CHAPTER SEVEN – EDUCATING THE CONGREGATION
I recommend you work out a fairly well-structured preaching / teaching program for your church and do not be afraid to invite other preachers and teachers to present a sermon if they are an expert in that field. This assists your growth; the growth of the congregation; and by humbly allowing other people to present sermons you are keeping your pride in check. Please pay every guest speaker and pay them well if possible. I recommend you prepare your sermon material at least one month, preferably two months in advance. Make every effort to keep Christ at the center of all this.278
I suggest you provide sufficient Bibles for the whole congregation. Remember, you are not going to be reimbursed for the cost of the Bibles, therefore you are sowing generously, and you know what that means: blessings from God. I suggest the Amplified Bible because it defines difficult words or concepts in amongst the text, enabling you to learn biblical concepts much quicker. Start your teachings in chronological order week by week. I will give a short, broad outline below, but in my first book (HTBAC) I explained everything in detail from Creation to the New Heavens and New Earth.
On the first day you open your church, give an overview of Creation and the Bible, and also give an overview about yourself, and how you will operate your church. I would split the overview and the sermon. I would give your ten minute overview at the start of the service, then, present a twenty minute sermon after some interim activities. Start your biblical teaching at the very beginning of the Bible where it says: “In the beginning God ...” (Gen 1:1). Scott Cormode says "… the first responsibility of a religious leader is to define reality theologically and spiritually …"279 Well, a Christian's view of reality is that (1) there is a God (2) God exists in the form of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit … and so on …
So let's teach about who God is first of all. After all, God is the most important and only perfect 'being' in existence. As Robert Muthiah says, "… Witness is done well when it provides a good picture of who God is and how God works …" (Muthiah, Christian Practices …, 181). Explain that God is eternal, immortal, and has always existed in the form of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and that at some point in eternity, God created the material universe. Explain that God made the Earth first because God’s whole purpose for making the Earth was to create a ‘being’ in His image, and humans are those ‘beings’.
Point out that God made the Earth on the first day of Creation week and did not make the Sun, Moon and Stars until Day Four of Creation Week. That completely rules out Evolution because NASA believes the Sun was made before the Earth.280 Please explain that Creation week consisted of six twenty-four hour periods (Gen Chapter One; Ex 29:11). I provide detailed evidence for my belief of the twenty-four hour days in my first book, HTBAC.
I recommend you then outline the structure and purpose of the Kingdom of God as contained in Theodore Austin-Spark's FREE Internet book: "The Kingdom of God." Explain the difference between righteousness and unrighteousness, (TAS, Revelation of Jesus Christ, 129-135; 2 Cor 6:14-16 AMP) and how to achieve right standing / righteousness with God. Then explain how God uses Jesus Christ as the means of man finding right standing with God. Reinforce the need to read the Bible as being all about Jesus Christ. Give them that beautiful saying: ‘The Old Testament is Christ concealed and the New Testament is Christ revealed’.281
Explain that all the Old Testament laws were a ‘type’ of Christ as explained in the Book of Hebrews, and how Jesus Christ fulfilled the Old Testament laws during His time here on Earth. Explain that in the Old Testament, God spoke through the prophets, but in the New Testament, God explains everything through Christ (Heb 1:1-2), and true faith in Jesus Christ is now the only way to achieve ‘right standing / righteousness’ with God.282 Inform the congregation that you will explain ‘righteousness’ in detail in the second week of your church. Finish up with what will happen at the end-time. That is, Jesus will overcome His enemies, and Christians will live in a new Heaven and Earth with God and Jesus Christ for eternity.
Inform the congregation that you have included a sample prayer on your handout that anyone can use to give their lives to God through Jesus Christ, and they can pass that prayer on if they need to help others who give their lives to Christ. Include this prayer on the weekly handout (Deeter). Don’t get bogged down in stodgy theology; teach the basics in a short concise manner, and ensure you time the length of your sermon so that it is not too long and not too short. The pastor of the ‘Eddie edge-trimmer’ church had transferred out after the many months of shenanigans which I was not a part of because it preceded my arrival and I avoided it like the plague.
