What Is Church?

I believe that when we all get to Heaven, there will be many people shocked and bewildered that Jesus will not like the way that they did church while on earth. I see the church of the first century and compare it to the practices of a lot of churches today and amazed how far off the mark many have gone. I am not claiming that the first century church was perfect, just a casual study of Acts and several of the epistles proves for a fact that they were far from perfect. But there were quite a few things that they did get right. Today I want to point out three operations that the Bible says that the church ought to be involved in:

The Great Commission

Mark 16:15, “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”

The church exists to be a vehicle of the furtherance of the Gospel. This is the primary function of the church. I have been asked before, “Should the church focus on evangelism or should it focus on discipleship?” The answer is… “Yes.” I understand, some churches emphasize one over the other. Some churches focus on winning souls but they never do anything to help baby Christians to grow, whereas some churches get so wrapped up in searching out the depths of Scripture that they forget to look outward to a lost and dying world. A balanced church will reach out to a sinful world, and when those people get saved that church will bring them in, teach them the Word of God (discipleship) and then send them out to do the work of the ministry and reach more people for Jesus.

We are guilty of treating the church as more of a book club and less like an army. The point is to recruit more soldiers and then train them to go out and recruit more soldiers. The church does not continue without the Great Commission. By the way, I believe that is one of the reasons why we are seeing a decline in church attendance and in Christianity in our nation today, for more than a generation the church has been fixated on making the sinful world conform to its standards by using the government as its tool at the expense of spreading the Gospel, which will transform the sinful world, with the Bible as our tool. Satan does everything he can to stop us from spreading the truth of the Gospel, because it is the Gospel that has the power to save souls and change lives. Why has the church become satisfied with simple conformity to our way of life rather than yearning for the transformative work of the Gospel? Complacency. Laziness. Pride. The church is about spreading the Gospel.

Worship

Next time you go to a church service, I want you to intentionally think about how each aspect of the service is an act of worship. I look at Calvary Baptist Church’s particular schedule of events for our worship services and notice that each action done is for the purpose of worship (with the exception of Announcement time). The first thing that comes to mind is the singing of songs, we do not do that as a time filler so that we do not have to listen to the pastor preach an hour long sermon, we do it as an act of worship. Our tithes and offerings are an act of worship. It is saying, “Lord, you have been so good to me, I want to give you something in return.” Truly a time of worship. The preaching of God’s Word is worship, as it is approached in a desire to learn more about our God and his Word. Even the altar call at the end of the sermon is an act of worship, as it is kneeling down before God and saying, “Lord, I am convicted of my sin, please help me to please you with my life!”

The problem is, too often we approach Sunday morning as more of a routine than actual worship. “I sing because that is what we do every week”, “I give because I have to”, “Pastor preaches because he has to do something around here,” It all becomes a routine rather than an act of true worship. Let me challenge you, when you walk into your church on Sunday, have a worshipful attitude. Participate in the service as if God is standing in front of you and you are worshiping Him (because He is and you are!)

Growth in the Word

Acts 17:11, “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”

I was once told that doctrine and theology were for a pastor to know and not the laypeople. It is a shame that a lot of people feel this way. There are plenty of Christians who have been saved for decades but still only have a surface concept of their faith. As the average Christian how to prove from the Bible that Jesus is God and they may break out in hives out of fear. How many Christians know how to go through the Gospel and lead someone to Christ? Too few! How many Christians actually understand their salvation and all the beauty of it? Again, too few. We go to church so that we can grow in the Word of God. By the way, this does not contradict my first point at all. True growth in the Word of God will motivate me and equip me to be a better soul winner. A Christian who knows what the Bible says about eternal security can show that to another Christian who is wavering. A Christian that can show the deity of Christ in the Gospels is better equipped to show that Jesus indeed died on the cross and rose again for our sins. A Christian that dives deeper into learning everything that happened to them at the moment of their salvation will be amazed and more thankful and, in turn, motivated to reach more people with the Gospel. The Bible is an incredible book (quite the understatement!) we need to dig deep into it, and when we do, we will be motivated to serve more. That is why I suggest being in church every time the doors are open. The way I preach (and a lot of pastors do too), is on Sunday morning I preach in a series (right now in the ministry of Christ) Sunday night I typically do stand alone sermons as God leads me to preach, and then on Wednesday night we do a verse by verse study of a book of the Bible (right now we are in Revelations). That gives us a well-rounded schedule of Bible study not just in where in the Bible we are studying but even in how we are studying it. But the point is all the same- Growth.

I believe that in many churches today we have lost sight of these three things. We have become overly concerned with making the church our own little family group that gets together every week. We make it into a social club. We use the funds of the church to cater to the whims of our own rather than reaching a dying world with the Gospel. We have meals and potlucks just for the sake of having them, rather than using them to bring people in from the fields of sin. Do not forget Jesus’ purpose for the church, and do not forget to follow it. If we are to be Jesus’ church, we are to follow his rules. 

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Why Are Young People Leaving the Church (And What Can We Do About It)?

I am a young pastor. I pastor an “older” church. I am one of the youngest adult members of the church that I pastor but it is my desire to change that. In these past three years I have been introduced to countless people my age and almost every time I ask them about church they will say, “Oh, I went to church as a kid, but I don’t anymore,” or worse, “Oh yeah! I used to go to Calvary Baptist Church (which is the church that I pastor)!” This sentiment is not just in Hartwell, GA, but it is everywhere. Plenty of my friends on Facebook grew up in Bible-preaching churches, but are now no longer active, turned off by the church and its people. What happened? I know that some have written long articles about this very subject, but I hope to offer some insight from the perspective of being both a young man (at this point, 27 years old) and a senior pastor. Here are a few reasons, why I have seen, young people are leaving the church and what we, as the church, can do about it.

They Clung to People Rather than God

Everybody wants a hero. We all long for someone to look up to in life. A lot of teenagers are pressured by the church and Christian leaders to not make heroes out of sports figures, movie stars, or similar types of people. This is wise advise. It is foolish to make heroes or role models out of people who often life worldly, sinful lives. But what ended up happening for some of these teens is that in order to fill the void of needing a hero or role model, they went to their parents, youth pastor, senior pastor, coach at their Christian school, etc. You may say, “That is a good thing!” But I would suggest that it is not! I love my parents, they are wonderful people, but I am not fooled by something, my parents are sinners. My parents are capable of doing things that break the heart of God. So is your pastor, so is your youth pastor, or whoever else. This does not mean that they are not worthy of our admiration and respect, but it does mean that they are not perfect. When teens are inevitably presented with the harsh truth that their parents or their pastors are not perfect people they are quick to call out the word “hypocrite!” What they fail to understand is that, in many cases, their spiritual leaders are not hypocrites, they are simply sinners on the same spiritual journey that they are on, maybe a little further along, but on the same journey nonetheless. 

