Author Archives: Lane Corley
A Church is…
The book of Acts provides a compelling and comprehensive model for a healthy, evangelistic church. Throughout the book of Acts, we observe God’s activity through his people, which leads to exponential growth in the number of disciples of Jesus and the working out of health in developing a local, regional, and cross-continental first-century evangelistic movement. The foundation for healthy churches that we see in the Book of Acts gives us a clear definition of a healthy church. We also see foundational insights for understanding the identity and role of an individual disciple. We also observe evangelism in its purest form and how evangelism and disciple-making relate. We also get a sense of what the earliest growing churches celebrated as success in evangelism. In the Book of Acts, we can explore these foundational elements of growing healthy, evangelistic churches through the foundational lens of the first churches formed after the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ.
So What is a Church?
According to the book of Acts, a church can be defined as a family of baptized believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, on a mission together to spread the good news about Jesus Christ to everyone everywhere by the power of the Holy Spirit.
A family. Acts 2:42-47 describes an overview of the life of the earliest post-ascension church. The descriptions given leave you with a distinct image of family. They ate together, met one another’s needs, and prayed and worshipped together, adding spiritual components to their lives as a family. New Testament writers confirm this distinct practice by calling the church a household, a body, and a family and instructing them to care for each other’s needs as families would.
A family of baptized believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. What made this church a family was their common faith in Jesus Christ and their common initiation into this family, which was believers’ baptism. Through baptism, they identified themselves with this new form of the family of God in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:27). They also identified with his death, burial, and resurrection, perfectly symbolized through the believer’s immersion (Romans 6:3-4). As ancient families had in common their coat of arms and the family inheritance of land and treasure, this family had the common faith in Jesus and experience of baptism into his body.
A family on a mission together to spread the good news about Jesus Christ. The mission of this family is to expand (Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 1:8). Expand the family and expand the kingdom of God by spreading the good news about Jesus’ death for sin, burial, and resurrection, as well as the new life that believing can bring to anyone who puts their faith and trust in him. We see the family breaking out of Jerusalem in Acts 8:1-4, and the gospel’s message and transforming power begins marching across Asia Minor with the disciples scattering in response to persecution.
To everyone everywhere. In Acts 9, God begins breaking down the barriers in the hearts and minds of Jewish believers toward those outside of Judaism. In Acts 10, God revealed to Peter that all races, nationalities, and languages were equal before God and needed salvation through Jesus Christ. With the Apostle Paul’s conversion in Acts 9 and his call to take the gospel to the Gentiles, we see how the message of Jesus Christ broke down the walls of sin, racism, and nationalism and immediately made the disciples cross-cultural missionaries.
A family on a mission together to spread the good news about Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised his Holy Spirit to the disciples in John 14 and 16. In Acts 2, we see the Spirit pouring his power on the disciples. The power behind the church was and is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit transformed their fear into bold faith. The Holy Spirit directed them to the opportunities leading to the fastest spread of the gospel – as in Acts 8, with Philip and the Ethiopian, and in Acts 13:1-4, with the sending out of Barnabas and Saul. The book of Acts is genuinely the Acts of the Holy Spirit as he empowered and directed the mission of God’s people in their world.
A church is a family of baptized believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, on a mission together to spread the good news about Jesus Christ to everyone everywhere by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Soul-Winning Church: Six Keys to Fostering a Genuine Evangelistic Culture
One of my summer reads was a great new book from Jeff Medders and Doug Logan: The Soul Winning Church: Six Keys to Fostering a Genuine Evangelistic Culture.
The Keys are Praying for Conversions, the Posture of Your Converts, Preparing for Conversions, Personal Evangelism, Preaching for Conversions, and a Process for New Converts.
Some great thinking on these essential elements of an evangelistic culture. The book could be a great tool to help build or to revitalize these areas of your church. It even offers an evaluation tool to score your church’s effectiveness in these six areas. It’s here:
I scored my church at 31 out of 60, so it’s given me some good leadership challenges to work on this Fall.
Here are some favorite quotes and highlights from the book:
- Lost people can’t make themselves “unlost.”
- Most church growth is actually transfer growth.
- Jesus calls us to make disciples, not move them.
- “Effective Evangelism begins with seeking the Effector of the evangel.”
- “Diminished prayer reveals elevated levels of confidence in our natural abilities.”
- Great section on How to Revive your prayer meetings: Pray more + Vary the voices + Try a different time + Start Small + Lead + Celebrate Answers to Prayer + Clarify Expectations
- Are we forming the kind of people who evangelize? Is our discipleship forming the kind of believers in whom evangelism bubbles up as a natural part of their lives?
- Excellent chapter on eight Postures that give rise to evangelistic people: Holiness, Gentleness, Patience and Dependence, Eternal, Boldness, Hospitable, Christ-excited, Ambitious
- Good works prepare the hearer and gives a platform to the teller.
- On Good Works – Two Dangers to Avoid: Treating mercy ministries as equal to evangelism. Treating mercy ministries as optional to evangelism.
- We cannot be evangelistic churches without a culture of every member personal evangelism.
- The problem is not that people reject our witness so much as we do not witness in the first place.
