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How to Invite Your Friends to Church, Pt.2
Posted by: | CommentsSo, once we are convinced that inviting people to Jesus through the local church is what Jesus has called us to, HERE ARE A FEW WAYS TO PREPARE FOR THE INVITE:
- Pray: if we don’t pray for people to meet Jesus, then our hearts won’t ever be broken enough to actually share Christ with them and invite them to experience Christ in and through His Church. Also, if we don’t pray for boldness and courage during these times we won’t act, and that could mean someone’s eternity just went up in flames.
- Study: look to the Scriptures for your example.
- Peter provides one way of “invitation” – Peter was very in your face, sort of confrontational. Peter was great at working with “churched” people or the religious Jews (which is why he stayed in Jerusalem).
- Paul was much more strategic and intellectual – He was also skilled with the unchurched (the Gentiles). Paul knew how to become all things to all men so that some would be saved. Paul was the ultimate servant and a great multiplier of leaders.
- Stephen was the “truth teller”. Stephen got to preach one sermon then he was killed, not sure I want that evangelistic style! But Stephen also knew how to speak the truth, even when it hurt (what a great lesson we can learn from this amazing man of God).
- Philip was the “conversationist”; he was able to “slide into any conversation” and turn it towards Jesus. In this case, he meets an Ethiopian Eunuch who is reading an OT prophet and he finds a way to lead him to faith in Jesus Christ.
- James, the half brother of Jesus, was definitely a man of “faith and prayer” (He wrote a lot about in his book, James). James talks about confessing your faults to one another and praying for one another. James knew the importance of being authentic and real about your struggles if you are ever going to win this world to Jesus.
- John was the “lover”. In the gospel he wrote, he quotes Jesus saying, “By this will all men know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.” Wow!
- So, you see there are different ways to invite people onto this journey with God…BUT THEY ALL COME BACK TO JESUS – YOU AND I CAN’T GET TO GOD EXCEPT THROUGH JESUS. Make sure your invite is ALL ABOUT LEADING PEOPLE TO JESUS. Maybe you use your intellect, maybe you find ways to serve their needs, maybe you have long caffeinated talks at Starbucks, maybe you work on projects together, maybe you have to confront and have some tough love talks – but ultimately your invite has to be all about leading people to Jesus – because only Jesus can change them, only Jesus can heal them, only Jesus can revolutionize their life and this world!
- Speak: I am all for “acts of kindness” but at some point we must attach them to a larger strategy (or intentional plan) of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with people and by that I mean SPEAKING THE GOSPEL INTO THIS UNCHURCHED CULTURE. “Random acts of kindness” (which I am for as well) without the expressed purpose of inviting people to hear the gospel, interface with the gospel, meet people of the gospel, or get a gift that ultimately leads them to the gospel is simply “too random” and not really that kind at all. At the end of the day, people who die without Jesus Christ really do go to hell. And our mission as the local church is to make it hard to go to hell from Manchester (in fact, its to make it hard to go to hell from all of New England because our heart is to reach new england with the gospel of Jesus Christ).
- Do: As the church we MUST feed the poor, we MUST clothe the naked, we MUST care for the fatherless and widows, BUT if we don’t ever open our mouths and SPEAK THE WORDS OF JESUS CHRIST into people’s lives then we are really doing them a disservice, because people with a fully belly still go to hell without Jesus, friends with a full wardrobe still go to hell without Jesus, families with a home still go to hell without Jesus. So, let’s not be incomplete in our spiritual mission of sharing Christ – WE MUST DO ACTS OF KINDNESS WITH THE EXPRESSED PURPOSE OF SHARING THE LIFE-ALTERING REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST!
Tomorrow, I will share 10 PRACTICAL WAYS TO INVITE YOUR FRIENDS TO CHURCH…
Creating a Culture of Excellence, Pt.3
Posted by: | Comments3. LEADERS LISTEN TO CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM
If we are going to grow as leaders for Jesus then we must be willing to listen to formative feedback, or constructive criticism.
Many times the thing that keeps us from growing as leaders is PRIDE. We think we already KNOW IT, or we think we SHOULD ALREADY KNOW IT and so we don’t ASK QUESTIONS. Pride keeps us from learning from those further along.
Lots of people can provide constructive criticism, but listening to everybody will lead to insanity. Someone once said, there are two keys to insanity: trying to please everyone and trying to be understood by everyone. Bill Cosby once said, “I don’t know the secret to success, but I can tell you the secret to failure, TRY TO PLEASE EVERYONE.
Although, we can’t please everyone we must find a few trusted mentors and peer leaders that we can lean on, listen to, and be led by during times of pressure, growth, and conflict. Ed Young Jr says, “Conflict + Change = Growth”.
IF WE WANT TO GO TO THE NEXT LEVEL, THEN WE MUST PUT OURSELVES AT THE FEET OF THOSE ALREADY AT THE NEXT LEVEL.
SWALLOW YOUR PRIDE AND LEARN FROM THOSE FURTHER AHEAD OF YOU. As church leaders we REALLY ARE ON THE SAME TEAM. It is time for churches to stop competing and start completing one another!
