By sharing a playlist for each, you can view only the most recent video, or you can browse to watch others which address issues of interest to you.
During this very unusual time, one thing which stands out to me is that we cannot keep doing church in our accustomed way which has worked for years. Back in the good old days, you know, like two months ago - we had our regular Sunday Worship Services, our Bible Studies, and our Sunday School Classes. If our Sunday Worship Service went longer on some days, not a problem.
After all, we came to church to fellowship with our brethren and to worship our Lord together. During those times we could worship Him in Music, in Prayer, in Fellowship, in our Offering, and in our Teaching Sermon Message - a day well spent. And in doing that, we were blessed and edified by our local fellowship which may be only 20-30 believers, or it may be 50, 100, or several hundred worshipers.
Now, food for thought: Is this new "norm" God's way of accelerating the sharing of His Gospel to all the nations? In the two Scripture passages referenced here, we see one key theme: "The Gospel must be preached to all the nations, in all the world!"
Mark 13:6-19, verse 10 "And the Gospel must first be preached to all the nations."
Matthew 24:5-21, verse 14, "And this Gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come."
In past years, have we been preaching the Gospel to all the world, or were we preaching it only to our local fellowship? To quote an old maxim: "Are we preaching to the choir?"
"But wait, Bill, aren't those passages in Mark and Matthew speaking of the Tribulation when the church, all Christian believers, will have already been Raptured into heaven?"
Yes, that is true. But should we leave all non-believers to only hear the Gospel and believe - after we leave in the Rapture? Shouldn't we do all we can to bring those non-believers into God's family before the Rapture, so they can be Raptured with us? How can we take more of those folks with us in the Rapture? Glad you asked. We share the Gospel to all the nations, in all the world - today. I believe God is giving us that opportunity today - by effectively allowing us to be forced, through our isolation, into sharing the Gospel online, to all the world - sharing His Gospel message.
This train of thought was inspired by two things: First, I have been sharing playlists from those four different pastors/churches because I know they are good teachings. But what can we do to make those online messages even more effective, as taught in 2 Timothy 3:17, "That the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work"? How can we make our messages more effective in reaching those non-believers?
Having spent a large part of my adult working life selling computers to companies of all sizes, ranging from small 5 or 10 employee companies all the way to large international corporations - doing one-on-one presentations, group presentations, and seminars - I know that we have only a limited window of time to reach that person, the decision maker(s), when given the opportunity. In other words, we may have only one arrow in our "time quiver" with which to hit the bullseye - and we must make sure that Gospel arrow is true, on target, and sized to hit the right target, those non-believers.
In sharing the Gospel, we are dealing with a very important decision, an eternal decision - one that will affect that person's eternal destiny. We cannot afford to not hit the bullseye. Marketing knowledge and personal experience have shown me that we can hold a person's or a group's full attention for only a limited time, that is our bullseye - the amount of time that person will listen. Particularly in a video or audio message, there will be so many others vying for their time - so we must tune our message to find the bullseye - for we may not get a second chance. And that person we lost may not get a second chance either.
In an online message, what is the most effective length of time before the viewer gets a little impatient, clicks Pause, and moves on to other interests? Typically that time will be between 15 and 30 minutes. The messages in the four playlists I have been sharing vary in length from 15-20 minutes, up to 1 1/2 hour. Which do you think will keep that person's attention, have a better chance of hitting the bullseye, and make him/her want more to hear more?
Keep in mind that in this new "norm" we are not just reaching out to our local fellowship, those who are accustomed to spending a large part of their Sunday with us. Now God has us reaching out to many more than our local fellowship. He has us reaching, not the 30, 50, 200 in our local fellowships - but literally to hundreds, thousands, maybe many thousands around the world via social media sharing.
It reminds me of when I went from sharing my blogs to only those in my Friends Ministry eNewsletter mail list and on the TimesDaily Religion Forum - to sharing as a guest columnist on The Conservative Voice. Suddenly instead of writing to reach a few hundred - I was on a platform with a worldwide readership of about 250,000. The difference was almost frightening, but I saw it as a God-given opportunity. And that is what we have today, during this panic period - a Golden Opportunity. Let's do it right!
In this new "norm" we are reaching out to many who are not believers - not just to our local fellowship who will tolerate a one hour message - but to non-believers, new seekers, etc., who will pay attention for 15 minutes, 30 minutes - but I can almost assure you that virtually all of them will hit Pause and run when the message and service drags on to an hour
or 1 1/2 hours.
We must tailor our New Norm Online Messages to reach all those folks we want joining us as believers BEFORE the Rapture. So, let's lay aside our magnificent one hour expository sermons, rituals, and catchy presentations - and get down to the 30 minute or less of Nitty-Gritty Gospel.
