Participants: Jason McCracken, Karen Thomas
Series Code: IAA
Program Code: IAA000060
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00:30 Have you ever wondered how it always ends up
00:34 that big people are doing big things? 00:37 When you have big crowds, 00:39 it seems like you are able to accomplish so many things. 00:42 But today, we're gonna talk about 00:44 how people in small groups 00:46 and in small churches can do great things for Christ. 00:50 And join us today for our guest is Pastor Jason McCracken. 00:53 Welcome to the program. Thank you, thank you. 00:56 It's great to have you back again. 00:58 Thank you. 00:59 Pastor Jason McCracken is a market representative 01:02 with Review and Herald, publishing association. 01:05 He is an ordained minister of the gospel, 01:08 a board member of the Academy of Adventist Professionals 01:11 and a family life educator. 01:14 He is also a professional stage production manager. 01:17 So, he has done big, big, big events. 01:19 But he is here today to talk about how small groups 01:22 and small churches can do great things for Christ. 01:26 Yes, thank you. Where do we begin? 01:28 Well, first of all we have to begin with the Bible, 01:31 and in Matthew chapter 28, 01:34 that great commission is designed for us, 01:37 it says "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, 01:40 All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. 01:43 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, 01:46 baptizing them in the name of the Father, 01:48 and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. 01:50 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever 01:53 I have commanded you and, lo, I am with you always, 01:57 even unto the end of the world. Amen." 01:59 But now when we move to Mark Chapter 16 02:03 its, its Marks understanding of how the gospel is. 02:08 It's basically the same what is different. 02:10 Look at, look at what Mark says, Mark 16:15. 02:14 "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, 02:19 and preach the gospel to every creature. 02:24 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, 02:29 but he that believeth not shall be damned." 02:32 And it goes on. 02:34 But now the most interesting thing that Jesus wants 02:38 all of us to do even in the small churches is to go. 02:43 Now, "G" means get, "O" means out. 02:47 People in small churches tend to be very comfortable 02:51 in their own environment because they're few in number. 02:55 May be there are 10 or 15 or 20, 02:58 I pastored a church with 30 03:01 but in one year we had over a hundred. 03:04 Why? 03:05 Is because we understood the biblical commission 03:09 and the principle "Get Out." 03:13 And so small churches have to learn 03:16 to get outside of the churches, go into the community 03:22 and demonstrate number one, that you are there. 03:27 Most small churches are afraid to go outside 03:30 because they feel that they do not have 03:32 a big evangelist to help them. 03:34 You do not need a big evangelist to come in 03:37 and help you and your small group. 03:40 All you need is just a group of believers 03:44 who are willing to go out and test the Father, 03:47 love of Christ to another person. 03:49 So, lets take an example, if you have a church 03:52 or a group of 15 people, five are young people, 03:57 ten are adults, working adults 04:01 may be one or two junior youths, senior youths okay. 04:07 Now you have ten they are trained to talk 04:12 about the love of Christ to their friends. 04:16 They're going to interest their friends 04:18 in doing basic Bible studies. 04:21 That means 10 people help 10 other people that makes 20. 04:28 Now, each and every on of us today 04:32 we have friends in our community, 04:33 our neighbor next door, our neighbor across the street, 04:36 our neighbor down the street, even a friend at our job. 04:38 So you have target just one, not some, just one. 04:45 Now if I want be radical as an evangelist say, 04:47 "Okay, ten people target ten people you have a hundred." 04:51 No, it doesn't work that way 04:52 because evangelism is based on relations. 04:57 It's a type of ministry where you have to talk to people, 05:01 you have to learn about them, you've have to even hold them 05:04 and hug them and touch them 05:07 and help them where they need help. 05:12 And so, 10 people can touch 10 people that's 20. 05:17 If its consistently done in a small group or a church 05:21 with in two years you'll probably have 05:24 from 50 to 80 people attending church. 05:28 That's wonderful. That is marvelous. 05:31 So, now what about if the community is small 05:34 where the church is located? 05:37 That's even easier. 05:40 Can you imagine a small church in New York City 05:44 trying to attend to reach 14 million people 05:47 but can you imagine a church that might have 30 people 05:50 in a community of may be 500 every body know somebody. 05:57 So, now when you have a smaller community is even better, 06:00 the effect is even greater 06:02 because out of 30 you can reach 500 in a week. 06:07 A lot of people like to say lets go knock on all the doors 06:10 and let's give them a piece of literature 06:12 and say here take this piece of literature 06:15 the Lord is gonna save you. 06:17 That's not evangelism. 