An interim pastor was appointed. This pastor was very nice and was a mature Christian. He preached quite well, but one week he went into his topic so far that he ran out of time. He said he would complete the topic the next week. Nothing technically wrong with this, but surely a well-organized, mature Christian would know how to structure a sermon in a way to be able to complete it. I agree that we don’t want to pin down our Christianity into strict, unbendable recipes (Osborne), but skillful and well-structured communication is just as applicable to preaching sermons as it is in politics (Akerlund, 81-84; Long, esp. 35-36).
So provide a brief framework with citations and suggested readings. Provide room under each dot point so people can make brief notes as you progress through the sermon. Remember, the main aim of your church is to educate people about Christ, not spending months and months preparing for church fetes.283 Bartlett says "… the one element of leadership that you see in every piece of the early church literature is teaching …" (Forney, 78). You should hand out a weekly notice before the weekly service. I believe the notice should include an outline of the sermon. I would do it in dot point to keep it brief. Use something similar to this:
GOD:
Eternal: has no beginning
Immortal
Lives in unapproachable light
Created material Universe in six days
Created earth day one
God gave us free will
Adam and Eve sinned allowing sin to enter creation causing chaos and things such as disease
God promised Adam and Eve a redeemer who would pay for their sins
God used Israel in Old Testament and all rules and regulations were a type and shadow of the Christ
Old Testament hid clues about the promised Christ
Jesus fulfilled around 48 Old Testament prophecies about the Christ
Jesus crucified after sinless life therefore death could not hold Him and he rose from the dead three days later
The only way to heaven now is through active faith in Jesus Christ
Jesus will return to Earth
God will eventually destroy this universe
God will create a new heavens and Earth where those who put their faith in Christ will live with God and Christ for eternity
Time your whole service to take no longer than one hour. This is my recommendation from experience. For example, if your service starts at 10am, I advise you to finish by 11am. I have been devoted to God since I came back to Him at age forty seven, so I am always eager for every piece of knowledge about the kingdom of God. (TAS, The Gospel of the Kingdom, 4-16) Yet, even I found it hard to cope with one and a half hour church services. In this day and age, people are extremely busy, many people work weekends, and really need to know how long each service will be. Most people have a maximum attention span of fifteen minutes without a break. Therefore, I recommend your sermon should only take twenty minutes.
Your church notice should contain any church contact details you want to provide. The notice should provide updates about fundraising; that is, how much has been raised and how much is needed to donate for something the church is aiming for, such as my medical equipment example. At the end of each sermon, give people homework. Ask them to study the sermon topic you just preached, and remind them that you have provided an outline of the sermon on the church notice, with biblical referen
ces and suggested readings. Gently remind them that God expects Christians to increase their knowledge and holiness at a reasonable pace (Motyer; Foster, Bringing Many …). Inform them that the homework is not compulsory, but that a good knowledge of the basic doctrines and theories of God are required to attain membership of your church, along with observable and consistent growth in the fruits of the spirit (Martin, The Imperative of Convictional Knowing for Leadership, 124; TAS, Joints and Bands).
Inform the congregation you understand everyone is different and that some people have lots of time for Bible study, but others may have little time due to work or family commitments. Inform them that the homework is not a race and that if anyone is having trouble understanding or accepting any of the biblical facts that you preach, ask them to raise it with you at a mutually convenient time and place, such as at the Bible study. Advise people that some biblical doctrines such as righteousness can be difficult to grasp, and may not make sense even with tuition, but that after weeks, months or years of continual practice and devoted study, they will just click into place.
Maintain a Christ-centered (TAS, The Work of God at the End Time, 6-11) structure by linking each Bible study session with the previous sermon topic to provide further education and discussion. All this is assisting your congregation to make reasonable progress in their spiritual knowledge, and keeps Christ at the center of every activity.284 It is all about Christ, not lamington drives (TAS, The Fullness of Life in Jesus Christ). In the second week of your church you should teach ‘righteousness’ from its broad initial meaning down to how the resurrected Christ presents His righteousness before God for the forgiveness of sins. Carefully explain that it is difficult to grasp the difference between righteousness (legal right standing with God) and righteous behavior (building up holy habits; 1 Cor 1:30 AMP; James 1:20 AMP). Then set that as the homework, to be followed up in the next Bible study class.
