A reason why churches don't grow! Part 1
posted by brianac @ 1:16am, Wednesday 4 April 2012.
A reason
why churches don't grow! Part 1
Lack
of pastoral leadership -- too
little, too inadequate, too short, too limited!
A church cannot
grow without a growth minded pastor.
There was this
family which included father, mother and five-year-old son Joe, the parents
decided to leave and go on vacation and left Joe at home alone. The parents decide to stay away long time,
for years, and Joe this five-year-old didn't go school, didn't really know how
to go the restroom correctly, ran out of clean clothes, did not clean the house
or after himself, and didn't go outside to play. Joe did not know how to cook because he was
too young, so he ate what was in the refrigerator, was able to open up the
canned goods and package goods that were uncooked and he ate that. Joe's main educator was the TV, and pictures
in or magazines books.
After six years
the neighbors called the police and social services came to the house and found
that Joe was living alone. The house was
a mess, because Joe couldn’t pay bills, the cable TV had gone off years prior,
the water was off as well the power.
When the police and social service try to communicate with Joe his
communication skills were still as a five year old, he cursed a lot and
couldn't complete full sentences.
Joe could not read
or write because there is no one there to teach him, suffering from
malnutrition his hair fell out, and his teeth were all rotten. Having no social skills he bit the police
officer and fought with the social worker trying not to leave the house where
he lived.
Even though this
is a fictitious story this is what happens when there is very little or no
leadership in the church. This makes you
wonder if the pastor was truly called by God to pastor or just went.
Church growth through servant leadership is
key to the success and growth of the church.
“It Takes Teamwork to Make a Dream Work,” just as a patriarchs of the
Bible had leaders to help with their mission you two must have leadership
skills starting with yourself and then disciple others. The book of Ephesians states God has given us
a fivefold Ministry for the equipping of the Saints.
There was a
church that worked with a while ago where the pastor never trained his
leadership. Would make changes at the
drop of a hat and leadership would find out the same time the parishioners
did. In time, leaders began to fall off
and left the church. When that started
to happen so did most of the members.
I have found in
the urban church for some reason, pastors refuse to install an assistant pastor
and/or leaders and give them authority to lead.
Moses had Aaron, Jesus had the disciples, and Paul had Timothy.
I did work with a church and the pastor told
me in one of our consultation sessions that he was happy with his 25 members
that he would pastor them until they die.
He was also a missionary and was gone for months at a time on mission
trips not leaving someone in charge to carry on the work while he was
absent. With very little leadership,
being gone all the time caused his parishioners to be stunted in their growth
and were like retarded children. As I
tried to work with them, they would only eat out a pastor's hands and made my
work virtually impossible. They would
say things like: “that's not how pastor does it,” and “when pastor is away instead
of a full worship service we just have testimony service and go home.”
The subject “Lack
of pastoral leadership -- too
little, too inadequate, too short, too limited!” The excerpt is from
“Strategies and Insights for Church Growth” our new book that was just
released. Strategies and Insights for
Church Growth explains why churches don't grow and come up with strategies and
gives readers the various insights on how to grow a healthy and holistic
church.
Strategies And
Insights For Church Growth Is Published by Gospel Worldwide and the websites is
GWWI.com
or Lulu.com.
Dr. Brian Cochran is available
for book signings, and pastor leadership conferences. To contact him call 657-204-6249 or bishopbrian@gww1.com. To see other valuable
resources go to gww1.com.
Anointed Christian Ministries International
posted by brianac @ 4:41pm, Thursday 29 March 2012.
When I first started pastoring I didn't have the support and it was very hard getting started. Once I go to a certain point I promised the Lord that I would not let another pastor struggle has I did. When we launched Anointed Christian Ministries International, our mission was to prepare pastors how to start, manage and grow their churches. We offer a full school of ministry and the pastors become a part of our church and affiliate program we offer in depth how to's. We offer a training for our pastors and Fivefold Ministry leaders every 3rd Saturday of the month. From goal setting to non-profit set up, we at ACM offer a variety of anointed courses to aid pastors in building healthy churches and leaders. Go to our site acmii.com to find out more about the various programs we offer.
Strategies & Insights for Church Growth
posted by brianac @ 7:04pm, Wednesday 7 March 2012.
I have been working with many churches for the last 15 years and so I wrote a book that I believe that will change the direction of a church, and ministry. Most churches don't have a plan or know how to even write one, so in Strategies & Insights for Church Growth I teach pastors how to write a strategic plan to help them get on track. Those that "fail to plan, plan to fail," is one of my favorite sayings and it is so true. The bible says to write the vision and make it plain, and God honors His word and gives wisdom to those that do so.
