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Light

Can Christians Pray for Every U.S. Home in 2000?

“Lighthouse” tenders beckon pastors’ commitment.

One of the big hurdles American Christians have had in sharing the gospel is that confrontation is not the right place to start a relationship,” says Glenn Barth of Mission America. His cross-denominational organization points to prayer as the first step toward presenting the faith. And they want every person in the U.S. to hear the gospel this year.

Mission America is a coalition of 80 denominational leaders and 300 parachurch representatives working under the banner “Celebrate Jesus 2000.” One phase of the campaign is the distribution of Bibles, already under way in many states. Another phase is “Lighthouses of Prayer.” The strategy is to secure a commitment from one family on each block and commission that family to work their network of neighbors and friends. Barth says the approach is simple: prayer, care, share.

“There’s a question I’ve never gotten a ‘no’ to: ‘Can I pray for that?’ People are always glad to know you’re praying for their needs,” Barth says. “Build a relationship first and later you can present the gospel.”

Barth hopes 200,000 churches will establish Lighthouses. PaxNet telecast a two-hour special in October, and a coalition of 750 Christian radio stations promoted the project in November. A joint broadcast is planned in early Spring where listeners pledge their homes as Lighthouses. A free pastor’s packet is available from Mission America.

Lighthouses of Prayer www.lighthousemovement.com 1-888-323-1210

Salt

Bulletproofing Your Church Kids

Colson offers movie and kit to spark action on school violence

The names are indelible: Jonesboro, Paducah, Conyers, Littleton. They’re ordinary towns where the unthinkable happened. Kids killed kids in schools.

Steven Curtis Chapman graduated from one of those schools. The singer returned to his Kentucky high school after three girls were murdered while praying. Now Chapman has teamed with the victims’ unit of Chuck Colson’s Prison Fellowship to urge action by local churches.

Chapman and Colson are promoting a kit for youth groups. Included is a 45-minute movie about a teenager who struggles with school pressures. He could turn violent, unless someone recognizes the signs and reaches out to him.

A second video, for teens and their parents, is a documentary on the recent killing sprees. The Bible study and discussion guide offer ways to diminish school violence.

“This is the number-one public policy problem in this country today,” Colson said. He hopes to show how teens can change this “culture of killing.”

Zach Ames saw the video at a church in Conyers, Georgia. Last May he had stood about 30 feet from a student who opened fire on classmates outside his high school. “I realized that careless, senseless comments might not bother some people, but they could cause others to snap,” Ames said.

To order: 800-575-9269 ext. 139. Suggested donation $50. www.neighborswhocare.org

Worship

Blended Surpasses Traditional

4 in 10 churches mix music styles

Newer songs, styles, and instrumentation continue making inroads in worship. Churches using blended formats surpassed traditional services (40 percent to 38 percent) in the most recent survey by our CTI research department. Traditional dropped from 49 percent in a 1993 survey. Contemporary settled at 22 percent.

Although there are approximately 56,000 fewer contemporary music churches than traditional ones, 3.2 million more people per week attend a contemporary service than attend a traditional service. The average contemporary service attendance is 223, more than twice the size of the average traditional service attendance of 105.

The greatest impact of the contemporary music movement may be in the introduction of a variety of instruments in worship services of all kinds. Organ use is steady, but pianos are in trouble. Keyboards are replacing their acoustic ancestors. Guitars and drums are standard in nearly half of all churches.

The Top 25

These chart busters are really moving up.

Step aside Casey Kasem. Check the praise and worship songs printed or projected most often by 140,000 churches using CCLI licenses last year.

Lord, I Lift Your Name on High
As the Deer
He Has Made Me Glad (I Will Enter His Gates)
I Love You, Lord
Majesty
Give Thanks
Awesome God
Shout to the Lord
He Is Exalted
Glorify Thy Name
We Bring the Sacrifice of Praise
All Hail King Jesus
Change My Heart, O God
This Is the Day
More Precious than Silver
O Magnify the Lord (I Will Call upon the Lord)
Shine, Jesus, Shine
I Exalt Thee
How Majestic Is Your Name
Great Is the Lord
Open Our Eyes, Lord
Holy Ground
Celebrate Jesus
Jesus, Name Above All Names
Because He Lives

(Source: Maranatha Music and Christian Copyright Licensing, Inc.)

Ideas that Work

Good Gossip

Give the grapevine its own number and make it work for you.

The pastor’s phone rings at all hours. I’m accustomed to that. But when this phone rings, it’s answered by a machine. My congregation is accustomed to that. And they like it. We can answer all their questions:

Who is in the hospital?
Did the new baby arrive yet?
What time is tonight’s meeting?
And (after really foul weather), Are we having church this morning?

In three churches I served, we have established the Hotline to share daily news of the congregation. All we needed was a dedicated telephone line and an answering machine or voice-mail provider.

To start the project, we sent one or two labels with the Hotline number to each household. We asked members to place one on each home and office phone.

I repeat often that the Hotline message will be changed daily (except on the weekends when I do one version). I record the outgoing message in the evening, but the Hotline can be updated any time if there is an emergency or a death in the church family.

If time permits, I add a short devotion or prayer for the day. I’ve found that one minute of outgoing message is usually sufficient. People who call want a quick update, not a sermon.

This service can help a congregation get needed information without bothering an overloaded secretary. One member, a jogger, tells me he likes to come home after his morning run, sit down with a cup of coffee, and listen to the Hotline on his speaker phone.

And shut-ins have daily access to their church. I’ve often heard from these folks that they appreciate hearing their pastor’s voice every day.

In a time when communication within the church must be a very high priority, the Hotline helps keep us connected.

—Drexel C. Rankin Louisville, Kentucky

Video Invocation

Homebound lead prayer on tape.

A California church is bringing homebound members to church on video. The elderly who can’t attend church are taped leading a prayer and the video is played at the opening of the Sunday service.

High-tech becomes high touch, according to Tim Brown, pastor of First Baptist Church of Clovis. “It helps bridge the gap between the shut-ins and those who are able to go to worship. It makes them more committed to taking care of the elderly in their own church.”

And the “guest pray-ers” are blessed, too. “(Our church is) successful today because of the sacrifice of people unable to come, like our shut-ins,” Brown says. “We need to respect and love them.”

—Lynne M. Thompson Modesto, California

E-chain Gang

Online prayer partnering draws men

A new member of one of our Sunday school classes suffered a stroke during the week. Another man who found out about it spread the word electronically and sparked a new ministry.

He sent an e-mail to many of his class members and they responded immediately. Within a few hours, many were praying for their hospitalized friend, and they pooled their money to send him flowers.

The computer notification worked so well, especially among the men, that I knew we had to start an e-mail prayer chain. We had a small telephone prayer chain, but no men participated. That Sunday we invited wired members to sign up and 52 people joined the e-chain—28 were men. In one day we tripled the size of our prayer team and brought men into significant ministry.

—Brian Mavis Rocky Mountain Christian Church Longmont, Colorado

Share Your Idea

And we’ll pay up to $50! Tell us your idea and how it worked.