Thom S. Rainer's Blog, page 321

6 Ways to Evaluate Your Church’s Strategy to Assimilate New Believers

By Chuck Lawless

Maybe you’ve seen it happen.  A new believer joins a local church, and he is thrilled by his changed life.  He shows up at every church event.  He consumes knowledge of the Bible. But then something happens. The excited new believer slowly wanders away, and few people in the church notice.

Too often, this story resounds in churches that have a poor assimilation strategy. They might reach people for Christ, but they have no intentional plan to keep the people they reach. Their back door remains as open as their front door.

Listed below are some steps to evaluate your congregation’s assimilation strategy. Taking these steps will require some work, but no church should be pleased when new believers disappear.

1. Review the church’s primary approach to evangelism.  Sometimes new members fall away because the presentation of the gospel they hear is incomplete.  The gospel call that weakens repentance is insufficient, and the result is often new members who fall again into previous sin patterns.  A gospel message that speaks only of blessings without commitment commonly leads to new believers who depart the church when those blessings are not immediately realized. A poor presentation of the gospel often reaps what it sows.

2. Compare the church’s addition numbers with corresponding attendance numbers.  If, for example, a church reports twenty-five new believers in the last two years with a corresponding attendance increase of only ten, further review is warranted.  The causes for the discrepancy may be many (e.g., job transfers for current members, deaths in the church, teams sent to church planting, conflict in the church), but one cause is often poor assimilation of new believers.

3. Review attendance and participation records of specific new believers.  In the above scenario, review the records for the twenty-five new believers. Are the new believers actively attending a small group?  Are they participating in some type of ministry?  Are they accountable to someone for their spiritual growth?  If all new members are attending and participating, the cause for the membership/attendance discrepancy may not be related to poor assimilation—at least not of these new believers. Seldom have we found that to be the case, however.

4. Evaluate the church’s current strategy for keeping new believers.  Our studies of growing churches have shown four components of effective assimilation, best illustrated in an “assimilation rectangle”:

Stated expectations help the new believer understand up front what God and the church expect; the growing believer is then held accountable to these expectations through participation in a small group.
Ministry involvement—even in an “entry” position—gives the new believer purpose in the church.  Involvement begins with a strategy to help believers understand their giftedness and callings.
Healthy relationships help form the “glue” that draws new believers back to church; discipled members then turn around and reach out to others.
Convictional teaching and preaching meet the needs of new believers who long for Christian growth; these same believers then mature and grow under that preaching.

In many cases, though, churches have no intentional strategy in place. Where there is no intentional strategy based on these components, it is not surprising that new believers do not remain long at such a church.

5. Talk with new believers who no longer attend the church. Interviewing church members is one of the most helpful and productive strategies of church consulting.  With the church’s help, locate non-attending new believers and ask them why they no longer attend.  Again, the causes may be several (e.g., laziness, church conflict, recurrent sin, “never really fit in,” etc.), but the church must recognize that something is amiss when new believers no longer participate in the church. Interviewing them may be the first step toward drawing them back to the congregation.

6. Interview new believers who have remained in the church. Just as something happens to leads to non-participation, something usually happens to keep new believers in the fold.  The new believer may not be prepared to articulate that “something,” but a good consultant can interpret answers as needed.  “It’s just friendly church” may mean, “They connected with me relationally.” “I feel important here,” may mean, “The church has given me some purpose.”  “I get answers here” may well reflect the church’s commitment to teaching truth.

Our goal should be to reach and keep new believers in the church. What other steps would you recommend?  

Chuck Lawless currently serves as Professor of Evangelism and Missions and Dean of Graduate Studies at Southeastern Seminary. You can connect with Dr. Lawless on both Twitter and Facebook.

photo credit: Lynn Kelley Author via photopin cc

An Open Letter to My Denomination: Have We Lost Our First Love?

Dear Southern Baptists:

I could be writing to a broader audience. Perhaps I should be. And I know many outside our denomination will read this brief letter. I hope those readers will bear with me as I have a “family discussion.”

Please hear me clearly. I am not writing out of any sense of superiority. Indeed, many of you could put me to shame. But my heart is breaking with what I perceive to be a loss of passion for those who do not know Christ. Many of you have seen the numbers. We are reaching fewer people for the gospel today than we did decades ago when we were a much smaller group.

The First Love

Where is the passion in most of our churches to reach the lost? Where is the passion among our leaders, both in our churches and in our denomination? Jesus told those at the church at Ephesus that they had sound doctrine, that they hated evil (Revelation 2:1-7). But He also told them they had lost their first love. When we truly love Jesus with all of our hearts, we can’t help but tell others about Him. We can’t help but share the good news.

