Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
0.08UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.07UNLIKELY
Fear
0.1UNLIKELY
Joy
0.62LIKELY
Sadness
0.48UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.59LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.49UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.57LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.91LIKELY
Extraversion
0.38UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.79LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.58LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Topic: Change and Church Growth Bobby Earls
A Message shared at the NCBSC May 30, 1996
Preached at FBI on S.M. 6/2/96
Two significant events took place this past week which could have major impacts upon First Baptist Icard in the days ahead.
The first involved myself, Tom and Jeff.
We were invited to be one of five churches across North Carolina to share at the NCBSC Discipleship Training Division’s Special Workers’ Training session.
As pastor, I had the opportunity to share what God has been doing through our church during the past six years.
The bulk of this message concerns the report or model presentation as they called it, which I presented to the Baptist State Convention’s special workers.
The other event of tremendous importance happened just yesterday morning here at FBI.
Our newly formed Long Range Planning Committee or Vision Committee meet for three hours of training to kick-off our assignment of writing our church’s future.
Making disciples ought to be the passion of us all.
Jesus said in Matthew 28:19,
“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” (NIV).
I also began with a confession.
A confession I often bring to the Lord.
I often find myself losing focus regarding our mission.
I tend to confuse the priority of our mission.
Sometimes I focus on the means and not the end.
You see, I really do believe that the end purpose of our mission in the church is to make disciples.
That is our mission.
Make disciples.
But often our talk, our plans, our programming seems to focus on “Growing the church,” and not on the individual process of discipleship.
What the Lord reminds me of is this; “if we make disciples, then the church will grow.”
But our focus should not be on “growing the church,” but on making disciples!
(You’re not too tired to give me an amen on that are you?)
I shared something of my background.
I told them I was the pastor of the FBI.
I came to First Baptist Icard on April Fools’ Day of 1990 and I’ve been fooling them ever since.
You might be interested to know that I have served two other churches during my 16 years of pastoring.
For seven years I served a church in Gaffney, SC, and before that I served a small seminary pastorate while attending SWBTS, in Fort Worth, Texas.
FBI is presently a church with slightly more than 1000 total members.
We are situated in what is really a rural section of Eastern Burke County, between Hickory and Morganton.
The Icard community itself is reported to have about 800 residents.
2
When I came to FBI we had 465 total members.
Our average Sunday School attendance was near 150.
Recently we have been averaging about 430 in SS.
We have baptized more than 400 people the past four years.
I wish I could give you a statistic for the number of disciples we have made during that same time.
But Southern Baptist don’t keep those records.
Our church staff includes myself, and one other full-time minister.
(Brethren pray for us).
Tom Quarles is our Minister of Education and Youth, and Jeff Brown is our Minister of Children.
We also have a part-time Minister of Music, and one full-time secretary.
In September of this past year we began a Daycare ministry employing a director and 17 additional workers.
We call it the Child Enrichment Center.
We have about 80 children six weeks to 5 years old.
In this evening’s service we will have our first graduation or commencement service for our five year olds.
One principle I have sought to ground into our people is that “We Must Be Willing To Change.”
Following close on the heels of that principle is another, “We Must Be Willing To Fail.”
Not every change we make will work.
That’s okay.
It’s all right to admit some things will not work.
Move on.
Don’t spend time playing the blame game or accusing or saying, “I told you so.”
Just learn from it and move on.
The story I shared about FBI was a story of change.
A story of a willing people who have over the years, been overwhelmingly supportive and faithful.
Trusting and obedient to follow the Lord in every challenging opportunity He has given us.
I love the summary statement of the study for Celebrating God’s Pattern of Change for His Church.
“Churches which embrace and respond to change are growing.
Those which don’t, aren’t.”
Over the years we have changed a lot.
In fact I want to use the study as a guide for this message about FBI.
What I found as I read the study and made comparison to our church is good news and bad news.
Good news: Despite the fact that FBI is an older church, organized in 1918, we are one of the 17 churches in the study which are growing despite our age.
So we have been able to break with tradition in some degree to grow our church.
SIZE
It’s good news that we are in the percentage of the fastest growing churches with 400 or more people in attendance.
It’s comforting to know that the larger we become, does not necessarily make it more difficult to reach people.
DESCRIPTION
I would describe FBI as a progressive, innovative, evangelical, church.
Our worship style blends the traditional with the contemporary.
We use hymns, but like singing chorus and clapping.
You’re more likely to hear strong, upbeat contemporary music than anthems.
Our people like strong preaching, but put up with anything.
We work on creating an atmosphere that is light, personal and informal.
I know it’s cliquish, but our people really are friendly and receptive to all people.
With a church like ours, I don’t know why we haven’t reached more people than we have!
OUR COMMUNITY
And I think its good news that although we are located in a plateaued community with less than 1% growth, we have somehow managed to reach people!
INTENTIONAL CHURCH
We are an intentional church when it comes to evangelism.
(And I think that’s good news) We practice intentional, confrontational evangelism.
Our setting still affords us the opportunity to practice Acts 20/20 Evangelism, from door to door.
What do I mean by intentional?
Our church has voted that no other church programming can be conducted on Monday nights except for Evangelistic Visitation.
And that’s what we do on Monday nights.
We go out and share Christ with our community.
We believe the promise of the Scriptures that say, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”
John 12:32.
We simply seek to lift up Jesus.
We have found that 1 out of every 3 times we share the Gospel, someone is saved.
We have witnessed more than 100 persons trust Christ on Monday nights alone.
We are also intentional in our worship services.
We rarely have a Sunday service in which an invitation is not offered.
I always seek to appeal to the lost to trust Christ.
We applaud for those who make decisions for Christ.
We moved baptismal services to Sunday mornings when the majority of our people are gathered.
We applaud for those who are baptized.
We think it’s a big deal when some one gets saved!
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9