Sermon Tone Analysis

I. Authors purpose

A. This book is about finding the 10 most influential churches in the world in the past 100 years and there imapct.

Influnece pg 1

Elmer L. Towns, Warren Bird, and Ed Stetzer, The Ten Most Influential Churches of the Past Century: And How They Impact You Today (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image, 2015).

1.

First I had to determine the 10 major influences on Christianity in the past 100 years.(pg 1)

Elmer L. Towns, Warren Bird, and Ed Stetzer, The Ten Most Influential Churches of the Past Century: And How They Impact You Today (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image, 2015).

2. Second, I had to discover the churches that best reflected these 10 influences, and then link their influence to worldwide Christianity pg 1

Elmer L. Towns, Warren Bird, and Ed Stetzer, The Ten Most Influential Churches of the Past Century: And How They Impact You Today (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image, 2015).

3.Third, I had to research the small details and the larger scope that explains the greatness of each church.

Fourth, I had to write the facts of each church in a compelling story that would accurately tell why each is an influencer-church.

Elmer L. Towns, Warren Bird, and Ed Stetzer, The Ten Most Influential Churches of the Past Century: And How They Impact You Today (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image, 2015).

4.

Then, finally, I had to write each story to actually convince you to go be an influencer-pastor.

Elmer L. Towns, Warren Bird, and Ed Stetzer, The Ten Most Influential Churches of the Past Century: And How They Impact You Today (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image, 2015).

B. To impact both Scholars and Pastors alike.

1. Scholars and researchers

a. to enable them to measure the influence

b. to continue to study churches and know to communicate this to Pastors to influnce their cultures.

2. Pastors

a. pastors and church workers to get a greater desire to build their church

Elmer L. Towns, Warren Bird, and Ed Stetzer, The Ten Most Influential Churches of the Past Century: And How They Impact You Today (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image, 2015).

b.want pastors to know that the great things God has done in the past can be done today.

Elmer L. Towns, Warren Bird, and Ed Stetzer, The Ten Most Influential Churches of the Past Century: And How They Impact You Today (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image, 2015).

C.I want them to realize they can influence the future.

Elmer L. Towns, Warren Bird, and Ed Stetzer, The Ten Most Influential Churches of the Past Century: And How They Impact You Today (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image, 2015)

II.

Ten Influential Churches

A. The Apostolic Faith Mission in Los Angeles, California on Azure Street

1 .

Started the Pentecostal movement in 1906 Pastor:William Joseph Seymour

2 .

Meetings are held in a tumble-down shack on Azusa Street, and the devotees of the weird doctrine practice the most fanatical rites, preach the wildest theories and work themselves into a state of mad excitement in their peculiar zeal.

Colored people and a sprinkling of whites compose the congregation, and night is made hideous in the neighborhood by the howling of the worshipers, who spend hours swaying forth and back in a nerve-racking attitude of prayer and supplication.

They claim to have the “gift of tongues” and be able to understand the babel

Elmer L. Towns, Warren Bird, and Ed Stetzer, The Ten Most Influential Churches of the Past Century: And How They Impact You Today (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image, 2015).

c.Innovation in worship

d.

Azusa Street lives in interchurch organizations such as the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship, Charisma Magazine, and thousands of other organizations that have the same ministry.

It lives in educational institutions such as Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri; Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma; Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia; and scores of other schools in almost every nation of the world.

Azusa Street continued in the television ministry of Jan and Paul Crouch, who carried on the message of William Seymour on TBN, the world’s largest television network.

There are also thousands of other radio, television and Internet organizations that keep the message going.

Elmer L. Towns, Warren Bird, and Ed Stetzer, The Ten Most Influential Churches of the Past Century: And How They Impact You Today (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image, 2015).

B. Chinese Organic House Churches

1.Main Land China

2.Unofficially, there are more than 130 million believers in China.

While there is an official Three-Self Church in China, with a registration of approximately 23.5 million members, almost 100 million people meet in house churches in homes, apartments, restaurants and other places.

Observers suggest there were no underground churches in 1949 when the Communists took over China, yet today Christianity has exploded in this country of 1.5 billion people.

China represents one-fifth of the world’s population, and its government is considered unfriendly to Christianity, if not hostile.

The house church movement has grown without buildings, organized structure, programs, denominational support, or influence from outside nations.

Elmer L. Towns, Warren Bird, and Ed Stetzer, The Ten Most Influential Churches of the Past Century: And How They Impact You Today (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image, 2015).