06:19 Evangelism is walking and knowing your neighbors 06:24 and speaking to them like people, not condemning, 06:29 not telling them that they are doing wrong 06:32 just speaking to them. 06:34 I give you an example. 06:36 When I was pastoring in Canada I was given a small church. 06:41 They were gonna close the church down 06:44 and send the members to the church 20 minutes away, 06:48 every body had cars not a problem. 06:50 The church was a house church it sat on a corner, 06:54 it was built with boulders. 06:57 The basement was so low that you had to duck. 07:01 They have one bathroom, 07:03 the sanctuary was only one sanctuary. 07:06 They cut the sanctuary in three quarters to have a hallway 07:12 because the church was dwindling down in size. 07:15 So, they brought me in as a pastor. 07:18 Well, I have noticed that they where children 07:20 and young adults in the church. 07:22 So, I started preaching youthful sermons. 07:27 Every month we had a program plan in the community. 07:32 Within six months a representative 07:38 from the Ontario Conference headquarters 07:41 came to our church and asked the question 07:45 why is it that you have chairs in the isles? 07:49 Are they here because I am here. 07:52 I said not necessarily we will like this way 07:55 after the third month of my ministry. 07:58 What have you done? 08:00 I've trained the members to talk to their neighbors 08:03 in such a way that their neighbors would come 08:06 to church without being offended. 08:10 The young people were bringing their friends afternoon, 08:13 in the afternoon because we had a program 08:15 designed for youth in the afternoon. 08:17 In six months we needed to look for a new church. 08:21 Today that church has left that house church 08:25 and now they are renting a church 08:27 and they have more than 150 people 08:30 in their conversation with a full time pastor. 08:34 Relationalship evangelism is very simple 08:39 all you need is mouth 08:42 and you need a Biblical foundation 08:44 to go to your friends and talk about the love of Christ. 08:50 That's the simple technique. Let's use another example. 08:56 In a small church you have people 09:00 who have developed a small mentality. 09:03 Now yes that's-- 09:05 They are saying, 09:06 how can we reach everyone in our community? 09:08 Yeah, the giants in the land. 09:10 Giants in the land, giants-- 09:12 what could we do we're in this community? 09:15 Now lets move, lets move, lets go back to that church again. 09:18 Now that church was there on that corner for 75 years 09:22 and because it was on that corner for 75 years 09:25 I asked them what is your mission, 09:29 you've been here for 75 years on this corner 09:32 you're probably gonna make a hundred years 09:34 what have you done in this community? 09:38 Well, one of my elders-- 09:39 What have you done lately for Christ? 09:40 Yeah I mean, one of my elders came to me 09:43 and say well we've been witnessing. 09:46 What-- how did you witness in the community? 09:48 Well, we knocked on doors. 09:50 Well, after you knocked on the doors then what? 09:54 Well, we expect that the people to come to the little church. 09:57 That's not how you actually have evangelism. 10:01 Evangelism is not knocking on doors. 10:03 Evangelism is about sitting inside someone's home 10:07 and talking and relating good things about Christ. 10:12 Most people that witness would say bad things. 10:14 The world is going to ruins, things are terrible, 10:18 people are killing people. 10:20 Why can't I say something like did you not know 10:24 that Christ died for you in order to save you? 10:30 Yes, yes much more interesting. Oh, of course. 10:33 But you know it seems like there is a gap 10:34 between people having good intensions 10:37 and really excited about the Lord 10:39 and wanted to share their faith 10:40 and then really having knowledge of a focus. 10:45 I mean something happen, I mean I think there are lot of people 10:48 who are listen to this program really love the Lord 10:50 and who really would really like to see 10:53 their churches grow, their group, 10:55 a Bible studies to grow. 10:56 But, obviously something happens specially 10:58 do you train the folk there? 11:00 Okay, what happen I trained my local members. 11:06 Wednesday night was a time 11:09 that we would come and have prayer meeting. 11:12 I changed it from an evangelistic training school. 11:18 So, every Wednesday night with a few people in our church 11:23 we would talk about evangelism. 11:26 What does the bible say about it? 11:28 What can we do about it? 11:30 And then we instituted type of community programs 11:34 that people will be aware 11:36 of what is taking place in our homes. 11:40 So, we would take our children to the park 11:42 and invite others to the park. 11:44 We would go on a street corner and we would handout literature 11:50 dealing with drug abuse and alcohol abuse. 11:53 We would go to a community service 11:56 that is does not even belong to us, 11:58 to the salvation army and say what can we do to help? 12:02 So, we were lending our hands in the community. 