"Ministry is a marathon. It's not how you start that matters but how you end." Rick Warren stated this in the beginning of his journey to planting a church. How you end in your ministry is the most important part of your ministry. Ending is the outcome of how well you taught and discipled your church. In this book, Rick Warren talks about how he came into the ministry of planting a church and the purpose of a driven church. One things that Rick talks about though is that you can't wait for things to be perfect in your ministry because if you do things won't ever get done. You can't always just expect everything to be perfect and that's not how it works in the ministry. If things were perfect than we probably wouldn't need to minister to each other but that's not the truth. We weren't made perfect and when it comes to us being in the ministry there will always be ups and downs and challenges but never perfect.
Within your church you need to be able to offer people something that they can't get anywhere else. When Rick stated that i was like wow! If there are good things happening in your church and a lot of awesome things are going on, than people will be drawn to that kind of church where much is happening in the church. I think one thing that we don't really think about is that as church planters, all church planters go through a discouraging point at some point in time and Rick makes this statement, "Absolutely nothing will revitalize a discouraged church faster than rediscovering its purpose." How true this statement really becomes. God has so much purpose in each of our lives and in our passions and in our churches. When we are going on a downhill spiral, if we choose to remember the purpose that God gave us and our church than it all works out and things begin to get better!
All churches need a system and a strategy and i know that we all do! When we know our purpose as a church we need to find steps to take and strategies that we can have to get the things that we need to get done. Part of having a plan and a strategy with your church is that you need to be able to turn your attenders into members. Come up with a membership plan for people to really be able to become a member of your church and then make small groups too where people can grow even more in what they are learning and that's where the relationship happens where we can connect more with people. I could talk so much more about this book that Rick Warren wrote but i can't so i want to end with this, "Successful ministry is building the church on the purposes of God in the power of the Holy Spirit and expecting the results from God." If we build our ministries and our churches on God's purpose that he has for us and the church that is being planted, we will see the results that we want when we expect things from God.
I read 50% of The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Lee Rogers
Lee Rogers works with Youth Alive as the Youth Alive Missionaries. Youth Alive started in 1979 in the Penndel District.
Youth Alive has 4 Strategies which are Campus Missionary, Campus Clubs, The Seven Project, and Prayer Force. For me one of the biggest strategies that stuck out to me was Campus Missionary and the Campus Clubs. I've been to Penndel Youth Convention every year since i was thirteen and it's the best thing in the world but i would always hear every year about being a campus missionary but never really understood it i guess. After Lee talked about this i did understand it a lot better!
Being a Campus Missionary is about challenging students to be intentional with their faith in their schools and in their lives! I grew up in public school and when Lee was talking about being a Campus Missionary i began to realize how important it being a campus missionary really is! If i would have been a campus missionary, just maybe i would be seeing some of my classmates in the ministry! It kind of makes me regret that i didn't live out my faith maybe as good as i could have. And that having the support of the Youth Alive behind me could have gotten a lot more going in my school. Campus clubs were so cool to hear about too! I know when i was in high school, one of the area youth ministers would come in on Wednesday morning to do a little Bible Study with the students who were there but none of them were really responsive to it and i think there could have been a huge difference if me and the other students would have taken more of a step than what was happening. There is so much that we could have done in our school and i think that we could have even gotten the seven project at my school!
This is really kind of setting a passion in me to some day go back to my high school and start something up again with students there who i don't know now and help to get them to a spot where they can live out their faith intentionally in front of their friends, in front of their teachers, and the staff!
Youth Alive has 4 Strategies which are Campus Missionary, Campus Clubs, The Seven Project, and Prayer Force. For me one of the biggest strategies that stuck out to me was Campus Missionary and the Campus Clubs. I've been to Penndel Youth Convention every year since i was thirteen and it's the best thing in the world but i would always hear every year about being a campus missionary but never really understood it i guess. After Lee talked about this i did understand it a lot better!
