Go ye therefore, and teach all Nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. (Matthew 28:19) The command has been given by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to proclaim the Gospel to whole world. To evangelize the world presents many challenges and requires those empowered to be equipped in the power of the Spirit of God. What spiritual gifts are necessary? Are the methods of evangelism as effective in today’s church as they were in years past? Or is the Holy Spirit guiding the ministry of Evangelism in a different direction? These question need to be addressed and answered if the Gospel is to be effectively preached and adhered to for the harvesting of souls in the last days.Is Evangelism Going Out
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Bom between 1945-1964 (2). They are considered to be in the middle adult category, ages 24 through 50. Often described as generation that refused to “grow up.” Still others describe them as the generation that changed the world in this century. Their receptiveness to the Gospel and sharing of the same makes them a fertile field for evangelism. Often called “Millennials”, their “practice” of evangelism is on the rise. In a 3 year period form 2010 to 2013, millennials had a +9% increase when compared to other age groups in the same survey time frame. (57% to 65%). This is in many ways attributed to the fact the Boomers are very family oriented and gear their lives around social government and education, bonding and fellowship. Effective evangelism in today’s church has to cross age groups and social lines as well as economic salary differences per house hold. Thee appeal of the Gospel in today’s church has much to do with presentation and communication. Witnessing individually and corporately. The most unreached Americans are Millennial youths. So it comes as no surprise that youth ministry is a priority for many churches. Six in 10 (61 %) senior pastors say youth ministry is “one of the top priorities” of their church’s ministry, and 7 percent say it is the single highest priority. However, despite a clear majority, one-third of pastors (32%) say it is either somewhat, not too much, or not at all a priority.
In the essay, “The Second Great Awakening” by Sean Wilentz explains the simultaneous events at the Cane Ridge and Yale which their inequality was one-sided origins, worship, and social surroundings exceeded more through their connections that was called The Second Great Awakening also these revivals were omen that lasted in the 1840s a movement that influences the impulsive and doctrines to hold any management. Wilentz wraps up of the politics and the evangelizing that come from proceeding from the start, but had astounding momentum during 1825.The advantage of the Americans was churched as the evangelizing Methodists or Baptists from the South called the New School revivalist and the Presbyterians or Congregationalists from the North that had a nation of theoretical Christians in a mutual culture created more of the Enlightenment rationalism than the Protestant nation on the world. The northerners focused more on the Second Great Awakening than the South on the main plan of the organization.
I agree with Kitchens, Mead, and Roxburgh who all basically say in their own way that one change in ministry that we need to focus on more is the congregational life of the church. However, I think Mead explains it best when he says that the future church must be more intentional in the spiritual formation of its laity (Mead, location 919). According to Mead, the church is moving towards becoming a more missional institution that cares for the needs of the community. Therefore, oftentimes laity will be the ones on the front lines and will need the capacity to minister to people on their own without the help of clergy. In order to do this they will need more directed and intensive training to deal with...
This part is adapted from “Developing Programs for Senior Citizens—A Handbook for churches,” produced by the Delaware County of (PA) Services for the Aging, and is included here with their permission. We gratefully acknowledge the editors: Judy Oerkvitz, Louis Colbert, Norma Thomas and Verne Dalton.
Philosophy of Ministry: God's desires come first, I must always live my ministry God's way. I must live as a Christian (1 Corinthians 9:27) I must have a proper relationship of surrender to the Leader. In my personal life or in the Church I must understand that Christ is Head and Chief Shepherd (Ephesians 1:22, Hebrews 13:20). The “management” of Church is about relationships with God and Man, not just maintaining a social organization.
Considering the cultural values of Joe, there are several factors which will influence how The Gospel is presented and revived. Joe is from a collectivist culture, so instead of presenting things as would generally be presented in an individualist culture I must focus more on the group benefit than the personal benefit. Joe will be more interested in how the group is affected, in this case I would focus on the benefit to his family and focus on the family aspects of Christianity. Joe clearly thinks in terms of group benefit, as he often uses the phrase “for the good of the facility” when addressing issues and proposed changes.
I understand diakonia to be the service of the Church, informed by how Jesus lived in service with the sick, the poor, the outcast, and to his own disciples and followers. It means putting the needs, well-being, and growth of others before one’s own personal desires. This resembles the grace and compassion that Jesus taught throughout his life, and is a call for the work of the Church today. As a result of Christ’s grace, we are called to live out Christ-like lives by making use of the grace and gifts we have received from God to serve others. We must see servant ministry as an act inseparable from ministry within the United Methodist Church. The history of the United Methodist tradition is founded on assisting the poor and visiting the sick
Secondly, the Church can insist on its identity as an inter-generational community. It can do this structurally, by refusing to segment congregations by age, and temperamentally, by recovering a biblical respect for maturity and rejecting popular culture’s infantilism, thereby offering to children a goal of growing up. Popular culture exalts perpetual adolescence.
