CLOSE YOUR CHURCH FOR GOD

Close Your Church for Good

By Jeremy Myers

I’m writing a book called Close Your Church for Good. The goal of the book is to help churches and pastors move themselves and their congregations in a missional direction that will help them live and operate according to the principles of the Kingdom of God.
In Close your Church for Good, I don’t want your church to shut down and cease to exist; I want to it to rise up and be all that Jesus intends.
When will the book be out? Well, my current word count is 50,000 words, and I am about 2/3 done. But I am running into problems on some of the later chapters, so… who knows how long it will take to finish…

But you don’t have to wait!

I am actually writing this book online. I make 3-4 posts per week which are based on the content of the book. While the final edition will not be exactly like these posts, the posts still provide the general idea and thought flow of the book.
In other words, whether I get the book published or not, you can still read a rough version of it right here on the Till He Comes blog.

Why am I posting the book online?

For several reasons.
First, free is the new business model. Besides, I am not an established author, and I already have a job, so why not give the content away for free?
Second, am I crazy? I have some fairly extreme ideas for how a church can become more missional, and I really desire reader feedback. So as you read the section, please comment and interact, even if you disagree. If you think I’m crazy or have completely lost my senses, tell me! If, however, you think that other people need to hear what I’m writing about, you don’t necessarily need to tell me, but please tell them!
Third, books and blogs are getting connected. If/when the book gets published, I will have a ready-made place to send the readers if they want to ask me a question, or interact with other readers.
Fourth, blogs are sometimes better than books. I can do things on a blog post that I cannot do in a paper book. Like lots of pictures, for example. To see what I mean, check out this post about church buildings. There is no way I could put those pictures in the typical book.
Finally, I am a book lover. As such, I have always wished that all books were free. I used to have a sign that hung in my study which said, “If grace is free, why are Christian books so expensive?” While I don’t believe that all authors should offer all their books for free, I still think that all authors would benefit from making more of their stuff available for free.

So where can you start reading?

I thought about listing ALL of the posts in the entire book right here. But then I realized that this would be about 200 posts. Nobody wants to look through that.
So I decided to arrange the posts like a book. Think of this post as the Table of Contents.
Below are the chapters in Close Your Church for Good. Each link goes to another page, which contains a ordered list of all the posts that were made from that chapter. If you read straight through them, you will get the basic content of the chapter.
Enjoy!

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Close Your Church for Good

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. The Satanic Church
2. Faith of the Fallen
3. The Church Must Die
4. Cancel your Church Service
5. Cut All Church Programs
6. Sell Your Church Building
7. Resign as Pastor
8. Down with Preaching
9. Discard the Doctrinal Statement
10. Let Prayer Meetings Cease
11. Enough with Evangelism
12. Pass on the Offering Plate
13. Give Up Your Rites
14. Give Up Your Rights
15. To Hell with the Church

Epilogue: Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus

Look Inside The Secret House Churches in China

Mari Kita melihat rahasia gereja rumah yang ada di Cina. Bagaimana umat Tuhan menyembah DIA dengan segenap hati...segenap kekuatan....dalam keberadaan mereka yang sederhana....Gereja bukan masalah tempat atau gedung dan fasilitas yang nyaman tetapi kesungguhan mencari Tuhan. Mengucap syukur selalu atas setiap berkat yang Tuhan berikan bagi kita.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxX2_D11qBw&feature=player_embedded#!

Whole Church Whole Gospel Whole World

banyak sekali orang yang salah menafsirkan apa itu gereja dewasa ini sesuai pengertian dan tradisinya semata. Video ini menggambarkan apa itu gereja yang sebenranya dan apa tujuannya di muka bumi ini bagi perluasan kerajaan TUHAN. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_4u8TRorUw&feature=player_embedded#at=19

Do What God Blesses

"Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted. They...filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten."
JOHN 6:11,13

The issue is never what we have or what we are doing, but rather, do we have the Lord’s blessing?
With the Lord’s Blessing we have Infinite Supply. Practically speaking, it means instead of trying to convince the Lord to bless what I want to do or what I think needs to be done, I should find out first what the Lord wants to BLESS and do THAT instead. Remember, “He Himself knew what He would do.” (John 6:6). Thus, we pray, “Not my will, but Your Will be done; not my kingdom, but Your Kingdom come.” And then we enjoy the Lord’s Blessing on our work.
Source: Lord of All by Chip Brogden

What is Faith?

