Momentum – Bridge Events and Evangelism

by Owen Bandy, Pastor of Post Falls Idaho Seventh-day Adventist Church

In 2012, with the arrival of our new Bible Worker, Chuck Stillwell, we set to the task of making plans for our outreach efforts. Among other things, like doing door to door work, we started with a NEWSTART booth at the fair. At that fair booth we contacted many people and gave out a lot of information about our church and it’s ministries. We collected the names of over thirty people who wanted to bring their children to an event we were calling Cowboys for Little Angels, where they could have a free horse ride, get some good food, hear some great country gospel music as well as have a family picture taken. All for free.

This was followed up with a 15 night evangelistic service which was held by myself as the pastor. We had purchased a billboard for thirty days out along Interstate 90 to advertise the meetings. We did a mail out to cover the whole of the Post Falls zip code area. We also did a lot of door to door work of handing out brochures. Our Bible Worker was crucial in spearheading all of this effort. Opening night we had our largest attendance of non members ever at just under thirty. We have had about seven individuals who have kept very consistent in their attendance with one couple even attending their first Sabbath service last Sabbath.  We expect at least two others to be attending very soon. 

www.glorioustruth.com

Momentum – One Week With God

During the time between July 15 – August 22, 2012 I presented a series of meetings titled: “One Week With God” During that time I presented at least 15 meetings covering the basic beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Our goal was to reach out to the friends of our members and present messages that would enable them to become members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The topics were tied to relevant current events and focused on having a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ, and preparing for His soon coming. We have had a total of 5 visitors attend. Two have already been baptized, one is committed to baptism, and another has requested preparation for baptism. So, four out of the five in attendance have been, or are soon to be baptized.

People seem to appreciate the format of having more than one topic presented each evening in shorter segments. The meetings are fast paced, but yet thorough. I am looking forward to giving it a try again in the near future. I believe that if we advertised more in advance of our meetings we would have had better participation from our members.

Kevin Wilfley, Pastor

Spokane Linwood Seventh-day Adventist Church

 

Momentum: Outreach in Post Falls

Last Summer when I arrived at my new church district I was asked if I would be willing to do an evangelistic series in the fall, though I didn’t feel prepared because of the shortness of notice, I agreed. I knew it was the right thing to do. With an active Bible worker in our church, there were quite a few possible interests for the meetings.

The elders and the outreach leadership team immediately began planning. We developed a mail-out and made arrangements to have them delivered to 15,000 homes in the area. I began putting together my fifteen night series wanting to present everything in the context of the war between Christ and Satan. We called it War Talk.

On opening night we were happy to find about fifteen people or more attending, who were not members of our church. Most of them were from the Bible Worker contacts just a few were from the mail out. This just affirmed what has always been my experience and that is that soul winning takes personal contact of church members with non members. In this case it was our Bible Worker and the members that had been helping him with Bible studies.

As the meetings continued people continued to come and even the attendance of our members was impressive. I was very pleased to see church members talking to people and showing a genuine interest in them, drawing them into the fellowship.

As with any series there were people who started and dropped out. Some came in the middle for a few meetings then disappeared. Some attended right on through. At the end of the meetings we planned to turn our weekly prayer meeting into a continuation of our series and just moved right ahead sharing our distinctive beliefs as they are in Jesus. We are sure that there will be some who take their stand for present truth as it is in Jesus for this time.

Owen J. Bandy, Pastor – Post Falls SDA Church

www.glorioustruth.com

Lifelong Learning – The ONE Project

The ONE Project Conference will be held Feb. 13 and 14, at the Westin Seattle Hotel. This event, sponsored by the Center for Youth Evangelism, will include youth and young adult leaders from around North America. The first-ever Church of Refuge summit will follow the ONE Project event on Feb. 15 at the same location.

Read more from the Center for Youth Evangelism website HERE. A short video HERE about why young adults leave the Christian church explains one important reason why the One Project Conference is long overdue within the Adventist Church.

