New Testament Church Marketing Plan

I have been involved with Christians for most of my life. My entrance to the Christian world was the experiences I received from visits to the Baptist church with my Uncle and the Pentecostal church with my Aunt. The decision to be Baptist or Pentecostal was really a simple process. Here is how it was played out; if we went to the Baptist church our Uncle would take us out to lunch; if we went to the Pentecostal church they gave cool gifts for coming to the service (on Easter Sunday they gave live baby chicks-no hunger could top that). My religious experience was solely based on how hungry I was when I woke up on Sunday morning. Really, after all these years nothing has changed. My experiences with God are still driven by my hunger for Him.

After thirty-six years of Christianity you would think that one would have seen it all, but I am still amazed at the methods employed to lead people to Christ. Evangelism is certainly a Christian buzz word we use when we refer to attracting new people to our church. What is evangelism? In the simplest terms it is the sharing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Every church has their brand of evangelism based on the affinity they share for an introduction to Christ. But let me ask you this, “What was the original pattern that was used when the church began in the Book of Acts?” What was the marketing plan used by those who actually heard Jesus say himself, “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel”?

We use every method available to make the Gospel accessible to the world. Direct mail, websites, print advertising, streaming video over the Internet, and on the rarest of occasions we might even actually speak to someone face to face. The Book of Acts chronicles the beginning of the church, and the infectious spread of its reach into their world. Without radio, television, or the Internet, one hundred and twenty people grew to three thousand in one day. Let me introduce you to the Book of Acts Marketing Plan: The Power and Demonstration of The Holy Ghost! After all these years and quantum leaps in technology it still remains the most effective form of evangelism the church has ever experienced.

Recently I viewed a service of the Lakeland outpouring in Florida and was amazed at the simplicity of the entire process. Worship was the entrance into the presence of God, followed by instruction to apply that presence to your individual life, completed by sending it out to someone else. The service I viewed was attended by over twelve thousand from many nations-the overwhelming majority there because they had received as first-hand account of the Power and Demonstration of the Holy Ghost. Of course religion was denouncing the process just like they did in Acts. But make no mistake; the results of the Power and Demonstration of the Holy Ghost are always the same-lives are changed forever!

There is no substitute for the Power and Demonstration of the Holy Ghost! From the Book of Acts the entire world came to know Jesus Christ through the Power and Demonstration of the Holy Ghost. You and I today are walking with Christ as a result on that initial marketing plan. It is time for Christians to return to the Power and Demonstration of the Holy Ghost! Just like those who were waiting in the upper room, we must tarry with prayer and fasting until the fire falls from Heaven. For all of our modern methods there is still nothing more powerful that a first-hand experience by someone who has been under the influence of the Power and Demonstration of the Holy Ghost!

How long do you and I intend to pretend that our apathy to the Power and Demonstration of the Holy Ghost is sustainable? We must abandon all hope of a status quo existence of Christian clichés, powerless presentations of sermons and teachings, and the boredom of bearing no spiritual burden of fasting and prayer! We cannot connect to the original church of Acts without entering the doorway of the Power and Demonstration of the Holy Ghost. We must have the treasure of Heaven, the Holy Spirit, in these earthen vessels that we are. That empty yearning for something deeper than the cycle of riding a spiritual roller coaster is a divine desire impregnated within you for the Power and Demonstration of the Holy Ghost!

Without mass media; absent of light speed technology; void of the ease of modern communication; the church of Acts turned their world upside down with the single greatest marketing plan the universe has ever experienced. It was the Power and Demonstration of the Holy Ghost. It was, and continues to be, the best hope of a lost humanity in a temporary world held together by grace, where the imminent dawn of eternity can be physically felt by all!