by Josh Monda | Oct 6, 2008 | Uncategorized
Aug 30
Posted by Josh
Recently I attended a Train the Trainer event and it was packed with useful in formation. This seminar was put on my Dr. John Ewart and I thought I would take the next few days and talk about some things that I had learned.
Today I want to start with What Is A Missional Church
we were given this quote which I loved
“You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything.”
A Missional Church is – A reproducing body of Authentic disciples being equipped as missionaries sent by God to live and proclaim His kingdom in the world.
I know there are a lot of churches that think they are Missional but the truth of the matter is the majority of churches in the U.S. are not growing I will share more about that tomorrow. On of my friends Chris Baker once told me about a conference he had listened too where the question was posed “If your church was removed from your community who would protest?” We have to ask ourselves are we reaching our community? Eventually in the next few days I will get to a way that we learned how to reach our communities that just totally blew me away. Well let me finish up with what we learned about Missional.
Motivated to declare the gospel
Invests in Biblical Training
Strategically focuses on the unreached
Sacrificially supports ministry partners
Intentionally plants new churches
Offer “missional” opportunities
Negotiates strategic partnerships
Always focussing glocally (global and local)
Leadership is on the front lines
Is your church Missional? Tomorrow I will post some stats that will just blow you away.
Life, My Thoughts, Spiritual Application
by Josh Monda | Oct 6, 2008 | Uncategorized
Aug 28
Posted by Josh
For those of you who may have been keeping track of my posts and may have wanted to read the post today about intentional praying and open small groups I apologize. A friend asked me if I would go to Morris Minnesota with him and being the spontaneous guy I am I said sure. So here it is 2 am and I did not get the post done I will try to do it tomorrow evening.
Life, My Thoughts
by Josh Monda | Oct 6, 2008 | Uncategorized
I decided today I wanted to right about some scripture specifically a few verses that show us the eternality of Jesus Christ. These verses are found in the gospel of John 1:1-2.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
In these verses 3 very important facts are stated. They are Christ is Preexistent, He is Coexistent, and Self-existent.
When we say that Christ was preexistent we me was there before creation. There is no question of His existent He has always existed.
Some people might say well the verse says in the beginning. In the beginning does not mean from the beginning. Jesus christ was already there. He did not become, he was not created, He has never had a beginning. He “was in the beginning with God”.
We also must take notice that the word “was” is used. It is in the Greek imperfect tense and is so often used for deity. The word mean “to be” or “I am”. To be mean continuos existence, without a beginning or an origin.
What John is saying is that Jesus Christ was the Word, the who had always existed, the Son of the Living God.
Secondly Christ is Coexistent. He was and is face to face with God forever. The word “with” carries the idea of both being with and acting toward. Jesus Christ was not only with God but was acting with God as well. He was “with God” by God’s side acting living, and moving in the closest of relationships with the Heavenly Father. Christ had the ideal and perfect relationship with God the Father. Jesus Christ and God had the perfect eternal bond. John is stating that Jesus Christ is the Word and has always coexisted with God, he is the Son of the living God.
Finally Jesus is Self-existent. Notice John does not say “the Word” was the God or a God. He specifically says “the Word” was God. John was saying that “the Word” Jesus Christ is of the ver naturea and charater f God the father, he is a distinct person from God the father, but He is of the very being and essence of God the Father.
When a someone sees Christ, they see a distinct person, but they see a person who is of the very substance and character of God in all of His perfect being. John is making it clear that Jesus Christ is the Word, self-existent and eternal, the Supreme Majesty of the universe who owes His existence to no one. Jesus Christ is the son of the living God.
Jesus Christ is eternal this remind of something I used to tell my Youth group all of the time. If you want to know about god you merely look at Jesus Christ.
Christ reveals the most important person in all of the universe: God. Jesus Christ reveals all that God is and wast to say to humanity. That is why we must study the person of Jesus Christ, and all that He is and we must model our lives after His and obey all He commands.
Christ also reveals God perfectly. Jesus is just like God, in fact identical to God that is why we can look at Jesus and see God.
