DeadRat:



That Serves Him Right, next Time He Wont Be A Cultist

lol next time ke

First stanza/verse
We are Redeemites
United in Love
Jesus is for us
We shall conquer.

Second stanza/verse
We are together
United in Love
Jesus is for us
We shall conquer.

Third stanza/verse
We are victorious
United in Love
Jesus is for us
We shall conquer.

Fourth stanza/verse
Covenant children
United in Love
Jesus is for us
We shall conquer.

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Soul winning simply means bringing lost souls to Christ, that is bringing the sinners, unbelievers, Heathen, children of satan to the knowledge and acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, it can also be referred to as evangelism.
The birth, death and resurrection of Jesus is for the redemption of mankind, Jesus himself was a rugged and vigorous soul winner even the Holy Spirit is so much interested in soul winning, so much so that the first manifestation of miracle through the Holy Spirit was making a coward like Peter bold enough to preach the good news and win three thousand souls into the kingdom of God thereby leading to church growth.

Soul winning and church growth are tied together, however soul winning precedes church growth. It is a seed for church growth and as a matter of fact it is the rudiment the foundation of church growth. Soul winning is the mandate of those that are saved, which is also the great commission by Jesus for us to go and preach the good news to all creatures of the earth, hence it should be done both individually and as a church.

However whether soul winning is done as individuals or church the result is church growth. Every purpose, talent, resources, church, ministry has one thing among other things in common and that is soul winning. God is so compassionate and in love with mankind that He does not desire that anyone perish but all comes to Him and be saved. Jesus is so much interested in soul winning that He dined and wined with a tax collector who was a known extortionist.
Paul was willing to become anything even a servant just so the kingdom of God could multiply. Most of the disciples of Jesus experienced death and humiliations of the worst and inhumane kind just so the church can advance forward and grow. It is because of sacrifices of this magnitude that the church of God has grown so well.

Now the question is to what extent are individuals, church, ministries etc. willing to go in winning souls for God in other to ensure the church of God experiences growth and not stagnancy.
The church of God must have great love and passion for souls to achieve true and lasting church growth.
Soul winning embodies in itself signs and wonders, as God said He will confirm our words with signs following.

Signs and wonders is yet another very powerful instrument for church growth, and as we can see it is the great power in soul winning for achieving church growth.

If Soul winning is the heartbeat of God which indeed it is, can you quantify the size and speed of growth the church will experience in performing the heartbeat of God?
Copied from A BLOG FOR CHRISTIAN LEADERS https://blog.esoftchurch.com/soul-winningevangelism-instrument-church-growth/

We are the church you and I, however in the context of the discussion ‘The church a place for all’, we mean the place where people gather to worship God, although the church is the gathering of saints or the congregation of saints.
Notwithstanding it is also a transformation, transition, translation, renewing and redemption place for sinners from darkness to the marvelous light of Jesus, that is, it is a place that should be accessible to all, believers and unbelievers with the aim that no unbeliever would retain their master satan and unbelieving status.

This statement is further justified by Jesus who declared that He did not come for the righteous only but also for the unrighteous, in fact He came mainly, especially and specially so that the unrighteous can be saved. With this the church should understand that Jesus is not giving up on unbelievers. God does not desire that anyone perish but all comes to Him and be saved, if the unbeliever is important to God then they should be important also to the church.

The purpose of the church is not just to communion with saints but also a platform to invite and bring the lost to Christ. The church carries the presence of God as the word of God says that where two or three gather for His sake, there He is and in the presence of God there is liberty; this means that when unbelievers come to church, in the presence of God the power for salvation is released.

In a nutshell the church is a platform for soul winning, which is the heartbeat of God, that is why one soul is not just one soul, so much relevance is attached to every soul such that there is great rejoicing and celebration in heaven over a soul.