In the early stages of your church you may be only running one ministry which is a Bible study group. Obviously you will attend this group and will know exactly what is going on. But if your church grows to the point where you have multiple Bible study groups or other ministries, you may not be able to attend every group. But YOU: yes YOU, as the pastor, must proactively ensure the leader of each group is fully aware of what you want taught, and why, and prepare a written handout of the topic to be studied. Before you provide the handout, ask each group leader whether they want to voluntarily prepare a handout of the topic so you can judge their level of knowledge and competence. If their handout is good enough, praise them and use their handout.
The leader of each Bible study group should, prior to teaching on the particular topic, ask if anyone present in the group would like to volunteer any knowledge they have about the topic. This will enable you to unearth and monitor any devoted Christians who may be ready to take on a Christ-related activity for the church. Ensure you have procedures in place where you meet with Bible study group leaders and discuss developments and record the feedback for future reference. If you are not actively ensuring that Christ is the primary objective of ALL your ministries, including your Bible study groups, Benny Hinn says: “You are just a Christian club”. (TAS, Knowing God in Christ, 38-39)
On the third week I would give a sermon on holiness. Let's face it, the Bible makes a big ask of us humans where it says "… Be holy as I am Holy …" (1 Pet 1:15-16). That is an enormous task, and that is why it will take a lot of work to assist Christians on this path. As Poul Madsen says "… Holiness does not consist of religious forms; it comes from a close walk with God …" (Israel's Prophets). Inform the congregation how Jesus perfected the nine fruit of the Spirit outlined in Galatians 5:22; and the need to pray to God asking Him to assist them build up the nine fruit of the Spirit. Teach them how to use the prayer of petition for the fruit of the Spirit, which I fully outline in my first book HTBAC. This links the importance of prayer to Christian study and growth (TAS, The Rights of God, 24-25). Advise the congregation they should be willing to pray for the fruit of the Spirit daily for up to six months, just as I did, because this will strengthen their behavior. On the fourth week I would give a sermon on prayer, thanks and praise. This way the congregation will be taught how to structure their prayer around requests; thanks to God; praise to God; and asking God to assist in spiritual growth through the prayer of petition (HTBAC).
On the fifth week I suggest you preach about family and marriage, and provide suggested prayers for adults to use to strengthen their marriage (see HTBAC), and for other family members (e.g.; children) to use to protect and strengthen their family. On the sixth week I would pray about pride and fully detail biblical examples of pride (TAS, What it Means to be a Christian, 15-17) and events where you believe yours or other people's pride negatively affected a situation. BUT, you must also provide an example of how you have tried to reduce your pride since then. If you can’t, then you have not lived enough of the Christian life as yet (Akerlund, 81-89).
On the seventh week I would teach the church how to read the Bible (HTBAC); including a recommended order. So, in order of weeks you have preached (1) “In the beginning God” and ‘in the end Christians with Jesus and God for eternity’ (2) Righteousness: How we are born into a sinful nature;285 can never be perfect;286 but rely on the righteousness of Christ to please God (3) Holiness: how to build up the nine fruit of the Spirit; (4) How to pray to God, thank God and praise God; (5) The importance of marriage and how to pray for marriage and family (6) Pride; how pride hides and biblical and personal examples; (7) How to read and interpret the Bible.
After that just ensure you preach biblical topics and link them to Jesus Christ AND how the congregation can put this biblical advice into practice. (TAS, The Burning Fire of the Spirit, 6-7) TAS says “… We may have good addresses, very good teaching, all very true; and yet … what have we got afterward? What do we take away? Do we go away more living than we came? Have we met life that has challenged us, exposed us, illuminated us, elevated us? This is the service of God …” (TAS, The Spiritual Meaning of Service, 32; Akerlund, 88-89).