Find some case studies of churches applying these six keys well and other resources at http://www.thegoodbook.com/soul-winning.
Little Things
“There are many of us that are willing to do great things for the Lord; but few of us willing to do little things… Look at that wonderful sermon that [Jesus] preached to that lone woman at the well of Samaria. He was tired and weary, but he had time and the heart to preach to her. This is but one of many instances in the life of the Master from which we may learn a precious lesson. If the Son of God had time to preach to one soul, cannot every one of us go and do the same?”
… Dwight Lyman Moody (1837-1899)
The Real Business of Life
“The Glory of God, and, as our only means of glorifying Him, the salvation of human souls, is the real business of life.”
—C. S. Lewis
Distance Makes No Difference
“If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.”
… Robert Murray M’Cheyne
“Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, since he always lives to intercede for them.”
Hebrews 7:25 CSB
https://bible.com/bible/1713/heb.7.25.CSB
True Peace
“True peace comes not by a retreat from the world but by the overpowering presence of Christ in the heart.”
A.W. Tozer
Church Closings
Met with three churches that are facing the decision to close the doors for good this week. 25 churches per year close in Louisiana. Replant rate is about 7 per year. Some are no longer viable due to location. Most simply wait too long to address key issues related to decline. Replant ready pastors, planters, and partner churches needed.
Looking fwd to the Revive Summit with Richard Blackaby and Mark Clifton and the NAMB Replant Team, September 9-10 in Lafayette. More info and Register: https://louisianabaptists.org/event/revive-summit-lafayette/
Six Years with the Bible Memory App
I’ll celebrate six years of daily engagement with the Bible Memory App this week. This App has been a great spiritual growth companion. Desiring to be more devoted to scripture memory, I downloaded several apps and the Bible Memory App stuck with me. I begin each day and end each day by reviewing 5-7 verses. I also add new verses and review memorized verses from my daily devotional reading each morning. Then, throughout the day, as I have occasion (waiting in line, etc.) I jump on and review a few verses.
In six years, this App has helped me master over 2,000 verses. I’ve also utilized the app to take on the challenge of memorizing large chunks of scripture including the Sermon on the Mount and the book of 1 John and several entire chapters. This habit has also helped me as a witness and a preacher as verses are more readily recalled and I’m always ready when asked to share without a lot of opportunity to prep.
Why invest time in Bible Memory?
- Jesus Did. He quoted scripture in response to temptation and his teachings are full of obvious Old Testament references.
- The Disciples Did. As a matter of fact, part of the duty of a called disciple was to memorize their teacher’s teachings. They did and thus we have the Gospels and the New Testament letters.
- The Bible Tells Us To. We are commanded to meditate and to hide the word in our hearts.
- The Word of God is Power. It never returns void. It has the power to save souls. It’s sharper than any sword. And it will endure for all eternity.
- It’s better than any alternative. What else would you do with that 15-35 minutes per day? Doom scroll on social media? TV? Consider the comparative impact on your soul with any other use of time.
So, if you’re a disciple of Christ, and have not yet developed a rhythm of Bible Memory, try out the Bible Memory App. Here are a few articles I’ve written over the last six years about how and why to get started:
- Cultivating the Habit of Scripture Memory – Link
- Why and How to Memorize Scripture – Link
- Getting Started with the Bible Memory App – Link
This App will not click with everyone. That’s ok. Find another way to develop this soul-sustaining habit of scripture memory. Bible memory is a great adventure that you’ll never regret.
The PRO version of the Bible Memory App is only $9.99. Get 20% or a couple bucks off with this link – PRO.
Mid-Year Spiritual Checkup
This year is now halfway gone! Unbelievable! Here’s a list of questions I journal through annually for a Mid-Year Spiritual Checkup:
- Has my devotional life been consistent?
- Has my prayer closet or private room seen me regularly?
- Have I gathered and prayed with other believers regularly?
- What Bible reading plan have I followed or completed? Do I need to restart or start fresh in Bible intake this week?
- What verses or truths have been especially meaningful so far this year?
- What books or articles have been especially helpful so far this year?
- What personal growth or victory can you thank God for?
- What victory or challenge do I need to seek God for?
- Who have I sought out for wise counsel? Have I ignored or heeded the counsel of others so far this year?
- How many times have I shared the Gospel?
- How many lost people am I currently praying for?
- How many new relationships have I built with potential new disciples?
- Who am I currently discipling and training into godliness and disciple making?
- Who am I encouraging through difficulty and affliction?
- What have I given away? Have I been faithfully generous with money? Time? Possessions? Words? Wisdom?
- What is working? What is exciting? What has momentum? What is bearing fruit?
- What is not working? What does it seem like I am pushing up a steep hill? What do I need to give up on? What is robbing me of energy?
- What have I neglected? What have I ignored? What am I hoping will just disappear on its own? (But I know it won’t)
- What is worth doing, but I’m out of my league? What do I need more power, prayer, people to help with?
- Check screen time on my phone. What does it say about my heart and priorities? What does my internet history say about my heart and priorities?
What questions would you add to this list?
Lane Corley 