In my previous post, “Internet Ministry: What is it?,” I defined “internet ministry” as follows:

“Internet ministry” is the use of online services, apps, functions, and technologies in order to serve people with the intention of helping those people grow in maturity towards Christ.

What what kind of service can be included in “internet ministry”? Is this evangelism or discipleship?

The short answer is, “Yes.”

First, in Scripture, evangelism is part of discipleship. “Discipleship” is simply the process of helping someone live in a manner that honors Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. “Discipleship” is helping someone else mature in Christ.

Evangelism is the process of proclaiming the gospel with someone or some group. This is the first step of discipling that person or group.

Note that evangelism is different from apologetics. Apologetics is presenting arguments in support of one’s beliefs in order to show that those beliefs are reasonable, cohesive, coherent, and consistent. So, apologetics may or may not include a presentation of the good news.

Evangelism, on the other hand, focuses on the good news of Jesus Christ and the fundamentals of trusting Christ for salvation and life. As such, evangelism is part of the process of helping someone live as a disciple of Jesus Christ – that is, discipleship.

Thus, internet ministry – if it is truly ministry (“service”) – is a part of the process of discipling others. This process begins with evangelism, but must not end there. Remembering that “ministry” includes interaction with others, “internet ministry” must continue beyond evangelism to helping the new believer follow Jesus more closely – that is, to mature in Christ.

(Note: I believe this is true of all evangelism, not just online evangelism: Evangelism must include the intention of continuing the discipling process.)

So, an “internet ministry” (or any type of service) that focuses on proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ to unbelievers must include the further service of helping new believers grow and mature. Why? Because our goal as disciples of Jesus Christ is not to evangelize (only), but also to make disciples. Our goal is not converts, but disciples.

When we proclaim the gospel to someone, we are (whether we realize it or not) beginning the first step of discipleship. So, when we proclaim the good news, we should understand that we’re asking the person or people to begin to share our lives with us so that we can help one another grow in maturity in Christ.

Yes, there will be occasions when these types of ongoing discipling relationships are not possible. But they should be the exception, not the rule. We should not plan to use the internet only to serve people through evangelism. Instead, we should understand that evangelism should include further discipleship, and so include discipleship in our plans to serve people.

Jesus told his apostles, “As you go, disciple all nations…” (Matthew 28:19-20). If this command applies to us (and I think it does), then we should seek to disciple other people wherever we go. If we go across the oceans, we should seek to make disciples, even if that includes evangelism. If we go across the street, we should seek to make disciples, even if that includes evangelism.

And, if we go online, we should seek to make disciples, even if that includes evangelism.

(This post is also published on the author’s blog at “The Assembling of the Church.”)

Expositional series tend to be longer than 4-6 weeks, so how do you work with the calendar? There’s no easy answer, but here are 3 things I do every time I’m planning a longer expositional teaching series:

1. Pick my start date - Pick a good start that date that will naturally draw people to come out. February, Easter, Mother’s Day, 2 weeks after Labor Day are all good Sundays to kick off an expositional series with momentum.

2. Know how long the series is going to be – Plan out your messages in advance. I spent 8 months teaching Revelation, but I know what was going to be taught each week of the series. This helps you know if you need to break from the series to do a holiday message and when you need to start prepping for your next series of messages.

3. End on a Sunday that makes sense - Don’t end a series on a day that you could be building momentum. Instead, have the series end on a day that makes sense. That might mean having a guest speaker so your series ends a week later. I wouldn’t stretch out the series needlessly, but you can lengthen a series by 1 or 2 weeks simply by having guest speakers not continue in your series when you’re not in the pulpit.

1. Positiveness: The ability to work with and see people and situations in a positive way.
    
2. Servanthood: The willingness to submit, play team ball and follow the leader.
    
3. Growth Potential: A hunger for personal growth and development; the ability to keep growing as the job expands.
    
4. Follow-Through: The determination to get the job done completely and with consistency.
    
5. Loyalty: The willingness to always put the leader and the organization above personal desires.
    
6. Resiliency: The ability to bounce back when problems arise.
    
7. Integrity: Trustworthiness and solid character; consistent words and walk.
    
8. "Big Picture" Mind Set: The ability to see the whole organization and all of its needs.
    
