notice here in verse 11.
16:31 He says, "He Himself gave some to be apostles,
16:34 some prophets, some evangelists,
16:36 some pastors and teachers."
16:38 Now why did He give all of those gifts?
16:41 Verse 12.
16:42 "For the equipping of the saints
16:43 for the work of the ministry,
16:48 for the edifying of the body of Christ,
16:50 till we all come in to the unity of the faith."
16:52 In other words, the text there should not have a comma in,
16:56 other translations says in order to fully equip His people
17:00 for the work of serving.
17:02 That's the work of the paid ministry
17:04 is to train the church members to become soul winners.
17:10 That's his primary job, to equip God's people
17:14 for work in His service, the New English Bible says,
17:17 "In order to get his holy people
17:19 ready to serve as workers."
17:21 Another translation says, "His gifts were made
17:23 that Christians might be properly equipped
17:26 for their service."
17:28 And let me read you what Ellen White says,
17:32 "Let the minister devote more of his time
17:35 to educating than to preaching."
17:38 Now I never understood this for many years,
17:41 I'll have to confess.
17:43 But she says here that our efforts must go
17:48 into educating than into preaching
17:51 and I'm not minimizing preaching,
17:53 I think preaching is so very, very important
17:56 and we need to become better preachers,
17:59 better preachers and better preachers.
18:02 But that's not the most important work,
18:06 the most important work is educating.
18:12 "Let him teach the people how to give to others
18:15 the knowledge they have received."
18:22 And I'm challenged by that.
18:27 In fact most pastors including myself for many years
18:30 devoted most of our time to equipping ourselves
18:34 that that we could become better preachers.
18:38 I have learned over the years
18:39 that's not the primary responsibility,
18:43 important as preaching is, and I'm not minimizing it,
18:46 I'm just trying to elevate the necessity of education.
18:52 In fact she goes on to say, "It is not the Lord's purpose
18:56 that ministers should be left to do
18:58 the greatest part of the work
18:59 of sowing the seeds of truth."
19:04 That's why many ministers get burned out
19:06 because they feel all they're left to do
19:09 all the responsibility of evangelism,
19:12 that is not the way it is.
19:16 In fact she goes on to say, "In laboring where there are
19:19 already some in the faith, the minister should at first
19:21 seek not so much to convert unbelievers,
19:23 as to train the church members for acceptable cooperation."
19:27 Doesn't it make sense when you think about it?
19:29 You can do more as a team than you can as one individual,
19:32 even though that one individual might be
19:34 very efficient and proficient and the best preacher
19:37 and the best person that there is,
19:40 but if you've got a dozen people,
19:43 you can multiply, your effecting is far greater,
19:45 isn't that true?
19:47 It just makes sense.
19:50 And we need to as leaders in the church
19:54 and I look upon you as the leaders of the church,
19:57 you young people have the church in your hands,
20:02 you are the generation, the now generation.
20:05 And young people have a tremendous influence.
20:10 The evangelistic program I've just conducted,
20:12 we had young people, a male and a female
20:15 do the introduction similar to what we're doing here.
20:17 It was very, very effective
20:21 because it drew other young people to come
20:24 and it's something that's fresh and vibrant
20:27 and very wholesome about young people leading out
20:31 and let no one despise your youth as the Bible says.
20:35 You have a tremendous responsibility
20:37 to take up the opportunities that is ours.
20:44 Listen to this, "Those who would be overcomers
20:48 must be drawn out of themselves,"
20:50 listen to this,
20:52 "and the only thing which will accomplish this great work
20:56 is to become intensely interested
20:58 in the salvation of others."
21:00 Isn't that a powerful statement?
21:02 As you become interested in helping others,
21:05 it'll help your own experience.
21:07 You become a different person once you start sharing
21:13 and for your own salvation sake,
21:15 you must become involved.
21:19 "The greatest help that can be given our people
21:22 is to teach them to work for God."
