The Marvelous Message

I will, Lord willing, continue my study on the pitfalls of Saul, but for now, I want to touch base on a subject that is of grave importance for the church. Concerning the coming of Christ, John the Baptist once declared to the the crowds that he baptized,  “I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire ( Matthew 3:11 / ESV ).”  Just before His glorious ascension into heaven, Jesus told all His disciples, “... for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now...But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:5, 8 / ESV).” Indeed this mighty outpouring of power and holy fire would take place on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2). In his book,  Impossible People , ...

     In my last two articles, I explained two imperative steps that are needed for a diminishing church to thrive once more. First, genuine confession as revealed in James 5:16. Second , renewed dedication as revealed in Romans 12:1-2. As I stated before, I am in no way claiming to be some grand expert in the field of church growth. I am simply magnifying what has already been established in the scriptures. Also, I would encourage you to read the book Autopsy of a Deceased Church by Thom Rainer. It is an easy read, but very informative to what a dying church really looks like and what can be done about it.      You must understand that all of us has to be careful when it comes to relying on steps, formulas, and principles. Because, Christians tend to employ more devotion and care in following a “do good” checklist rather than in simply walking with God. Throughout my life, I have heard preachers say, “If you love God, then you’ll do more for Him!” Ins...

       Recently, I was given a copy of Thom Rainer’s book  Autopsy of a Deceased Church.  It is a very short read, but something that I believe is needed for most churches in America, especially those in the Bible belt. The book is filled with real life illustrations and scenarios of churches that, through bitter disunity or lackadaisical Christian living, ended up dying. What I found interesting was the meter Rainer used for checking the condition of a church. It ranged from healthy, symptoms of sickness, very sick, to dying. For example, a  very sick  church would be one that had continual numerical decline, stints of apathy, little impact in the community, lack of new members, short tenure of pastors, and an attitude of only reflecting on the past  glory days  of the church.        It is a sobering read, but oh how needful it is for those of us who are Christians to examine ourselves and our churches with...