| With deep gratitude to God for His call on
my life and His faithfulness through almost 28 years of full time ministry,
I bring to you my first report as your District Superintendent. I
am humbled, honored and extremely challenged by this assignment.
I recognize that it is far bigger than I am, that I do not know the way,
and that in my own strength and wisdom, could not possibly succeed.
I am more grateful than you know for your love, support, encouragement
and especially for your prayers. I am striving as earnestly as I
know how to find and implement God's will for this district in these critical
days when so very much is at stake.
By definition, our Team Central mission states that, "Together, we are building God's Kingdom in Central Florida." That's our dream all right! Together, building God's Kingdom in Central Florida. We like that. We love the sound of that. Working together, linking arms, building God's Kingdom in Central Florida. But, what in the world does it really mean? It's easy to see when a sports team reaches it's goal; we simply look at the scoreboard.. How do we measure our progress in the church? Without measurable goals, it is impossible to know if our dreams have ever been accomplished. As we look at the Protestant church around the world, there are five measurable criteria to diagnose church health. In order for Team Central to measure our progress and see how we are really doing in building the Kingdom, we need to embrace these measurable criteria. Then we will be able to see exactly if we truly are, "Together Building God's Kingdom in Central Florida." Let's approach this like the gauges on our dashboard. As we drive our car on a trip, we keep track of our speed, RPM's, oil pressure and temperature and miles traveled by the array of instruments before us. Let's attempt to look at the work of God in our local churches through five synchronized, yet very different gauges. |
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One writer has said, "The worst sin of the church at the end of the twentieth century has been the trivialization of God." The unchurched come to worship services to encounter God. They are needy, skeptical, uneasy, and uncomfortable. Yet they come into our worship hungry and longing to see a God who can transform lives and offer eternal hope. We have the answer to their deepest needs. It is Christ Jesus Himself. Healthy churches have healthy worship experiences. They are life changing, transforming worship experiences. Grand productions that must be bigger and better than last Sundays are not the answer. On the other hand, sloppy, announcement filled, God ignored, thrown together music, unfocused, and boring worship experiences are intolerable and seeker repulsive. But services that are planned and executed with one thing in mind, that Christ Himself, is lifted up so that all men may be drawn unto Him. Should always be our standard. Our first gauge on the Team Central Instrument Panel is worship. Worship is at the heart of our relationship with Christ. The number of people participating in Team Central worship services each week is an important and measurable determining factor of church health. |
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Sunday School is synonymous with training - discipling - and generational thinking. Sunday School offers one of our best platforms to think in terms of impacting younger generations . . . planning, projecting and working for the future, not just maintaining the present. One of the most efficient ways to respond to Christ's Great Commission, to "make disciples", is through the Sunday School. The decline and the decrease of basic Bible knowledge in our churches is a warning sign that we are in danger of not taking our Lord's commands seriously. It has been said of today's church, ‘We are raising a generation of Biblically illiterate young people.' A renewed commitment and a determined effort will put all of our churches in the plus column next year. If every Team Central Sunday School experiences a 5% increase this year, the number of souls that we are impacting through Christian education will grow from 7622 to 8003, an increase of almost 381 people. We cannot do less! Our Sunday School health gage must never dip below the 8000 mark again. |
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First, membership increases are a direct result of outreach and evangelistic efforts. New believers become members because someone reached out, invited them to church and introduced them to the Lord. Win Arn, church growth consultant, conducted a survey of nearly 1000 churches asking the question, ‘Why does the church exist?' The results? Of the church members surveyed, 89% said, ‘The church's purpose is to take care of my family's and my needs.' For many, the pastor's role is to keep the sheep who are already in the ‘pen' happy and not lose too many of them. Only 11% said, ‘The purpose of the church is to win the world for Jesus Christ." It all begins with a Missional mind set. Believers Who Think Missionally . . . 1. Make Disciples of Lost People 2. Reach Across Cultural Barriers 3. Commit to Compassion Evangelism 4. Dare to Plant New Churches Next, new members are Nazarenes. No one should ever be received into the church without completing a membership training course. Respective members should expect to be introduced to our history, doctrine and Articles of Faith. This is the right and privilege of every new Nazarene. Third, new Nazarenes are a healthy barometer of those praying to receive the filling of God's Spirit. Our distinctive doctrine of perfect love should be sought after and experienced by our newest members. Discipling new Nazarenes is an ongoing responsibility and a blessed privilege. Fourth, healthy, growing churches are welcoming new believers into the fellowship on a regular basis. As we continue to take our evangelism covenant seriously and dream our dream, a modest 5% increase per year over the next seven years will swell the number of Central Florida Nazarenes from 15,000 to 20,100 new believers! At that growth rate, our membership gage will soon need to be recalibrated! |
