ISEMA Newsletters
Church Growth
“Don’t ever use the `E’ word with pastors,” I was advised by a prominent Christian leader. “Evangelism is a dirty word in the church. Use the `C’ word. Pastors like to hear about Church Growth.” During the past decade, a lot of pastors read books on Church Growth, attended seminars, and even hired consultants to help their church to grow. Some advice was helpful. Some was unscriptural. For example, they were told that churches that are “racially and economically homogeneous” grow best. Many churches, following this advice instead of James chapter 2, became comfortable social clubs for rich white people.
I was very interested when two experts on Church Growth appeared on the 700 Club TV show recently as part of a discussion of the current state of the church in America. Here are excerpts from their discussion:
Peter Wagner: “I think it is pretty obvious from the last election that some of the things the church was praying for and desiring did not happen in our society. The decade of the 80’s was a decade of a great flowering of the church growth movement with books and conferences and much interest….[It was] even featured in Time magazine. But yet at the end of the decade, church attendance was the same and Protestant church membership had decreased….Even the churches that had grown were shown to grow through transfer growth not through conversion growth. We haven’t seen large numbers of unsaved people come to Jesus Christ in America since the Jesus Movement. And I think it’s time that we move out and do what’s necessary to see unsaved people come to Christ….The only the way we are going to change the face of the church in America is to free the lay people, to get the lay people ministering.”
Ken Hemphill, Baptist Center for Church Growth: “From 1960 to 1990 church membership rose by 28% but at the same time population increased by 39% and thus we would have had to have 12 million more Christians today to keep even….There are churches that are reaching large numbers of unsaved people but by and large any growth that occurs is largely a transfer, what I term the reshuffling of the evangelical deck and it seems that every time we reshuffle the cards we drop some of them.”
I was amazed to hear two prominent experts on Church Growth say that despite all the books, seminars and interest in Church Growth over the past decade, church growth is not even keeping up with the population growth in our nation. And the growth we are seeing is pretty much people moving from one church to another. Wagner said that the last time we saw large numbers of unsaved people coming to Christ was during the Jesus Movement and that what we needed was to get the lay people ministering.
The Jesus Movement took place from about 1967 to 1975. During this time, large numbers of people involved in the drug counter culture were saved and were actively witnessing to others in this lifestyle. Most were saved through street evangelism, through coffeehouses and concerts, and through new converts witnessing to their friends.
I was saved in 1970 as part of the Jesus Movement. We met in crowded living rooms and storefront churches, not worrying about comfortable chairs or parking lots. We didn’t read books on church growth, but we did read and obey the Bible. Jesus, Peter, Paul and the other apostles went to the streets and public places to preach the gospel, so that’s what we did. We also witnessed to our family and friends, anyone we could. As a result, a lot of people got saved.
During the 1980’s, a lot of Christians who had been saved during the Jesus Movement stopped witnessing. They were busy making money, raising their families, and had a lot of excuses for not witnessing. Perhaps they thought that church growth experts and TV and radio ministries could do the job for them so they wouldn’t have to face possible rejection in witnessing to people. It didn’t work.
We need to become disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. Following Jesus involves obeying His command to take the Gospel into all the world. We need to sacrifice our money, our time, and our pride. The hardest sacrifice is our pride. We need to be willing to face rejection and opposition when we confront unsaved people with their lost condition and need of a Savior.
Coming Events
Sat. March 26, April 2 Worship Rally and Outreach, San Francisco. 3-6 PM. Meet at Powell St. BART Station. Contact SOS Ministries, Box 27358, Oakland, CA 94602, (510) 531-5325.
March 12-13, 19-20, 26-27 Spring Break Outreach, Corpus Christi, TX. “America’s Third Coast.” Over 200,000 on beaches. Contact Street Ministry for Jesus, 6322 Whitaker Dr., Corpus Christi, TX 78468, (512) 991-1111.
March 18-19 South Texas Street Ministers Conference, San Antonio, TX. Contact Rev. David O’Dell, 3400 W Park Blvd. #2117, Plano, TX 75075, (214) 519-0195.
Sat. April 23 Fiesta Outreach, San Antonio, TX. Contact Rev. David O’Dell (address above).
April 30 – May 1 San Diego Evangelism Conference and Outreach. Ron and Judy Radachy. Larry Rosenbaum. Contact George Elias, 12443 Metate Lane, Poway, CA 92064, (619) 679-7706.
May 6-7 Kentucky Derby Outreach, Louisville, KY. Contact No Greater Love Ministries, Box 263, DuQuoin, IL 62832, (618) 542- 4503.
May 19-21 National Street Ministries Conference, Pacific North west. Portland, OR. John Dawson, Mario Murillo, Tommy Barnett, others. Contact Scott Hinkle Outreach Ministries, Box 380306, Duncanville, TX 75138, (214) 283-3900.
May 27-29 Indianapolis 500 Outreach. Contact Christ in Action, Box 4200, Manassas, VA 22110, (703) 368-6286 or No Greater Love (address above).
June 17-25 SOS-San Francisco Outreach. Guests include Chuck Girard. Contact SOS Ministries (address above).
June 28-July 1 North America Conference for Itinerant Evangelists, Louisville, KY. Christians from 40 denominations participating. Affiliated with Billy Graham Assn. Write Box 94, Minneapolis, MN 55440.
FORWARD EDGE is sending outreach teams to Cuba, Central America, Europe, Vietnam, and several other places. For more information, contact them at 15121-A NE 72nd Ave., Vancouver, WA 98686, (206) 574-EDGE.
RAY COMFORT has produced a video of a street outreach he did with David Wilkerson’s church in New York City. It shows how to get a crowd (using a fake funeral), how to handle hecklers, the police, etc. and is professionally edited. The cost is $15 plus $2 S/H. Contact Living Waters Publications, Box 1172, Bellflower, CA 90706, (310) 920-8431.
Ministry Needs
This past week, I was able to visit with Wayne Skinner, Director of Outreach for Christ Ministries in Virginia Beach, VA. Wayne has been involved in street ministry for 25 years, having ministered in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco in 1968 and later with Arthur Blessitt in Hollywood. His ministry involves street ministry, jail ministry, nursing home ministry and prayer ministry. He is also working to train Christians to open their homes to discipling new believers.
We also received several calls and letters this past month from ISEMA newsletter readers. We are encouraged to know that many of you have been helped by the ISEMA newsletter, the street directo ry, and the evangelism teaching tapes.
We are thankful to each of you who prays for us and supports this ministry financially. We do ask that you pray and ask God if He would have you support us monthly or on a one-time basis. Perhaps you could contact your church missions committee to consider putting us on their budget.
This past month, we were able to get our old computer fixed and upgraded, and to purchase a new computer for the ministry. Thank you for helping supply the funds for this computer. The total cost for the new computer and the new board for my old computer was $1000. I especially want to thank Alan Glick, who drove here with his wife and baby from Visalia (a four hour drive) and worked on the computers for eight hours!
Finally, we want to encourage you to renew your ISEMA membership for 1994, or to join ISEMA if you haven’t already done so. ISEMA is the only association of street ministries, and your membership fee helps us to continue to serve those who are laboring in the gospel trenches.
Our Tape of the Month is True and False Conversion by Ray Comfort. We need to see real converts who will go on to follow Christ, not just those who will make a profession of faith.
Yours in His love,
Larry Rosenbaum
