Starting and leading a local church
To summarize what we understand from the Bible:
1) There are sheep in our fold.
Basically, this means that many (hopefully most or all) of our sheep in our fold are saved people, wanting to serve God and please Him in some degree. Our ministry is to serve the sheep working God’s will and desire for them. On the one hand, we should help them grow spiritually, and on the other hand, we should confront their sin, rebuke it, pray for them, and see them get victory over there sins.
Why are Missions declining? by a missionary/pastor on the foreign mission field discusses why are Missions declining? This article investigates the decline in missions in American Christianity. This greatly important topic is just not addressed in most circles of Christianity. They deal with it lightly but never get to the essentials of what is going on and how to turn it around.
What is a biblical New Testament Church? There is a principle that says, you cannot hit a target if you don’t know what it is. Simply put, we as “church” cannot be “church” if we don’t have a firm concept of what “being the church” consists of. I read works by people who attack and are antagonistic to the traditional church (mostly negativism), and those who would transform it into something else.
Fixing a Ruined Church is an article and suggestions on how to fix a ruined, sick church by getting back to the basics of what a church is and should be.
I read an article named, 4 Starter Ideas for the Care and Treatment of an Unhealthy Church (a good article by the way), and in it, it mentions some tips on how to “treat” the patient of an unhealthy church. From that general idea I want to expand on some of my thoughts of that post.
Helps for Pulpit Committees
by Pastor/Missionary David Cox
Hello, I suppose you are reading this because your church is without a pastor or is looking for a new pastor, and you have some kind of interest or obligation in finding the new pastor. This work is to help you get your head screwed on straight about the process and concisely help you. Here I will try to be brief, but the subject matter needs to be studied intensively before the process begins, and if the process is already in progress, the members of the Pulpit Committee need to really study this material to guide them into a man which honors God and is God’s will for your church.
You should separate (1) what has happened in the past in your church, from (2) what is the new minister coming into your church. Do not project what problems you had with past ministers into your new pastor, nor should you ignore what you should have learned from those bad experiences.
