Transcript of a published teaching by Jack Cunningham, transcribed from YouTube. An attributed primary source — not Acts 2:38 Life doctrine text.
Summary · Transcript · Scripture Index · Download transcript (.txt)
Summary
Summary prepared by Acts 2:38 Life from the transcript below — the preacher’s words follow in full.
Summary
- He is glad to be at the conference, glad for the crowd so early in the morning, and he concurs with what brother Anthony Mangan told them last night — wasn't that outstanding, just tremendous. But they are living in a very dark age, darker than the Dark Ages of history: 4,358 babies are killed in abortion clinics every day, 3,219 divorces are granted every day, deviant lifestyles are accepted as the norm, and pornography, drugs, racism and abuses are common. America needs the Lord Jesus Christ, because this is an age dominated by the prince of darkness — and the scripture says that men love darkness because their deeds are evil. If they could go home from this conference recognizing the times they live in and how close they stand to the soon coming of Jesus Christ, they would go home changed and reach for people differently and better than ever before. There has never been a generation with more artificial illumination but less true light; they have come to let their light be rekindled. A brand-new terminology has come into America: God calls it drunkenness, we call it a social disease; God calls it sodomy, we call it gay rights and an alternate lifestyle; God calls it perversion, we call it pornography and adult entertainment; God calls it immorality and we call it the new morality. America first legislated against what God said was wrong, then tolerated it, accepted it, condoned it, and now promotes what was once unthinkable. But there is a church today that does care, and he stands before them a hungry preacher — hungering, in his ministry of 25 years, to see greater revival than he has ever seen.
- Then the reading he does not locate: we have seen the word of God come to pass — it shall be, when the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, great and goodly cities which thou buildest not, houses full of good things which thou filledst not, wells digged not, vineyards and olive trees which thou plantedst not, when thou shalt have eaten and be full — then beware lest thou forget the Lord. That forgetting, he says, has happened in the United States of America, and sadly even among some of the ministry of the United Pentecostal Church. But they stand as a movement on the greatest day of revival the world has ever known; he has not come to teach woe or prophesy doom. True revival is in reach; evangelism is outreach, and one thing they must do is reach out. He liked what the old man said to him Monday night — that he just does something, even if he does it wrong — because God honors effort, and God honors organized effort even more. One of the travesties of the church today is the maintenance-mode syndrome: strictly endeavoring to maintain, when they must evangelize North America if they are ever going to reach the world. He does not claim to be an expert and he does not have the answers this morning, but God has helped them in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in the thirteen years they have been there: bus ministry (not a thing of the past but a thing of the present), home Bible studies, the telephone ministry, letter and card ministry, prison ministry, Spanish ministry — and leadership by example, because people will follow a leader who knows where he is going, and a man who would train people to teach a Bible study must get a chart under his own arm and teach one himself. His district superintendent averages 1,100 or more in Sunday school every Sunday and runs at least twenty buses, and that is a key to their growth.
- Above all, plant churches like they have never planted churches. A few Sunday mornings ago, this year, they dedicated nine children in a dedication service, three of them babies from their Spanish-speaking congregation — and he could not hold back the tears, because if they had not had the burden to reach the Spanish-speaking constituency of their community, those babies would not be raised in a United Pentecostal church home. Their Spanish work has church Friday nights and Sunday school Sunday morning; the man helping them has gone back to El Salvador to get his family out of the country, but they are forging on. In his young ministry he said innocently that he didn't think he could plant a church, that he would take an established one — and God must have heard him, because God sent him to North Carolina, and he wouldn't trade that experience for anything. When a church comes open, twenty or twenty-five people call and say it's the will of God — he knows those churches need pastors; they are in a pastoral search themselves — but men must stand up and reach North America instead of looking for easy street. When God calls you to a place He does not fumble the ball: in North Carolina alone there are fifty counties with no church preaching the truth. They planted one in Asheboro (his assistant went there five and a half years ago; they were with them for the fifth anniversary and he has the plaque on his wall), they are presently planting a Spanish church in their own facilities, and they are planting another thirty-five miles north in Mount Airy. Brother Jesse Williams kept brother Crumpler with him for many years and then sent him to Fayetteville, where he pastors the Northside United Pentecostal Church and has just finished a new building — and Williams told him his people sometimes shout higher over Crumpler's report than over the mother church's. Metro cities are calling: New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Chicago, Kansas City, Vancouver are already approved for Metro missionaries. And the key, as brother Mangan said last night, is loving people: just this past Sunday they baptized a lady whose husband pastors a Trinitarian church in their city — their daughter received the Holy Ghost and was baptized in their church back in September, after his youngest boy, who is in high school, invited her; the parents have been coming late on Wednesday nights after their own services, and he is meeting with that pastor again this Saturday, and the man has already told him, you're probably going to be baptizing me in Jesus' name. America is ready for revival, Jesus is coming, and they must reach her before it is forever too late — why don't we stand and raise our hands and love the Lord?
- That closes the opening movement, and he turns to the teaching itself. As a product of two years — two and a half years — of study and research: he read Dr. Elmer Towns's book on the characteristics of a growing church and found that some points applied to United Pentecostal churches and a whole lot did not, so in his travels he began researching what makes a United Pentecostal church grow. In the last two years he has been in more than a hundred of their churches, carrying a notebook in his briefcase and comparing his list of characteristics at every growing church he visits; the list is not finished, but he gives them now a twenty-five-minute overview of a session he has taught for hours in other districts. There are eleven characteristics.
