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Small Church, BIG Challenge God uses churches of all sizes to accomplish His purposes. There is a lot of information for and about larger churches, yet 90 percent of churches have less than 350 attendees and the median conservative Protestant church in the U.S. has 117 regular participants in worship on Sunday mornings. 1 So what do you do when only two kids show up …
“Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O LORD, and this is your kingdom. We adore you as the one who is over all things” (1 Chronicles 29:11, NLT). How Kids Think Children wonder, “Why bother with worship?” Many kids understand very little about the purpose of worship. …
Patience is one of nine virtues found in Galatians 5:22-23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” We also discover that patience is listed first among the love qualities found in 1 Corinthians 13:4-5: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, …
We recently outlined six steps to get started in personal discipleship with children: purpose, people, period of time, place, plan, and program. In this issue, we will expand on the “program” step. Program: Jesus: Over the course of three years, Jesus taught His followers about salvation, servanthood, relationships, prayer, God’s Word, God’s kingdom, worship, judgment, priorities, the cost of discipleship, and about future events. You: …
In his book, The Great Omission, Dr. Dallas Willard challenges churches to answer two vital questions: 1) “What is our plan for making disciples?” 2) “Does our plan work?”
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” (Colossians 3:23-24, NIV). How Children Think Children ask, “Why work so hard?“ Some kids question the value of hard work. Many adopt the …
In his article Grow a Disciple-Making Culture in Your Church, Godwin Sathianathan reminds us “Discipleship at its core is the process of growing as a disciple of Jesus Christ. That sounds simple. But what does it actually look like? And how do pastors lead their churches in discipleship? A good place to begin is Jesus’ last words to his disciples: “go . . . make …