What Can We Do About It? The answer is simple. Make Jesus the hero. The moment that teens start clinging onto God instead of onto the adults in their life is when they begin to develop a truly deep relationship with God. Something that I strive to do as I preach is to often remind my congregation that I am a sinner. I worry, I have pride, I sometimes act carnally. Their relationship with the Lord is not based on my spirituality, it is based on the goodness of God. Preacher, Sunday school teacher, parent, make JESUS the hero, don’t make yourself the hero. Making Jesus look good and lifting up his name will cause the young people of the church to be less disillusioned with the sinners surrounding them in church.

They Learned the Rules of Our Faith but not the Relationship

If a teenager is active in your church’s youth group and goes to your Christian school, they are aware of the rules of our faith. Their are quite a lot of rules too! As adults, we understand that there is a need for rules. Rules provide structure and organization. Also, rules keep sinful activity from being present in our youth groups and in our classrooms. Rules are good. The problem though, is that little children will follow a rule just because it is a rule and an adult says to follow it, a teenager will not. A teen wants to know why the rule is in place. Some adults may see such questioning as rebellion, but it certainly is not. Some adults do their best to silence such questioning, and they do themselves great harm in doing so. Teens question things, and that is what begins them on their personal journey of belief and knowledge. In other words, the teenage years are the prime years for a teen to practice their faith because THEY believe it rather than because their parents believe it. That is why the questioning of rules comes in, “Why don’t we say those words? Why don’t we watch that type of movie? Why don’t we have sex before marriage? Why are we supposed to behave this way?” When those questions go unanswered, it turns teens and young adults skeptical toward what we believe. A lot of spiritual leaders want their teens to simply fall in line and obey, but that is not what our ultimate goal ought to be. I was once told this, “Subdued and spiritual are not the same thing.” You may be doing well at getting your teen to obey, but that may very well end when they are out from under your roof if do not move them to being spiritual.

What Can We Do About It? Again, The answer is simple. Don’t just teach these young adults to adhere to rules, help them build a relationship with God. I once heard a good phrase, “Rules without relationship breed contempt”. Teach your teens why we have the rules we have, show them the Scripture that supports your rules (if you know the Scripture. if you don’t, it is time to start figuring it out!) But then teach them how to have a relationship with God- teach them to pray, teach them to read (no, study!) their Bibles. Take your teens from an area of doing to an area of being. Answer the “why” questions that they have and then show them the “how” about our faith. May I make an observation? I believe the BIG reason this goes undone is because many adults, who have been in the faith for decades, do not have a walk with God themselves. These young adults are not buying into all these rules without knowing why we have them, and you cannot expect them to.

They Did Not Learn Sound Doctrine

I have sat where many of our church teens are sitting. I have been to youth conferences that give emotional pleas the make decisions for the Lord. I have seen hundred of teens flood the aisles at camp meetings and youth conferences surrendering their hearts to Jesus. I have seen the tears of teens flow down their faces as they get things right with their peers and determine to live for Jesus. I have also seen less than 48 hours later, nearly every teen went back to living the same way and acting the same way they did before. What happened? Emotion driven decisions. Please do not misunderstand me, there is certainly a place for emotion when it comes to making decisions for Christ, and I believe that we ought to pull at these teens heartstrings, but THAT IS THE EASY PART. The hard part is moving passed the emotion and making them grounded. The only way to do that is with doctrine. Young adults can not survive in their faith through emotion alone, actually, emotion can only work so much by itself. If you are pulling at teens emotions without teaching them doctrine, over time they will grow to resent your use of emotion driven sermons and teaching to get them to make decisions for Christ. We need to use emotion in tandem with teaching the doctrinal truth, because ultimately it is doctrine that will keep our young adults in church and will make them grounded in our faith.

What Can We Do About It? Stop preaching “teen sermons” in youth group. What I mean is, a lot of youth pastors will preach sermons that they believe will appeal to their young audience. They preach a lot of sermons on faith, facing giants, God taking care of them, which are good subjects but do not make up much of what the Bible says at all, but do teach on the deity of Christ, the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives, the great depths of our salvation and how we can thoroughly enjoy it, the attributes of God, and what the church is in God’s eyes. Those may seem like topics that you do not think teens will listen to, but those are topics that they will need if they are going to stick around in the long run. I was once told that it is the pastor’s job to know doctrine and that it is the church members role to simply listen to sermons. Not many people are bold enough to voice that opinion, but I believe that is a sentiment shared by many. The problem with that thinking is that doctrine is and what should be the thing that strengthens us and keeps us in the church. Teach them Biblical truth.

They Are Turned Off By Traditionalism

We have done ourselves great harm in focusing on our traditions rather than on the good news of the Bible. I remember one time me and a few of my friends came up with a way to get more children to ride into church on our church buses. We were so excited about this program we had made and were prayerful about getting these young children in church. On the day that I was setting up for our special day, a lady came up to me with a sour look on her face and she said, “We’ve never done things this way before!” Honestly, hearing her say that, hearing her tone of voice, and seeing the anger on her face quenched my spirit. But looking back, I would have asked “young me” these questions: Does this idea go against the teachings of the Bible? The answer to that was no. Does this idea compromise anyones standards? Again, the answer was no. Does this idea have the potential to bring children into the church so they can hear the Gospel? The answer was ABSOLUTELY. So then, why should I give it a second thought whether or not the church had “never done this before”. Listen, just because your church has done something the same way for 3 decades does not mean that it is the right way to do things. I see where this attitude is coming from too, many older adults do not see the church as Jesus’ church but as their church. They feel as if everything should be centered around their comfort and that no changes ever ought to be made. They have “their” pew, and “their” parking spot, and they believe they are entitled to the church being exactly the way they want because they financially support the church. Here is the problem with that, the church does not belong to you, it belongs to Jesus, the church does not bow down to your whims and desires, it bows down to the command of Christ, that command includes reaching and even keeping young adults. These teens have creativity flowing through their minds, and when they start wanting to serve Jesus, those creative ideas are going to start coming up. Instead of squelching the creativity and zeal out of them, encourage it. It is ok to do a few new things, it is ok to have a different approach, and it is ok to follow the creative lead of a teen.

What Can We Do About It? I have challenged my congregation that they ought to never argue that we should not do something simply because we have never done it before. If they have a problem with a new program, new ministry, or new idea they ought to come to me with Scripture in hand or with a reasonable, well-thought out reason why it won’t work rather than say, “Well, this is the way we’ve always done it and we don’t want it to change.” Be open to listen to your young adults. I know that many older adults believe themselves to be the “fount of all wisdom” and that their voices should be the only ones heard in the church. I respect the opinions of older adults, and appreciate their decades of labor and service for the Lord, but their opinion is not the only one in the room, and sometimes their opinion is not the right one in the room. Do not turn a deaf ear to these younger Christians.

I believe that these 4 points all boil down to one main theme: Authenticity. What is missing in many churches today is a real walk with the Lord and our young adults can see right through it. From my experience with young adults, they do not necessarily want the things that everyone says they want in a church. A lot of pastors think they can attract young adults by having concerts, by building coffee shops in their churches, and by using slang while they preach. Young adults are not looking for that, they are looking for an authentic experience. They are looking for a place where the Bible is preached unapologetically, by a man of God who admits that he is not perfect but on the same spiritual journey as they are, surrounded by people who sincerely strive to follow Jesus and want to help others on their journey. Boy, that is a tall order, but that is what the church is supposed to be and what we are supposed to do.

By the way, Our church is beginning to turn the corner with young adults. We now have several young couples who are involved in the church, they are excited, they are growing, they are writing notes during sermons, and soaking it all in. In our country, most churches are losing young adults by large numbers, but at Calvary Baptist Church we are gaining young adults slowly but surely. I believe that has to do with understanding these 4 points and what we ought to do about them.

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Observing the Sower

Matthew 13:3, “And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;”

As the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, I believe that God has called me to be a sower, and also to get the members of my church to be sowers. I am unashamed that I heavily emphasize the subject of spreading the Gospel in my preaching. Plenty of other pastors focus on “hobby horses” that may or may not be central in God’s Word, but I believe it is important to keep the Great Commission as our top priority. This upcoming year, 2016, is going to be a great year for Calvary Baptist Church. We are stepping out in faith and are planning an unprecedented year of outreach with Love Works Month, Friend Day, door knocking goals, Thursday and Saturday visitation, as well as several other events and programs. The members of Calvary Baptist Church will know (if they do not already) that we are meant to be a lighthouse for the lost, sowing the seed of the Gospel wherever we are able to. With that vision in mind, I was reading the parable of the sower and I made a few observations about this character that will help us in our service for the Lord:

1. The Sower Sowed the Seed

This may sound like an incredibly obvious point, but sadly it is overlooked. The seed, in this passage, is the Word of God. It is the job of the sower to sow the Word of God. Notice, the seed was the only thing that the sower sowed, nothing else. We live in a world that is becoming increasingly socially conscious, which is not bad thing. I fear though that in this consciousness, we (as the church) have lost track of being spiritually conscious. Let me give an example: A few weeks ago I received a pamphlet in the mail at church. It was about churches giving special love offerings to these agencies in order to help people in 3rd world countries get livestock, such as cows, water buffalo, chickens, etc. I believe that it is a good thing to give livestock to third world countries, but I believe that giving the Gospel is better. If I am going to give time, energy, and resources to something, it ought to be to the spreading of the Gospel. Why? Because a cow or a chicken is not going to save a soul from Hell, the Gospel of Jesus Christ will. In this Christmas season, there will be a lot of causes vying for your attention and your donations, all of which are noble and good, but do not get sidetracked and forget that the Gospel is the most important. Giving to the missions program at your church, give of your time to go door knocking and telling people about Jesus. If you are a sower, you must sow the seed. A sower that does not sow the seed is a worthless sower.

2. The Sower Didn’t Focus on the Ground

My wife and I have tried gardening for two years now, one year was a great success whereas this last year was an utter failure. I am not good at making straight lines, but my wife assured me that it was important to plant the seed in straight lines. Not only that, but it was important that the ground be tilled so that it was nice and loamy enough for a plant to grow. I am by no means an expert in gardening, and it confuses me when gardening experts talk about “PH balance” and “full sun”. We are meticulous about how seed gets planted these days. In the story of the sower though, we do not see that. In fact, by the way the story looks, it would seem as if the sower is just tossing the seed wherever with little to no regard as to where the seed landed. And that is the whole point. The sower did not inspect the ground and say, “Well, this ground is good, but this ground is thorny” instead he threw the seed wherever he could. As sowers for Christ, we cannot be picky and choosy over who we spread the Gospel to. When my dad was a young pastor, he was standing outside the door of his church with a member. A young couple pulled up in their car, they were visitors, and they began to walk into the church. My dad and the member greeted them and they went inside. The member looked at my dad and said, “They look like our kind of people!” Dad asked him, “What do you mean?” and the member said, “They are breathing!” The truth is, if they are breathing it is our job to reach them with the Gospel. Too often churches get focused on reaching a certain type of person, maybe someone of your own race or economic status or age; maybe someone who looks like a “church person” instead of just a random person from off the street. That is not how it should be. Often times I am guilty of this and the Holy Spirit has pricked my heart. I will tell myself, “That person doesn’t want to hear what I have to say!” And the Holy Spirit will say to me, “Tough! Tell them anyway! They need to hear the Good News!” Some churches will focus on getting the rich people to church at the expense of the poor, but the true sower does not care whether a person is rich or poor. The master told the servant (in another parable) to go to the highways and hedges and compel them to come in. Where was the servant supposed to go? EVERYWHERE! Jesus told his disciples to go to Jerusalem, all Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. Where did Jesus tell them to go? EVERYWHERE! Who did he tell them to witness to? EVERYONE! Stop focusing on the ground and focus on the seed and getting it out to as many people as you possibly can.

3. The Sower has No Name

I understand that one of the hallmarks of Jesus’ parables is that none of the characters ever have a name (the rich man and Lazarus is not a parable). But I feel it is especially significant in this story. We call this parable “The Parable of the Sower”, but interestingly enough, the sower only appears in one verse, and all that it says about him is that he went forth to sow. Really, I believe that it would be more accurate to call this parable “The Parable of the Seed and Ground” because the sower plays a minor role, at best, in this story. What is the point? The sower got no attention, he just did what he needed to do. Too many Christians seek the praise of men instead of seeking the glory of God. They want their name in the bulletin or they want the pastor to mention them from the pulpit for a job well done or maybe even they want a thank you. But this sower was not thanked for his work, he was not named, he did not receive any attention at all, he simply did what he was supposed to do. I have found that Christians who constantly seek attention for their service are miserable people, reason being is that they lost their focus. The happiest people on earth are the Christians who learned that this life is not about them, but it is about giving glory to God and spreading the Good News of the Gospel. When a Christian loses focus of the importance of the Gospel he becomes caustic, bitter, and more prone to get his feelings hurt. That can be combatted with focusing on what God wants us to focus on: The salvation of the lost. My challenge to you: Put your nose to the grind and get to work for Jesus. Do not care about attention or praise, do not make sure people see what you are doing. God sees, and He is the only one who matters! Focus on spreading the seed.

I hope you are doing your part in spreading the Gospel. As we enter into a new year, make it a point to commit to God to be a better soul winner in the year 2016. Be a sower.

3 Major Problems With Modern, American Christians

I am so thankful that God had me to be born in the United States of America. I will not say that the USA is not without its flaws, because there are many, but I can still say that, for the most part, the USA is a good nation. I have life, liberty, and I can pursue happiness in a way that is not common in many other places in the world. I am also thankful to be a Christian. I praise the Lord every day that he, in mercy and grace, came down to this world to die on a cross in order to save a wretched sinner like me.  Being an American and being a Christian are two of the most important aspects of my life, but unfortunately, when blended together, it produces something that I am not proud of: being a modern, American Christian.

