How to Double your Church in One Year.

According to Schaeffer Institute, half of all churches didn't add a single member in the last two years.  Pathetic.

My mind has been consumed with a phrase I heard several months ago:

This generation of Christians is responsible for reaching this generation of lost people.

Many people have tried to figure out a strategy for church growth, and they are all too complicated.  But General Patton said this:

A  good plan perfectly executed today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow. 

I believe I have found a good plan.   And the greatest part about this plan is that it is simple.  Here it is -

Letter from an Atheist

"Dear Pastor Jesse, 


     Until tonight I have never beleived in Jesus Christ or Christianity. Before I came to your church today I considered myself an atheist and thought it was impossible for me to truly believe. After meeting the other young people with such a strong faith in their religion and after hearing you preach with passion about Jesus I felt something I've never felt before at a church before. 


    When we all had our eyes closed and you asked us to raise our hands and accept the Lord into our hearts I couldn't the first time. The second time you asked us to accept Jesus I wanted to, but something was stopping me. When you went on to pray with us, I felt the awful sense of dissapointment that I didn't raise my hand and accept Jesus. Then, you called for a final raising of hands. Having never considered myself a Christian, this was a hard inner struggle for me. But I did it. I was the last to raise my hand.


      I thank my friends for talking me into coming, I thank you for opening my eyes and heart, and I thank God that you knew someone in the room needed that last chance tonight. 


Keep on preachin' it, Preacher."


To God be the Glory.

How to Pray for One Hour

     What if Christians all over the world prayed for one hour?  What would happen?
     In 1857, Jeremiah Lanphier, a New York businessman, started a prayer meeting that would meet once a week for one hour.  He passed out 20,000 flyers to advertise this, and on this first day, he was the only one to show up.  About 30 minutes later, he heard footsteps coming up the stairs and a few other businessmen came to join.
     Within a few weeks, they decided to meet every day during lunch.  They started to have to find new facilities to house all the men coming to pray.  Within six months, over 10,000 business men were forsaking their lunch hour to pray.  Not long after this, 50,000 men were praying everyday, and cities around America were beginning to do the same.  All of this because one man sought to pray.