- One: all growing churches are worshiping churches. Without a doubt, every growing church has an atmosphere of revival and uninhibited worship, and an uninhibited church is appealing to people who live in the 90s. Elmer Towns told a seminar of some two hundred Baptist preachers that Pentecostals are custom-made to have growth in the 90s because of their freedom of worship — they need to lock the door on their pipe organs, find a piano, and find somebody who can play it Pentecostal style. One sin he considers a real sin, in all capital letters: when an elder, leader or usher runs to the pastor before church to warn of visitors from another denomination, and the singers tone it down and everybody takes it easy. Forgive the carnal term, but the number-one selling point of Pentecost is the freedom of worship. People are leaving traditional denominational churches in mass — the United Methodist Church reported a net loss of 600,000 members between 1980 and 1990, the Presbyterian Church of the USA 1.2 million — because baby boomers will not go to a church that is dead, dry, dull and boring. He remembers their general conference a couple of years ago, when the writer for the World Christian Encyclopedia, Mr. Vincent, was invited by brother Aaron and said, "I believe you United Pentecostal Church people love the name of Jesus more than anybody on the face of the earth" — and the conference went wild, and when it settled and he began again with the same statement, it went wild again, like waves of glory going from one balcony across the floor and up the other side. That conference was also where one brother ran and ran until he sat on the platform edge fanning himself with a handkerchief, then got his breath and ran again. After the service that night, in the hotel elevator, a young couple — everything perfect, clothes matched, every hair in place — talked about the foolishness of it all, hadn't they matured beyond that, weren't there politicians and religious leaders there? Brother Mangan, leaning on the wall saying not a word, got off at his floor, put his arm back inside the door, and said: God shut Michal's womb for making fun of David worshiping God — you show me a church that doesn't worship and I'll show you a church that don't have babies.
- Two: all growing churches are praying churches. According to Reader's Digest, the average American prays thirty seconds a day and the average preacher two minutes — hardly enough time to bless your food. If they are going to reach America, as brother Foster challenged them a moment ago, they must know how to bring down strongholds through prayer: prayer is not preparation for the battle, prayer is the battle. He is a real baby boomer — if he wants something in the morning he generally has it before the day is over — but there is one thing with no shortcut and no replacement: good old-fashioned prayer. Two years ago they put a ten-foot banner on their church's back wall with one word, PUSH — Pray Until Something Happens.
- Three: all growing churches have a visionary pastor. Vision, purpose, dream, goal — whatever word you use, there needs to be a dreamer in every church. Proverbs 29 and 18 said: where there is no vision, or where there is no dream, the people are going to perish. Pastor, you must know what God has called you there to do — as brother Mangan challenged them last night, know that you are called of God: God doesn't call failures, God doesn't call losers, and if God called you to a city He called you there to build a church, and you have everything you need to build it in this city. Set goals — where do you want to be a year from now, five years from now? Nothing significant has ever happened in any arena of life before somebody dreamed it first: before the electric light there was a Thomas Edison, before the telephone an Alexander Graham Bell, before a free nation called the United States a George Washington, before blacks and whites could sit down together as equals a dreamer called Abraham Lincoln. He loves the Charlie Brown cartoon: Charlie Brown shoots his arrow into the fence, runs up, and draws the circle around it — when you do it this way you never miss. That is what happens when somebody wanders into church on a Sunday night uninvited, no ministry of the church involved, comes on his own, repents, gets baptized, gets the Holy Ghost — and the pastor goes to the district conference wanting to get up and tell it: drawing a circle around an arrow that happened to hit the fence, that he had nothing to do with. God help us to set goals and put seed in the ground instead of sitting back waiting on something to happen.
- Four: all growing churches have a high level of membership involvement. The most important statistic in a church is not Sunday school, Sunday night, or Bible study attendance — it is how many members are involved in ministry. It has been said that 80 percent of the work in most United Pentecostal churches is done by 20 percent of the people. Pastors preach involvement and then, when a saint comes with tears asking for a job, pat him on the shoulder and never develop the job form, never present the opportunity. He put a committee together and demanded a list of 225 jobs — about the number of adults and young people they had — because he intended to preach involvement hard but would not do it without an opportunity in hand. It is like sand on a three-foot-square table: the base can only hold so much before every shovelful rolls off; broaden the base and you can triple the height. Every preacher here has hung those eleventh-hour labourers over hell — the ones idle in the marketplace at the eleventh hour; the Bible said the good master said, why stand ye here idle in the marketplace — and preachers quit reading there, but the next verse has their answer: because no man hath hired us. It is not the church's responsibility to find a job; it is the pastor's responsibility to find people opportunities for involvement.
- Five: all growing churches maintain enthusiasm. A great program can die for lack of enthusiasm while a mediocre program can be a great success if enthusiasm stays high. Many pastors spend hundreds, even thousands, on an Easter promotion that fails; brother Green, pastor in West Virginia for many years, runs a very simple one: four or five weeks before Easter he divides the church — this side the silver team, that side the gold team, captains appointed — and year after year it does better than the year before, over 1,500 this last Easter, because they keep the momentum high. He repeats what he heard John Maxwell say about the four classes of people who affect a church's momentum: momentum takers, who destroy any program they touch; momentum shakers, who slow the train by questioning and unbelief; momentum sitters, who are always talking and never doing; and momentum makers, whose every word is exciting.
