Is it ok to be satisfied with small church? Asking the wrong question
Is it ok to be satisfied with small church?
This is a question that has been asked by many people over the years, and they have more than one answer I believe. It’s not a simple Yes or No, but yes and no.
Let’s start out with church size, is it ok to be content with a small church. Over the past several years in church planting, I will be quite honest I had hoped to be more established relationally into the peoples of the community at this point in our plant, and yet we have so many barriers to overcome. I don’t want to undermine how much progress has been made, because by God’s grace alone we have made much progress. God’s brought together a wonderful team of people making great progress in the community, however, if I were sovereign, which I am not, I would have hoped for more local believers from the city to be hearing /attending our gatherings and Missional Community Groups, and although we’ve seen much success with these in various capacities, the question remains is small church ok?
The “yes we can be satisfied with small church” is there, if we are being faithful sowers of the word of God, into the lives of both the saved, the lost, and sowing the seeds of the gospel to a dying world, then we can be satisfied or content in the fact that we are being obedient to Jesus commands, and the size of the church is His choice….. In the parable of the sewer for example, if we are truly being faithful to sow the seed God’s word, and the harvest has not come in we are not to blame. God brings the increase.
If our desire is to see friends, family and neighbors come be with Christ in heaven when they die, if this place is truly not our home, then how can we be satisfied with church being small? There is being content in Christ, which I’m learning day by day. Yet there is a dissatisfaction with status quo Christianity where we relax in the comfort of our salvation to the detriment of the lost, to the detriment of our obedience to the great commission, and to the detriment of ourselves being white washed tombs.
If we by example have become ingrown, and focused solely on our own needs , wants, desires as a church body then this is when we cross the line and our satisfaction/contentment with our size is a fruit of our disobedience.
Small church is not ok when, we have allowed self to be the primary motivator of our size, and we have jettisoned our mission. If we are small because we are planting, if we are small because we are multiplying, these things are no measure for the heart of the faithful.
Size isn’t the measuring stick, the heart demonstrates obedience. Jesus said if you love me, you will keep my commandments…. This is of course motivated by Christ on the cross and grace, and yet what is at the center of the heart of your church? What is motivating you in contentment of its size?
Therefore the question isn’t, is the size of my church ok? Is it enough? The answer should be,” it’s never enough.” The question is, “are we as a church being obedient to the mission of Jesus, out of the love we have for Jesus?”
Legacy Church Planting – Replanting
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I’ve talked about what the problem is, and what needs to take place in previous blogs with declining or dying churches. This week we will talk about the solution. Pastors from Wornall Road Baptist Church, and our church Living Faith KC, came to Armour Heights Baptist Church to begin the process of Legacy Church Planting. Wornall Road and Living Faith KC have comitted to walk along side of Armour Heights Baptist Church to serve them in their Replant. There hasn’t been a major struggle here, but they’ve made challenging decisions with certain pastors in their past. Over time there has been a slow gradual decline within the church, and before they knew it, they are where they are at now. At the most there are twenty to thirty members on the best days, and ten to fifteen faithful.
Pastor John Mark Clifton, from Wornall Rd. came to begin the meeting and the process. He had met with the congregation in the past. He had given them a survey to determine the temperature of their heart condition in relationship to being replanted, and being able to work through change. They determined if Armour Heights was at a place where they were willing to do whatever it takes to see God’s name made great, in their neighborhood. “Step 1″ if the church is hanging on to their past, to their history, to the glory days, they’re not ready. Pastor John Mark Clifton provided the survey, and Step 2 is beginning to work through the process.
These are teaser bullet points below. John Mark expands on them in the link. Please download (Here) the link and listen to the whole talk. This talk was given at a NAMB workshop, but it was a very similar talk given to Armour Heights today. Consider it and would love to hear feedback.
- 1. We do it for God’s Glory ( How will God’s name be made much of because of this church ? )
- 2. Consistent in your prayer, you have to believe in wartime communication with God. What about the way you pray inspires people to know the God you’re talking to?
- 3. Streamline the structure. ( A Church is a flock, a fold, and a family ) You have to value the process more than the outcome.
- 4. You have to be “incarnation” in your living it out. You have to be living the gospel and demonstrating the gospel in the community, and become a community presence.
- 5. You must be generous in your resources.
- 6. Look for 18 to 35 year old and invest your life into them. ( Great movements of God have always started with young men )
- 7. Cultivate Service in your community.
