Pastor's Circle - Chris Lohrstorfer

 Dr. Chris Lohrstorfer is the pastor of Hinds Independent Methodist Church and an adjunct professor at Wesley Biblical Seminary. He joined The Matt Friedeman Show to discuss his church's upcoming "Friend Day". Here are the CliffsNotes of his interview.

Talk to me about "Friend Day."

What I try to do is help my church people participate in church growth. I'm going to give them the tools to use and the event to use to help them bring others in. 

It seems to work pretty well. It's not a magic bullet, but when people get interested in this event, they'll actually start inviting their friends. 

If you do it right, everybody can do it.

Is it a sin not to make disciples?

If you're going to be like Jesus, I think you need to get out where unsaved, unchurched people are. 

How are you going to make disciples if you don't get out and rub shoulders with people who aren't disciples? 

In the book of Acts, when Stephen is killed and the disciples are scattered, you see churches pop up wherever they go. Even under horrible circumstances, they're spreading the good news. 

I call it intentional Christian living. That means sharing my life with people who aren't like me.  

I think as pastors, we've got to encourage people to reach out. I've been preaching on it for several weeks now.

How will you retain these people?

Obviously, you want to give them several touches. I'll send them a letter. We'll take them a gift bag personally. 

And we'll try our best to get our church people to establish a relationship with that family.

Pastor: Our church building burning down "really helped us to refocus."

Pastor Chris Lohrstorfer shared today about how his church not only survived, but grew, in the aftermath of their church building burning down.


Recently you had an event to mark the ten-year anniversary of your church burning down. Talk to us about that.

It's really interesting. It was really a celebration.

A local fireman set fire to our church, at least our church building.

I found out that when a church burns, the pastor is usually a suspect.

He was burning a lot of things in town.

Really in the last ten years, the exciting thing is, in the first year of that....it really helped us to refocus.

We were pretty ingrown and focused on ourself.

After the fire, we had to rethink that: Why are we here? What is our purpose?

What were the thoughts of you and your congregation as you watched your church burn?

My initial thoughts were, we were starting to get some momentum, "Uh-oh."

I was so afraid as a pastor that this was going to ruin us.

It's hard to see beyond that moment.

We immediately began to try to refocus...and to try to let it strengthen.

Was there ever a thought, let's just shut down?

No, no. Although I did suggest that to the congregation to make them think.

This community needs a church.

What are the major dynamics of refocusing a church?

When you refocus something, you have to get into the head of something, and not just the heart. Why do we exist? What is the purpose of the church? What is the purpose of our church?

You can't make your church be something it's not. You really have to ask the question, "Who are we?"

I think you just have to really think through that and ask the hard questions.

You can be defined by a fire...and or you can be refined by the fire. You can let that fire purify your faith.

Don't you think that a church needs to take that opportunity to really refocus and figure out what your church has already figured out?

If you're not rethinking it by the time you hit a plateau, it's probably too late.

In the last ten years, we've rethought it several times.

I do think you have to do that, for your own personal spiritual life, for a church, for an organization.

The world's always changing around us. People are changing. If you're not rethinking who you are....you're going to be in some huge trouble, I think.

What are some things you quit doing after the fire?

Sometimes you get stuck in a process.

There are times you have to look at this and ask, "Is this successful?"

The fact is, if it doesn't accomplish it, you need to ditch it.

Review for us the biggest difference between your church today and pre-fire 10 years ago...

I would say the biggest difference is that we're outward-focused.

The real kicker for us is that if we don't rebuild the church, the community won't have us.

Our church burned down and within a few weeks of that we were talking about how we need to rebuild.

I thought, "Well, we're going to survive this thing."

Pastor's Circle - Chris Lohrstorfer

Today in the Pastor's Circle: Chris Lohrstorfer, pastor of Hinds Independent Methodist Church. Compassionate ministry and its effect on the Church was on the agenda.

 

Is doing compassionate ministry a liberal thing? 

If it's liberal, then I'd say Jesus was a liberal.

 

I can't separate that kind of compassionate ministry from Jesus and what He is doing. 

Are both giving and compassionate ministry important? 

I think they both are necessary.

 

If you're a missionary going to a foreign field...you need the cash.

 

I don't think it's enough for a church to give out money. You need to get your hands dirty.

What happens in the life of a congregation when they go out to the untouchables? 

When people get involved hands and feet-wise, I see grace.

 

I've never seen it work the opposite in someone's life.

 

I think it's absolutely imperative spiritually.

