What's Going On In Your Church ???

Well, let's see. Wait a minute, I'll think of something that's going on in our church.

Oh yeah, we are going to build a new building. We don't plan on winning souls to the Lord as we are now demonstrating. But we're going to build a new building and move away from the sinners. Then we will "reach lost people." Yeah, that is God's will, build a new church so we can, uh, so we can reach lost people.

"Each One Reach One" used to be the motto of a large Southern Baptist church. I always wondered how many "ones" actually DID reach out to another person. I always wondered how many "ones" actually brought another person into that church congregation.

It's clear to see by the stagnant numbers in the bulletin that "each one" is NOT "reaching one" by a long shot. In fact, the stagnant numbers seem to say that nobody is "reaching one" in the whole congregation. It is clear that not much has changed in the last few years. Not many "lost people" have been reached since the church leadership presented their "agenda," calling it "God's will," to the congregation, followed by tons of unscriptural hype, puffed up figures and a phony "farce vote" as one long-time FBC member called it.

The membership numbers have stagnated for the most part over the past 5 or 6 years because virtually no "lost people" are being reached. Sure, there is a new class every now and then. But who are you winning to the Lord? Who are you discipling?

What about those 64 people who live directly to the west of the church? Where do they go to church each Sunday? Or do they even go to church each Sunday? Do you even know where they go to church or do you just NOT CARE??

Do you even know what their name is?

When Jerry Falwell was a young preacher, he stood outside of Lynchburg, Virginia and prayed that God would give him Lynchburg. Then he knocked on every door in the city, telling folks about Jesus and inviting them to church. He was one of the first pastors in the country to begin a ministry to alcoholics and to unwed mothers. Does First Baptist Alamo have a similar ministry outreach?

When was the last time that First Baptist even averaged one new Christian per month??

Folks, you better wake up before it is too late. You are ignoring the will of God (winning souls and discipling them) and you have replaced "the will of God" with an agenda, to move the center of the ministry AWAY from the very people for whom God placed the building on that strategic corner.

And why are some of you clearly angry at me?

Don't get mad at me because YOU are not winning souls and discipling them. Don't get angry because I called your bluff. Some of you are mad at me because of what YOU ARE NOT DOING!
Practice what you preach.

You say it is God's will to move the church "to reach lost people." That is evidently a lie or you are fooling yourself. If you really wanted "to reach lost people," then you would be reaching them now instead of planning to move AWAY from the lost people.

You have three paid staff members listed on the web page. If those three staff members each won only one person to the Lord every three months, you would see an increase of twelve new members, baptized and discipled in one year. Now, if each of those twelve people reached and discipled just ONE NEW PERSON in a year and if each of the three paid staff members reached and discipled one new person each quarter, that would be twenty-four new members in the second year. Twenty-four from the second year added to the original twelve from the first year is THIRTY-SIX NEW CHRISTIANS in two years.

That would put the average attendance well over 200 people each Sunday.

Folks, it's a numbers game. Do the math. Sure, I understand it is the Holy Spirit who draws men to God. But "how can they hear without a preacher??" How can they hear of YOU do not GO and tell them? How can they come to the Lord if people sit on their blessed assurance and "hope" they will come visit the church?

How many deacons do you have at any given time? How many of those deacons brought even one new Christian and discipled them last year?

What about the 64 people who live within two blocks from the church building? If you want to reach those 64 people who live within two blocks of the church, then you better get out there and humble yourself and knock on their front doors.

When you move out in the country, how many people are going to live within two blocks of the church building?

Stop kidding yourself about building a new country-club and calling it "the will of God." Stop kidding yourself that moving to the highway is going to be "our best opportunity to reach lost people." Don't kid yourself. You know that is not true. If being in the center of town, in the center of where lost people are is not motive enough for you "to reach lost people," then you will never reach lost people out in the country.

Don't kid yourself.

You better start reaching those lost people now. Or when you put the congregation into an unscriptural debt of several million dollars, the church will be in grave trouble.

God's will or a country club? Reaching lost people or just talking about it?

Which is it?

Revelation 21:8 says liars have a special place in the lake of fire! " ... all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."

So don't keep lying to yourself about "God's will." You know God's will now. You know what it is. Now go out and do it!

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