Only 15% of Pastors Consider Missionary Outreach A Top Priority

Leaders of the Church of God Theological Seminary and World Missions teamed up this week to celebrate the annual Seminary Missions Week, turning the spotlight on the missions calling of the church.

"Our work is cut out for us," said Bill George, coordinator of education for World Missions. "A recent national survey of pastors indicated that only 15 percent of them considered missionary outreach to be one of the top priorities of the church. We believe the Bible gives it much higher precedence."

The weeklong observance, planned by Dr. Grant McClung of the seminary faculty and a committee from the school and the missions office, included a panel discussion in the Tuesday chapel service, a luncheon on Wednesday, and a preaching event in chapel Thursday. Displays depicting missions ministries remained up near the chapel throughout the week.

Roland Vaughan, general director of World Missions, spoke in the Thursday chapel on the subject, "Finishing the Great Commission." He told students and faculty that it now seems possible within the coming few years to ensure that the message of the gospel will have reached all people throughout the world. This would not have been doable until now, but advances in technology and people movement have made it possible, he said.

The Tuesday panel explored the dimensions of the church's mission and included a focus on local church outreach and foreign missions activity. Panelists were Carl Caffrey, pastor of evangelism and discipleship at Westmore Church of God; Kirk Walters, pastor of missions and discipleship at Mount Paran North church in Marietta, Georgia; Brenda Hughes of the Bradley Initiative for Church and Community; and Dan Howell of the Center for Spiritual Renewal.

A special missions project was the collection of books for a Bible institute in Mongolia. Two June graduates, Bayarjargal Gombosuren and his wife, Mendbayar Nansandorj, will return to their home country and set up the new training school.

Dr. Steven Land, president, hosted a luncheon of seminary and missions leaders and students from other countries who are studying at the school. "Our partnership with World Missions helps us keep a focus on the importance of having a world vision," he told the participants.

[Source: Church of God World Missions]

How Do You Build A Reproducing Church

1. Never stop growing personally.
- all leaders are learners.
- the vision of the church will never exceed the vision of the pastor.
- you can delegate a lot of things. But, you cannot delegate faith in Jesus.
- Most of us have polaroid vision. The longer you look at it, the more clear it gets.
- God’s will is not a giant map, its a scroll. As you read a little, God unfurls a little more of His view for you.
- How do you build significant growth for 28 years? Solid, steady discipleship.
- God builds a mushroom in 6 hours. He builds a solid oak tree over decades.
- its easy to get a crowd. A crowd is not a church.
- Integrity, humility, and generosity are the antidote to the traps of leadership.

2. You’ve got to pay attention to your family.
- Don’t be like Solomon who while tending other vineyards, left his own unattended.
- Take a day off. Take a sabbath. In fact, don’t call it a day off, call it a sabbath.
- Don’t read email. Don’t answer the phone.
- Don’t pay attention to the critics or to the compliments. Focus on what Jesus says about you.

3. Develop a Kingdom mindset.
- God’s agenda is bigger than your denomination, your network, your agenda.
- The competition is not other churches. Its other recreation, stuff, and things.
- What is God’s agenda? It is the Kingdom of God.
- “The Kingdom of God is like….”
- Where is the Kingdom of God? Summarized is wherever Jesus Christ is (in heaven, on earth, in your heart).
- The Kingdom of God is eternal, inevitible
- Everytime the disciples wanted to talk about prophecy, Jesus changed the subject and began to talk about evangelism.

4. Focus on building people, not the church.
- In the first year of the church, the pastor is the glue. But your job is to wean people off of you.
- On the last Sunday of the first year, I stood up to preach and fainted. I had my midlife crisis when I was 26. Depressed and afraid.
- You have to have a system of incremental movement taking people to maturity.
- Why do people sit around in churches for decades and never mature? Because simply preaching doesn’t get it done.

