Mar 05
All churches have people leave. But it should break our hearts when people leave. It certainly does the Lord when people leave Him (Luke 15). Yet people don’t have to remain gone! They can come back and we should do everything we can to encourage their return to the body. In order to do this we …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.joshketchum.com/what-keeps-people-from-coming-back-to-the-church/
Feb 24
Often the church’s sells pitch today to church-lookers focuses on all the church can do for them. Come here because we have an active youth program, daycare ministry, a wonderful preacher who gives challenging, practical sermons, great music, and great small groups ministry where you can make lots of friends. This is what our consumer-driven …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.joshketchum.com/the-church-is-not-about-you/
Jan 07
In 2014, the Seven Oaks Church of Christ did a new benevolent ministry. This ministry proved successful and I wanted to share it with others. The idea is certainly not original to us and has been done by other churches in various forms. We simply asked every individual in attendance Sunday morning to give a …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.joshketchum.com/every-one-counts-ministry/
Dec 17
So we were on our trip to the Creation museum and Amanda was trying to find us some congregations to worship at while on our trip. She would go to their church website and found this to be very frustrating. Most church websites fail because they are woefully outdated, and don’t give you the basic …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.joshketchum.com/church-website-rant/
Sep 21
One of our outreaches for Seven Oaks Church of Christ this year was a “Friends Night in the Park.” We have a local park with a nice pavilion, playground, basketball courts, and lots of open space. We reserved the pavilion, took our grill, bought 400 hotdogs, chips, drinks, and desserts. We encouraged our people to …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.joshketchum.com/church-outreach-idea-worship-in-the-park/
Sep 17
Judas Iscariot is famous for his betrayal of Jesus. We can learn many lessons from Judas regarding greed, unbelief, and hypocrisy. But I wish to consider an aspect of Judas typically overlooked. It is likely that Judas was the only Apostle not from the region of Galilee in the north. His surname Iscariot likely signifies he came from …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.joshketchum.com/lessons-for-the-outsider-from-judas/
Jun 10
This past Sunday we completed our second “We are the Sermon” ministry. The idea was not original to us, and certainly not complicated. The aim of the ministry was to reach out to our community with acts of service and love. A secondary aim is developing deeper friendships and relationships with one another as we …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.joshketchum.com/we-are-the-sermon-ministry/
May 13
I wanted to share a list of ideas for your church to consider this summer. This is certainly not an exhaustive list and I welcome any ideas you may have that we could use here at Seven Oaks. You probably have heard of these before, but they may be a good reminder. Have some “Church/Eat/Church” …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.joshketchum.com/10-ministry-ideas-for-your-church-this-summer/
Mar 25
The work of the church is the greatest work on earth. Its work is urgent and eternal in nature. Yet, every church I know struggles with getting attendees and members involved in the work. Our Lord taught us to pray for more workers, because the laborers are few (Mat. 9:36-38, 20:5-7) Everyone needs to be …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.joshketchum.com/how-to-get-more-people-involved-in-the-church/