- 8. Redefine Success (W-plus 2)
- 9. We Celebrate the Legacy often
Abortion Abolitionist : Warnings for All Sides!
When I say all sides, I’m sure I don’t mean all in this context, but I’m referring to Christians who support ‘opposing abortion’ and for those who do not directly but give mental ascent to it.
I have been posting on Facebook my opposition to abortion recently. I have seen a few main reactions to it. There is an amazing movement that’s started in Ohio, I’m sure there are other movements but this movement is terming themselves the “Abortion Abolitionist.” One of their themes is to say that we need to be more than “Pro-Life” pro-life says you will think about abortion as life, and the other states what you will be willing to do something about it.
Now these aren’t “extremist” movements inciting any sort of violence, only that they are asking people to put their money where their mouth is, so to speak when it comes to talking to people about abortion and the gospel. One thing I like about the movement is their linking it frequently to the gospel of Jesus Christ, for without whom there is no hope.
This is the most “biblically based” anti-abortion movement with feet I have ever seen and I’m behind it. The primary caution for those inside the movement from what I’ve witnessed on Facebook is a zealous arrogance at times. There are people who were uneducated, unsaved, have not understood the implications of what they have done with their unborn child and several of the posts I have witnessed are the type of post that like to rub people’s noses in their mess. This is devastating for some who’ve made these choices in the past and attempt to live their lives with their choices.
This type of attitude will eventually kill the movement and give justification for others to marginalize the impact that it could potentially have if it were to be handled in compassion, and understanding, all the while not backing down off of the principles of life.
Humility in the gospel of Jesus Christ is key for this movement to continue on, and I’m hoping and excited to see things continue on with it in the future. There is no other hope than the hope we have in Jesus Christ, and yet we have a responsibility to be salt and light to the dying world. We have commercials online to save animals, and yet we have less compassion for our own unborn human children.
I have been responded to a few times about the post. Once I was accused of jumping on the next “Christian” fad or bandwagon of Christian Abortion. To my hearts despair, I would imagine that abolitionist in the time of slavery had the same accusations when they wanted to free slaves from wrong societal thinking. I’m sure when someone said “Hey they are people too, who deserve to live their life the same as we do…” I’m sure these idealistic people were met with thoughts like, “oh this soon too shall pass, this fad of freedom for the slaves.” I am thankful for those in society who would not give up or give in, those who helped changed thinking on the ground level.
People being murdered is more than a Christian fad, or simply a social and political issue, please wake up church.
The next complaint I have had is that we should only tell people about Jesus Christ, because they won’t really understand unless they understand the gospel. While I think the intention here is well meaning I don’t think the argument is either we tell them this, or we try to save the baby. I think we must be intentional to do both and. We must both proclaim to them the gospel and we must do everything we can to show them that this baby is life and alive, and a human being before it is born. God can use a baby to change a mother, and cause her to repent and give her life to the Lord. Sometimes it happens before birth, and sometimes after, and even yet… sometimes after an abortion a mother can come to know Christ. All of these are our targets of truth, and love. We desire both the mother and child to know Christ in all of these circumstances, but love must be the demonstrative goal, and not anger. The imagery one should get is, one person pleading for another person for the life of someone who’s been given the death sentence. Mercy triumphs over judgment…..
The last thought is for those who’ve been against the abortion post because they’re tired of Christians being in the “Political” eye, and again saying we need only to proclaim Christ. I agree we must proclaim Christ, but also simply educate people on life. The two can be given at the same time. There again is not an either or, but because people have been disillusioned over the lack of change that came from the 80’s when Dobson and others were shaking the prolife trees, and the very little results that come from it, we have grown into this fatalistic society of Christian abortion apathy. The attitude of “The world is going to hell in a hand basket, so let it.” This fatalism is contrary to God’s word.
We as believers are to be salt and light in the world. Salt meaning to preserve, and light into darkness, how can we do that from the pews or from our houses? We must enter into the world and educate, proclaim the good news, and let God worry about the results. We are to be obedient and faithful to his word, and He will bring the increase in his time. Much more can be said but I will stop here!
18 Signs Your Church May Be Dying
I have heard of these statements from various people, JM Clifton, JD Grear, and others have mentioned simliar things in the past. Therefore if they belong to anyone else, please do not credit them to me. Many came out of conversations from the past, perhaps quoting other people.