I thank God for our contending for the faith. I thank God for our affirmation of the total truthfulness of Scripture. I thank God for orthodoxy. But I pray that it is not becoming a dead orthodoxy—an orthodoxy that has lost its first love.

The Purpose of the Letter

The purpose of this letter is not to chastise. I am a messed up sinner who has no right to look at the splinter in the eyes of my brothers and sisters when I need to deal with the plank in my own eye. I need to fall more deeply in love with Jesus. I need to share His love as part of my very being. In His power I must do more and I must do better.

No, the purpose of this letter is simply to share a broken heart, and to express a heartfelt desire to change. I must love Jesus more deeply and tell others about Him more often. I must show Christ’s love not only with my words, but with every action and interaction I have. I must be more like Him every day.

I have no proposal. I have no new programs for now. I simply have a burden.

And as a commitment to God first, but then a commitment to you, I am asking God to lead me to love Him more deeply than I ever have. I am asking God to put people in my life where I can show His love, and tell them about my Savior.

It Must Begin with Me

My life’s desire is to glorify God by loving Him with all my heart. And I have no right to say that unless I am so much in love with Him that I “am unable to stop speaking about what (I) have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20). Evangelism must be as natural to me as breathing.

Pastors, will you join me in this plea? Will you be an evangelistic example for the churches God has called you to serve? Laypersons, will you pray for evangelistic hearts in your own lives? I must make that prayer a part of my life every day.

Have we lost our first love? Is that love reflected in in how we share the gospel of Christ every day?

May God break me until I am all His, telling others about His Son every day.

And may the sharing of the good news of Christ once again become the focus of all our lives in the churches of our denomination.

Image via Baptist Press

Pray for Redeeming Grace Church

Location: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Pastor: Billy Morrison

Worship Time: 10:00 AM Eastern Time

Fast Facts: This church plant has spent the past year growing and multiplying home group Bible studies and today, they launch their first collective worship service. Please pray for their launch and for the families and community of Harrisburg to be impacted by the gospel.

Website: RedeemingGracePA.org

“Pray for . . .” is the Sunday blog series at ThomRainer.com. We encourage you to pray for these churches noted every Sunday. Please feel free to comment that you are praying as well.

If you would like to have your church featured in the “Pray for…” series, download this information form and return it to the address on the form.

Fourteen Sentences That Brought Joy to Pastors

I just received a letter from a delightful lady. She was a member of a church where I was ordained in the ministry. What I remember most about her was the way she offered encouragement to the pastors of that church.

The letter reminded me of so many good laypersons who served sacrificially in churches where I have been. With that in mind, I asked several pastors to recall something very positive said to them by church members. I asked them to try to summarize it in one sentence. Though I shouldn’t be surprised, each of the pastors did not hesitate to offer one “joyful sentence.”

Here are the fourteen I’ve accumulated thus far. They are only in the order I received them and wrote them on my iPhone.

“I would like to babysit your kids so you can go on a date with your wife.”
“Pastor, let me tell you specifically what I learned from your sermon and how it helped me.”
“Your wife should have the freedom to be herself in the church.”
“I confronted your critic about those unfounded claims he made about you.”
“I’m setting aside five minutes every day to pray for you and your family.”
“I explained to the personnel committee how a package is not the same as your salary.”
“Your kids should be able to live a normal life.”
“Thank you.”
“I want to help you recruit people to do ministry.”
“I am so thankful for the time you spend in sermon preparation.”
“We don’t expect you to attend every meeting or function.”
“Let me do that for you.”
“Tell me how I can most help your wife.”
“Here is a gift card to get you some books for your library.”

Yes, ministry is tough. Yes, we run into some difficult people more often than we like. But the reality is there are so many good people, so many good church members. These are but a few of the reminders of how pastors have been blessed by those church members.

What would you add to this list?

Worship Wars – Rainer on Leadership #037

Podcast Episode #037

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Every church I pastored had a disagreement at some point about the style of music. I’m guessing that if you’re a pastor, you probably have the same story. If not, you must not have been a pastor for too long. In this week’s episode, Jonathan and I discuss why worship wars happen, how to work through them, and three reasons we may see them becoming less frequent:

Fewer Churches with Different Services with Different Styles
Resurgence of Hymnody
Unifying of the Boomers and the Millennials

Episode Sponsor

This week’s podcast is brought to you by Pastors Today. This weekly newsletter provides pastors with resources and information from around the web written specifically for pastors. For more information and to subscribe, visit blog.lifeway.com/pastorstoday.