- Six: all growing churches have an aggressive plan of evangelism. The type of evangelism matters far less than the commitment made to it. If Marrell Cornwell were here today he would preach Bible studies with great conviction — he would tell you that if you're not teaching a Bible study you're going to split hell wide open. If Wayne Huntley were here, from Moline, Illinois, he would squeal and scream about Sunday school — invest in children; it's the only way to build a church. Is one right and the other wrong? No — they are committed to what they believe will win the lost. What is the best Bible study — the one-week, two-week, four-week, ten-week, twelve-week? The one you're using; the worst ones are the ones sitting on the shelf drawing dust. He cautions them about inreach versus outreach: in his church growth seminars he has pastors divide a page — every program on one side, and on the other, seeking or saving, evangelism or discipleship — and in almost every seminar more than half the pastors are doing more than 50 or 60 percent inreach: fellowship, patting people on the back, absolutely ignoring the lost. Jesus said, I have come to seek and to save that which was lost — this is my purpose, this is why I am here. The only right the apostolic church has to existence today is seeking and saving the lost. And when brother Mangan mentioned change in that history-making sermon last night, he was not talking about change in doctrine or change in standards — he was talking about changing concepts toward reaching the lost, opening the doors for lost people. We're in the people business.
- Seven: all growing churches have a high level of faith in all they do — every program, project, ministry and revival believing that God will do what He promised. Let him hurry. Eight: all growing churches have a clearly defined belief system — they know what they believe and why they believe it. When you preach to people in 1994, you are preaching to a generation with a higher level of education than any generation the church has ever ministered to: when his grandfather started the church in 1939, the average level of education was the fourth grade; in 1994 it is between graduation from high school and a minimum of one year of technical or junior college. Honey, in 1994 you better know what you believe and how you believe it — you had better be able to open the book and show people where it is. "Do it because I say do it" — that won't work in 1994. He read a story on the airplane the other day about Bishop Fulton Sheen: invited to speak at Philadelphia Town Hall, he refused the carriage and walked, and a little boy set him right — turn around, go back that way two or three blocks and you'll not miss it — then hollered after him: what are you going to Town Hall for? I'm going to give a sermon this morning on how to go to heaven — would you like to go with me? No sir — you don't even know how to get to Town Hall. People want to follow somebody that knows where they're going.
- Nine: all growing churches are giving churches. Brother Tenney made a statement a couple of years ago he has never forgotten: there are some people that God cannot bless — He is bound by His word — and there are others that God cannot refrain from blessing, again bound by His word. It is not the will of God for their churches not to support the ministries of the United Pentecostal Church: what they preach to their members about giving applies to the church itself — and that didn't get a very good amen. He has been a district director for fourteen years, nine of them in the youth division and the rest in the home missions division, and he has called pastors for years who gave zero to Mother's Memorial, zero to foreign missions, zero to youth, zero to ladies, zero to home missions — and every excuse they give is the same excuse their saints give them, only they don't accept it from their saints.
- Ten: all growing churches put a high priority on leadership training. From a 1992 survey of United Pentecostal pastors — what occupies the majority of your ministerial time? — the number-one answer was sermon preparation, number two counseling, number three leadership training. And when they combined the answers with church size, the sermon-preparation men pastored an average church of 79, the counseling men 105, and the leadership-training men 157. The statistics make the point.
- Eleven — and he closes with this, with brother Ferrino coming in one minute: all growing churches educate themselves to understand American culture. He just added this point this week, because something was missing, and the other night at their ministers training session brother Billy Cole was addressing all the ministers gathered here on the importance of knowing the people they are trying to reach. A foreign missionary appointed to the field is allowed his first year or so to learn the language and the culture — the foreign missions board knows he cannot reach a people he does not understand — yet in America they make no effort at understanding the culture of the people they are trying to reach. And Billy Cole said the other night: anytime you see a church experiencing great growth, that pastor does not necessarily have more power with God than you do — he has simply learned what makes Americans tick, and when he learns what makes Americans tick, then he can reach them. Let stand and raise our hands and love the Lord, could we.
Scriptures: Proverbs 29:18
Scripture index: Proverbs 29:18.
Transcript
resist temptation be faithful and be fruitful it's great to be here today and in this great conference feel the power the presence of the Lord with the way we feeling here great to see all of you so early in the in the morning and a nice crowd for this this time of the morning and we are so glad that you're here I concur with what brother Anthony Mangan told us last night wasn't that outstanding last night just tremendous just tremendous and we are we're living in a very dark age I know that we have back in our in the history of the world what we call the dark ages but I don't believe we've ever lived in the darker age than which we live today I noticed up here lord give us America and why must we pray for America because there's accelerated moral decline because 4358 babies are killed in abortion clinics every day because there's 3219 divorces granted day the deviant lifestyles today are accepted as the norm phonography drugs racism and abuses are common and America
certainly needs the Lord Jesus Christ today right now we're living in an age that's dominated by the Prince of the power of darkness and the scripture says that men love darkness because their deeds are evil ours is a generation that has become a cesspool of sin if one thing we could do if we could go home from this conference recognizing and realizing the times in which we live I think we would go home changed if we would go home and recognize how close were standing today to the soon coming of Jesus Christ in the clouds I think we would go home and be different people different preachers different ministers and we would reach for people differently and better than we ever have before there has never been a generation that has had more artificial illumination but less true light you and I have come to this conference today to let our light get rekindled so we can go home and let our light shine we have become known as the condom generation but we are going to know the condemnation of God if we do