Being a Campus Missionary is about challenging students to be intentional with their faith in their schools and in their lives! I grew up in public school and when Lee was talking about being a Campus Missionary i began to realize how important it being a campus missionary really is! If i would have been a campus missionary, just maybe i would be seeing some of my classmates in the ministry! It kind of makes me regret that i didn't live out my faith maybe as good as i could have. And that having the support of the Youth Alive behind me could have gotten a lot more going in my school. Campus clubs were so cool to hear about too! I know when i was in high school, one of the area youth ministers would come in on Wednesday morning to do a little Bible Study with the students who were there but none of them were really responsive to it and i think there could have been a huge difference if me and the other students would have taken more of a step than what was happening. There is so much that we could have done in our school and i think that we could have even gotten the seven project at my school!
This is really kind of setting a passion in me to some day go back to my high school and start something up again with students there who i don't know now and help to get them to a spot where they can live out their faith intentionally in front of their friends, in front of their teachers, and the staff!
Service Learning Component Post
1. Who were we trying to serve?
We specifically wanted to try and serve the children in the hospitals who would be there over the holidays. We wanted to give them some Christmas cheer, as well as their families.
2. How did we serve them?
We served them by just being able to spread a little Christmas cheer through the cards that we made and through the notes of encouragement on them. As we pray over the cards, we want to pray that God would just pour out his love over the children and his joy over them as we give out the cards or even if the nurses give out the cards. Giving out Hershey Kisses and Candy Canes will really help to just bring out the joy and the smiles in kids as we fill them with candy haha! But, we are really hoping to give these out personally to the children and families so that they may see our passion and our love that we have to share with them. That we are able to spread the love of Jesus to them but if we are not able to, we will pray that God would just surround them with love and joy these holidays. We will also put invitations in to the Christmas services and hopefully be able to see some of the families there!
3. Where did you serve them? Is there a location, or a specific event, where your target population gathers or that is, for some reason, more effective for you in serving them than other locations?
We made the cards and everything at the church but we are waiting to hear back from the Hanover or Gettysburg Hospitals to see if we can deliver the cards and they will pass them out or if we can deliver the cards and pass them out ourselves. The hospital will be the best place because that is where the people will be who we are ministering to with the cards and that is also where they will be over the holidays. We want to fill them with Jesus's hope and love in their hospital rooms!
4. When did you serve them? Was there a particular day or time that was better than others?
Well we made the cards after class on Monday and we each made a certain amount but we want to deliver the cards closer to Christmas but before our break so that we are all there. As earlier in one of the answers, we are still waiting to hear from the hospital about delivering them so when they get back to us is when we will go and that should be this coming week!
Report on the Outreach:
Unfortunately i can't really report too much on how the outreach went because we have not been able to proceed with that yet because of waiting on the hospitals. We are all really looking forward to it though and i personally am really looking forward to just being able to sow a seed into the person that i get to meet and bless with some smiles and some love. I want to shine the light of Jesus upon them and i pray that they would be able to see Jesus in me and to invite their family to church at our Christmas Services that they would be able to even hear about Jesus there! When the girls and i sat down to make these cards it was just plain fun for us to do but as we did them we were just really hoping and praying that Jesus would use these cards to put a joy in their hearts.
Three Things that were executed well:
1. The Act of Service: I think as we tried to figure out what to do for this project, coming across the cards idea really is a great idea because it's a way to bless people but not only bless them, bring a hope and joy to them and a peace to them through the holidays. I think sometimes i don't really think about how important or meaningful a card could really be to somebody.
2. The Cards: As the girls and i got ready to make the cards, Bonnie and i brought the supplies and i think we all had the most fun with the glitter pens..haha. :) We did quite enjoy using those! But, just the fact that whether the cards looked professional or not, it means more to someone when it's something that you make yourself, something that you took the time to make for someone that you don't even know, just so that you could put a smile and a hope in someone for the holidays, but not just for the holidays, that it could be life-changing for someone!