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In His Word, God speaks to the leaders of the local congregations; "When you receive the tithe I give you...you must present a tenth of that tithe as the Lord's offering. . .In this way you will also present an offering to the Lord from all the tithes you receive. . . You must present as the Lord's portion, the best, holiest part of everything given to you." Numbers 18: 24-29 In a believers life, obedience to God's Word is a prerequisite to experiencing spiritual growth and blessing. The same is true in the life of the local church. God's plan was, is and forever will be for local churches to be faithful with their tithes and offerings just in the same way that He expects from individuals. In a series of zone meetings I have shared the 10% Fair Share Plan with over 75 Team Central pastors. To date there has been 100% agreement with the concept. With no formal assembly action, 34 churches are already voluntarily sending in 10% of their weekly tithe! When our district unites behind this concept Trevecca and Pensions and Benefits can count on Central Florida to contribute 100% of our allocations instead of the embarrassing 80-85% we have sent in the past. If the Assembly votes favorably, each local congregation will be asked to: Set aside 10% of the tithe offering received each Sunday. From the 10% set aside, the local apportionment will be sent from the church to the Team Central Center . Disbursements will be made through district office to Trevecca Nazarene University, Nazarene Pensions & Benefits Office, to the District Sunday School Ministries, the District Nazarene Youth International, District NWMS, and Team Central Mission Developmental Projects. This gauge on our dashboard reflects healthy churches through dollars raised and those dollars expended on others. Healthy churches are unselfish churches. |
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Simply change the names of the parent church and church plant and this story can be endlessly repeated across these world wide. For the first half century of our existence, Nazarenes were passionate about church planting. But something happened in the late 50's and the early 60's. Our passion for birthing new congregations began to wane and of course, the number of church plants began to diminish drastically. How has our church planting passion changed over the years? Let's take a look for a moment at our planting history. In the USA and Canada, new church starts dropped dramatically by the mid-1960's. The number of active churches has been plateaued for 35 years . . . and has even somewhat declined in the last few years because of the decline in planting new churches. Overall, a lack of new churches has stunted Nazarene growth. As the number of our new church starts declined . . .the number of our active churches began to plateau . . .and ultimately, so did our total attendance. No doubt, the hope and future of the Church of Jesus Christ around the world is the birthing of new congregations. Team Central is strategically located in implementing this mission. Thousands of new people move to Florida every week. The Florida Department of Education predicts over 50,000 new children will enroll in Florida schools this year. Many of these newcomers to the Sunshine State will be looking for a church family. We are a fortunate district. Many of our established congregations are making paradigm shifts, reaching out and experiencing growth. My prayer is that history will repeat itself. I see strong, healthy, mature Team Central congregations - unselfishly stepping out and birthing new congregations all across Central Florida. Many of the areas where families will be moving have no Nazarene church at all. We have a responsibility. Our focus will be broad . .. It will be MISSIONAL! We are a culturally diverse region. As we plant new churches in our own back yard we are literally going to all of the world with the Gospel. |
| Conclusion
Five measurable criteria . . . five gauges on our instrument panel to effectively measure the progress of our dream to rescue lost people and share the holiness message. Important? Yes. Yet, shallow and meaningless with out one key ingredient, prayer. Prayer: honest, intercessory, knee chaffing, crying out to God, wet cheeked prayer - is the only fuel that will kindle our dream and keep it burning brightly in our hearts and our churches. When Team Central Nazarenes allow the Lord to break our hearts for lost people, When Team Central Nazarenes spend time privately and corporately crying out to God for the Lost around us, When Team Central Nazarenes spend more time focusing on the eternally lost around us and less time on the selfish needs inside our churches . . . lives will be changed, dreams will be realized and our instrument panels will reflect the ministries of healthy churches. As your District Pastor, I challenge you this day
to redream your dreams. I challenge you to recommit to -
Will you accept the challenge? LARRY D. DENNIS, Superintendent |