not change America our generation is a generation where the Bible is not welcome in the public schools and yet condoms are our generation is a generation that would rather come out of the closet then clean up the closet and we have got have apostolic direction like we've never had in the history of our movement we have seen a brand new terminology come into America God calls it drunkenness we call it a social disease God calls it sodomy we call it gay rights and an alternate lifestyle God calls it perversion we call it pornography adult entertainment God calls it immorality and we call it the new morality sin has been made to appear less sinful than ever before America has legislated at one time against those things that God has said what to be wrong but gradually America began to tolerate then begin to accept and then begin to openly condone
and even promote what was once unthinkable it is because America just didn't care but I believe that there is a church today that does care about America I believe there are ministers of the gospel today that are hungry for a greater move of God than you've ever seen before I know I spend before you today as a hungry preacher hungering to see greater revival than I've ever seen before in my ministry of 25 years we're living in a generation when we have seen the Word of God come to pass and it shall be when the lord thy god shall abrupt the under the land which he sware unto our fathers to give thee great in goodly cities which thou build it's not and the house is full of good things which thou Phyllis knob and which now biggest not vineyards and olive trees which their planets not when thou shalt have eaten and before then beware lest thou forget the Lord that has happened in the United States of America and sadly to say it has happened even among some of the Ministry of the
United Pentecostal church but I believe that we are standing as a movement on the greatest day of revival that the world has ever known I've not come today to teach whoa or to prophesied doom but I'm convinced that if God carries the next few years are going to produce the greatest North American revival in our history revival is I'm speaking of evangelism we know that true revival is in reach evangelism is outreach one thing we must do is reach out I liked what but the get old man getting said to me on Monday night he was talking about something that he said I just do something even if I do it wrong and I believe that it is time to be stirred to action God honors effort and God honors organized effort even more one of the travesties of the church today is the maintenance mode syndrome we get in a maintenance mode strictly endeavoring to
maintain but we've got to do more than maintain we must evangelize North America if were ever going to reach the world I don't claim to be an expert I don't claim to stand before you and have the answers this morning but I know that God has helped us in winston-salem North Carolina in the 13 years that we have been there God has helped us to raise up a church and for that we are very very grateful we have used bus ministry and that we have many families today I was making a list of families just a few weeks ago that have come in through the bus ministry there are tools that are at our disposal if we will use them I know that many people say the bus ministry is the thing of the past I say to you it is a thing of the present it is a soul-winning tool that will bless your church if you will commit yourself to evangelism brother Johnny go there who is my district superintendent averages 1,100 or more in Sunday school every Sunday morning and they run 20 buses at least every Sunday morning and that is a key to their growth home Bible studies
builds churches and one thing that we must do as ministers of the gospel like baguettes like and our people will follow our example one thing we must never allow to happen is we expect the people to do it all I understand I know the value of leadership training but people will follow a leader that has corn in his crib people will follow a leader that knows where he's going and if you're gonna train people to teach a Bible study we've got to get a Bible study chart under our arm and teach a Bible study as well that is highly imported there's all kind of things there's the telephone ministry there's the letter in card ministry one thing we have used is the Nova team which Nova stands it's an acronym stands for newcomers outreach visitation Alliance and it is a follow up program prison ministry Spanish ministry one thing that we have got to concentrate on today is planting churches like we've never planted churches I would say that every pastor here today except maybe the
home missions pastor that is still struggling to get a toehold in your city I would say that every one of us can be vital and instrumental in planting a church there is an area there is a need somewhere that you and I can feel just a few Sunday mornings ago it was this year we dedicated nine children in a dedication service three of those babies were from our spanish-speaking congregation I couldn't help but let tears come to my eyes as I looked up and I saw those three mothers cradling those babies in their arms and I thought that if we had not had the burden and had people that would reach out to the spanish-speaking constituency of our community then we wouldn't be dedicating those babies and those babies would not be living and going to be raised in a United Pentecostal church home they have church on Friday nights they have church donar they have Sunday school on Sunday morning at this time they're joining us in the rest of the services because the man that was
helping us has gone back to El Salvador endeavoring to get his family out of the country but we're continuing on were forging on that it is an important thing today for us to plant churches all over the United States and Canada preacher if you can leave here today with a burden in your hearts to plant a church if you're an evangelist let me talk to you for just a few moments this morning about starting a church somewhere we have sometimes the mentality that I'm going to look for a church you better be careful what you say in my young ministry I made the statement to very innocently that I didn't think I could plant a church I didn't think I could I could do that and I was going to take a church that was established and let it go God must have heard me speak and he sent me to North Carolina and I wouldn't I wouldn't trade that experience for anything in this world what I'm preaching to you is we've got to get out of the mentality that whenever a church comes open 20 or 25 people call and say it's the will of God
hello I know those churches have to have pastors we're in the midst of a pastoral search right now for the church that God has blessed us to Pastor but what I would say is we need men to stand up and say we have got to reach North America I'm not looking to live on easy street but I'm looking to do the will of God that is paramount that is imperative and there's nothing like walking into the place where God has called you there may not be a church there but you're there if God calls you God is going to keep you when God told you to that place he did not fumble the ball he did not make a mistake in North Carolina alone I don't know about across the United Pentecostal Church of North America I do not know about that but in North Carolina alone we have 50 counties that do not have a church that preaches the truth of this gospel what I would say to you is we need men in the United Pentecostal church to reach North America like we've never needed men darkness is shrouding the world and it
is time for us to answer the call you can plan a church we planted one in Asheboro North Carolina my assistant went there five and a half years ago we were with them in their fifth anniversary services and I now have a beautiful plaque hanging on my wall thanking us for our part in planting that church we're presently planting a Spanish church they're using our facilities right now and we're also in the process of planning at church 35 miles north of us in Mount Airy let me say this there there are some cities that are large enough to have many many churches and it is it would be very important I feel like for us to put somebody there that has come out from underneath our ministry somebody we can work with somebody we can direct I know brother Jesse Williams in fact I saw brother Crumpler I think his brother Crumpler in the building areas right here but the Crumpler has been in brother Jesse Williams Church for many many years but today he pastors the Northside United Pentecostal church in
