The Church Answers Podcast

#167 Getting the Gospel to the CHRINOs (Christians in Name Only) Before They Join the Church

Thom takes six episodes to take a deep-dive look at the demographic groups that claim they are Christians but are likely not true believers. In this episode, he addresses how CHRINOs become members of the church without being Christians. He also offers concrete steps to prevent this reality from occurring in your church.

Duration:: 10m
Broadcast on:: 29 Mar 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Welcome to the Church Answers podcast presented by Chaney & Associates. Chaney & Associates are the accounting firm for the church. Now get ready for fast-paced insights on key issues affecting the local church today. We release three episodes each week so make sure you've seen or heard them all. And now, here is the CEO of Church Answers, Tom Rayner. So, listeners and viewers of the Church Answers podcast. The producer of this podcast is Alana. She's been with us for, I'm trying to remember if it's been a year or two years. Anyway, she'll tell me once something will stop here. And she's, we're doing a series of these 10-minute podcast and she's telling me I have high energy. I don't, I don't, I don't know what she's saying. I've been working since 3.30 and it's now almost 2 o'clock in the afternoon. I've been working since 3.30 in the morning and I'm doing nine podcasts in a row. And she says it's high energy. You know why I think she can see it. I don't think it has anything to do with my physical stamina. I think it has to do with my excitement about the topic. I think it has to do with my enthusiasm about what could happen and what should happen if we take some of these things to heart. I'll explain more in a little while. I mean, the line just gave me that, that segue. And I just thought I'd mention it as kind of why I'm excited about this possibility. Why it does energize me even with my body says to do down. You don't have any energy left. So we'll, we'll be talking about the group called the crinos. Keep in mind that that is a acronym, which means Christian in name only. C H R Christian high N O in name only. We make it plural by putting S on the end crinos. People who have said that they are Christians, but they're not. Now I said, I want going to review all of the previous episodes. And by the way, we have a total of six episodes on the crinos. You're in the fifth episode. So if you want to go back and listen or view those, you can go back to episodes going all the way to 163 164 165 167 168. And that's all six of them. And we have all of them now released as of today. So you're going to get all of this information on the crinos. Okay, couple of things I want to say in terms of housekeeping. We have a new directory out everything church resource directory. Absolutely love it. Our team has worked hard, hard, hard to try to assemble a single resource that has all the church resource organizations, companies, and the resources themselves into one directory. It's hundreds upon hundreds. You want to what's the best, what's the best group literature or where where's a Christian school or seminary or where's an evangelism training program. Or where can I find out about church builders and where can I find out about church stewardship company. I mean, it just goes on and on. Not just hundreds of companies, but hundreds of categories as well. It's massive. Now, here's the offer for you. It's free. It's totally free. We get asked again and again, what is the best resource for what is a resource for. Well, we've tried to put it together in this massive directory course is online. It's just a PDF. If you want to print it out, or it is a page turnable online as well, where you just turn the pages online beyond the PDF. But we urge you to get this is totally free. You may put it as a bookmark in the future. You may want to print it out, but we'll be updating that every six months. And we'll be adding to it and we'll be getting more current information. So that's the everything church resource directory. As the lady said in the introduction here, Chaney and Associates, they are our sponsor, but it's more than a sponsor. It is a belief that they are a ministry partner that is making an incredible difference with over 1100 churches. Providing them accounting bookkeeping payroll, they are the accounting firm for the church. Check out our friends at Chaney and Associates. You will appreciate it. Okay, a lot of preparatory information. Let's answer this question. We've been talking about the crown. I was once again, go back to previous episodes. This is the fifth of those. We have the total of six about Christians and name only. What is it that you need to know about getting the gospel to the crown knows before they join the church. If you listened or watched the previous episode, we said, how can the church reach the crown knows. And we talked about how can we reach them once they come into our church because we know that there are a lot of people who come to churches and claim the name of Christ or claim the name Christian, but they are