MY PRAYER FOR YOU: Acts 13:36

The methods of the church must change with every generation.
For too long, the church has had no hands and feet … just a big mouth.

[From Rick Warren during a session at Exponential Conference - National New Church Conference]

IPHC Warns of False Prophets

[By Ethan Cole - Christian Post Reporter]

The International Pentecostal Holiness Church (IPHC), a 108-year-old traditional Pentecostal denomination with about 4.2 million members in 95 countries, states its commitment to the Word and the leadership of the Holy Spirit in its 21-page “Apostolic Biblical Statement and Practical Guidelines.”

“God is moving in these days with an emphasis on the apostolic anointing and the prophetic,” said Presiding Bishop James D. Leggett, in a statement. “The Apostolic Position Paper recognizes and provides for the exercising of apostolic leadership. Yet it gives a word of caution about false prophets. The balanced approach is good for the church today.”

The document covers three levels of the apostolic: Jesus Christ, the foremost apostle; the twelve apostles, the foundational apostles; and functional apostles, who functioned both in the scriptures and in the church today.

The role of apostles is to “plant the gospel in every culture worldwide” and to do it on the “base built by Jesus Christ, the foremost Apostle, and His foundational apostles,” the document stated.
“We recognize the ministry of functional apostles and bishops in church history as having a close resemblance,” the paper read. “We also recognize that false apostles appeared in the apostolic church as well as in the church history, and that we must remain alert to the continuing danger of these emissaries of Satan.”

Pentecostalism is one of the fastest growing segments of global Christianity with at least 500 million adherents worldwide. But along with its successful growth has come problems of false teachers who vow miraculous healing, promises of pending fortune in exchange for church donations that are used for their own personal wealth.

Many mainline Christian leaders in Africa have denounced false prophets who claim to be anointed Pentecostal preachers.

In the section titled, “Recognizing True and False Apostles,” the document states that there are false apostles, or people who are not appointed by God but rather “carnal men [who] usurped the role for their own glory.”

To distinguish true and false apostles, the document gave a list of characteristics of a true apostle that includes: ministers with total faithfulness to the writings and teachings of the foundational apostles; accept personal responsibility for the Lord’s Great Commission, even at great cost to themselves; continue to serve even when no one confers on them a title or recognizes their role; and are free from the love of money.

“The Apostolic Position Paper presents a sound Biblical foundation for both the historical and present day Apostolic Ministry,” said Rev. Ed Wood, Chairman of the Apostolic Commission. “The paper is the result of the International Pentecostal Holiness seeking to be Biblically based in its position regarding the current apostolic movement.”

In 2005, the denomination's General Executive Board, at the request of the General Conference delegates, commissioned seven denominational scholars and theologians to conduct a biblical/historical study of the role of apostle in the church today. The board also invited a representative from each of the denomination's 28 regional offices to participate.

The document was presented to the General Board of Administration, the highest governing body between General Conference sessions, and approved by the board on Oct. 30, 2007, with minor changes.

The document also includes practical guidelines for apostolic ministries and other current theological issues in the IPHC.

IPHC is a charter member of the National Association of Evangelicals, the Pentecostal World Conference, and was instrumental in creating the Pentecostal & Charismatic Churches of North America.

Southern Baptists Are Now In Decline

For now, Southern Baptists are a denomination in decline. Experts believe it is a local church issue.

Baptisms are at their lowest levels since 1970 with seven of the last eight years showing annual declines. Even though some might hope the decline in membership numbers is due to lack of reporting, the inescapable conclusion is that baptisms by individual churches is falling off. (LifeWay Research will provide more analysis next month.)

Some might say it’s "only one year," and they would be technically right. But, briefly dwell on the top of the above graph. Reality is, they have peaked.

[Click on image to enlarge it.]