Fayetteville for the Williams sent him up there have you finished your building yet brother Crumpler he's just finished building a new building but Williams told me he said sometimes he said my people shout higher over brother krumpers report than they do what's happening in the mother church but he's excited about what is happening my hat is off to brother Jesse Williams for taken by the Crumpler and assisting him is starting that church right there in his own City but a Crumpler I commend you you are doing a great job North America has cities metro cities that are calling to us today we have cities that are already approved for Metro missionaries New York Philadelphia Washington DC Chicago Kansas City Vancouver others are going to be approved by district boards there are souls that are crying out all over North America for you and I to come and reach them there are people that are hungry today I like what brother Mangan said last night about the key to our revival is loving people loving people that is so very very important we just just this
past Sunday baptized a lady whose husband pastors a Trinitarian church in our city their daughter received the Holy Ghost and got baptized in our church back into September my youngest boy who's in high school invited her to church she said mother and daddy this is the church I want to go to they decided to come and check it out after after their services were over they've been coming late now on Wednesday nights when their services are over I'm meeting with that pastor again this Saturday and he's already told me you're probably gonna be baptizing me in Jesus and I've just got to get it set America is ready for revival we've got to reach America before it is forever and eternally too late Jesus is coming the Sun setting on the western horizon of time you and I are the key why don't we stand and raise our hands and love the Lord could we as a product of two years of study and research approximately two years two and a half years ago I read a book by dr. Elmer towns on the characteristics of a growing church when I was finished with the book I felt that there was some of the points in that book that applied to United Pentecostal churches but I felt like there were a whole lot of the points in that particular book that did
not apply to us at all and so I began to research among our churches in my travels what makes a United Pentecostal church grow and what are the unique characteristics of growing United Pentecostal churches now in the last two years I think it would be safe to say that I have been in more than a hundred of our United Pentecostal churches and I have taken a notebook with me I carry it in my briefcase everywhere I go and I bring my list out every time I'm in a growing church and I compare this list of characteristics with that particular church that I'm visiting I'm not finished with this list yet someday perhaps but I've been compiling the characteristics of growing United Pentecostal churches I want to know what is unique to every church that I visit every growing church that I go to I want to know what makes it a growing church what are the characteristics that's in all growing churches and so let me give you a 25 minute overview of a session that I have taught for hours in other districts number one I have found out that all growing churches are worshiping churches without a doubt every church that I have ever gone to that is
experiencing growth and revival there is an atmosphere of revival in that church I have found that that church is a worshiping Church worship is a very important part of building an uninhibited Church and an uninhibited church is a church that is very appealing to people who live in the 90s elmer towns in a recent serve seminar where there was approximately 200 Baptist preachers present just a handful maybe four or five of Pentecostal preachers Elmer towns made the statement of the baby boomer generation that we're trying to reach today he said there is one group of people on the face of the earth that our custom made to have growth in the 90s and he said that is the Pentecostals he said they are going to appeal to the baby boomers because of their freedom of worship and he proceeded to tell that group of Baptist preachers that they need to lock the door on their pipe organs he said you need to find yourself a piano and then it stuns me when he said find somebody in your church that can play that piano Pentecostal style he said it's that kind of worship that is appealing to the baby boomer today one thing I consider to be
a real sin and that sin in all capital letters is when an elder or leader or usher runs to the pastor's office before church and says we have a family here today from such in such a denominator CH and that pastor and leader proceeds to tell the singers to tone it down the choir to sing a slowing the elders not to get too excited let's say everybody take it easy because we got visitors here today I want you to know and I forgive me for putting it in a carnal term but I want you to know the number one selling point of Pentecost is the freedom of worship that we have churches people are leaving traditional de nominal churches in mass according to recent statistics the United Methodist Church has reported a net loss of 600,000 members between 1980 and 1990 right here in the United States of America 600,000 people they lost the Presbyterian Church of the USA lost 1.2 million people between 1980 and 1990 their losing members by the hundreds of
thousands in the traditional churches baby boomers do not want to go to a church that's dead dry dull and boring they want to go to a church where people believe this thing where people are not afraid to worship God not ashamed to lift him up I remember our general conference a couple of years ago we were having such a tremendous move of God many of you will remember the gentleman that was invited there by brother Aaron mr. Vincent sign-ins he is a writer for the world Christian Encyclopedia and Vincent sign-ins got up in the pulpit wanting to say something nice about us and he made the statement I believe you United Pentecostal church people love the name of Jesus more than anybody on the face of the earth or when he said that if you'll remember the conference just went nuts I mean they went wild they shouted they run they jumped they screamed they hollered they worship he didn't know what he had said he stood there and just lost it for a little bit and when he finally all settled down several minutes later he started into his little speech again and so he began with his first statement I believe you United Pentecostal church people love the name of Jesus more than anybody on the face of the earth and before he could say another word there it went again they run they jump they shouted from where I was sitting and looking across that audience it looked like just
