10/20/18 BIBLE STUDIES AND A GROWING CHURCH
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BIBLE STUDIES AND A GROWING CHURCH
A good way to grow Christians is through Bible Studies. This includes Home Bible Studies and Church Bible Studies. A good way to grow a church spiritually is through Bible Studies and a good way to grow a church numerically is through Bible Studies. Some people get nervous when they hear growth in numbers or membership or attendance associated with church. They automatically think of physical or numerical church growth as being carnal or spiritually void. However, the Book of Acts associates numbers with a strong, healthy, spiritual church. (Acts 1:13-16; 2:37-47; 4:4). The Holy Spirit led the Gospel writers to take count during the ministry of Jesus. This is because numbers are people. When numbers are used as a score card or a fleshly device, then there is a problem with focusing on numbers. Numbers, for numbers sake do not indicate whether a church is good/bad, strong/weak, healthy/sickly. However, numbers are people and people are important and people count. I am talking about good growth, healthy growth, numerical growth that goes with spiritual growth.
I have been really disappointed. Over the years I have been extremely blessed in many different ways, including pastoral ministry and church growth, to the point that I have been spoiled. But I have also had disappointments.
(As I was crossing the Bridge, a vehicle in front of me was crossing the yellow line from time to time, as if the driver was distracted by the scenery. I made comment and then I made a spiritual application to his dangerous driving).
Some people think that just because you get on the bridge… as in, "Jesus is the bridge I can do what I want to because I am going the right way." You might be headed in the right direction, but that does not mean you are going to reach your destination. God does allow temptation, God does allow distraction, God does allow tragedy. Safe arrival depends on how believers deal with their trials. Just because you get on the bridge does not mean you can take your eyes off of the road and it does not mean that can cross the lines that God has set.
Anyway, back to Bible Studies. One of my greatest experiences as a Pastor has been through Bible Study ministry (church building or home Bible Studies). But, as I said, I have been greatly disappointed in our ministry here in the Morehead/Beaufort area because my hope was to start several Bible Studies as part of our outreach and evangelism program. I had actually included my area of outreach to extend from Swansboro in the southwest to the far reaches of Down East. And actually I would have included Havelock and Merrimon. I have even offered lead people in Bible Study from other parts of the state, because I really want to reach and teach the gospel to people (Mt. 28:18-20), either personally or by internet.
I am guessing that folks don't need Bible Study because they have enough Bible Studies or maybe everybody in the county goes to a really good church with excellent Bible Studies. I don't think that is true, because I don't think everybody in this county goes to church, much less a really good church; a Bible preaching church, a Jesus following church, a Spirit filled church, a love saturated church. I don't think most people go to that kind of a church. I want to provide that kind of a experience for people.
I invite folks to Bible Study. I tell them that I will come to their house and answer any question they have, about what we believe. And it is important for folks to know what Bible teachers and preachers believe and even how they live, today. It is not good enough to jump on a band wagon or rush into "popular" churches, because the beliefs and the life of the people is more important than their popularity.
After talking with folk, I give them my phone number and tell them to give me a call. I tell them that my wife and I will be glad to come see them. (humorously I said), I have been thinking about getting four or five more phone lines to handle all the calls we are getting.
As I said, it has been a disappointment. Folks are in need. They need teaching and salvation and a good church, in which to grow. I invite people to come to our church, I offer to come to their homes, to hold Bible Studies for their family or their friends. I offer them various areas of study, including, End Times, Salvation, Christian Living, Old Testament or New Testament studies.
A good home Bible Study can draw people together and to Christ. It can help the unsaved see that Christians are not monsters or robots. They can grow closer to family and friends. They will develop a hunger for God's word, God's people, godly living and eventually come to the church, where the can find and follow Christ. I have been in Beaufort since latter part of 2015, and still no one has taken me up on the home Bible Study offer.
I believe there are several factors concerning this, but one thing is that people are not as open to, or interested in the Bible, the church, God or salvation as in former years.
I joke about it, but I don't think that their refusal is personal. I have had great success with this ministry in the past, and I am even more highly qualified now than I was when I first started. So few people even open their minds or lives to Bible Studies. This is true even for church people.
Our Bible Studies were life changing, life saving. Families were brought together, people were saved, Churches were built up. Our Bible Studies allow people to find their own group, study. Though I am teaching the word of God, folks are encouraged to ask questions, share ideas, be open, But I make it clear that I am teaching the Bible and I won't compromise the truth.
I don't meet too many folks who are involved in a Bible Study. They may go to Sunday morning services and Sunday evening and midweek, but after that they are wiped out. Folks act like they live by the idea of ONE AND DONE or THREE AND FLEE.
But the early church (the New Testament church in the book of Acts, not the "Eight O'clock Service), bet daily in some fashion or form. Whenever our church had a daily program that gave people a full experience in Christ and His word, the people flourished and the church grew dramatically. This is because people are in love with Christ, with His word, with His people, with His work.
Years ago when we had a church in Morehead we had home Bible Studies. One of those studies was in my home. Martha and I arrived home about 15 minutes late for the Bible Study one night, which was unusual. I was concerned, because we often had 50+ people come to our home for Bible Study, and I could just imagine them waiting in the yard, the driveway, the road. But when we got home, all we saw were the cars. We went to the door of our house, and we saw the 50+ people sitting there, waiting for us. Someone had climbed through our window and let everyone come in through the door.
For years I had appointed men to lead home Bible Studies, and during this same ministry period in Morehead I had about three or four other home Bible Studies in other homes, which led by dedicated men from our church. As pastor, I managed the study leaders, but they led the Bible Studies.
There was an excitement about going to Bible Study and church. People not only arrived early (for the most part) but they wanted "the best seats in the house," (in other words, up front and personal). Very little of this hanging at the back of the church. If you go to sporting event, concerts, lectures, plays, recitals, most people want to get the good seats, which are not the ones far back or in the nose bleed area. NOT SO WITH TOO MANY CHURCHES IN OUR SOCIETY. In fact, if you were to visit churches in underdeveloped countries, countries that may actually persecute you for meeting in a home or in a warehouse or in a wooded area, the people would be early and they would sit close to the "action," and they would stay longer, in order to talk Jesus (not sports or business or other trifling issues). The 50+ people came and sat on the sofa, the chairs, the floor. They packed out the house and never complained.
(I point out that I communicate in a rather "down home way" because I am just me. Though I do preach and teach in a way that is fitting for different types of congregations, what you see and hear on these videos is pretty much me just being me. I tell a story about a preacher who scoffed my use of the word, "young'uns.")
BIBLE STUDIES. A great way to reach and teach and grow a church. However, there are a lot of Bible Study programs used by church written by popular and exciting teachers, but they are often teaching false doctrines. It is especially disturbing to see the numbers of people who follow after female teachers.
I'm sorry. You better read the Book. God appoints men to be pastors and teachers, and God does not want women to teach men. That is jus the way it is. NOW, WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I MEET WOMEN PREACHERS OR TEACHERS? I honor them. Why? Because God probably does not have a man to do the job and He called a woman to do what a man should be doing. (Remember Deborah in the old Testament?). God's first choice to be the head of the household is the husband and God's first choice to lead and teach and pastor the church is a man.
Our church grew in numbers and in love and in growth. Read the first chapters of Acts.
