(A Letter Sharing this Vision with a Friend)

To begin with, we are thinking and working out our basic definitions of what a church is and what is its proper ministry. 1) General: Everyone is to pray and work in the basics of Christian living and fellowship in the church. 2) Special: Each one has their own particular equipment, or spiritual gift from the Holy Spirit to minister within the body. Some will function in one way and some in another. 3) Official: There are those of the number who have particular leadership responsibilities such as elders and deacons. It is my hope that when all of this is clear to everyone that they will want the church structured more according to the Scripture. We are seeing some real growth here now.

Each Saturday I have a gathering with a group of 15 or so men who have been especially invited to pray and train in the basics of church life. We meet from 6:00 a.m. ‘til about 8:00 a.m. These men are now helping in our outreach effort. The Associate Pastor and I go out with them each Wednesday night to witness in homes. Eventually, everyone will have been trained by one of us personally or else by one we trained.

We have divided up the church membership among shepherds. These men and their wives are being taught how to care for the ones under them. Eventually, I would imagine that their flocks would be adjusted geographically so that each area will have a shepherd over them and they can promote fellowship right in the homes. Perhaps some of the areas will turn into home churches or at least more identifiable and definite segments of the larger church fellowship — especially the more distant ones.

Next, there are the rather extensive changes in the Sunday School. The basic emphasis now has shifted to the homes where it belongs. Our aim is to get each family reading through the Bible together following the brief section of assigned verses each day. That very text will be covered the following Sunday in all the classes of Sunday School, Primary or Junior through Adults. The adults will, in addition to covering that Sunday’s lesson, prepare themselves to teach their children in the home the following week. This means all the teachers are without any regular manuals but we are meeting with them every single week and training them in some very intensive sessions on how to teach right from God’s Word.

One of the most unobtrusive and yet definite evidences of God’s now working here is seen on Tuesday Prayer meeting nights. Frequently the auditorium is filled and the times of sharing are a great blessing to us all. This is something that is not spectacular to talk about but is surely wonderful to experience. Men, women, young people and children are all present and being affected. I really feel that large numbers now know how to have fellowship and find great delight in it. Each week I sit in on one of the many men’s groups into which the main meeting divides and am invariably blessed in some special way. Most of the time they really get down to business of prayer and exhorting each other and testifying to the Grace of God. The other Tuesday a brand new Catholic fellow came in and they very simply and earnestly prayed that he might understand and truly be saved. I believe that he already is—according to his own words to me and one of the men who was dealing with him right afterwards.

You will also be interested to know that we are setting up a plan of training for leaders of the new churches and for those who are doing the evangelistic church planting—in some kind of a permanent on-going manner. This will not primarily be class work. There will be group gatherings and a lot of individual training plus home study plus on-the-job experience.

Blessings!

Pastor Burchett