waves of the glory of God coming down one balcony across the floor like a pendulum going up the other side and then swinging back across again as we worship the Lord brother Tecla Marian within that particular conference everyone was talking about how he just run and run and run and run and he had run till he couldn't run anymore and sit down on the edge of the platform and and fan himself with a handkerchief and as soon as he got his breath up he'd go running again worshiping God after that service that night I went back to the hotel and I got on the elevator a young couple was already on there brother ji a man got hollered hold the elevator and he come across the lobby to get on the elevator now this couple that was standing on the elevator they look like Barbie and Ken everything was perfect their clothes matched each other they didn't just match what they had on they matched each other hurt I match they're his tie matched her dress her shoes matched his suit I mean these people were perfect every hair in place everything was right but a man got on the elevator on the other hand his necktie sideways his neck shirt was open his hair was messed up he had perspired he had been right down there in the middle of all that worship now
either Barbie and Ken didn't know who he was or they were dumber than a sled track because they proceeded to talk and said boy wasn't that a bunch of foolishness tonight haven't we matured beyond that yet didn't they know there were politicians there tonight and religious leaders from other denominations and they begin to talk about how they were embarrassed at that type of worship oh brother manga just leaning on the wall not saying a word then it came to his floor he got off the elevator and turned around and put his arm back inside the door and he said God shut Michaels womb for making fun of David worshiping God he said you showed me a church it doesn't worship and I'll show you a church it don't have babies hallelujah a male let me hurry long it took five minutes on point one there's 11 of number two all growing churches are praying churches everybody said praying churches everybody said praying churches according to Reader's Digest the average American only prays 30 seconds a day the average preacher in America only prays two minutes a day that's not hardly enough time to bless your food I want you to know if we're gonna reach America
like brother foster challenged us to a moment ago we're gonna have to know how to bring down strongholds through the power of prayer can you say man 'i'm bound said prayer is not preparation for the battle but prayer is the battle everybody said prayer is the battle i believe in computers i like things fast i am a real baby boomer if i get up in the morning and decide i'd like to have something i generally have it before the days over i am a real live baby boomer but there's one thing that you can't hurry up there's one thing that there is no shortcut there is no replacement for and that is good old-fashioned prayer I found out that all growing churches are praying churches we put up a banner in our church about two years ago it's about 10 foot square covers the back wall and it has the word push on it and the word push is an acronym for pray until something happens pray until something happens I pray to God that that spirit will get a hold of us again that we can get out of our complacency we can get out of this business as usual attitude and get down to the business of touching God until something happens in our church in our ministry in
our city can you say man number three I have found that all growing churches have a visionary pastor all growing churches have a pastor who is a dreamer there are several words that are synonyms vision purpose dream goal whatever words you want to use there needs to be a dreamer in every Church there needs to be a visionary in every Church pastor you must know the purpose of the church you must have goals for your church proverbs 29 and 18 said where there is no vision or where there is no dream the people are going to perish pastor you need to know what God has called you there to do as brother Madigan challenged us last night know that you're called of God and then when you're sure of that call of God know what he's called you there to do God doesn't call failures God doesn't call losers if God called you to a city don't you worry about whether you've got enough education or not or whether you have the pulpit polemics necessary or not what you need to concern yourself with is that God called me here and if God called me to this city he called me here to build a church and I have everything that I need to build that church in this city where do you want to be a year from now
five years from now set goals for yourself I present to you that nothing significant has ever happened in any arena of life whether it be political financial spiritual whatever area it is the sports world nothing significant has ever been accomplished that what somebody didn't dream about it before it before it ever happened there has to be a dreamer at the hell before there was ever an electric light there was a Thomas Edison who was a dreamer before there was ever a telephone there was an Alexander Graham Bell before there was ever a free nation called the United States of America there was a George Washington before there was a nation where blacks and whites could sit down together as equals there was a dreamer called Abraham Lincoln everything significant that has ever happened somebody dreamed about it before it happened and I found out that pastors of growing churches are men who have dreams they're dreaming about great things in god I love saw a little cartoon Charlie Brown forgive me if you don't like cartoons but Charlie Brown is standing in the first frame of the cartoon with a bow and arrow in hand he lets loose through the arrow and it shoots into the wood fence whenever he does that he drops the bow runs up to the fence and draws a circle around the arrow big mouth Lucy comes along and says Charlie
Brown what are you doing and he said when you do it this way you never miss do you know when somebody wanders into your church on a Sunday night nobody invited them no ministry of your church was involved in having them there they come to an owner repent get baptized get the Holy Ghost and without effort you have a convert you go to the district conference and you say all superintendent a guy get the Holy Ghost Sunday night let me get up and tell the conference about it you know what you're wanting to do you're wanting to draw a circle around an arrow that happens Tansley hit the fence that you didn't have nothing to do with it hello God help us to set goals for ourselves help us to become visionaries and dreamers help us to make plans today that's going to result in growth tomorrow help us to put seed in the ground too many of us are sitting back and waiting on something to happen instead of planning something to happen number four all growing churches have a high level of membership involvement every growing Church that I've ever visited has this as a very common element and that is they have involved their members in ministry the most important statistic in your church and
mine is not how many we have in Sunday school on Sunday the most important statistic is not how many we have on Sunday night it's not even how many we have in Bible study the most important statistic in your church or mine is how many members do we have involved in ministry it has been said that 80% of the work in most United Pentecostal churches is done by 20 percent of the people I challenge you today to involve more leaders more members in ministry in your church because the more you expand the base the greater the greater the results you're going to experience in church growth if I was to bring a table out here to a three foot square and a wheelbarrow full of sand and start shoveling and on top that table there is a point that that table the base of that table could not hold any more sand it would come right up to a peak and then every shovel full of sand I put on a shovel full of sand would roll off the sides because the base can only hold so much you can't ever go any higher but until you have broadened the base bring another table in slide it up against that you can't just double the height you can triple the height just by broadening the base and so it is when