21:26 Because an entirely new experience takes place
21:28 once we begin to work for God.
21:32 "And to depend upon Him, not on the minister."
21:38 If you think about Jesus, what did He do?
21:41 He spent very little of His time
21:43 with the multitude, is that true?
21:47 When you think about it, Jesus didn't spend
21:49 a lot of time with the large mass of people,
21:53 He spent most of His time with the 12
21:57 because He realized that the success of the church
22:01 in the future lay with those 12.
22:05 He was going to leave and go back,
22:08 so His time with the large numbers is fairly minimal
22:16 but He trained the 12.
22:21 "So long as church members make no effort
22:24 to give others the help given them,
22:26 great spiritual feebleness must result."
22:32 No wonder some of our churches are feeble
22:35 because very few members are being trained
22:39 and being equipped to do the work of evangelism,
22:43 that's why our soul winning
22:45 is not as high as it ought to be.
22:49 And why our churches are not growing as they should do.
22:52 Now, there are exceptions to that and thank God there are.
22:55 I'm talking in a general sense.
23:00 The fifth point that I'd like to make
23:03 today is the healthy growing church
23:06 takes the Great Commission as their modus operandi.
23:13 You know the statement that Jesus gave over here
23:16 in Matthew Chapter 28, the last recorded statement
23:21 that Jesus made before He went back to heaven,
23:23 Matthew 28:18 onwards where Jesus said,
23:30 He came and spoke to them saying,
23:32 "All authority has been given to Me
23:34 on heaven and on earth.
23:35 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,
23:38 baptizing them in the name of the Father
23:40 and of the son and of the Holy Spirit,
23:43 teaching them to observe all things
23:45 that I have commanded you, and lo, I'm with you always,
23:49 even to the end of the age."
23:52 I notice that there are four verbs
23:53 that Jesus used here.
23:55 First of all He said go.
23:58 Then what did He say next?
24:01 Baptize. Then what did He say next?
24:04 Make disciples. And then what did He say?
24:08 Teach them.
24:12 Four great verbs, go.
24:15 That's the preparation, that's an indication
24:18 to my mind of the preparation that we need to do
24:20 before evangelistic meetings ever take place.
24:23 That's when we run our five day plans,
24:24 that's when we run our cooking classes,
24:26 that's when we run our depression classes,
24:28 that's when we do all the seed sowing.
24:31 We go out, we do door knocking.
24:36 We use the beyond and any other method
24:38 that we can think of that will get some interests.
24:42 That's the preparation that we have to do
24:45 and listen, if we don't do the preparation
24:47 before the program starts,
24:49 the results are always going to be very minimal, always.
24:54 But some of us have learned that if we till the ground
24:57 before we try to harvest,
24:59 then we naturally get a good harvest,
25:01 but if we try to harvest that which hasn't been sown,
25:05 we'll have very minimal results
25:07 and that's why some people are negative
25:08 regarding public evangelism
25:10 because when the public evangelistic meetings
25:12 have been run, very little preparation is ever been done.
25:15 We blame the evangelist then for a failure.
25:18 It's not the evangelist's fault.
25:20 It's the lack of preparation that's been done.
25:24 But if we will do the preparation,
25:26 then good results will always follow...
25:30 always.
25:32 And we need to do those four things
25:34 that Jesus outlines in these verses
25:36 and it's a bit like a stool, you know,
25:38 you have a four legged stool and only have three legs on it,
25:41 and see what happens.
25:43 It'll never be stable, you can't sit on it.
25:46 We need the four things in order to be successful
25:50 in our evangelism
25:52 and we'll talk a little bit more about that.
25:55 Then the sixth point that I've got
25:57 is the growing evangelistic church
26:00 has a leader who has a very clear vision
26:05 of where the church needs to go.
26:10 Very, very clear.
26:13 And he's able to convey that vision
26:15 to every person in the pew,
26:20 so that members understand the vision.
