|
Reaching
New People
By Rev Albert Kang
As
a church growth consultant, I have spoken to quite a few pastors who are very
afraid about losing their members to other churches. One pastor in another
country declared to me vehemently that he would do anything to prevent other
churches of his denomination from “invading” his territory. His church had
only 100 members and his town had a population of 30,000. I was not able to
convince him that there was no way that his church alone could reach majority of
the population in a short time and that it would be better for him to share his
ministry with other churches. This pastor is among those who have forgotten that
any God-fearing churches planted near them are also God’s congregations.
Moreover that it is an established fact that no one church can meet the needs of
all the people in a community. Pastors whose churches are not growing tend to
become very protective of their flocks. Their fear opens the door to temptation
of becoming selfish and envious of fast-growing churches. They see all new
churches as competitors and therefore should be attacked. Sheep stealing is a
myth created by minds that are filled with the lies and fears of Satan.
Lyle
Schaller who is a church growth consultant dispels this myth by stating these
observations: “Contrary to conventional wisdom, congregations usually benefit
from intra-denominational competition. While it is impossible to isolate one
factor as being decisive, the presence of two or more congregations with the
same denominational affiliation usually results in a higher level of
congregational health and vitality than if one congregation has a denominational
monopoly in that community. A new church is able to reach groups of people who
have been “unreachable” by the existing churches.”
Here
is a concurring view from another church growth expert, Dr. Peter Wagner:
“Some are reluctant to start new churches for fear of harming those churches
that are currently located in the target community. They feel that doing so
could create undesirable competition between brothers and sisters in Christ.
However, in more cases than not, a new church in the community tends to raise
the religious interest of the people in general and if handled properly can be a
benefit to existing churches. That which blesses the kingdom of God as a whole
also blesses the churches that truly are a part of the kingdom”.
Incidentally,
Dr. James H. Montgomery also agrees by referring to a survey done in England. It
shows that the 55 churches that had given birth to new congregations had grown
on average 31.5% between 1990 and 1994 while the non-planting churches grew by
only 19.6%. This knocked in the head the fear that starting new congregations
retards the growth of parent churches.
In
our church-planting experience, out of every ten people, who come to our newly
planted church, from the existing churches in the community, nine will return to
their own churches or join other churches. The new church only has a ten percent
retention rate.
The
Mind of A Church-Planter
Church
planting is not easy but it is not that difficult either. The Apostle Paul said
in Romans 12:12, “And be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by
the renewing of your mind.”
Everything
begins with your mind and therefore it is vital for you to condition your mind
to accept faith-building ideas and not fear. One of the worse weapons against
church planters used by the devil is “discouragement”. The mind of disbelief
and negative thoughts can be very destructive.
Some
years ago, I was invited to conduct a combined church growth seminar with 5
churches. One of the church’s pastors asked for a personal time of counseling.
After a few minutes into the conversation, I was almost distressed by the
negativism showed by this pastor. His church had about 60 in weekly attendance
and he saw no possibility for it to grow further. He actually gave me quite a
few reasons why his church would not grow. He blamed everybody except himself
for the failure. His mind was filled with doubts and therefore it could only
translated into disappointment. He spoe himself into unbelief and doubts. This
is a common trap that most pastors and church leaders fell into.
Law
of Displacement
I
often use the example of a darkened room to illustrate how faith can drive out
doubts and fear. When you enter a dark room, you do not try to shoo the darkness
away. The only way for the darkness to go is for you to introduce light energy
into the room. Therefore as darkness cannot be dispelled without the
introduction of light, it is also true that fear cannot be dispelled without the
introduction of faith. This is known as the law of displacement. You definitely
cannot shoo fear away. Fear is the result of doubt. Please take note that fear
drives away faith. Without faith, there is little room for creativity and
solutions to be developed. This fear when intensified will become a habit called
“Negative thinking”. Negative thinking means that you are consistently
having a pessimistic view of everything and thus your creativity becomes
stifled. Let me emphasize that the only way is to displace your fear with
regular strong dosages of faith in your God.
Mental
Handicap
Many
churches are not growing because the leadership experiences the kind of mental
handicap that I have mentioned. Such leaders can be compared to the elephants in
captivity. In the zoo or circus, we see huge elephants being restrained by very
small chains. The fact is that these elephants have the power to break the
chains and escape. The reason why they are not doing that is because they think
that it is impossible to escape. The trainers use “mind –freezing
traditional thinking” to trap the minds of the animals. Since the elephants
were young, the trainers chained them with very strong chains. These young
elephants would try to escape but of course they could not. Finally, when these
elephants were convinced that any plan to escape was futile, they just gave up.
Tradition can be dangerous when your mind begins to say that you have never done
this before and therefore it cannot be done. God intends that you use your mind
for thinking and not simply a warehouse for facts. Church planters are pioneers
and therefore there may be much uncharted waters that they have to move through.
If you desire to be like them, please bear that in mind. You have to fight
mind-freezing traditional thinking. Think positively because God is a positive
God!
I’m
Possible
“Possible”
is a dynamic word because it is connected to faith. “Impossible” is a filthy
word and so it should be thrown into the verbal garbage heap. God is a possible
God and our church is a possible church. Practice Matthew 17:20 – “If ye
have faith… nothing shall be impossible unto you.” Faith moves mountains.
The more faith we have, the more mountains we will move. The High Praise
Fellowship has to become a church of specialists who have faith to do the
“impossible” things. We have to become Prayer Specialists because prayer
changes things.
Five
Primary Ministry Goals
Whatever
we do, we must never lose sight of the fact that God has called us to fulfill
these five primary ministry goals:
1. To
evangelize the world
2. To
form edifying Church
3. To
build individual Disciples of Christ
4. To
influence the Church to become Christ-like
5. To
bring glory to God as the end result of all effort
Let’s
work together to reach out to as many people as possible. Let’s continue to
plant churches not just in the Philippines but wherever God shows us.
V