you broaden the number of members in ministry in your church when you get everybody involved in the growth of your church it is so important that all of us allow our people the opportunity of involvement we have preachers and I'm guilty of it myself that stand in the pulpit and we talk about everybody ought to be involved everybody ought to have a ministry everybody ought to be doing something and invariably some sane of God will make their way to us after service and with tears they'll say pastor I'd really like to do something for God find me a job and we pat him on the shoulder and say we're gonna find you a job you get back with me I'm gonna think of something for you to do and we never develop the job form we never present the opportunity you are not to preach involvement unless you're also going to create opportunities for involvement I put a committee together in our church and I told them I want a list of 225 jobs I want you to find 225 different jobs that people can do around our church and I did that because I felt like that's about how many adults we had at that time adults and young people and I intended to preach hard that everybody needed to be involved in the success of
the church but I did not want to do that without also having an opportunity for involvement so that if anybody came to me and said I'm ready to respond to what you preach I wanted to be able to give them a list and say here you choose a job that fits you and let's go to work in the kingdom of God we hang those 11th hour laborers over hell every preacher in here's done it those guys that were idle in the marketplace at the 11th hour the Bible said that the good master said why stand ye here idle in the marketplace and that's where we quit reading you ought to go on and read the next verse because the verse has their answer their answer was because no man hath hired us hello it's not the responsibility of the church to find a job it's the responsibility of you as a pastor to find people opportunities for involvement and the more people you involve the greater your church is going to grow number five all growing churches maintain enthusiasm all growing churches maintain enthusiasm I have found that a great program can die for lack of enthusiasm while a rather mediocre program can be a great success if you keep the enthusiasm high we've got a lot of pastors in the United Pentecostal
church come Easter time they want to put on a promotion and I like that I think we ought to introduce everybody to our churches that we can't anything to get them in the doors and introduce them to Pentecostal worship and Pentecostal preaching we heard the testimony last night of the girl that was one to the Lord by coming to a messiah however you can get him here I believe we ought to do that but a lot of times we'll put on a program for Easter some preachers pay hundreds even thousands of dollars in order to put together an Easter promotion and it doesn't bring the results they want there are other preachers in the United Pentecostal church brother Cole I was thinking of brother green kitchen when I thought of this this morning pastor in West Virginia pastored there for many years a very very simple approach to church growth about four or five weeks before Easter he gets up and says everybody on that sides on the silver team everybody on that sides on the Gold team you're the captain of the Gold team you're the captain of the silver team and then they begin their Sunday promotion Easter Sunday promotion and it is a very mediocre a very simple promotion that they use year after year for many years now and every service they get people in the pulpit and they get all excited and they keep momentum high they keep the excitement and enthusiasm high over that very simple program silver and gold and every year they do better than they did
the year before for their Easter Sunday promotion I think over 1500 if I remember correctly this last Easter on their Easter Sunday promotion and maintain enthusiasm every church has four classes of people who affect the enthusiasm or momentum of the church I heard John Maxwell talk about this and let me repeat what he said I think it bears repeating he said in every church number one there are momentum takers everybody said momentum takers these are the people that will destroy any program they get involved in they don't have any faith well if they do have faith it's faith that something Bad's gonna happen it's faith that it's never gonna work it's faith that this programs defeated before it ever gets started their momentum takers and then in every church there are momentum shakers they don't stop the train but they're pretty good at slowing it down by questioning and voicing their unbelief they shape momentum then number three there are momentum satyrs they're the people that's always talking but never doing hello and then there are momentum makers there are those people that just believe that we're going to succeed we're gonna build a church we're gonna grow the best ministry is going to work the home Bible studies are going to work God's gonna bless this revival their momentum makers
when you talk to them every word that comes out of their mouth is exciting I found out that all growing church maintain a high level of enthusiasm number six in your notes all growing churches have an aggressive plan of evangelism now I don't believe that the type of evangelism you choose is nearly as important as the level of commitment that you made to whatever you use to win the loss if we had morale Cornwell here today he'd stand at his pulpit he had preached Bible studies to you with great conviction he would go as far as telling you that if you're not teaching a Bible study you're gonna split hell wide open there ain't no way you're gonna go to heaven if you don't teach Bible studies and he believes that if we had Wayne so here today from Moline Illinois he'd stand up here and squeal and scream and say it's cool Saturday school invest in children it's the only way to build a church now is one right one wrong no they're committed to what they believe will win the lost somebody said brother Cunningham we got a one-week Bible study a two-week Bible study a four-week Bible study a 10-week Bible study at 12 week Bible study what is the best Bible study the one you're using hello the one you're using every week is the best Bible study the worst ones the ones that don't work are the ones that's sitting on the Shelf drone dust so there is an aggressive plan of evangelism I don't
have time to talk to you about inReach versus outreach but I would caution you in your churches let's don't build our churches so full of in reach that we have cut the throat of outreach I do a little exercise in some of our church growth seminars where I ask our pastors to divide a page in half on one side of the page list every program project ministry Department everything that's involved in their church and then beside that on the other side I want them to write down the word seeking or saving is it evangelism or is it discipleship I have found out that in almost every seminar that we've conducted in the last year since we've been doing this exercise that more than half of the churches half of the pastors that are in our seminars are doing more than 50 or 60 percent of what they're doing is involving if you please neither seeking or saving the laws it is in reach it is fellowship it's patting people on the back getting together having fun and absolutely ignoring the loss jesus said I have come to seek and to save that which was lost he said this is my purpose this is why that I'm here to see and to save that which was lost and I present to you that the purpose in
