Churches have conflict issues. Tim said a certain church that he was involved with was one of the hardest two 1/2 years of his life/ministry (Penn Del district). He had the idea of having a conflict resolution ministry in the district-now they have a ministry across the state & Delaware where they train ministers and congregations how to manage and resolve conflicts.
Bridge Builders ministry
Tim: "I encourage new ministers to strike a strong relationship with your senior pastor."
Tom: "What if you think your pastor is a jerk?"
Tim: "Commit or get out- it won't work unless you're with your senior pastor. Without him/her nothing will get done and it will ultimately be a lose-lose scenario."
Tom: "what if a member of the congregation approaches you with criticism about the Senior Pastor?" and what if you agree with them?"
Tim: "the most important reason you are @ the church is to help the Senior Pastor carry out his ministry-if you happen to agree with the congregant, then don't ever let them know it."
Tim has used pyrotechnics to enhance the delivery of ministerial drama. They never charge for anything because you never see any biblical model use "fund-raisers" to benefit the church. If you're going to do an outreach do 2 or 3 events over the course of 2 - 3 days (it builds with momentum for reaching people)=reaches hundreds of people.
Ideas: mechanical bull, sumo wrestler outfits, face-painting, Velcro-walls, handouts of literature, free coffee, cake, baked goods, pizza…etc.
Light the Night: during Halloween- puppets, dramas, games & activities- however, Tim noted that they evaluated this particular outreach and it was not resulting in a good turnout.
Evaluation: Evaluate what was good, what was bad, and what was confused.
Questions Concerning Baptism in the Holy Spirit: Tim says he doesn't know how a church can effectively minister the Word of God without an active Baptism of the Holy Spirit. However, I felt he used this term synonymously with a more specific gesture of "Speaking in Tongues". My question is: "Can he therefore not see how a church can effectively minister the Word of God without speaking in Tongues?"
There are many denominations who do not emphasize "Tongues" to be synonymous with being Baptized in the Holy Spirit (i.e. Salvation Army, Baptists…etc.) Billy Graham did not speak in tongues, or at least from what is known of him. I just wonder how much more effective is a Pentecostal in ministry to the world in reaching the lost for Christ than the non-Pentecostal denominational churches who also greatly impact the world for Christ.
How can we get past the comparison of Pentecostals over Non-Pentecostals to be somehow more "enabled" to minister the Word of God. Can you be baptized in the Holy Spirit without the evidence of Speaking in Tongues?
A place for my thoughts, concerns, and defenses for the Christian faith.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Joel Hunter
Joel Graduated CBC & Evangel. Itinerated over 50 different churches across the nation, but nothing was happening. He was hammered with difficult church outreach stories where he made grandious efforts to draw people into his church where God seemed to be telling him it wasn't about the thousands, nor the hundreds… but the one!
He had to give a family the darkest decision they would ever have to face with making the decision to cut the life support to their brain dead daughter who was thrown 40 feet from a car speeding @ 85 miles/hour.
Time and time again there were what seemed to be failed attempts to draw people into the church.
One cold day in December in Texas, a construction crew had a mishap where they had 8 dump trucks full of extra crushed concrete that they no longer had any use for. This cowboy came and asked Joel if he wanted it. Joel said yes and that night they had more than 170 people attend their church service.
God is BIG on teaching lessons to His children. Sometimes the ones that need the most education are the ones that claim no need for it. Nothing could be closer to the truth! We cannot place ourselves in the position where we believe we have it figured out. There will always be things that we overlook. Success is not a packaged formula- especially spiritual success. Joel emparts to us the knowledge that all ministers must understand in a practical sense: Never Stop & Never Stop Learning from God! We need to remain faithful in spite of our frustration to know that God is in control.
He had to give a family the darkest decision they would ever have to face with making the decision to cut the life support to their brain dead daughter who was thrown 40 feet from a car speeding @ 85 miles/hour.
Time and time again there were what seemed to be failed attempts to draw people into the church.
One cold day in December in Texas, a construction crew had a mishap where they had 8 dump trucks full of extra crushed concrete that they no longer had any use for. This cowboy came and asked Joel if he wanted it. Joel said yes and that night they had more than 170 people attend their church service.
God is BIG on teaching lessons to His children. Sometimes the ones that need the most education are the ones that claim no need for it. Nothing could be closer to the truth! We cannot place ourselves in the position where we believe we have it figured out. There will always be things that we overlook. Success is not a packaged formula- especially spiritual success. Joel emparts to us the knowledge that all ministers must understand in a practical sense: Never Stop & Never Stop Learning from God! We need to remain faithful in spite of our frustration to know that God is in control.
Brian Bolt
His Testimony:
By 19 yrs old Brian was drug-trafficking across the border from Tijuana to the United States. His addiction to heroine was driving him to do terrible things-posing as a U.S. Soldier of the Army serving as a double agent for the drug world. He eventually got caught by the Army and got into serious trouble, but then later returned to drugs again after he was released.
I found this particularly riviting to me personally because I came from a similar addiction to drugs and riotous living. Its amazing to to me to know where God will dig up His tools to build magnificent things!
