Great Churches The Full Gospel Church, Seoul, South Korea

I first visited this church on a Wednesday night in August 1978, it was my 25^th wedding anniversary. I had arranged for a one-hour interview with Pastor Yonggi Cho because he had built the largest church in the world; I was searching for the secret for his church’s growth.   We met at 5 pm in his office, and sat at a large table that could seat 50 people, where the church elders met.  I did not realize that behind me was a door that opened right on to the platform of the 8,000-seat auditorium.  Cho sat across from me.

“What is the best symbol of the church in the New Testament?” Cho asked me. 

I was challenged by the question, embarrassed I might give the wrong answer. I momentary prayed and said, “The body . . . the physical body is the best illustration of the church.” 

“That is the secret of why my church is so large.” Cho explained, “The body grows by the division of cells.”  Then he explained, “When a man’s semen is joined to a woman’s egg, they produce a single cell so small it cannot be seen with the naked eye. But when examined under the microscope, a single healthy egg will be seen dividing into two cells.  The process continues from one cell to two cells, then . . . four cells . . . eight cells . . . sixteen . . . thirty-two . . . sixty-four . . . etc.” Cho explained his church grows when the small cells of approximately 12 to 15 people divide. Then both new cells grow.

Cho told me the great secret to great churches was not in the construction of buildings as we did in America.  He explained, “If I built my church like the American Baptists, I would have to build a campus as big as UCLA, which was 12 blocks by 15 blocks near Los Angeles, California.  He mentioned, “Americans build small Sunday school classes for 10 students each.  I could not build a church with 7,000 small Sunday school rooms for all my people.  My church building would be as big as UCLA.  He said construction would be a financial barrier and “the city fathers in Seoul, Korea, would never give me permission to construct a church building that large.”

“So my cells meet in living rooms, recreational rooms, and laundry rooms to build the largest church in the world.”  It is then that he explained to me the secret of the small cells. “Everything the larger church does in ministry, is done in the small cells of approximately 15 people each.

Cho’s thinking began to radically change my mind about church buildings.  Why couldn’t we use our church buildings several times on Sunday; we could even have church services on Friday and Saturday nights.

WANT TO READ MORE?

What churches were the most influential in church history in the past 100 years?  What trends did they set?  How did they express their influence?  Can past churches’ successes help you today?  What can the ministry of past successful churches teach us today?  Read, The Ten Most Influential Churches in the Past Century, published by Destiny Image Publishers by Elmer Towns.  Order this book from Amazon.com

See my web page for more

Childhood Trauma and Teenage Problems

For decades researchers have been unlocking the ways Adverse Childhood Events (ACE) impact us later in life. The correlation between ACE and smoking, drinking, drugs, violence, suicide, and early death are staggering. As a result, there is a new approach to counseling and education called Trauma Informed Care.

As we ponder how to prevent violence, we cannot overlook the people that do violent things. Why are they violent? Can we do something to prevent violence?

In an earlier post I differentiated among the three levels of Adversity. Trauma does not cover all of them but it is a short-cut name we use for all three.

Shock: Minor to Occasional Adverse Events
Trauma: Regular Adverse Events
Abuse: Chronic Adverse Events

Adversity can be of two large types:
Adversity from harmful Interactions
Shocking Interactions-Dysfunctional relationships; hyperactive, withdrawn, anxious
Traumatic Interactions-Fight/Flight reactions; Easily angered, deeply depressed, social anxiety
Abusive Interactions-Deeply troubled with scattered thinking; Suicidal, out of touch, project feeling

Adversity from harmful Neglect: A lack of nurture, education, food, care, understanding, compassion, medical care, training, boundaries

Shock from incidents of Neglect
Trauma from incidents of Neglect
Abuse from incidents of Neglect

Adversity from harmful Interactions: A loss of a loved one through illness, death, addictions, mental illness, incarceration, work, armed forces, etc. yelling, bullying, hitting, rape and unwanted sex,

Shock from harmful Interactions
Trauma from harmful Interactions
Abuse from harmful Interactions

We must focus on both Prevention of and Treatment

What regular people and churches can do.
1. Learn to Listen
2. Teach everyone to Renew their minds
3. Prayer for healing
4. Nurture and affirm people
5. Preach grace and mercy

My books and videos can help.
www.sweetenlife.com/store

Organizational Success

My friend Jim Buchan writes a blog with great insight and wisdom. His latest post was on one of the key reasons Billy Graham was a successful leader.

