Is Your Church Practicing To Be "Fishers Of Men" Or "Fish Swappers"?

VERY OFTEN I DO NOT AGREE WITH RICK WARREN  ~  However in the post below which I wrote in 2010, the point he is making in the excerpt I have shown is 100% right on target.

A church should base its growth on bringing non-believers into the family of God.  To do that a church must be a true Great Commission Church, i.e., "Go, Make disciples, Baptize them, TEACH them. . . . Be My witnesses in all the world"  (Matthew 28:19-20, Acts 1:8, Mark 16:15).

In Acts 1:8 we are told to be His witnesses ".  .  . in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."  You can see that He tells us to start in Jerusalem - and for us this means our own personal Jerusalem.  What is your Jerusalem?  It is your immediate family, your neighborhood, your community, your city.

We start our witnessing in our Jerusalem - and we use that effort to build up our local Christian church fellowship.  Then, we spread out to our Judea (our state), our Samaria (our nation), and all the world.

I recall reading Jerry Falwell's book "Strength for the Journey: An Autobiography" which he published in 1987.  In the book he tells of when he was fresh out of seminary and planting his first church.  It was in an old soda bottling company building in Virginia.

Jerry Falwell sat down and planned his approach to his Jerusalem, that new church.  He took a map and drew circles around the new church location.  First one was a half mile diameter, then one mile, etc.  As he saturated each circle by personally knocking on doors, he would move to the larger circle.

And once that local church, his Jerusalem, began to grow - it eventually had to move to a larger facility - what has become the well known Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia.

And from that humble beginning, Liberty University was born, a private evangelical Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia.  It is one of the largest Christian universities in the world and the largest private non-profit university in the United States.

Reading my post from 2010 made me focus on the meaning and method of witnessing for the Lord and for planting and growing His local churches. 

This is what I wrote in that 2010 Facebook post:

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Bill Gray - July 27, 2010 at 8:23 PM ·

GROWING A CHURCH - OR SWAPPING FISH?

Have you ever wondered about church planting and church building?  What is the Biblical way of starting and growing a new church?  Who should the new church target as potential new fellowship members?  Should a new church try to grow - by working to lure people away from other local churches?

In his book "The Purpose Driven Church" Pastor Rick Warren tell about the methods used in building Saddleback Community Church.  In the book Warren writes:

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"Some churches have grown at the expense of other churches, but that certainly is not true in Saddleback's case.  The Saddleback statistic I am most pleased about is the fact that 80 percent of our members found Christ and were baptized at Saddleback.  We have not grown at the expense of other churches. . .  Our growth has been by conversion, not by transferring Christians from other churches.

Transferring Christians from one church to another is not what Jesus had in mind when He gave us the Great Commission.  God called us to be fishers of men, not to swap fish between aquariums.  A church that grows larger only by transfers from other churches is not experiencing growth - it is only reshuffling the card deck."

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Is your church practicing to be "Fishers Of Men" or "Fish Swappers"?  Are you reaching out to the unchurched - or is your church seeking fish from other aquariums?

Trust God to help you Fish.  The world is full of unchurched people - many who may already be seeking, looking for a loving church fellowship.  Cast your net in that vast pond - and there will never be a need for any "Fish Swapping" stories.

God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,

Bill 

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