Caravana de la Vida Reaches Out to Oregon Hispanics

José Rojas is temporarily “in town” for Caravana de la Vida, a nine-night, multi-city series of meetings. The first weekend in November, 2011, he gave three presentations in Salem, OR, followed by three nights earlier this week in Hillsboro, OR. The final three nights were presented at the Oregon Convention Center near downtown Portland, OR, and began November 10, with the final meeting Saturday evening. These Spanish-language meetings have attracted hundreds of people each evening. The multi-city approach is unique, necessitating a complete resetting of staging and lighting at each venue. Read more about Caravana de la Vida in the January GLEANER or online at www.gleaneronline.org.

Why Not Try This? …Learn from Where the Church Is Growing

“That will never work here because we are a different culture.”

“But have we ever tried some of the things they are doing that are working?”

“Well, maybe not, but I’m sure in a secular, affluent, materialistic, post-modern society that the things they do in Mexico and Peru and other places will never work.”

I was convinced once again, through my conversation with another self-fulfilling prophet of failure, that the greatest barrier to reaching American society with the Seventh-day Adventist message and movement is not in the minds of pre-Adventists but in the minds of some Adventists!

Since I’ve had the privilege of traveling to many parts of the world where the Adventist movement is growing rapidly, I have collected ideas and experimented with them back home in the US. Where they are used with flexibility they work here, too!

As this post is published I’m in Peru with 85 Americans, preaching in 52 sites throughout the city of Trujillo. Besides helping with soul winning I hope we are training soul winners for back home that have the faith to believe that God will use them to make a difference on both continents.

I will share (below) some of my sketchy notes about key lessons learned from several parts of the world. I encourage you to experiment with some of these ideas, or others you have picked up from

H.K.W.H.T.A.- Shawn Boonstra

“Our job is not to make secular people spiritual but to go after the secular people God is making spiritual. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:13-15 that spiritual things are spiritually discerned. God gets there first, then we are sent to connect the dots, to help them find what they’re already looking for. Desire of Ages page 349 tells us Jesus’ disciples ministered with Him, looking for interested hearers. They were not trying to interest the hearers but to find those God had already made interested. God wakes up the heart and then sends in the messenger (see Acts 2, 8, and 10) and God knew what message is needed to appeal to hearts at end of time, the Three Angels Message of Revelation 14:6-12.”

                                       – Shawn Boonstra, International Evangelist and Director/Speaker for It Is Written Television Program. Winning people to Jesus and the Adventist movement has been Shawn’s passion ever since he surrendered his heart to Jesus almost two decades ago. He is currently in Rome, Italy, preaching to people that God has already made interested and hungry for His message. He Knows What He’s Talking About (H.K.W.H.T.A.)

What Works For Me In… Understanding How To Help Homosexuals & Their Families

Gary Blanchard (usayouth@hotmail.com), Associate Pastor, Wenatchee, WA Seventh-day Adventist District (Upper Columbia Conference) shares tremendous insights in this article–

 GOD HATES GAYS AND OTHER FAMILY GUY MTHS

Sometime ago a friend of mine sent me a clip from the comic T.V. series “Family Guy” where Peter the man of the house gets injected with the “gay gene.” To the amazement of his family and friends, his mannerisms, clothing styles and of course sexual orientation changed almost instantly. Eventually though his family can’t take it anymore and want their “straight” dad back. So his son and dog drug him and take him to “Straight Camp.” While there Peter learns from his Christian coach that “Jesus hates many people but none more than homosexuals.”

What is most disturbing about this quote, even though it comes from a comedy show, is that many actually believe it. But in Leviticus 18:22 the Bible says

Why Not Try This? …Train, Equip, Activate & Mentor Your Members in Soul Winning

The greatest shortage in God’s work is not money, time, materials or equipment. It is workers. Working workers. Two thousand years ago Jesus said “The harvest is great but the workers are few.” (Luke 10:2). That is still true today.

Jesus told us to ask the Lord of the harvest to throw out workers into His harvest. Then, through His interaction with the 12 (Luke 9) and later the 70  (Luke 10) He modeled how to develop these workers.  He gave them training, provided all the equipping they needed, activated them and sent them out into the harvest, and then for three years He provided on-going mentoring to help them become Christlike in their thinking, actions and ministry.

