Bob Young Resources

July 2017

Upcoming 2017 Mission and Ministry Schedule

A 2017 Calendar that includes all scheduled ministry and mission activities is available. I hope you can attend an event when I am in your area. Contact me for details or to inquire about a possible visit.

Effective Ministry Depends on Setting Biblical Goals

The church that is serious about God's purpose and culturally consistent ministry needs four things. These things will help the church take the gospel to the world. This article addresses evangelism, discipleship, worship, fellowship, service, and prayer. More....

Your church needs a plan for sharing the gospel
This is evangelism. I like to call it "making disciples." Making disciples involves two things: "converting" and "maturing." These occur in baptism and follow-up teaching. Conversion is the first step. Conversion must be followed with discipling.
A first step toward effective evangelism in the local church is to recruit every member as an ambassador "on mission" to bring people to share in the activities, worship, small groups, and fellowship of the church. The church that has no or limited contact with non-believers or unchurched folks will seldom experience healthy growth. (Some churches grow by swelling--by attracting people who are attending other churches--but that is not the kind of biblical, healthy growth the church is seeking.)
When large numbers of non-believers begin attending worship, it is imperative that what they experience speaks to them and touches them. The church that is serious about evangelism does not sing the songs it likes, it sings songs that visitors can embrace and enjoy; it does not voice jargon-filled or bland prayers, it prays in ways that visitors can understand and identify with; it explains those things that may not be familiar to the visitors; it preaches messages visitors can understand. During my years in full-time ministry, most Sundays worship was a pretty simple version of Christianity 101. That kind of preaching does not compromise the message, it explains it as you would teach a child (which many of the visitors-and members are, spiritually speaking). The uncompromised message will draw crowds.
The unbelievers who are present probably came because they are searching--for meaning, purpose, love, friendships. They want practical advice--how to make decisions, help in their marriages and families, stability in life's tragedies. They want to know how to move on from the past (forgiveness) and how to actively pursue the future (hope). The Bible answers such questions.
When unbelievers are present, the church committed to evangelism does several things. The visitors meet the leaders (preacher, deacons, elders, and Bible teachers who are always greeters); the visitors meet several members (to begin the assimilation process, the leaders can direct this process so the members whom the visitors meet have common interests); the visitors meet people who are trained in personalized evangelism. The members who have developed the gift of evangelism know how to meet people, how to develop spiritual influence, how to develop interest, how to conduct a personalized study, and are willing to invest their time to share the gospel.

Your church needs a plan for discipling
This is the process of nurturing spirituality, teaching individual discipleship, encouraging corporate spiritual development, and making disciples of those who have recently been baptized (converted).
The church that is serious about touching lives will have a plan for helping people grow spiritually into mature disciples. The church that is serious about touching lives will have a plan for encouraging and developing corporate spirituality. Faithfulness and service depend on spiritual growth.
Discipleship is more experience than education. It is encounter more than enlightenment. Discipleship depends more on the practical than on the pedagogy. These statements do not mean that Bible truth is not important; they suggest that discipleship is about knowing and then doing what we know to do. Our sermons are mostly intellectual. Our "new Christian" classes are mostly doctrine. How have we missed the point that people grow in the Lord because they become active?
Preaching must be a call to action. Often people do not respond to the sermon because they do not know what they should do in response. Preaching is not sharing information. Hearing the word leads to doing. Transformation is demonstrated by how my life is changed, and my life changes by what I do. Preachers, are your sermon points statements of truth or action verbs? Effective preaching helps move people toward God; it helps them demonstrate it by their actions.
Bible classes must do more than share information. In the context of a smaller group, it is possible to build the kind of faith that moves God's people into service. Small groups are not informational, they are relational. In the group, one sees the deep faith and committed actions of other believers. Transparency, genuineness, honesty-these characteristics of the small group will attract the multitudes.

Your church needs a plan for worship and fellowship that enables participants to share their lives
The church that is serious about impacting the world must carefully develop an effective worship experience and a multi-faceted concept of fellowship.
Worship. The church must maintain a dual-track focus in worship. First, reviewing briefly the ideas set forth above under evangelism and thinking about the visitors who are present, the church must constantly think about how the songs, prayers, sermons, words spoken and things done will impact those who are new. The church must also think about the needs of its members in planning worship.
Worship must touch the heart. Everything done in worship reflects the heart of the church. Through those who lead and through the participation and responses of those who are present, the heart of the church is made visible. The language of the heart is universal. When worship has to do only with various predefined activities and words, communication is hindered. Hearts fail to touch. Simplifying the gospel has to do with the words we use, but even more it has to do with how the gospel connects with the hearts of those present. The gospel must be simplified because the way we have become accustomed to explaining it does not connect with the majority of the unchurched and because they do not have the background to understand what we are saying. When we do not know the right words, the culture, the expectations, or the needs, what always works is touching hearts. Heart sensitivity is part of being all things to all people to save as many as possible. Worship can stand above culture and be effective multi-culturally when hearts are enabled to touch! Spiritually mature Christians cast aside their own preferences and cultural leanings in an effort to supersede the barriers that cultural contrasts present.
Fellowship. Planned fellowship activities are wonderful; spontaneous fellowship is often better. Too much of the fellowship in the contemporary church depends on organizational structures. Everything is planned, structured, organized. Much of it is based in our own desires and preferences. As a result, where community groups exist they are often closed groups. The same closed group sometimes meets for years.
The church that is really committed to touching lives of non-members must stop thinking and acting like an organization. The church is not an enterprise; it is not a business. The effective church is a community that wants to know how to reach out to the multitudes around it who are also seeking community. Church is a place of belonging; church is family. Down at the church house, you are known as a person. Church is about people. Church is about what God has done, is doing, and will do in the lives of people. Church is not rules rehearsal. Church is not legal reminder.

Your church needs a plan for involving every member in ministry
A healthy church helps its members and those who participate in the church find relationship with God, spiritual relationships with others, and love for the world. Every member of the church is a servant, serving God, serving others, serving the world.

Prayer is essential
Add a healthy dose of prayer to the mix and your church will reach the masses! The world that constantly changes can be impacted with the unchanging Word. Unsaved people are all around us. We encounter seekers every day, but often we do not recognize them as seekers. The church must have a plan for sharing God's Good News, a plan for discipling that facilitates spiritual growth, a plan to touch lives through meaningful relationships--with God and with others, and a plan for involving every member in ministry. All of this must be bathed in prayer!

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The complete article can be accessed and downloaded at: Setting Biblical Goals in the Local Church