If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. – John 15:6
What is the remedy ? To do the opposite of these signs!
- If the community where your church building is located would not be affected if you closed the doors then there is a sign that your church may be dying.
- If your church’s sermons are a history lesson and don’t lead you into repentance and faith in Jesus Christ continually.
- If there is no community life, where people are growing with one another applying the gospel on a weekly basis.
- If everyone’s a stranger, and there’s not depth of personal knowlege or bearing one another’s burdens.
- If you are unable to take any risk, risk is part of faith.
- If the primary prayer request is for aunt Margrets bunyons vs praying for the souls/salvation of men, women, and children.
- If when you worship, the worship sounds like people are sad and somber all the time.
- If there are no children in the church and no young couples growing physically and spiritually.
- If everyone from the church building is a commuter and there is no one from the community.
- If your church is content with the ‘status quo’ every week, and unwilling to make changes in order to increase their faith.
- If your church is not making disciples of the next generation.
- If there’s an attitude of , “We’ve been doing it this way for years…. Why change now?”
- If your church has money in the bank that could be used for reaching the lost or meeting needs within the congregation but they’re saving it for a rainy day?
- If you are unable to receive feedback / criticism, in order to hear what things might be wrong with the church or what might help it improve, ie the leadership is unteachable.
- If the leadership really isn’t leading, and the church is more lead by a committee or a deacon group more concerned with supporting the system than shepherding the people.
- If your church promotes outreach as an option and not a scriptural mandate.
- If your church believes church is the building and not the called out people of God.
- If love is not a goal of your church both for the saved and the lost equally.
Hope in Christ for church planting and “re-planting” or Legacy Planting
You have heard the argument that all things must replant themselves or reproduce themselves for a species to survive. There are endangered species list, and I was recently intrigued by an extinct species because it became extinct in our century called the Tasmanian Tiger. It’s from Australia, and the largest known carnivorous marsupial known of modern times. Hunted and killed, it was not able to reproduce enough to perpetuate it’s own kind, and therefore it died.
One thing the church has going for it, is we know who wins in the end, and as arrogant as that may sound to those who don’t believe, it’s not intended to be so, it’s simply we know that those who put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, at the end of all things here on this earth, will be with Christ forever. This is our hope from Romans 5, this hope that Paul talks about the only hope that does not disappoint, this hope we have in Christ.
This “knowing” can not however instill in us an arrogance that there is nothing to do and we sit on our hands awaiting for the second coming of Christ. What about now? What about His Bride? What about Church?
In my last post I spoke about “What is the Problem?” and in conclusion there are several things we as individuals and churches need to repent from, and begin walking in obedience in our lives. From the very beginning, Jesus uses agrarian parables and teachings to demonstrate reproduction, and he does this superbly in John 12 and also in John 15. Pause here and take a moment to read through those two passages. For the individual we also have the Great Commission which is our “imperative” or command to be be reproducers. One might even be able to say that until we are reproducing disciple-makers are we truly disciples of Jesus?
There’s no denying that this is a mandate in scripture and one that’s been largely overlooked by the Protestant church specifically in many churches over the past 50 to 100 years. We in some senses have been obsessed to reproduce pragmatism, (methods or methodologies) but few churches have truly made disciples, who reproduce themselves. A people who are in right relationship with Jesus Christ, living walking by the spirit, discipling, reproducing as a way of life. It’s been mostly compartmentalized, Jesus is another thing I attend or do, a past time or hobby.
With the impact of “Culture” catching our Awe over the many years, we’ve become captivated by creation ( gizmos and gadgets ) over the creator God. We have in so many ways exchanged the glories of God for the images of created things. This is spoke of directly in Romans 1 and 2, and we ignore it as if God is not paying attention to our decline or demise. Without reiterating too much how our churches and practice even to some degree has been largely motivated and persuaded by our culture, we look at the Gold calve and we worship things that have no power or control.
As John Piper puts it: “If we don’t feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because we have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Our soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great.”
How does this apply to Church and Church planting? A: We have exchanged our desires to be Awed by our creator for the idolatry of our past, be it memories, or buildings, or some created things in place of the priorities of scripture.
I am an observer of a several churches that are dying in the city or have since died. In each of these churches there is generally a common theme, and this is the worship of the place, the building, the facilities, or the memories. There is a hard and fast love for upkeep of the building, of trying to find the new pastor or youth pastor that will bring the programs and activities of the 80′s back into play but there is little desire in these large church buildings with a small remnant of believers who truly have sought the will of God and desire to do whatever it takes to follow God with their whole hearts.