Feedback

If you have a question you would like answered on the show, fill out the form on the podcast page here at ThomRainer.com. If we use your question, you’ll receive a free autographed copy of I Am a Church Member.

Resources

LifeWay Worship
LifeWay.com/Worship
Keith Getty
The Millennials
I Am a Church Member

Friday Is for Freebies: Nik Ripken 2-Pack

This week’s freebie giveaway is a pair of books by Nik Ripken.

First up is Ripken’s latest book The Insanity of Obedience, a bold challenge to global discipleship. Nik Ripken exposes the danger of safe Christianity and calls readers to something greater. The Insanity of Obedience challenges Christians in the same, provocative way that Jesus did. This book dares you—and prepares you—to cross the street and the oceans with the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Some of Jesus’ instructions sound uncomfortable and are potentially dangerous. We may be initially encouraged by His declaration, “I am sending you out.” But how are we to respond when He then tells us that He is sending us out “like sheep among wolves”?

In light of the words of Jesus, how can modern day believers rest comfortably in the status quo? How can we embrace casual faith in light of the radical commands of Jesus which are anything but casual? Ripken brings decades of ministry experience in some of the most persecuted areas of the world to bear on our understanding of faith in Jesus. The Insanity of Obedience is a call to roll up your sleeves . . . and to follow and partner with Jesus in the toughest places on this planet.

Also included is Ripken’s debut book The Insanity of God, the personal and lifelong journey of an ordinary couple from rural Kentucky who thought they were going on just your ordinary missionary pilgrimage, but discovered it would be anything but. After spending over six hard years doing relief work in Somalia, and experiencing life where it looked like God had turned away completely and He was clueless about the tragedies of life, the couple had a crisis of faith and left Africa asking God, “Does the gospel work anywhere when it is really a hard place? It sure didn’t work in Somalia.

Nik recalls that, “God had always been so real to me, to Ruth, and to our boys. But was He enough, for the utter weariness of soul I experienced at that time, in that place, under those circumstances?” It is a question that many have asked and one that, if answered, can lead us to a whole new world of faith.

How does faith survive, let alone flourish in a place like the Middle East? How can Good truly overcome such evil? How do you maintain hope when all is darkness around you? How can we say “greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world” when it may not be visibly true in that place at that time? How does anyone live an abundant, victorious Christian life in our world’s toughest places? Can Christianity even work outside of Western, dressed-up, ordered nations? If so, how?

Enter this week’s Friday Is for Freebies giveaway

To enter this week’s giveaway, fill out the form below. Entries will be closed at midnight Saturday night. We will contact the winner via email on Monday morning. Names and addresses are deleted each week and are just used to select a winner.

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After submitting your entry, you will be directed back to the ThomRainer.com homepage. By entering, you acknowledge and accept the terms of the promotion.

Notable Voices – January 9, 2014

3 Biggest Reasons Why Bible Reading Is Down — Peter Enns

Peter shares some findings from a recent study by Biblica on why Bible reading has decreased. The main reasons are due to people reading the Bible in fragments, a-historically, and in isolation.

 

Leadership and Language — Eric Geiger

When you are a leader, it’s critical for you to continually remind others of the meaning behind the essential language of the organization. Those important words require both definition and repetition.

 

The Pastor as Theologian — Al Mohler

Al Mohler shares why it’s important for pastors to also be theologians. Partly because it is essential in “teaching, preaching, defending, and applying the great doctrines of the faith.”

 

5 Problems with Church Music Battles (And How to Address Them) — Carey Nieuwhof

In a recent post, I noted how we might be seeing an end to worship wars within the church. I even listed that as one of my predictions for 2014. In step with my posts, Carey shares five ways to address those worship wars.

 

5 Ways Physical Training Helps With Spiritual Training — Ron Edmondson

At the newly launched Pastors Today website, Ron shows five links between physical discipline and spiritual discipline.

 

The Six People Americans Now Trust More Than Their Pastor — Christianity Today

This new research from Gallup shows how the trust factor for pastors and clergy has declined in recent years. In fact, less than half of Americans rate clergy highly on honesty and ethics.

Seven Things We Learned from Pastors’ Kids

It was not the response to a blog post I expected. Back in June of 2013, I wrote a post speaking on behalf of pastors for their kids. I summarized seven major things pastors wanted you to know about their children. The article had a big response when it was first posted. But, for reasons I have not completely fathomed, the post went viral a few weeks ago. Now almost 200,000 views and hundreds of comments later, we can see a pretty clear picture.