“The call is something that is an indescribable joy and an indefinable burden at the same time.” (Bryant and Brunson 2007, 32). There is nothing more rewarding than seeing a congregation of the redeemed moving forward in their faith. However exciting this may be, it is usually not the thrill that propels the pastor in his service. It is the burden placed on the pastor by God that compels him in his work. The pastor understands that he is largely responsible for the work of God being accomplished by his faithfulness to his calling. “All through the Word of God and down through the annals of history, when God has moved it has almost always been attended by the preaching of the Word.” (Bryant and Brunson 2007, 31)
Throughout the first 400 years that Christianity was present in the world it changed dramatically. It started small in an area near the eastern Mediterranean area but within these 400 years, it grew to encompass the whole of the Mediterranean and its surrounding. Throughout this time of growth, there was also much change within the beliefs of Christianity with the main belief centering around Jesus Christ. While Christianity grew and made it to new areas it was introduced to new people that interpreted the different scriptures and preaching of what it meant to be a Christian. Some of the most influential writings in these years came from Irenaeus of Lyons, a second-century writer, Christian, theologian, and bishop. He expressed his beliefs of what made a Christian a Christian within his writing. One of his most famous writings, The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching, highlights the idea of the Holy Trinity and the Rule of Faith in the interpretation of the bible. Irenaeus believed that the Rule of Faith was ultimately necessary and required when reading and interpreting the word of Christianity saying, in the words of Isaiah, “If ye believe not, neither shall ye understand” (paragraph 3). In the eyes of Irenaeus, the Rule of Faith is one of the main things that makes a Christian a Christian.
For many who experienced an energetic youth group as teens, that experience did little to connect them to the larger community and mission of the community as adults. The youth, Mark Senter argues, are typically “spectators in a middle-aged church,” relegated to their own youth lounge. Seeking to change this reality, the Strategic model “creates a community of leaders to establish a new church”. Senter’s definition of the strategic approach defines youth ministry as “a community of leaders and youthful Christians that enables a parachurch or church-based youth ministry to establish a new church to maintain a theological continuity while expressing faith in a community relevant to both Christ and culture… It calls upon the youth ministry to be and become a holistic intergenerational church that is relevant to the world in which it lives.”
...tial ideas and theologies that are absolutely the cornerstone to having a healthy ministry. Ideas like community, grace, love, and forgiveness could all have their own paper written for them individually, but acceptance is absolutely essential to any ministry. To accept someone into your family, just like the father in the story of the prodigal son, is to share all of these values listed above. By accepting them we are showing them grace, love, forgiveness and belonging, that each and everyone one of them so desperately desires. If we as youth pastors can embrace acceptance and also use it genuinely and not as a technique for recruiting, then surely our ministry will grow both in numbers and in depth in the knowledge of the word of God. By doing exactly what God does for us, we can show His love, His grace and His mercy by simply accepting others into our family.
Involving members of all ages in the ministry of GVLC is something they believe is important and there is an openness to having new people get involved in the various ministries. But this appears to happen a bit haphazardly and they lack an intentional process to facilitate the integration of new members. “Research tells us that of all the people who drop out of church due to inactivity, 82 percent leave in the first year! The first 12 months are critical in the life of both the new member and the congregation” (Arn, 2011). Arn (2011), goes on to say that new members are asking questions like: Can I make friends at this church? Is there a place for me to fit in? Do they really want me? Is my contribution important? If they can answer yes to these important questions, chances are they will become active members of your congregation. GVLC needs to not only develop an intentional process for new members to be integrated into the life of their congregation and ministry, but they also need to communicate that process to their
Four Spiritual Laws Summary of Method – The method that I chose was “Four Spiritual Laws.” The basic summary of this method of evangelism is there are four simple and straight forward points that an evangelist must present in order to reach the person who is being evangelized. In other words, these four laws are constant and are needed in order to understand the Gospel and salvation. These laws include: God loves you, man is sinful and separated from God, Jesus Christ is God's only provision for man's sin, and we must individually receive Jesus as Savior and Lord. Advantages of Using This Method: The Four Spiritual Laws have many advantages.
It may seem a little bit strange, but my favorite place in town in none other than this beautiful Evangelic Church. However, it wasn’t always so.
The following questions are based on Chapter 3 in Yount’s The Teaching Ministry of the Church: