Author Archives: General Baptist Ministries

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March 10, 2015

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Family, National Missions, Pastoring

Turning Point

By Steve Gill

We are excited to share with you that God has lead us to birth a new, life-giving church in Bonita Springs, Florida called, Turning Point Church. Our purpose is simple; ‘to help people experience a life changing relationship through Jesus Christ.’ We have a heart to point people to the life change that Jesus brings to all of us. That’s part of the reason our church is called, Turning Point. A turning point is a decision in a person’s life that changes things! It changes us, our circumstances, and even people around us. We believe that what we do with Jesus changes everything in our lives!   He is the ultimate turning point! p 9-10 Gill Family

For the past 23+ years, we have been involved in various roles of ministry, serving within the local church and overseas in Latin America. During that time, God has given us the opportunity to be a part of some great churches and to have some great leaders speak into our lives. Those experiences have honed the vision that we have for our community. We know three things very distinctly.

One, we have a heart for those far from God. Our desire is to see TPC become a church that connects with people who don’t know God. Certainly we want our church to be a place for people already following Jesus, but our mission is to care deeply about reaching those who have walked away from the church and those who don’t know God at all. Wouldn’t it be amazing to be a church where people far from God can serve side by side with those who know Him, and grow in faith together?

Secondly, we have a heart for families. We believe we live in a day and age where parenting is getting harder and harder. Being a kid and teenager is equally as tough. Think of the mixed messages that our culture is communicating. Think of the pressures that our kids are facing. We want to be a church that helps parents and grandparents raise their kids with intentionality. We want to help parents seize the everyday moments to lead their kids closer to knowing Jesus. Wouldn’t it be cool to have a church that is full of families; kids, teens, parents, and grandparents together?

Lastly, we desire to help bridge the gap that often exists between cultures and extends into the church. We’ve been told over and over that division exists in our community. We’ve even seen it! So, our hope and dream is to have a church that is diverse culturally, particularly where Anglo and Latino cultures come together to experience God and serve together. Wouldn’t it be amazing to see a church that is a small picture of what heaven looks like every day?

Recently, we had the opportunity to share that vision at our first public gathering. The amazing part was that God led 24 people to that first meeting! As we started the meeting you could feel a buzz in the room and an anticipation that God was up to something new in Bonita Springs. We walked away with a fresh excitement as several families committed to be a part of our launch team in March. The history of Turning Point Church has begun!

While we love this dream of building a Christ centered church, our biggest heart and priority is for our family. On more of a personal note, Keisa and I met back in college and have recently celebrated 24 years of marriage together. We are grateful for the experiences in our lives that have strengthened our marriage and ministry. God has also blessed the both of us with four amazing kids (Aaron-14, Ellie-11, Christian-11 and Karinna-8). We, like most parents, are actively involved in our kids lives through school and sports. That keeps us pretty engaged and moving most days at the Gill home! For fun, our clan likes to watch movies, play sports, and make some tasty desserts! We honestly just love spending time together.

We are looking forward to our new life in Bonita Springs, pouring into the lives of our kids and helping grow a church that honors God. Thank you in advance for your prayers and your generosity in helping Turning Point Church launch with strength!

Steve and Keisa Gill, along with their four children, are brand new to our General Baptist family. They will be launching Turning Point Church in Bonita Springs, Florida in the fall of this year as the very first Go Project plant. To follow their progress, visit www.tpclive.org or like Turning Point Church on Facebook.

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March 3, 2015

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Congregrational Ministries, Pastoring

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Nickels, Noses, Numbers

By Dr. Franklin Dumond

The role of numbers and counting in the life of a church leader, though often criticized, remains important. The effective leader has a penchant for numbers, since most of those numbers represent people or indicate a measure of their discipleship.

Are numbers necessary?

A quick look at the Bible illustrates the historical importance of numbers. There is even an Old Testament book called Numbers! The New Testament records the numbers of people who had lunch with Jesus—4,000 on one occasion; 5,000 on another—and even how they sat in groups of 50 (Luke 10:14).

Necessary Numbers

A few numbers rank with such importance that every church leader should be abreast of them. Ranked by importance these would include:

  1. Average weekly worship attendancegraph
  2. Average weekly Small Group/Sunday School attendance
  3. Number of First Time Guests
  4. Conversions: Last year and year-to-date
  5. Baptisms: Last year and year-to-date
  6. Members Received: Last year and year-to-date
  7. Average Weekly Income: Last year and year-to-date

Most of these numbers should be maintained in a multi-year graph so trend lines can be easily identified.

Behind the Scenes Numbers

Some of the most important numbers only rarely make a ‘public’ appearance. That is, they are generally not communicated openly, despite their importance. The leader of a growing congregation will undoubtedly be aware of:

  1. The size of the crowd

“If everyone had been here…” is a statement often made to console us on low attendance days or to celebrate a full house that would have been beyond capacity if everyone had been present.

The crowd is composed of those folks who attend at least once in a while. One convenient measure of the crowd is to identify those folks who attend at least once every 6-8 weeks.

