I started a thread yesterday re. Increasing Church Membership.
I found out that during a recent block party that a church raffled off a new tv. I was shocked, this goes beyond what I said yesterday.
A church going down this path will find Gods Blessings withdrawn,if indeed it had them at all. The Great Commission was totally omitted in this instance.
This is a prime example of stroking someones ego while leaving the Lord out of the picture.
:eek: :confused: :(
Increasing Church Membership, Continued!
Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by bruren777, Oct 8, 2005.
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Doesn't surprise me nowadays. I have seen churches giving out coupons for McDonalds too.
Sometime when you get a chance just do a search on the Baptist Foundation of Arizona and how much money was lost. The SBC leadership supported such a money making venture. -
Giving McDonalds coupons as rewards to children in childrens church or some other function is one thing, they are children and understand a reward is something they get for memorizing scripture or something else.
My thread was regarding a church trying to attract people to boost membership by raffling off a tv at a block party. This is not the Great Commission, it's someones misconstrued notion of outreach. What happened there was a carnival attmosphere,
not a church function. -
John of Japan Well-Known MemberSite Supporter
A Pentecostal church here in Japan gave a huge bottle of beer to all who attended their first service in a new building! :rolleyes:
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If these churches are only trying to increase church membership, without careing about people coming to Christ. Just members for numbers sake then I see the problem.
My question, what makes you say these churches just care about numbers and not the people coming to these functions?
I bet the churches giving out the Mcdonalds cupons would say that if somebody came for a free hamburger and heard the message of the gospel then it was worth it. Besides Jesus fed people that came to his "function" like a bread and fish picknic.
Are these churches not presenting the gospel at these events? -
Lets not confuse attendence with membership. Most of these types of functions can have a short term effect upon attendence at Sunday Morning Service, rarely do they bring in people who become regular attenders and then eventually members.
I believe one place we forget to look for new members in right in the pews. There are alot of people who come every Sunday morning, many on Sunday night, and a few on Wednesday night who's names are missing when you look at the membership rolls.
Bill -
I would not hesitate to invest the amount of money it cost to buy and give away a new TV for the opportunity to share the gospel with lost people who may not otherwise come to the block party. There is nothing unbiblical about it. It is an investment. It is not about "increasing membership". It is about people coming to Christ.
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One cannot bribe a person to "come to God". It is God who calls that person to salvation, not TVs, not coffee cups, not McDonalds coupons, nor any other earthly blandishments we may offer.
To attempt to increase membership by these things is no different that the Lions club or JCs having memberrship drives. The goal is to make disciples of believers. We cannot make believers of non-believers. (Ducking all tomatoes (rotten or otherwise).) -
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There are many things that can draw people into the church. I think we have gotten a little backwards in our theology. The people in the church are supposed to be saved. We are to reach the lost with the Gospel through personal evangelism, then disciple them through the church.
That doesn't mean the church is not to be evangelistic. If the goal is to get people to come to church to hear the Gospel, then what is wrong with that? I don't advocate giving away alcohol, but there are many things the church can do. For example, have a fall festival as an alternative to halloween. Have some type of Gospel presentation. Invite people to make a decision.
A lot of people's idea of evangelism is to invite a person to church and let the pastor or Sunday School teacher share the Gospel. That is not evangelism.
Preach the Gospel. Live the Gospel. Show people you care about them. People will respond to the Gospel. -
Bill -
Dee Jay,
That's my whole point, the effort is to increase membership, but that's as far as it goes. They get them in the doors and that's as far as it goes. It's one thing to increase membership and another to invoke the Great Commision. If all we are doing is getting people to church and that's it, we are missing the mark by not evangilizing them.An unsaved person can come into a church and attend the sermon and then go home without a believer talking to them one on one about accepting Jesus As their Lord And Savior, all the fanfare to get them in the door was useless. -
I think it's great how all you guys can look through their methods of coming into contact with people and see their hearts and know that their motives are all about padding the church role and not about sharing the Gospel with lost people who probably wouldn't come to church otherwise. It must save you a lot of time to be able to so easily see through people, as opposed to the old fashioned way of building a relationship and really seeing where someone's heart is.
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Brother Ian
You can give an invitation as well.
;) -
If you can get them in the doors of the church, they're going to hear the Gospel and receive an invitation to accept Jesus Christ.
Our bus ministry gives out candy on Saturday to get kids to come to church on Sunday. That doesn't mean we ignore them once they get there... -
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I guess I'm not making this clear enough without being specific. I was not refering to all churches in general there is one particular church that is doing this. I do not have a problem with giving candy to children, I did not say that.
What I said at the beginning of this thread was raffling off a tv just to get people to the church and leaving it at that.
We are to DISCIPLE the people. If you read my previous post I said we must present the word to them, one on one if necessary, getting them into church is not enough.
Please read my earlier post of today.
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