Any church that does not win souls for God is definitely very stagnant, unpleasing to God and not completely fulfilling the purpose of its existence. Such a church can never achieve church growth.
The church of God should never close its hands or doors to unbelievers because Jesus is still knocking in their heart. You never can tell which church service will open their hearts for Jesus to enter.
Copied from A BLOG FOR CHRISTIAN LEADERS https://blog.esoftchurch.com/church-place-achieving-church-growth/

Copied from A BLOG FOR CHRISTIAN LEADERS https://blog.esoftchurch.com/7-secrets-brought-bishop-david-oyedepo-top-ministry/
Bishop David Olaniyi Oyedepo is the founder of one of the largest assembly in the world which is known as Living Faith tabernacle (aka Winners Chapel) whose headquarter is located at Sango ota, ogun state Nigeria. Though a native of Omu Aran Kwara state, he was born to a Muslim father and Cherubim and Seraphim mother on the 27th September, 1954 in Oshogbo, Osun state.
Having rejected a charm giving to him by his father, he developed whit-low on a finger on his right hand but notwithstanding wrote three exams the next day and came out with a second class division in secondary school.
He once challenged God to heal him of tuberculosis as a secondary school student, after his fellow mates shifted their beds away from him and he was healed. After his secondary school, he went further to study Architecture at Kwara State Polytechnic, and worked briefly with the Federal Ministry of Housing in Ilorin where he finished with a distinction.
He also obtained a PhD in Human Development from the University of Honolulu in the United States of America. At age 22, he met his wife ‘Florence Abiola Akano’ at a motor park. Betty Lasher a missionary teacher facilitated his becoming a born-again Christian in 1969 and in March 1970, he shared the gospel of Christ for the first time.
He received a mandate from God through an 18 hour vision in May 1981 and in 1982, he got married and they are blessed with four children, two boys; David Jnr and Isaac and two girls; Love and Joyce. His mentors include; Enoch Adeboye, Late Benson Idahosa, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland and Late Kenneth Hagin.
Bishop Oyedepo and his wife were ordained by Pastor Enoch Adeboye, the G.O of RCCG on 17th September 1983. Five years after his ordination as a pastor, he was then ordained a bishop in 1988.
He built Faith Tabernacle within 12 months, debt free and in September 18th 1999 under President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration it was dedicated. He is the president of World Mission Agency Incorporated (WMA), a Christian Ministry Organization with mission stations in over 40 African nations, also in Europe, Jamaica and America.
Dominion Publishing House was established on December 5, 1992, and has over 4 million prints in circulation to date. Some of his Best Selling books include; Pillars of Faith, Born to Win, Possessing your Possession amongst others. His awards include; International Who is Who of Intellectuals, 13th Edition of International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, England and Inscribed in the Jerusalem 3000 Scroll #102268 among others.
His sons were ordained as pastors by Kenneth Copeland in May 2007. His son, David Jnr pastors the London branch of the church, with his wife, Kemi while Isaac Oyedepo is the present resident pastor of Winners’ Chapel International, South Africa.
Below are some of the secrets that brought this great man of God to the top:
1. CLARITY OF PURPOSE AND DIVINE DIRECTION
The man Bishop David Oyedepo is a strong believer in the fact that not all that glitters is gold, he believes that a man’s worth is ascertained in following a path ordained by God. In his book, ‘Understanding Divine Direction’, he tells several personal life encounters that show the importance of following the plan of God for your life.
He believes and teaches that you don’t need to be a pastor to be successful and make a great impact in life. All you need is to do whatever it takes and find the plan of God for your life and then give it your 110% effort.

2. GREAT SEEKER OF KNOWLEDGE THROUGH BOOKS.
Great leaders and successful people are always great readers and addicted knowledge seekers, they keep seeking and asking questions and getting things done in a better way. Before starting the Covenant University, he read all manner of books and biographies of universities, carefully finding out keys that make them succeed or fail, today CU is rated among top ten Universities in Africa.
Charlie “Tremendous” Jones said, “You’re the same today as you will be in five years except for two things: the people you meet and the books you read.”
3. UNDERSTANDING THE DETAILS OF HIS UNDERTAKING.
To succeed in life we must endeavor to understand the details of our enterprise and undertaking. If you are called to preach, what are you called to preach? If you are called into business, what kind of business is it?
Listening to Bishop David Oyedepo, one thing that you’ll quickly observe is that this is a man who fully understands the details of what he is doing. He is not doing a guess work or trial and error.
A grasp of the details of our undertaking is important for success in life and business leadership.

4. ABSOLUTE GIVING LIFESTYLE
Bishop Oyedepo does not just teach people to give. He gives.
Recently he said:
“No one can pray his way to prosperity. No one can fast his way to riches. No one can beg his way to abundance; you can only give your way out.”
There is no doubt that giving has a way of inviting the universe to support us in our quest to succeed in life. That is why it is important for us to develop the habit of giving to the church, society and our family.
5. SINCERE LOVE FOR GOD.
One thing that is easy to see in the life of the Bishop is His love for and passion for God. He is one man that doesn’t serve God for the benefits. This, no doubt, has created spiritual channels of favor for him.
6. ADDICTED TO WORK AND CREATIVE IMPROVEMENT ON A DAILY BASIS.
Running 2 Universities, secondary schools, pastoring the largest church in the world and preaching 4 services every Sunday, authoring books and managing a bunch of estates, certainly is not for people who hate work.
But work is not just about work, you have to add creativity and productive thinking to what you are doing.
He humorously said in one of his books,
“Can you imagine a student in school that does nothing but read the Bible, pray and fast, when his textbooks are there to be read? He will be the most fantastic and charismatic failure.” On several occasions the Bishop has told listeners that things only work for workers and believes that there is no reason to be idle.
7. NON ATTENDANCE TO OPPOSITIONS AND CRITICISM.
Bishop Oyedepo is one man that is greatly criticized for his style of ministry and affluent lifestyle, but he never responds to all of this critics.
Successful people don’t spend time answering opposition and critics. They are just too busy succeeding and creating the next success story

Copied from A BLOG FOR CHRISTIAN LEADERS https://blog.esoftchurch.com/7-secrets-brought-bishop-david-oyedepo-top-ministry/

“And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry, and I will multiply them and they shall not be few and I will glorify them and they shall not be small”. Jeremiah 30:19

What is Thanksgiving? It is a genuine and heartfelt gratitude to someone for past, present or future deed. Any church that maximizes the ground breaking benefits of thanksgiving will be headed for the top only.

Thanksgiving is an act of praise unto God. The great things that happen when we praise God also happens when we thank God. God desires our thanksgiving especially because, thanksgiving is God’s food; Psalm 50:14a, and God’s command Psalm 107:1.

Thanksgiving is also an act of faith and an act of expressing trust and when you trust God you will never be put to shame, Psalm 34:5, Psalm 37:5b. God deserves a heartfelt and not just lips felt gratitude.

Thanksgiving is so powerful, yet very much underutilized. No one ever gave God thanks and regretted. Thanksgiving is a multiplication and addition factor, that is, it brings about increase. While ingratitude which is the opposite of thanksgiving is a subtraction and division factor, that is, it diminishes.

Thanksgiving when offered sincerely has the power to sustain, increase and perfect anything. Our chief example, the author and the finisher of our faith Jesus Christ demonstrated the power in thanksgiving, seeing that through giving thanks five loaves and two fishes fed five thousand men excluding women and children, not only that, twelve baskets were leftover. The Lesson on thanksgiving we can get from the above true life testimony is that thanksgiving has the power to make that seemingly little, small and insufficient to a lot, big and sufficient.

Another lesson, is giving thanks not only gives one enough but also overflow, hence thanksgiving unlocks the power of overflow, that is, running over. Thanksgiving can make the absolutely impossible become absolutely possible, there is no mathematical equation or scientific explanation for making five loaves and two fishes feed far more than five thousand people. Thanksgiving can turn mystery to history.

Thanksgiving has the capacity to give life to anything or anyone that is dead. As seen in the case of Lazarus. Jesus gave thanks and an already decaying corpse received life. It therefore means that no matter how disgustingly hopeless the growth in your church seem to depict; giving thanks can change the situation.

There is always something to be thankful to God for, if you think you have lost so much, God is the only reason you have not lost it all even your life, a living dog is better than a dead lion, the living have hope no matter how hopeless it may seem.

Yet another beautiful thing about thanksgiving is that it not also brings about quantitative increase but also qualitative increase that is the caliber of church members will be blessings not curses, assets not liability because a people that thank God are glorified by God and when God glorifies a man, He becomes great not small Jeremiah 30:19.