It doesn’t take a incredibly insightful person to see that an overwhelming majority of Christians in the United States are heading the wrong way. And as I look over the spiritual landscape of the churches and Christians in our country I see three major problems:

A Lack of Biblical Understanding

I have found that there is a severe lack of Biblical understanding in the churches across our nation. People do not know their Bibles. Unfortunately, we do our best to teach our children to memorize Bible verses and learn Biblical principles at a very young age through programs such as Awana, Masters Club, Kings Kids, etc. But we neglect to learn more about the Bible as adults. It is unfortunate that I can ask the average person who has been saved for 30 years or more to show me from the Bible proof of the deity of Christ, and most will not be able to show me, they wouldn’t really know where to start. A lack of Biblical understanding produces weak Christians. And it is because of weak Christians that false doctrines such as Calvinism, the Prosperity Gospel, relativism, and liberal textual criticism have found a foothold. It is very easy to swallow false doctrine when you don’t know true Biblical doctrine. I believe that there are two main reasons why there is a lack of Biblical understanding in our modern, American churches. First, there is a lack of personal Bible reading. Bible reading may be one of the most neglected parts of the Christian life. Many do not read their Bible regularly and those that do read it regularly often read very little. Let me ask you: how are you supposed to understand the Bible if you never read it? The second reason, there is a lack of solid Biblical preaching. Understand today, I am not saying that every pastor is guilty of this. I know many pastors who are very thorough in their preaching of the Bible and do their best to feed their flocks. But I have seen, time and time again, preachers who are more concerned with being sensational than being doctrinal, or producing emotion instead of producing conviction, or tickling ears instead of breaking hearts. Too many preachers fear to get in their pulpits and preach “Thus saith the Lord” because it may mean ruffling a few feathers. If you are in a church like that, you need to leave at once and never look back. Find a solid, Bible preaching church. There is a lack of Biblical understanding among modern, American Christians because of a lack of personal Bible reading and a lack of Bible preaching.

2nd Timothy 4:3-4, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”

A Lack of Godly Service

When I was a child, there was a lady in our church who sang this one song once every year or so. The title of the song was, “My House is Full, But My Field is Empty”. That song has stuck with me all throughout my childhood and into my adult life. It is a shame that the message of this song is very true. I firmly believe that God has given each Christian the capacity to serve Him in some way. It doesn’t matter how old, young, rich or poor, God has called us to serve. When I used to teach children’s church I would tell the kids that they cannot be too young to be a soul winner. I brought my first soul to Christ when I was just 7 years old. I wasn’t a theological scholar, I wasn’t a “super Christian”, I was just a little boy who loved Jesus and wanted to see my classmate go to Heaven. If 7 year old Curtis King can do it, then you can do it. It is a shame though, that across America on Sunday morning there are a lot of full churches, but then on Monday through Saturday there are no Christians to be seen! No one is being a witness for Christ, no one wants to pick up people and drive them to church, no one wants to go the extra mile and actually DO something for Jesus. Yes, the house is full on Sunday but the field is very, very empty the rest of the week. I think what may be the problem is how Christians perceive the Christian life. I know, I have seen with my own eyes, Christians who treat going to church on Sunday morning as if it is their duty as a Christian. They treat Sunday as if it is their “Christian day” but then every other day of the week is a “normal person day”. Let me tell you something, Jesus does not want you to just be a Christian at church on Sunday. Jesus wants you to be a Christian all the time, no matter the day, time, or situation.

I fear that most Christians do not see the need to serve the Lord. I heard a statement once that says that 10 percent of the people in a church end up doing 90 percent of the work. I cannot disagree with that statement. Too many Christians come up with some sort of excuse to not serve, “I am to busy,”, “I don’t know how,” or, “We pay the preacher to do that.” None of those excuses will have any weight on judgement day.

John 4:35, “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.”

A Lack of Powerful Prayer

Christians in America are not getting their prayers answered. Do you know why? Most Christians in America are not praying. I tire of hearing Christians pray these vague, nonspecific prayers such as, “Bless so-and-so,” or “Be with so-and-so”! Do you know what those prayers mean? Absolutely nothing. They can mean just about whatever you want them to mean but at the same time mean nothing. Many Christians have convinced themselves that God doesn’t really answer prayer, therefore they pray these vague, general prayers, just to stay safe. I tire of hearing Christians give the terribly unBiblical excuse that God always answers, but sometimes he says yes, sometimes he says no, and sometimes he says to wait. I’m sorry, but my Bible tells me that if I ask ANYTHING of the Father in the name of Christ (or within the will of Christ) he WILL give it to me.Yes, that requires that I be filled with the Spirit, which in turn will mean that I will pray for what the Spirit would have me to pray for, but God says that He will honor that prayer. Why then do we settle to not pray?

God convicted me about this last year. I spent so much time worrying about the needs in our church until one day I was convicted to start praying about them. I wrote a list of the needs that our church had. It is a very specific list. Would you believe after several months of praying for very specific needs for our church, God miraculously provided answers to two of them! I prayed that God would give us a van to pick up people for church and he gave us one. I prayed for funds to fix a major flooding problem that the church basement has and God provided. God still answers specific, Spirit-filled prayers. Unfortunately, most Christians are content with praying vague, empty prayers. Ultimately, those vague, empty prayers are simply the fruit of a lack of faith in an all-powerful God.

John 14:13, “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”

These three major problems all lie under one major problem in modern Christian America, and that is a lack of commitment to the cause of Christ. Christ does not want me to be a Sunday Christian, he wants me to be an everyday Christian. If I am to be a disciple of Christ every day, it means that I am going to read my Bible and learn it, it means that I am going to serve the Lord, and it means that I am going to be a person with enough faith to pray and expect and answer. We do not live in a time that allows for uncommitted Christians. Allow me to ask you this question as I close this post: Is your all on the altar? Today, you must determine to give the Lord every single aspect of your life. Let’s break the destructive trend that has been set over the past few decades and commit ourselves to Christ.

Pastor King is the Pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Hartwell, GA

Three Spirits That Will Destroy A Church- Part 3

A Spirit of Apathy Rev. 3:14-16

The church of Laodicea had an apathy problem. They were lukewarm. The problem with the church of Laodicea was that, in our eyes, they were not bad people. They were just a regular church, filled with normal people. If the church in Laodicea existed today, they would be singing the same hymns as us, they would have the Lord’s Supper, they would meet every Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. They probably enjoyed each other’s company and they probably sang out during the song service, and they probably even listened when the preacher was preaching God’s Word. I also believe that if you would have walked up to most of the members of that church and asked them, “Do you believe that it is the church’s job to bring souls to Jesus?” They would have said, “Of course, obviously, that’s the Great Commission!” What was the problem with Laodicea? I believe it was the same problem that a lot of churches have today. Across America today, there are Christians who are lukewarm. Why is that? Because they have a Christianity that affects them on Sunday but not for the rest of the week. It isn’t that they are against people coming into the church and getting saved. In fact, when people start getting saved and baptized and when visitors come who do not look like “good Christians” they rejoice over the goodness of God. The problem is not that they feel entitled like the point before. The problem is that they are apathetic. They simply did not care. Once again, let me point out, if you were to ask them if they cared about lost souls, or having a fervent, passionate walk with God, they would give you a very confused look and say that they obviously did. What was the problem? Their words said one thing while their actions said another.