12:05 So, people in the community got to know was we got to know them 12:09 and then is a where is your church? 12:11 Well that church is around the corner, 12:12 it's been there for 75 years. 12:15 And so, we would call people on the telephone, 12:18 we would tell the senior citizens can't do a lot, 12:22 but they can call, they can talk, 12:24 they can even send religious journals 12:27 if they want to in the community. 12:29 You have to make sure that people in your community 12:32 know that you exist and that you are present 12:35 in the community, that's number one. 12:37 Number two, is now what do you do about it? 12:40 How do you get people to understand 12:43 about your way of thinking, about what does the Bible says? 12:48 That means you have to create an interest. 12:51 You might want to start a Bible school. 12:54 Now, a Bible school can be started in two ways. 12:56 Number one, you can have a Bible school 12:59 in your church every Sunday night for the community 13:03 or you can have a Bible correspondence school. 13:06 So, you can send out 25-50,000 pieces of cards 13:11 that people can send into discover a Bible school 13:15 and from the Bible school they will study the Bible 13:18 and then these cards will comeback to you in your church 13:21 then you would go out and seek them, 13:23 and that's how evangelism works. 13:25 It is giving, it is taking. 13:27 It is sowing the seeds and the seeds 13:30 now are being nurtured to the Word of God 13:32 and the Holy Spirit will impress that person 13:35 to seek out and find you. 13:38 You know, makes me think when you said 13:41 that there are Bible correspondence school 13:43 or actually opening the community on Sunday 13:45 or whatever day you know 13:47 that's gonna be a drawl of the community. 13:48 You know the internet is getting real popular. 13:50 Oh, definitely. 13:51 People have been asking my husband and I 13:53 for materials for to go into the internet 13:56 but that's something that a local church 13:59 could get involved in this as far as Bible studies go. 14:02 A lot of churches across America are investing, 14:06 not a lot of money but just a few dollars 14:09 in building their own website. 14:12 They can have sermons on their websites, 14:14 they can have audio feed on their websites, 14:16 they can have Bible studies on their websites, 14:19 they can have announce the type of programs 14:21 that the church offers on that website. 14:24 I even went to Vancouver, Canada 14:27 and a small Church was forming 14:29 and I said do you want a witness to lot of people? 14:32 They say, yes. 14:33 Why don't you develop some business cards 14:36 give them to every member? 14:38 Now, this Church only had about 30 people 14:40 so they wanted to reach 50,000 of specific group 14:43 within their community. 14:44 They were targeting a specific group in that community. 14:47 And so to develop the cards with a nice logo, 14:50 put the times of the church your programs put your website 14:54 and tell them to log on and get a free gift. 14:57 And he said, well, how long is this going to take? 14:59 I said, wait a minute you said 50,000, 15:01 you got 30 people each one get a box of 500 cards 15:05 you got a year to delivery how many you have there? 15:08 That's great. I mean, I think that goes to-- 15:12 You know, I think the Lord has given you some special gift 15:15 you know, those who work in this program you may went, 15:17 why do we have a marketing representative 15:19 come here from Review and Herald? 15:21 Do you know, that there is a science to soul winning. 15:23 I know you gonna talk to us about that in another program. 15:26 But I mean it takes time and thought to develop products 15:32 that we buy, that we wear and that we drive 15:34 and certainly it takes time and thought 15:36 to do the Lord's work in an excellent way 15:40 because there are people who want to hear this message 15:42 and who are looking for somebody 15:43 come please tell me about it. 15:44 Sure. 15:46 Well, there was another program we develop in Canada. 15:51 It's called the institute, 15:53 Maranatha Institute of Evangelism. 15:57 Okay, Maranatha means our Lord commieth. 16:00 So Maranatha Institute of Evangelism. 16:03 Now was this a conference developing? 16:05 It was a conference program. 16:06 Or was it started at the local church? 16:08 Well, what it-- what happened is 16:09 they had a small group of lay people 16:12 that would go around to the different churches 16:15 and teach principles of evangelism. 16:18 So they asked me to be their-- 16:21 state director their conference director. 16:23 So I said okay. 16:25 So I left the little church and went to a home office 16:28 and I said now, if you running to different churches 16:33 why don't you ask them to come to you? 16:36 They say well, we can do that 16:38 and we tried that but it didn't work. 16:40 I said, oh yes, it's easy. How long you been in existence? 16:43 About 10 years. 16:45 How many then coming every year? 16:46 Well, about a 100, 120, 130. 