The Church Make Over

Now more than ever, the caged church is ready to rediscover itself.   COVID 19 has kept the Christian church far too long and many of its members are crying out for purpose, deliverance and courage.   If you are like me, you have felt the urge to move the church forward.  But how do you this?  Lately, I've been looking at church systems that just might be able to jump start the plateau church into a vibrant growing organism.   Being in person or online is irrelevant if you have a strategy that the church can use to map out its spiritual growth.  

Where do we begin?   I feel that an assessment of sort is needed most especially who had been in the church for awhile.   This first step creates a beginning point which hopefully creates the need to look forward to  a next step.  Simply creating the class without the person feeling the need for it is just another way to waste someone's time.   But who knows, the mere fact that a system is in place would give interest to people to come and discover what they are missing.   

The assessment can be the basis of a formal feedback the leadership can use to commence an appropriate system.   Below are three of the many existing church systems that have worked over the years for Christian churches.  I deliberately noted their action steps between sessions which identifies applications a person need to be engage with.   Let me know what system have worked for you or any system that you may know that are not part of this list.    

    

101, 201, 301, 401

Saddleback Methodology

Every quarter, the church can use these classes to encourage and boost the spiritual growth and commitment of the church.  Each level is progressive and deals with the basic into worldwide impact.  The topics are handpicked and purposefully chosen to address critical commitments of a believer.  First, is the commitment to the church, the second is the commitment to Jesus, third is the commitment to service and ministry, and lastly the commitment to missions local and global.  The further you stretched this out however, the longer you delay the potential for consistent growth.   

But what happens if the individual exhausts the four classes?  You've heard the response, "Oh, I've taken that already."  The church then must have CLASS 101 sessions 1, 2 and so on, to deepen the person's learning and commitment  For example, Class 101 theme is about church and its purpose.  Session 1 topic can be The church in the book of Acts or Study of churches in Revelation.   On 201, a Session 1 can be on the topic of Foster's Spiritual Discipline or Fasting in the Bible.  For 301, a Session 1 can mean how to develop administrative skill, or how to grow children's ministry.  For 401, a Session 1 can be a topic on Apologetics.  

Class 101:  Learn the Biblical Church 

• Discover the individual's purpose and the purpose of the church
• Connect with others and how to start intentionally building your community
• Understand the local church journey, its past, present and future
• Teaching Transcript 

Class 201:  Growing in My Walk With Jesus

• Learn how to manage spiritual growth in the midst of a busy life
• Strategizing Small Groups to be intentional and productive
• Stewarding God's resources and learning how to give to God first
• Teaching Transcript

Class 301:  My Service and Ministry

• My purpose is to serve
• Where do I fit?   What ministry should I do? 
• Making a difference in the lives of others
• Teaching Transcript 

Class 401:  My life mission, My eternal investment

• How to share your story and your faith to others
• The church's strategy in reaching its community and the world
• Learn what God is doing around the world
• Teaching Transcript

I AM A CHURCH MEMBER

By Thom Rainer

Critique:  I have taught this book to many congregations.  It is effective especially when a church is about to celebrate its anniversary.   This yearly treck can be made especially with new comers in mind.  Those who have taken it, can take it again and hopefully the yearly spacing will make the person want to come again.

For the newcomers or those who have not taken or those who wants to be refreshed with this lessons are really the target for this book.  For those who wish to move forward, they can take different topics with the hope that it will create the same if not a deeper impact and effect.   In other words, while 20 families are going through this book, the other families who have taken this can dwell a 6 session study on the church or 6 session study in the book of Acts about the church, or 6 sessions studies of the Church in Revelation.      The goal of these lessons is to come up with the similar theme with deeper applications.   I know that's a challenge but I think it's doable.   

