Welcome

10 Ways to Make Visitors Feel Welcome

Lifeway-story-MT

People never get a second chance at a first impression. Neither do churches.

My family recently visited a church (no, it wasn’t your church), and we were able to get in and out undetected. Had it not been for our toddler’s need for childcare, we could have avoided human contact altogether. Needless to say, we didn’t feel very welcome.

Nearly everything about a Sunday morning worship service communicates something to first-time visitors. From the church bulletins to the parking lot layout, churches demonstrate how much—or how little—they care about people. Here are some things I learned from my last church visit. read more

Why An Entire Issue on Prayer?

Mike Bickle explains the importance of today’s prayer movement

I am honored and challenged to be the guest editor of this issue of Ministry Today. It’s impossible to cover all the important elements and ministries the Holy Spirit is emphasizing right now regarding the prayer and worship movement. But in this issue we seek to highlight some of what is happening, why it is important, and how it will strengthen the church’s efforts in evangelism, world missions and in establishing local congregations. 

In this hour of history God is raising up a worship-based prayer movement as the leading edge of a youth-led missions thrust that will reach all nations with the power of the gospel as it invades every sphere of society with the presence of God’s kingdom. This massive movement involves people from all around the world, in many different congregations, ministries and denominations.

The Lord led me to focus on building an evangelical missions organization based on night-and-day prayer and led by worship teams serving 24/7. For the past 12 years our missions base, the International House of Prayer, has continued nonstop in worship and prayer. read more

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