The sixth law of seven, “the law of seven prospects” is the law stating that every person who comes to your church knows seven other people who do not regularly attend church elsewhere. This law deals with how we collect these names and reach these people for Christ and the church.

FROM CHRISTMAS LIST TO MAILING LIST

It must be the goal of every pastor to reach as many people for God as possible. To know how to do this is often a difficult task. Studies from the Baptists show that every person in a pastor’s congregation knows, on the average, seven people who do not have a regular church home. These non-church-going prospects may call a church their home church, even though they only attend once or twice a year. More often than not, they are not committed born again Christians and do not adhere to the Hebrews 10: 28 mandate. Their attitude is not so much, “What can I can do for the Lord and his church” or that “the Bible commands me to regularly attend church,” but more likely they ask “Why do I need the church?” or “What does the church do for me?” These persons, in addition to non-Christians, are great prospects for the church and need to be reached.

One of the best methods I have found for reaching these prospects is to invite brand new visitors to bring their Christmas card list to the church the next week so that we can pray for all their family and friends who are not saved or who do not attend church regularly. I then call during the next week to give them a gen-eral greeting from my church and remind them about our prayer list that includes their Christmas list. Sunday we pray for all those individuals on the new visitor’s Christmas list who are not saved or do not attend church. I then ask if I can have the church’s newsletter sent to these people for whom we prayed--especially those who live in our city. More often than not, the visitor will allow this be-cause our newsletter is very exciting and evangelistic in a non threatening way.

Let’s pause for just a moment and consider what makes a good newsletter. Ninety percent of this newsletter should be testimonies of God’s miracles, heal-ings, salvation experiences, and His activity in and through our church. Only ten percent of this newsletter is devoted to announcements of up-coming events. Woe be to the pastor and church whose newsletter sounds like the last days of a sinking ship. Instead of sharing about all the great things God has and is doing, the sinking ship lists all the needs of the church has and how pitifully attended the activities of the church have been or how feeble the offering was. All these things may be true, but information like this ought not to be broadcast. No one is excited about being a part of or joining this type of activity. "Whatsoever things are lovely...of good report,...think on these things,” says Philipipians 4. We must be careful to encourage our congregations to think positively. Satan brings nega-tive things and negative ideas, as in the garden of Eden, but Jesus brings good news. “How lovely are the feet of him who brings good news.”

FROM VISITOR TO PERFORMER.

Now that the “visitor” has returned and is excited about our concern for their friends and family, we invite them to the pastor’s class. Here he learns how to share his faith, what spiritual gifts he has and how he can win his family and friends to the Lord. We ask this “visitor” if he has any talents he could share with the class. If he has none, we ask if he would read the scripture for the les-son in a couple of weeks. Whatever we agree on, we make a special day of it and on that Sunday we invite all his friends or relatives to come and hear him per-form. After his performance, he gives his testimony about his salvation and why God sent them to this church. It is a special day for this person and is advertised as such. After service a meal with the pastor(s) is given in his honor where he and all his family and friends are special guests. A similar day is held for this person when he is baptized or when he joins the church.

FROM PROGRAM TO PEOPLE

It is sometimes suggested that churches should not be so program based, yet even those who espouse such a philosophy have a worship program, a cell church program or a training program for leaders and so on. Even Jesus had a program of sending His trained disciples out two by two. Many might struggle with what I am about to say, but Jesus had one main program or method of drawing a crowd. A crowd did not come to Jesus to hear His preaching, although there were individuals that did. A crowd did not even come to Him as the Messiah, although they did one day in Jerusalem; and the next day they cried “Crucify Him!” No, the biggest reason people came to Jesus was because He healed them. Because He healed them, they were willing to hear His teaching about the king-dom of Heaven. What I am suggesting is, Jesus used healing as the main “pro-gram,” if you will, to draw crowds to God and His kingdom message. It would also be well for the church to emulate Jesus’ discipleship training program and His prayer program.

I have found Sunday School programs, evangelism programs, music programs, and the like to be very effective ways of drawing crowds. Program or not, some of the largest churches in America have grown through such methods. Tommy Barnett is now using a bus ministry with a slightly different twist to build a great soul winning station in Phoenix, Arizona. The Southern Baptist, the biggest Protestant denomination in the world, will tell you they gather large crowds through the Sunday School program. James Kennedy has used personal evangel-ism, called Evangelism Explosion (E.E.) to excite crowds to hear about Jesus in Florida.

Now here comes the “crunch” or the most important point about programs. The effectiveness of a program is not which program but any program that gets as many Christians as possible in the local church excitedly involved in ministry. The success of a program in today’s church is based on how many laity that pro-gram can involve wholeheartedly in meaningful ministry. It could be E.E., Sun-day School, home cells, bus ministry, discipleship training, music or what-ever the Lord excites that church to do in ministry. The secret is not in copying Tommy Barnett, Bill Hybles, David Yonggi Cho, Rick Warren or anyone else. The real secret is finding which method or program God wants to use through you and your church’s gifting and vision.

FROM CHARISMATIC SAFE TO SEEKER SAFE.

Much has been said about winning people to the church through a “seeker-safe” event or program. A “seeker-safe” event is an activity that is housed in a facility other than a church, in which a non-church-going person can attend without feel-ing as if he is in a situation that is unusual or uncomfortable. Most non-church-going people are uncomfortable in the average church. A theater for a drama, a school gym for a contest, or a community hall for a special lecture on drug addic-tion or parenting are a few good examples of seeker-safe situations. The point of this event is to invite the non-church-going person so that the Gospel or church message can get across without forcing this person into a church environment or into a preaching or church-type of service. Seeker-safe events are needed to a greater degree in churches which do not emphasize the Charismatic gifts.

According to 1 Corinthians 14: 24, when the gifts are allowed to happen in a ser-vice, in particular when prophecies are allowed, the sinner will realize that he is a sinner and the “thoughts and intent” of his heart will be made clear so that the sinner will “know God is truly among you and he will fall down and worship.” We must conclude from this that the charismatic church does not need the seeker-safe event as much as the non-Charismatic church. This has proven to be the case by the tremendous conversion growth experienced by charismatic groups around the world. However, a true seeker-safe event as defined above is a good way of reaching sinners who are relatives and friends of those in your church who will not attend your church. Changing a traditional service within a church facility to do what a seeker-safe service is supposed to do is pointless, especially in a Pentecostal, charismatic church.

Every church should put law six into practice since every church needs to build a prospect list. In front of every pastor every Sunday is a congregation. Each per-son in that congregation knows seven non-church-going persons. The church is responsible to gather the names of those prospects and contact them for Christ. Studies have proven that these are the best prospects for that church. Using the Christmas list is one way to get names, but the church should use as many ways as possible. Any method a pastor can use to bring in these prospects, whether it is turning the visitor into a performer or something else, it ought to be tried. Get-ting the church involved in a program that will excite them into ministry is the most important way of maturing the saints according to Ephesians 4:12-14. This scripture makes it clear that Christians mature as they do the work of ministry. But when a church reaches these persons, then another service should be planned which lets the non-Christian friends of that person know that God is truly among you. The Word indicates that then they will fall down and worship the Lord.

[ Return to 7 Laws Introduction Page ]