Pastor’s Pipeline is Published by Dr. John Brackin

Increase Your Attendance -- Set Goals
There are those who believe that goals must be unattainable and unrealistic.
This can discourage those who believe that the goal is unreachable.
As you set your goal for your class, group and church, consider the following.
Assume that the average class has about ten people in attendance each Sunday.
Commit yourselves to add one person per quarter.
That is an attainable goal.
Add one person per quarter to every class would result in phenomenal growth.
We would be fulfilling the Great Commission.
This would please God ...More

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Responsibility To Increase Attendance
God will hold each of us responsible for getting done what He has given us to do.
Let us never be confused as to where the responsibility lies.
God has given you responsibility for your class.
You must feed it.
You must nurture it.
You must be an example in reaching out to the unsaved and unchurched.
You and your class members are ultimately responsible for the health and growth of the group.
As a teacher or group leader, it is your responsibility to see that the group understands
their responsibility.
Pastors have a responsibility to equip you through their ministry, but you are responsible to do
what God wants you to do, and to go where God leads you.
Pastors must allow teachers and group leaders to be responsible for their groups.
Teachers and leaders must be allowed to lead. ...More

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Jesus Is Building His Church
"I will build my church... and the gates of hell will not overcome it!" (Matthew 16: 18)
That statement is too plain to misunderstand it.
Jesus is building His church.
One version says, "All the powers of hell shall not prevail against it."
Nothing is more certain than that!
So – why all the anxiety?
Why all the frustration?
Could it be that we equate our ecclesiastical organization with what Christ is building?
Could it be that we equate our way of doing things with His?
It may be that much of what we innovate and plan and build in our churches
must be destroyed in order that Christ may build His church! ...More

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Doomed Churches
In the present the character of the church is being challenged.
Will the church reach out to surrounding communities?
Will the church adjust its ministries to meet present needs -- and those of newcomers?
Will the church make room in its leadership for new leaders? ...More

Life Cycle of a Church
Churches are not doomed to die if they seek, find, and do what God requires of them.
God's will for congregations is health, not disease.
Healthy congregations plan to achieve their dream.
They live on the ascendancy.
Deteriorating congregations are problem-solvers, and find themselves living up and down
on the decline side of the cycle.
Ascendancy: dream, beliefs, goals, structure.
Pinnacle: ministry
Decline: nostalgia, questioning, polarization, dropout ...More

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Teachers, Be Bridge Builders
Look at so many young people with such great potential take their first look down
at this broad way of deception.
They do not see the pitfalls.
They do not see the snares that await them.
They do not see the chasms that they cannot cross.

We must build the bridge for these young people so that they may cross safely.
If they go on down that broad way without Jesus, and come to the end of their lives,
we will hear their awful cries, "Lost! Lost! Lost!"

Now, look down the other road.
It is narrow, and yet hundreds and thousands joyfully travel this road.
Day by day we witness self-sacrifice and observe many wonderful acts done
for the Master's glory.
There is joy and peace and happiness in the lives of those who travel this way.

There is a great need for spiritual bridge building today.
This the as true today as it was over two thousand years ago when our Lord Jesus stood
on the mountain in Galilee and said, "Go, teach." ...More

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Reaching Secular People
Secular people do not know what Christians are talking about.
They do not have a Christian background or a Christian vocabulary.
Most terms are precious to us, who are Christians, but they have no meaning
to the secular person.

About two-thirds of America's 120 million secular people are not church-going people.
When they do come to church, they do not know what to do.
Their occasional visits to church are clumsy.

Most secular people have had some superficial exposure to church.
Too often, it is a negative exposure that they remember.
They might have thought that church was boring and irrelevant.
They might have thought that the preacher shouted, and it wasn't their kind of music.

In spite of what many may think, America is not an over-churched nation.
The fact is we are more under-churched than we have ever been
in ratio to the population. ...More

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Strive for Christian Maturity
The most pressing need of our day is maturity.
Very immature people are attempting to handle very mature problems.
The gap between the maturity of our problems and of our powers and the immaturity
of too many people is the most serious gap in human existence today.
Unless that gap can be filled, we will suffer from frustrations which may prove fatal.
For we have the frightening power to ruin ourselves.
How can I be a mature person in my situations, my problems,
and deal with my possibilities in a mature way? ...More

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Christian, You Are Gifted
It is important to understand the nature and character of spiritual gifts.
Paul's description of spiritual gifts is found in 1 Corinthians 12.
In verse 1 the word, gifts, is italicized in the New King James Version.
That means it is not in the original language.
The word there, pneumatikon, literally means "the spirituals."
The translators inserted the word because they were trying to explain
what they thought Paul meant.
The term simply means the "spirituals," that is, things pertaining to the Holy Spirit.
These gifts are from the Holy Spirit.
They are not material gifts.
The gifts of the Holy Spirit are not money, cars, clothes, houses,etc.
Those are blessings from God, but they are not gifts of the Spirit.
Spiritual gifts are treasures and tools to use in His service.
But they are spiritual gifts. ...More

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Deacons -- Body or Board?
Howard Foshee listed three evidences that deacons are operating under the concept of a board:
“When all major recommendations from church operations and church committees are screened
by the deacons as to whether they should go to the congregation.
When the pastor and staff members are directly responsible to the deacons rather than
to the church.
When the use or expenditure of major church resources, such as facilities and finances,
must first be approved by the deacons. “
(The Ministry of the Deacon, Howard B. Foshee, Convention Press, 1968, page 33)

The Biblical Concept of Deaconship
In 1955 Robert E. Naylor, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, warned that:
"There are churches where deacons have appropriated to themselves authority
which is contrary to New Testament teaching.
That may have gone so far that bossism has developed. ...More

Deacon Ministry of One Church
Here is how one church elects deacons:
The church will nominate men to serve as deacons.
The deacon nominating committee contacts the nominees and provides them
with the qualifications of deacons.
The nominees are informed as to their possible responsibilities.
They pray together to discern God's will.
Then the nominees are given a reasonable period of time to pray about this important decision.
The deacon nominating committee presents the nominees to the church for approval. ....More

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Biblical Church Growth
Dr. Luke's account of the church in Antioch (Acts 11:19-30) yields three principles
for Biblical church growth.
The believers in Antioch shared the good news of Christ with their neighbors,
"and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord" (11:21).
Reports of church growth reached the believers in Jerusalem. ...More

Distribution of Spiritual Gifts
Spiritual gifts are not given out arbitrarily.
The are given solely by the Holy Spirit.
Verse 11 states that God distributes His gifts to "each one individually."
Every Christian has received at least one spiritual gift.
No one Christian has every gift,
but every Christian has at least one spiritual gift. ...More

Installation Service for Teachers and Leaders
The light from Calvary is unfailing, and it is sufficient for all who will look and live.
But many are groping in the darkness of sin who will not see the greater light,
and they will never know the meaning of its message unless they catch the signal
from the lights that shine through the lives of God's Minute Men
-- His loyal soldiers of the cross. ...More

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