How does planting then help resolve some of the problems? In spite of the disobedience of a past generation who have largely avoided the mandate to make reproducing disciples, God has birthed in this new era a heart for church planting. People are awakening to the idea that more churches need planted that the pendulum swung way too hard in the other direction for so many years, and the heart of God is to see His church prevail throughout the ages in-spite of the obedience of generations past.
What has to happen for a church to be planted?
A. A church planter must be equipped and sent out.
B. A church planter will go out on their own because they believe they have no other choice.
C. Legacy Planting
Option A is the preferable and the one that is most biblically represented. The second one often ends poorly, or there is much time spent on recovery, and healing. It’s the difference between being purposely transplanted cut just right, in the right place, and put into some water so that new roots grow as some plants are known to do, and being ripped off the vine itself and planted into the ground and hoping that one will make it.
Option B, often when a parent church does not see the reason to plant another church, God puts the vision in the heart of someone there and God will produce the replanting / reproduction in-spite of our faithfulness to the scriptures. It says that “HE” will build His Church! When churches build their congregation around a single pastor, and that pastor is no longer there, then the church if they are not actively raising up new leaders will then fade.
When a church gets down to a certain size and can no longer support a Pastor, they often have closed their doors. When no one from within can take over, and they aren’t able to support a Pastor then they seek associational help. I have even seen cases where a young church planter would like to come into a building and use a facility but a territorialism takes over and there is no sharing. Later the church diminishes more and the building rather than go to another Gospel centered Church, because they loved their building so much they will sell to anyone at the end even those who will end up making them into a Muslim Mosque. This is again a demonstration of what happens when we exchange the Glory of God for created things.
Option C, is the newest and latest option, and one that I am personally excited about.
Option C has recently been labeled “Legacy Church Planting.” Coined by John Mark Clifton in Kansas City Missouri, who brought a church back from near death with the remaining 14 members of the Church, to now approaching 200 thriving members. This happens only when a congregation gets to the end of themselves, when they are willing to like it says in the picture above, allow a seed to fall to the ground and die, so that it may bear much fruit. Legacy planting isn’t fully developed but John Mark and well as several of his new Interns are and have begun the process of putting together a plan, and also giving surveys to determine a Legacy Church’s viability for moving forward with a Legacy plant.
This means a new Pastor comes in and begins to work with the remaining congregation as well as brings another group or core group to join, and they begin the long journey of replanting the church together. The truth of the matter is many churches who are dying would rather get to a place where it is a headache, and they are willing to sell to sell the building and assets to anyone, vs. try to Legacy Plant a church. They are often up in age and don’t have the wherewithal to continue. However John Mark is testament that this can be done, and although long and challenging God is glorified much by the obedience of Legacy planting and reproducing disciples for the next generation! More to come in the next blog on how this gets accomplished stay tuned!
Church – Legacy – What are you leaving the next generation?
TweetI’m going to write three blogs over the next few days. One will be identifying the problem,the second will continue with some problem identification but begin to explain why the present generation is planting churches and points to why there is hope in Church planting and “re-planting” for Legacy Church for the SBC, the final blog will challenges us in how to get there?
The Problem
What is the problem? How did we get here?
Without beginning from the beginning or going all the way back to the gradual decline of Church into catholicity and or religious traditionalism, I will simply begin with the obvious happenings over the past decade or two. There has been in the past generation or more, the tendency in North American church to be more of a church spectator than a true contributor. We can blame entertainment and the world but the one thing I’ve learned in being a Christian, it’s never good to turn a blind eye to our shortcomings but to look them head on, taking them to the cross, and seeking repentance, and forgiveness. Nothing will change if we don’t acknowledge our shortcomings and seek Christ, both as individuals and churches.
If you’ve been reading any books about church lately this topic of consumer verses contributor, has been talked about a great deal. We have unintentionally built a Churched generation of dependent infants who lack the ability to reproduce. Frequently when people have received Christ in the past, the thing to do was to dis-assimilate out of old patterns and relationships, and reorient their entire life towards their new Church family. You were taken out of old sphere’s of influence, where you might eventually be able to share the gospel, and moved into the safe Christian place where no one from the world could contaminate you. Over time you would become more and more dependent on your church family, but more so, on the teaching and preaching of your primary pastor. Even though there are often bible studies and times of personal growth, when it would come to outreach or evangelism (The Great Commission ) in many churches it came often to a mentality that said, I don’t want to offend but I can invite people to church building for a special service. There was very little if any personal cost to becoming a believer in Jesus Christ. You didn’t much mention it at work, and there was a heavy compartmentalization of secular, work-life and church life.
