| Copyright 2005-2008 Dr. Jad Khalaf, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved |
| "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." II Timothy 2:15 |
| INTRODUCTION This paper will deal with a comprehensive detailed church growth plan that this student will develop. The five functions of the church will each be dealt with in their own way. This student will seek to describe in detail the process he would use to move a church forward using this particular model. In addition, he will also use the five functions of the church as a frame work or structure for organizing this model. POPOE will help the reader better understand the plan. POPOE will be broken down into the following: Purpose-Why, Objectives-What, Plans-How, Organize-Who, Evaluate-How Well It Was Done. The setting for this church growth plan is New Orleans, Louisiana. The reason is because religion is very strong in this Southern city. Southern Baptists have been in this town for a long time, but they are very weak. Catholicism is very prominent among the residents of the New Orleans area. Basically, the Catholics do not like the Southern Baptists. With this in mind, the comprehensive church growth plan will now begin. WORSHIP Worship is very essential to the life of a Christian. In order to make sure that this area of ministry is covered, a minister of music will be good to have. Since this area of the function of the church will cover a good number of things, a minister of music will have to be knowledgeable in a variety of areas. Once this decision has been made, the worship style can begin to be dealt with. To begin with, the congregation songs and the sanctuary choir’s songs will have to be picked out. This student is conservative so he would prefer working with a conservative minister of music. The congregation songs and the choir’s songs would consist of hymns and Southern Gospel-style songs. New Orleans is not necessarily a Southern Gospel city. However, people would be drawn to this type of music. Since the choir would play an important role in worship time, a music minister would need to develop some type of outreach ministry for the choir. In essence, he would minister to the choir members in a unique way. He would write cards to them, visit them whether or not they are sick, have choir cookouts in which prospective choir members can come and feel welcome, and do other things along the same lines. The sanctuary choir would be expected to sing a special every single Sunday morning. The children’s choir, college/career choir, and the youth choir will all be overseen by the music minister. More than likely, a children’s choir director would have to be found. This would enable the minister of music to spend more time focusing on the college/career choir and the youth choir. If needed, he would also reserve the right to help find assistant music ministers to help out with both the youth choir and college/career choir. Basically, the same thing would be done in these areas as is done in the sanctuary choir’s area. Special music would be regularly done by these different choirs. This time of special music would be done on Sunday nights with each choir alternating every third Sunday. The pastor would be involved in the music that would be sung by the different choirs. The pastor and the minister of music would work together in making the worship time exactly that, a time of worshiping God. When people come to church, then they would feel like they have truly been in the presence of God. EVANGELISM This student’s heart and calling is in the area of evangelism. Evangelism is a ministry of the church that should not be taken lightly. Lost people as well as unchurched individuals can be brought into the church as a result of the ministry of evangelism. Under this function of the church, many different ministries and events can be found. Mission trips, outreach visitation, outreach visitation training, and other different special events fall under this category. In order for this function of the church to properly maintain its goal, a minister of evangelism would need to be on staff. This particular minister would be a vital part of the staff. He would be an encourager. The church should be encouraged to participate in reaching out to the lost people of New Orleans. New Orleans is a difficult city to do evangelism. However, nothing is impossible with God. It would definitely take time for this minister to gather a group of believers together and go out witnessing. This type of ministry would not grow overnight. The pastor and the minister of evangelism would work together. Each minister could encourage one another as they seek to do their particular ministry. Sunday nights, Wednesday nights, and occasionally one night during the week would be set aside for the minister of evangelism to offer classes about evangelism. A variety of classes would be offered. The classes could range from being trained to do evangelism all the way to going out and doing hands on evangelism. This minister would also be responsible for leading mission trips in and out of the city. In addition, special events would be held in order to reach out to the people of the community and city. Ideally, one mission trip a year would be done. The youth would go on one, the adults would go on their own trip, and the senior adults would also participate in venturing out on their own mission trip. In order for a person to be able to go on one of these trips, they would have to regularly attend evangelism classes. The reason is that the ones going on the trip can properly be trained and taught how to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the lost. Door to door visitation would be done during the week. As time goes on, this type of visitation would definitely reap rewards. The church members would have the opportunity to go out into the community and invite people to church. The evangelism minister would have a lot under his belt. Even though discouragement and roadblocks would be evident along the way, eventually lives would begin to be touched for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. One of Greater Vision’s songs, a Southern Gospel trio, contain the following lyrics: “The preachers are weary, the singers are tired, and the church as we know it is losing its fire; but preachers keep preaching, and singers go sing, and laymen keep sharing that Jesus is King; for it is worth every trial and every mile for just one more soul!” FELLOWSHIP Southern Baptists love to eat and fellowship. When a person hears the word “fellowship,” then they automatically think about dinner on the ground. This particular function of the church would be handled by the minister of activities. Fellowship among brothers and sisters in Christ can include a host of things. Every fifth Sunday, some type of fellowship should be planned for the congregation to attend. Every Wednesday night supper would be organized in such a way that fellowship can be done by those in attendance. In order for the congregation to be able to participate in what goes on, a survey would be taken as to what type of things the people would like to do. New Orleans offers a variety of things that could be done by the congregation. Family fellowship events, men fellowship gatherings, women fellowship events, children fellowship gatherings, single people events and other gatherings could be held on a regular basis. Many of the families in the church probably do not have quality time to spend with one another. New Orleans is such a spread out city that kids seem to go one way while the parents each go about doing their own business. It would be a wonderful ideal for families to fellowship among themselves at these events. There are around seventy-thousand college students going to school and living in the New Orleans area. This is a tremendous group of people to reach. Through fellowship get togethers, single as well as college students can get to know one another. College can often be a trying time in the life of a student. However, through fellowship events held by the church many of these students can be won to Christ. In addition, the Christian college students and singles can find a place to plug in and serve at. Much planning and preparation will have to done in order for the fellowship function of the church to properly minister to the church and to the community of New Orleans. Even though there are many Catholics in New Orleans, most of them are not regularly practicing Catholicism. This would be a great opportunity to reach out to Catholics and others in order to show them Christ’s love. Many people are just looking for someone to care about them and to acknowledge them. Through the ministry of fellowship, a church can begin to grow. MINISTRY/MISSIONS This particular function of the church contains a lot of work with little recognition. In order to properly get this properly off the ground, God would have to definitely place a calling upon a man’ s heart in order to serve in this ministry. God equips different men for different functions in the church. Ministry/missions requires much planning, preparation, paper work, and patience. The office of this person will definitely come in handy when it comes to doing the work of the church. Located underneath this section is the ministry of administration, education, and missions. Even though missions can kind of fall under the ministry/function of evangelism, it would still be required in this function. The man of God chosen to serve in this capacity will have to be a people person. The reason is that meetings after meetings would constantly be taken place. This minister would oversee the staff, property/building, media, daycare (if applicable), education curriculum (Sunday school, etc.), media, planning, and working with the minister of evangelism. In addition, he would deal with the trustees and the finances of the church. The church members want to make sure that the church is in good hands and is being properly ran. In order for the church to be able to participate in what goes on, they would be able to find out the necessary information that they need at the monthly business meetings. In order to go about doing this, the records of the church would properly be kept. The pastor would not deal with counting the money. The minister of education would have a committee of seven people who would serve in the area of finances. Every year, the church would be audited by a firm located outside of New Orleans. People’s trust must be earned in order for them to really trust coming and giving their money to church. Even though the Bible instructs His children to bring their tithes and offerings to the storehouse, the congregation wants to make sure that their money is being wisely spent and not mishandled in any way. New Orleans is a very interesting city with interesting people. The office of ministry/missions would play an important role in making sure that money is distributed to the other functions of the church. Interesting people require much love and a sense of feeling wanted. This minister would play the role behind the scenes in making sure that the people of New Orleans hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Even though this minister may not participate in a lot of hands on projects, he will be making sure that those projects go as planned. In a city with a variety of people, there needs to be a variety of ministries to reach out. The minister of ministry/missions would make sure that a variety of ministries are offered. DISCIPLESHIP This function of the church will help the Christians grow in Christ. The minister of discipleship/education would have to have a desire to see Sunday school, discipleship training, Wednesday night Bible study, and other Bible classes all work together in helping the church grow individually. Some ministers do not like using LifeWay material. However, their materials seem to be Biblical as well as practical. To begin with, LifeWay material would be ordered for the different age group and classes. Everyone would be encouraged to study their lessons for each week. Teachers would be gathered together for one purpose, to teach the Bible to the people. Classes would be offered every single time of the year. Fall, winter, spring, and summer sessions would be offered. New members would have the opportunity to join a class dealing with what the church believers according to the Bible. In this class, the different doctrines would be taught by a well- grounded Christian. The Sunday morning classes would follow the schedule found in the LifeWay literature. All of the classes would have books for their members. Each week, the members would be encouraged to study the weekly lesson. When the class meets on the Sunday, then the ones prepared would have the opportunity to discuss and learn more about what the lesson was teaching. On Sunday nights, the discipleship classes would focus on the beliefs of Baptists. Different studies would be offered for three months. Then, the people would have the opportunity to switch and take another class. The reason for this is so that the congregation can get the opportunity to study and learn about different areas. As the years progress, some classes would be dropped for a while as new ones are added. There would be a constant switch up of classes in order for people not to repeat what they have already taken. Wednesday nights would be filled with different items going on. The youth group, children’s group, college/career group, and the adults would each separately be involved in some type of Bible study. Many times, churches do not offer many Wednesday night Bible studies. However, Wednesday night can also offer the opportunity for the congregation to get involved in personal growth. This time is also a great opportunity for the young people to do Bible studies about dating, sex outside of marriage, how to read and study the Bible, peer pressure, and other areas in which young people are faced with every single day. The discipleship ministry is a tremendous ministry for a church to have. Every single day, a Christian should strive to grow and mature in Christ. Through discipleship, a church can help in the process. CONCLUSION The different functions of the church offer a variety of ways for the members to get involved in their local church. This student has tried to describe the five functions/ministry in a brief way. God calls different men into different ministries. Each minister should seek to serve God faithfully and whole-heartedly in all that he does. Even though the minister might not be the pastor, he can still play an important role in the work and ministry of the church. Jesus commanded that all believers go and tell the Good News of Jesus Christ. |
| Dr. Jad Khalaf |