You see, the majority of those who responded were pastors’ kids. So, instead of hearing from pastors about their children, we heard directly from the children themselves. Some were teenagers still living with their parents. Others were adults who grew up as PKs. All of them had pretty strong opinions.

As I read again through the plethora of comments, I developed seven major themes from these PKs. Not all of their comments were negative, but a majority did communicate some level of pain. Here is what they said:

The glass house is a reality. People are always looking at the PKs. They have trouble saying or doing anything without someone, usually a church member, making a comment. Most of these PKs (and former PKs) felt a great deal of discomfort living in the glass house. Some even expressed bitterness.
Some church members made a positive and lasting impression on PKs. One of the more frequent positive comments we heard were about the church members who loved and cared for the PKs. Many of them took the children under the wings and made a positive difference in their lives.
Some church members were jerks to the PKs. Many of the stories are heartbreaking. It is really hard to imagine some of the awful words that were said to the PKs. Some still feel the sting of those words decades later.
Many PKs resent the interrupted meals and vacations. They felt like their pastor parent put the church before the family. One PK, now an adult, lamented that every vacation his family took was interrupted; and many times the vacation was truncated.
Some of the PKs have very positive memories when their parents included them in the ministry. I read comments about hospital visits, nursing home visits, and ministry in the community. These PKs absolutely loved doing ministry with mom and dad. They felt like the church ministry was something the whole family did.
A key cry from the PKs was: “Let me be a regular kid.” A number of the PKs expressed pain from the high expectations placed upon them by both their parents and church members. Others said that some church members expected them to behave badly because that’s just what PKs do.
Some PKs left the church for good because of their negative experiences. They viewed local congregations as a place for judgmental Christians who are the worst of hypocrites. They have no desire ever to return. You can feel the resentment and pain in their comments. Their hurt is palpable.

On the one hand, I feel badly for the opening of wounds that blog post caused. On the other hand, I am grateful for the forum it allowed for many of the PKs to express themselves.

If you are a PK, do you identify with these comments? How do the rest of you react to their hopes and hurts?

photo credit: Joe Thorn via photopin cc

Four Ways to Make Your Small Group Evangelistic

By Chuck Lawless

As a pastor, I learned early that small groups are essential to a church.  They provide opportunities for growth we could not offer in a large group setting.  Members cared for each other when I could not possibly be there to meet every need in the church.  More specifically, small groups became a central player in our church’s evangelistic strategy.

Most healthy churches have both open groups and closed groups. Open groups use an on-going curriculum that allows guests to enter the study at any point; emphasize evangelism, with the goal of becoming an entry point for guests; and strive to grow enough to multiply at least annually.  Closed groups use a set curriculum that limits entrance once a study has started; typically meet for a set number of weeks; and emphasize discipleship, with the goal of strengthening a believer’s walk.

The problem in most churches is this: open groups become closed groups when steps are not taken to avoid this direction. Because evangelism is difficult, many open groups see few unbelievers attending their group. The evangelistic focus thus quietly disappears as the group slowly becomes closed.

How does a church make sure that open groups remain evangelistic?

1. Be aware of indicators that an open group is losing its evangelistic focus. 

I know of no open group that intentionally decides to be inwardly focused. I have, though, seen many open groups lose their evangelistic focus.  Watch for these indicators that an open group is moving in the wrong direction:

a failure to reproduce another group at least every two years
a leader who refuses to raise up an apprentice to lead another group
a steady decline in the number of guests who attend the small group
group members who complain that “the curriculum is not deep enough for us”—thus showing they believe the group is more for them than for others
no new group members within the last six months
no planned fellowship/outreach events within the last six months.

2. Choose the right small group leaders.

Most, if not all, problems in small groups can be fixed by selecting the right leaders.  A strong small group leader will teach anywhere, reach out to anybody, and make any curriculum work.  Likewise, the right small group leader will help the group keep its focus on evangelism.

If your groups are intended to be evangelistic, seek these characteristics in leaders:

good teaching skills so that believers and non-believers alike will want to attend and learn. A boring small group leader will lull a group into irrelevance.
a stated willingness to reproduce the class – that is, to reach people, train them, and send the strongest out to begin another class.  A small group leader who is unwilling to send out “class missionaries” will not lead his class to be evangelistic.
a lifestyle of personal evangelism.  Few small group leaders suddenly focus on evangelism when they start to lead a group.

