Yo, yo, and hello everyone! I hope each of you is having a blessed day today!
Movement is the next thing Rainer and Geiger suggest churches need to work on in Simple Church. Movement removes congestion. Congestion is never fun. Whether your sick with congestion in your chest or elsewhere, or in congested traffic, whatever else in life that can get congested, it is never good. Congestion can even happen in churches. Spiritual movement gets stopped up. We build up lives slowly. Congested churches are full of people who aren't changed and aren't bringing new people in. There is no change and no movement.
In 2nd Corinthians 3:18 we read, "And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit". This passage is a reference to Moses in the Old Testament. This refers back to when Moses went up on Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments from God. When he came down from the mountain, his face shined some brightly he had to veil his face. He wore it to cover up the fading glory because when he came back down the glory started to go away and continued to until it was gone. But we don't have to wear a veil, because we can be forever in His presence. We, as Christians, can forever be in fellowship with our Father every day.
When Moses was in God's presence, he was transformed . He went up the mountain to meet with God and He transformed Moses' life during their encounter. Church leaders need to design encounters for people to meet with God so they will be transformed like that. Leaders in the Church need to design a plan of spiritual development that moves people to greater levels of commitment so they will grow spiritually. Movement is defined as the sequential steps in the process that causes people to move to greater areas of commitment. To do this, we must use five prescriptions to remove the congestion in your church. The first one is we must have strategic programming. We must clearly define the process, choose one program for each phase in the process, design each program for each aspect of it, and place the programs in sequential order.
Secondly, we must have sequential programming. Sequencing produces movement. To do this we must order the sequence to the programs to reflect the process, designate a clear entry-point to the process, and identify the next levels of programming.
The third thing is to have intentional movement. This means we intentionally move people from program to program through the ministry process. To do that we must create short-term steps, capitalize on relationships, consider the "now what?", and connect people to a group.
The forth thing is to clear the next step. This means we need to give special attention and nurture to the new babies in Christ. We can't just put them aside and let them defend themselves. No parent would do that to a new born baby, so we shouldn't do that to those who've been born again either.
And the last step is to have a new members class. In this class we should teach them the simple process, and ask for a commitment to that process.
Jesus, of course, was the master at this. In Luke chapters 5 and 6 He called His disciples. In chapters 7 and 8 He built them up to do the work of ministry. And in chapter 9 He sent them off to do that work.
God bless us all in these endeavors!
Be blessed!
Zack
