In my life, ministry, mission involvement, a few questions continually resurface. Answers are elusive. I constantly refine my understanding. This is not a new series, but neither is it an old series simply re-preached. This is the struggle on display. THE question. “What does God want?” A previous series focused on understanding God – God …
Category Archives: Evangelism
Not By My Power
If you are like me, you want to be successful at whatever you attempt. Even more, you want to be perceived as successful by your peers. Maybe this attitude is a cultural thing, or perhaps it is a “man” thing (which is also a cultural thing). I know this: getting older often causes one to …
Rethinking Evangelism
What is the goal of evangelism? Give me a one word or one phrase answer–quickly! What do you think? The movie, Stolen Summer, is the story of a boy who wants everyone to go to heaven. As a result, he tries to convert his friend, the son of a Jewish rabbi. The story revolves around …
Evangelism
A few years ago, I preached a sermon that recounted numerous evangelistic stories from the life and ministry Jan and I have shared. One person described the sermon as “your life in less than 30 minutes.” God marvelously blessed us with 20 years of local church ministry in two evangelistic, rapidly growing churches. Later, we …
One Measures What Matters
Among the most important things a church does: it learns who it is, and it learns what is God’s purpose for the church. Leaders must work constantly to focus the identity of the church. It is the responsibility of leaders to remind the church of its purpose. Jan and I were in Fort Gibson Sunday, …
Developing Missionary Churches
In our mission work, we often talk about the goal of developing missionary churches. What do we mean by a missionary church? A missionary church can be developed in various ways, but the normal process is that (1) a church is planted or established with intense, focused evangelistic efforts, followed by (2) a continuing process …
An Evangelistic Church: Sharing the Good News
One can say it in many ways–a church that walks in and shares the story of God, a church that tells the Good News, a church that reaches out, a church that touches hearts and transforms lives, an evangelistic church. In my mission work, I outline and guide churches through steps for the development of …
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Will We Share the Gospel?
I am thinking this morning about how much our world has changed from the 1950s world I knew as a boy. If you had told my grandmother, or even my mother, about the possibilities we enjoy today in a constantly shrinking world with almost unlimited opportunities for travel, they would hardly have believed it. The ability …
Evangelism and Prayer
I love memorable phrases. They stick in the mind, they are hard to let go of, they come back again and again effortlessly, with no conscious effort to remember them. In Sunday’s sermon, Mitch reminded us that we must talk to Jesus about people AND talk to people about Jesus. Effective evangelism involves both. Evangelism …
Ministers! Are you doing the things that will grow the church?
Today I share some thoughts from “Introduction to Ministry” class. Churches of different sizes have different needs. Churches of different sizes organize themselves differently, with different centers and different challenges. Miinisters must recognize the dynamics of the churches with which they minister. Some smaller churches are organized like bigger churches, often because the church has …
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