Why is it so important to know the size of and the identity of the crowd? The size of the crowd indicates the potential the church has to grow and impact people. The identity of those who make up the crowd indicates who it is that we are most likely to win to faith in Christ and faithfulness to His church.

  1. Total weekly participation

In the Family Based Church, everyone attends everything. These churches function like an extended family, and are generally smaller in size. It is not uncommon for activities to be cancelled if several cannot attend.

A Program Based Church will have a more developed and diverse program where no one attends everything but everyone attends something. For example, it is not uncommon for a Program Based Church to offer small groups for adults, youth groups for teens, and children’s ministries at times other than Sunday morning. Often folks who cannot attend on Sunday morning will nevertheless participate in one or more of the weekday or weeknight ministries of the church.

Total weekly participation, then, is a measure of who attended at least one ministry activity in a given week. It is determined by a cross reference of attendance reports so that everyone who attends at least once in the week is counted.

  1. Percentage of the congregation present for five years or less

“I’m on my third congregation!” reported the pastor of a middle sized church. Having been pastor there for nearly 20 years he had discovered first hand that church folks are mobile. They move away. They drop out. Others drop in. Every year there are funerals!

Other measures of tenure could be used. A very important one is the percentage of folks who have become part of the congregation since the current pastor arrived.

Each of these measures the likelihood of leading change and maintaining relevance. Change is most likely when enough newer folks with newer ideas come into leadership roles. The pastor is most likely to lead change when a large percentage of the congregation has come into the church since he began his ministry.

Numbers will not track themselves. Use of some church management software or the development of a spreadsheet will make the task easier. In the church of 200 or fewer a good notebook and clipboard will cover most of the bases. Volunteer office helpers can do much of the record keeping. Whatever system is used, however, must ring true to the old adage “We count people because people count!”

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February 12, 2015

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Children's Ministry, Congregrational Ministries, Family

Age Appropriate Evangelism Part 2

By Franklin Dumond

This is the second and final installment of an article on approaching Children’s Ministry by Dr. Franklin Dumond. Read the first half HERE.

While even very young children can be placed in an environment that accelerates their learning, we now recognize that there can be significant drawbacks to Forced Teaching. A child can repeat from rote memory what has been presented without actually learning the concepts they were taught, making it appear that real learning has taken place.

Given this pattern of human development, it appears that the Lord has created us with the capability to respond most readily to the gospel somewhere about 8-10 years of age.

preschoolers in classroomFourth, successful evangelism of children will result from an alignment of process. When the same concepts are expressed in the pre-evangelism of young children and in the evangelism of children, teens, and adults, evangelistic work will be more successful. When similar visuals and words are used throughout the process, evangelistic activity will be more productive.

A visual demonstration of our lostness and the need for a Savior can be presented by a simple game that portrays the Bridge Illustration frequently used while sharing the gospel.

Use a few children from the group to play the roles. If the group is small or if this is a pre-evangelism activity for younger children, use everyone. Indicate a starting point for the children and stand near an ending point, 5-10 feet away. Help them imagine that they are on one side and God is on the other side.

Ask them to jump across the distance so they can reach God. Since they only get one jump some will make more progress than others, but none of them will make it all the way. Some of the boys will believe that if they can have a running start or if they can try one or two more times, they can surely make it. Let them try.

Help them imagine a cross that bridges the gap. For younger children, having an actual cross on the floor will be helpful. Ask them if they can walk across the bridge to God.

For older children, explain how we respond to the gospel and invite them to do so. Using a simple gospel handout can help those who read to see the related Bible verses and have something they can take home and reflect on. Build the entire presentation around the key verse of I Timothy 2:5:

For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

Explain that God is on one side and all people are on the other side, and Christ Jesus, himself man, is between them to bring them together by giving his life for all mankind.

Basic Principles of Evangelism for Children:

1. FREQUENCY—It can be very helpful to view the church as having a three semester year in its programming. This means that repeated emphases can be scheduled for late fall, early spring, and summer since attendance patterns and programming often follows these patterns.

2. CONTEXT—Evangelism for children should occur within the context of existing children’s ministries so that it is a natural expression of what the church is and does. Specialized settings should be avoided so that the decisions being made are genuine and not the result of peer or environmental pressure.

3. AGE STRUCTURED—Evangelism for children should be targeted to those children who can appropriately respond. While pre-evangelism can be done in groups with a variety of ages, the opportunity to respond should not be extended to younger children. A separate meeting area may be needed so each group can be treated in an age appropriate manner.

Evangelism Night:

1. Advance prep/counselor certification ensures that those who assist are all on the same page.

2. Seating arrangements: for both control and response it is better if children are not crowded together. This allows them to focus on the material and to respond for themselves rather than to respond to the peer pressure imposed because others around them are responding.

3. Age structure means there will be different lesson plans for younger children who are in the pre-evangelism mode.

4. Preliminary worship is always helpful to set the stage.

5. The gospel presentation should be simple, clear, concise.

6. Plan for a response time, and discuss with all adult volunteers how they should respond to the children.

7. Use one-on-one follow up counseling as much as possible with open ended questions to confirm what the children have heard and how they are responding. This breaks the evening into a two part process of a presentation and a follow-up.