And since English is the most common language spoken around the world - lay aside your native tongue and speak English - unless you only want to share the Gospel with people who speak your native language instead of "all the world." Just a thought.
My second train of thought moment was inspired by this article from my Alabama hometown newspaper, the TimesDaily of Florence, Alabama. This article which falls into the same line of thought I have been discussing - shorter, more effective messages - was the spark which inspired me to start writing this blog:
MINISTERS OFFERING SHORT MESSAGES OF HOPE
TimesDaily News - May 5, 2020
By Lisa Singleton-Rickman, Staff Writer
If there's one thing that seems to be in short supply in the minds of many these days, it's hope. To help combat that discouragement, ministers of the area's Churches of Christ have started "31 Days of Encouragement" - short, 10-minute daily devotionals available via Facebook under the title "31 Days of Encouragement from the Word of God." The short devotionals feature a different minister daily through June 4, each bringing an inspirational and Bible-based message.
"The Bible offers all sorts of comfort, and we want people to open up their Bibles and follow along and be encouraged," Woodlawn Church of Christ Pastor Matt Heupel said.
Ben Hayes, pastor of Highland Park Church of Christ in Muscle Shoals, spent part of his morning on Monday recording at Woodlawn. His devotional was based on Colossians 1, the writings of the Apostle Paul. "Paul did a lot of his writing in the jail cell, and he constantly prayed for the people's encouragement and for them to grow in their faith," Hayes said. "There is a sense of confinement among us now, but there's hope because of Christ. We're encouraging people to hold on to that."
"Sharing messages in the name of encouragement gives people something to look forward to," Pastor Miles Stutts of Atlas Church of Christ said. "Encouragement is the key to caring. When there's peace within, it makes all the other things manageable. Each of these messages is designed to provide a source of hope for today and a blessing for tomorrow."
So, are YOU and your church family ready to take on the "New Norm" God has given us, trim your online program to more effective half hour messages - and let's take the Gospel to all nations, to all the world?
Take a moment and reflect on the Great Commission which Jesus Christ left for all believers, "GO, Make Disciples, TEACH them. . . . Be My witnesses in all the world" (Matthew 28:19-20, Acts 1:8, Mark 16:15).
Yes, I know, I left out Baptize them. Why? Glad you asked.
First, we have to GO into all the world (we are doing that online now). Then we have to Make Disciples (a disciple is one who is learning from us, i.e., a student). We do that most effectively by keeping their attention with a short, Gospel-based teaching. Next, once we have a committed Disciple, we may get involved in a more personal way, maybe one-on-one discipling in person, maybe one-on-one via private communications, or as I have chosen as a beginning - sharing good teaching videos via YouTube.
When we have a person who is ready to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, a person who, when things finally get back to normal - or as normal as they ever will be again - we want to see that person involved in a good Christ-centered, Bible-teaching church fellowship. We want to help point that person to a local church, hopefully ours if he/she is local - or a good Christ-centered, Bible-teaching church in his/her area.
That is when the new believer is to be Baptized, in fellowship with his/her new Christian Family, their local church fellowship. That is just my thought, that since Following Christ in Baptism is such a personal event, it should be shared with those closest to you - your immediate family and our local spiritual family.
So, my Friends, how is YOUR "new norm" shaping up? Have you given thought to trimming it to 30 minutes of less? Think about it. For our task now is not just reaching our local fellowship, not just preaching to the choir. Our task now is reach all the world, or at least a bigger chunk of it, through the Great Commission in our new online world.
Final thought: During this period we are locked in isolation, I will continue to add to the Playlist Stacks below. So please periodically check back, via e-mail or on my Facebook profile, to see the latest video messages from these four Conservative Christian Theology senior pastors.
Pastor Sam Lacanienta, Talakag Church on the Solid Rock: https://youtu.be/TcKm3G9HfNE?list=PL_YT3RttutrjP4_ws1dHh8bO_CvVYWkPi
Pastor Freddy Cortez, Church of Hope: https://youtu.be/Ah1QwK4FNq0?list=PL_YT3RttutrjNG8vXg20iPm0FNhfwZImX
Pastor Ed Dacio, Corona International Christian Fellowship: https://youtu.be/G91gZUtkxdo?list=PL_YT3Rttutri2x3a9teQBvznVAO4IjUEt
Pastor Sergio Nolasco, IBBC-Riverside: https://youtu.be/M5Fx1nqyafg?list=PL_YT3RttutrjJ0P_7W-3MKVGI9Rbwnekp
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
Click on the image to enlarge:
No comments:
Post a Comment