Christian in name only now. Let's talk about getting the gospel to the crown knows before they come to church and I really just have two major points to talk to you about because this is kind of the easy answer, but it's the right answer. Getting the gospel to the crown knows is just getting the gospel out. Once you start becoming a church that is outwardly focused, once you start becoming a church that is evangelistically focused, you will start reaching the crown knows Christian and name only. Of course, you'll be reaching people who don't claim the name of Christ who are not Christians either. But the point is this, there is no some there's no some type of precise methodology to reach crinos in the in the world. Some will say, well, they're claiming that their Christians don't have to unconvince them that they're not that really. Most crinos, once they hear and understand the gospel, they will know they're not dumb. They will know that they are not Christian. So it is the overarching statement to you is, if your church is evangelistic, if you have this outwardly focused culture, you are going to reach the crinos. So the first point I want to make is this, churches that have an evangelistic culture reach the crinos. Once again, churches that have an evangelistic culture reach the crinos. What is an evangelistic culture? It is a church that understands that its mission on earth is to share the venues of Jesus Christ. It's a church who understands that Christ last words on on earth before he ascended to heaven x18. Where you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem Judea and Samaritan to the ends of the earth. That was his last will in Testament, if you will. And if those are his last words, they're obviously important words before he returns to reclaim us. It is understanding that if we are not evangelistic in our culture, then we have to become a church that turns our priorities around. That is just the essence of it. One of the things that we offer at church answers that has been immensely helpful to churches is called the Hope Initiative. It's a 30-day recognition, renewal of your evangelistic purpose. We've seen churches that just had incredible turnarounds just by taking a handful of people through this 30-day challenge. It's an easy thing to do for almost anyone, so that's one way to move your church to a more evangelistic culture. So number one is simply to move your church to a more evangelistic culture. Number two, again, this is basic. Make certain that you as a Christian are comfortable with gospel conversations. I've seen people do this in so many different ways. Just give one example from today. I had brunch with a co-worker by the name of Brad Wagner. Some of you may know that and know him. He's none of that. You may know him, but if you don't, we've been friends for many years. We went to a restaurant that specializes in brunch, breakfast, you know, that type of restaurant. Ruby Sunshine in downtown Franklin, for those who just want me to give it a plug. Downtown Franklin, Tennessee, that is. Brad and I were talking and he said, "Oh goodness, I haven't asked the server anything." Well, he had two and three of these very small, basically stores of Christ from scripture. Very simple. Little tiny books. And the server came by and he asked her and he said, "Your name is what?" And he repeated it to him. And he said, "This is the question that he's been asking for his gospel conversation. Do you read the Bible?" He said, "That's opened so many doors." I'd never done that, but I watched it open a door this morning before I recorded this this afternoon. He had a conversation with her. He gave her the, what I call it, mini M-I-N-I Bible. And it was just very comfortable. It was very natural, even though I think it was more supernatural. So there are just two things to reach the chronos. It's basic. Reach in the chronos means your church needs to have an evangelistic culture. And it means you individually need to be comfortable with gospel conversations. Again, if you want some prompts to help on this, check out the Hope Initiative. You can see it in our show notes. You can go to churchanswers.com and it will be right there on the homepage. That is one of the passions of church answers. That is one of the passions of my heart. And if Alana thinks that I have high energy today, it isn't because my body is working well, it is because I really believe in what I'm talking about. And I'm enthusiastic about it. We've got one more episode on the chronos. We're going to talk about the future of the chronos, two different views coming up later. We'll see you in the next and final episode on the chronos. And it's already ready and it's waiting for you. See you there. You have been listening to the Church Answers Podcast presented by Chaney & Associates. Chaney & Associates are the accounting firm for the church. You need to focus on ministry. Chaney will focus on finances. Also, please subscribe and give a review to the Church Answers Podcast on YouTube and on your favorite podcasting app. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)