Researchers believe three issues are involved:

First, that they have to deal with the continued loss of SBC leaders. They have witnessed a serious (and increasing) depopulation of young leaders at the convention. Also, ethnic leadership remains absent after decades of ethnic change in America. Vacant seats still exist at the SBC table for the ethnic and generational diversity that matches the America they are attempting to reach. The departure by the future leaders of the convention has led to fewer church plants, missionaries, and energetic pastors to lead their faltering churches. They must retain these leaders not because they need them for their churches. They need them to reach the lost whom their churches have yet to touch.

A second issue is the infighting which defines so much of the SBC—its meetings, its churches, and its blogs. It is public knowledge that they do not always settle their differences amicably. The national caricature once again colors many local scenes where First, Second, and even Third Baptist Churches exist in one town because of past infighting. Satan has used their incessant bickering over non-essentials to promote his last great mission on earth—to keep lost people lost.

People simply do not want to hear what they have to say when they can't speak kindly to one another. If the focus of every SBC meeting is a new controversy to be debated, new parameters to be narrowed, and new issues to be fought, the trend toward decline will only accelerate.

The third, and most important, issue is the loss of focus on the Gospel. They must recover a gospel centrality and cooperate in proclaiming that gospel locally and globally. David Dockery and Timothy George pointed the way with their helpful booklet, Building Bridges. They called for a unity around the Gospel, and the time grows increasingly urgent.

The Conservative Resurgence failed to produce a Great Commission Resurgence. It restored the denomination’s value of Scripture but application is often absent, at least in the area of evangelism.

We Need Strong Local Churches Healthy Enough To Plant Churches

[From MMI Weblog by Todd Rhoades]

Ed Stetzer was first up at the Exponential Conference. Ed talked about some of the new research they have done at Lifeway on Church Planting churches. It was a very informational session. I jotted down just a few notes about the session that you might find interesting...

- If you are a church planter who is not interested in planting churches, they you are a dead end on the great commission pipeline.

- When your church is planted, your church is ready to plant.

- Church planting is the greatest thing your church can do for evangelism.

- Training is more important that finances when planting churches.

- Do your church’s official documents mention church planting? Is church planting in your church’s DNA?

- Does your church regularly send people out to help start and/or support new churches?


We have plenty of church planters … what we need now are tons more churches who are willing to help these planters plant churches.

Revival

REVIVAL

Evangelist Don Brock

Wednesday - Thursday - Friday
April 23-25, 2008

7:00 PM Nightly

Mentone Church of God of Prophecy
Highway 117 Across From The Post Office
Mentone, Alabama

Stress Awareness Month

The Health Resource Network, a non-profit health education organization, has designated April as Stress Awareness Month for the 16th consecutive year. Health care professionals, health promotion experts and caregivers across the country will join forces to raise public awareness about the cause and cures for our modern stress epidemic.

For this reason Community Chaplains of America, which provides care for individuals during difficult and stressful situations, have offered 10 simple suggestions on how to provide care and essentially reduce stress, according to christianpost.com.

• Provide a listening ear. Often, those who are going through stressful times simply need someone to talk to. Make an extra phone call or meet a friend for coffee and offer the opportunity for them to talk.
• Send an encouraging note. Words are powerful. In the age of emails and text messages, handwritten notes show that you took time and effort to show you care.
• Say "thank you." Offer your gratitude for people. Thank a coworker for his or her hard work or a waiter for serving you dinner. Everyone wants to feel appreciated.
• Laugh with someone. A good hearty laugh can relax you both and mentally lighten your load. Tell a joke or rent a funny movie with a friend.
• Perform a random act of kindness. Surprise someone with the unexpected. It can be as simple as paying for a friend's coffee or offering to watch the kids so a mom or dad can have that extra time to relax.
• Help someone organize. When the places and things around us are in order, we feel a little more put together. Take time to help a friend clean out a closet or scrub the bathtub.
• Take a walk. Exercise releases endorphins and makes us feel better all around. Walk around the mall with a coworker on your lunch break or meet a friend at a park after work and enjoy the fresh air.
• Share a smile. This contagious act can easily brighten someone's day. Smile to a passing stranger; it may make a big difference in his or her day.
• Get away. Get away from the everyday circumstances that may be causing stress. Plan a weekend getaway or a day trip with a friend.
• Pray. Say a quick prayer for your friend and put his or her stress in the hands of the Ultimate Provider and Healer.

