catlist

Things that ruin a Church: People

by
Things that ruin and make a church good as far as the people involved and their individual character influences on the church.

“People ” ruin a church? People make a church. Yes and yes. A church really has nothing to do with the building, money, resources, history, nor any other thing that people attribute to a great work of God. What makes or breaks a church is the people that make it up.

Good churches are people functioning in the Body of Christ. Ruined churches are businesses designed to look religious. There is a great difference between the two. When a body functions, especially a spiritual body, it rebounds and bends, is flexible according to the needs of the moment. A business has rules that are never broken. The bottom line of a business is profit, so what is the spiritual “bottom line” of your church? If it is glory, power, control, submission of the people, worldly success, etc. then the church is ruined. A body functions and serves, and at some point, grown ups reproduce. Is your church reproducing? Is it training its offspring to be adult and mature? That is the purpose of the church in capsule form.

Good churches are churches that have good leaders steering the group always into the will of God. Its relationships between its leaders, and between its leaders and members, and between the members is healthy, productive, and spiritual.

Tract: Church14 Finding a Good Church

Read more

Things that ruin a Church: Events that Decay pt 1

by

Things that ruin a Church is about events that ruin a church, or decay its effectiveness.

Following the previous post of qualities in the church that ruin it, in this post I will look at events that ruin a church. Let’s broaden this to both events that happen that hurt the church as well as events that should happen and don’t. I think of the passage in Ezekiel 34:2-4 that speaks to the shepherds of Israel, where God rebukes the shepherds for scattering the sheep. There are ministers that draw the sheep into them by love and care, and there are ministers that scatter the sheep to the winds by startling them with brute actions. See my Tract Ch51 Cowboys or Pastors?




Read more

Why I give a written sermon outline to my people

by

Why I give a written sermon outline out explains the advantages of giving your sermon outline to your people.

Many preachers like to give surprises to their people. Their sermon is one of those surprises. Actually, the people have no idea where he is headed even half-way through his sermon, and by the end, they still are lost as to what he is talking about.




Let your Yea be Yea, and your Nay Nay

Christ taught the importance of not entering into dubious speech. Deceiving speech in one where what is said is not what really is. An example here is when a preacher says that the sermon today is “Once saved, always saved: The assurance of our Eternal Salvation.” Before halfway through the sermon, he hits on Bible versions and talks on that the rest of the sermon. Say what you mean, and live what you say.

Truthfulness, even in the presentation of sermons, should be a characteristic of all Christians, especially preachers.




Don’t Ramble.

Rambling is moving about a lot without any real purpose except to hear yourself talk. You do not really fulfill the purpose of the sermon (communicating your divine message to your hearers). When you say things that don’t directly relate to your sermon, you are rambling. If you record your sermon and then listen back to it, you can identify the parts that “don’t belong”. Be heavy handed in cutting out anything that doesn’t belong in your sermon.

It is frustrating for a preacher to stand up and tell us what we are going to hear today and then he doesn’t spend hardly any time on that topic! He has lied to us, so why should we believe anything he has to say to us!

The central problem here has its roots in the sermon preparation.

Read more

Why we refuse to charge for Ministry

by

Why we refuse to charge for Ministry

Part of our clear understanding of Scriptures regarding the local church is that the financial income of the local church is to be solely based in the tithes and offerings of its people. The local church is not to “sell” anything, not even cakes or cookies. They are not to have bingo nights, or charge for their services. In some churches understanding (and I am in total agreement here), not even the visitors are asked to participate in their offerings. They clearly release the visitors from any idea of obligation on their part before every offering is taken. This is visitors that are unsaved and even visitors that are visiting from other good churches.

The thinking here is that if tithes and offerings are spiritual sacrifices by which God does His work, why would God even want the unsaved or the unspiritual to partake in the work of God? By their participation they contaminate the work of God rather than help it. If the visitors are members of good other local churches, then they should be tithing and giving there and not here.




Read more