www.outreach.com

Outreach has some great resources and prices for churches. We are about to purchase some banners to put outside on the front of our building. Check out the website for door hangers, banners, worship guides, bible studies, etc.

BELONG

Required Skills

The following are areas/skills pastors and church planters must acquire in order to be successful on mission with God.

Visionary (Deuteronomy 8:7-10; 11:9-12) — Sees the vision given by God, is driven by
that vision, and uses the vision to rally people in support of the task at hand.

Communication (Matthew 13:13; Jeremiah 27 & 28) — Connects the church to the
vision and values, and uses culturally appropriate language in a variety of means.

Management (Luke 19:11-27) — Leads effectively through change and develops contextual
strategies with appropriate methodologies.

Relational (Acts 15:35-39) — Listens to people, handles differences that may arise,
empowers others, leads by encouragement, and relates cross-culturally.

Equipping (2 Timothy 2:1-2) — Sees the strengths and needs in others, affirms others
in their abilities and giftedness, and practices multiplication by equipping of others.

Risk-taking (2 Corinthians 11:25-27) — Sees possibilities, is not careless but free from
fear of failure, knows the obligation of ministry and pursues it.

Servant (Matthew 20:26) — Connects people to the network, provides access to training,
helps with logistics and support, provides counsel and guidance, assists in resource
location, encourages, and listens.

Mentoring (Proverbs 27:17) — Seeks to grow people by helping others to develop their
God-given potential fully.

Enabling (Acts 4:29-31) — Makes possible for others what they have not been able to
do or permitted to do before.

Delegating (Exodus 18:17-19) — Has confidence in people under his leadership by
entrusting them with important tasks; understands one person cannot do everything.

Team-building (Philippians 2:1-4) — Knows how to attract others to the vision, share
in the contribution to the task, share necessary information, encourage group creativity,
giving and receiving regular feedback.

TBC NEWS

This post is to share an idea with my blog buddies. We are about to begin "TBC Sunday Morning News" (Video/Media Ministry). We plan to set up a studio and interview church members about different issues. First, we will feature a different church member every week. This will help everyone get to know each other better and have fun while doing it!

Any ideas along this line? Has anyone done this before?

Evangelism Kick-Off

I am very excited about the kick-off of our evangelism ministry. We had 25 adults (all ages) present for last night's training seminar. Praise God! There are several others that could not attend last night and will attend Sunday evening. If you didn't make it last night and you are interested in being on a ministry team please let me know.

Pray for each team as we begin a mission to take over our city!

Good Times

Although it is still pouring down rain, we had a great morning with exactly 100 in worship. We also had several visitors. Those of you who brought friends, way to go! I pray that the message was received well and can't wait to get our new evangelism ministry kicked off.

Evangelism

The following is a list of highlights from my message for Sunday, January 14th. NO CRITICS PLEASE! We will have an evangelism training seminar Tuesday, January 16th. Pray for Temple as we attempt to take over our city!

MESSAGE HIGHLIGHTS: Matthew 9:35-38

Why are so few people coming to Christ?

Why are so many churches going out of existence?

ANSWER: There ARE NO laborers. There are plenty of religious church members, but the laborers are few!

• Churches have adopted the “NO CONCERN” policy.
• God is not interested in religious people getting together and doing church. He is interested in saved people becoming concerned about lost people!
• If you’re not interested in having compassion on people who are headed for Hell (besides the fact that you might be one of those persons yourself), this is the wrong place for you!
• There are way too many busy bodies in the Lord’s churches today. Usually the people that don’t want to use different methods/strategies to reach people are the ones who aren’t doing anything anyways!
• Be careful about standing against something that God is for!

What is the theology behind the word evangelism? The gospel is the power of God to Salvation. Therefore people must receive the gospel in order to go to Heaven. Evangelism then is the ministry of sharing this gospel in order that lives can be transformed.

The application of the word is simple: Make it possible for people to get the gospel. Share it, live it, and provide avenues where confused people can find the truth.

Questions every church must answer:

1. What are we doing to proclaim the gospel to our community?

2. How effective are the methods we are using?

3. Is there a better way that we have not yet discovered?

4. How many different ministries or methods should we implement?

5. Are we willing to make sacrifices to have an organized church evangelism ministry?

6. Are we willing to spend money to effectively evangelize our community?

Methods of Evangelism: We must exhuast every avenue of evangelism!

1. Door Knocking

2. Special Emphasis Services

3. Evangelism Pools

4. Relationship Building

5. Evangelistic Activities

6. Support Groups

7. Youth Drop-In Center

A church that is NOT aggressively evangelizing her community is 100,000,000 miles out of the will of God.

Youth Drop-in Center

Please pray for our church as I lead out in the beginning of a youth drop-in center. This will be a non-pressure enviroment for the youth of our community to hangout in a Christian atmosphere. There will be games and pool tables etc. It will function with volunteer leaders. The purpose will be to get kids off the streets, away from drugs and parites, and eventually into a relationship with Jesus. It will probably not be on the church property.

Accomplishing this will mean breaking all the rules of traditional church philosophy. I have talked about it already and hope to accomplish it in the year 2007.

Any thoughts or ideas?

Honesty Time

1. Am I doing everything I have been called to do?

2. What key areas have been replaced on my priority list?

3. Is there something in my life that has replaced my passion for lost souls?

4. On a scale of 1-10 how well have I done with training new leaders?

5. How long has it been since I really felt that God was using me?

6. Are my borders increasing or decreasing?

7. Do I follow up on people like I should?

8. Are my messages applicable or just facts?

9. Am I offering hope in my messages?

10. Who will remember what I said a week ago?

11. If Sunday's message is the last one someone will ever hear, did I do my best to help them prepare for etnerity?

12. Do I impact people or entertain people?

13. What does Jesus think about my behavior in this season of my life?

14. Am I a servant leader or a selfish leader?

15. Am I a shepherd or a hireling?

Community Atmosphere

This post is mostly a reminder of how important it is to keep the church community open for sinners (since we all seem to have that problem). If you should visit Temple, expect to feel welcomed in a place of refuge. This doesn't mean that sin won't be talked about, because it is SIN that keeps us from enjoying life. Temple understands the sin nature, but also understands God's call to Holiness. God loves the sinner as he is, but refuses to leave him there!

The following questions have been created in order to keep us in check with the purpose we have been given.

1. What is your church's attitude about un-churched sinners?

2. What is your church's attitude about the backslidden brother?

3. What is your church's attitude about those rebellious, weird looking teenagers?

If your response was negative you might adjust your attitude because it completely contrasts the following truth.

Jesus did not only love and die for sinners who would trust in Him, but also for those who would not. Let's keep our church atmosphere open as a place of refuge for sinners!

"Brethren, if a man is overtaken in ANY trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted." Galatians 6:1

Paul just previously introduced the fruits of the Spirit, and is clearly asking the Galatians to allow those fruits to blossom when dealing with sinners. If we are going to reach sinners we must meet them where they are with love, patience, and gentleness!