26:25 You know the Bible says without a vision
26:27 what will happen to the people.
26:29 They perish.
26:32 And one of the greatest things that we can do as leaders
26:35 in the church is to convey the vision
26:38 that we have so that every person in the congregation
26:42 will get that vision.
26:48 My next point, point seven.
26:52 The healthy growing church has clear goals
26:57 for the next five years.
27:02 How important that is?
27:05 What might those goals be?
27:09 Well, one of the goals might be
27:12 that we would like to see this church
27:15 increase its members by 40%
27:18 over the next five years.
27:22 Now that's a quantitative, it's a realistic number,
27:27 40% over the next five years.
27:32 That means that if we break that down into five,
27:37 how much growth would you need each year?
27:45 You're foundation members of the math's class I can see,
27:51 some mathematician tell us...
27:53 Eight percent.
27:55 Yes, 8%, that's not hard to work out, is it?
27:59 40/5=8, all right,
28:02 then if we're going to have 40% growth
28:04 in our church over a five year period,
28:07 we break it down into 8%.
28:12 So this year we're planning to win 8%
28:15 to grow our church by 8%.
28:18 Now why is it important to do that?
28:20 Because if we're going to do that,
28:22 then we need to put in place
28:24 programs to make sure that happens.
28:26 It's not gonna happen just because we decided
28:29 that's going to happen.
28:30 It's going to happen only when we make that decision
28:34 and then we put into operation plans
28:37 that will facilitate the growth of the church by 8%.
28:41 And I tell you, look, 8% is not a huge number,
28:45 because the larger the church is,
28:47 the more people you've got to help.
28:49 If it's only a small church if it has say 50 members,
28:54 well, how many baptisms would you need in membership of 50?
29:03 You folk are smiling when it comes to mathematics.
29:07 How many 50?
29:09 Four. Yeah, four.
29:13 Now surely, four members shouldn't be hard,
29:17 is that right if you've got 50 members?
29:20 Dear, oh, dear.
29:23 The problem is that our thinking
29:25 is often being too small,
29:29 therefore I put into operation all the plans
29:33 that will need to be added if we're going to be successful
29:36 in growing our church in the coming year
29:39 and those plans will vary.
29:42 For example, I think one of the good things these days
29:45 is that we can run depression classes
29:47 and down in Melbourne, we had Cheri Peters come
29:51 and some of the best interests that we got
29:53 came from her program.
29:56 Because you see people
29:58 who come to her program have a need
30:03 and until the person has the need,
30:05 I don't think they're ever gonna turn their hearts to God.
30:08 But these people came out
30:09 and many of them are studying now
30:11 and attended the meetings all the way through
30:13 and are planning to be baptized.
30:16 Quite a few of them said to me,
30:17 pastor, we're going to be baptized soon.
30:19 Wonderful, wonderful.
30:23 And it happens when we plan.
30:27 And not only that, depression courses,
30:29 many people are suffering from depression
30:31 in our society today,
30:33 and we can run those programs
30:35 because that's all on video and DVDs
30:39 and you don't have to know all the information
30:41 because the information's been done by a professional.
30:45 Helping people give up smoking if that's what you want to do,
30:48 cooking classes, wonderful avenue,
30:52 when we use it evangelistically,
30:54 not just to teach them how to cook
30:56 because if we just teach them how to cook,
30:59 all they're doing is extending their life a little,
31:01 to sin a little bit more.
31:03 So that's not our purpose,
31:07 our purpose has to be evangelistic,
31:10 that we are extending their lives
31:12 so that they've got time to not only to live longer
31:15 but to get to know God, isn't that right?
31:18 Yes.
31:20 And so we will have plans,
31:23 we'll have plans for the next five years.