We have churches that are dwindling and dying all across this country and it is largely because of apathy in the pew. There are some Christians who feel entitled, there are some who doubt, but the overwhelming majority of Christians are simply apathetic. They do not care about living a genuine Christian life. They are content with their “Sunday only” Christianity. It has worked for them for years, why should they change it. They sit in the pew and hear sermons on reading the Bible, or on prayer, or on soul-winning and they nod and agree with what the pastor says, but then they wake up on Monday and don’t read the Bible, they don’t pray, and they don’t plan on being a witness for the Lord. Almost as if they are the exception to the rule. Maybe they make excuses for why they don’t go soul winning. Maybe they say ridiculous things like, “Well, soul winning is the pastor’s job” or, “I don’t want anyone to think bad of me if I witness”. And the church dies more and more with every passing year, because it has people willing to sit in a pew, but it doesn’t have people willing to crack open a Bible, or get on their knees, or walk a street with a handful of tracts.

My mom used to have a shirt that said, “Your talk talks and your walk talks, but your walk talks louder than your talk talks.” (Try to say that 5 times fast!) What a very true statement! We have a lot of Christians who play a part on Sunday but are someone totally different the rest of the week, their walk is talking louder than their Sunday talk talks. It’s no wonder that unsaved people refuse to get saved because of how hypocritical Christians can be. BECAUSE SO MANY CHRISTIANS ARE TOTALLY HYPOCRITES! But when you boil it down, it isn’t because those Christians are malevolent, it isn’t because they are mustache-twirling villains who want to see the world burn, it all simply comes down to the point that they do not care. They are apathetic.

I am amazed by the need for the Gospel that Hartwell, Georgia has. It seems like every time I go out soul winning their are people who have never heard the Gospel. I ask them, “Are you 100% sure that you are on your way to Heaven?” And most of the time people will shake their heads and say, “I know that I’m not going to Heaven. Before I came to Georgia, I lived in Maryland, and I honestly believed that it was going to be difficult winning souls to the Lord in Georgia, because it seems like in the South everyone thinks that they are already saved. But not Hartwell. In Hartwell, there are many, many lost people and they KNOW that they are lost. That burdens me. Not as a pastor, but as a Christian, it is my obligation to give them the Gospel. An apathetic person will hear that and say, “Well, that’s nice pastor, keep up the good work,” and never lift a finger to see souls saved, but a person who is passionate about their Saviour will say, “Sign me up for soul winning, pastor. There is a need and I want to help fill that need!”

Whatever happened to passionate Christians? Whatever happened to Christians who cared more about their growth in the Lord and the salvation of the lost than they cared about how much money they were making or the entertainment, or their quality of life? There used to be Christians who lived under the motto, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” But those Christians today are few and far between. Churches are dying. Yes, some are dying because of doubt, some are dying because of wicked Christians who feel entitled, but most are dying simply because an apathetic disinterest in serving the Lord. Don’t sit, soak, and sour. SERVE. God has called you to be more than a Sunday service Christian, he has called you to be an every day Christian.

A young lady named Rosina was enjoying a day on the town. She went to the city with a group of friends, they enjoyed a sightseeing and shopping. They went to a coffee shop and sat and drank some speciality lattes. It had been a great day, but the sun was going down and it was getting time for them to go home. As they walked to their car they walked past a dark alley where one single light showed Rosina and her group of friends that there was a man being beaten up by another man. Rosina and her friends were not sure what to do, so they simply kept walking to their car, acting as if they had never seen it and that nothing ever happened. The next day, as Rosina saw the newspaper, she was shocked to find that the man who had been beaten up in the alley ended up dying. She could’t help but feel responsible for the death of this man. If only she had called for help, if only she had dialed 911 and got the police or someone to come. She could have done something, but she didn’t, simply because she didn’t care to and a man died because of it.

We have a lost and dying world that we live in. It is on its way to Hell. Do you care? Do you care enough to do something about it, or will you just walk by and doom people to a Christless eternity. Apathy will not just affect you, but it will affect the unsaved that you come in contact with as well. The church can no longer afford apathetic Christians; now is the time for every single one of us to serve the Lord with a fervor and a passion for Him.

Conclusion: So, the question that you may be asking tonight is, “Pastor, is my church dying?” My honest answer is that I do not know. I cannot tell what is in your heart, neither can you tell me what is in mine. The question then should be this, “Am I killing my church or am I building it?” The spirits of doubt, entitlement, and apathy will kill this church, but a spirit of faith, selflessness, and passion will build it. Are you being a builder or a destroyer?

Read part one here and part two here.

Keep tuned in for a guest post by Kreig Durham coming soon, and a new series called, "Lessons from My Dad"!

Check out Calvary Baptist Church of Hartwell, GA here

Three Spirits That Will Destroy a Church- Part 2

A Spirit of Entitlement- 3rd John 9

3rd John 9, “I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.”

The Apostle John wrote the 3rd book of John as a letter to a friend and fellow-laborer named Gaius. Apparently he had tried to write a letter to the church that Gaius was a member of, but a man named Diotrephes took the letter and did not read it to the church. Now, we do not know who Diotrephes was. He may have been the pastor, he may have been a deacon, he may have just been a layman who checked the mail, regardless of who he was, John tells us why Diotrephes hid the letter from the church and that was because Diotrephes loved to have the preeminence among them. What does that mean? preeminent means to be superior, or to be important. Diotrephes was large and in charge. The church was all about him, and he liked it that way.

There is a spirit in a lot of churches that rings of the spirit that Diotrephes had. It is the spirit of preeminence or entitlement. Allow me to explain, people who feel like they are entitled are very selfish people. Everything revolves around them. They believe they deserve whatever it is they want, they get upset when they do not get their own way, and ultimately they act like the world must cater to them and their wants and needs.

Allow me to challenge your thinking today. I heard a preacher ask the question the other day, “Is the church for the saved or the unsaved?” To me, as I read my Bible, the answer is very simple. The church is for BOTH the saved and the unsaved. Unfortunately, a lot of people do not see it that way. You see, a lot of those churches that started off with a mission to see the people in their communities get saved began to slip in the years. They started taking their focus off of outside the walls of the church and became more self-focused. Many churches today only serve the purpose of care taking for its members. They don’t want to hear Gospel messages because they are already saved, they want to hear deep theological messages that will make them grow in their Christian life, they don’t like to spend any money on outreach, and the tracts the church gets had better be those ones that you can get for free or for very cheap, because we don’t want to waste our money on those fancy looking tracts. So churches have adopted the mentality of, “What do I want,” and “What do I need,” but have lost what the entire true purpose of the church is: Others. 