16:50 I said where are you going where we are going 16:52 to this camp two and half hours away. 16:54 I said, well, why don't you bring it to the city? 16:57 We have no facility. 16:58 Oh, yes there are praying facilities in the city. 17:00 Where all the Church's and we don't have any space. 17:04 Yes, you do. Where? 17:06 We gonna take it to convention center or hotel. 17:10 We had marketed this program 17:13 to a lot of Church's in the entire state. 17:16 And we had for the first time in the history of Canada 17:23 a largest evangelism convention with 710 paid delegates 17:30 in seven different languages. 17:33 And so we trained people in different languages 17:36 to reach language groups. 17:39 And we had a full curriculum 17:42 from Friday all the way through Sunday with a credential 17:47 that you now become a lay Bible minister. 17:52 And now your job within 12 months is the come back 17:57 and evaluate what you've done in a year 17:59 and win at least one soul. 18:02 We had another convention 12 month's later 18:04 with over a thousand delegates and do you not know, 18:08 that when they filled out the report's 18:11 we had over 1,000 baptized new member's. 18:16 Praise the Lord. 18:18 Training people for ministry is essential. 18:22 It starts at the local church and then it spreads. 18:27 Wow, now what happens 18:30 if the church doesn't have a pastor? 18:32 I mean, you had advantage, your church the one 18:34 that was in the corner for 75 years they were just-- 18:38 it sounds like they had a dynamic pastor with you. 18:40 What if they don't have a-- may be they are 18:43 in a multiple church district kind of situation? 18:46 In fact-- Yeah, multiple church district. 18:48 I had a multiple church district. 18:50 In fact, I had two churches. Okay. 18:53 And so the lay people of that local church must take charge. 18:58 A lay person has the same capability as a minister 19:02 the difference is one who is trained exclusively 19:05 from minister-- to be a minister 19:08 the other is the one who understands ministry. 19:12 And so the lay Pastor now can do the same exactly thing 19:15 by training the local people in their church 19:19 how to aggressively go out 19:21 door to door from shore to shore 19:24 to reach people and find them the seek, 19:27 the lost sheep and train them to baptize. 19:33 It's very easy. 19:34 Willing people will do the work of the Lord. 19:38 People who are unable can do something else. 19:41 Individuals who are senior citizens 19:43 can correct Bible lessons, 19:45 young people can do the foot work. 19:47 They can develop websites too. 19:49 Yes, there are many talented-- Sure, they can do. 19:52 Skilled young people who can develop a website 19:55 and take charge of it. 19:56 For example, when I pastored in Montreal 19:58 I had large church and a group of young people 20:01 came to me and said pastor, 20:03 the sin news they just want to takeover the church 20:06 and they don't want us to do anything. 20:08 I said develop your talents, pray to God 20:10 and allow Him to lead you. 20:12 Today, they have developed a website 20:14 it is the leading gospel website in the world. 20:18 Out of the 20 million website's 20:20 five young people with their skills 20:23 and their educational training 20:25 developed a website called gospelcity.com 20:29 and that website is reaching million's of people 20:33 who are un-churched. 20:36 Praise the Lord. Five young people. 20:39 Now, that church is big cathedral in Montreal 20:41 it's been therefore 25-30 years. 20:44 In fact the first pastor was H. M. S. Richards 20:48 the founder of the Voice of Prophecy. 20:52 The first pastor but now after all of these years 20:56 did you reach a million people? 20:58 Five young people develop the website 21:01 that are reaching millions of young people per month. 21:09 That's Evangelism. 21:11 You know, that's a son little becomes mature 21:14 when we place in the Masters hand. 21:15 That's Right, that's why a small church 21:20 can develop evangelism if they think outside of that box, 21:27 that little box there must come out of that box 21:30 and follow what the Lord said, "Go Get Out." 21:36 Once you are out of that box 21:38 you began to think like people in your community. 21:42 Now, okay let's say somebody is watching the program 21:45 and they say I've heard the whole presentation 21:48 or what I think is most of it 21:50 and it sounds really convincing, 21:52 it sounds like something I want to do but you know, 21:55 I know the people in my church and I know people in my group 21:58 they just its half of them makes changes. 22:01 What might be some first steps some preparation may be 22:05 that needs to be done before a group can launch off 22:09 and do this wonderful work? 22:11 I mean five people reaching millions 22:13 and all of the testimonies 22:15 that you gave have just been outstanding 22:17 but spiritually are there some steps that they need to do-- 22:21 First of all there must be committed 22:23 to evangelism, step number one. 22:24 Step number two, now they must be committed 22:26 to be trained to do evangelism. 22:29 And what I'm asking 100% of the church members to do this. 22:32 Well, I'm asking for people 22:33 who are willing to be involved in Evangelism. 