 

When you're giving out to other people, that's necessary to sanctification.

I wonder if we don't get more hungry for righteousness when we serve. 

When you get up and go here to exercise, you feel like you don't want to.

 

But the more you do it, the more you want to exercise.

 

Besides expending calories...your body gets hungry for exercise. 

Are there periods of revival, when there's no compassionate ministry? Can you fly without that wing? 

If you can, it wouldn't be very far.

 

There's always a time of prayer...there always is connected with it this thing of reaching out.

 

Revival always works its way out into society.

Possible to think of Wesley revival without compassionate ministry? 

There were people converted and sanctified.

 

The real aspect of the Wesley revival was they built orphanages, helped people.

 

It transformed society. That's what the Wesley revival is.

What happens to a church that decides we're not going to get involved in our community? 

Eventually it closes.

 

It becomes protective.

 

There's a reversal of mentality. You're not thinking let's go out and change lives, you're thinking let's keep them out. 

As a pastor or key laymen, how do you get your church to start reaching out? 

I think you oughta be preaching about it.

 

Just get a couple people involved.

 

It becomes catchy.

 

You're not going to start with 60, but you could start with 6.

Pastor's Circle - Chris Lohrstorfer

Today in the Pastor's Circle: Chris Lohrstorfer, Senior Pastor of Hinds Independent Methodist Church, talking about grace, works, and a personal relationship with God. 

Do people ever operate as Christians without having a personal relationship with God?

It happens a lot.

The thing is, you ended your devotion time talking about works. The problem is most people work like they're in a pre-Pentecost church instead of a post-Pentecost church.

They're not really experiencing God and letting that flow over into their life.  They are working for God and not with God. 

 
How refreshing is it when you're working with God?

It's freeing. It's not the kind of work that you do to gain something.

It frees you up from a kind of slavery. It just allows life to be about living out the gospel.

 
How can someone know what to do to get that personal relationship?

I think first of all, Acts chapter 1, Jesus said wait for it.

The waiting for it involves confession, surrender.

You have to follow through with that, because you're not going to meet with Him outside of grace.

Wait, confessing, surrendering, receiving from Him.

 
Do we have to groan after this experience?

Well, that is the debate of the day, I suppose.  John Wesley always said wait for it.

I think he's right about that.

In my own experience, we want to tell God what to do...to really experience it, it's gotta happen on God's timing.

You can confess it all you want. But it's not a confession; it's a possession.

  What does it mean to "groan after"?

You've gotta want it.  It's not like God's holding you out on a string.

I think this groaning after is a person who wants it more than all other things.

I think when you want it to the place that you're ready to hang on and experience it, that's probably the groaning after.

Just wanting a deeper work of the Spirit to happen this Sunday doesn't mean it will necessarily happen?

Sometimes we just want to wait for that emotional tickle. God doesn't want to tickle you. He wants to change you.

You have to get past the emotional.

 How can you reach God personally through prayer?

I think the Church makes a huge mistake in prayer.

We turn it into telling God what to do.

Rather than letting prayer be anthropocentric, why not let prayer come from God?

I think that's the key. I'm talking about the Holy Spirit guiding your heart and mind in prayer.

 How do we approach a personal God through scripture?

Take a book of scripture. Read and study through it.

You have to be able to meditate on scripture.

Use that time and strengthen God's will in your life.

Pastor's Circle - Chris Lohrstorfer on the "Fad of Evangelism"

On the "fad" of evangelism:

Part of the evangelistic fad is that we try to systematize it and make it really easy.

I'm not sure we know what it means to be saved. Part of the fad was, here's this fact of Jesus...you need to accept that. I'm not sure if that's what it is.

I think the evangelistic fad missed discipleship. I think we got the idea that the Great Commission is casting forth seed with no end result in mind.

What does it mean to become a disciple:

The life of Jesus, the ministry of Jesus, the message of Jesus - all of that has to become part of who you are.

Who is good at evangelism:

The 10% (of people who have the gift of evangelism) are salesman. Beyond that, a nurturer is what you need - someone who can nurture in the way of Grace.

The postmodern world in America isn't all that relational, but they want relationships....they're not great at it, but they want it. That's what the church finally is- it's a relational body.

Evangelism must be tied to the church. It's not just "Come to Jesus" it's "Come to the body of Jesus."

If someone wants to say yes to Jesus, but not to the Church:

Evangelism has to turn to the Church.

They cannot be a disciple of Jesus outside the church.