Episode description
Episode description
What's in this episode
For generations, you could walk into any Church of Christ building in America and find three common features: The absence of musical instruments, a baptistry, and a billboard hanging on the wall next to the pulpit. On that billboard, you would see numbers. Numbers like how many people attended Bible class and worship the Sunday before and how much money they put in the offering plates. Church leaders looked at these numbers to measure the spiritual health and strength of their congregations.
Dad did, too. When he started full-time ministry at the West Side Church of Christ in Akron, Ohio, he got a diary in which he carefully recorded the latest church numbers every week. He kept that diary every week for the next 20 or more years, taking it with him from Akron, Ohio, to Cadiz, Ohio, to the Steele Avenue Church of Christ in Ashland, Ohio.
At the Steele Avenue Church of Christ, those numbers looked really good. Year after year of Dad’s ministry there, the congregation grew and grew.
But one day in the mid- to late-1990s, Dad decided to stop keeping his numbers diary. He just quit.
Why?
In this episode, Dad talks about how he started having strong doubts about how he and most church leaders measured the spiritual health and strength of their congregations.
Dad has a new book out: 'We Are God's Masterpiece'
In this book, Dad utilizes his experiences in church leadership to compile several inventories for individuals to complete in order to discover how they are intended to be used in the church. From spiritual gifts to personality types to passions, among others, God has made us each unique parts of the whole. This book will walk any individual through the steps of recognizing just how beautiful and necessary we each are to fulfilling His masterpiece.
Get the latest news on Dad's cancer treatments and health at https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/travisirwin2
To submit a question for a future episode, email it to bt@btirwin.com.