9. Discipline: The willingness to do what is required regardless of personal mood.
    
10. Gratitude: An attitude of thankfulness that becomes a way of life. 

How to Strengthen the Church One Believer At A Time!

Whether you have been serving Jesus for decades, or if you find yourself new to the faith you can help strengthen the church as a whole. Over the years I have realized there are some common threads that runs through vibrant, healthy, growing churches.

And, I believe if the individual believer can implement these five pillars they will strengthen themselves…thus strengthening the local church…which strengthens the body of Christ.

There are Five Pillars of Strength every beliver should practice, and every local should offer to those involved. Teach these principles and watch what happens!

PILLAR I: Prayer! Prayer is where we tap into the power of God. Act 2 the disciples gathered in the Upper Room…the power of God falls…thousands come to Christ! Prayer brings power!

PILLAR II: Worship! Worship is the time we most often encounter Gods presence. Scripture declares that God lives in the praises of His people. Worship helps develop intimacy with God.

PILLAR III: Word! Faith is built as we learn the Word of God! Get in the Word on a regular basis.

PILLAR IV: Fellowship! We need each other! I have found that healthy churches create opportunities to develop healthy Christian relationships.

PILLAR V: Involvement! God has given each of us a gift that we may utilize to serve within the body of Christ. Every believer should be involved in some aspect of the ministy of the local church.

“In the American church—most often—it’s the exact opposite, our “Product” is flawless (and I mean flawless), but our market research is usually lousy. That, too, is embarrassing! After all, George Barna can’t be expected to do it all! There are a couple of things that would help this situation and they both involve a really honest discussion. “

As I scanned across the net today I came across this quote from Doug Lawrence and I thought it was pretty on the money.

In most cases not only dont we ask the questions so we can be “better” at “doing church” but in most cases we rarely are willing to think in terms of improvement because “it has always been done this way”

So in the spirt of change here are 10 sample questions. Can you think of any others we should ask? Be sure to leave a comment either way

# Were you looking forward to coming to the service?
# Did you do anything to prepare for being in worship today?
# Do you think you could have spent your time better if you had stayed at home?
# Given the complexity of your life, what would do instead of church?
# If we were offering premiums (and we’re probably not going to), what would be the “tipping point teaser” for getting you here every week?
# Generally speaking, do you feel welcomed when you come to our services or do you think we’re pretending to be glad to see you?
# Do you get anything out of worship that lasts past Tuesday when you come here?
# Do you wish somebody had asked you these questions years ago when you first started coming to church?
# What are folks saying about your attendance at church, and does it bother you when they’re critical?
# What’s the one thing you wish that we (the church) would finally “get” about you?

If you would like to read the complete article take a look here http://is.gd/8Cyqm at Church central.

—Doug Lawrence is a nationally recognized speaker and consultant who helps churches create intentional and engaging worship experiences utilizing his more than 35 years of “deep trench” worship leadership in prominent mainline churches. You may reach him at dlawrenceconsult@mac.com. Or, if you wish, call 1-650-207-8240 for calendar availability.

I recently was challenged by God concerning my personal prayer life. Not my preparing to preach prayer life, not my in front of the folks before or after church prayer life, not my visiting the sick prayer life, but my personal time with God prayer life.

You know, the one no one but God and you will ever see or know about for real!

So, I asked myself the questions: How much do I pray? How much should I pray?

I thought I would ask you, whats up in your prayer life? How much is a reasonable expectation we should have for our time in prayer? If you had a complete day with nothing on your schedule, how long would you pray?