By Dionne Carpenter Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished! ~ Luke 1:45
READING: Genesis 15:1-6
Volumes have been written to parse the meaning of the word “faith.” Here, let’s look at one small aspect that particularly applies to us as church planters. Although divided by centuries, Abraham the Patriarch and Mary, the mother of Jesus, graphically illustrate the essence of faith, as understood by the Hebrew mind.
Webster’s dictionary defines faith as “a confident belief in the truth or trustworthiness of a person, idea or thing.” The Hebrew word for faith is aman, which means “to regard as true, to realize, to believe.” Notice that both definitions talk about truth and belief.
The Hebrew word aman implies the idea of receiving a message from someone – a statement, a warning, a promise or a command. We “aman” by believing the message to be true. Abraham believed God’s promise to give him a son. Mary believed the angel’s message that she would conceive a child by the Holy Ghost.
Abraham and Mary each stood in that moment holding nothing but the message. Both of them could readily think of many logical and valid reasons to reject the truth of it out of hand. But in that fateful moment, they chose to believe, they chose faith.
If you are a church planter reading this, you once stood in a similar place when the Holy Spirit spoke to your heart and called you to serve Him. In your mind’s eye, you envisioned a new church where there was no church. You exercised faith. “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Heb. 11:1).
What you did, when you chose to believe, was a holy thing.
Father, Bless me abundantly because I choose to believe Your promise. Amen. 
Dynamic Church Planting International (DCPI) “Equips Leaders to Plant 5 Million Churches Worldwide.” Learn more

UNITED IN RESURRECTION

United in Resurrection "If we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His." ROMANS 6:5 ESV If we share in His death then we will share in His life. How could it be otherwise? What is true of the Vine is true of the Branches that are part of the Vine. It would be impossible for the Vine to be raised while the Branches that are part of the Vine remain buried. So long as the Vine and the Branches are one, they share in both the suffering and in the glory that is revealed afterwards. In the same way, when God made us one spirit together with Christ on the Cross, His intention was for us to experience both the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. So Paul says that if we suffer with Him, then we will reign with Him (2 Timothy 2:12). Again, we see the purpose of the Cross. If we refuse to join Him in suffering then we cannot hope to join Him in ruling. If we refuse the Crucified Death then we cannot have the Resurrected Life. Source: Embrace the Cross by Chip Brogden

Sheperding on your knees

“Pastor, your note arrived at a time when we were really hurting."

Shepherding on Your Knees by Jim Carpenter

Shepherding on Your Knees

By Jim Carpenter I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers . . . ~ Ephesians 1:16
READING: Ephesians 1:14-23
“Pastor, your note arrived at a time when we were really hurting. I miscarried that week – nobody even knew we were pregnant – and it was such a comfort to know that you were praying for us.”
That’s what a young wife in my church said to me after my week of praying for her family. I had no idea she and her husband were going through a crisis, but God did. And my commitment to pray regularly for the families in my congregation was a source of encouragement and strength when they needed it.
As a church grows, how do you continue to “shepherd” them? You will need to share the pastoral care with others – home group leaders, pastoral staff, or elders.
But the senior pastor can continue to help shepherd his people – on his knees. I learned this from the Apostle Paul, who loved to pray for the Christians that were part of his church planting network. Often he included a summary of his prayers in the letters he wrote to those churches. (See Philippians 1:9 – 11;Colossians 1:9 – 12; II Thessalonians 1:11, 12).
Each week I send personal notes to four church families, letting them know I’ll be praying for them in the following week. I invite them to contact me with any requests they might have. My secretary makes sure I pray for all our people twice a year, and adds new families as they become regular attenders.
God has given me the privilege of systematically interceding for the people of my congregation. Knowing that I’m praying is a constant assurance that I love them and that their Heavenly Father loves them even more.
Father, Thank you for blessing me with the precious families in my church. Show me how to pray for them. Amen.