CHAPTER 3 - Doing Responsible Evangelism
You can read along on pages 63 - 72
Churches are most healthy when the gospel is most clear; and the gospel is most clear when our evangelistic methods are most plain. (Pg 68)
Ideally, the pastor won’t be the only one doing evangelism. (Pg. 70)
We don’t want people to become Christians because it will reduce their stress. We want them to become Christians because they know they need to repent of their sins, believe in Jesus Christ, and joyfully take up their crosses and follow him for the glory of God. (Pg 69-70)
Think Tank Questions
What factors keep our people from being more evangelistic in our daily lives?
What barriers exist (real or perceived) that might keep new believers or people looking for a new church to try WCRC? What can we do to eliminate these barreirs?
CHAPTER 4 - Taking in New Members - Pages 73 - 82
The health of any local church hangs in large part on the prior question of whether its members are spiritually alive. Dead members spread the diseases that are decomposing their souls—all of which are gangrenous forms of unrepented sin. So what we are interested in here is preserving the regeneracy of local church membership, and thereby preserving the corporate testimony of the local church in the surrounding community. That is, we are asking this question: How do we ensure, as far as externally possible, that every person we accept into membership is truly converted? (Pg. 74)
Church membership, then, is a means by which we demarcate the boundaries of the church. (Pg. 75)
Requiring people to sign a church covenant lets them know that they will be expected not only to believe the statement of faith but to live it out. It also lets them know how they will be expected to live it out—namely, in clear ways that build up the corporate body and enhance the corporate testimony of the church in the community. (Pg. 77)
The most important question for the protection of the purity of the church is to ask them to explain the gospel, preferably in sixty seconds or less. (Pg. 79)
Think Tank Questions
Do our members currently value their membership?
We have a fair amount of young people (20-30 year olds) in our church, but they are often the least engaged (5x5, their not members, tithing, etc). What can we do to increase their engagement and make membership more valuable to them?
