Online Christian Discipleship School
LifeCycle Series D3
Instructions: You can use the course online or print each lesson and fill in the blanks. If you're taking these courses with the goal of receiving a diploma or becoming a member of Web-Church, you must answer and file a copy of each lesson to submit to Web-Church once you've completed all lessons. If you wish to make a file copy, you can highlight the text and paste it into a text file. Pay close attention to any affirmations, commitments or Bible memory verses at the end of lessons. These are included to help cement the lesson content into your life.
We're getting down to where the rubber meets the road. So far in the LifeCycle Online Discipleship School, you've made commitments to God you probably never expected to make. Hopefully, you've learned some things you never knew before about the life of a Christian. This session is designed to inform you of the design God gave us for Web-Church and E-Home Fellowship (EHF) ministries and compare that with traditional Western churches. Having pastored in traditional churches for over 10 years before founding EHF, I have a working knowledge of both. If you're in a traditional church you're happy with, I want you to know I believe the traditional churches serve God in the way they feel called and to the best of their ability and knowledge. I was introduced to the Lord in a traditional church and thank God daily. Most of the Worship and Praise music we use was produced in traditional churches. We owe them a lot. Also, it's impossible to fit all traditional churches into one general assessment. If anything I say doesn't fit with your experience of traditional church, praise God! I'm speaking generally of the trends I've seen over my life and over 14 years as a full-time servant of God. We at http://www.web-church.com are called to use different methods to fulfill the same mission as the traditional churches. For additional Scripture covering our methods, review our lessons What About Church Attendance? and Christian Small Groups
Before we get into the comparison of methods, let's consider some strengths the Traditional church has over Web-Church.
Tradition: For over 1,000 years, most Christians have been worshiping this way. Anyone desiring the large corporate setting will participate in our Gatherings only to enhance their devotional life. That's O.K.
Economy-of-scale: Traditional churches, depending on their size, are able to provide services we can't: Professional Speaker, Sunday School, Youth Group, choir, orchestra, dramatic productions, etc. It's possible, though, for our Gathering to be your fellowship and to use para-church groups, like Youth For Christ, Promise Keepers, Christian radio, Christian camps, etc. to provide the other ministries.
Unchallenging: In larger churches, it's possible to attend and never be challenged or confronted to grow…never even converse with anyone. This is an advantage for many. Our Gathering isn't for everyone.
Physical Presence: Though costly, the commercial building is something people can point to and say, "This is my church." When someone feels drawn to God by the Spirit, they usually end up going to one of these buildings (that's how I found Christ).
These are the things a traditional church provides that aren't provided through Web-Church, and, I might add, weren't provided for the first 350 years (the fastest growing period) of Christian history. Every essential element of Christian life and discipleship can be provided as well or better through the Web-Church fellowship Gathering.
1. Point-of-need vs Point-of-ministry: As we discussed in the last session, Web-Church and EHF ministries are designed to use the Internet to meet people at their Point-of-need. Traditional churches establish a Point-of-ministry at a specific location. If someone has a need that matches their ministry areas, lives close enough, and hears about their ministry, this person can visit the ministry establishment and have their need met. With search engines, Web-Church can introduce people to God anywhere in the World, based on their felt needs, and use the Internet to help them fellowship and learn about their new life in Christ. Traditional churches often consume huge amounts of effort trying to convince the people in their area of the need for God. This wears the congregation out and often irritates those being "reached". At Web-Church, only people who want help with their needs will find us. They decide whether they want God's help before they contact anyone at Web-Church. Even after they've connected with God, it's their choice whether to contact us and take part in anything else. We let the Holy Spirit do His work instead of putting people on-the-spot with emotional manipulation. See Mt 13:9, Rom 8:14, I Cor 12:3
Continued at Church At Your House-2
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