3. The time spent together making the cards: It's been quite awhile since the four of us girls have just been able to sit down together and just have fun. It was a struggle for us girls to come up with an outreach to do. We actually had one or two ideas that had just totally fell through and once we finally got this idea and were able to set aside some time to work on it, it went so well! We were just able to sit down together and just spend some time together as we worked. We really had some good positive time together and even laughed a little bit. :)
Three Things that could be Improved:
1. Timing: Our timing wasn't the greatest with really trying to sit down and plan out something to do. All of us really struggled with it and every time we did try, it just ended up getting pushed off to where we only had two weeks left. Starting earlier next time would be good!
2. Giving out jobs in more of a specific manner: We didn't really hand out jobs to each other. We really relied more on one person and we should have all been working harder on it and really trying to plan more but we didn't. When you hand out jobs, it doesn't put as much pressure on one person like it did and it made it frustrating too i think for all of us. So being able to hand out jobs to each person is definitely something that could have been better!
3. Better communication with the event that is taking place: We definitely have been having some trouble getting a hold of the hospital/service center. I think if we would have started earlier it would have been easier but the hospitals are not getting back to us so we are really hoping and praying that things will work out because when you just expect something to happen like that it doesn't always work out but we are believing that things will work out for what we need!
We specifically wanted to try and serve the children in the hospitals who would be there over the holidays. We wanted to give them some Christmas cheer, as well as their families.
2. How did we serve them?
We served them by just being able to spread a little Christmas cheer through the cards that we made and through the notes of encouragement on them. As we pray over the cards, we want to pray that God would just pour out his love over the children and his joy over them as we give out the cards or even if the nurses give out the cards. Giving out Hershey Kisses and Candy Canes will really help to just bring out the joy and the smiles in kids as we fill them with candy haha! But, we are really hoping to give these out personally to the children and families so that they may see our passion and our love that we have to share with them. That we are able to spread the love of Jesus to them but if we are not able to, we will pray that God would just surround them with love and joy these holidays. We will also put invitations in to the Christmas services and hopefully be able to see some of the families there!
3. Where did you serve them? Is there a location, or a specific event, where your target population gathers or that is, for some reason, more effective for you in serving them than other locations?
We made the cards and everything at the church but we are waiting to hear back from the Hanover or Gettysburg Hospitals to see if we can deliver the cards and they will pass them out or if we can deliver the cards and pass them out ourselves. The hospital will be the best place because that is where the people will be who we are ministering to with the cards and that is also where they will be over the holidays. We want to fill them with Jesus's hope and love in their hospital rooms!
4. When did you serve them? Was there a particular day or time that was better than others?
Well we made the cards after class on Monday and we each made a certain amount but we want to deliver the cards closer to Christmas but before our break so that we are all there. As earlier in one of the answers, we are still waiting to hear from the hospital about delivering them so when they get back to us is when we will go and that should be this coming week!
Report on the Outreach:
Unfortunately i can't really report too much on how the outreach went because we have not been able to proceed with that yet because of waiting on the hospitals. We are all really looking forward to it though and i personally am really looking forward to just being able to sow a seed into the person that i get to meet and bless with some smiles and some love. I want to shine the light of Jesus upon them and i pray that they would be able to see Jesus in me and to invite their family to church at our Christmas Services that they would be able to even hear about Jesus there! When the girls and i sat down to make these cards it was just plain fun for us to do but as we did them we were just really hoping and praying that Jesus would use these cards to put a joy in their hearts.
Three Things that were executed well:
1. The Act of Service: I think as we tried to figure out what to do for this project, coming across the cards idea really is a great idea because it's a way to bless people but not only bless them, bring a hope and joy to them and a peace to them through the holidays. I think sometimes i don't really think about how important or meaningful a card could really be to somebody.
2. The Cards: As the girls and i got ready to make the cards, Bonnie and i brought the supplies and i think we all had the most fun with the glitter pens..haha. :) We did quite enjoy using those! But, just the fact that whether the cards looked professional or not, it means more to someone when it's something that you make yourself, something that you took the time to make for someone that you don't even know, just so that you could put a smile and a hope in someone for the holidays, but not just for the holidays, that it could be life-changing for someone!