[Focus on the Family]

Interesting Links

Financial calculators - Check out the Crown Ministry website for great (and free) financial calculators. On the site you’ll find a debt calculator, a budget calculator, several credit card calculators, and more.

Every Man Ministries - Looking for tools for your men’s ministry? Check out Every Man Ministries. It’s the website of Saddleback’s men’s pastor, Kenny Luck.

All About God - This evangelistic website was started by Saddleback members. It’s currently one of the top 25 most visited Christian sites on the net. It seeks to reach out to spiritual skeptics through compelling websites on a variety of topics.

Online to-do lists - Access your to-do lists from any computer or web-enabled phone. Through this program, you can create numerous to-do lists and even add to them through text message or email. And it’s free.

Leading worship in a small group setting - This article from Rick Muchow on encouragingmusic.com will help you get a feel for how to incorporate worship into your small groups. It might be a nice article link to send around to your small group leaders.

One Prayer

I Don't Want To Hear It!

[From Pastor Steven Furtick by sf]

It happened again the other day! The conversation was going so well. I was actually kind of surprised when the person I was talking to (who I was meeting for the first time) just had to go there. Now, there was no way this guy could have known that the pastor he was about to slander was a pretty good friend of mine.

So I think it threw him for a loop when I stopped him mid-sentence and served notice: “I really don’t want to continue this conversation. The pastor you’re speaking against is a great man of God. You don’t even know him, I know him and care for him a whole lot. So I think it would be beneficial to both of us for you to stop maligning his character right now. I don’t want to hear it.”

Maybe part of the reason I’m so protective of other pastors and prominent men of God is that I’ve experienced the frustration of hearing things about yourself that aren’t true. It’s freaky when everybody’s a self proclaimed expert on you. And the less they actually know you, the louder they talk about you.

There have been several times in my ministry that I heard something negative about a well known minister of the Gospel, and took it at face value. Then, months or years later, I’d have the opportunity to actually meet and get to know that person a little bit. And a funny thing happened. When I was able to know them as people and not just personalities, I realized that most of the gossip that is perpetrated as truth is absolutely baseless and unfounded.

So, if I ever have the privilege of getting to meet you and have a conversation with you, let’s just establish one ground rule: If you have something critical and detrimental to share about a fellow minister of the Gospel, I simply don’t want to hear it. We’ve got better things to talk about! Like how God is using your life, the opportunities He’s providing for you to make a bigger impact, or the things He’s teaching you in your personal life.
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Hardships of a Pastor's Wife

[From LifeChurch.tv : swerve by Craig Groeschel]

1. Critical people.
2. Church problems—burdened for the hurting people or tough ministry decisions.
3. Being alone a lot on the weekends.

Benefits:

1. Fulfilling—It’s an honor to serve a husband/pastor and the ministry God has entrusted us with.
2. Opportunities—I’m in a position to lead and influence others for the glory of God.
3. The love and support of many.


[Where do you agree? What would you add?]

How Do You Know If Your Vision Is From God?

[From Perry Noble dot com by Perry]

If you feel confident that you can accomplish what is in front of you with no problem at all … then you didn’t hear from God.

If no one is angry at you … then you didn’t hear from God.

If you don’t have to ask anyone to sacrifice to make the vision come true … then you didn’t hear from God.

If religious people are not steaming at you, blogging about you and/or leaving your church … then you didn’t hear from God.

If you have the money in the bank to do what God has asked you church to do … then you didn’t hear from God.