31:25 We'll then break that down into three years,
31:27 into one year and when we have plans like that in our church,
31:33 then there are plans that we can all accomplish
31:39 and I talk to you not because I'm expecting you
31:41 to be the paid ministry at the moment,
31:43 some of you are and some of you will be,
31:45 thank God for that but many of you won't
31:48 but you are board members,
31:50 you are members of your church and it's time that you spoke up
31:54 and helped on your board meetings
31:56 and your business meetings to talk about these things,
31:58 bring these subjects up.
32:01 It may be a new thought to some of the members of the church,
32:04 but if you get passionate about it,
32:06 it's amazing how your passion
32:08 will start to filter through to other members in the church.
32:15 Eight percent growth, and I have found
32:20 that evangelism is best divided into three simple sections.
32:23 The first is the sowing and we've been talking
32:26 all about these preparation programs, the sowing.
32:31 And the better the sowing is done,
32:33 the better the reaping is going to be.
32:35 Then there is the reaping and as we said,
32:39 it's no good trying to reap what you haven't sown.
32:44 And it's no good sowing unless you plan to reap,
32:47 isn't that right?
32:49 One of the strange things that I have noticed
32:52 in some of our churches is that they are very keen
32:56 on running all over these programs.
32:57 This is not a new thought to many at all.
33:00 We've been doing a lot of these things,
33:02 but those same churches often never reap
33:06 the interest that they stimulate.
33:11 They get these people on the cooking classes
33:13 and the depression classes and maybe Cheri Peter's program
33:18 and this program and archeology
33:20 and all these other programs that we can run,
33:22 but we never then take in the next step
33:25 of trying to reap them,
33:26 that's where the public meetings must be run.
33:32 And then the third section, the sowing,
33:34 then there's the reaping and then the third section
33:37 is the nurture,
33:39 because we must nurture these new people,
33:42 otherwise they'll drop out
33:44 because we've got to nurture them with new friends.
33:47 We've got to nurture them to help them
33:50 overcome bad habits.
33:51 We have to nurture them in all the things
33:53 that they need to be supported in
33:55 when they have accepted a new way of thinking.
33:59 That's where the nurture comes in.
34:02 And those three things must always be put together
34:05 and when we put them together, we'll have great success.
34:09 I'd like to suggest to you that a healthy growing church,
34:15 board meetings are very different
34:17 to ordinary board meetings.
34:22 Very different.
34:24 A growing church has board meetings.
34:27 We cannot do away with board meetings.
34:29 When we're running a church,
34:31 you've got to have organization.
34:33 I meet some people who always are bit negative
34:35 about all these meetings.
34:37 Now there is a place we've got to organize.
34:40 You can't have everyone
34:41 running in different directions,
34:42 otherwise you do nothing.
34:44 It must be organized but a growing church's
34:48 board meetings are very different
34:50 to another church's board meetings
34:51 because a growing church's board meeting,
34:53 the first thing that they discuss at the board meeting
34:56 is the soul winning.
34:58 And every department that gives a report
35:01 then is reporting on how they are helping
35:05 achieve the aims that the church has
35:08 for the year, get the idea?
35:10 How is the Sabbath school contributing
35:12 to growing our church by 8% this year?
35:16 How the youth department, how is that contributing
35:19 to the growth of the church?
35:20 What are they doing to help grow the church?
35:24 What is each department doing
35:26 and that's what's discussed at the board meeting.
35:29 Ahead of what color carpet we're going to have
35:31 and whether we're going to paint
35:32 the church today or next week,
35:35 they are important things
35:36 but they're not the most important thing.
35:38 The most important thing is the evangelistic emphasis.
35:41 And so the first thing that we discuss
35:43 on a growing church's board meeting is the evangelism.
35:47 That's the first thing on the agenda.
35:50 And then we relate that back to our growth aims and plans.
35:57 Our budget is set, the church sets its budget
36:00 with evangelism as its top priority,
36:04 not just by giving a few dollars at the end
36:06 when there's everything else been cared for.
36:08 No, evangelism is the most important thing
36:11 and if there's anyone going to suffer,
36:12 it's not the evangelism
36:15 because that is top priority.
