Church Planting Poll - What Did I Learn

The poll on this blog Essentials For a Church Plant has not had any new votes in a while so I am ready to give an analysis of the results. So what did I learn?

1. Sunday School is much more important than I thought. While it was listed as number three results, I did not expect it to rank as high as it did. I have always thought of Sunday School as a specialized small group that meets at a convenient time and place, just before church. Sunday Schools are often run much more like a small group than a class that is evaluates your learning.

2. I would place small groups as high as did the whole group. It is the top item voted for as essential for a church plant. However a vocal minority said in the comments and e-mails that this was not important when the congregation was small. The idea repeated several times was that small group fellowship would be the whole congregation when the whole congregation is the size of a small group or two. I think what this really means is that the theory and/or practice of having small groups have been successful and should be adopted when a group is large enough to merit it.

3. The idea that visitation is essential surprised me. I for one really believe in visitation ministry, however, I did not believe other Christians would agree with me. Visitation is a way to connect with the congregation as individuals. It is my belief that everyone in the congregation needs a little private time with the pastor(s). It is a part of shepherding. I also think that visiting the sick, troubled, and grieving gives opportunity to meet more of the family and friends of the congregation. These are relatively natural times for the unchurched to come in contact with a pastor. So pastors should make best use of it. It gives those in the congregation a chance to show off the love and care of their church. They want to show how they are supported by the covenant community. I'm guessing that most voters voted for visitation not as a means of outreach, but only comfort in times of trouble. Personally I don't see that those two things are able to be pulled apart. Pastoral care (i.e. praying for the sick, offering words of comfort, encouragement or appropriate Bible application) can not be seperated from outreach.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In The Hours

Image
In The Hours Words by Helen L. Parmelee Music by Kevin Twit http://www.igracemusic.com/hymnbook/lead/inthehours.pdf This song by Indelible Grace is one that really moves me. I think it moves me because it reminds me of my own story. The words remind me of God's work in my life through the blessing of suffering. A lot of my best days walking with my Lord has actually been days of suffering. Verse one reminds me of growing up when I felt rejected by others but God was my song. 1. In the hours of pain and sorrow, When the world brings no relief When the eye is dim and heavy, And the heart oppressed with grief While blessings flee, Savior Lord we trust in Thee! While blessings flee, Savior Lord we trust in Thee! Verse two talks about my drifting from the Lord when I was caught up in pride and the sin of self-sufficiency. 2. When the snares of death surround us, Pride, ambition, love of ease Mammon with her false allurements, Words that flatter, smiles that please Then ere we yield, S...
Read more

Was the New Testament Letters Only Written to Male Brothers?

  Question:   Was the Bible written to men only and not to women?   Some teach that the New Testament letters address brothers exclusively.      Executive Summary Answer:   Women and men share in the blessings of the gospel, Scripture was written for both women and men. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Gen. 1:27 ESV) Answer:   The Bible recognizes differences between genders but also recognizes the commonality between male and female genders.   The book of Proverbs is written to sons to gain wisdom.   “Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.”   (Prov. 1:8-9 ESV) The book of Proverbs was written in order to teach young men wisdom.   Even so, often it is the female gender that teaches wisdom.   Early in the book, the male gender,...
Read more

Bridging the Chasm

My good friend the Jollyblogger has been writing on Bridging the Chasm , meaning the church communicating with the secular world. In the early 80's YWAM put out a pamphlet on missions prayer. One of the things they encouraged Christians to pray for was different areas of influence: * Government * Business * Media/Journalism * The Arts * Education * Entertainment (I'm not sure that is the complete list.) As I prayed for these areas of influence, I found that Christians really wrote about a couple of these in the early 80's; Government and Business. For government you had movements like the Moral Majority and Focus on the Family writing actually about a very narrow aspect of government; moral issues. Yes, I'm grouping all Focus on the Family's issues in the area of moral issues. The government is so much more than moral issues. The business issues were mostly addressed by Bill Gothard, Larry Burkett and later Ron Blue. I'm not sure how ade...
Read more