If every step is perfectly designed and nothing happens to totally throw you off along the way … then you didn’t hear from God.

If someone doesn’t try to talk you out of what you are about to attempt … then you didn’t hear from God.

If you don’t stay up at night thinking about the vision … then you didn’t hear from God.

If your vision is in contradiction to God’s Word … then you didn’t hear from God. (And no, you didn’t get a “special revelation” that gave you permission to trump His Word!)

If you know all of the answers … then you didn’t hear from God.
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Top Secrets Revealed for Ministry Growth

Affiliated Media Group, the largest Christian advertising agency of its kind in the world, recently launched their highly anticipated monthly newsletter, ImMEDIAte Access, inclusive of the latest industry trends, up-to-date agency news and tips, and exclusive information to help ministries and non-profits achieve their outreach goals. The launch of the ImMEDIAte Access Newsletter marks the first time in Affiliated Media Group's nearly 20-year history that they have publicly disclosed proprietary information proven to take ministry outreach to the next level.

Affiliated Media Group owners, Jim Shaffer and Van Dalton felt an urgency to produce a significant, highly effective newsletter to help ministries advance God's Kingdom. "During these troubled times in our world," says Jim Shaffer, "it is important for us to help ministries maximize every opportunity to reach out to people with a message of hope."

"We consider it a privilege to serve those who impact the world," adds Van Dalton, "whether it is a pastor, an evangelist, a charity, or humanitarian organization seeking to make a difference in the world."

On a bi-monthly basis, ImMEDIAte Access subscribers can expect to receive up to date, relevant information geared toward advancing and growing ministries. Affiliated Media Group's team of experts and highly skilled contributing writers have a wealth of knowledge and experience that they will draw from, providing readers with a definitive guide they can utilize to grow their ministry and reach masses.

Affiliated Media Group has been a trailblazer in media buying and placement, strategic marketing, public relations, production, web/graphic design, and ministry consulting since its inception in 1989. What sets Affiliated Media Group apart from other agencies is its ability to be a one-stop shop for its clients, having consolidated all aspects of ministry outreach consulting under one roof. That diversity of offerings is what makes ImMEDIAte Access the most effective newsletter of its kind created thus far.

For more information about the ImMEDIAte Access Newsletter, or to receive your copy, log on to http://www.affiliatedmedia.com/ to sign up. You may also contact Leah Gipson via the information provided.
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COGOP Implements "Proxy" System for International Assembly Business

This is how it will work:

All Representatives that carry a local church proxy, properly certified, meeting the deadlines, etc., will be registered on Monday of the Assembly by an Independent agency ... a company hired to manage the proxy process. They are not affiliated with COGOP and have no stake in the outcome, as they are merely professionals hired to manage the logistics and assure the integrity of the process.

The proxy-carrying representative will be issued a voting card that is bar coded. Lose it? Lose the vote.

There will be x number of seats on the floor of the Sommet Center during the business sessions designated for those carrying the proxies, and ONLY them.

When the time comes for expressing the proxy on an issue, there will be about 15 strategically placed electronic stations at which the proxy holders will be able to usethe bar-coded credential to register "yes/no" "for/against" or whatever the two options might be ... "A/B."

The independent agency will tally the results (pretty much immediately) and report them to the person presiding.
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Church Training Assistance

Could you use a qualified instructor to come to your location and teach on one of the following subjects?

Team Building, Servant Leadership, The Biblical Office of Deacon, Conflict Resolution, Church Administration, Church Technology, Good Communications, Spiritual Gifts and Callings, Every Member Participating, History of Christianity, Spiritual Discipline, and many more.

Could you use a qualified consultant to come to your location to consult about ...

Church Structure, Assessing Your Location, Understanding Other Cultures, Leadership Assessment, Church Review (for growth), and many more.

Contact Synergy Church Consulting at DGBrock@aol.com. We are here to work with you. We understand what you are facing, and we care.

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