Click here to read it.

Other dimensions of success can be found here on my web and store.

Revivals and Awakenings

In the history of America there have been several national Spiritual Awakenings. In 1993 Robert Fogel of the University of Chicago won the Nobel Prize in Economics. Much of his research had to do with these Spiritual Awakenings.

In my reading and experience, every Spiritual Revival is followed by an Awakening. Revivals are events that bring new life to masses of people with God that result in salvations and new interest in the things of God.

Awakenings are what these spiritually renewed and reborn people do after they become mature in Christ and want to impact society. The culture and society itself is impacted in work, play, caring for the sick, the poor, and rejected.

I was very engaged in the great Spiritual Revival that came about in America in the 60's and 70's. It brought numerous new believers into the Kingdom of God and a high percentage were broken in mind, emotions, and relationships. Many people became engaged in delivering care, counseling, and healing to the new people brought to faith in the revival.

I saw similar activities in Scandinavia in the 80's and Russia in the 90's and Asia also in the 90's. Revivals followed by Counseling and Healing ministries. Today we need new revivals and new healing. I am praying for both to happen.

Go to Sweeten Life for ways to minister.

Great Churches Spurgeon in London

Do you wonder what he most influential in church history in the past 100 years were, and 

what trends did they set and how they expressed their influence?  Can those past churches’ successes help us today?  

Read, The Ten Most Influential Churches in the Past Century, published by Destiny Image Publishers by Elmer Towns.  Order this book from Amazon.com

Spurgeon’s Metropolitan Tabernacle

The Tabernacle dates its history to the 1650s, when the English Parliament prohibited worship by Christian denominations (Descenders) who were not members of the Church of England. In 1688 when Baptists were allowed freedom of worship, this group built their first chapel in Tower Bridge.

In 1720, the famous John Gill became pastor and served for 51 years till 1771.  By 1850, the congregation had dwindled to a small number.  In 1854, a young 19-year-old Charles Haddon Spurgeon was called as pastor, even though he had no experience as a pastor.  Spurgeon became the most popular preacher in his day.  He began preaching in the chapel on New Park Street but the crowds became so large they moved their meetings to Surrey Gardens Music Hall. Then the church moved into its large sanctuary near the James River in south London.  Spurgeon served the church for 38 years and they had total membership of 5,311; he died in 1892. 

The church building burnt down in 1898 leaving the front portico and basement intact.  It was once again destroyed in 1941 by German bombing of London during WWII.  Again the portico and basement survived.  A new tabernacle but much smaller in design was then built. 

I led a group of Liberty University students into the basement, directly under the location of Spurgeon’s original pulpit.  At that spot a group of “watchers” gathered every time Charles Spurgeon was preaching, to kneel and intercede for power directly under the pulpit as Spurgeon preached above them.  I had read about the dining room table they gathered around, sitting on dining room chairs, with seating pads.  The watchers would place the pads on the floor then kneel to pray the entire time Spurgeon was preaching.  Many believed their prayers were the reason Spurgeon’s Tabernacle became the most influential church in the world. 

When the students and I visited the basement, the dining room table was pushed to the side as a museum piece, with ropes to keep out visitors.  There was a sign that said, “Do not touch or sit on the chairs.” 

My message to the students, “This church was great because of effective intercession, but now this table is just a museum piece to remind present day worshippers about the past.  Perhaps if there was a group earnestly praying for this church, as they did 100 years ago, they might be as powerful and large as it was back then.  

WANT TO READ MORE?

What churches were the most influential in church history in the past 100 years?  What trends did they set?  How did they express their influence?  Can past churches’ successes help you today?  What can the ministry of past successful churches teach us today?  Read, The Ten Most Influential Churches in the Past Century, published by Destiny Image Publishers by Elmer Towns.  Order this book from Amazon.com

Great Churches in History Wesley Chapel

Do you wonder what he most influential in church history in the past 100 years were, and 
what trends did they set and how they expressed their influence?  Can those past churches’ successes help us today?  

