Quote
AW Stevens
One really big thing that I have never understood, that I would like Pastor G (who is undoubtedly reading this thread of posts) to address very soon (and this will be a deal breaker for me if he doesn’t), is the issue of having a credible follow-up ministry for the people that are being saved. The main service (Six O’Clock Roc) has been full for over 2 years, so even with some turnover in attendance, only a small fraction of even the approximately 1,000 per year being saved in the main service, can be accommodated by regular attendance at the ROC.

That means that the vast majority need to be churched at another sound Bible church.

We’re constantly hearing about the 20,000+ per year that have been saved by ROC ministries in the last two years, and every week we hear the exact number that were saved that week (usually in the 400 to 600 range). But where is the follow-up? I have checked carefully, and out of the 132 ministries (count ‘em!) the critical ministry of making sure that as many as possible of these people get churched, does not exist!!

Granted that about 1/2 of the salvations are outside of the Richmond area, but that still leaves about 20,000 people in the last two years that need to be churched in the Richmond area. Do the math … or create a mathematical model … as to the amount of church construction (additions to existing churches and/or construction of new churches) that would be needed to accommodate that many people … 20 churches of 1,000, or 40 churches of 500, or 200 churches of 100. Anyone who can observe the Richmond area can easily conclude that only a tiny fraction of that about 20,000 people have been churched, i.e. show signs that they have been saved and are living a Christian life.

This is a sensitive issue for me, as I experienced untold hardship due to that exact issue … I got saved at a campus ministry, found a few books about ministries where the power of God and sound Bible teaching was very evident, and when I got back to my hometown I didn’t know how to find a church like that, and wound up in a denomination that while not a cult had a number of heresies and it was spiritually weak, and after several years of that I got disillusioned in my faith and went through some great problems, and while I eventually did find a powerful and sound church, my spiritual progress was set back for years, and I still see some of the effects today.

I will grant that it can be difficult to follow up on some of the converts, depending on where they are witnessed to, but I find it appalling that the ROC is asleep at the switch on this critical issue, and bloviate every week about the precise (and huge) number of people that got saved that week; and about the 20,000+ per year that got saved.