Sermon Tone Analysis

Liberty University

 

 

Operation Lost Sheep: A Strategy to Reach the Unchurched

 

 

A paper submitted to Dr. Wheeler

In partial fulfillment of the Requirements for

the course PATH 610

 

 

Liberty Theological seminary

 

 

By

Christopher W. Myers

 

 

 

                                                                                   

Lynchburg, Virginia

Sunday, December 16th, 2007

 

Table of Contents

Introduction- 3

The Equipping phase- 3

The Energizing Phase- 5

The Mobilization Phase- 8

Conclusion- 12

APPENDIX A- 14

Bibliography- 16

\\ !!! Introduction

           

       This strategy to reach the Unchurched is specifically designed for the situation at my local expression of the body of Christ, Faith Bible Church.

This strategy consists of three phases: to equip, to energize, and to mobilize.

The equipping phase deals primarily with the necessary changes to be made within the church body itself.

The Energizing phase deals with the result of the implementation of the equipping phase by motivating and facilitating members to do the work of Christ.

The third phase is the mobilization of Christ's disciples to fulfill the Great Commission of Christ through the four areas of discipleship, outreach, fellowship, and ministry (helping others).

It must be noted first that the current situation at my local church is that: first, we do a fine job of facilities management, and we also are Biblically sound in doctrine and conservative and convictional on life issues.

Secondly, Faith Bible Church strives to give the most energy to those things that are pertinent to the spread of the good news of Jesus Christ.

Where we fail in this area I believe it would be corrected by the implementation of this strategy to reach the Unchurched.

!!!

The Equipping phase

 

       The first thing that must be accomplished in any strategy for a church to reach the Unchurched is to have a called man of God that has a clear mission and vision for the direction of the church he is leading.

And he must lead.

Secondly, the element of his preaching should be centered on God by presenting God's glory in all things because by the people beholding the glory of God it will change them from one end of glory to another.[1]

In order for the glory of God to be beheld, the preacher must present his sermons in a systematic matter.

His sermons should be expository from the Word of God as its foundation; even his topical and textual sermons should exposit the word of God.

Everything must be drawn out of the Word of God and nothing should be read into it.

Also the sermons should be meat for all believers and never should anything be "dumbed-down."

Rather the Bible's depth should be exposited in depth, Rainer made it clear from his research:

The evidence and data are clear.

Both the formerly unchurched and the leaders of the churches that reached them verified the efficacy of "meaty" teaching and preaching...[2]

 

       The amount of new members and visitors that come to church to pay their dues is devastating.

This leads to a complacency of Christians and churches.

The easiest way to combat this is by "plugging them in" to the church through small groups.

This ensures that visitors and new members take ownership of the vision of the church.

It also closes the backdoor of the church and is a valuable tool of ensuring that new members or visitors do not fall between the cracks in the church, never to be seen again.

Stemming from the small group is the idea of the new member~/inquirers small group.

This is a class that has a limited life span, but its goals are threefold.

First, train prospective members to see and understand the vision of the church and the major doctrines of the church, this would include going over the church constitution and the meaning and implications of the church covenant and membership.

Secondly, find the spiritual gifts of the individuals and show them opportunities to exercise them in the local church.

Thirdly, the new members should be plugged-in to a small group and discipleship partner~/couple for after the small group ends.

Also, one of the Deacons, usually he who leads the discipleship times, should provide spiritual oversight to the individual and add the new member to his church families who he oversees.

Not everyone will be able or will desire to be a teacher or someone with high responsibilities.

But simpler ministries such as: a Greeter's ministry, Usher ministry, food pantry ministry, missionary contactors, fellowship supervisors, prayer ministry and other administrative or low commitment ministries can be designed to allow for the involvement of all church members for exercising spiritual gifts.

The most important thing for shepherds of the church is to be able to know what particular areas God's people need training in or what knowledge or skills they are lacking in order to carry out the Biblical vision of the church.

The ways to go about this is threefold: by having the congregation complete a questionnaire that reveals their worldview or the same can be accomplished by a visitation ministry[3] that interviews church members personally or interpersonally, and finally this can be accomplished through discipleship or small groups.

An acceptable worldview questionnaire is attached to this paper as Appendix A to accomplish the first option so church leader's can determine where God's people are at and how much equipping needs to be done and in what areas emphasis should be placed.

!!!

The Energizing Phase

 

       With competent leadership in place, with God-glorying preaching every week, and the implementation of small groups for spiritual growth and interpersonal aspects, then it comes time to energize the body of Christ in order to complete the final phase of mobilization for this strategy.