Read, The Ten Most Influential Churches in the Past Century, published by Destiny Image Publishers by Elmer Towns.  Order this book from Amazon.com

The New Room – John Wesley Chapel, Bristol, England

In 1973, I led 420 students from Liberty University to several Wesley preaching points throughout England.  The free trip was promised to all students who attended the college that year.  New Room had been built in 1739, and was the first and oldest Methodist Chapel in the world.  Rather than being located on a main street in Bristol, Methodists were known to choose inexpensive out of the way plots of ground to build churches.  New Room was built on a plot of ground between two streets and is approached by a passageway.  

In the original day it would seat around 1000 worshipers, I had over 400 students listening to me as I lectured on the John Wesley Fast and its influence in reaching the world for Jesus Christ. Once a month John Wesley held the conference in that chapel, where all of the circuit-riding preachers attended 2 or 3 days of preaching/teaching sessions.  These preachers were called “plowboy preachers” or “shopkeeper preachers” because they were recruited by John from the ranks of Methodist Chapels to surrender to preach and go out to plant a circuit of 30 to 40 churches. 

Wesley said he would ordain a young man who had the skills of reading, writing and he possessed the Holy Spirit.  These men with very little education created a movement called the Methodist Church that within 50 years became the largest Protestant movement in the world.  During the War of 1776, there were only 243 Methodist churches in the United States.  By the War of 1812, the Methodists had grown to approximately 5,000 Methodist churches.

There were five bedrooms on a second floor balcony called “preacher rooms.”  In these rooms leaders would fast on bread and water for 10 days as they prepared sermons for the circuit-riding preachers.  After they rode their circuits for approximately 23-25 days, they returned home to attend a Methodist conference to hear sermon after sermon from great leaders.  They would write these messages down and preach the same sermon when they returned to their circuit. I preached to the students from Liberty University that we could influence the world as the early circuit-riding preachers. I told them we could create the largest movement in the world. 

Contact us to learn how to build a great church. 

Mental Health and Emotional Distress at Church and School

It is not helpful to use the term "Mental Illness" for everyone that has emotional distress, a disability, or interpersonal challenge. I developed a simple, one page chart to help Ministers and Lay Helpers assess the level of need of a person in distress.

Clinical Therapists use a book with 900 pages and many, many categories of distress to diagnose and treat people. Ministers and Lay Helpers can help support everyone in distress even if they are also in need of Clinical expertise. 

Type A Persons:
About 70% of a church with no life-interrupting problems. 


Level I Very mature and healthy individuals -10%
• Able to lead if equipped
• Strong in relationships and fruit of the Spirit
• Stable and deal with life’s problems
• Full range of emotional life
• Not blown about by every new thing Need: Discovery of mission, gifts, call

Level II Can vary in healthy lifestyles from weak to developing-60%
• Some are fragile but dealing with life • Need to be discipled so Challenge to grow

Type B Persons: Some 30% with differing types and intensity of problems

Level III Ongoing issues and problems that cause disruptions-15%
• Drinking too much • Worried or anxious, sad, angry and dissatisfied with life or spiritual conflicts
• Is strong enough to work and learn from counsel
• No harmful thoughts about self or others Need: Pastoral or lay care and counsel, support group

Level IV Ongoing problems and pain-10%
• Cannot meet personal, work, family or church responsibilities and cannot change
• Misses work due to depression, anxiety, stress, etc
• Compulsive behaviors with sex, drugs, food, gambling, anger, etc.
• Unresolved family conflicts Need: Professional Counseling and church support

Level V Acute Pain-5%
• Lay and Professional counseling have failed to help and the pain increases
• Ideas are distorted, cannot manage life, may think about harming self or others
• Dangerous use of drugs Need: Intensive care in a safe place

Want to know how to support anyone in any category? Want to know how to love and care? See our web with free videos and eBooks.

www.sweetenlife.com