Yesterday, I started preaching through some things that our staff and deacons began discussing during our recent retreat. I started by laying some ground work for measuring success in the local church. Too many simply look at numbers to gauge success, but I've found that drawing a crowd and building a church are usualy two different things and each decade had its own "bag of tricks." In the 70's & 80's, churches swallowed goldfish, cut off ties, and ran busses. In the 90's, the seeker driven mentality told us to camouflage Christ, until we had them hooked. In this new millenium, we focus on music and the concert mentality. Nothing wrong with drawing crowds and anything alive and healthy should be growing. In June, we will be removing our attendance numbers from the Sunday bulletin and move away from the numbers equal success mentality.
Based on Matt 28:19-20, we've determined that the measure of success in a church is whether or not the church is making disciples. Are people being saved, connected, serving, and learning to disciple others? If not, then a crowd of 20,000 is a large crowd, but it's not a successful church. We've developed a process for producing disciples and that will be the focus of my sermon series in the days ahead.
Last night, I focused on the topic of divorce and remarriage. Statistics now tell us that "Christian" homes are experiencing more divorces than those outside the church. My focus passage was 1 Cor. 7, but I also used many others. Bottom-line... unless your spouse died, was unfaithful, or deserted you because of your Christian faith; you should remain married and work out your differences. Scripture is clear that God hates divorce!
If you were the victim of the items mentioned above, you are free to remarry. If you were the offender, you are to remain unmarried or be reconciled. True repentance will lead you to restore your marriage... if your former spouse is still alive, and has not remarried. There are many different views on this, but I believe mine is biblical. Too bad there isn't room to expound in a blog. Remember, some of the best counseling comes by sitting under good preaching.... so be faithful in the services.
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