Over time many people came to Christ in this way, or at least they had appeared to come to Christ. There were a few that would grow up to maturity but a vast majority of people who’ve grown up in these churches saw their Pastor’s become the professionals and relied upon their expertise to do all the ministry which would not ask anything of them personally. If it would cost them, and they didn’t enjoy it, then it was the pastor’s duty. From evangelism to visiting the orphans and the widows, this was no longer the Christian’s mandate but the minister’s job. If there was an evangelistic effort or a “Revival Meeting” to take place this would be 100% dependent upon the professional ministers. The congregation may invite, but we don’t have to learn enough to actually lead someone to Christ or explain the gospel. No one would actually call their pastor a professional but this is often how Christians would abdicate their own responsibilities, and rely upon the expert.
The years would go on, and these churches would seem to function fine, however as the senior professional pastor aged, there was little foresight in how to train up other leaders or bring about true discipleship and discipleship into ministry for effective church leadership multiplication. Generations of older Christians who’ve been Christians all their life ,when asked how do you disciple someone hadn’t the faintest of ideas. All of the “professional” ministers were well intentioned and thought they were doing their job, and in many respects they were. However they were unwittingly handicapping their congregation by continually feeding them milk, and rarely challenging them to grow beyond themselves by teaching, training, empowering, and releasing new leadership within their own congregations.
With many churches sticking to their 80’s model of Rick Warren “seeker sensitive” methodologies and seeing that it frequently produced a shallow Christianity, a new generation of Christian has been emerging over the past 10 years seeking a deeper theological handle of the Christian faith. Rick Warren has even grown also over the past few years but many of the churches that adopted his practices over past 20 years stuck to the first saddle back methods and have not left them. There are several kinds of churches that have been born in response to the lightweight theological pragmatism that came out of the 80′s, and one of the more well known networks has been Acts 29. Although they align much with SBC in doctrine, in many ways, there are also distinct differences, as well as Acts 29 brings its own distinct culture and zeal.
There is another genre of churches and I won’t be able to cover them all, but they have emerged from places like Brook Hill’s “David Platt’s church” along with “Francis Chan” model churches who call Christians to “Radical Discipleship.” Between the Super pastors of the age, like John Piper, Mark Dever, C.J. Mahaney, Matthew Chandler, Jeff Vanderstelt and Mark Driscoll and several more, a new era is upon the North American Church and many smaller SBC churches are still scratching their heads trying to figure out what’s happening. Driscoll’s church planting networkActs 29 implies the continuation of churches being planted beyond Acts 28 and in David Platt’s book “Radical” David calls men and women to consider everything they have and whatever they have or do, to go hard after the gospel of Jesus Christ no matter the cost.
All of these things are good and both are calling young ministers to plant churches and give their lives radically for the kingdom and the gospel. These are the kids who grew up in the old SBC methods unsatisfied with the dying legacy of their parents generation, are seeking new solutions, the same message, but a different method.
The unwillingness to consider a church’s future, and the changing culture leads to a slow dying off of the smaller mainline congregation and the modern dilemma in which many SBC churches find themselves in today.
Things we need to repent of:
- Depending upon the professional pastors and abdicating our responsibilities to be disciple-makers to the next generation.
- Not training or discipling young men, not just as disciples but disciples into the ministry.
- Loving our traditions and safe Christianity more than we have loved Jesus.
- Abdicating our responsibility of the great commission to the professional class.
- When our methods don’t represent what’s happening in scripture we must repent of thinking our way is better.
What will you do to prepare your church for the next generation? …..
Repentance unifies, Sin Separates
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A friend contacted me today, whose son has been estranged for two years from their home. He was raised in a Christian home, and yet when he got some independence he decided he was going to make some adult decisions that perhaps his parents wouldn’t approve of, and therefore he separated himself from them.
This is a common occurrence spiritually, as Christians. If I’ve learned anything in my short time of being a Pastor, is that sin does two things in the lives of the church. Sin separates us from our Father, and sin separates us from the Body.
