Archive | Evangelism RSS feed for this section

Free Audio from Family Vacation 2012: Never Roam Alone

20 Jan

For more like this, visit campusministryunited.com’s download page.

Good Works Without Good Words

30 Nov

This teaching resonates strongly with me:

.

.

Reminds me of Lynn Stringfellow’s post on Social Justice.

Walking the Walk Without Legs

2 Sep

If you liked the film The Butterfly Circus shared with you the other day, then you’ll love this:

.

“You are a miracle of God for someone else’s salvation …” – great quote full of truth.

Now go and make disciples!

Stringfellow on Social Justice & Eternal Purpose

13 Jul

Does God call us to take care of the poor and the outcast? Certainly! In fact, we are being unfaithful if this is something we ignore.

But let me ask another question: if I help people overcome their hunger, addiction, or affliction, but ignore any attempt to lead them to Christ and they die outside of Him, have I helped them in an ultimate sense?

If this question peaks your interest, please check out this post by Lynn Stringfellow and join in the discussion to follow – it will be an important one.

Free Audio From the 2011 Campus Ministry United Workshop – #cmuw11

11 Jul

Each year seems to be better than the last – 2011 was no exception. Please share these resources with anyone who may benefit.

2011 Campus Ministry United Workshop Around the Corner

24 Jun

The 2011 Campus Ministry United Workshop is nearly upon us, and in a few days my family will pack our bags and make the journey from San Francisco to Arkansas to join everyone else on the campus of Harding University for this event.

I’m excited, because the CMU Workshop is more than just a meeting for campus ministers and students – it is an annual celebration of a movement we are all part of to plant new campus ministries and encourage evangelistic activity among college students nationwide.

What started in 2006 as a small meeting of about 40 leaders interested in reaching college students has grown each year, and many positive things have happened in a short amount of time.

Several brand new ministries have been planted around the country, a number of young ministers have been trained to enter full-time ministry, money has been raised, plans for the future have been laid at God’s feet in prayer, and, just this year, two full-time staff persons were added in Lynn & Carol Stringfellow to promote CMU’s agenda to reach college students year round. A large, influential church in Tulsa, OK’s Park Plaza Church of Christ joined the team in 2010 through sponsoring the Stringfellows, and elders and leaders from other churches have approached us about getting involved in other ways as well.

New ministry sites are being researched, plans for new plants are being made, and new people are contacting us about being trained for ministry. We have much work to do, many interested in helping to get it done, and for that we are thankful.

All this has been an answer to prayers prayed by people passionate about reaching others with the gospel of Jesus Christ and seeing His Kingdom break out in power on this earth.

God has been behind all the good things that have happened so far, and I believe He’s just getting started!

If you are interested in reaching college students with the gospel of Jesus Christ or simply in evangelism (regardless of the form it takes), you ought to join us at the 2011 Campus Ministry United Workshop July 7-10 at Harding University.

A Facebook Event Page has been set up, and pertinent info has been posted on the Workshop Page of campusministryunited.com.

The CMUW is more than just a workshop – it’s a celebration of a Christ-centered movement to reach college students for and with Jesus. If you want to be part of something bigger than yourself, join us.

God is doing something special!

Vast Majority of US Teens to Attend College – What’s the Church Going to Do About It?

14 Jun

The Barna Group’s research continues to tell us a story – a story about the church’s need to respond to the call to responsibly shepherd older teens and college students.

Here’s an excerpt from a study released in May of last year outlining how a nationwide sample of older teens responded to the question, “What do you think your life will be like 10 years from now?”:

The most common aspirations of teenagers were related to college and their professional pursuits. Finishing a college degree was their top-rated future priority. A majority of teenagers felt certain that they would accomplish this goal by age 25. In all, 93% of teenagers said they would either definitely or probably obtain a college degree by their mid-twenties.

Add to this David Kinnaman’s comments from Barna’s latest study (a follow-up to the one done a year ago):

With the vast majority of teenagers hoping to experience and graduate from college someday (see previous Barna study on this subject), Kinnaman suggested that college and career decisions represent an important opportunity for faith leaders to influence students. “Today’s teens have huge aspirations in life and a great deal of self-confidence that is sometimes out of proportion with their abilities. Taught to believe they can accomplish anything at anytime, many young people figure if they see a problem or a need, they can just start a new company or nonprofit to address it. And armed with technology, some of them are actually doing that.