the only right we have to existence as an apostolic church today is seeking and saving the lost and you say man but the man you mentioned last night and that powerful sermon I believe that was a history-making sermon last night he challenged us he was bold and I thank God for it but he mentioned change last night you'll notice what he was talking about when he said change he wasn't talking about change in doctrine change in standard he was talking about changing concepts toward reaching the laws that the doors are going to be open for lost people everybody said we're in the people business say it again we're in the people business that is the responsibility of the church seeking and saving that which was lost number seven all growing churches have a high level of faith in all they do there is a level of faith therefore every program every project every ministry every revival they believe that God is going to do what he promised he would do let me hurry number eight I found that all growing churches have a clearly defined belief system they have clearly defined beliefs all growing churches they know what they believe and they know why they believe it I don't have time to expand on this but let me tell you that whenever you pastor and when you preach to people in 1994 you're preaching to a
generation that has a higher level of education than any generation the church has ever ministered to before when my grandfather started the church in 1939 according to history and censuses at that time the average level of education was the fourth grade education in 1939 the average level of education in 1994 is between graduation from high school and a minimum of one year of some type of technical or junior college of some sort that is the average there are many college and university people that are coming into your churches I want to tell you get up and preach the truth with all you've got you get up and preach faith and power of God but when it comes time to teach the standards honey in 1994 you better know what you believe and how you believe it and you better be able to know how to open the book and tell people where and show them where it is in the book and show them what God's Word says about it so brother Kenny and what about that old thought that I'm the preacher you know do it because I say do it it Ingo worked in 1994 hello better know what you preach people want to follow somebody that knows what they believe can you say man I read a little story on the airplane the other day Bishop Fulton has Sheen a very prominent
communicator back around the year 1900 in 1902 he was invited to the United States from England where he was invited to the Philadelphia Town Hall to speak at a very historic meeting there in 1902 he stayed at a hotel about two three blocks from Philadelphia Town Hall and whenever it was time to go in the morning to the town hall to give his message or his sermon speech whenever he was on his way he said I'll not ride in the carriage he said I want to walk the couple blocks the little boy said oh you went the wrong direction turn around and go back that way about two or three blocks and you'll not miss it and as he's walking away the little boy hollered and said hey mister what are you going to Philadelphia Town Hall for Bishop Fulton Keane turned around with his Bible under his arm and said I'm gonna give a sermon this morning on how to go to heaven he said little boy would you like to go with me and the boy said no sir you don't even know how to get to town home people want to follow somebody that knows where they're going can you say man number nine all growing churches are giving churches brother 10 he made a powerful statement a couple of years ago that I've never forgotten he said there are some people that God cannot bless he's bound by his word and there are others that God cannot refrain from blessing again he is bound by his word now you can if you have rotten eggs
in your pocket throw them at me if you want but this is my opinion and I feel it strong I do not believe it's the will of God for our churches not to support the ministries of the United Pentecostal church I believe everything that applies to our members we stand in the pulpit and say God cannot bless you if you don't give I believe that applies to your church in mind that didn't get a very good amen hello I hear people I've been a district director for the last 14 years nine years involved in the youth division the rest of the time involved in whole mission division and I've called pastors for years that gave 0:02 mother's memorial zero to foreign mission zero to use zero to ladies their church sentence zero to whole missions and you call and say hey we're trying to get a good offering for the district as a district director and I'd really like to see you give all brother Cunningham we can't we can't and every excuse they give is the same excuse their Saints give to them only they don't accept it from the Saints hello better hurry on here number 10 all growing churches good high priority on leadership training all growing churches
put a high priority on leadership training let me just give you some stats from a survey that was taken 1992 survey a question was asked what occupies the majority of your ministerial time this was of United Pentecostal church pastors the number one answer given was sermon preparation our pastor said they spend more time in sermon preparation than anything else the number to answer was counseling they say they spend the second amount of their time in counseling number three was leadership training that was the one two and three answer and then I asked our computer we got an intelligence quotient in this particular program that we use to do the surveys and we asked the computer to combine the answers with those that have various size churches and tell us what is the average size church of these that answered the question like this we found out that those that answered the question that the what occupies the majority of your ministerial time was sermon preparation those men pastor an average sized Church of seventy nine those that answered counseling they pastor an average size church of 105 but those that answered leadership training they pastor an average size church of 157 I think the statistics makes the point number eleven and I'll close with this and brother ferrino is coming in one minute all growing churches educate themselves to understand American culture now I just added this particular point just this week I felt like something was missing and the other
night at our ministers training session brother Billy Cole was addressing all of the ministers that were gathered here and he began to talk about the importance of knowing the people that were trying to reach and as he made some statements it began to click in my spirit that that's one of the missing ingredients from my list is understanding American culture you see if a foreign missionary is appointed brother Lehman I see brother Lima just come in if we appoint a foreign missionary the foreign mission board is not going to be angry with him if he takes the first year or so on the field and learns the language and learns the culture we have learned over many many years of foreign missions service that it is important for that person to know the culture and the language and as much about the people as he can if he's going to reach those people yet in America we don't make any effort at all and understanding the culture the people we're trying to reach and I believe that number eleven is that growing churches have learned American culture they know how to relate to American people and to appeal to American people but a Billy Cole made this statement not close with this come to the free note I close with this but the Billy Cole said the other night anytime you see a church experiencing great growth that pastor does not necessarily have more power with God than you do he has simply learned what
makes Americans tick and when he learns what makes Americans tick then he can reach them let stand and raise our hands and love the Lord could we
Scripture references as spoken: Proverbs 29:18.