How Can You Tell If Your Church Is Healthy?

9 Creative Ways to Make Baptism More Meaningful for Your Church

Would you like to make Baptism services more meaningful? We found an article by Jim Elliff of Christian Communicators Worldwide about baptism [https://www.ccwtoday.org/2023/09/thoughts-on-improving-baptisms/]. We discussed it in this episode of the podcast. Here's the quick list... 1. Bring your congregation closer to the baptism pool to make it more intimate. 2. Print invitations for the candidates to hand out to friends/family. 3. Have those being baptized share their testimony somehow. 4. Let godly parents share the change they see in their child after being saved. 5. Invite godly parents to be with their children in the pool while you baptize them. We suggest letting a godly dad baptize his child. 6. Baptize in a public place to testify God's blessing through Baptism. 7. Ask the church to commit the new believer to help grow them in their faith. 8. Baptize as often as possible and as soon after salvation as possible. 9. Teach on baptism during the service. We hope you'll listen and subscribe to the podcast. Find out more about where you can listen at our website [https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thesmallchurchpodcast]. Do you have ideas about ways to make small churches healthy churches? Don't hesitate to contact us from our website or on social media like our Facebook page [https://www.facebook.com/thesmallchurchpodcast/].

How Can You Tell If Your Church Is Healthy? Part 2

We talk about a healthy church, but how do you know if your church is healthy or sick? Chuck Lawless wrote an article about 6 characteristics of healthy churches [https://ncbaptist.org/article/6-things-to-look-for-when-evaluating-church-health/]. Small churches can be healthy churches. In this episode, we talk about the other three; the last time, we'll covered the first three.

How Can You Tell If Your Church Is Healthy?

We talk about a healthy church, but how do you know if your church is healthy or sick? Chuck Lawless wrote an article about 6 characteristics of healthy churches [https://ncbaptist.org/article/6-things-to-look-for-when-evaluating-church-health/]. Small churches can be healthy churches. In this episode, we talk about the first three; next time, we'll cover the last three.

3 More Evangelism Ideas That Won't Break the Bank

We're all about helping small churches find ways to grow healthier and stronger. To do that, we need to obey Jesus in evangelism. This podcast offers three more creative ideas for evangelism your small church can use to apply the Great Commission in your community and church. Like the first three in our previous episode, they won't break the bank. In this episode, we discuss the following... * Team Evangelism * Teams can consist of classes, committees, small groups, or any group that will go and reach out to people. * If you do this through a SS class, consider adding an outreach leader in each class who will help focus the class on reaching the lost. * Pastors, remember to remind these small groups to evangelize every chance you get by celebrating victories and highlighting creative approaches. * Servant Evangelism * Find ways to serve people outside your church. * Build ramps or mow lawns for elderly people. * Have a laundry day where you pay for people's laundry at a laundromat and then share the Gospel. * Make Worship Special * 96% of the top most evangelistic churches who baptize more than other churches say their worship is celebratory. * On special services focus on Evangelism. * Focus less on trying to make mothers feel guilty for not being good moms and more on reaching their children, husbands, or other family they invite to join them on their special day. * Do the same for other holidays or special days. * Make a big deal of baptism and remember that new believers invite lost people to see them experience baptism. At the end, we asked which of the six ideas in this and our previous podcast is the most important and which is the easiest to implement right now. Listen to the end to find out what we think. Find out more about our show at https://thesmallchurchpodcast.com [https://thesmallchurchpodcast.com/] or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/thesmallchurchpodcast [https://www.facebook.com/thesmallchurchpodcast/]. Email us at kevin@thesmallchurchpodcast.com [kevin@thesmallchurchpodcast.com] or robby@thesmallchurchpodcast.com [robby@thesmallchurchpodcast.com].

3 Creative Evangelism Ideas that Won't Break the Bank

We're all about helping small churches find ways to grow healthier and stronger. To do that, we need to obey Jesus in evangelism. In this podcast, we offer 3 creative ideas for evangelism your small church can use to reduce the lostness in your community. The great thing is this... they won't break the bank. In fact, you can do one or two of them for nothing. In this episode, we discuss the following... * Pray for the Lost * A small white or blackboard in SS classes with names praying of the lost that you're praying to receive Jesus. * A bucket or basket of names - take one out and pray at each service. * Any time there’s a meeting of committees or teams, pray for the lost. * Event Strategy - follow these guidelines in your events... * Focus on the unreached people in your community. * Provide a clear presentation of Gospel. * Offer an opportunity to respond and be saved right there. * Get someone who can draw the net - someone with the Gift of Evangelism. * Examples * feed service workers * hold revivals - baptize more people if you have them and plan for presenting gospel * VBS - usually biggest harvest event (plan to present gospel and follow up) * block parties * Provide Personal Evangelism Training * Churches that train people to share the Gospel baptize 20% more than those who don’t. * Do this in some for 4-6 Tims per year. * Do one training during the Sunday morning worship service and expect people to get saved during that time.