Thanksgiving brings blessing while ingratitude brings curse as seen in Malachi 2:2. Thanksgiving makes a church whole as seen in the case of the thankful leper who was the only one declared whole by Jesus out of the ten lepers healed Luke 17:12-19. It means therefore, no matter how deep a leprous attack has eaten a church, gratitude can bring complete restoration, removing the scars totally.

Today, remember all God has done in your church, acknowledge what He is doing, never forget what He is capable of doing and rejoice, be merry while giving Him the heartfelt thanks He alone deserves, because come rain, come sun shine God is faithful and able. There is absolutely no shadow of turning with Him.

Thank God for what He has done and He will do more, Thank God for what He is doing and He will complete and perfect it and thank Him for what He is yet to do and it will come to manifestation.

Thanksgiving is an elevator, it takes your church up and high.
Thanksgiving is an Accelerator, it takes your church up and high faster and easier.
Thanksgiving is a Guarantor, it guarantees you maximum church growth.
Thanksgiving is a Converter, it converts every minus/negativity in your church to plus/positivity.
Thanksgiving is an Activator, it activates everything to work for the good of your church.
Thanksgiving is a Differentiator, it gloriously distinguishes your church.

Copied from A BLOG FOR CHRISTIAN LEADERS https://blog.esoftchurch.com/thanksgiving-tool-mind-blowing-church-growth/

The life of Enoch Adejare Adeboye known as Pastor E. A Adeboye is a fulfillment of the scriptures in Zechariah 4: 10 which declare “despise not the days of small beginnings”. Born in 1942 into a humble family in the village of Ifewara, Osun State located in the South-western part of Nigeria Enoch Adeboye often humorously states that his family was so poor that even the poor people called them poor. As a matter of fact, he unashamedly tells his congregation that he never owned shoes until he was eighteen years of age. What he possessed though were physical intangibles such as focus, consistency, diligence, ambition, a brilliant mind and a determination to succeed in life.

In 1956 E. A Adeboye was admitted into Ilesha Grammar School, Ilesha, Osun State, Western Nigeria and as a youth he discovered a passion for books, and an aptitude for science and in particular the field of Mathematics, this led to an academic journey in the field of Mathematics against incredible odds including but not limited to finances, the Nigerian Civil War and academic politics. By the time he was done, E. A Adeboye had obtained not only a Bachelors (BSc.) degree in Mathematics from the University of Nigeria, Nusukka, Nigeria in 1967, but also a Masters (MSc.) Degree in Hydrodynamics and a Doctorate Degree (PhD) in Applied Mathematics, both from the University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria in 1969 and 1975 respectively.

One of the motivations for these academic achievements was E. A Adeboye’s passionate desire to become the youngest Vice Chancellor (University President) of any one of the frontline Universities in Nigeria; it did seem that his academic ambition would be realized as his academic career flourished. However, this was not to be as a greater career awaited him in the service of the Lord. In 1967 E. A Adeboye got married to his beloved wife Foluke Adenike Adeboye (nee Adeyokunnu).

He gave his life to our personal Lord and savior Jesus in 1973 and in 1977 and 1981; he was ordained as a pastor in RCCG and a General overseer in RCCG respectively. For three years he filled the role part-time, still lecturing at Ilorin, until giving up his university position to preach full-time. The church, which was not well known prior to Adeboye becoming the General Overseer, currently has several branches globally in about 192 nations (as at August 2016) including more than 14,000 in Nigeria. E. A Adeboye has stated that his aim is to put a church within five minutes of every person on Earth

He is the national president of RCF (an interdenominational fellowship in all the campuses in Nigeria) which is under the umbrella of Christ the Redeemer’s Ministry (CRM) where he is a founder and president. E. A Adeboye was launched into international prominence on December 18, 1998, when he hosted the very first Holy Ghost Congress (open air meeting) in Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria with an attendance of over 7 million people as reported by CNN and the BBC, it constituted the largest mobilization of people in one spot on the surface of the earth, and a feat never before recorded.

