The Ohio Independent Baptist, December 1971

0 by Clifford Lones l ~hc dc111~l11"i lll'll)n 11~1~tor.. to build 'l1ltr~h attcndan c 1, greater toda\t tl1an c, ~r. large at tendancc 1ncrea e, .... nc, ht1rch bt1ilding con tructed. a tlcct f ht1 C~ ar pre ent-da} mark ,t a u ce ful pa tor. Without church hilarit ' enter d ar und the "'pa. tor– n1an.. the a,, rage pa tor eldom i n t iced or e,·en re pected a being a n1an of od. tuch of thi pre ent-day attendance craze ha come from the great at– tention given to a selected group of pa tor and churche who have pecial an \\ er of how to build attendance. The ans\~·ers have been widely pub- 1icized and many pastors have been e tremely perplexed because these an- wer have not \Vorked equally well in their local situations. Expository Preaching? The best way to build church at– tendance is by expository preaching, so exhorts one pastor who has thous– and attending his church every Sun– day. Thus scores of pastors through– out the country get in their study and try to develop expository sermons. This really takes time. The secretarial work of the church is neglected there– for since most pastors don't have a private secretary as those who pro– claim expository preaching really builds attendance. Counselling ses– sions, telephone conversations, hos– pital calls, the many menial tasks , etc. are all neglected because the average pastor doesn't have the time or the assistants to care for these while he i developing his expository sermons. Personal Soul Winning? Then, across the country there is another pastor with 4000 or more people in his Sunday School. How was this attendance obtained? By per– sonal soul-winning! Yes, he makes 95 calls a week and leads at least 500 people to Christ every year. Further– more. he has a great visitation train– ing program beginning with his dea– cons and extending to every select person in the congregation who has the personality to effectively visit 10 DECEMBER, 1971 people. "Tl,is 1111,st J,e tl1e Answer", think the average pa tor . The pa tor lo e intere t in expo itory preaching and with renewed fervor he tart his out-winning endeavor . But it seems people in hi area don't re pond to the Go pel a people in the area where one pa tor built a Sunday School of 2500. Maybe the pa tor i not filled with the Spirit, or perhaps he lacks alesmanship. The pastor trains several soul-winners in his church but in a few weeks they get discouraged be– cause they don't get the results they heard about at the 7 ,000 member church. Yes, some people do accept Christ but it takes a long Word-feed– ing process to get them to attend church faithfully. But, there isn't time for this, the 2000 attendance must be reached quickly. Adminisfration? Expository preaching helped and visitation soul-winning got some people genuinely saved but Mr. Pastor hasn't really got that increase as others so proclaim. The reason? Administration! Yes, the pastor just received a Chris– tian publication in the mail. "There is . no growing church in the country un– less it has a high degree of admini– stration", so relates the magazine ar– ticle. This is the answer, at least the author of the article declares. Work Up A Revival? By now the first sign of perplexity begins to show in the average pastor's life. Poor perplexed pastor. Exposi– tory preaching didn't bring in the 1000, nor did visitation. Administra– tion is such a slow process because lay– people don't always respond and func– tion the way they should. Surely, the church needs revival. REVIVAL! That's it! The best way to get revival, so it seems, is to invite one of those Chris– tian comedians to a service or two of the church (if you can afford him). He can get Christians stirred because wherever he goes large crowds of people gather and laugh and say "Amen' ' to sarcastic remarks about God's church and God's people. Sure– ly, these comedians say little more than what the enemies of Christ have been saying for years, but within the 011t xt ct i11t~1 sti11g }1u111 )f tt1c rc- 111nrks, they scc111 arc ,ocl-sp ken. Ncctl \VC conti11t1c to 111 11tior1 the 111n ny otl1cr r,roposccl a11s lVers to c l1t1rc h st1cccss'l l .ct it be lt11dcrstoocl we arc 11ot (liscrc(.liting expository preaching, nor sou 1-w inning, nor a fleet of htJ'iCS, 11or any of the things that have 1,ccn mcthodc; of success for certain cht1rchc . What we arc saying is tl1at we have to he very careful what we c;ct tip as a standard for ticcess and spirituality. A pastor may be involved in soul-winning more than it appearc:; to his people. He may be praying for his people more than they think. He may be more c:;p1ritua) than the pastor who has a large attendance in his Sunday School. He may be a powerful preacher of the Word. The Lord has placed you in a local church. Pray for its people and your pastor. Be faithful through thick and thin. Don•t expect to be entertained in church. Do11't wait until everything is going hilariously before you get busy for the Lord. Don't be motivated by a preacher's personality, but by your love for Christ. Be constantly ac– tive in friendliness and soul-winning. Be full of suggestions and promote the total church program, but don't be critical and pressure your church or its pastor to be like such-and-such church or so-and-so pastor. Above alf, remember ... J "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but niighty throug}z . God to the pulling do}vn of strong holds·" , "Do ye look on things after the 01,1tward appearance? If any man trust to himself that he is Christ's, let him of himself think this again, that, as he is Christ's, EVEN SO . ARE WE CHRIST'S." II Cor. 10:4, 7 I THE POCKET TESTAMENT LEAGUE I 49 Honeck Street, Englewood, N.J. 07631 0 I I Addres;:,____________ I c· L~~-----~~--~;p___ _ _ THE OHIO INDEPENDENT BAPTIST