A Reflection On Sticky Church By Larry Osborne

“The Gospel For Those Broken By The Church” by Dr. Rod Rosenbladt Rod Rosenbladt paints a fantastic picture in his presentation “The Gospel For Those Broken By The Church.” He discusses how the church can often push people away from the Gospel, and, by extension, God. He explains how pastors push people away from Christianity and why many of the “alumni of the Christian faith” are feeling how they do: why some of them feel angry, and why some others feel sad about the Christian faith. Rosenbladt’s presentation, in many ways, mirrors Paul's presentation of the Gospel in the first eight chapters of his letter to the Romans. In said letters, Paul explains how we are all God’s apostles, how we try to uphold the law, and even though we fail

He examines how we do nothing and that God alone works this saving faith in us. Next on the list is having a biblical understanding of evangelism. Dever believes that the way we evangelize has a lot to with the way we understand biblical conversion. Dever sought to answer: What is evangelism? Who should evangelize?

This concern comes forth most strikingly in Tillman’s comment, “it is the mission of the church to help [people]…take the matter of our youth…many of them have gotten into drugs and other trouble... We should reach out to those young people and try very hard to meet their needs, whatever they are; whether they are members or not” (Billingsley, pp.103). This quote fully summarizes Billingsley’s attitude throughout the chapter. There is never a question of whether the church should be involved or to what extent as seen by his focus on churches succeeding in helping these youths, discussions with youth ministers, and the emphasis on the crucial impact the church has on the community. Instead, Billingsley pulls example after example of exactly how these churches are going beyond their congregation and religious function in order to help alienated young black men reconnect with their identity and help them succeed even though they are not part of the church.

For Calvary Temple to become more missional, it needs to focus on the Spirit flowing out of the church instead of into the church. They have an awesome amount of training and empowering within their church, but it needs to be released into the world to expand the kingdom of God. “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” (Mk. 16:15, emphasis

The solution was to designed activities that were tailored to suit the need of the new converts. In the case of the Moody Bible Church, the drop in the number of attendees was as a result of its constant change in its leadership. Most of their leaders could only last for few years before departing (resigning). Their resignation has nothing to do with disagreements, nor poor performance, instead, it has a lot to do with the zeal to reach the unreached, to take their saving gospel of Christ to the unreached regions in Africa, Asia, Europe, etc.

He described his need to attend church as his way of keeping himself real in a society that is focused on money, greed and selfishness (2013). The Christian church is faced with diminishing adherent amounts. Faithful catholics are diminishing, with one in eight catholics attending mass on a weekend. The Occurring Changes in Australian

Taking Heaven by Storm by John H. Wigger tells the story about early American Methodism. This book argues that the Methodist changed America forever by giving the everyday American a sense of belonging, but Methodism also fit well with the existing culture, economic characteristics, and religious aspects of the early United States. Wigger focuses on Methodism between the years of 1770 to 1880, a time where this denomination spread rapidly. There are several factors to Methodism that contributed to this growth spurt. Wigger believes that the iterant preachers, treatment of African-Americans and women, and the overall Methodist attitude and way of life all helped this group develop a deep relationship with America, and Winger’s belief proves

Several Sunday mornings ago, a local church had a missionary as a guest speaker, and his speech appealed to the congregation through his incorporation of ethos, logos, and pathos. The missionary began his speech by stating that he had originally planned to become a pastor after graduating from seminary, but after receiving his degree he felt led to use his skills to assist the less fortunate. He soon joined an organization and has spent the past eight years in Latin America helping others while teaching Christianity. In the previous statement, the missionary attempted to appeal to the congregation through ethos. He discussed seminary school and his missionary experience in order to establish credibility as a trustworthy man of God.

The Second Great Awakening, was one that once again sparked religion. It helped people come together once again under the faith, uniting them. The South began to create emotional camp meeting, where 1000’s would gather in search of religion whether it came in the form of Baptism, Presbyterianism, or Methodist faith. The camps provided an outlet for rural people, and those whose lives were lonely.

In Thomas Long’s The Witness of Preaching, he aims to urge the reader to become a reliable witness of the gospel by way of ample preparation before entering a pulpit. The text offers to the reader a deeper understanding of the ministry of preaching. A useful component of the text contains informative bits of information that make the reader aware of the lengthy but necessary preparation needed for an adequate explanation of the scripture. Of primary importance is the consideration of the congregation when a preacher is first approaching the text. This point is of vital importance as it signifies that the speaker is a member of the body of Christ and the congregation.

Ed combats this view with the idea that the point of discipleship is not information, but Christ-like transformation. The second “broken view” presented is the fact that we try to program discipleship. Ed infers that discipleship is so much more than a six-week course, and people are looking for relationships more than discipleship classes. The third “broken view” is that we equate discipleship with our preaching. In fact, 56% of pastors surveyed believe their weekly sermon was the most important discipling ministry in the church.

I attended this church for about 2 years when I started my sophomore year at DBU and was offered a position in children’s ministry at First Baptist Colleyville. Bent-tree and FBC were the two largest churches I have been a part of both between 3,000-5,000 in total Sunday attendance. Both follow the same basic order of service. Begin around 11am with 10-15 minutes of worship singing, then announcements, followed by an special aspect of the service like a video a special song etc.… The sermon lasts about 25-35 minutes and we close with prayer and one final worship song.

3:16-17). Baxter correctly highlighted the primary duty of minister in correcting those disobedience or rebellious flock – “To bring your people to submit to this course of private catechizing or instruction; for, if they will not come to you, or allow you to come to them, what good can they receive?” However, when we look at today’s congregation, especially old believers, their mindset had changed – though at the beginning of salvation, they humbly followed all the minister’s instructions diligently for their soul’s healing, but after sometimes, they hardened their heart to any kind of pastoral treatment as though they are superior than their shepherd. They will not come to us and will not allow us to come to

The mission is to serve the local church and Christian community through spreading the word. I honestly feel that church is brainwashing. The pastor wants people to feel that Christ’s body and blood are actually there on the altar, that we’re actually standing before the Almighty, and people really get distracted and start to believe that. The vision and mission basically gives me an idea that the goal is to train people to believe what the pastor believe. The pastor is human just like everyone else that’s putting their trust in him.

We were trying everything we knew to build the church’s attendance, but it was not happening. At the end of the first year, the church’s income took a turn for the worse. I began using my personal savings for the upkeep of the ministry. Later others began giving from their personal funds in addition to their tithes, time, and talents in an effort to help keep us afloat. When my savings ran out, I than took out a loan on my car, acquired two personal loans, sold most of my jewelry and anything else I could get my hands on, in an attempt to meet the obligations of the lease, while trying to maintain the spiritual vision of the ministry.