WHAT WOULD MAKE YOUR DREAM CHURCH?

Every pastor, every church planter is passionate about the faith community – after all it is the husbandry, the building of God, the Master builder (1^st Corinthians 3: 9) And I am also passionate for the church where I am to be the best Dream Church one can wish for. This question has been on minds of many. Here are few suggestions collected, in no particular order:

Location – no long commuting, which creates a more rushed and forced atmosphere on worship day, and hinders the ability of church members to come for an evening service, and to socialize and connect in a real way during the week. Church should be in our community, no matter how small or large.

Diversity – not only of ethnicity, but in tradition, culture, age and worship styles. A snapshot of those attending the church should mimic the surrounding community.

Warmth – full of Christian geniality toward each other, to God, with visitors, and for the surrounding community with a distinguishing factor of sincerity, truly caring about each person who walks through the church door. A church that genuinely treasures its children, young people, and elderly, that lives by the principle “It Takes A Village.”

Ready –prepared for random visitors, newly invited friends, seekers, and non-members. Being meaningful and understandable, getting information from visitors, being prepared to feed or invite them out, and do a brief but heartfelt follow-up phone call a few days later. Also being prepared for natural disasters and having a plan in place for assisting the community if a tragic event takes place, ready to use the space of a church to house people in a storm or to feed people after a fire, and making the community aware.

Fun –enjoyable, well planned social events, using gentle humour throughout the services, providing enough activities, educational opportunities, and programs to keep all ages learning and growing together. Doing outdoor activities together, a rafting trip or ping pong tournament. Church should be a place we want to spend time.

Humble – continually willing to grow and change and seek God’s master plan. Where leaders are willing to implement new ideas.

So, how do you see Your Dream Church?

EVANGELISM AS JESUS ENVISIONED IT

September 27^th we had a good crowd as Western Ontario pastors came together for an Evangelism Rally at the North Church. Number of individuals signed commitment cards and promised to bring friends to meetings. Significant amount was pledged for the future Evangelistic meetings in 2009-2010. This is just a beginning. Similar rallies will be held in every church in the district. More rallies will take place here in London as we prepare for the total church involvement in Evangelism by January 2009.

A similar approach has been employed in Toronto for years, where churches come together to do evangelism. Two weeks ago 100 people were baptised on the closing day of two evangelistic meetings. 60 were baptised in the portable pool set up at the International Centre, in Mississauga. The other 40 were baptised at Kingsview Village Adventist Church, in Etobicoke. The baptism at the International Centre brought the total baptised during the September 6-27 Life of Victory evangelistic series to 136 persons. The series was the joint effort of 14 churches in the West Toronto. Evangelist Omar Palmer, the assistant pastor at Apple Creek Adventist Church led the meeting. He will be coming here to London in November for a rally. Kingsview Village Church left it’s own facility vacant participating in the public evangelism, meanwhile letting two Spanish churches, Maranatha and Bet-El do their own outreach there.

Conference Evangelism and Church Growth coordinator, Dr. Errol Lawrence commented “We have seen that traditional evangelism still works, but we should also consider supplementing it with alternative methods in order to more effectively reach the millennial generation. Reaching through friendship to neighbours, family and friends. "

I want you to consider Jesus’ way of doing evangelism. Luke 10:1 records following method: “The Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go.” Jesus, the best Evangelist ever, the original Evangelist, is doing something that every church should pay attention to: calls more people to the team, in addition to those already serving and working with him, and he sends them in pairs ahead of himself, into places where He Himself was about to go.

The reason Evangelism did not work in past decade – because no pre-work of “going before” was ever done. The pre-work of visiting with people, going door-to-door, preparing friends and neighbours for the event, has to begin at least 3 months before the Meeting. The whole process of developing friends, and serving needs of people has to be a continuous and consistent effort.

As we work toward telling London that Jesus is coming soon, let’s start visiting and preparing people within our sphere of influence.

EVANGELISM AS JESUS ENVISIONED IT

Last Sabbath we had a good crowd as Western Ontario pastors came together for an Evangelism Rally. 25 individuals signed commitment cards and promised to bring 74 friends to meetings. $1760 pledged for the future Evangelistic meetings in 2009. This is just a beginning. Similar rallies will be held in every church in the district. More rallies will take place here in London as we prepare for the total church involvement in Evangelism by January 2009.

As I looked through the Ontario Conference News release Wednesday afternoon I was rejoicing to see similar approach being employed also in Toronto, where 100 people were baptised last Sabbath on the closing day of two evangelistic meetings. 60 were baptised in the portable pool set up at the International Centre, in Mississauga. The other 40 were baptised at Kingsview Village Adventist Church, in Etobicoke. The baptism at the International Centre brought the total baptised during the September 6-27 Life of Victory evangelistic series to 136 persons. The series was the joint effort of 14 churches in the West Toronto. Evangelist Omar Palmer, the assistant pastor at Apple Creek Adventist Church led the meeting. He will be coming here to London in November for a rally. Kingsview Village Church left it’s own facility vacant participating in the public evangelism, meanwhile letting two Spanish churches, Maranatha and Bet-El do their own outreach there.

Conference Evangelism and Church Growth coordinator, Dr. Errol Lawrence commented “We have seen that traditional evangelism still works, but we should also consider supplementing it with alternative methods in order to more effectively reach the millennial generation. Reaching through friendship to neighbours, family and friends. "

Last Sabbath I shared Jesus’ way of doing evangelism. Luke 10:1 records following method: “The Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go.” Jesus, the best Evangelist ever, the original Evangelist, is doing something that every church should pay attention to: calls more people to the team, in addition to those already serving and working with him, and he sends them in pairs ahead of himself, into places where He Himself was about to go.