36:18 I'd like to suggest my point number nine is this.
36:23 A growing evangelistic church will have a public evangelism
36:27 as part of its yearly outreach.
36:32 Now I cannot emphasize this too much.
36:35 Now you say, well, it's all very well,
36:37 you love public evangelism and that's what you do,
36:39 so you're going to emphasize this.
36:40 Now, let me explain why it must
36:43 fit into every growing church's program.
36:47 Any church that is not using public evangelism
36:50 is not growing by very much.
36:54 Now you can have some growth
36:56 without running public programs, that is true.
36:59 It'll be one or two here, the youth of the church
37:01 and there's nothing wrong with that,
37:02 that's important, very important.
37:06 But if we're going to see real growth,
37:08 you got to have a reaping segment
37:10 in your church program every year.
37:15 Not just once every so often like it happens.
37:19 You know, I got to a church
37:20 and we run an evangelistic program
37:23 and then they sit back and don't have another one
37:25 for the next five years.
37:28 This is what happens over and over and over again.
37:31 That's not the plan that we have.
37:32 There must be a reaping component
37:35 in the church program every year.
37:38 Now when I'm talking about a reaping campaign,
37:40 I'm not necessarily talking about someone standing up
37:43 the front and doing it solo.
37:46 That is a very important
37:48 and a very effective way of doing it
37:51 but it's not the only way.
37:53 Running Daniel and Revelation seminars,
37:56 seminar evangelism is very, very effective
38:00 and we've already got those seminars, already done for us.
38:05 All we have to do is to make a path
38:07 of our church plan for this year.
38:09 In other words, if I'm believing
38:11 in a reaping campaign as a pastor,
38:15 I'll work out and say well, at this particular month,
38:18 for these two months,
38:20 this is going to be our reaping segment of the year.
38:22 We're going to be sowing here and sowing there
38:24 and we're going to be keep sowing
38:26 but we're going to have a reaping campaign
38:28 because the cream that comes to the surface,
38:31 we can reap as that cream surfaces, get the idea?
38:35 Because cream will come to the surface at different times.
38:42 And as it does, we skim it off and we're always reaping--
38:47 we're always sowing and always reaping
38:51 and of course that implies
38:53 that we're always nurturing as well.
38:56 The three things, we're rowing the boat
38:59 with now three oars.
39:03 Two at the front, one at the back,
39:10 keeping the boat straight.
39:13 Because each of those things is very important,
39:16 vital if we're going to have success in our church.
39:20 In fact let me read you a text that supports what I'm saying.
39:23 It's found over here in the Book of Acts,
39:26 the 20th Chapter, I call this 2020 vision.
39:31 That's how you can remember it.
39:33 Acts 20:20.
39:35 This is talking about the work in the Book of Acts
39:38 and how the church grew in the early days,
39:42 in the 1st Century and Paul outlines
39:45 how he grew the church.
39:46 It says, verse 20, "How I kept back nothing that was helpful,
39:52 but proclaimed it to you, and taught you--" what?
39:56 "Publicly and from--" what?
40:01 House to house.
40:03 There's the combination of both things together
40:07 and that's what we must do.
40:11 We must have the personal work as well as the public work
40:17 and unfortunately often we find churches
40:20 that want to major in one or the other,
40:23 but we've got to have both as to have a balance
40:27 and that's one of the strange enigmas
40:33 of many of our churches.
40:36 And today the idea that public evangelism
40:39 doesn't work is a myth.
40:42 It's a greatest myth that continues to be repeated.
40:45 And unfortunately it's given some legs
40:48 because sometimes we try to run evangelistic programs
40:52 and we've done very little preparation
40:53 so what's gonna be the results
40:55 I don't care if Gabriel was the preacher.
40:58 And no preparation is done, very little results
41:01 will take place because there's nothing magical
41:04 about just standing up in front of an audience.
41:06 That's not magical.