The pastor is not the head of the church. The church is not supposed to follow an personal agenda that the pastor has. The deacons are not the head of the church. If the deacons have their own personal agenda they should not be followed. The members are not the head of the church. And very many times there are church members who have their own personal agendas and they should not be followed. Who is the head of the church? Jesus Christ! And Jesus does have a personal agenda for the church. He didn’t say, “Go ye into all the world and put money into your church savings accounts,” he didn’t say, “ Go ye into all the world and make sure all programs are catered to your own personal whims and desires.” No! Jesus said, “Go ye into all the world and PREACH THE GOSPEL!” Jesus’ personal agenda for the church is that the church preach the Gospel to every creature. The church was not built for your comfort, it was built to be a lighthouse.

A church stops becoming a church when it stops caring about the souls of the lost. A church stops becoming a church when it isolates and alienates unsaved people when they come through the church doors. Many times an unsaved person has walked into a church because they felt a spiritual need but found that the “holy” people of the church treated them terribly. Maybe it was the way they were dressed, maybe they had the smell of alcohol on their breath, maybe they had piercings and tattoos; whatever it was, it was enough for the Christians in the church to turn their nose up at that unsaved person. You could hear church members saying things like, “We don’t want that kind of person at our church,” or, “Who does she think she is, wearing that here,” or, “if more people like that start coming here, we are going to have ourselves a problem.” And here is what happens, we give these people the cold shoulder and then they never darken the doors of the church ever again, and this person, who Jesus loves and who Jesus died for, slips off into a Christless eternity in Hell. All because of a few people, in a church, who decided that the church wasn’t about reaching unsaved people, but about themselves.

There was once a coastal town that had a problem with ship-wrecks. Apparently, the water became very shallow in some areas and there would be sharp rocks that would tear ships apart. A small band of people wanted to do something about this problem so they created a life-saving station. They built up a little wooden hut on the beach, so that they could keep their eyes on the coast and whenever a ship would wreck they would go out and rescue those that were about to drown. After saving several lives, the town started to take notice of the work that they were doing, and being kind-hearted, many citizens of the town started pitching in with finances and supplies for this life-saving station. The station started to accumulate boats and equipment which made it a lot easier to save lives. At one point the station had enough money that they decided to built a fancy headquarters, complete with bedrooms for ship-wreck survivors to stay in, a beautiful mosaic floor at the entrance, expensive pieces of art on the wall, a restaurant to eat in, a indoor pool, and many other luxuries. Over a stretch of time though, there were no shipwrecks, meaning that there was no one that needed to be rescued. So the members of the life-saving station grew complacent. They started using the HQ for their own benefit, enjoying what they had built. Until one day a large ship sank right off the coast. The life-saving station was able to rescue every person and so they brought them to the fancy, expensive headquarters. This caused a problem with several of the members. Some of the members did not like that wet and dirty people were walking through their immaculate buildings. Some of the members did not appreciate the new-comers interrupting their programs and activity. The members of the life-saving station called a board meeting. In the board meeting there was a rift between the members, some no longer were interested in saving lives because they were just interested in having an expensive club, while others believed that it was their purpose to save lives. In the end, those that wanted to save lives left to start a new life-saving station, while those who just wanted a exclusive club stayed in their fancy club-house. This sad story gets even more sad, because this second life-saving station became successful, and with success came money, and several years later they too lost their focus and became a club instead of a life-saving station. Today, in that town, you will find yacht clubs everywhere, but there is not a single life-saving station.

When did our churches lose their purpose? There came a point when many churches decided that they didn’t care about lost souls anymore, they only cared about themselves. I cannot think of anything more selfish than that. How dare we use our churches as a social club, when we have the greatest news that must be spread! “Pastor King, you don’t understand, if unsaved people start coming here it will mess up the spirit of this church!” If the spirit of your church is so exclusive that the unsaved are not invited than the spirit of your church needs to be changed. “But Pastor King, if unsaved people come they might sit in my seat!” Yes, they might, and when they do it is your opportunity to reach out to them and love them. “But Pastor King, if unsaved people come I won't feel comfortable!” No, you won’t; and that is fine. Jesus didn’t create the church so that you could feel comfortable, he created it so that the lost could get saved.

Ask yourself this today: What is church about? Be honest with yourself. The obvious first answer is to glorify God. But how do we do that? By winning souls.

A church that is no winning souls is not a church at all, it is a club. How many places out there call themselves churches when they are not acting in accordance with what Christ commanded them to do? Far too many! My prayer is that Calvary Baptist Church in Hartwell, GA, will be in obedience to God and follow his Great Commission. We cannot afford to be self-centered, we must be Christ-centered and in being Christ-centered we will be lost-centered.

The spirit of entitlement will quickly destroy a church.

Click here for Part one of this series.

Also, in a few short weeks, I will be having a dear friend of mine write a guest post on this blog. He is my best friend Kreig Durham. To get acquainted to his writing click here

Three Spirits That Will Destroy A Church- Part 1

A statistic came out several years ago that said that 80% of churches in the United States have either grown stagnant, are declining, or are sharply declining in their attendance. Many have speculated that we are living in a “post-Christian” era in this country. I can also attest to this statistic. I have had the privilege of growing up in churches that were actively reaching their communities for the cause of Christ and seeing people getting saved and added to the church, but for every church that I have seen that was like that, there would be ten others who were the opposite. Churches that hadn’t seen anyone saved in many years, churches that used their baptistries as a storage area, churches that were focused on the wrong things, churches that got into more arguments about where the money was going than they would pray with each other for the lost souls of their communities. Died and dying churches. And for every dying church, there would be excuses for why they were dying, such as, “We are in a hard area,” or, “Nobody wants to hear the Bible anymore,” or, “Everybody in our town is already saved.” In my short time in ministry, I have learned that excuses are just what they sound like, Excuses. The problem very rarely lies in the unsaved in town, or in the town that the church is in. Most often the reason why a church is declining is in the spirit of the church. I believe that any Christian I'd talk to would tell me that they want to see their church grow and that they want to see people get saved, that’s normal, there are not many people in any churches that would say differently than that. Unfortunately there is a spirit that takes over a church and when that spirit take over, a church is as good as destroyed unless there is a miraculous intervention. I would like to talk to you about three spirits that will destroy any church if we allow them to.

1. A spirit of doubt- Matthew 14:28-31

Matthew 14:28-31, “And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. ²⁹ And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. ³⁰ But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. ³¹ And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?”

