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!

Surrender vs. A New Years Resolution

Why is it that resolutions never seem to last? Several synonyms for the word resolution might be a clue; decree, oath, and decision.

-Have you ever made a declaration that you were going to do something, and never got around too it?

-Have you ever made an oath that turned out to be a lie?

-Have you ever made a decision, then turned right around and changed your mind?

While many preachers will preach in the next two weeks that we must make a New Year's Resolution for God, a resolution by itself won't get the job done. God does not want to hear our resolution, He want us to SURRENDER all we are, to all HE IS!

Surrender means hands in the air, and white flags waving!

"Then he said to them all, "If anyone desire to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." Luke 9:23

Should Men of God Take A Stand?

"So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one. Ezekiel 22:30

Persecution free lifestyles are being offered at most every church these days. We don't want to offend anyone so the only thing we take a stand on is that Jesus is the only way for Salvation. When I say anything I'm referring to standards of holiness and things that replace Jesus as being the centerpoint. Sometimes we worry too much about pleasing people in trying to reach them, that we miss the most important part; pleasing God! I'm not referring to methods of ministry, but everyday opportunities to separate ourselves from the world. As far as I can tell, according to the scriptures, it is the GOOD NEWS and the GOODNESS of GOD that leads people to repentance. Also, consistent holy lifestyles seem to help people make up their minds about God and the Christian WAY. Jesus got pretty personal with people and even raised the standards when talking about living Holy lives. Growing churches are those led by men who promote holy living and passionate evangelism! Let's be found serving (not playing games) when He returns!

every man's challenge

Wow! December has been busy. I can't think of anything to write so I thought I would share a book. This is another great accountability partner to add to your library. Do you have it already?

First Christmas Message of the Year

The following are pieces taken out of my Sunday morning message. If you would like a full version let me know. Excuse the typos.

Title: Christmas Is Up To You
Text: Luke 2:8-20

Well, its Christmas time again. Here we are at the brink of another Holiday season. By the way, for many that is all it will be, a holiday season. A break from work. A two week vacation from school! As a matter of fact, many American citizens will not even recognize the birth of Jesus this Christmas (celebration of Christ).

My greatest concern is the attempt by Satan to distract, distort, confuse, and redirect the attention of Americans from the Historical American Judeo-Christmas celebration of Old (which has everything to do with Jesus), to a commercialized, fictionized, intolerant position against Jesus, social celebration.

If I am a Christian, how should I celebrate Christmas?

Answer: If you are a Christian, you should have already come to the conclusion that the Bible is God’s Word. It is all true, originated by God, and exists as a standard by which we live and make proper decisions. Therefore, in order to know how one should celebrate Christmas we have to ask the question:

What does the Bible say about Christmas?

1. The Bible does not use the word Christmas anywhere.

2. The Bible does not give us a date to celebrate the birth of Christ. If it did, the time would be much earlier than December. A call for registration would not be made during the winter months when traveling was very difficult.

Luke 2:1-3 And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. 3 So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.

Most scholars agree that Jesus was born in the fall. Many settle on the month of September.

3. While the Bible doesn’t tell us when to celebrate Christmas, and the origin of December 25th may not be relative to the birth of Christ, this date has been set aside and should be used as a time to remember and enjoy the birth of our Lord Jesus.

4. The Bible does tell us how the birth of Christ was celebrated by those in that day.

I. The Angels

a. When Jesus was born the angels celebrated by praising God!

Luke 2:13-14 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: 14 "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"

b. Imagine the sound of a multitude of heavenly host saying in unison, “Glory
to God in the highest.”

c. The word multitude represents thousands and probably a number the
human mind cannot even fathom.

Application: According to the angels of Heaven, Christmas is a time of praise. As the people of God we ought to celebrate Christmas by praising God for the One called Immanuel (meaning: God with us.)


II. The Shepherds

a. The shepherds took time to go to Bethlehem.