41:08 What is important is to have people who are interested
41:13 and who have been prepared in the audience,
41:16 then you can do something with those people,
41:19 and then it becomes a reaping campaign
41:22 and unfortunately some have tried to go to
41:27 Sunday keeping churches
41:28 to try to emulate the way they do evangelism
41:31 and has never worked in the Adventist church.
41:36 I've been to places like Willow Creek
41:39 and churches like that and it never ever has ever worked
41:43 inside the Adventist church because our message
41:46 is different to theirs.
41:49 We are not just changing them
41:50 from one Sunday keeping church to another.
41:53 We have to teach them a completely new lifestyle,
41:57 a completely new set of doctrines
42:00 and so with public evangelism goes the teaching emphasis
42:04 and Adventist public evangelism is different
42:07 to Sunday keeping evangelism
42:09 because it involves a teaching aspect
42:14 and a very deep teaching program.
42:19 Now I also believe in small groups.
42:24 I believe that no church is really going to grow
42:27 except it has a small group ministry going on,
42:34 because in the small groups,
42:36 that's where the nurture takes place,
42:39 that's where the relationships are built
42:42 in those small groups.
42:43 And any church that seriously wants to grow
42:46 must have small groups.
42:50 And unfortunately I have noticed
42:52 that those who are into small groups
42:54 and we have some who are very high on small groups
42:57 in the Adventist church, and that's good,
43:00 but what's not so good is that often those people
43:05 are not into public preaching, into the reaping aspect of it.
43:09 So they're so high on developing small groups
43:12 but they never do the reaping.
43:15 And then there are others who want to major
43:17 in the public program that they are not interested
43:19 so much in the small groups, both are wrong,
43:23 because we need both to go because one feeds the other.
43:27 I was in Melbourne just recently
43:30 and I went to one of these small groups
43:33 and they were actually celebrating
43:36 the communion service in the small group.
43:38 Now I've never been in a small group which celebrated
43:40 the communion service before and I was very intrigued
43:43 by took place, very intrigued.
43:46 I saw there the interaction with the people,
43:50 I saw the encouragement that took place,
43:53 I saw the fun that they had together as they laughed
43:56 and so forth together.
43:58 And then I noticed that they affirmed
44:01 one another in that group.
44:04 And the social interaction that took place,
44:07 no wonder they're keeping their people
44:09 because the people love meeting together
44:12 and then public program,
44:14 when it comes in the church on Sabbath,
44:16 simply all the church comes together
44:19 but the real work is done in those small groups
44:22 and I want to encourage you as leaders in your church
44:24 to get small groups going.
44:28 It's vital, it's important.
44:30 And by the way, small groups are not something
44:32 that we've copied from Sunday keeping churches,
44:34 they copied it from us.
44:36 Ellen White talked about small groups,
44:41 she calls them cottage meetings.
44:46 And she said that the cottage meetings are so
44:48 very, very important
44:52 and so we need to follow her counsel
44:56 and follow that through.
44:59 And people are best nurtured you know,
45:02 sometimes I have noticed that some of our small groups
45:06 are groups that are concerned with only nurture,
45:10 not evangelism, so talking to one another.
45:16 Church members who are only nurturing people
45:20 will never grow strong Christians.
45:24 There needs to be more than just nurture.
45:26 Nurture is important, but there needs to be
45:30 an outreach as well,
45:32 because the nurturing takes best
45:34 as we read before as we share with others.
45:39 As we help others, we help ourselves
45:43 and nothing is more wonderful than to be able to share
45:46 with something else and I often go home
45:48 from an evangelistic meeting on cloud nine
45:51 simply because to have had the privilege
45:54 of speaking to people and to see their reaction
45:56 and their positive reaction and accepting the message
45:59 lifts my own spirits and it'll do your spirit
46:03 just so much good when you're visiting people
46:05 and you're studying with them
46:06 and you see the light in their eyes,
46:09 suddenly adorns on them what you're saying,
46:11 and it makes sense they will tell you.
