Rainer And The Northpoint Community Church Summary

God loves his Church and Jesus is the one who builds the Church. Then, it goes without saying that God loves the local church and Jesus builds the local church. Unfortunately, there are many factors that come into play, causing churches to become complacent or stagnate before entering into a season of decline. Yet this can be avoided through the process of revitalization.

Author Dan Yarnell suggested seven characteristics of a Christ-honoring church in the 21st century: worship, fellowship, interaction with Scripture, discipleship, community, living sacrificially, and living missionally. However, Yarnell contradicted himself when he stated that the church originated at Pentecost (Acts 2) and proceeded to provide examples of the effects of cultural development and new missional opportunities on the church prior to Pentecost. While the term “church” or “” is unique to Acts and the following New Testament writings, its concept and precepts existed from the time of Genesis. In fact, Yarnell did not reference any Old Testament passages or practices. Therefore, Yarnell contradicted himself and ignored Old

After reading the lecture notes church structure chart, I would say that my church falls between the attractional and organic view of small groups. We have an amazing new building that has a “come and see” feel; but, we also believe in relational missional groups that go out in the community. We believe that all gifts are needed in the body of Christ. We believe in forward movement, so we do count people and dollars. But our real success is measured in life change. We have a large budget that supports the staff and property, but a large portion of that budget

A church whose pastor and others in leadership have failed to put in place a proactive plan for discipleship for Believers is usually a “growing” church — growing stagnant, growing cold, growing spiritually immature Christians, and eventually, many growing closed. Patte said, “There is much at stake in accepting or rejecting the challenge of discipleship…” When a pastor or a church makes a conscious decision to make discipleship of Believers a primary focus in their

Church, temple, sanctuary, or the Lords’s house, these are just a few names that your average person might call the place you come to worship God, I have always called it home. The Church I have been attending, Memorial Baptist Church, which is also where I attend high school, I have been attending since I was the age of three years old. Moving to the area that my family lives in now, I do not believe is any accident. At the age of two years old, my father was stationed in Tennessee for the military. After passing away from brain cancer, my Mother moved my two older sisters and me to Killeen Texas, to be closer to her family. Memorial Baptist Church was the only church we have ever been members of since moving to Texas, it has always felt like

This Christian religion, known as the “church of Christ”, is experiencing rapid growth despite the large amount of opposition it is facing. It seems that this is largely due because of the concerted effort that the Christians are making to teach their religion to everyone in the entire world. But while everything may seem

A sentiment common to almost any organization is that the one fact that remains constant is change. As society changes, and human understanding grows, any organization that maintains a static posture, assures its demise. Churches and Christian organizations are no exception. The gospel may remain the same, but the method for communicating it must speak to the audience to assure understanding. The Christian leader must be prepared to meet this challenge by incorporating an effective model for change into his theology of leadership in order to keep the ministry relevant and effective. Searching for such a change agent can prove to be challenging as well. To aid in this search, four

Many people today, especially from emerging generations don’t necessarily resonate with a church or organized Christianity. Most are leaving their church and some were probably not even a part of one to begin with. Sometimes this may be due to the misperceptions about the Christian church and sometimes they have been taught on a very strict basis that they simply rebel against the church. However, often many of these people are still spiritually open and are engaged in having a relationship with Jesus and Him alone. In “They Like Jesus but not the Church” six of the most common misperceptions and misunderstandings that the emerging generations have about the church and Christianity are discussed and explored. The resources are based on conversations

Before establishing the seven-step strategy, the Willow Creek Community first approached non-churchgoers as customers. As a result, The Seven-step Strategy became an effective marketing technique to encourage these type customers (Non-churchgoers) to develop a Christian relationship not only within themselves, but which church-members as well. As non-churchgoers are finally known as the “Seekers,” the Willow Creek Community Church made it their mission to provide unique services and encourage the Seekers to participate actively in engaging in a balanced environment. A balanced environment where comfort becomes the guiding force in allowing Seekers to discuss and have a voice in discussing how Christianity could

The church is in need of major renovation when it comes to making disciples. The concept of making disciples to follow the Lord Jesus Christ seems completely foreign to the church today. In order to achieve the desired goal of making disciples for Christ, training others to go out and proclaim gospel, and helping others to train people to disciple one another, one needs to go back to foundation of the Word of God. It is in God’s Word where multiple examples are found of how to make disciples to follow Jesus Christ. It is my desire to see more people in the church have a passion for discipleship. Therefore, this paper will examine in detail how to make disciples in a ministry context. This will be accomplished by examining the 5 V’s of discipleship—vision, values, views, vehicles, and verifiers. It is my purpose to examine each area in order to have a detailed plan of discipleship that will be used in my own ministry context to make disciples for Christ. I hope that this plan can and will be used to train others in the church to make disciples, and disciple one another, for the glory of God.

Evangelism is described as a three-way cord; building relationships, sharing the gospel, and introducing people to community. The authors encourage the Gospel and the Word to stay central, as well as community involvement and helping the needy in the name of Christ. There is a great emphasis on home groups (the authors are themselves home-group leaders), and how this practice makes church planting easier. The togetherness of this practice aids in ones spiritual growth because one cannot become holy on his

While the goal of Christian education and discipleship is spiritual formation of the new believer into a true disciple who makes other true disciples, this concept has been watered down in the American church today by emphasis on programs instead of progressive spiritual growth in every member’s life. There are many

Charles Engen initiates us positively by encouraging us to think what if each church would begin to see itself as God’s Missionary People. There is much to commend in his book as Engen asks the church to become in fact what it is by faith, a marvelous statement. Further insights come from statistical analysis, probing questions of eccesiology directed at questioning if we superimpose ourselves in areas of polity, form, structure or tradition upon the cultures we reach. I agree completely that making cosmetic changes or restructuring the denomination may not translate into crossing barriers from church to non church for the sake of the gospel. The church is compared with the noble works of the para church which forces us to think about how

Over the years, many models have been developed and implemented to endeavor to make disciples. Some of the models have been effective and others have not. Among some of the most biblical and efficient models are the ones that involve small groups. Within the small groups models, they can be broken down into further detail, such as pastoral involvement, the church’s goal, missions mindedness, etc. In this paper, I will explain my philosophy of small groups in a church and the importance of the relational group in authentic disciple making. I will also explain how missional groups can help the body of Christ move out into the community. Finally, I will summarize my status in regards to living in community with other believers and being missional with that community.

One of the hardest things to do when you are in a mega church is creating a community of genuine discipleship and not just a “Sunday Church”. It can seem like a giant task to take on when looked at head first because creating personal relationships with a thousand or more people is a lot of relationships, but there are ways to do it, and following the mold of pyramid discipleship can be very effective.