Recruit and Train

I get very annoyed when I hear: "Churches like yours . . . (meaning churches where lots of people are coming to Christ, the music rocks, and the excitement is equivalent to the Super Bowl) . . . are very shallow in doctrine. I have to assume they mean that a large number of our people could not name all twelve tribes of Judah or quote the five tenets of Calvinism. This may be true, but in my experience as Care Ministry Pastor, I see people at their true life level. They are having dynamic life change and are exhibiting evidence of conversion that drives them to desire to know more and more about the God who loves them and gave them new life.

To set the record straight let me point out the environments we have intentionally designed for Christian growth. 1. We are very intentional about the main worship teaching. By intentional I mean that there are no less than 80 man hours put into every message. (much more most weeks) Every week people are challenged by God's Word in a way that impacts their daily lives.
2. We are very intentional about Community Groups. We have designed an environment that encourages people to do life together and seek to grow through fellowship and bible study. 3. We are very intentional about serving. We create environments that encourage and enable everyone in the church to serve. It is through serving that people grow, not merely through learning. 4. We are very intentional about encouraging our people to share their faith. We create an environment of invitation because you really haven't learned anything until you share it with someone else. Hundreds of people don't come to Christ unless hundreds of people are sharing Christ.

We are now adding an opportunity for our local and online people to attend an online Community Group called "Basic Training". Each Tuesday night at 7:30 we will be online, teaching bible study methods through Romans and Ephesians.

This Community Group has three purposes: 1. Excite people about God's Word and their need of it. 2. Excite people about doing life around God's Word with other people. (Thus feed into new Community Groups) 3. Declare the basis of our salvation (Romans) and what it means to be IN Christ. (Ephesians)

Basic Training is not a response to the accusation that "churches like ours" are shallow, but rather a demonstration that we do whatever we have to do to do what God instructs us to do. Basic Training is a response to all the new converts God has seen fit to give us. It is a way to channel people into the three environments of Barefoot Church: Worship/Community Groups/Service and Sharing.

Shallow? I think not. Maybe dynamic is a better word to describe "churches like ours."

Just thinking.