The following year, the attendance at the Holy Ghost Congress (HGC) grew to 12 million worshipers, this program has since been replaced with the annual 3-Day HGC held every December at the Redemption Camp much like other programs in RCCG with the HGC also witnessing its transformations also. From a one night event in 1998 to a week-long program today and at each and every one of these events, many souls were won for Christ, and the power of God moved freely as well to heal, anoint, and empower.

The secrets to his immense growth in ministry are highlighted below:

1. His trademark of humility which is disarming and endearing, enabling him to easily share his testimony of the Gospel.
2. His passion for soul-winning.
3. He is a passionate giver, giving to humanity immensely.
4. He is a mentor and a leader who possesses adequate and quality mentorship and leadership skills respectively.
5. A life of total obedience to God and his instruction whether convenient or not.
6. He is a visionary; he saw the local church as one of the focal points of Christian discipleship, and thus planned to have an RCCG branch five minutes from every home in the world.
7. He is extremely focused.
8. His love for knowledge.

Please Comment and Share what else you think has made him stand out so far in ministry?

Copied from https://blog.esoftchurch.com/8-secrets-that-brought-pastor-e-a-adeboye-to-the-fore-front-of-ministry/

HI, Whats your take?
Copied from https://www.westernseminary.edu/transformedblog/2014/03/04/the-six-people-you-should-ask-to-leave-your-church/ By Andy Flowers
Maybe I’m a little biased, but I think my church is awesome! It’s a place that is friendly, loving, gracious, and gospel-centered. I love being the pastor here. I love the people who faithfully attend here. I love that we can see God moving in our midst.

This is a healthy, well established church. Our finances are strong, the worship is great, and the preaching is dynamic! We have a wonderful children’s ministry, a great youth group, community groups, a senior Bible study, and a calendar full of social events. We have something for everyone!

Every year we work hard to encourage more people to come to church here. We want them to hear the gospel of salvation. We want their lives to be transformed. We want them to grow in their relationship with God. We think that this is a pretty great place to accomplish all those spiritual goals. We advertise, hang banners, send out fliers, and encourage people to invite their friends.

As the pastor I am enthusiastic about inviting people to come to church here! In fact, most pastors I know work hard to invite people to go to church. It’s kind of a part of the job. There are tons of books and articles and conferences that we all go to in order to learn how to invite people to church more effectively.

The problem is that our love for our church and our enthusiasm for growth blinds us to the fact that sometimes we have a responsibility to encourage people to go a different church. I know it might sound crazy, but there are times when the most loving thing we can do is to help people move on down the road. As pastors we need to know how to identify people who need to be invited to go to a different church.

It hurts to see people go (sometimes) but there have been times in my ministry when I knew that I needed to encourage people to move along. Here are some examples:

