The number one reason a church is effective in its outreach and missions is?

Posted on February 28, 2010 by Biblical Guy

…because of its real, authentic worship. 

Why? There is a direct correlation between authentic service and authentic worship! Worship has a real, effectual purpose to discover and glorify God as LORD over all, including our daily lives, even when we do not see it. He is the center and reason for our worship; He is the principle center of attention, the focal point, the centrality, and the Supreme One we reference, acknowledge, and glorify. Worship is our opportunity to commune with Him, to be in union with Him who is the Lord and Creator of all, to come into His presence at His throne room and allow our hearts to be broken so we can give Him our best, our primary attention, and our foremost adoration. And, when we do this with authenticity our gratitude becomes contagious and God uses this as a display for His goodness and thus we become contagious for the faith! 

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. Colossians 2:6-7 

Worship is seen as a response to God—our gratitude for who He is and what He has done. Thus, people respond with their service, too. Churches that do not have “real” worship have little to no missions, or the people in it are from other churches. These churches do not overemphasize the “seeker,” and ignore discipleship! They do not turn their worship into mere entertainment. Real, heartfelt, God exalting adoration must be the focus of the worship service. These churches never just entertain, lift up the leaders, or become presentation orientated. They see worship as the Bible teaches; God is the audience and we are the performers who praise and glorify Him! These churches are still able to make their services friendly and creative, but the focus is to glorify Christ. In biblical theology, we do church—from faith, fellowship, and outreach on to service—for One and only One reason: TO WORSHIP CHRIST! Effective churches get this; ineffective churches do not (Psalm 100; 138:1-4; Col. 2:9).

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The number one reason people grow spiritually is?

Posted on February 27, 2010 by Biblical Guy

…by being encouraged to read through the Bible, do devotions, and practice the disciplines of the faith as modeled by the leadership.  

From our thirty years of research the churches who equip and disciple their people, not just in the basics of the faith, but also in how to be Christians in their daily lives and to live their lives to His glory thrive! The pastors and leaders teach and model passionate spirituality; they challenge and model for their people how to grow beyond themselves in achieving spiritual passion and conviction and are joyful in doing so. From this pool, new leadership is formed and recruited. Churches that cannot find leadership have people who are not discipled, and who are not willing or do not know how to lead. 

        We can master the entire Bible and even be totally transformed by the Word, but, if your leadership principles do not come from it, then nothing from your ministry will come from it, it will meaningless and nearly worthless. This is one of the main points of the book of James. True leadership also comes from our faith and maturity which comes from the application and result of a life transformed. You may attempt to lead your church or ministry or life and seek to do good works without Christ, but the results will not be good. In leadership and maturity, we must allow ourselves to be established in the disciplines of the faith. We must get in the Word daily–not just now and then. We cannot allow obligation and guilt to be our response to our Lord. If we do, it comes from our pride and laziness or, in other words, from our sin nature. We need to respond to Christ from gratitude that our sin nature has been covered by Grace thereby creating in us a willing and loving heart to model maturity, the character of our Lord (Matt. 7:24-27; Gal. 5:19-26; Rom. 12:1-3; 1 Tim. 1:6-9; 2 Tim. 1:10-14)! 

You search the scriptures because you believe they give you eternal life.  But the Scriptures point to me… 

John 5:39

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The number one reason why people are stimulated to serve is?

Posted on February 26, 2010 by Biblical Guy

…because the Bible is taught in a real, effectual, and applicable way.

They want to be a part of it. The people who leave because of the Bible teaching are the people who do not want to be challenged or convicted. These people will not serve anyway and will not give, but they will cause trouble. We are called to reach and care for them, but as the Bible says, these are the “tares.” God asks us to cultivate His wheat. (John 3:5, 30; Gal 2:20-21; Phil. 3:1-14)

If the Bible is not where you place your trust and leadership formation from, then where is your trust and where will it lead you? We cannot have the Words of Jesus without the Bible! The Bible is the chariot that carries the voice of God!

We as the people of God who have been saved from our sins by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ have a call, a mandate: to preserve His Word, to be led from His Word and to proclaim His Word, the Bible. We must remain steadfast in this call to our individual selves, as well as our neighbor and especially as we lead others for Our Lord and to Him.

We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?

Hebrews 2:1-3

How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Praise be to you, O LORD; teach me your decrees.

Psalm 119:9-12

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Acts29.org is about continuing the work of doing Church…

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Biblical Guy
The principle focus of us for the last 15 plus years is seeking why so many churches are failing!
 
This is what we found, and it is not pretty: Our churches are not glorifying Christ because we are failing at knowing and growing in Him personally. We are not able to teach others when we are failing at following His Word and Christ alone! Remember, it is His Church and we are the caretakers of it. Thus, we must act according to our call and His precepts.
Did  you know that it is blatantly evil to twist God’s truths to fit our whims and rationalize our sin. It creates a bad “who” and a bad “how we are.” Do not allow this in your church! We have to be willing to prevent, discipline, and even kick out the manipulative and deceptive people in our churches.

· The Real Issues!

· Patterns that are Visible! 

· Opportunities for Growth!

We will fill this Blog with solid research, insightful articles, practical curriculums, essays, tools, and resources to help you prepare your church to grow in Christ and glorify Him! Our articles and studies have been carefully, exegetically prepared with careful, steadfast, inductive analysis and word studies of God’s most precious Word. We do not add anything to God’s Word that is not already there nor do we take away from insights and ideas that are there. 

These blog entrees will be the real deal, what God may have to say to us. These are offered to you so you may understand what is in His Word and in your church, to appreciate, comprehend, and to be challenged to grow richer and deeper in your relationship to Christ and be better used for Church Leadership Development and then to others around you. 

It is our intention to use this blog as a sounding board for the Schaeffer Institute, to post some of our research findings on what is the Church universal and your church is up too, 

See our home site: www.churchleadership.org

The entity of the resources on this blog will be research made practical!

 

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