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Ministry Encouragement Podcast – Episode #085 – 3-4-14 – Your Host: Rev. Jim W. Hollis
Our Sponsor: Proactive Ministries (www.proactive-ministries.org) – Phone: (770) 803-9988
Hello and welcome to the eighty-fifth Ministry Encouragement Podcast! I’m so delighted to have you take time from your busy schedule to join me in continuing to see God build a wonderful community around this Podcast. We have heard from some of you in Africa – Kenya and Ghana; many in San Francisco – about 240 in the Bay area thus far; and the two highest numbers of listeners each week (after the Atlanta, GA, Area) are Phoenix, AZ and the Houston-Beaumont, TX areas. You are blessing this ministry and me by joining us and sharing this with others you know!
Today I am still recovering from a couple of instances in the past week where some folk I was working with laid some frustration on me which was not new or uncommon. For the past 20 years in working closely with more than 900 congregations across North America, we are seeing some of the same recurring obstacles to church health and church growth. Primarily it can be summarized in one sentence: We are NOT initiating and building relationships past a surface level in tens of thousands of congregations. The members of those churches are not doing it. The Leaders are not doing it. And yes, a great majority of the Pastors are not doing it either. For churches to reverse the avalanche of decline and church health to be restored, we must recapture the spiritual priority of living as effective witnesses for Jesus Christ.
Today then I want to go back to the most BASIC elements of reaching others as Disciples of Jesus Christ – particularly those we don’t know at all or perhaps only in a very minimal way. I will be covering:
The Five R’s of Effective Witnessing With Christ
- Ready
- Reach
- Relate
- Remember
- Repeat
Bringing better health and growing a church is neither rocket science nor complicated, provided we get the foundational basics secured. For too many decades now traditional churches have been hoping against all hope and evidence that the “attractional model” will bring people into the life of the congregation. That means that we can just have so many wonderful programs, great preaching and many varied services to others that people who don’t do church at all will just come and join us. News flash: The 1950’s culture in North America in which people just decided to go to church is DEAD, OVER and GONE.
Should we truly want to become more effective, we must return to the way of reaching through witnessing with Christ that has worked steadily across the centuries around the world: relationships centered in the Divine Love of Christ.
Please share this episode with others you know who are in your church and other churches as well. So many members, pastors and leaders are frustrated today because they just can’t seem to grow and be healthy as communities of faith. I’d love to hear from you about your thoughts on this Episode. You can contact me in one of the following ways:
Personal Email: jim@ministryencouragementpodcast.com
Ministry Offices Phone: (770) 803-9988 OR Fax: (770) 803-9989
Voicemail: USE your computer mouse and microphone to click on the button on the right side of this page and leave Rev. Jim Hollis a personal voicemail.
Facebook: Jim W. Hollis AND please LIKE our Proactive Ministries Page
LinkedIn: Jim Hollis
Until the next time we share in the Podcast or I hear from you personally, keep walking in the Love, Grace and Joy of Christ!
Jim
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