When sin enters in there are two responses, and we frequently choose the second, when Jesus was born that we might continually choose the first option.
When someone first sins there are always two options:
1. Repent, this means to have ones mind changed, to turn away from your sin and toward God, submit your life your attitude, and your heart to God and run into his arms.
2. Separate yourself from the father in order to suppress the truth and do what you desire to do regardless if it’s the right, or approved of by the father.
How does this look in the life of the church?
Someone comes into a circumstance in life, say a moral or financial decision perhaps, and often people make the wrong decision. They make a selfish decision, or the easier decision, whichever the case may be. In this persons case it was a decision to run off and get married to a young lady who’s not a legal citizen of the U.S. without the approval of the parents. However this can be applied across the board when it comes to church/church relationships. When we do things that we know our earthly father will disapprove of we separate from him in the same way when we know we’re doing something our heavenly father will disapprove of we separate from God, we stop attending church and church services, and we separate from our Christian friendships which can hold us accountable to God’s word.
This takes place in the life of the addict, who attends church for some time, but then becomes so ashamed after they fall off the wagon they separate themselves from God, and then from the body. They make excuses as to why they can no longer attend church, or why things just won’t work out, but ultimately it’s their choice to not repent and throw themselves on the mercy of Christ.
It also takes hold in the believer who simply fails to put their trust in the Lord in times of great difficulty. They make a decision based upon the flesh, and then sin slowly separates them. They begin missing hanging out with their “Christian family,” they move then from not attending Church, they stop reading their bible, or they only read the stuff that comforts them, and not the stuff that brings conviction and repentance.
At the end of the day as Pastors as much as we desire repentance, and as much as this young man’s father would have loved for his son to discuss the circumstance, and seek his father’s and mother’s approval, this would require repentance on the part of the son. This father, like our heavenly father is waiting with open arms. Wanting to embrace his son, and yet sin separates them.
Let me ask you has sin separated you from your God? Maybe you don’t think so, but have you been separated from people who love you in the Lord, who hold you accountable? If so the reminder this Christmas is that God sent his son Jesus so that we might repent, and believe in the one true son of God. He took on all of our sin, even the sin we’ve done as believers. He bore our sin on the cross past present and future. He awaits with open arms, we simply must give these things in our lives over to him. Repent from our disobedience, and trust Him with our lives.
The evidence of willful submission to Christ, is that you will once again be in God’s word, and be with God’s people. Repentance unifies, Sin Separates!
Love you all!
Merry Christmas
Vision Northeast ( Community Pastors Praying together for the Gospel)
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Several months back Bob Tolliver ( Missionary from the Ukraine / Elder Emeritus @LFKC ) mentioned one of the most powerful things that takes place in a city is when pastors and ministers unite together in prayer for the city. This idea had already been on my mind much before Bob mentioned it, in fact for years I had hoped to see Pastors come together and pray for and with one another for their ministries and for the city. Ultimately to come together to pray for repentance.
There are a lot of “Ministries” and “Help” organizations in the Northeast who have offered physical handouts and help to the needy here in the city of Kansas City. We understand that we don’t just have a crime problem, a drug problem, a prostitution problem, but we have a sin problem, a depravity problem.
We also understand that the only way to affect true and lasting change in the city is to see the Gospel message go out to the people of the city that will change the hearts of men, women, children.
We have so far held two meetings the first was held at Eleos Coffee where we had the opportunity to hear from one an others burdens and intentions in their ministry. The second meeting was held at Bob Ganote’s Church Sovereign Grace Baptist on Truman. We were able to hear the heart of each pastor, the testimonies, challenges, struggles, battles of our lives & ministry, how some of us came to know the Lord, and our past and present experiences, and our future hope for ministry, and for the gospel to go out to the city. The next meeting will be held on Jan 4th.
We determined we will be about these things:
1.Prayer for the city and for one another.
2.Encouragement for one another as Pastors and ministry leaders in the city.
3.Disciplemaking/Evangelization of the city, are the heart of our meeting together.
We want to make sure that we are “Gospel Centered.” Not any gospel but the true gospel of Jesus Christ that saves, this will transform the city, by transforming lives. When their lives are informed by their beliefs, their convictions, when those things change, the city will change, everything else although ministers to hurting people and we support that, yet we know that the only thing that will provide lasting change is Jesus Christ as Lord of our lives.
We will be meeting on the first Friday of every month please pray in advance that God would use this to unite our congregations and the city together for the same purpose and goal. The Good News.