The topic of this post could just as well have read, what do we really believe! I say that because even as church leaders, in general our actions don’t match our theology or doctrine. What a difference from the days of Peter, Paul, James, and John. Or even from more recent examples like William Seymour and the Azusa Revival congregants.

About 5 years ago the Lifeway research team released a survey that found the majority of pastors were dissatisfied with their personal prayer life.

According to Lifeway pastors reported the following fact, the median amount of prayer time per day is 30 minutes.. Although younger ministers are much less satisfied with their prayer life, they spend about as much time in prayer per day as do older ministers. Lutherans and Presbyterians tend to spend less time in prayer than do those from other denominations, while Pentecostals and Methodists spend more time than average.

Yet, in a 2009 survey the same organization reported that 50% of pastors spent 14 or more hours preparing for their sermons each week.

A review of these statistics clearly point out that we would fail the Jesus question of “Could you not tarry one hour”. I am convicted on this issue. I must do better!

I have started rearranging my personal time with God. Sometimes we just have to take a refresher course on our fundamentals and get a practical, step by step, track to run on.

For me, I have dusted off Dick Eastmans classic “The Hour The Changes The World” and Virkler’s “Dialogue With God”. I will keep you posted as God give me more revelation in this area.

If you need a prayer diagram, I will gladly send you one. Just send an email to 1000churches@aweber.com

SOOOO….. whats up in your prayer life? How much is a reasonable expectation we should have for our time in prayer? If you had a complete day with nothing on your schedule, how long would you pray?

Don’t get spooky on me, I know that time is NOT the only factor for effective ferverent prayer. But Jesus noticed the clock as a measure. I think it is reasonable that we do the same.

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Unfortunately, I think much of what we call worship that honors God is entertainment that pleases flesh. Our society is fixated on performance and entertainment. The order and cadance of the music, in some places is scripted to bring our soulish nature to it highest level of responsiveness.

How far is our preaching from that which would put people to sleep so hard that they could fall from a window. As preachers we are especially adept at arousing the emotions of those who hear us. That may not be bad in and of itself, but has our content been watered down to the point of bland non-controversial doctrine in order to satisfy the sensibilities of the congregation?

Our altar calls at times depend on emotionalism rather than conviction of sin and wrong. We make promises to people that I question as biblical. We tell them that if the come to Jesus all their problems will be solved. That’s not true in my life, is it true in yours?

Trouble is I dont know which is what, myself!

In Him,
JMb <><

Bishop James 'I Feel God' Brown
The Internet's Favorite Pastor
Visit My Blog http://www.ifeelgod.org
http://www.1000churches.org - Kingdom Ministry
http://www.fromchurch.com - Ministry Tech

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Many of you know, I wrote a post several weeks ago titled
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In that post I talked about using the 30 Day Challenge course
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I also told you about another training provided by Ed Dale & the same folks, If
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That program is called the Immediate Edge. You can check
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But I discovered that there is a problem!

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Take a look at this video and
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This is the BEST most detailed information on really
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As I said before, I really don’t believe in MLM programs that
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TRY THE 30 DAY CHALLENGE PLUS TODAY

Bless you and much success in your efforts

In Him,
JMb <><
Bishop James I Feel God Brown
The Internets Favorite Pastor
http://ifeelgod.org
http://fromchurch.com
http://1000churches.org

Each Tuesday we have a open call-in session dealing with issues leaders face in ministry.

On Tuesday Nov 17 Bishop Brown was especially moved by the crisis he saw many men and women of God undergoing. Here is the audio of that broadcast

Did You Read This ?

YOU CAN DOUBLE
YOUR CHURCH ATTENDANCE NOW!

Pastors & Church Leaders!

What is the one thing you MUST do this year in order to grow your church and prevent members from leaving?

Is Your Church or Ministry Growing?

Are Your Offerings In Decline?

Is Your Worship Attendance Now Less Than What

You Would Like It To Be?

STOP!

Here is important information you simply
MUST know in order to DOUBLE . . . even TRIPLE
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Get More Information Here
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