It is absolutely essential you plan ahead about how you are going to assist strangers who come to your church and people who want to know about Christ. On the first week you open your church you should inform the congregation during the service that you are available to talk to after the service. Either have facilities for food and drinks at your church after the service, or else advise everyone that at a certain time (e.g. no later than half-an-hour after the service finishes) you will be heading to some nominated place for coffee, and people are welcome to follow you and meet and eat there. Jesus loved to eat and drink, especially when He was revealing the Kingdom of Heaven to people. "… Meals feature so prominently in the gospels that scholars have commented: 'Jesus ate his way through the Gospels' …" (Glanville)!!!!! The religious people even accused Jesus of being "… a glutton and a drunkard …"(Matt 11:19). Food and drink create a wonderful and relaxing atmosphere to talk. On top of that, you are putting money through your local shops, which will be appreciated by them.
When your church becomes larger, I recommend you have trusted and knowledgeable members wear brightly colored wristbands or similar identification, and advise the congregation that these people are members of the church and are knowledgeable about God. I advise against having members wearing name badges. I think they are a fraction too formal nowadays (year 2016), but they may come back into vogue as a fashion item one day, so go with the flow of the day. In the early 21st Century, colored wristbands became the accepted way of advertising that you had paid money to support the particular charity printed on the wristband. Therefore, the wristband did not carry any possible negative meaning that might be offensive to Christianity. Please have well thought out and pre-planned methods of assisting strangers to the church, those who wish to give their lives to Christ, and people with genuine questions about your church or Christianity in general.
There is a reason I want you to e
nsure all Bible Group study topics are (1) kept in step with the topic presented at the preceding church service (2) kept simple, and (3) relate everything back to Christ in a manner that ANYONE can understand. At one church I attended, we had a five to six week Bible group study where a renowned Christian professor (I can’t remember his name) was refuting the evolutionary claims of well-known scientist Carl Sagan. The DVD series was extremely deep and was an overload of information, even for a veteran cop like me who was used to reading massive briefs of evidence including complex fraud investigations. On one of the weeks it was being studied, a young person I had never seen before attended our Bible study. I did not see him again. No one told us about him, other than his name, so I had no idea whether he was a new or experienced Christian. But it struck me that unless he was a genius or very experienced Christian, this series would have been way over his head or bored the living daylights out of him!!
Keep EVERYTHING, including Bible studies, as simple as possible and link every concept or principle you are studying directly back to Jesus Christ.287 Now that I am a more experienced Christian I remember that the Christian professor did not mention important facts such as Jesus confirming that God created Adam and Eve at the BEGINNING of creation (Matt 19:3-6; Mk 10:3-9; Mk 13:19; Little, Know What You Believe, 92-94); Jesus placed Abel near the BEGINNING (Lk 11:50-51); and talked about Noah and the Flood (Matt 24:38-39). In other words, what Jesus said confirms the Genesis account of God’s Creation.
I admit this only really hit me after about seven years as a Christian. Therefore, I understand it can take a while for this to soak in for new Christians. But once you and I realize the importance of this knowledge, Jesus holds us responsible for educating as many Christians as possible about the importance of full presentation of these facts. EVERYTHING IS ABOUT JESUS, and must be linked to Jesus. Even disinterested people will tell everyone that all your crazy church talked about was ‘Jesus Christ this and Jesus Christ that’!!! At least they are spreading the good news of the Gospel without realizing it!!!
I remember another minor incident at ‘Eddie edge-trimmer’ church. During a service, one of the church leaders said he was unhappy that people were parking in the parking spaces closest to the front door. He wanted those spaces kept for use by the elderly members. Fantastic idea: poor execution. There were no markings on any parking spaces, and how many spaces should you leave? People can't guess these things: why get upset about it? What if a stranger had come to that church for their first look inside a church, and being eager, arrived early and committed the heinous offence of parking close to the front door. That person might feel bad and not come back to that church. People across the world are now familiar with designated parking spaces for elderly, handicapped, and people with prams in just about every car park. Why announce it in church, especially when you sound unhappy about it? The church leaders should have talked about it at a regular meeting, and if they agreed to it, then just stencil the priority parking spaces. I doubt anyone would have complained: (Devil 1 … Church 0).