LFKC Men’s Retreat ( Recap )
We arrived early Friday evening about 6:00 PM. The theme of the week was 2 Timothy 4:7.
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” - (2 Timothy 4:7 ESV)
As men we often go through life abdicating many of our responsibilities. This year we chose a verse to really to center the theme around to help us get a longer term perspective. God chose the right people for each theme. We started off the evening in the dining hall in God’s mountain where Brandy Dawson, Jennifer Boyd, and Jo Anne Tolliver helped prepare a wonderful meal for the men. It was an encouraging start to the evening. Later that night we moved into the “Upper Room” to hear a word from Steve Burchett. Steve is from Christ Fellowship one of the Pastor’s here in Kansas City of a local House Church.
“Keep the Faith” Steve began with an overview of the whole book. He challenged us initially to read the whole book, and the whole book to gain the context. He read the entire book fo 2nd Timothy, and we were greatly encouraged.
To hear Steve’s B’s full message you can click on this link.
Three Main Points, worth the time to listen.
1. To Keep the Faith you must be increasingly familiar with its content. Know the word.
2. Painstakingly proclaim the faith, Preach the word, Pass it on to the next generation.
3. You must cherish the Faith for your own Soul, you must love the apostles doctrine, why did Paul make it until the end? Because He loved the Gospel… We must also Love the gospel!
We had a small break, and then it was time for testimonies. This was a time where we could hear about the hearts of one another. Where we had come from, how God had changed and transformed us.
“Finish the Race” Bob Tolliver opened up the morning with “Finish the Race.” Bob is faithfully 74 years old and his testimony the night before of the legacy of his life, and his families Christian heritage and Legacy added a great richness to the sharing of his message.
I’ll just give you a teaser of Bob’s sermon.
1. You were created exclusively for God. Anything else that goes on in your life is either directly related to that truth, or irrelevant to that truth.
Those three phrases, or driving forces, who am I, why am I here, and what am I supposed to do?
After a rich time in 2 Timothy, Bob gave us some questions to consider as we took some quiet time alone with the Lord.
Here is Bob’s Message - http://livingfaithkc.com/sermons/bob-t-mp3.mp3
Bob blessed us richly by helping us get God’s priorities nailed down. Here’s a quote that stuck with me “How can we expect to live a disciplined Godly life if we don’t have God’s priorities down, and acknowledge our own priorities are meaningless? ” and he said what happens if you get off track? He’s known many people who have made the impact of ministry like sticking your finger in a bucket of water and pulling it out because they have not remained faithful. Another truth he mentioned was we have to remove some of the good things, to focus on what’s most important to God. We can’t do everything.
After this time we were able to quietly go out and spend time alone with the Lord. To ask him to help get these priorities right.
“Fight the Good Fight” Johny Williams is the Camp Director of God’s Mountain Camp and also the Sr. Pastor of First Baptist Church, Wathena KS. Johnny has faithfully proclaimed the word and he capped the weekend off with some personal challenges of prayer, and of knowing the word. He encouraged us out of Nehemiah and demonstrated through the stories of his own life how God’s Mountain came to be. The phrase that most people left with, or the picture was when Johnny was at the end, overwhelmed with the project itself, and planted his face in the dirt, and cried out to God. He spoke of how God answered with concrete supplies and 13 girls from Iowa who soon came down and joined in to help finish pouring the concrete flat work floor.
We were greatly moved by the testimony and challenged to fight with all of our hearts for our families, for our relationship with Christ, and we do that by Prayer and the Word.
Have a listen to Johnny’s moving talk about fight the good fight!
http://livingfaithkc.com/sermons/JohnnyW-mp3.mp3
We were blessed to be able to spend the rest of the time doing some male bonding with guns. Here are a few pictures below.
Kevin Pulliam
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Today if you didn’t have the opportunity to listen to our guest speaker Kevin Pulliam. We have uploaded his sermon online and you can listen here.
Enjoy http://livingfaithkc.com/sermons/Kevin_Pulliam.mp3
We were blessed by the word this morning! One of the reasons that we frequently have different opportunities for people to bring the word is because we believe there is greater potential to send out equipped and prepared people to plant and revitalize churches. Kevin Pulliam attends FCC and we were privileged this morning to give him an opportunity and for us to have the opportunity to be blessed by the preaching of the word through Kevin this morning.