ConvergeUSA Blog

11 Keys to Having an Explosive Easter Pt-1 by Gary Rohrmayer

"Overall, 31% of active churchgoers said they would definitely invite someone they know who does not usually attend a church to accompany them to a church service on Easter weekend this year."  Barna Group

In light of this research, if you have an average church attendance of 300, I believe that you could easily see 30-50% (100-150) increase at your Easter Service.  But what if you put some effort into it?  What if you spent 3 months planning and preparing your congregation for an explosive and transformational Easter this year?  I really believe that healthy churches can double their average attendance on Easter which will have a residual impact for the rest of the year.

With Easter falling later on the calendar this year, April 24, you have an opportunity to have one of your largest Easter attendances in the history of your church. Here are a few principles that you can apply in planning to have an Explosive Easter this year.

1.  Believe it can happen.

Leading a congregation can be a lonely and discouraging assignment. Helping pastors keep their heads in the game is one of the things I do all the time. It is so easy to get caught up with the negative distractions that ministry brings that we can get our eyes off the thousands of people who are so far from God but really close to us. Jesus said to his distracted disciples, "Don't you have a saying, 'It's still four months until harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest." (John 4:35)  What do you do as a leader to keep your eyes on the harvest? What do you need to do to keep your staff, leaders' and church's eyes on the harvest? God is at work in your community! Do you believe it? Can you see through the eyes of faith the lives of families and neighbors who can be changed by the power of the gospel?

2. Have a record setting mentality.

What has been the largest Easter Service in the history of your church? What is holding you back to see it happen this year? The previous point deals with your belief in God and His redemptive work in the world. This point deals with your belief in your church, your team and God's work within and through your church. If you don't think it can happen as a leader then you and the church are in trouble. If you don't believe it then no one else will. What is keeping you for setting new Easter attendance record in the life of your church? 

3. Get your key influencers involved.

Getting key influencers involved in the process is vital to building positive momentum. Getting these individuals involved in planning and promoting your service is critical. Filling these individuals excitement about setting a new record and touching lives with the gospel is key, because it will spread infectiously throughout the congregation.

Too many pastors try to carry the load all by themselves, which is an unbiblical notion. Christianity is a team sport. Team building is one of the skills successful pastors need in their tool belts. Learning to pick the right players on your team is crucial. Guiding and leading the team is imperative. I encourage pastors to use short-term task forces with a specific task along with a starting and ending point.  If you build a task force for each of your major outreach initiatives for the Fall, Winter and Spring, your team building skills will improve each time and the impact on your congregation will dramatically improve. HT

4.  Put some effort into planning for before, during and after your Easter service
I call this the "three month rule" which is to begin the detailed planning process at least three months before launch of the outreach campaign.  Here is an overview of what would happen in those three months:

Three D's of Event Planning

• Develop a punch list - generating a complete list of 'to do's' with due dates that that need to be completely to insure a successful event.
• Determine a time line - listing major objectives 3 months before the event and 1 month after the event.
• Delegate assignments to your team - empower your team to own the tasks that need to be completed.
  • Here are the major areas that need to be covered
    • Intercession
    • Communication - Membership Awareness
    • Marketing & Promotion to Community
    • Worship Service Planning & Preparation
    • Follow up & Come back events

  5.  Promote prayer & fasting for friends, neighbors and family.

It is a must to incorporate a church wide prayer project for before and during the campaign. One example: Call the church to "pray for five neighbors, for five minutes a day, for five weeks" before the outreach campaign. Tim Beavis of The Orchard Church in McHenry developed a "Who is my neighbor?" campaign with this concept. Check out the card he used to encourage his church to pray for their neighbors.  You might consider using 2 identical cards in your church, one for the individual to hand in to the church for the prayer team to pray over and the other of the individual to take home with them.  In addition to this you could also call the church to a season of prayer and fasting.

Stay Tuned for Part 2

Spiritual Warfare: Immaturity and Pride by Gary Rohrmayer

This week we continue to answer the following question: How does God’s enemy come after His people and His leaders for the sole purpose of distracting, disrupting and derailing them from being involved in God's great mission?

As we survey Pauline literature we will discover fourteen tactical strategies that the enemy will use to come after God's people along with specific antidotes in addressing that problem.  See the introduction to this series to receive an overview of this subject.

12. Immaturity and Pride 

“There is nothing worse for a young convert than to be thrust into leadership without mentoring and ongoing coaching because the devil relishes these vulnerable souls.” – Gary Rohrmayer 

 Text: 1 Timothy 3:6 - He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. 

Problem: “Satan can take a young leader out of ministry due to pride.” J. Robert Clinton

 Antidote: “Potential young leaders should not be placed into leadership responsibility too soon.”  J. Robert Clinton

Reflective Questions:  

• How would you and your church define spiritual maturity?
• How would you and your church define spiritual leadership?
• What are the avenues for spotting potential leaders in your local church?
• What are the pathways for mentoring new converts into leadership roles?
• Do you have a training process for equipping and mentoring deacons?
• Do you have a training process for equipping and mentoring elders?

Prayer Response: Father in Heaven, protect our church from thrusting recent converts into leadership roles carelessly.  Show us how to nurture, equip and mentor these recent converts in the areas of spiritual, emotional and relational maturity.  Raise up an army of leader makers, like Barnabas, who will invest countless hours into the lives of potential leaders.  Lord of the Harvest, grant us success in spotting, engaging, and mobilizing these workers into Your mission field.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Next Post: False Teachers

View the entire series of posts on Spiritual Warfare

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Spiritual Warfare: A Severed Conscience by Gary Rohrmayer

This week we continue to answer the following question: How does God’s enemy come after His people and His leaders for the sole purpose of distracting, disrupting and derailing them from being involved in God's great mission?

As we survey Pauline literature we will discover fourteen tactical strategies that the enemy will use to come after God's people along with specific antidotes in addressing that problem.  See the introduction to this series to receive an overview of this subject.

11. Severed Conscience

“Our enemy attacks the conscience little by little seeking to wear us down and then wears out a leader's resolve to fight the good fight.”  – Gary Rohrmayer

Text: 1 Timothy 1:18-20 - Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith. Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.

Problem: “Satan can use a lack of responsiveness to one’s conscience to eventually destroy a leader and take them out of ministry and further cause them to blaspheme what they once believed. The antidote is keeping a clear conscience and holding on to the truths of the Christian faith.”  J. Robert Clinton

Antidote: “On the one hand, don’t go against your conscience. On the other hand, allow God to impact your inner life and correct wrongly held ideas that affect your conscience.”  J. Robert Clinton

Reflective Questions:

• If the enemy were to attack one area of your life where would you be vulnerable?
• If the enemy were to attack one area of the church where would it be vulnerable?
• When was the last time you participated in a rigorous spiritual inventory of your own conscience?
• When was the last time the church corporately gathered for public confession and repentance over its actions?

Prayer Response: Father of Light, search me and know my heart, see if there is anything offensive in my life.  Holy Father, protect my conscience through daily confession, a hunger for the pure truth of Your Word and an awareness of Your Holy Presence in my life.  Righteous Father, may I receive correction from others with a humble spirit and a teachable attitude.  May I seek to keep short accounts within my life and learn to live at peace with all men.  May my heart always be tender and pliable before You and all those around me. In the Name of Jesus, amen.

Next Post:  Immaturity and Pride

View the entire series of posts on Spiritual Warfare

Spiritual Warfare: False Signs and Wonders by Gary Rohrmayer

This week we continue to answer the following question: How does God’s enemy come after His people and His leaders for the sole purpose of distracting, disrupting and derailing them from being involved in God's great mission?

As we survey Pauline literature we will discover fourteen tactical strategies that the enemy will use to come after God's people along with specific antidotes in addressing that problem.  See the introduction to this series to receive an overview of this subject.