We know from the context of this passage that the disciples were on the Sea of Galilee when a storm came. Jesus was not with them at the time, and so they feared. They were doing everything they could do just to stay alive, when out in the distance they see a man walking on the water. Of course, they began to be even more afraid because they thought they were seeing a ghost. But then the person walking on the water says, “Be of good cheer, it is I; be not afraid.” The disciples recognized that it was Jesus who was talking to them. Peter, who was the vocal one in the group then speaks, “If it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.” What was Peter saying? Basically, “If it’s really you, Lord, let me walk on the water too!” What a bold thing to request! We make fun of Peter often for his brashness and his wide-open mouth, but this is one of those instances where Peter was practicing an extreme faith in Jesus that we all should have. Jesus bids him to come, so Peter steps out onto the water, and sure enough, he is walking. Peter was walking on the water! Wow! So Peter starts walking toward Jesus but as he is walking, he looks around himself. He sees the waves, and the storm. He feels the wind as it blows onto him. Peter finally realizes what he is doing and becomes afraid, and as he did, he began to sink. Of course, Jesus saves Peter from drowning and asks chides him for his lack of faith.

As we read that passage in the Bible, many of us would ask ourselves, “How could Peter start off so strong but then finish so weak. After all, it took a great amount of faith to step out onto the waters in the first place, but it took a lack of faith, or doubt, to start sinking. As Peter stood on the water, in the middle of a miracle, he looked around at the circumstances and began to doubt the strength of God, and that is when he sank.

We have a lot of churches today that are sinking because of a lack of faith in God. They want to see God bless, and they want to see people get saved and baptized and added to the church, but they don’t believe that God can do that anymore. I have talked to many preachers and laymen alike and I have heard depressing expressions of doubt. If I had a penny for every time I heard someone say, “Times have changed and no one wants to hear the Gospel anymore,” I’d be a rich man! Unfortunately, we have bought into a mindset that since we live in the last days, no one is going to respond to what we have to say. People use 2nd Timothy 4:3 as an excuse as to why people are not getting saved, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.” And do not get me wrong, I understand that we live in a time where people are particularly closed to the message of the Gospel, but I also believe that I serve a God who is able to overcome those obstacles as long as I simply believe that he can. Peter’s walking on the water was directly linked to his faith in Jesus, when Peter started to doubt, he began to sink.

Do you want to see miracles happen in your church? Have faith! If you do not believe that people can get saved or that lives can be changed than the chances are that no one will. You and your church will sink just like Peter did.

I can’t help but think about the days in the past when great men of God stepped out in faith to start a church. They claimed a town for Jesus Christ and built a church, fully believing that God was going to do great things. I particularly think of Dr. Roland Garlick, who was the founding pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Hartwell, GA, the church I pastor. Dr. Garlick was a man who saw the need for an independent Baptist church in Hartwell, GA, so he took a group of 20 people and started Calvary Baptist Church. With the help of some church members, he built the building that we still worship in today, and he brought the attendance of the church from 20 up to 150. How was he able to do that? Because he believed in a God who could do that. Yes, times have changed; but I still serve a powerful God who can break the heart of stone and can perform miracles. Stop focusing on the wind and waves, stop concerning yourself with the obstacles and trust in God!

You may be reading this and thinking, “But Pastor King, it’s too late now. After years of doubt, I don’t think our church can turn around. We are as good as dead.” I want you to notice something. Peter was drowning, but Jesus came and rescued him. Peter would have died had it not been for the rescuing hand of Jesus Christ. I see many churches that are taking their final breathes, and I honestly believe that even in those final moments Jesus can still come and rescue the church that has a restored faith in Him. For instance, many of us know of Lancaster Baptist Church. I went to college there and learned a lot about the ministry from there. When Pastor Chappell became pastor there over 25 years ago, there were about 20 people, they were in a great amount of debt, they were renting their building out to another church, while they met in the upper room of the church. Things were looking bleak and from the outside looking in, any of us would have said that there is no hope for that church to survive. But what happened? A young man came into that church, believing that he served a God that could do great things. And guess what! God DID do great things. And Pastor Chappell would be the first to tell you that it didn’t happen because of anything he did, the church grew and people got saved because he serves a God who is powerful to save.

Before I move on, you may be sitting here and you may think that you have faith that God can bless your church. Let me ask you something: What are you doing to show that faith? Faith requires action. Abraham believed God, and because he believed God he left the city of Ur to the place where God promised. Abraham could have sat around in Ur and said, “Oh, yes, I believe God!” but if he didn’t get up and go, he wouldn't have seen the great miracles that he did. Do you believe that God can bless your church? Then you need to pray for your church. You need to go out soul winning. You need to invite your unsaved friends, family, and co-workers to church. You need to be faithful. Actions speak louder than words. Let’s be sure that our actions match up to the faith we claim we have. God can do great things, we need to believe that he can do them.

This is part one of my three part series on the Three Spirits That Will Destroy A Church. In the upcoming weeks, stay tuned for the next part of this series!

How To Be Welcoming to A Visitor At Church

There are many churches in our nation that brag about how friendly they are. Unfortunately, what many of these churches actually mean is that they are friendly to the people that they are friends with. Unfortunately, this is often a trend in small churches. We pray for growth, we ask the Lord to bless, we even work by passing out tracts to people, but as soon as someone comes into the church that we do not recognize, we seem to not know what to do. My church, Calvary Baptist Church in Hartwell, GA, is having a Friend Day on May 18^th. I am very excited about this day, and I believe we are going to see many people that have never been to our church before. That being said, we need to be welcoming to the visitors that come. Ultimately, the goal is not just to get these visitors to come for Friend Day, but for them to get saved and then for them to start coming every Sunday. Now, in order for that goal to be accomplished it is going to take more than a good song line-up, or powerful preaching, or a delicious lunch, it is going to take the friendliness of our church members. In this post, I would like to point out a few ways in which we can be welcoming to the people that come to our churches for the first time.

1.      Do not be angry with them

You may think that this is a strange thing to say. Especially for the first point. Allow me to explain myself. When a visitor walks into your church (hopefully after being greeted by your assigned greeters. More about that some other time.) The visitor needs to figure out where to sit. Sometimes this can be a tricky thing to do. Do they want to sit near where all the other people are sitting or do they want to sit farther away. Should they sit close to the front or further to the back. Suppose they ultimately decide to sit near the back. But there is a problem, that seat the visitor sat in is the pew that you sit in every week. That is your pew. AND NO ONE IS GOING TO TAKE MY PEW AWAY FROM ME!!! You may be laughing right now and telling yourself that this doesn’t happen. You might think that everyone in church is happy to have visitors and it doesn’t matter where they sit as long as they hear about Jesus… I wish you were right, but you are not. It is unfortunate that there are a lot of people that get very angry when their seat is taken in church, they literally lose their minds (Don’t you hate hyperbole? It’s literally the worst thing in the entire world!). We have to decide that if we see someone sitting in our pew at church, we deal with that person in a gracious way. Jesus wouldn’t be angry that someone was sitting in his pew, he would be thrilled beyond belief and he would pray that visitor would be blessed during the service. Key thought: Be gracious.