3. Mao Zedong Mao did two things that laid the foundation for one of the greatest explosions of Christianity ever.

Yes, Mao did throw the Western church out of China, but he also laid the foundation for the enormously powerful underground church of China.

First, he organized the people into small training classes that met all across China, and these became the outward prototype of the house church movement.

Second, Mao mandated a new simplification of the Chinese language and ordered that everyone use this language in these small classes.

Therefore, all Chinese speak and read the same language, allowing all to attend a house church and learn the Word of God.

4. Another strength is that house churches are not joined.

Just as one belongs to a family, people are accepted into a house church for who they are, not necessarily what they know or their status in life.

Therefore, house churches become a powerful force that influences lives with a new purpose as people are accepted.

C. Ebenezer Baptist Church Atlanta, Georgia

1. Martin Luther King

2. Segregation ends

3. Differences between interracial and multi racial

4.When Christianity is acculturated into a new society, it should treat all persons equally in Christ Jesus, but that hasn’t happened.

To paraphrase the explanation of Paul, “The things that I should do—break down racial barriers—I do not, and the evil which I should not—looking at people through segregated eyes—I do” (Rom.

7:19, author’s paraphrase).

As a result, Sunday morning at 11:00 AM in the United States has been labeled “the most segregated hour of the week.”

Elmer L. Towns, Warren Bird, and Ed Stetzer, The Ten Most Influential Churches of the Past Century: And How They Impact You Today (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image, 2015).

D.The Yoido Full Gospel Church

1.The Yoido Full Gospel Church used lay ministry in home cells throughout the city of Seoul, South Korea, and became the largest church in history.

David Yonggi Cho founded the church in 1958, and it rapidly grew to more than 3,000 in attendance.

Cho had a heart attack while baptizing one Sunday morning after the church started holding three Sunday morning services in its 2,400-seat auditorium.

Cho then realized he could not pastor or build the church on his own strength.

2. During his recuperation, Cho came up with a plan to use small cells, placed strategically in every part of the city, to reach and nurture people for Jesus Christ.

Each cell would be an extension of his church where the Word of God was taught and people prayed, worshiped God and spoke in tongues as evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

By 1978, Cho reached 100,000 people, and the church continued to grow.

By 2008, when Cho retired, the church had reached 760,000 in attendance, with 32,000 small groups and 50 satellite locations throughout the city and in other areas.Just as the physical body grows by the division of cells, so the local church body grows by the division of small cells.

Elmer L. Towns, Warren Bird, and Ed Stetzer, The Ten Most Influential Churches of the Past Century: And How They Impact You Today (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image, 2015).

E. First Baptist Church Dallas, Texas

1. Influenced by Arthur Flake

(1) Know the Possibilities.

Flake taught Sunday school leaders to know the possibilities of growth and influence of Sunday school.

Today, this would be called “vision.”

He felt leaders should know the potential of a Sunday school based on the size of the community and the church.

That involved knowing prospects, knowing how to find them, and knowing how to enroll them.

(2) Enlarge the Organization.

By this Flake meant divide classes, add classes and create new classes.

He felt Sunday school attendance would grow when individual classes were added.

(3) Enlist and Train the Workers.

By this Flake meant there should be one Sunday school teacher/worker for each 10 students.

As an illustration, if a Sunday school had 200 in attendance, there needed to be 20 Sunday school teachers and/or classes.

(4) Provide Space and Equipment.

By this Flake meant that leaders should use every available space in the local church for Sunday school classes.

He was even known for suggesting the pastor and staff move out of their offices to create Sunday school classrooms.

He also used portable spaces (i.e., trailers) and gave up their space for a new nursery for the Sunday school.

(5) Go After the People.

Flake held Sunday school revivals in local churches.

He did not preach a typical revival sermon to get people saved, as was done in most revivals.

Instead, Flake used the revival to grow the Sunday schools through a scientific analysis and application of growth methods.

Elmer L. Towns, Warren Bird, and Ed Stetzer, The Ten Most Influential Churches of the Past Century: And How They Impact You Today (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image, 2015).

2. Built on a huge infro structure of Sunday school

3. W.A. Criswell was an early Sunday school innovator.

He hired professionally trained Christian education directors for each age department and organized an aggressive visitation program to cover the city of Dallas.

His goal was for them to visit every home until every person was reached.