10. False Signs and Wonders

"Loving and clinging to the truth are the keys to overcoming counterfeit activity of the enemy." – Gary Rohrmayer

Text: 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 - The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

Problem: “Satan can do signs and wonders through a leader so that the leader looks as if he/she is empowered of God (apostolic workers also do signs and wonders).” J. Robert Clinton

Antidote: “Get discernment on apparent good teaching, apparent dynamic leaders. This may involve having to depend on people with revelatory gifts (discerning of spirits; word of knowledge; word of prophecy; word of wisdom, etc).” J. Robert Clinton

Reflective Questions:

• Why were the Bereans of more noble character than the Thessalonians? See Acts 17:10-12
• What are the implications of Acts 17:10-12 on Paul’s words to the Thessalonians in our text today?
• Why do church leaders feel uncomfortable in examining the teaching of teachers in the local church?
• What is one of the qualifications and duties of elders and deacons in a local church? See Titus 1:9; I Timothy 3:9
• How do the gifts of discernment, knowledge, prophecy and wisdom function in your local church? See I Corinthians 12:7-11

Prayer Response: Father of Light protect our church, the Bride of Christ, from the counterfeit actions of the enemy. May we be found as lovers of the truth, standing strong in the Lord with a discerning heart and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit’s promptings.  May the noble character of the Bereans be our example; they  received the gospel with eagerness and yet thoroughly examined the Scriptures to verify the message of the apostles. May you grant the church with the spiritual gift of discernment to verify the spiritual work in our midst. May we see ‘sound doctrine’ promoted and embraced throughout the church, may we learn to ‘think correctly’ and ‘practice the truth appropriately’ for Your glory and honor.  In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Next Week: Severed Conscience

View the entire series of posts on Spiritual Warfare

Where do I start? Read these 3 church planting manuals by Michael Clark

In the last few weeks, I have had the opportunity to speak with several people who have expressed a call to plant churches or at least a strong inclination that this might be what God has for them.  However, after recognizing God’s call it is often difficult to know where to start.  There are so many resources on church planting that it is difficult to know where to start.

If you are starting out the church planting process or have a strong inclination to do so, we would recommend that you begin by reading three church planting manuals.  All three manuals have been invaluable to Sojourn and its leadership.  These manuals will provide a rich theology of church planting, as well as practical information about what is involved in planting a church. Most importantly, the manuals will guide you on where to start.

The first recommended manual is The Reedemer Church Planter Manual developed by Tim Keller and J. Allen Thompson at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York.  The manual “is an extensive compendium of outlines, lectures, essays, exercises and other materials that prepare learners for church planting especially in an urban setting.”  Unlike some manuals which are too general or too context specific, the Redeemer Manual is designed to “equip the reader to think creatively about how to start churches in any context, culture or people group.” The manual is divided into five parts: 1) Owning the Church Planting Vision, 2) Learning and Planning, 3) Launching the Church, 4) Spiritual Renewal Dynamics, and 5) Changing the Fabric of the City.

The second recommended manual is First Steps for Planting a Missional Church by Gary Rohrmayer.  Rohrmayer’s manual is a comprehensive workbook for planting a missional church developed out of FirstSteps Seminars on church planting.  Robert E. Logan, who wrote the forward to the manual, explains the title of the manual.  He states that “The idea of ’steps’ is an important concept, because it is a double entendre. The word evokes both movement and foundation … it explores the idea of moving forward to reproduce churches while being founded and grounded in the glory and mission of God.”

The third recommended manual is actually two manuals available through Global Church Advancement trainings directed by Steve Childers.  The first manual is Church Planting Foundations and the second is Church Planting Essentials.  At Sojourn, we recommend all church planters who are beginning the process to attend the GCA training.  The trainings and manuals guide the church planter through what GCA calls, “the seven seasons of church planting and multiplication.”  The first manual covers vision, calling, focus, prayer, learning, philosophy, purpose, values, styles, ministry model, discipleship model, planting model, finance plan, ministry plan, and personal plan.

These three manuals have played important roles in Sojourn’s development.  I hope that they may help you as well as you seek to obey God’s call and see the Gospel transform your life, your city, and the world. HT