How would your congregations be better off if you had a clear plan to train, equip, activate and mentor your members in soul winning? In time would you see exponential, rather than numerical, growth? Would God send you more and more people because you were ready to help grow them? Would your members be better off at the end of next year spiritually than they are right now?

NPUC Conference and Union leaders have decided to make lay soul winning training, equipping, activating and mentoring a priority for several reasons–

H.K.W.H.T.A.- Dale Galusha, President, Pacific Press Publishing Association

“When I meet with groups of pastors through the years I like to ask them which two Ellen White books did she say would especially help new members be grounded in their faith. Almost every time they mention The Desire of Ages and Steps to Christ. Those books are wonderful and helpful, but the two she said that would establish new believers in the truth are Patriarchs and Prophets and The Great Controversy.”* 

               – Dale Galusha, President, Pacific Press Publishing Association. Dale Galusha has been a pastor and is now president of the publishing company that prints Ellen White books. He Knows What He Is Talking About. (H.K.W.H.T.A.)

* “Many will depart from the faith and give heed to seducing spirits. Patriarchs and Prophets and The Great Controversy, are books that are especially adapted to those who have newly come to the faith, that they may be established in the truth. The dangers are pointed out that should be avoided by the churches. Those who become thoroughly acquainted with the lessons in these books will see the dangers before them, and will be able to discern the plain, straight path marked out for them. They will be kept from strange paths. They will make straight paths for their feet, lest the lame be turned out of the way.–Letter 229, 1903.” {Colporteur Ministry p. 129.3}

Why Not Try This? …Give Literature to Your Neighbors

Last Monday evening I rang the doorbells of twenty of my closest neighbors.

Was I nervous? Yes, even though I’ve done things like this hundreds of times before.

So why did I do it? Three main reasons.

1. I really believe Jesus is coming soon and I want my neighbors to have the best chance possible to be ready for that universe-shattering event.
2. During a recent Week of Prayer here at the NPUC office I updated my special prayer list. I asked God to impress me with who I should invite to accept Him as Savior and Lord, embrace all Bible truths and unite with a vibrant Adventist group. The Lord impressed me to list the names of many of my neighbors, some by name and others by description (“big boat neighbors”, “loud neighbors”, “new neighbors”, “borrowed ladder from neighbors”, etc.). As I have prayed for the people on the list, God has put a growing urgency in my heart to somehow connect with them.
3. I have recently been reading Christian Service and came across statements like this–
   • “If there is one work more important than another, it is

Four Exciting Soul Winning Reports- Fall 2009

God is showing dreams to Lutherans, people from the Assemblies of God are asking for Bible studies on prophecy, lots of reaping meetings large and small have begun or are beginning soon, and a major field school of evangelism is taking place where half the population is Mormon. (Read more)

Eugene-Springfield, Oregon Invited to “Check Him Out”

Eugene-Springfield, Oregon is one of the ten largest metro areas in the northwest, and as a result is receiving special emphasis during the five year Momentum soul winning focus.

After months of heart preparation by members, hundreds of Bible study requests followed up, and other ministry events the area churches are now hosting an eight night series of meetings September 19-26, 2009 at the Lane County Fairgrounds in Eugene. The series, titled “Check Him Out”, features music, testimonies, baptisms and challenging messages by Jose Rojas (Read More)

What One Dedicated Member Can Do

We need more lay members like Allison Downs. North American Division President Don Schneider reports seeing Allison at the Ontario Conference Campmeeting this summer. She is planning to plant a church at Moosenee, on St. John’s Bay four hours from her house! Since there are no roads

Lifelong Learning- Seminary Classes at WWU in Nov

There are two tuition-free Andrews Seminary intensive classes this fall on the campus of Walla Walla University. Each is outstanding and can be taken for credit or audit by pastors or lay members. Check with your Conference Ministerial Director for approval then sign up on the link below and go for it!

• Understanding the Christian World, by Dr. Tom Toews, Nov 1-5, 2009
• Topics in NT Theology – 1st & 2nd Peter, by Dr. Tom Shepherd, Nov 8-12, 2009