Different Approach

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Matthew Stahlmann on June 18, 2012 at 6:13pm

I live in Sarasota Florida.  There are about 400 plus churches here.  You can drive down certain streets and easily see 4 of them in a row.  There are services available almost every day of the week.  Rodney Howard Brown is an hour north of us.  As far as I know he is still doing service every day.  Off the tip of my tongue there are services in my immediate area on monday, wednesday, thursday, saturday and sunday.  I think that breaking out of the box is always a good thing.  In some cases were I am people will go to several churches depending on the day.  As long as your budget supports the cost of opening the building another day I say go for it.  Poll your congregation to see when the schedule of the workers allows them the best opportunity to attend.  I am sure they will be blessed.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Timothy Nelson on June 19, 2012 at 12:56am

Well that's good that people have so much opportunity to attend Church there. We don't have much room in the budget but we must live on faith. Thanks for your response!

Timothy

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ed Fuchs on June 18, 2012 at 7:06pm

Small groups or community groups where the people meet on days that work with them with a head leader would also be another good venue to look into. I'm in LA and I know a lot of churches that stopped doing the Sunday night in favor of small groups... That was Jesus' model with the 12 and the 3 closest to him. See if you can meet with a group of men in a small group and have that group recreate itself.

Perhaps try a Sunday night service once a month to see if the people will come out to that. Oh, that our prayer meetings would be the most full of all...

“You can tell how popular a church is by who comes on Sunday morning.  You can tell how popular the pastor or evangelist is by who comes on Sunday night.  But you can tell how popular Jesus is by who comes to the prayer meeting.”

- Anonymous minister quoted in Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire by Jim Cymbala

I don't know this lady but here are some awesome quotes from great men of God about prayer...

http://www.shadesofgrace.org/events/concert-of-prayer/to-the-point-...

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Timothy Nelson on June 19, 2012 at 1:00am

Yeah I have heard about small groups and I guess they work.

We might have to invent a new idea!

I have heard that saying before, and isn't it sad?

Thanks for you response!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by David Loeffler on June 20, 2012 at 9:43pm

I too have a small church in an area that many need to be open on Sunday to make any money, lot's of tourists on the weekends so I do a Friday night prayer and worship and a Wed. morning Bible study with worship and prayer at my home, kind of like a small group but with out going to other homes, no one willing to do that yet. That has gotten in some people on the Wed. that do not come on Sunday, one at a time but it works for us. Friday sometimes draws in some new people but usually just people who want to get closer to God so it works in a different way.

We have a super limited budget thatis way the Wed is at our home and sometimes in winter we have it at home also, have to have heat or air on anyway and conserves energy for the church building for Sunday morings.

Hope this helps some.

God Bless.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Timothy Nelson on June 21, 2012 at 7:27pm

Thanks David!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Greg Moore on June 22, 2012 at 7:23am

Most of the churches I've been in have kept with their evening service (which used to be a "given" in the Pentecostal A/G world).  We made it a time for extended worship-and-prayer (sometimes a giant altar call), and the pastor would often use this time or Wednesday for more in-depth teaching than he typically would offer Sunday morning (we also had Sunday School as well as a Tuesday night Healing Room and weekly Bible studies, which means there were quite a few really dedicated people, volunteers, in a church of 150 to keep all that going).

A healthy church prays, it learns God's word through study and preaching, it has fellowship, its members share their faith and likely want to have somewhere to bring their friends.  Somewhere in all that we and you find time.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Timothy Nelson on June 22, 2012 at 10:37pm

I agree 100% with all you have said Greg. Thanks for your reponse.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Greg Moore on June 23, 2012 at 4:52pm

Thanks - though I'm not sure if I agree 100% with my own remark.  I had to conclude hastily, due to my wife's voice student needing a pianist.  Maybe I can finish the sentence properly:

Somewhere in all that we and you find time,
including time for rest, Sabbath, joy in the Lord, peaceful lives.  A church which "offers" a lot by having its servers do the register, the drive-through and cook all the time can easily burn them out, or if the people come to expect such faith-offerings from a few servers, and they fall short, leads to quiet anger in the Body.  So finding time includes making time for all helpers.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Timothy Nelson on June 23, 2012 at 11:04pm

I don't kmow how things are in your church but the workers are few in number at our's these days. Time.....we must carefully manage that. I do however believe that God will provide if we follow Gal. 6:9

I am praying for ways to be inventive this year, and for God to show me new ways the spread His message in the place I'm planted :-)

TN

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Greg Moore on June 25, 2012 at 6:53am

Well-doing energizes a person and renews one's sense of purpose and hope.

Thanks for the 6:9.  I've been working for around a year on turning Galatians into a drama, getting a little stuck and weary as I enter the fifth chapter; and that verse stands out like a bright star as a point to direct the conversation.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Timothy Nelson on June 26, 2012 at 3:55pm

Your welcome! That's a favorite verse of mine.

I would like to hear more about your work on Galations sometime

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page