Session 1:  I will be a functioning church member

• Membership means we are all necessary parts of the whole 
• Membership means we are different but we still work together
• Membership means everything we say and do is based on a biblical foundation of love
• Church membership is functioning membership
• Pledge: 
• I am a Christian 
• I am a member of the body of Christ
• I am a member of the local body of Christ
• I am a functioning member
• I will give
• I will serve
• I will minister
• I will evangelize
• I will study
• I will seek to be a blessing to others
• I will sympathize with the body 

Session 2 :  I will be a unifying church member

• Unity is not optional in the church
• Gossip and Negative Talk will destroy unity in the church
• Forgiveness will foster unity in the church
• Pledge:
• I will be a source of unity in my church
• I will not  be a source of gossip or dissention
• I will keep the unity for the sake of the gospel

Session 3:  I will not let my church be about my preferences and desires

• The call to serve others
• Serving others should push us outside the walls of the church 
• Cultivating the mind of Christ (He came to Serve)
• 3rd Pledge:
• I will let my church be about my preferences and desire
• I will serve others and serve Christ
• I will deal with any inconveniences and matters 

Session 4:  I will Pray for My Church Leaders

• Church members are called to pray for the pastor and church leaders 
• Pray for the pastor and his family
• Pray for the pastors protection
• Pray for your pastor's physical and mental health
• Pledge: 
• Pray for my pastor everyday
• Pray for my pastor's family, strength and wisdom daily

Session 5:  I will lead my family to be healthy church members

• Pray together as a family for the church 
• Worship together as a family
• Love the church and encourage your family to do the same 
• Pledge:
• I will lead my family to be good members of this church
• We will pray together for our church
• We will worship together in our church
• We will serve together in our church
• We will ask Christ to help us fall deeper in love with this church

Session 6:  I will treasure church membership as a gift

• Church membership as a gift
• The universal church vs. the local church
• Understanding and cherishing the gift of church membership
• Pledge:
• I am a Christian
• I became a part of the body of Christ
• I am a baptized believer
• I will serve and love others in the church
• I will pray that I will never take my membership for granted, but see it as a gift and an opportunity to serve others by being a part of something so much greater than any person or member

REAL-DISCIPLESHIP

Jim Putman

This system is unlike the first two because this deals to the individual as an assessment of their spiritual growth.   It is pretty descriptive and may not be for one who has a weak stomach :-)  What do you mean?  you might ask.   Well, imagine labeling your people accordingly and saying, ok, you're spiritually young adult and you - you're spiritually dead.   To avoid that, a personal assessment has to be made.   How can one make this a class or a system?

Critique:   Maybe the category for stage 1 can be understood as an entry level for God's kingdom.   Renaming it hopefully does not remove the impact of its definition.   Another observation is that the any believer can be infant at some area in their life but could be young adult in other areas.  So figuring out their specific stage in specific areas are necessary.  A wholistic assessment then is necessary to understand the true spiritual nature of the person.      

Stage 1:  Spiritually Dead (unbelief)

• SCMD:  Moving the spiritually dead toward life:  Share
• Action:  Share the gospel

Stage 2:  Spiritual Infant (ignorance) 

• SCMD:  Nurturing spiritual infants: Share
• Action:  Share your life, share new truth, share new habits 

Stage 3:  Spiritual Child (self-centeredness)

• SCMD:  Guiding spiritual children:  Connect
• Action:  connect to God, connect to small group, connect to God's purpose

Stage 4:  Spiritual Young Adult (service, God-centeredness, other-centeredness)

• SCMD:  Training spiritual young adults:  Minister
• Action:  Equip for ministry, provide ministry opportunities, release to do ministry  

Stage 5:  Spiritual Parent (intentionality, reproducibility, strategy)

• SCMD:  Releasing spiritual parents:  Disciple 
• Action:  Explain discipleship process, release to disciple another with your help, release to disciple alone

Grace Community Church Pastor, Pastor John MacArthur has also put together a church system and wrote in a book entitled, "The Master Plan for Church."  His approach uses the anatomy of the human body.  The genius of his however is not on the imagery but the challenge to the body to be biblical in its conviction and its expression.  The book is electronically found in this link and it is very good reading for serious leaders who want to see their church grow from within.