A Call to Pray Together (notes from Wed night)

Pray Mt 9:36-38 passionately & regularly.

3 prayers for us to pray together:

1. God raise up gathers & bringers among us.
2. God open our eyes to the sins, idols, hurts, struggles, & needs of the people in the city around us.
3. God teach us how to communicate Jesus Christ to the people in our city (Teach how to apply the Gospel to #2).

210 in 2010 (Wed Night Notes Pt.2)

7 Things You Can Do When We Gather Together Each Sunday
(my notes from Wednesday night, July 8, 2009).
1) Pray:

• We need men and women who are praying for our Sunday gatherings. Pray for our volunteers, our teachers, our visitors, our attitudes and actions, our singing, our music, our prayers, our giving, our listening to and response to God’s Word, and so on.
• Pray that every one present will adore & praise God, confess sin, give thanks for God’s grace, and talk to God about their needs.
• Pray for conviction of sin, repentance, and the joy of changed lives.
• Ask God to do a great work in the heart of our church, every time we gather together.

“Remember that men and women are not converted, finally, by [our] sagacity, oratory, theological brilliance or homilectical skill. God in his mercy may use all these and many more gifts. But only God is able to bring people to himself. That is ample incentive to prayer” (Carson, Gagging of God, 513).

2) Participate:

• Sing when we sing, pray when we pray, read when we read, listen, fellowship, enjoy church.

• Key: respond to the message: search your heart and apply God’s Word.

3) Interact:

• Talk to people, sit together, pray for one another.
• Find and spend time with our guests.

4) Practice the 3 Minute Rule.

• Ed Stetzer describes this rule, each “member must talk to someone they don’t know for three minutes following the end of worship” (Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age, 100).

5) Be a “Seat Shepherd.”

• Seat shepherds “sit in a specific area each week to connect guests with nearby members to make them feel welcome” (Ibid.).

6) Be Here & Be in the Service.

• Make weekly participation at our church a priority. Be here as much as possible.

7) Speak Positively about What God Is Doing at Our Church to Everyone.

• Keep complaints and concerns and questions private.
  
• First, go to the leader of the particular ministry, then come to the pastor(s), and then if you still have a concern or complaint or question, bring it to the church.

210 in 2010 (Wed Night Notes Pt.1)

These are my notes from Wed night (7/1/09).

210 in 2010

Discuss 2 Questions:

1. How do we get there?

2. What do we do well as a church?

Start where we are: (1) Sunday School & (2) Our Sunday Gathering (did not get to #2)

(1) Sunday School

1. Pray for the healthy growth of our church.

2. Make a list

• Anyone you know who would enjoy our church or simply does not participate at a local church
• In-reach: members who don’t participate (not active).
• Out-reach: friends, family, work associates, classmates, anyone you come into contact with on a regular basis.

3. Make it your class goal to contact/visit/connect to everyone on the list before Labor Day.

• 210 is our numerical goal: You work out the details as a group.
• Suggestions: work with deacon’s and deacon’s wives: the list.

4. Participate in a small group. Make it your goal to be here as much as possible.

5. Talk positively about our church to friends, family, work associates.

• Twitter, facebook, text, communicate what God is doing here @ABBC

We did not have time to discuss our Sunday gathering. I will post those notes after we have discussed them as a group.

Vision (My Notes from Sunday Night) Part 3

Our Core Activities: Prayer, Proclamation [& Application], People

Prayer:

God himself calls, sends, equips, empowers, transforms. . . loves, plans, calls, justifies, glorifies . . . In short, God himself is the agent of change & growth.

Proclamation [& Application]:

. . . of the gospel of Jesus Christ because salvation is in the Son.

Important note: our worship (singing, giving, serving, etc) is a form of proclaiming & applying the gospel.

People:

God converts & transforms individuals, forming us into a new community/humanity

And God uses people (his servants) to teach Christ & his way of life.

Listen to and reach new people (part. 20-40)

Key Questions (not in any order)

• What do we do well?
• What are the needs of the community around us?
• Where are the people at and how do we reach them? (inside, out approach)
• What do we need to stop doing, start doing, or rework/refocus in order to be a healthy, growing church?
• Are you willing to change? Insanity is doing the same thing & expecting different results
• DO YOU REALLY WANT TO DO THIS?

Core activities from "Growth Groups" from Mathias Media

Vision (My Notes from Sunday Night) Part 2

Our Goal: To Be a Healthy, Growing Church Centered on the Gospel

Healthy

What is a healthy church? (key question that we need to answer)

Here’s two thoughts:

1). What is a healthy church?: Matt 22:35-40

• Love God
• Love each other
• Love our neighbors in the city and around the world

Measures the health of our church as well as our small groups, student & children ministry, etc. How?

