church leader insights - september 2006
By Nelson Searcy, Roy Mansfield, and Joy Willis
Courtesy of Church Leader Insights
http://www.churchleaderinsights.com/
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Church Leader Insights: Church Health, Church Growth and Church Planting
** EVANGELISM / CHURCH GROWTH **
LIVING IN 3-D
Get intentional about building genuine, authentic, growing friendships with your neighbors. Rub shoulders with them. Do life deeply together. Show an interest in their interests. Invite them to dinner. To a ball game. Accept their invitations. By following some basic principles of relational intelligence, you'll begin to view others as real people instead of spiritual projects. Before long, you'll feel like they matter. And guess what? They do!
- Available at willowcreek.com
** FOR MORE ON EVANGELISM SEE **
The Evangelism Seminar and Reaching Your Community Through Servant Evangelism
PRAYING PASTORS: A NON NEGOTIABLE FOR CHURCH GROWTH
Here's the reality: churches grow effectively--that is, by reaching and discipling lost persons--only by God's power. That power is available to us through prayer. Until we are willing to admit that our churches cannot make a dent in a lost world without God's power, we will not pray enough.
- Available at ChurchCentral.com
Determine that it is God's will for your church to grow. This may sound simple, but I meet a lot of pastors who do not have a full belief that God desires their church to grow. 2 Peter 3:9 (NKJV) tells us that "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." God wants everyone to be a part of His family, the church. Do you really believe that?
- Available at ChurchLeaderInsights.com
MOMENTUM - HOW DOES IT HAPPEN?
Momentum is ignited by anticipation. I really believe anticipation is what ignites momentum. It is the first spark that moves someone from where they are to where they need to be. It is a transfer from knowledge to desire. It is no longer a matter of knowing, but desiring something greater. A desire for God to do something greater and anticipating Him to do it.
- Available at scottwhitaker.blogspot.com
** NEW AUDIO TRAINING PODCAST **
This month, Nelson Searcy walks you through five tool you can use to equip your congregation to reach their friends and invite them to church! Listen Here
** CHURCH PLANTING **
THREE CHALLENGES FOR EVERY NEW CHURCH
When we started Community Christian Church, I was 25, Jon was 23, and it was a huge risk on God we decided to take. We had no money, no people, no facility and no sense. We just wanted to help people find their way back to God. That was over 15 years ago, but time, size, or perceived success does not change the challenge that is before us. We are still a church planting launch team, and we are still called to marturios, to risk it all.
-Available at Newthing.org
** ATTENTION CHURCH PLANTERS ** Are you a church planter? If so, we'd like to send you $50 worth of Church Leader Insights resources and training materials at no cost. (including Launching Large and The Call to Plant A Church by Nelson Searcy) For more click here.
** LEADERSHIP **
FIVE THINGS THAT CAN CRIPPLE A CHURCH Did you hear about the company that makes blank bumper stickers? They're for people who don't want to get involved. Too many churches have too many people who just don't want to get involved. Such apathy cripples the cause of Christ and paralyzes the effort to build healthy kingdom churches.
-Available at Christianitytoday.com
STAFF STANDARDS ON MORAL INTEGRITY
No matter how many times I hear it, it still shocks me: A pastor announces his resignation because of adultery. Often it's with someone within his church, sometimes even someone actively involved in ministry, such as a choir member or Sunday school teacher. It's such an incredible waste of God's resources that it not only grieves me - it angers me.
-Available at Pastors.com
** For More on Staff Management ** Download The Journey's Staff Policy Manual
Church Leader Insights is a bi-weekly publication sent via email that focuses on effective leadership, church growth, church planting evangelism and much more.