The Commuter– These are people who have moved just outside of the reasonable driving radius of the church. I had one couple who lived almost an hour away who kept making the drive in each Sunday. I knew it was a financial hardship on them and they struggled to stay faithful. But they just couldn’t bring themselves to look for a different church. Eventually I was able to recommend one of our sister churches that was much closer to their home and I gave them my blessing. It was hard to see them go, but they are now plugged in to that local church body and very active in service.
The Transfer– Every pastor has met this person. They are regular members of the church down the street, but someone offended them somehow and they stormed off in a huff. Often they are just using you to make their other church feel bad for what they did. And usually their complaint is petty. Whenever I meet someone like this I always encourage them to go back to their home church and talk things out. They need to make every effort to maintain the unity of the body. I understand that sometimes people have good reasons for switching churches, but I don’t want my church to be the place where people come just to avoid hard conversations or hide from church discipline.
The Traditionalist– Things change. That truth is something that some Christians seem to have a hard time accepting. They just want things to be the way there were…before. This one usually involves music style preferences. I had a couple who came to our church looking for a place to sing all their favorite hymns from the 1800’s. For some odd reason they were having a tough time finding a church home. They came to my church because we would do a hymn every now and then and because they liked the fact that I preached expository sermons. But when the 65 year old music leader left and a younger guy came everything fell apart. The kind of songs we sang didn’t really change, but because the new guy was young they couldn’t stand him. They would often wait out in the foyer until the music ended. That’s not healthy. I did a little research and found a small church nearby that still refused to allow drums on the alter and suggested to the couple that they might be happier there. I’d much rather have people move beyond their own personal preferences and show grace, but for some people that kind of humility is not possible. Give them permission to go.
The Cancer– We all have critics. Criticism comes with the territory. But there are some people who have such a critical spirit and a negative view of everything that it sours the church. It spreads like a cancer robbing the church of all joy or hope or sense of mission. These people resist any attempts at encouragement. Everything is always bad, even when things are good. These people don’t even realize the damage that they are doing. Pastors have a tendency to ignore them and hope it gets better. We feel weird about confronting them because they haven’t committed some great big sin. But the longer we ignore them the worse things get. Be prayerful, careful, and patient with these people. But don’t ignore them.
The Personality Clash– It is the height of arrogance to think that everyone in the world will like us. Some people simply won’t care for your humor or your leadership style or your hairstyle. I became a senior pastor at the age of 30. There was one lady who had a picture in her mind of what a pastor should be- old, stately, suit-wearing, and grandfatherly. She didn’t like that my sermon illustrations often were about sports or cheeseburgers or video games. She didn’t like my humor. She wanted a pastor who was more dignified. I met with her and suggested that if she was not able to respect me as her pastor then she should go somewhere else.
The Split Family– This seems to be a growing trend in our culture. Both the husband and wife are Christians, but one spouse likes “Evangelical Church A” and the other prefers “Evangelical Church B.” So one of them attends one church on Sunday and the other goes somewhere else. The kids go where they have the most friends. The husband refuses to change because he doesn’t like how they do things over there; the wife refuses to change because all her friends are at this church. This is usually a symptom of deeper marital problems. It’s not a healthy thing. My solution is to meet with whichever member is attending my church and walk them through Ephesians 5. If it is the wife, I encourage her to submit to her husband out of reverence to Christ and attend church with her husband. If it’s the husband that goes to my church I encourage him to love his wife in a sacrificial way and go where she wants to go. I never counsel the wife to force her husband to love and sacrifice, and I never counsel the husband to force the wife to submit. It would be easy to selfishly want that person to stay, but I am more concerned with ministering to the needs of that family than protecting my head count.

People are messy and complicated. Sometimes they just need a little encouragement to put their preferences aside for the sake of unity, or some prayer over a critical spirit, or a reminder about the purpose of church, or a big hug. Asking someone to move on must be done with prayer and humility. But make sure you are a pastor who loves people enough to let them go.
Copied from https://www.westernseminary.edu/transformedblog/2014/03/04/the-six-people-you-should-ask-to-leave-your-church/

When I was pastoring a church that took off like a rocket from 150 to 150 in four years, I wrote every pastor of a growing vibrant congregation over 1,000 I could find.

I asked them for their best advice on how I could lead my congregation to become a healthy, growing, outreach-focused church like theirs.

I purposely sought out people who had led their church through my exact stage and beyond, instead of seeking out Senior Pastors whose tenures began at a much larger size.

Of all the advice I received back, none was more helpful than what I received from Pastor Rich Nathan of the Vineyard Community Church in Columbus, OH.

After sharing some very encouraging words about how difficult it is to be a pastor, regardless of the size of your congregation, Rich wrote the following,

“It appears you have no idea what you’re doing when it comes to implementing simple, but effective systems for churches in the 300-1,000 range; things like mobilizing members for outreach, assimilating visitors, recruiting volunteers, etc.”

The only thing I really heard when I read that letter were the first nine words: “It appears you have no idea what you’re doing…”

Those words have always stayed with me.

They were as insightful as they were direct.
Wounds From A Friend

I’ve come to believe that admitting to yourself, to your team, and to your congregation that you have no idea what you are doing is the secret all Senior Pastors of growing churches have in common.

Why?

Whether we’re pastoring churches of 25, 250, or 2,500, every church reaches a size and level of complexity that surpasses the Senior Pastor’s skill set and experience.

When one reaches that point the most honest and helpful thing a Senior Pastor can say is, “I have no idea what I’m doing.”

Every staff member reaches this point.

Every person on your governing council reaches this point.

So why wouldn’t you expect to reach this point yourself?
A Difficult Admission

You’d be surprised how rare it is for me, as a coach of Senior Pastors, to hear the following words from a fellow leader in the trenches: “I have to be honest. I’ve never led past this size, or in a church with this amount of complexity.”