Christ finally reveals that God is the most wonderful person. God is far beyond anyone we could ever imagine or even dream of. he is loving and caring, full of goodness and truth; and He will not tolerate injustices: murder and stealing, lying and cheating of husband, wife, child, neighbor, brother, sister, or even strangers.
Jesus Christ is eternal he always was, is, and will be and we are called to model our lives after His.
by Josh Monda | Oct 6, 2008 | Uncategorized
Yesterday I spent some time talking about “What is a Missional church”. Today I am going to look at this question Are our churches failing. Today I will show you alot of statistics that I learned at my conference.
I was absolutely amazed to learn that is takes 86 church members to reach one person for Jesus Christ. Why is that. We feel we have the message of salvation that will save someone from an eternity in hell yet we fail to share this news.
In addition only 41-43% of Americans say they attend church on a given weekend. They key here is 41-43% say the truth is that only 17.5% percent of Americans actually attend church on any given weekend. The fact is that over 85-94% of our churches are non growing. In the past decade alone the U.S. population has increased by over 10% while the U.S. church population has decreased by 9.5 percent. So when we hear that there is a church on every street that just is not true. The population is literally outgrowing our churches. If you do the path the church is in nearly a 20% deficit.
91 million people live in the U.S. who did not live hear 18 years ago. 70 million of them are under that age of 17, 23 million of them are immigrants. No one single state in U.S. has maintained a level of church growth that has kept up with its populations growth. In addition to this not one single county in U.S. reported more people attending church than 10 years ago. In the U.S. alone there are between 160-180 million unchurched people.
Here is the real kicker to this. over 17 million of those people 11% would come to faith in Jesus Christ if someone would tell them how. This is unbelievable that 17 million people just need to be told how and yet we say nothing. What’s more is that another 43 million 27% are almost ready to accept Christ as Savior.
Often we are afraid that people will reject us or get mad at us for sharing the gospel. The real truth is that only 5% of the unchurches would be considered antagonistic or hostile toward the church. Yet with all of these fact still 90% of our church members will never share their faith. Only 21% of our active members will invite anyone to church in a year, and only 2% will invite an unchurched person to church.
I strongly believe that the congregation will follow its leadership, that is why this next stat breaks my heart. In a recent study 54% of pastors had not shared their faith in the last 6 months. More than 80% of the unchurched said they would go if only someone would invite them. Yet at the same time more than 80% of the unchurched said they have never been invited to church. Yet at the same time 86% of people attracted to church come because of a personal contact with a church member.
What are we doing wrong? Is there and answer for this apathy that is so prevalent. Come back tomorrow as I share “What we can do”, The Most effective evangelistic methodologies.
by Josh Monda | Sep 28, 2008 | Uncategorized
Sep 02
Posted by Josh
I have always felt that God has called me to be a Youth Pastor in addition I have always been against those that merely use Youth Ministry to aspire to something better meaning a Sr. Pastor role. But what if you feel maybe God is calling you to a Sr. Pastor role. This has entered into my thinking and something I never thought I would think about is dominating my thought process. I really have never desired to be a Sr. Pastor. I guess all of the headaches that come with it I would like to avoid. However there are just as many headaches within Youth Ministry. I however have always liked dealing with teens and have not necessarily liked dealing with many adults. However I have to ask myself has God been preparing me for this, preparing me for something different, even something I never dreamed I would do.
I have always said to my wife if I was going to be a Sr. Pastor I don’t want to do it in a small town. I have just felt the potential for growth is so low. However over the last few weeks I have begun to see that there are many smaller towns that either do not have a good church or they have a church without a Pastor. Many people here in MO are forced to drive several miles if they live in a small town in order to find a good church. In addition I have had several people recently ask me if I would consider being a Sr. Pastor. I just struggle with decision. Am I ready?
Sometimes God calls us to do things that we never though were possible. Sometimes God wants us to think outside of ourselves and to focus on Him. I am not saying I am call to be a Sr. Pastor but I decided today I should at least be open to the idea. If you are reading this I would ask that you pray fro direction in my life.
Life, My Thoughts, Spiritual Application