46:14 That change that takes place in people's hearts
46:17 will encourage you like nothing else.
46:20 And as Ellen White has reminded us
46:22 the way to grow spiritually is to help others.
46:26 My last point is
46:30 prayer is vital,
46:34 a vital strategy in growing the evangelistic church.
46:39 Prayer for our own conversion and prayer for the lost
46:42 in our communities.
46:43 I have been with pastors who have taken me out
46:46 in their churches,
46:49 when we're organizing evangelistic programs
46:51 and on Sunday morning we've gotten up early
46:53 and we have gone to strategic places in town
46:57 and we have prayed for the town.
47:01 I think that's a wonderful idea,
47:04 praying for the lost and this particular pastor
47:08 used to take his elders and his leaders up
47:10 and they would pray at different sections
47:14 around the town.
47:16 Wonderful idea.
47:20 And if you'll do that, you'll find the transformation.
47:26 Now I said there was 11, there's actually 12 points.
47:32 What's the 12?
47:34 Every member has an assigned territory.
47:39 You know, the older I get the more
47:41 I'm convinced that we all need to have
47:46 our own territory and work,
47:47 we've done that with your upheld permissions
47:49 over the years and it's been very successful
47:51 because if you go back year after year,
47:53 my wife goes back to a territory
47:55 that they haven't and they know her now
47:57 and they just give her very large sums of money
48:01 because they've gotten to trust her.
48:03 Now the same is true, if you work your territory,
48:06 then you'll find that the people will begin
48:10 to develop a relationship with you.
48:12 And so we need to have our own territory.
48:16 You know, I have a vision,
48:19 if I could borrow Martin Luther King's phraseology.
48:25 I have a vision today
48:29 that every pastor in our church
48:34 will have a passion for the lost,
48:39 not just the administration of the church
48:41 but a passion for the lost.
48:43 I have a vision where I see lay people
48:46 everywhere supporting their pastors
48:49 and helping them and being trained by their pastors
48:52 so that they can go out to win souls.
48:58 And I have a vision where I see the last great work
49:04 that's going to take place on this earth
49:07 driven by young people
49:09 who are committed to this cause,
49:13 committed to spreading the Adventist message.
49:18 That is their passion, that is the other job
49:21 that they do is only done to provide them with money
49:25 so that they can do their passion.
49:28 Their passion is their main drive in life, winning souls.
49:33 Everything else is there to support that.
49:36 I have a vision and I would like to think
49:39 that it's going to start with those of us
49:41 who are in this conference.
49:44 As we go back to our churches to inspire and to lead
49:50 and to provide an impetus,
49:57 because if we will stand and if we will explain
50:03 our enthusiasm and folk will see it,
50:05 it'll be contagious.
50:09 And I want to encourage you as we pray now
50:13 that God will be able to transform our life
50:17 not just into believing what we believe
50:19 but in sharing what we believe because Jesus is coming soon.
50:24 Is that right?
50:25 I believe that and you believe it,
50:27 that's why you're here.
50:28 And I want you to be ready when Jesus comes.
50:31 Let's just bow our heads in prayer.
50:33 Our wonderful Father in heaven,
50:34 I just want to thank You today for the privilege
50:37 that is us to be a member of Your family,
50:40 the last great work on this earth.
50:43 Lord, You have called us from darkness
50:45 into marvelous light and I pray Lord
50:48 that You will just be continue to be with us
50:50 and inspire us and enthuse us and just help us
50:54 to take the lead in our churches,
50:56 to support our paid ministers
50:59 so that together we can march toward that heavenly kingdom.
51:03 There are so many people, the harvest
51:05 Jesus said is plenteous, it's the reapers
51:08 and so I pray for the reapers today.
51:10 Bless us now I pray and be with us
51:13 until Jesus comes, is my prayer for His namesake.
51:17 Amen.


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Revised 2014-12-17