My conviction is that until you truly are able to articulate that, you’ll never seek help – from peers, from coaches, from former pastors, from anyone that can help you. Consequently, you will remain stuck, and your church will remain stuck. Churches never grow past the leadership level of the Senior Pastor, ever.
Churches never grow past the leadership level of the Senior Pastor, ever.

Desperation is a funny thing. It either humbles you, which in turn makes you hungry enough to go find the answers to your questions. Or it demoralizes you and makes you depressed.

For three of the four years I served that church that had flat-lined at 150, I became demoralized, depressed (clinically at one point) and wanted to quit.

If someone had simply told me that EVERY PASTOR GETS TO THIS POINT, and I mean every single one, I could have taken advantage of that season earlier. Instead, it took me getting to the point of absolute utter desperation to FINALLY muster the courage to admit to my team and my congregation what they already knew.
Are You Wasting This Season?

Maybe you’re there right now – doubting, frustrated, and shaming yourself.

Please stop doing that.

Instead, use this God-given season of non-growth in your ministry as an opportunity to go out and learn from others:

Go visit their churches.
Watch their sermons and services online.
Interview their leaders.
Steal their ideas and make them your own.

Whatever you do, don’t waste this season of non-growth in your ministry.

It is a gift from God.

Trust me.
Copied from Senior Pastors Central http://seniorpastorcentral.com/918/1-secret-church-growth/

Hello,

Are you fed up by the constant complaints of your church members that you don’t care?

Do you feel the need to reach out more to them yet don’t seem to find it easy or even know how?

Have you thought of how best to make your church members understand that you truly care?

The key is maintaining and sustaining a strong and blossoming communication between you and your members, such that you are engraved in their heart enough to earn their loyalty and win their commitment. This may seem difficult yet it is absolutely possible and only requires few clicks of a mouse.

The way forward (www.esoftchurch.com):

Esoftchurch is a unique, reliable and proven 21st Century Church Management Software, specially developed and dedicated to enhance a fruitful and blossoming relationship between the church and her members. Having seen how poor, inadequate and broken communication can affect a church’s growth and expansion, we came up with Esoftchurch to help prevent poor communication.
Esoftchurch advocates massive church growth as it enhances a stress free, continuous and valued based communication from the pastorate to the church members.

Some of the benefits you get from using Esoftchurch includes:

• You will never forget a member’s birthday or wedding anniversary again as Esoftchurch sends automated birthday and wedding anniversary SMS and Emails to celebrants.

• Send specific SMS or Emails to all or specific Church members. What this means is that you can with ease relate with your members on a very specific and personal level, that is send them messages that tackles their individual needs. Thereby helping you tailor the right message to the right members more like administering the right drugs to the right patient. E.g. send meeting notification to men only or business tips to business people.

• Send daily devotionals to members by Email.

• Esoftchurch automatically analyzes and separates the database of your members into various categories such as Marital status (Single, Engaged, Married, Widow Etc.), Sex (Male, Female), Age grade (Children, Teenager, Youth, Adult, Elder etc.), Occupation (Student, Unemployed, Employed, Business people Etc.), First Timer, New Convert, Worker etc. It can analyze your church membership such as How many Business people, Lawyers, Widowed, and Students etc. are in your church

• You probably understand the frustration that comes with wanting to reach out to a member or a specific group of members, but all effort ends in futility. This is not so with Esoftchurch as it also serves as a search engine for your members, whereby you can search for anyone or group with any peculiar information like sex, age, name, location etc. Hence you are only few clicks away from reaching a member(s) as easy as ABC.

• Esoftchurch allows you to record and save details of all follow up exercises for First timers, New converts and Members, Hence you generate follow up reports without stress.

• With Esoftchurch you can save the CVs of Unemployed members, so that you can forward it whenever an urgent opportunity arises for them or Send job alerts to Unemployed members in your database.

To start enjoying the immense value Esoftchurch has to offer your church and her members. Go to www.esoftchurch.com and sign up for free. Only pay for the SMS and Email unit you use. You will be glad you did.

Thank you.