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Merry Christmas! The Christmas edition of The Church Doctor Report is out! Read how a pastor and his congregation handle change and the side effects of change. Then share the story with your leaders in your church. it’s a great one to pass one.
After years of outreach teaching, the aging, all-Anglo church was approaching a threshold of spiritual opportunity. “We are finally going to make a reasonable effort to reach the young African-American families in our surrounding neighborhood,” the pastor enthusiastically shared with a neighboring pastor. “This Sunday, after church, we will have a congregational meeting. A small group of Great Commission oriented people will cast the vision to reach out cross culturally.”

During the second service on that historic Sunday morning, the young pastor reminded the congregation of the meeting: “After service today, we will have a congregational meeting. On the agenda is the strategy that will be explained by our outreach team-a plan to reach out to our neighborhood.” The pastor realized the crowd would be small. Only 10% of those in worship showed up at these congregational meetings. “But it will be a small step in the right direction,” he thought.

The worship service was coming to a close. Before the last hymn, the pastor would give the traditional benediction. He raised his hands over the standing congregation, took a deep breath, and − suddenly − the president of the congregation jumped to the center aisle from his place in the first pew. He turned to face the congregation. The pastor was frozen in astonishment. Steve, the congregational president, spoke loudly enough so all 600 worshippers could hear: “You’ve heard the pastor announce that we’re having a meeting after church. You better come to this meeting because this will change our church forever. Do you really want those people in our neighborhood coming in to our church? If not, you better come to this meeting and make  your voice heard.”

Read what happened next…

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