The energizing phase consist of setting accountability and high expectations using the Deaconship to set the standard for accountability and high expectations, and finally training in the Word to the end of completing specific tasks in order to meet the vision of the church.

The heads of the energizing phase is the Deacon body commanded by the Elders.

One attribute of the mobilization phase is discipleship.

It is assumed in the energizing phase that the deacon body is undergoing discipleship individually by individual Elders.

Accountability and the expectations set on church members are determined by the Elders according to the vision of the church and the Elders enforce these on the deacons and the deacons enforce this on the church body.

The Elders hold one another mutually accountable and all believers are accountable before the Holy Spirit.

The Deacon body should empower the church by teaching small groups, by personal discipleship sessions, by home groups, and by overseeing the spiritual health of no more than 15-20 families within the congregations.

Deacons may hold house fellowship groups outside the grounds of the church with their respective families in order to build a more intimate knowledge and spiritual partnership with them.

This would be a time of fellowship, prayer, and edification.

Any problems among the families that a Deacon oversees should be directly notified to the Elders.

The Elder and Deacons should hold meetings together to share the spiritual status of the families they oversee.

The majority of the time the meeting should be spent in prayer.

By the prayers of every deacon for his respective families, the Elders will hear the heart of the deacons and know if there is anything further to discuss after prayer is complete.

The meeting time should never exceed the prayer time.

This is a description of the foundation of the most important aspect of empowering individuals for discipleship, ministry, outreach, and fellowship; it is the prayer of upright men.

The leaders of the church should be engaged in active and unceasing prayer such as described above, but prayer must also be given priority elsewhere for regular members to exercise their spiritual gift of prayer.

One important way to do this is by having an unknown and unannounced person pray in a quiet room alone from all people for the duration of the Sunday morning worship service.

The prayer should be focused for the lost and for the worship service and for God's vision for the church and for the Holy Spirit to be at work among all peoples, and for the missionaries, and for the leader of the church to be serving in joy.

It is to be an unceasing prayer for the duration of the worship service.

This prayer can be directed or supplemented by a written list of needs and names of lost people who need Jesus.

Additionally, the Deacons should know when a member of their particular church family misses church, foregoes tithing, or has spiritual, physical, or mental issues to which counseling, helping ministries, or contact by one of the Elders may be needed.

This allows for biblical accountability and encouraging expectations of high standards to exist within a trusted body of believers for the edification of the saints and makes sure that the flesh of men abstains from evil.

As already mentioned, a new members~/inquirer's class should be taught in the church as God provides and the primary purpose for this has already been described, but the most important aspect of it is that ALL new members should be assigned or choose a small group and house fellowship to become a part of.

Furthermore, that person should be assigned to a discipleship partner.

!!!

The Mobilization Phase

 

       There is no doubt that the entire mobilization phase is centered on this idea of discipleship.[4]

And the mobilization phase starts and ends with the discipling of a new convert or a person finally beginning to make Jesus Master of His life.

The person to be discipled is usually placed under the care of a Deacon or Elder.

If it is a couple joining, then a Deacon and his wife or an Elder and his wife should be chosen to disciple.

If it is a single woman or a single man, then a person of the same gender in leadership should step up to disciple new single members.

Elder's or Deacon's wives can attend to the new women converts or the Elder or Deacon and his wife can do the discipleship as a team effort.

The discipleship times should at least start out weekly and should cover the foundations of the faith.

It should have no time restraints and should become as regular or irregular or as long or as short as the /discipled// /and the one who is /discipling/ feel it should take place.

In the end, a beautiful Christian relationship should exist where confession, prayer, and fellowship are always welcome and trusted.

If that does not occur than discipleship partners should lovingly stop meeting and seek new partners to seek further maturation in Christ.

Fellowship is the net result of discipleship times and small groups and house fellowships among believers.

The focus of fellowship should be more on God than on self.

This is easier said than done.

Here are some simple strategies to keep this in view.

Center the fellowship on a particular truth of the Bible, also strive to make fellowship a learning experience, make sure testimonies will be shared, make sure there is adequate time to reflect on one another's lives, but also reflect on the work of God in the life of the family, church, and individual.

Make it a time of celebrations and praise, rather than requests and negativity.

Fellowship should naturally spawn Christian relationships that should overflow into everyday communication and life.

If it does not do that, then it is failing as fellowship.

Between the double action of discipleship and fellowship is the inevitable and necessary outcome of outreach.