Monday, April 13, 2009

Course 7 Week 3 Sean's Topics

Please use after 12:01 am on Tuesday.

12 comments:

sremery said...

My course is a book and dvd course. The book is titled "Suprising Insights from the Unchurched and Proven Ways to each Them" by Thom S. Rainer. The dvd course is "Church Growth", taught by Terry Forrest. I'll dicsuss 2 chapters and I'll watch 3-4 classes on the dvd class.

April 8, 2009 10:00 AM

sremery said...

The book chapters i'll discuss this week are:
3. Relationships that Click
4. Impressed by 1st impressions
The book so far has been very imformative. They do research and surveys with people who are Christians but have recently joined a church or been saved. the titles describe the subjects very well.

Tyler Owens said...

Hey, Sean. I find the title of chapter three to be interesting. I have friends that, when I first met them, we just hit it off. I feel that God has something to do with it. What does that chapter discuss?

roger said...

Hey Sean, first impressions are very important, you can learn alot about someone by their first impression. When I read about Jesus's triumpant entry into Jerusalem I wonder what kind of impression Jesus gave to the city. What does your study say is important more than your spirituality? Or is this the most important thing?

Tyler Owens said...

I remember that the first thing Jesus did was cleanse the temple. I guess that the first impression was that Jesus was not going to let this go on anymore. I sometimes wonder what the disciples thought at that moment.

Dr. Randy Carney said...

I think I heard somewhere that the cleansing of the temple came right on the heels of the triumphal entry. I bet that was confusing to the disciples, but Jesus knew that He must go to the cross; so, it didn't matter to Him if he continued to receive the praise of ment.

Dr. Randy Carney said...

Sean,

I enjoyed your message at Youth Rally tonight.

sremery said...

Ch 3 talks about how relationships played a part in the unchurched decision in joining a church. The book gives a lot of statstics on it. It said about 57% said it did play a part in it. The 2nd highest reason was that the church had people who cared for others. #1 was Doctrine/ Theology being the biggest factor in choosing a church.

sremery said...

Ch 4 was interesting in pointing out some things that were important to newcomers. Here's a list:
Adequate parking
Clean facilities
Modern facilities
High Quality preschool/nursery
Variety of quality programs
Revelant and quality music
Clean bathrooms
Friendly people
Outgoing Greeters
Clearly marked and functional welcome center
Good signage
Comfortable Pews & chairs
Attention holding preaching
This is a long list and at first I thought "this shouldnt matter". But after some thought I realize that a lot of people that visit aren't looking for the Spirit. THis is something that they accept when they're ready. This list of things make sense because they need to return to feel "comfortable", or undistracted by things that bother them or worry about.

sremery said...

in my DVD course, one discusses missionaries. It talks about a book by McGavin. He says all people should be:
1. Found
2. Reconciled to God
3. taught responsible membership
Basically he emphasises that the church needs to do more that just "spread the word".

sremery said...

One of the other classes discusses doctrine. It uses the word ecumenical, which means open. He discusses how some churches want to be open to different things. He says that in doing so, these churches have grown fast, but have stopped or fallen off because people usually want something that is clear. It later goes into the differences in our belief and Catholics. Another interesting point he says is that the Protestant movement was formed in "protest" of the Catholics. belief.

Tyler Owens said...

Sean, you guys did a great job last night. I was proud of all the youth. It is such a blessing to see those young men and women get up and praise the Lord. I will continue to pray for you guys as leaders and the young people as well.