By 23 yrs old in San Diego he got caught up in a bad drug-deal resultig in his being shot in the face at a bar. He made the statement: "I was actually glad to know that I was going to die; that it was finally going to be all over!" Before he was put in an ambulance, someone noticed he was not going 2 make it to the Hospital & asked him if he knew Jesus as his Lord & Savior. He said the sinners prayer right there. He miraculously recovered over an extended period of time. His face was a mess-replaced with titanium and plastic surgery. The government spent nearly a million dollars to fix him all up. After the hospital however, he went directly out to get high all over again.
This points out to me that it doesn't matter how miraculous God may go out of the way to prove to us that He is there-we will still exhibit our stubborn inheirent nature! But the best ones sometimes come from a stubborn background.
Somehow there were people who noticed Brian and began to minister to him, telling him that God had placed a call on his life and that there was something important that God had to do yet with his life.
Somehow through compelling ministry and evangelism, his heart was pulled into the church. He found himself later in East L.A. from San Diego. The pastor from East L.A. had a heart from Pittsburgh. They flew out there to get a scope on possibly planting a church there. There, he met a woman he began to share with and she gave him a card for Masters Commission. There a seed was planted for him to begin an educational process to become a minister. Brian was in Masters for a couple months & broke one of their major tenants: he went and got married. (the rule was not to date)
Church Planting Assessment (Tom Rees): competencies of those who have established successful Churches. The assessment looks at a number of differing factors: the ability to communicate with unchurched people; the progressive growth between weeks of an established meeting/group.
Jeff Leek heard of Brian's heart to plant a Latino church in Pittsburgh. Tom's support and the prayers of many brought him finally to the place where he is today! (Pittsburgh City Outreach)
Brian's church was actually started from a "Men's Home" (Drug Rehab) as a result of disciple-ing them to become good stewards of God's will.
Funny Story: the store across the street from the church had pornographic material posted up on its windows. Brian went across with some guys and asked the man to take them down. At first the man wouldn't agree to it. But Brian later came back with the guys, this time with a baseball bat. The man agreed at that point (lol).
I thought this story totally ROCKED!!! I'm one who believes the best testimony is the story of a changed life! Brian's life is a trophy of just how bad things can get in a person's life, and yet the marvelous potential it holds in the eyes of our Lord!
By 19 yrs old Brian was drug-trafficking across the border from Tijuana to the United States. His addiction to heroine was driving him to do terrible things-posing as a U.S. Soldier of the Army serving as a double agent for the drug world. He eventually got caught by the Army and got into serious trouble, but then later returned to drugs again after he was released.
I found this particularly riviting to me personally because I came from a similar addiction to drugs and riotous living. Its amazing to to me to know where God will dig up His tools to build magnificent things!
By 23 yrs old in San Diego he got caught up in a bad drug-deal resultig in his being shot in the face at a bar. He made the statement: "I was actually glad to know that I was going to die; that it was finally going to be all over!" Before he was put in an ambulance, someone noticed he was not going 2 make it to the Hospital & asked him if he knew Jesus as his Lord & Savior. He said the sinners prayer right there. He miraculously recovered over an extended period of time. His face was a mess-replaced with titanium and plastic surgery. The government spent nearly a million dollars to fix him all up. After the hospital however, he went directly out to get high all over again.
This points out to me that it doesn't matter how miraculous God may go out of the way to prove to us that He is there-we will still exhibit our stubborn inheirent nature! But the best ones sometimes come from a stubborn background.
Somehow there were people who noticed Brian and began to minister to him, telling him that God had placed a call on his life and that there was something important that God had to do yet with his life.
Somehow through compelling ministry and evangelism, his heart was pulled into the church. He found himself later in East L.A. from San Diego. The pastor from East L.A. had a heart from Pittsburgh. They flew out there to get a scope on possibly planting a church there. There, he met a woman he began to share with and she gave him a card for Masters Commission. There a seed was planted for him to begin an educational process to become a minister. Brian was in Masters for a couple months & broke one of their major tenants: he went and got married. (the rule was not to date)
Church Planting Assessment (Tom Rees): competencies of those who have established successful Churches. The assessment looks at a number of differing factors: the ability to communicate with unchurched people; the progressive growth between weeks of an established meeting/group.
Jeff Leek heard of Brian's heart to plant a Latino church in Pittsburgh. Tom's support and the prayers of many brought him finally to the place where he is today! (Pittsburgh City Outreach)
Brian's church was actually started from a "Men's Home" (Drug Rehab) as a result of disciple-ing them to become good stewards of God's will.
Funny Story: the store across the street from the church had pornographic material posted up on its windows. Brian went across with some guys and asked the man to take them down. At first the man wouldn't agree to it. But Brian later came back with the guys, this time with a baseball bat. The man agreed at that point (lol).
I thought this story totally ROCKED!!! I'm one who believes the best testimony is the story of a changed life! Brian's life is a trophy of just how bad things can get in a person's life, and yet the marvelous potential it holds in the eyes of our Lord!
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