Five Ways Your Church Can Have a Major Impact as the New School Year Begins
- Recommit to becoming a welcoming church.
- Dedicate a part of a worship service to praying for students and teachers.
- Adopt a school.
- Revitalize the groups in your church.
- Re-cast the vision of the church.
Be a Missionary, Not a Marketer
In that moment, I realized the state of many churches toda:, we have shifted from the mentality of having a missions pastor that focuses on prompting the church to go to the people, to a marketing director that figures out how to get the people to come to the church. We have shifted from a call for the church to “go” to a call for the world to “come.” We have not only outsourced missions to the mission department, but have exchanged missions for marketing. In doing so, we have shifted from being “in the world, but not of the world” to being of the world but not in the world.
Reaching People with the Gospel
At the end of the day though, I think the reality is people are still primarily converted through, I think conversation. You can hear sermons and hear the Gospel in sermons and that’s effective obviously, but it still seems the majority of people are brought to faith through personal conversation, possibly following up on a sermon.
How Evangelistically Effective is Church Planting?
However, the fact that new churches surpass established churches in conversion growth does not mean that the vast majority of church plants actually primarily grow through gospel engagement with the unconvinced. What often proports to be evangelism through church planting in North America is essentially the reassembling of the previously professing.
The Church Needs Fewer Men Who Feel “Called” to Ministry
But if we dump the language of calling, how do we know if we should pursue ministry? Here are five indicators:
- You love the local church.
- You have good character.
- You can teach.
- You are burdened for God’s people.
- You’ve been affirmed!
So I’m struck again about the shame resiliency of Jesus. Jesus, in the translation of the NIV, scorned the shame of the cross. Most of us are bullied, pushed around, and bossed about by shame. Jesus scorned the shame. That’s a bit more than shame resiliency!
- Irregular attendance.
- Consistent late arrival.
- Lack of participation.
- Lack of outside the building service.
Immigrants or children of immigrants make up at least 12% of Congress
As the debate over the nation’s immigration laws continues on Capitol Hill, Congress has its own share of lawmakers for whom the immigrant experience is a personal one: At least 65 of the current 529 voting members of Congress (or 12%) are immigrants or the children of immigrants.
Carter has used his post-presidency to support human rights, global health programs and fair elections worldwide through his Carter Center, based in Atlanta. He has helped renovate 4,300 homes in 14 countries for Habitat for Humanity, and with his own hammer and tool belt, he will be working on homes for low-income people in Indiana later this month.
But it is Plains that defines him.