“Still, many young people do not seem to understand how a rich, historic understanding of the Christian faith and the gospel ought to inform their career aspirations,” Kinnaman continued. “And faith leaders are not as intentional as they could be with instruction and coaching on these types of decisions. Understanding how teenagers hope to spend their professional lives can help faith communities and institutions better support these students as they discern God’s calling in their lives.”

Kinnaman is right in saying youth leaders should do more to guide young people toward making career decisions and future plans through the lens of faith, but couldn’t one also say more attention should be paid to intentionally ministering to students while they’re actually in college?

The moral of the story this research tells certainly indicates more could and should be done – 93% of the young people in this country are going to go to college, and 100% of them need to know Jesus.

If you are one who agrees with that statement, let me ask this: what are you willing to do about it?

I have some suggestions – more on this soon.

What Does God Expect of Me After I Become a Christian?

2 Jan

We wrapped up our Core Essentials series today at Lake Merced Church with this lesson focused on answering the question, “What does God expect of me after I give my life to Jesus?”

For more preaching and teaching like this, visit the westcoastwitness.com Sermon Archive.

The Pitfalls of Seminary Education

27 Dec

The Ivory Tower

Dan Bouchelle – Executive Director of Missions Resource Network – has written a thought-provoking series of articles on the pitfalls of seminary education as it pertains to leading evangelistically effective ministries and churches.

I invite you to check them out for yourself (thank you to Cary McCall for the heads up on these):

Here are a couple of excerpts:

There is no such thing as education without socialization. School is a community that shapes people. When a person leaves the regular church in the world environment (which is already far removed from the world) and enters the academy he or she does not just acquire information and skills but also a new community which alters a person profoundly.

In the academy, what counts, what gets you affirmation and feeds your ego, is not what will help you relate to people in the church or the world. Impressing your professors and your fellow students with your ability to use technical language and demonstrate skills with ancient languages becomes increasingly important to you. Being able to show in subtle ways that you are conversant with the writings of leading scholars and theologians of the last several centuries is a matter of status and self-esteem. Graduate theological study creates a sense of self and values that don’t fit the daily realities of the church and certainly do not fit the intersection of gospel and culture. Being able to talk in ways that make you fit-in with the academy will make you less relevant to people on the street and make your preaching seem esoteric and harder to comprehend by the unchurched or those far from God.

And:

… seminaries do not typically produce prophets, visionaries, evangelists, or leaders of movements. They may produce an occasional church leader who will lead a church to do its version of church so well that this church gains a huge market share of the people who are in its fellowship. But they will not likely produce a true evangelist or church planter much less a movement leader.

This is all well and good when times are stable and churches are well positioned to serve their culture. That day is not today. Seminaries like to think they are the R & D department of the church. They are not. The R & D department is out among the people–among the radicals who have left formal church to take the gospel to the streets and rethink church entirely after the formalized religious structures have grown out of touch with the culture. While the seminary usually wants to discount such people as irresponsible, rough, and unrefined, the future of the church lies in the streets and not the ivory tower.

Dan is not anti-education as he plainly says in his final post – he simply wishes to point out that formalized seminary education/Bible college has a down side, and he’s right.

The results of my own research done through Campus Ministry United found that the Church of Christ campus ministries typically reaching the least amount of students year to year were led by those with the highest theological education, while those reaching the most were led by ministers often with the least theological education.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go study. I’m in seminary, and class starts soon. :)

River City Ministry – How You Can Help

24 Dec

Jim Woodell posted this comment under yesterday’s posted blog on Facebook:

It is so refreshing to see social needs combined with evangelistic outreach at RCM. Anthony is “seeking” while the LORD is “saving” the lost. RCM is seeking to expand the social outreach in the medical part of this ministry with the hope that more can be reached with the gospel of Christ. Over 20,000 meals were served in 2010 and well over 2,000 were treated for medical needs.

RCM’s mission statement is, “Opening doors to God by serving the poor.” To accomplish this goal RCM is needing to add $150,000 pre year to the annual budget. This is true domestic mission work that is cross-cultural with the exception of a few “inner-city,” formally homeless individuals that assist.

If you know of a Trust, Foundation, Philanthropist, Church, or generous individual that would like to see their contributions expand the Kingdom of God, please send them to RCM at Jim@rivercityministry.org. You can vist the RCM website at www.rivercityministry.org.

Ministries doing the kinds of things RCM is doing are rare – I encourage you to get involved!

Anthony Wood and I baptizing a new brother.

← Older Entries

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 357 other followers