Brian was 25 minutes late for the next deacons meeting. He had a pre-marriage counseling session before the meeting and needed to complete a crucial part of the conversation.
Brian was disappointed, but not surprised. “It was not totally unexpected,” he told Trip. “When I was pastor of another congregation where we talked about launching a new congregation, we got the same first response.”
Have altar calls asking people to publicly declare they feel God is calling them into vocational Christian service ran their course?
Trip attended a denominational meeting for deacons where a speaker urged every church to help launch a new congregation.
Remember the romantic love Bonnie Raitt sang about in her 1991 recording: “Let’s give ’em something to talk about.” I want to give you something much better to talk about — love for the good news of Jesus.
When your congregation chooses to reach out to its community context or the people groups God has called you to serve, from a Christ-centered faith perspective, you know your focus is to fulfill the Great Commission in the spirit of the Great Commandment.
Are active laypersons in your congregation sufficiently captured by God’s empowering vision for your congregation that they can speak from their hearts with spiritual passion
Philip, an engineer and devoted husband in a family of five that recently moved to town, scheduled a visit with Ryan, the lead pastor of Central congregation. Philip is interested in learning more about this congregation.
Is your congregation more like a living, ever-changing spiritual organism or a religious organization in danger of institutionalization? Your answer makes a tremendous long-term difference in the vitality and vibrancy of your congregation and its Christlike witness.
Is the key message of the New Testament that we are sent? Or is it a deeper concept that we need to go locally and globally to communities and people groups so they might receive the gospel message?
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