• Love God: prayer, Bible Study, worship
• Love each other: prayer, e & discipleship, confession, hanging out together, meeting needs
• Love neighbors & world: evangelism, missions, community events, service projects.

2) What is a healthy church?

• I think here is where the marks of a church come into play: e.g., worship, prayer, evangelism & discipleship, fellowship, ministry (Look @ Dever, 9 Marks, for lists)
• Six signs of a “healthy church”: Study, community, worship, mission, service, prayer (McKinion)

Growing

Spiritual & Numerical

Important: Growth is measured by the rule of the Gospel not numbers, activities, programs, etc.

Yet numerical growth can be a valid goal: 210 in 2010 is our numerical goal, but our focus is on healthy, Gospel growth.

• Jesus said follow me and I will make you fishers of men (Matt 4:19; Mark 1:17)
• Matt 9:37-38 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest" (ESV).
• Acts …look at the numerical growth.

Bottom line: We live in a growing city . . . we should be growing numerically.

Centered on the Gospel

How does everything we do connect, flow, center on the gospel?

• If it does not, should we/will we stop, change, rework? REFOCUS?

Vision (My Notes from Sunday Night) Part 1

These are my notes from Sunday Night.

Our Purpose: To Learn Christ & Live His Way of Life Together

Learning Christ

a disciple is a learner (background is theme of learning all that Christ is and all that he has done for us….as well as how to live in light of this good news from the Gospel of Matthew. Summarized in Matt 28:19-20 (Make disciples, baptizing and teaching them )

• Also Eph 4 contrasts the old life without Christ and the new life in Christ (4:17ff). Point is that learning Christ leads to transformation and re-formation & renewal in God’s likeness . . . true righteousness and holiness

• Also Col 1 & 2 with 2:6-7 being key.
• “Receive” has to do with being taught: applying the teaching to their lives.

Point: learning & embracing who Christ is & what he has done for us (all that he is & all that he has done for us)

• Key: Learning does not end when you become a Christ-follower, it’s just beginning.
• Note: evangelism/discipleship are not necessary linear nor are they separated

Living His Way of Life

• remaining faithful to & applying the Gospel to every sphere of life/relationship in life
• asking how does who Christ is and all that he has done for us shape, direct, and restrain the way I do marriage, family, work, sports & recreation, politics, money . . . all areas of life.

Together

• community commitment:
• 1 John and fellowship: partnership, sharing in the life, love, and truth of God

A Call to Work Together toward Church Renewal & Gospel Growth

Here’s what you can do as we look to God to send the “fire” of spiritual renewal & growth to ABBC.

1) Prepare to Represent Christ Well.

• At what major points does your life fail to represent Christ?
• Think about your speech, your conduct, your love, your faith, your purity?
• Think about your heart—your thoughts & ideas, your loves & desires, your choices & decision, even your worship & spirituality.
• Think about your relationships to family members, church members, co-workers, and so on.

• What habitual sins do you need to stop?
• What are practical ways that you can practice righteousness, pursue holiness, and love one another?
  

2) Preach the Gospel to Yourself.

• Are you struggling with self-righteousness? Trusting who you are or what you do for Christ instead of trusting who Jesus is and what he has done to achieve salvation for you?
• Are you struggling with persistent guilt? Trusting how you feel and what you think instead of trusting what God says and how he sees you in Christ?
• Do you fail to believe your standing in Christ?
• How will you deepen your understanding of who Christ is and what he has done for us? How will you apply this to your heart?

3) Pray.

• Ask for a sense of God’s presence and reality at ABBC.
• Pray for the growth of our church in godliness; pray for your own growth in godliness.
• Pray for opportunities to communicate to others who Jesus is and what he has done to achieve our salvation.
• Pray that many men and women will turn from sin, turn to Christ, and join us in learning Christ and his way of life.
• How will you make your prayer life more centered on seeking God and his will (rather than centered on your needs and problems).

4) Lead.

• How will you find accountability and relationships to others in our church who are more mature than you? From whom can you better learn Christ and his way of life?
• Is there anyone you can meet with each week for Bible study and prayer? Maybe lunch, Bible study and prayer (You got to eat), or maybe coffee, Bible study and prayer. The opportunities are endless.
• How do you need to change in order to be a leader? How do you need to change in order to follow the leadership around you?
• Humility is key.

As always, I write from what I read and study: The Bible, T. Keller, J. Bridges, C. J. Mahaney, and many, many more.