Seriously, if you don’t know any pastors or church leaders who model this Christ-like attitude here are a few: AnthonyMilas.net, BuddyCremeans.com, JoshuaGagnon.com, PerryNoble.com, MacRichard.com, and Rob Willis. Now, as a young church planter and pastor, this should be easy for me to do, but it still isn’t. But I am a HUGE IDIOT if I don’t submit myself to other great men of God such as these.
For those who have been in ministry longer than me (I have been pastoring for over a decade now) it only gets harder to learn from others because you think you know everything, and the truth is, YOU DO KNOW A LOT; BUT LEADERSHIP ISN’T JUST KNOWING; IT IS BEING. AND YOU CAN ONLY PICK THAT UP THROUGH CONVERSATIONS, NOT CONFERENCES.
IF WE ARE GOING TO GROW AS A FAITH COMMUNITY & LEADERSHIP TEAM THEN WE MUST FIND CONSTRUCTIVE WAYS TO SPEAK TRUTH INTO EACH OTHER’S LIVES. Teams that grow faster and go further are teams that have committed to “speaking truth in love into each other’s lives” (even when it hurts).
THE AREAS WE NEED TO HEAR TRUTH ARE THE AREAS WE USUALLY PUSH BACK ON TRUTH.
GOALS, Pt.5 [guest blogger: Rob Willis]
Posted by: | CommentsI recently started a blog series called, GOALS. I have invited some of my friends, mentors, and flat out some of the GREATEST LEADERS IN THE COUNTRY to help me blog on this subject.
My current guest blogger is Rob Willis from The Journey Church in Rochester, NH. Pastor Rob started his amazing thoughts on GOALS in a previous post, let me continue his thoughts here:
WHY SHOULD WE ATTACH NUMBERS TO OUR GOALS?
Numbers – everyone can get hung up on numbers. I’ve heard it said (even about the church I lead), “This church is all about numbers!” Well, yeah, it is. Numbers do matter – but not for the sake of determining our success so much as understanding God’s heart. Quick, Bible scholars – how many men did Jesus feed with 5 loaves and 2 fish? How many were saved and added to the church on the Day of Pentecost? How many apostles are there? How many books in the Bible are named Numbers J? You see, God cares about numbers because NUMBERS REPRESENT PEOPLE that He cares about!
So if NUMBERS are important to God (and they are), then we can set goals with NUMBERS and not be ashamed of it! When I would like to have 500 for Easter Sunday, it’s not because I want people to think I’m a wonderful pastor. No – numbers are all wrong then. It’s because that 500 people who will have a chance to connect with Jesus Christ and take great faith steps that day – and YES, that’s ALL RIGHT! Numbers matter to God, but not for the sake of building us up (see 1 Corinthians 1:31 for those who want to take all the credit). Numbers matter to God because people matter.
A Church Jesus Wants to Be In, Pt.1
Posted by: | CommentsNow I say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it. (Mat 16:18 NLT)
I love this piece of teaching from Jesus. The part I want to highlight is “I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH”.
Number one: Jesus will build HIS Church
The Church belongs to Jesus, He purchased her with His own blood (Acts 20:28). Jesus is the Senior Pastor of The Dialogue Church and I get to be His under-shepherd.
The Church belongs to Jesus; the Church does not belong to the government, so how could the “laws of the land” keep the church from growing (they couldn’t in the 1st century even when they were persecuting Christ-followers; the early followers of Jesus just spread the gospel all the more during their persecution and consequently the church grew all the more). Some people fear “hate speech” laws being implemented because it seems as if preachers would go to prison for preaching what the bible has to say about certain topics. Even though our “freedom of speech” rights be violated by our own government it CAN’T STOP THE GOSPEL AND THE CHURCH OF JESUS FROM DOING WHAT GOD HAS CALLED HER TO DO. Although, I will vote for “laws” that help protect our freedom of speech (by the way – this includes allowing people to speak freely against the gospel too), it is not the laws of the land that make the CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST UNSTOPPABLE. JESUS MAKES THE CHURCH UNSTOPPABLE. I am praying that Jesus will do the UNSTOPPABLE here in our city and through our church (and network of churches). Honestly, without persecution how do we know when the church is being unstoppable? The government can not contain the work of Jesus, no matter how “anti-human” the laws may be. So, stop fearing and start trusting in the unstoppable Jesus!
The Church does not belong to ME. There is no human personality big enough or strong enough to contain the entire work of Jesus Christ. There is no single human personality (or preacher) so important that Jesus can’t go on without him or her. This doesn’t mean that the role of pastor and preacher isn’t important (it is vitally important – the Holy Spirit appoints pastors for a reason – to lead and feed the flock of God). But when a preacher fails morally or gives up on the mission of the cross; the Church of Jesus still goes on. A black eye may be delivered (and I hate it when a preacher fails) but the church belongs to Jesus, and since He never fails, the church will conquer, the church will win in the end. No preacher (or person for that matter) is irreplaceable.