The reason Evangelism did not work in past decade – because no pre-work of “going before” was ever done. The pre-work of visiting with people, going door-to-door, preparing friends and neighbours for the event, has to begin at least 3 months before the Meeting. The whole process of developing friends, and serving needs of people has to be a continuous and consistent effort.

As we work toward telling London that Jesus is coming soon, let’s start visiting and preparing people within our sphere of influence.

VISION FOR A HEALTHY CHURCH

A pastor shared his experience from the mid-week prayer meeting. A church member brought along a friend she was caring for, a lady with suffering from a palsy, her body parts moving and shaking at times uncontrollably. People in the group went about their prayer requests, did some praise and singing, studied a Bible chapter, while trying not to look at the crippled.

At the end they were about to pray a closing prayer for unity and evangelism, when the visitor spoke. “Look at me!” she said. Reluctantly, out of duty people turned their heads one by one in the direction of the voice. She continued: “I am a living parable of the church. There is nothing wrong with my head. My mind is clear, and I wish I could be in charge of my body, I wish my body would listen to my head, I wish my limbs and organs would obey my will, but something is lodged somewhere and is breaking the communication between the head and the body, something went wrong in my body parts and will not accept the messages from the head. There is nothing wrong with the Head of our Church – Christ Jesus. But somehow the body parts are not coordinated. Somewhere the “central nervous system,” the leadership, is not conveying the message to people; somewhere people are not responsive, and are totally disconnected from the source, acting up at their own volition.”

As I listen to this testimony I thought to myself “how true!” yet I believe that God’s promise is true when he speaks of His Church at the end of times: “for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His Wife hath made herself ready.” (Revelation 19:7) The church, the Body of Christ, the Bride of the Lamb is not to be palsied, but is to be readied. I believe in this challenge coming to reality.

Have you ever watched a military troop on a parade – they move as one. Same imagery is employed describing the church – an army with banner. After my recent car accident, suffering with a bad lower back, I had a firsthand experience that dislocated vertebrae need to be set in place, and healing is needed before the physiotherapy can be applied.

It is more than coincidence that as the church moves into an election process, choosing the leadership for another term we are also beginning Evangelistic rallying. Leadership is to be chosen who is aligned with God’s Vision for growth and outreach, key officers are to be chosen with servant attitude who will communicate and connect members of the Body, structures of connecting, communicating and receiving feedback are to be adjusted for the healthy functioning. All in all – restoring the body for the glory it ought to be in, as the bride of Christ.

I am always surprised how God orchestrates our lives, our service and our worship. From the Sabbath School Bible lesson this week “Here I am, send me” to the Evangelism Rally tonight at 4 pm we are moved to consider our duty, our place, our role in the Body of Christ.

EVANGELISM IS ABOUT FRIENDSHIP

After the last Board meeting the Vision for Evangelism was articulated even more – bringing our friends to Jesus, and making new friends to bring more into saving relationship with Christ.

Every event that takes place in our church – is an opportunity to invite friends to know more about Christ, to observe and learn the life style of those who are following Christ. Every event – meaning: birthday parties, anniversaries, weddings, graduations, even funerals – it’s all about Jesus. If people attended your party and did not get closer to Christ, did not learn to appreciate God’s Salvation plan – an opportunity wasted. I shared in my last sermon a simple truth taught by Jesus – those who procrastinate, or waver are not fit for the Kingdom of God (Luke 9: 59-62).

We all watched in some game an athlete who in the final minutes of a game tried to hold on to the ball but it slipped through his fingers. In distress, on his knees, he’s pounding the turf. Do you react with same grief when missing on God given opportunities to witness to people, that so often without warning pass, never to return?

Consider that extremely profane co-worker you were determined to witness to, but before you got around to it, he had taken another job and you see him no more. Consider that young father who has for years regarded Sabbath as his day for fishing, or the mother who was too busy getting things perfect at work and missing Sabbath worship, and now the daughter is grown up and is not interested in following Christ, and other siblings had moved out from home and the opportunity to influence them is gone. Consider a wife who craved some sign that she is more important than her husband’s job, but now it’s too late and they are in court. Consider that youth with low self-esteem who needed to hear some person say, "you’re really special," until it’s too late and were burying them and everyone is asking, “did you know he was depressed?”

What opportunities have you missed this week? What chances to share the witness about Jesus have you ignored since last Sabbath? Some of us are forever glancing over our shoulders, worried about something in the past, some mistake, some sin, some issues. To such, Jesus says – if you put your hand on the plow, stop looking back! Do not miss the new opportunities laid before you! And if you need training - a new class on witnessing is offered every weekend. 40 sessions altogether are offered until June 2009. Get involved, learn and go teach others to obey by your example.

As we are moving toward another Fall Harvest, NET08 Discoveries with Mark Finley, local rallies by district pastors, and then series of 10 evangelistic meetings in 2009 – pray about God placing new people in your lives and be open about making new friendships, keep friends until they are mentored enough to be released into discipling others. When you introduce people to Christ – Evangelism is not finished. Until new Christians have not become active members of church ministries, evangelism has stopped halfway.

Give your friends a chance for salvation, get intentional about sharing Christ!