Personal Passion

1. c

3. Personal Passion Lost People Matter to God Do They Matter to Me? What Difference will it make in how I live my life?

4. II Corinthians 2:14-16 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. ReFocusing is Checking our Smell

5. What are we supposed to be doing as a church? Study by Win Arn of 1,000 different churches: What is the purpose of the church? 89% of the people in the church said that the church exists “to take care of my family’s and my needs.” 11%said that the church exists to win the world

6. 80,000 -100,000 new believers daily. 3,500 new churches planted every week. Last 5 years is the greatest period of church growth ever! Global Picture: Rapid Expansion Christianity is not growing in North America!

7. The United States of America A Mission Field?

8. USA: Church Population During the past ten years: • All Protestant denominations DECLINED 9.5% • A LOSS of 4,498,242 people • While the population INCREASED 11.4% • A GAIN of 24,153,000 people

9. In the past 50 years evangelicals have failed to gain an additional 2% of the American population.

10. USA: County by County “Not one county in America has a greater churched population today than it did ten years ago.” - Chip Arn

11. USA: Church Population • Third Largest Mission Field: USA • 195 Million Unchurched Americans

12. USA: Unchurched The United States of America has become a nation that, fifty years ago, every Christian denomination would have felt compelled to missionize.

13. We’re Not a Threat; We’re Irrelevant “As Christians in America today, we’re not much of a threat to society because we’re irrelevant, both to society as a whole and to our next door neighbors as individuals. The primary reason America is so unchurched is that Christianity has no relevance for the vast majority of people we hope to reach.” Lost in America

14. The question for the future is “What will we be?”

15. Keepers of the Fish Tank

16. Fishers of Men

17. What is the Focus of a Healthy Church? Life Transformation Not Church Growth Not Programs Not Worship Style

18. If Life Transformation is our focus, who should receive our attention? Those who need to be transformed c

20. What kind of church will it take to reach your world for Jesus?

21. This is Not my father’s Oldsmobile

22. This is not my father’s church

23. My Father’s Church • Sunday School attendance exceeded worship attendance • One worship service for everyone • 1 ½ hour services with the sermon filling most of the time • Sunday Evening was for evangelism

24. My Father’s Church • Wednesday Prayer Meeting was well attended • Home visitation was an effective means of evangelism • People responded to Sunday School contests • People rearranged their schedules to attend revivals

25. What kind of church will it take to reach our world for Jesus?

26. What kind of Leader will it take to lead the church to reach our kind of world?

27. The Refocus ProcessBegins with AssessmentPersonal Assessment Who am I? Your spiritual gift mix, your personality type and your behavioral traits will shape what your vision of a refocused church will look like.

28. The Refocus ProcessPersonal Assessment Spiritual Gift Mix Understanding your gifts will help you to be more successful in the Refocusing process

29. The Refocus ProcessPersonal Assessment Personality Types If we better know who we are, we will know better how to work with the people around us

30. The Refocus ProcessPersonal Assessment Leadership Strengths “Now, Discover Your Strengths”

31. Behavioral Traits Needed for ReFocusing The Refocus ProcessPersonal Assessment

32. The Next Step in preparing for the ReFocusing Process is to take a look at your church and determine it’s current reality Church Assessment

34. Is your church the kind of church it will take to reach your kind of world?

35. The Refocus ProcessChurch Assessment • Pastoral Match --Is there a good match? --Is the pastor ready to stay? --Is the church ready to follow?

36. A 3-5 year commitment is required for ReFocusing Abraham Lincoln, depressed and disgusted at the lack of progress Union forces were making during an especially low point of the Civil War, was asked why he did not resign and just leave these fools to their own devices. He replied sadly, "If I resign, they will perish."He had looked down the years and seen a united country standing tall, an inspiration to all humankind.

37. A 3-5 year commitment is required for ReFocusing Sometimes success — or even survival — is a matter of endurance, of sticking it out. There are times when the road seems to wind uphill all the way. There are passages difficult to get through—days of illness, hours of worry, sleepless nights of concern, weeks of ordinary following hum-drum.

38. Church Analysis “Where Is The Church?” Plateau Maturity Decline Growth Drop Out Birth Death Lifecycle of a Church Refocus Restart

39. A Church Health Survey

40. Assessment Core Values Ministry Flow Chart Budgeting Critical Milestones Monitoring

41. The Refocus ProcessChurch Assessment Unchurched-Reaching Readiness Survey “Surprising Insights from the Unchurched” Tom Rainer

42. Outside Assessment may be helpful The Refocus ProcessChurch Assessment

43. A good assessment of the church is critical for a successful Refocus