"HOW ARE WE TO GET THE PEOPLE TO COME TO LISTEN TO THE WORD?"

This question is been asked ?

"Is the desire for personal growth or church growth?The desire to see church growth encompasses(2)getting people to hear the Word preached.

This is what I mean by church growth: (3) The growth of influence, & confidence, in the ability to accomplish the desired purpose of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's not numbers.

But its okay to grow in new converts, and members

When a church member invites a visitor or friend or family member to come to our church, they will have the confidence that their guest will receive a warm welcome and visualize an attractive atmosphere. From the moment the guest sits in the pew, he will be drawn into what we call worship, and will listen to music and preaching that reflects the song, "There's a sweet, sweet spirit in this place, and I know that it's the Spirit of the Lord."

That, and from the time they get out of their car until they get back into their car they will know something has happened to show them what it means to Worship theLord Jesus Christ.

It's not boring, dull, or lifeless,and you won't be embarrassed that your guest came.

GROWTH:

The act or process, or a manner of growing, development, gradual increase. Something that has grown or developed by or as if by a natural process.

Part One:

A Recipe for Church Growth

• 'The answer is, Christ is his own attraction, Christ is the only trumpet that you want to trumpet Christ. Preach the gospel, and the congregation will come of themselves. The only infallible way of getting a good congregation, is to do this.

• "Oh!" said a Socinian(1) once, to a good Christian minister, "I cannot make it out; my chapel is always empty, and yours always crammed full. And yet I am sure mine is the more rational doctrine, and you are not by any means so talented a preacher as I am.

• "Well," said the other "I will tell you the reason why your chapel is empty, and mine full. The people have a conscience, and that conscience tells them that what I preach is true and that what you preach is false, so they will not hear you."

• You shall look through the history of this realm ever since the commencement of the days of Protestantism, and I will dare to say it without fear of contradiction, that you will almost in every case find that the men who have attracted the greatest mass of people to hear them, have been men who were the most evangelical——who preached the most about Christ and him crucified.

• What was there in Whitefield to attract an audience, except the simple gospel preached with a vehement oratory that carried everything before it. Oh, It was not his oratory, but the gospel that drew the people. There is a something about the truth that always makes it popular. Charles H. Spurgeon

(1) follower of Faustus and Laelius Socinus who rejected a number of traditional Christian doctrines, as the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, and original sin, and who held that Christ was miraculously begotten and that salvation will be granted to those who adopt Christ's virtues.

(2) to include comprehensively: a work that encompasses the entire range of the world's religious beliefs.

(3) to arise or issue as a natural development from an original happening, circumstance, or source: Our friendship grew from common interests. To increase in influence or effect: To become gradually more liked or accepted by:

Drafted by Charles E. Whisnant 03 19 07 Checked by Charity Whisnant