Parlow Twitter Quote: If u really believe people r going 2 spend eternity in 1 of 2 places, why is it so hard for your church to change? #getreal
From John Parlow's Blog - Timeless Twaddle For Twits
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Do You Agree With This List?
What if I gave you a list of ten things that any church could do that would bring almost immediate renewal and a larger audience for the Gospel?
Would you be interested in the list?
Most would be.
So here is one such list from one of the top Christian leaders* in America:
- Simplify your structure by putting the authority to make most decisions related to the practice of ministry in the hands of those with responsibility. Translation: let your leaders lead.
- Call/hire young, have singer who are young, program young. Why? You attract who you have lead worship, and most churches are growing old.
- Become more contemporary in terms of music and graphics, décor and topics, website and signage. It's 2015. Really. You can check.
- Stop preaching and start communicating practical truth. There's a difference.
- Shift the outreach focus away from the already convinced toward those who are not. It's called the Great Commission.
- Prioritize your Sunday morning children's ministry in terms of money and staffing, square footage and resources. Do you really not know, after all this time, that the children's ministry is your most important ministry for outreach and growth?
- "It's the weekend, stupid."
- Help everyone find their spiritual gifts and then help them channel those gifts toward ministry.
- Target men. Get the man, you tend to get the family.
- Proclaim the full counsel of God without compromise or dilution. All you get with a watered-down message is a watered-down church. And a watered-down church has nothing to offer the world it does not already have.
Now, what I just shared with you that the vast majority of churches already know this list. Not only do they know the list, they would agree with most if not all of it.
But they refuse to act on it.
It's true.
And the reason tends to be the same, in church after church, around the world: they don't want to change.
Which brings up another list.
It's the list of the seven last words of the church:
"We never did it that way before." [That was trite, 30 years ago, don't you know, John?]
Sources: Adapted from James Emery White, The Church in an Age of Crisis: 25 New Realities Facing Christianity (Baker).
Posted by Dr. John Parlow at 8:37 AM
Preview free - or buy - the DMin paper.
Church and Chicanery Bigshot John Parlow, who worshiped with Ski at Northpoint Babtist in Atlanta, picked up a DMin at Denver Seminary. Here is his thesis, linked:
Dramatic sketches in weekend messages to increase cognitive retention of the main point and suggested application
by John M Parlow
Type: Thesis/dissertation : Manuscript Archival Material; English
Publisher: 2007.
Editions: 2 Editions
Dissertation: Thesis (D.Min.)--Denver Seminary, 2007.
OCLC: 183071617
Find a church where Denver graduates are serving:
St. Mark Evangelical Lutheran Church
2066 Lawrence Dr.
De Pere, WI 54115
920-336-2485
Denver Conservative Baptist Seminary. The school changed its name again in 1998 to Denver Seminary to reflect its growing appeal to a wide-spectrum of evangelical students, most of whom were no longer from the Conservative Baptists Association. This book gives a comprehensive overview of Denver Seminary’s history as it developed from a small denominational school to a major evangelical seminary under Grounds leadership. This statement was first used by Grounds to stake out Denver Seminary’s theological position in the midst of conflict between moderately conservative and ultra-conservative factions of the Conservative Baptist Association that eventually led the ultra-conservative faction to withdraw from the CBA and found the Conservative Baptist Fellowship (CBF). Craig Williford, 2000-present Denver Seminary is accredited by Association of Theological Schools, North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, and the prestigious Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Education Programs (CACREP). Denver Seminary’s flagship training and mentoring program, started by former president Clyde McDowell, has distinguished the seminary from similar evangelical schools and led to a significant increase in student enrollment since it was launched in 1998. Denver Seminary Magazine, published quarterly since 1981, addresses current topics in the church and ministry and is distributed primarily to Denver Seminary alumni and other financial supporters.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Blessed by Kelm/Parlow
Posted at Pastor Rick Johnson's WELS CG Blog
Anonymous said...
Pr. Johnson,
Thanks for your insights and work. There are more who support your position than you know. I am thankful that our church (offers both styles) continues to reach more and more people with the Means. More and more babies baptized, adult confirmations continue to increase, Bible classes multiply, the Lord's Supper offered every weekend. To God be the glory!
Blessed at St. Mark - De Pere
***
GJ - It must be that yakkity-yak sax at Crown of Life, Corona, California.
Pennsylvania asked me to predict the future of WELS.
I said, "In five years, if nothing is done, there won't be a WELS. The Church Growth congregations are training people to be Baptist-Pentecostal. Eventually the members and pastors who like Church Growth will join the sects that do it better. Meanwhile, the ones fleeing Church Growth will join Rome or Eastern Orthodoxy."
I also said, "If anyone pushes Kelm or Parlow about being Lutheran, they can pack up and join Missouri, where Kieschnick would welcome them."
The Deformed-Lutheran union congregations of the 19th century all went Deformed eventually. They are United Church of Christ (all the religions the same) today. A few congregations let the Deformed and Masons leave. Some of them welcomed the Deformed back via the Church Growth Movement. The LCA (now ELCA) did that in another way, breaking up the old union congregations in Pennsylvania (in the name of the Confessions), then creating new ones much later in the name of ecumenism.
Church Growth pastors are not Lutheran, except sometimes by accident of membership. They are Deformed. Many end up like Marryin' Sam, Mark Freier, who gladly performs the marriages of Hindus and Atheists. (Question: Does Mark bless the suttee ceremony, when the dead husband is cremated and the wife is tossed on the flames, to honor him?)
The cutting edge of Church Growth in WELS bows to the image of Leonard Sweet. They love his books, study his malarkey, and invite him to teach them the Word.
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A Word from Our Sponsor:
91] For the Word of God is the sanctuary above all sanctuaries, yea, the only one which we Christians know and have. For though we had the bones of all the saints or all holy and consecrated garments upon a heap, still that would help us nothing; for all that is a dead thing which can sanctify nobody. But God's Word is the treasure which sanctifies everything, and by which even all the saints themselves were sanctified. At whatever hour, then, God's Word is taught, preached, heard, read or meditated upon, there the person, day, and work are sanctified thereby, not because of the external work, but because of the Word, which makes saints of us all. 92] Therefore I constantly say that all our life and work must be ordered according to God's Word, if it is to be God-pleasing or holy. Where this is done, this commandment is in force and being fulfilled.
100] For let me tell you this, even though you know it perfectly and be already master in all things, still you are daily in the dominion of the devil, who ceases neither day nor night to steal unawares upon you, to kindle in your heart unbelief and wicked thoughts against the foregoing and all the commandments. Therefore you must always have God's Word in your heart, upon your lips, and in your ears. But where the heart is idle, and the Word does not sound, he breaks in and has done the damage before we are aware. 101] On the other hand, such is the efficacy of the Word, whenever it is seriously contemplated, heard, and used, that it is bound never to be without fruit, but always awakens new understanding, pleasure, and devoutness, and produces a pure heart and pure thoughts. For these words are not inoperative or dead, but creative, living words. 102] And even though no other interest or necessity impel us, yet this ought to urge every one thereunto, because thereby the devil is put to Right and driven away, and, besides, this commandment is fulfilled, and [this exercise in the Word] is more pleasing to God than any work of hypocrisy, however brilliant.
Martin Luther, Large Catechism, Third Commandment, The Book of Concord