The Normal Church

You have all been to this church. I am in them every week. They
are not particularly purpose driven, or missional, or hip, or seeker
driven, or simple or whatever the emphasis du juor is in these days.
In fact, you probably attend the normal church. The question is: can a
normal church be alive, growing, effective and happy? Can it be used
by God without becoming some new-fangled church?


If I were a pastor reading church books today, I think I would be
a little frustrated thinking I had to become multi-site, or mega, or
cell-based or somehow super-cool to be used by God. Can God still
use normal churches? My answer is, "Yes," if. .....


Normal churches can be effective for
God, but they might not be. In fact, many of them are not. But, here
is the rub: they can be used by God and still be normal. They can be
used by God without becoming hip, or cool, or sexy, or seeker, mega,
missional, simple, or
something they are not.  Here is how.


Study your church


The Bible says, "Know well the condition of your flock." Do
some analysis as far as growth history, velcro factor and magnet
factor. For details, see my book or video on You Can Double Your
CHURCH in FIVE Years or Less. It is part of the Big Double Bundle.

http://www.joshhunt.com/big.htm


For MP3s, see
http://www.joshhunt.com/bundle.htm


Improve the music


There is too much talk about style of music and not enough talk
about quality of music. The question is not "Is it contemporary,
edgy, traditional, blended, or my new favorite: organic?" (Can
someone explain to me what organic music is? )The question is, "Is it any good?"


Get a focus group--a Sunday School class might do--and ask them:
what is working for you about the way we do music? What do you not
like? What can we improve? Constantly improve your music.


You actually don't need a focus group. Search your own heart.
When was the last time you were moved to tears in your worship
service. Forget about style. Did it move you? Did it move anyone?
Did you want to clap or stand shout or say AMEN?


Improve the preaching and teaching


The number one predictor of the growth of any church is the
preaching ability of the pastor. 90% of pastors see themselves as
above average. Think about that one.


The best way for a pastor to improve his preaching is for him to
teach his Sunday school teachers how to communicate. You work on improving their
communication skills and everyone improves. Take them through
Disciplemaking Teachers and 10 Marks of Incredible Teachers. Take
them through Seven Laws of the Learner and Seven Laws of the
Teacher.


Train the workers


Cell groups don't work. Visitation doesn't work. Sunday School
doesn't work. Seeker services don't work. Giving Friday nights to
Jesus doesn't work. What works? People work. Cell groups will work
if you train the people to lead them properly. Visitation can work
if people work it. Seeker services are clearly working in some
settings. Giving Friday nights to Jesus works, but only works when
we work it.


Practice doesn't make perfect. In fact, it can just burn in bad
habits. We need practice combined with instruction. But, training
without practice won't work either. You can't learn to play tennis
by watching tennis videos. Sooner or later you have to get on the
court. We need both instruction and practice.


Consistently train your workers in these five areas:



  • Teaching skills

  • Leadership skills

  • People skills

  • Evangelism/ how to grow a class skills

  • Spiritual development.


I have a new series in the works called Saturday Morning
Training. The idea is to gather a dozen or so teachers in a home
around a big screen TV. The DVD is interactive where you will watch
for a while, discuss for a while, watch for a while and discuss for
a while. Each session will be sold separately and will be affordable
for any church. Quantity discounts as well as reproducible licenses
will also be available.


Preach a gospel of joy and grace


The gospel is a gospel of good news. It is a message of joy and
grace that God loves us and will forgive us of all of our sins. He
will give us a life of meaning and purpose. He will show us, through
His word, how to live the best life possible in an often
inhospitable world.


Being in several hundred churches has taught me that the theology
in growing churches is often different from the theology in
non-growing churches. Growing churches preach grace with a smile.
Declining churches teach grace with a scowl. There is a difference.


Model and vision cast about doubling groups


Speed to the leader; speed of the team. If the leadership is not
joyfully involved in a doubling group, it is not likely that
doubling groups will ever become a movement in your church. Show me
a pastor who consistently stands before his people and says, "I am in
a group that is doubling; I want you to be in a group that is
doubling" and I will show you a doubling church. Show me a pastor
who consistently stands before his people and says, "I am in a group
that is doubling; I want you to be in a group that is doubling." and
I  will show you Andy Stanley. He says it all the time. Pastor, you
should too.


Take care of the visitors


Most churches have plenty of visitors. To find out, check our
step #1 above. The key is taking care of the visitors you have. Part
of that has to do with improving the preaching, music and teaching
as outlined above. The only thing left is to take care of the people
God sends.


Here is a goal. Try to see that every visitor gets at least three
invitations to do something fun in the first three weeks that they
visit. These invitations might include things like:



  • An invitation to go to lunch with the pastor or staff member

  • An invitation to a Sunday school party

  • An invitation to the home of a Sunday school teacher on a
    Friday night.

  • A Sunday lunch with a Sunday school class


Take care of the details


Success is often in the details and everything matters. It
matters that your nursery doesn't smell like a dirty diaper. It
matters that the words are speled wright in teh buliten. It matters
that the soloist sings on key.


Go after kids


I heard David Francis (head of Sunday School for Lifeway) speak
recently at Glorieta. He said that he had a statistician look through
the numbers that we turn in and this is the conclusion the
statistician came to: The number of people who come to faith in
Christ after they leave their teenage years is statistically
inconsequential. If you want to test this, ask this question at any
church gathering: how many of you came to faith in Christ before you
reached age 20. Nearly every hand will go up. There are two applications to this: #1 we probably
need to do a better job of reaching adults. #2: we ought to go after
people while they are reachable. They are reachable when they are
young. They are reachable when they are kids.


Love God; love people


Don't get so focused on getting church right that you fail to
keep your relationship with God right. Love the Lord your God with
all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And love people like you
love yourself. Love covers a multitude of sins.


 

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