Luke 2:15 So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, "Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us."

· In our fast pace society we barely have time to go shopping much less time to go to Bethlehem.

· I’m not talking about getting on a plane and flying to Israel. That would be neat, but not realistic! I’m talking about sitting down as a family and reading the story of Christmas. Observing the details and remembering how our King (Jesus) was introduced to our world.

· Children need to hear the true story of Christmas. They need their parents to take them to Bethlehem so that when they are grown, such a place will exist in their hearts. America is sneaking farther away from the true meaning of Christmas each year that passes.

· Will our great, great grandkids really know what Christmas is about? Take the time to go to that manger in Bethlehem where the Savior of the world was born.

b. The shepherds took time to tell others about the birth of Christ.

Luke 2:17-18 Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. 18 And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

Conclusion: How is Christmas up to you?

1. It is up to you how you celebrate it.

2. It is up to you whether or not the true meaning of Christmas will be passed on to generations to come.

Time Machine

There is a Christian movie called Time Machine. Go to Blockbuster and rent it. It is a great movie about why America is where it is today!

Make sure its the one about America today.

Overcoming A Plateau in Your Church

I read an article recently and thought I would share some of the high points.

Bible Text: Acts 6:1-4

1. Churches plateau because the pastor, or leader plateaus.

note: There can be other factors but the pastor must stay focused and on mission with God.

2. The pastor or leader must lead the church to grow.

3. Evaluate where you are.
- How is your walk with God?
- Do you have any goals you are trying to accomplish?

4. Set some goals.
- Sunday School or Bible Fellowship goals
- number of souls saved
- invitations distributed

5. Get some things in your life that will motivate you.
- listen to messages
- listen to uplifting music
- do some physical work that will give your mind the freedom to think.
- read good books that will motivate you (testimonies, stories, biographies)

6. Fellowship with men who motivate you rather than make you feel comfortable.

Prayer Request

Don and Dimp Gilliam's daughter, Holly, was driving home (Virginia) from here after the holidays and they were at Memphis when she started rubbing her head and looked at her husband and said, I love you and take care of the girls and started having seizures.She has been air flighted to Knoxville and is in a comma not doing very well. Don and Dimp and the girls attented Independence MBC in Pleasant Plains for years and was the music director. He is now up around Russellville somewhere. Please put her on the prayer chain.

ThanksTeresa

Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Have you ever wanted to give up? I think everyone has been there at some point. I met a lady at the hospital today that had that look in her eyes. After talking with her I thought about all the people that believe God is behind life's difficult circumstances. I don't have a detailed explanation as to why bad things happen to good people, but I do know that God is not the initiator for most of what He is blamed for.

If you or someone you know is going through a difficult time remember the following.

1. Sin's Curse Will Run Its Course- Death, pain, sickness, and sorrow all came as a result of man's disobedience to God. If you must have someone to blame, his name is Adam. Genesis chapter (3) three unfolds the beginning of hard times. These hard times will come until this age we are living in comes to an end.

2. God Choses Not To Heal- If God healed all sickness, took away all the sorrowful times, and made pain disappear, Heaven and the presence of God wouldn't be as glorious and longed for. Contrary to what most TV preachers claim, God in most cases allows sin to run its course. Statistics say that most people find a relationship with Jesus as a result of difficult circumstances. We might not always agree with God, but He has a way of turning hard times into life changing blessings.

3. God Promises To Be Near- In my mind the greatest comfort during difficult circumstances is knowing that God is holding me all the way. If you are child of God He promises never to leave you or forsake you. Embrace that promise and peace will rest in your heart during life's most trying times.

The Family

The kids are growing fast so we took a picture to remember what they looked like Thanksgiving 2006!

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone has a great THANKSGIVING! Drive careful and make sure you have a good time with your families.

Prayer Request

Please say a special prayer for Phillis Piereson. She is sick and unable to attend our thanksgiving service this evening.