3. Continually challenge small group members to think about non-believers.

This practical step sounds almost too basic, but it is critical.  The longer people are in a church, and the higher they rise in church leadership, the more likely is they will be disconnected from non-believers.  Without realizing it, most of us get cocooned in the church world.  We get comfortable in our world and almost dare outsiders to disrupt it.

Good small group leaders push hard against this tendency.  They ask group members to share names of non-believers for whom they are praying.  They hold members accountable for intentionally developing relationships with unbelievers.  They model evangelism by telling stories of persons for whom they are praying.  They lead the small group to plan fellowship activities that unbelievers might attend.

4. Celebrate when group members become believers.

What better way to rejoice than to throw a party when a non-believer chooses to follow Christ?  The small group that has prayed for that person, reached out to her, invited her to fellowships, and welcomed her into the group surely is ready to celebrate when God changes her heart.  Bake a cake, buy some ice cream, and give some presents!

In fact, the gift options are numerous – a Bible, Christian music, a devotional guide, a journal, Christian books, and a family magazine subscription are all possibilities.  The gift need not be elaborate to let the new believer know you celebrate what God has done.

Here’s the point: God-honoring, Christ-centered celebrations will help your small group’s evangelistic outreach.  Clearly and intentionally praise the Lord every time He uses your group as a means to change a life – and then ask Him to use your group again.  Evangelistic small groups are actually quite fun when evangelism takes place and lives are transformed.

What other strategies would you recommend?

Chuck Lawless currently serves as Professor of Evangelism and Missions and Dean of Graduate Studies at Southeastern Seminary. You can connect with Dr. Lawless on both Twitter and Facebook.

photo credit: marcia.furman via photopin cc

Confessions of an Obese Christian

I have struggled with my weight most of my adult life. Like many dieters, I have lost hundreds of pounds, only to gain them back again. Being overweight has been one of the most disheartening parts of my life, a life that has been blessed in so many other ways.

It would be too embarrassing for me to tell you all the different ways I have tried to lose weight. I will confess that I have been susceptible to the latest fad diet on more than one occasion. And I have increased my exercising for a season, only to revert back to my more sedentary lifestyle.

I am a meat and potatoes guy. I really don’t like any green food unless it is lime sherbet. I have eaten poorly. I have eaten too much. And I have exercised too little. My obesity is but one indicator of the bad choices I have made with food and exercise.

A Point of Reckoning

About two months ago I was playing with one of my grandchildren. I was exhausted. I had no reason to be so tired. Well I did have one reason. I am obese. My lack of energy was the result of my terrible lifestyle. So I looked into the eyes of my grandchild. I wondered if I would be able to keep up with all of my grandchildren. Indeed I wondered if I would live to see them grow up.

I needed help. I needed God’s strength. So I made a decision then that my life had to change. Not with a fad diet. Not with a flurry-and-done exercise regime. But with prayer, obedience, and a reasonable diet and lifestyle.

A Point of Conviction

I am a Christian. Some may say I am a Christian leader. Some people look to me as an example. Frankly, I have been a poor example, a poor witness. I have had a lifestyle of sin of gluttony and slothfulness. I have no right to be a leader, if I am one, with the awful model that I am and have been.

Something had to change. So almost two months ago, I gave up. At least I gave up trying by myself. I needed God’s strength, His conviction, and His path. Indeed the path I travel is very slow for a goal-oriented person like me. It involves reasonable and healthy eating. It involves reasonable exercise. And it means that I am making a lifestyle change, not going on yet another crazy diet.

The progress is slow. I am still obese, but I am making progress. In God’s strength, and by giving myself to Him daily on this matter, I feel for the first time that there is really hope for change. It’s ironic. I say I trust Him in all matters, yet I have never really given him my sins of gluttony and slothfulness.

Until now.

A Point of Clarification

Allow me to be clear. I am not turning this blog into “Thom’s daily weight and health progress,” though you are free to ask me how I’m doing. You are free to hold me accountable. But I won’t bore you to death with the details of my health.

No, the reason I wrote this post is because some of you say you look to me as an example. I’m not sure why you do, but that’s what you tell me. Hear me clearly: I have been a lousy example in this key area of my life.

Obesity has become one of the leading contributing killers in America. And, at least by example, I have contributed to the malady. And, even more importantly, my Christian witness has been compromised by my selfish indulgences.

I must change. In God’s power, I must change.

And I am sufficiently selfish to tell you that I would greatly appreciate your prayers.

image via mykitchencapers.com