22:36 So if you have a church of 30 may be six might get involved. 22:39 But six can turn into 12 and 12 turn into 30 22:42 and 30 can turn into 40. 22:43 So you're not looking at 100% participation 22:46 like a lot of people are thinking. 22:48 It's very difficult to do that in a local church 22:50 but at least you have somebody who want's to begin. 22:54 Stand up and say we need to begin 22:57 the process of thinking outside of our box. 23:01 Marketing our church to the community 23:06 so that the community knows what we are about 23:09 and then we can go and share. 23:13 If you can get five people to do that 23:15 or two people that's sharing the gospel. 23:18 So you don't need a big number 23:19 you could within your small group. 23:22 All you need is two committed people put it that way. 23:26 Just two. 23:27 Two will make four, four will make six, 23:30 six will make eight. 23:31 I even have a little format I want to share with you. 23:33 Can I do that? Please do that. 23:35 First I have to make sure I have it 23:37 but it's a very nice little form that I-- 23:42 that I've been sharing to number of young people 23:45 and it deals with you can wrap the Church, here it is, 23:50 you can wrap the church or you can built the church. 23:56 Ten little church members came to worship all on time. 24:00 One fell out with the pastor and then there were nine. 24:03 Nine little members stayed up late 24:05 one over sleep and then were eight. 24:08 Eight church members on their way to heaven 24:11 one took the low road and now they are seven. 24:15 Seven church members are trooping like jerks. 24:18 One didn't like the gospel music, now there are six. 24:21 Six church members seem very much alive 24:24 but one got trapped where light is and this left five. 24:28 Five church members pulling for heaven 24:30 sure one got tired got descrambled 24:34 so I'm the church board and this left four. 24:38 Four church members busy as can be 24:41 but one got his feeling hurt and now there are three. 24:45 Three church members and the story is almost done 24:48 for two of them got weary and this left one. 24:53 Now, everybody knows that one can't do much 24:56 but one brought a friend last month 24:58 and then there were two. 25:00 Two Church members each one, 25:02 one more now don't you see Karen, 25:05 two plus two equals four. 25:07 Four church members were early and late 25:09 each brought one and now there are eight. 25:18 Have you got the message, point it and true 25:22 come on Church members we got a job to do. 25:26 So if you see if eight church members double as before 25:29 just in seven weeks there will be 1,024. 25:36 Well, Lord helps us to do we can do. 25:38 I mean, be willing to just open up our hearts, 25:41 open up our minds, and just get out as you said. 25:46 Get out. Go do that commission. 25:47 You know that lot of times people may want to know 25:51 well, okay, where can I get my materials 25:53 and that kind of the thing. 25:54 I like to pick the website out there, 25:56 that you have first of all there is Review and Herald. 25:59 Yes. That ReviewandHerald.com is that is? 26:02 .org. .org. 26:04 Okay, and then there is 26:07 we mention Insight Magazine to young people. 26:09 Yes. That's www.insightmagazine.org. 26:14 That's right. 26:15 And for those that are targeting groups of people 26:18 who just want to have that message out. 26:19 Yes. www.messagemagazine.org. 26:24 And if you like to order your materials 26:25 for your church specifically from the Review and Herald. 26:28 That is ReviewandHerald-- It's really rhpa.org. 26:34 Okay, and then if you will offer me, 26:36 this is research program today, folks. 26:39 If 3ABN has a wealth of materials as well. 26:42 Sure, definitely. 26:43 They have one for covering books for children, 26:46 they have videos-- 26:48 Just check in and ask for a video catalogue as well. 26:51 So dial the 800 number that you see on your screen 26:53 or in your computer 26:55 and their website is www.3abn.org. 27:00 But the bottom line is wherever you go to get your materials 27:03 or if you don't even have the money to get materials 27:06 or may you're looking at this from another country 27:08 where its just not available to you 27:11 I think that Pastor McCracken here mentioned 27:13 the whole lot of things that we can do that cost no money. 27:17 Right. It's a matter of personal commitment. 27:18 That's right, personal commitment. 27:20 And when we make a decision for Christ 27:23 it's more than just for ourselves and for our family. 27:26 It is actually coming out of ourselves 27:28 and going into the community to share 27:33 a testimony of what God has done in our lives and for us. 27:36 So that's really what our program was about today 27:39 and if you have any questions feel free to contact us 27:43 and onto the next program we're gonna be praying for you 27:46 that you get out, that you go and make disciples 27:50 as the Lord Jesus Christ has given that commission. 27:53 And until next time may God richly bless you, 27:56 we pray for you. 27:57 Have a great day. |
Revised 2014-12-17