I have been thinking lately on what the most effective method of church growth is.  The church world today has so many different “techniques” for building our church.  There are books that give us play by play action that will help us be the next Lakewood in less than 30 days.  Now I am being a little sarcastic but there is no shortage of methods for rapid growth. 

As I was thinking on this important subject, my mind has not changed to what I believe is the greatest of all ways for church growth.  One on One evangelism.  In this day of thinking bigger events bring bigger results, we have lost sight of the number one biblical method of church growth.  People inviting others to come to church.  People evangelizing those in their sphere of influence.  We have lost sight of this.

Big events generally garner a 1-3% return, but the church could double within a year if everyone just brought one person.  Imagine what the church could like like in a matter of 5 years.

Now let me share with you the sad truth.  Statistics show that we fail in this area.  It is said that 85% of Christians never invite anyone to church.  95% have never led anyone to Christ.  With statistics like these, we are in trouble.  Only 5% of Christians have led someone to Christ, and only 15% have invited someone to church.  This is a pity considering that this world is full of people destined for Eternal Hell.

There is the old saying, “Friends don’t let friends drive drunk”  We should be saying, “Friends don’t let friends go to Hell.”  Let’s make a renewed effort to bring our friends and family to church.  Invite someone!  Also, ask God to give you opportunity to share your faith with others.  Who knows people might respond!

It has been one of those weeks this week.  I have been experiencing Sermon Block.  Writers have Writer’s Block so I guess preachers have something similar.  All week I have been toiling with my Sunday Morning message.  I would start.  Change it.  Start over. Throw it in the trash.  Pray.  Start over. Finally, I decided to preach on a different subject.  Then it began to come a little easier. 

Some weeks my brain works creatively.  Sermons just flow but other weeks it seems that I get stuck.  When I am in a series, I usually have at least one sermon out of the group that I just can’t get down.  I know what I am going to preach about, but I just can’t get it on paper.  I always skip that week’s sermon and come back to it.

I have often wondered if other preachers struggle with this.  Maybe you do not need to write your sermons, maybe you can just “wing” it.  But not Danny Cheney.  I like to write out my thoughts and try to memorize them.  I am just not gifted to go to the pulpit with Bible in hand and expect God to give it to me there.  I ask God to give it to me during the week so that I won’t be a nervous wreck on Sunday.

To my readers that are preachers, “What do you do to get through sermon block?  Are you a “wing it” kind of preacher or do you like to write out at least a portion of your sermon?  I would love to here from you (clik on the comments link below)

This morning I was changing out the memory card for my Blackberry Curve and I made a mistake.  If there is anything that proves the ignorance of simple people like me, it is technology.  I was upgrading from 1GB to 2GB so I was transferring my files to the other one.  It was to be an easy operation:)  I was going to cut and paste the pictures from one to the other.  Simple enough!

When I hit the cut button, on some priceless photos I had on my phone, it asked me if I wanted to delete them. Cutting is like deleting but you can paste it later to another file.  I hit yes to delete and it really deleted them.  For a moment I thought about getting mad at Bill Gates for creating these computers but then I remembered that Bill asked me if I wanted to actually delete them.  I told him yes and he deleted them.  Now I do not have the priceless photo of Hannah I wanted to show you this morning (this other picture will have to do).

There are alot of things in life that we would like to delete.  Bad memories, hardships we have endured, sins we have committed and the pain that we feel.  If it was only as simple as hitting a delete button.

The truth is, however, that God has a delete button to cover your sins.  When our sins are bought by the blood, Jesus asks do you want to delete permanently and God says yes.  As far as the east is from the west so far has your sins been removed.  Our bad memories and pains of the past are there to help us grow in life but there is a delete button that will take away heart-brokenness that you have felt.  The Psalmist said God binds up the broken hearted.

Next time, there is something you need to delete, ask God to take it away and He will perform a delete operation in your life.