How to Keep Children in Church

 Bob Logan helps leaders of churches and denominations. He thinks if children experience genuine connections with God, they are more likely to stay in church after graduating from high school.

 For the rest of Bob’s blog, CLICK HERE.

Help Others Get Their Own Experiences With God

As I pray about planting 1,000 churches and wonder how we will get there, I believe God wants us to help people have genuine experiences with him. Them personally. Their experiences. Once this is happening, the next step is to help them know how to teach others to get experiences with God.

My experiences are good for me, and my stories encourage some people, but they do not give other people enough energy to make long-term commitments.

Being nice, believing the right things, and good food are all important, but they are not enough. They are more like the consequences of genuine experiences with God.

How Can We Help Others Experience God?

1. Personal Experience: We need to know how to experience God for ourselves.

a) If you do not have this, think of some people who might, and go and ask them what they do.

b) Experiencing God usually involves disciplines. Here are a few that we are finding helpful these days.

c) Discovery Bible Studies – Helps groups of friends learn to obey what they think God is saying in a Bible study, and then have them come back the next week, share what happened, and do it again.

d) Lectio Divina – Put yourself in a Bible story, especially one from the gospels. Keep rereading until you get to a deeper understanding.

e) Immanuel Prayer – Get a good memory. Find Jesus in the memory. Ask Him what He wants you to know.

f) Centering Prayer – Spend time with God, just thinking about Him for 10-30 minutes every morning.

g) There are many other ways too, like studying, journaling, a gratitude journal, praying through lists, intercession, fasting, etc. 

2. Pass It On: If you share your experiences, they become yours. It is critical that you share your spiritual experiences.

a) LISTEN: First listen. It is helpful to get permission to share. You gain people’s permission or confidence by listening to their stories.

b) SHARE: At some point, when the time is right, share your God-experience stories. When you share them, your brain will hear you sharing them, and you will start to change. Your brain will start to understand this is who you are. You are a human who has experiences with God. If you do not share them or record them, they will fade away and cease to exist. Sharing also helps you get more experiences because the flow will increase.

Your thoughts?