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Three Tips for Planning Church Programs

By Jeremy Myers
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Three Tips for Planning Church Programs

Yesterday, I challenged churches to kill their programs. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have programs. We should…if they are properly planned and executed. Here are a few suggestions for planning new church programs.

1. Train on the Way
All programs must include something beyond just training. It does not appear that Jesus or the early church ever did training just for training. Most of the training was while they were on the way to do something. It was on the job training.

If Jesus taught evangelism training today, it would go like this. He would announce the training in church, in the bulletin, and on the website. Then, on the night of the training, when everyone arrives, He would say, โ€œOk. Weโ€™re all here? Good. Thereโ€™s a van out back. Letโ€™s all pile in. Weโ€™re going to go downtown and hang out with drug addicts. Iโ€™ll tell you what you need to know on the way.โ€ I donโ€™t care what program you start, if it does not include actually doing what you are being trained to do, donโ€™t do it. [Read more…]

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Discipleship

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10 Questions to Determine if your Church is Missional or Traditional

By Jeremy Myers
2 Comments

10 Questions to Determine if your Church is Missional or Traditional

Many churches claim to be missional, but are really just traditional. There is nothing really wrong with traditional church, but they often lack several missional elements.

To help determine whether your church (or a church you are thinking of joining) is missional or traditional, below are ten diagnostic questions. But be warned: Seeking to become missional may kill your church.

being missional may kill your church

1. What would you do if the church members became convinced that to do a better job at reaching people in the community, they needed to change the name of the church?

2. What would you do if the church members became convinced that to do a better job at reaching people in the community, they needed to sell the church building?

3. What would you do if the church members became convinced that to do a better job of reaching people in the community, the church needed to switch service times from Sunday morning to Tuesday night?

4. After attending meetings and preparing a sermon, the pastor finds that he only has five hours of time left in his work week. Do you think he should spend those hours with people who are already part of the church or with people who are not?

5. Recently, some teenagers have been coming to church who wear all black, and smoke out front before and after the service. What do you think the church elders should do?

6. A single mother comes up to you after church one day for advice. Due to work and her busy schedule, she can only attend one “church function” a week, either the Sunday morning service or her Tuesday night “Life Group.” She confides in you that she actually “gets more out of the Tuesday night group and is developing good relationships there” but would feel guilty “skipping church” on Sunday. What do you tell her?

7. A Hindu attends church one Sunday, and afterward tells you that he doesn’t believe in eternal judgment or that Jesus is the only way to God. What do you tell him?

8. How long have you lived where you live right now? What are the names of your neighbors, and what problems are they facing right now?

9. How are you showing love to others tangibly, and to whom are you showing this love?

10.ย How much money does the church receive, and where exactlyย does this money go? Is thereย aย “missions” or “outreach” budget?ย What percentage of your budget is it?ย What sorts of things is it spent on?

Can you think of any other diagnostic questions that help determine whether a church is missional or traditional?

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Discipleship, Theology of the Church

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Is Acts Prescriptive or Descriptive?

By Jeremy Myers
5 Comments

Is Acts Prescriptive or Descriptive?

Guy Muse asks the following about Acts:

Is Acts solely a historical description and non-binding on us today? Or is the record meant as a prescription–a kind of road map Jesus meant we are to follow?

Many take a middle-of-the-road approach. The parts we like we tend to classify as “prescriptive.” For example, we like Acts 1:8 where we Gentiles are included in Jesus’ Great Commission. As Evangelicals we believe we have the responsibility for taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

…To me, that is the problem of the middle-of-the-road Acts position. We tend to pick and choose which parts we like and will try to put into practice. Those practices that aren’t part of our tradition we classify as descriptive narrative–the same way we do with large portions of the Old Testament. [Read more…]

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Bible Study, Discipleship, Theology of the Church

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Kill Church Programs

By Jeremy Myers
1 Comment

Kill Church Programs

How can a church become more missional? Can we change the programs, training seminars, and conferences so they are more effective? Can we rework and tweak them? It might be possible, but I doubt it is worth the effort.

Church programs are like Government programs. They can be reworked, but only with lots of time, energy, and money being wasted. Even then, the end result is usually worse than what we started with. Attempting to retool a program is nearly always more damaging to the church and the people in the program than just flat-out cancelling the program. [Read more…]

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Books by Jeremy Myers, Close Your Church for Good, Discipleship, Theology of the Church

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Don’t Trust Me

By Jeremy Myers
2 Comments

Don’t Trust Me

Wayne Jacobsen at Lifestream has some interesting articles on church life.

In one of these, he says that Jesus never calls us to trust people…not even other believers.ย He writes this:

Sara and I had spent almost a week among them. Invited to teach, we were also learning as we watched the simplicity of fellowship, worship and growth that this group of believers shared together. Finally, late one evening while sitting by the fire with some of their key people we got to ask our questions about the life they shared together.

“How do you teach believers to trust each other?” Sara asked. [Read more…]

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Discipleship, Theology of the Church

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