Seeking the Seeker

Strengthening Or Starting and Staffing Churches by Clusters

Have you ever felt like this?  I have!  More than 59 years ago, the Lord Jesus knocked on my door through His body, The Church. You know the rest of the story.

The photograph above depicts a picture of all of us at certain times in our lives when we are most vulnerable and could be most open to our need for the good news of our dear Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Church Starts International visualizes that in each neighborhood in each country of our world, there is at least one desperate person broken, seeking attention from someone who cares. Christ has chosen his body, the Church, to be there. The CSI goal is to help our dear churches in their endeavor to seek out the seeker, see multitudes saved, bring revival and renewal to our blessed homeland, and make a difference in our world.

If we will go find the seeker, they are ready and waiting. We further believe that along the way that the Holy Spirit will put in our pathway those who have not yet come to the point of despair and many will be saved from all the heartbreak, suffering, loneliness, emptiness and lack of eternal security. They can go rejoicing in the abundant life the Lord Jesus spoke of, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly,” John 10:10 NKJ.

No doubt, the task is for all Great Commission Churches, but our 46,000+ beloved SBC churches and church-type missions can undergird the movement, set an example, and lead the way.

In January, 1954 young Leroy Hux, pastor of a newly organized Southern Baptist Church, knocked on our door and told Mary and me about the Good News of Jesus Christ and the family of God in the church. My life changed forever. The church was meeting in a one room Seventh Day Adventist building with little attraction to the outside world. Oh, what fellowship, love, joy, peace, and excitement among that small congregation. I remember thinking, if only those outside could see what God has prepared for them and the price that was paid for their salvation, they would flock by the multitudes into His loving, caring arms. Our second church, with the same fellowship, love, joy, peace, and excitement, was a mission starting missions congregation in Huntington Beach, CA meeting in a smoke-stained Lagrange Hall, pastored by a very young Ted Lindwall. These two new store-front churches were bringing in the sheaves opening up a new world of peace, joy, and eternal security among the lost multitudes living in the shadows of darkness.

A Spiritual Survey of a nation, region, and a zone
and a Spiritual Census of neighborhoods within a zone

A region could be chosen from within a nation and a survey taken of that region as to the number of zones within the region. A survey could be then taken of a zone of neighborhoods within a region as to the number of existing churches and of locations where new churches need to be started, followed by a spiritual census in each neighborhood within the zone.

To quote Dr. Ted Lindwall, “In many parts of our world, it is easy to gather a large group of children together for VBS-type activities. What is not so easy is to reach on into the family and win the parents. Almost 25 years ago, I stumbled upon a way to do this which later became Christ’s Little Flock Ministries. In two years, in an old inner city location, we moved from having a group of about 30 children in weekly activities to having them and their parents and others organize a self-supporting church with a full-time national pastor and an average attendance of 80, mostly complete families-almost everyone straight out of the world.”

“A spiritual census would simply go through a neighborhood and quickly find those who are currently open to God and who are not, and concentrate on those who are spiritually open to the good news of our good Lord Jesus.“