2.      Approach them

Very often, the visitor comes in, sits down, attends the service, and then leaves. The entire time no one has said a word to them except for at the door. I think one of two things happen to us when we see a visitor. Either one, we expect the visitor to approach us and talk to us (After all, it’s our church. Why do you expect me to go talk to visitor vermin!) or we are too nervous to talk to them because we don’t know them. Many visitors can attest that the “Friendliest Church in Town” is actually not very friendly at all. What brings people back to church? Relationships. How are relationships built? Communication. Here is the scenario: You walk into church and you see that there is a visitor sitting in your pew. Here is what you are supposed to do: You need to walk up to the visitor, have a smile on your face and say, “Hi! Welcome to Calvary Baptist Church! My name is John Doe (if your name is not John Doe, you have my permission to use your own name). What’s your name?” You see, in doing that you have greeted a visitor, you have helped soften the blow of being new to a place where they do not know anyone, and you have started a relationship that just might get the person to come back. This is probably the hardest step to follow but it is the most necessary step to follow.

3.      Ask if you can sit with them

If there is room next to the visitor ask if you can sit with them. This helps the visitor not to feel alone during the service. Oftentimes, a visitor does not have a Bible, share yours with him. Generally be friendly to the visitor. Engage in conversation. What do they do for a living? How did they hear about the church? Do they have families? Things like that. You may have to miss some fellowship with your church friends this week, but this is much more important. Sit with the visitor, engage in conversation, and even introduce them to your friends. Which brings me to the next point.

4.      Do not introduce them to the pastor…yet.

Something that completely blows my mind is how intimidated people get by pastors. I am not an intimidating person. I am not that athletic, I am not strong, I am a little chubby, and I have a baby face that my wife says is adorable (but she is biased). There is nothing in this world that is intimidating about me, but as soon as I say that I am a pastor some people literally go crazy (There’s that hyperbole again!). As the pastor, I avoid contact with visitors before the church service, a visitor is already intimidated by being in a new place, I do not want to add to that intimidation. Sometimes I make an exception to this, but not often, because the job of greeting and building relationships with visitors before the service lies squarely on the shoulders of our church members. Do not say, “Hi, my name is John Doe. Let me introduce you to the pastor!” That is awkward. Now, I’ve said all of this. But let me add to it. Not only should you not introduce the visitor to the pastor before the service, it is also an absolute must TO introduce the pastor to the visitor after the service. Throughout the service, the visitor has had a chance to warm up to the pastor, he has heard the sermon, he heard the announcements. Hopefully the visitor was able to gather from what he saw that the pastor really is an approachable person. Now is the time to meet the pastor. By the way, the pastor desperately wants to meet the visitor. There is no such thing as a pastor that does not want to meet visitors, or at least I think. So here is what you do: After the service is over, look at the visitor and say, “Would you like to meet the pastor?” If they say yes, Take them to where the pastor is standing and say to the pastor, “Pastor, this is John Smith, he is visiting with us today.” It’s that simple. This gives the visitor a bridge between himself and the pastor, that bridge being you.

5.      Next week, continue to be friendly

I believe that if a visitor returns for a second visit, it says a lot about their interest. I also believe that a visitors second visit can make or break whether or not they end up becoming faithful members. If the visitor comes back for the second week, do not ignore them. Do not think to yourself, “They were a visitor last week, they aren’t my responsibility anymore.” No! Greet them, tell them that it is good to see them again, offer to sit with them, and ask them how their week was. You may even want to introduce them to some of your church friends. At this point, you have done something that benefits both you and the visitor, you have both found a friend in each other. If you can create a genuine friendship with a visitor then that visitor will soon become an active member in your church. All it really takes is for you to step out of your comfort zone just a little bit and be friendly.

A few more small pointers:

·         Don’t be a Negative Nancy- be upbeat and cheerful. If you want to say something negative about the music, the preaching, the flower arrangement, anything- DON’T! Negativity is contagious and will make a visitor not want to come back.

·         Don’t criticize them if they show up a month, or more, later- if the visitor doesn’t come back until a month or two later, don’t say something to them like, “Well, looks like you finally got your heart right with God.” Don’t even say stuff like, “Where’ve you been the past few weeks?” These things are discouraging to a visitor. Instead, continue to be friendly, ask them how they’ve been, but do not, in any way, refer to their absence.

·         Engage with them outside of church- invite them over for a meal, go fishing with them. Continue to build that relationship even outside of the church walls.

·         Be attentive in church- if you are going to sit next to the visitor, do not play on your cell-phone during the sermon and, by all means, do not fall asleep. Listen attentively to the message, take sermon notes. The visitor needs to see that you take church seriously.

·         Lastly, pray for them. You’ve met them, you’ve been friendly, you’ve introduced them to the pastor, but the most important work is yet to be done. Add them to your prayer list. Pray for them in a specific way. If they are unsaved, pray that they will get saved. If they need to make some decisions in their life then pray for that. If they told you about some trouble or trial in their life than pray for that. Become their prayer warrior. If you get to a place where you are comfortable with each other, pray with him. If we really believed in the power of prayer, we would pray for our visitors.

I hope those pointers were a blessing. Let’s be diligent in how we deal with those who are visiting our churches!

Haggai: Rebuilding the Church; Rebuilding Lives

When I got the call that I had been voted in as pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Hartwell, Georgia, I was very excited. But after the excitement wore down, the reality set in, and I began to wrap my mind around my preaching plan. I started reading through books of the Bible to figure out how I would start my ministry at Calvary Baptist Church, after all, starting well is very important. I finally read the book of Haggai, and I fell in love. I decided to preach a 4 week series on the book of Haggai. I asked the church on my first Wednesday night of going through Haggai if anyone had ever heard a sermon, let alone a series, preached from that book. I was not surprised that no one raised their hand. In fact, I can't remember ever hearing a sermon preached from Haggai! The setting of the book of Haggai is that the nation of Judah has come back to Jerusalem from bondage. God gives them a message, "It's time to start rebuilding my temple." In my series, I preached on how we no longer have a physical temple. The temple was where the presence of God was as well as the place to worship God; in the New Testament time our bodies and the church take on those roles respectively. So, the application we can get from the book of Haggai is in the way of rebuilding our lives and rebuilding the church for the glory of Jesus Christ. The series was very well received by the church.
When I write a sermon, I normally write it out word by word, in order to wrap my mind around it correctly. Now that I have the finished series completely written out, I would like to be a blessing in sharing it with anyone that would want it. The finished product is 32 pages long. I am selling it for 99 cents on amazon as an ebook. You can find the book here. I hope you enjoy it, and I hope it is a blessing.
Don't forget to check out our new church website. I am very excited about finally having it up on the web!