3. The time spent together making the cards: It's been quite awhile since the four of us girls have just been able to sit down together and just have fun. It was a struggle for us girls to come up with an outreach to do. We actually had one or two ideas that had just totally fell through and once we finally got this idea and were able to set aside some time to work on it, it went so well! We were just able to sit down together and just spend some time together as we worked. We really had some good positive time together and even laughed a little bit. :)
Three Things that could be Improved:
1. Timing: Our timing wasn't the greatest with really trying to sit down and plan out something to do. All of us really struggled with it and every time we did try, it just ended up getting pushed off to where we only had two weeks left. Starting earlier next time would be good!
2. Giving out jobs in more of a specific manner: We didn't really hand out jobs to each other. We really relied more on one person and we should have all been working harder on it and really trying to plan more but we didn't. When you hand out jobs, it doesn't put as much pressure on one person like it did and it made it frustrating too i think for all of us. So being able to hand out jobs to each person is definitely something that could have been better!
3. Better communication with the event that is taking place: We definitely have been having some trouble getting a hold of the hospital/service center. I think if we would have started earlier it would have been easier but the hospitals are not getting back to us so we are really hoping and praying that things will work out because when you just expect something to happen like that it doesn't always work out but we are believing that things will work out for what we need!
Friday, December 2, 2011
Peter Almqvist Response
Peter Almqvist is the International Director for Mission SOS.
One thing that Peter said was that, "We need to see today how people serve people." It is such a necessity to serve people today and when i say serve people, we need to show them God's love, God's grace, and God's mercy by just being open to serve them in loving ways.
To become a strong leader, we need people around us to help us out. We can't be strong leaders unless we have people behind us to help us out and lift us up. I think sometimes we don't realize how much we need other people behind us as leaders because support is what helps us out.
We all need a "Warrior Mentality." The mentality comes to three points, to one - suck it up; two - deal with it; and three - you do it because you are a warrior. I love this warrior mentality! It's so powerful because really when you think about it, sucking it up is what we need to do, it's part of the only thing that's going to partly get us through. Dealing with it is hard to do at times but we don't have a choice. When we don't deal with things then it tends to probably pretty much get worse and that's what we find when we don't deal with situations or things that may come up. I really love the third part though, the facts that you do it because you are a warrior is so powerful. When you use the mentality that you are a warrior and that you can do it, it helps more than you know. I think i'm actually kind of learning that now is that if i give myself a mentality that is positive, perspectives and things change on my own perspectives and i know that's what i need to do. I'm going to do it because i am a warrior and i am going to start with that kind of mentality. I'm going to try and do my best to start using a positive mentality like this.
One thing that Peter said was that, "We need to see today how people serve people." It is such a necessity to serve people today and when i say serve people, we need to show them God's love, God's grace, and God's mercy by just being open to serve them in loving ways.
To become a strong leader, we need people around us to help us out. We can't be strong leaders unless we have people behind us to help us out and lift us up. I think sometimes we don't realize how much we need other people behind us as leaders because support is what helps us out.
We all need a "Warrior Mentality." The mentality comes to three points, to one - suck it up; two - deal with it; and three - you do it because you are a warrior. I love this warrior mentality! It's so powerful because really when you think about it, sucking it up is what we need to do, it's part of the only thing that's going to partly get us through. Dealing with it is hard to do at times but we don't have a choice. When we don't deal with things then it tends to probably pretty much get worse and that's what we find when we don't deal with situations or things that may come up. I really love the third part though, the facts that you do it because you are a warrior is so powerful. When you use the mentality that you are a warrior and that you can do it, it helps more than you know. I think i'm actually kind of learning that now is that if i give myself a mentality that is positive, perspectives and things change on my own perspectives and i know that's what i need to do. I'm going to do it because i am a warrior and i am going to start with that kind of mentality. I'm going to try and do my best to start using a positive mentality like this.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Jason Fitch Response
Jason Fitch is the Pastor at Freedom Valley Tulsa. Josh Ploch is the Associate Pastor to Jason Fitch. They are both amazing people in which i have had the opportunity to meet and their hearts are huge and they are just amazing men of God!
Today Jason talked about Discipleship and Evangelism. Believe it or not they are trying to start a Discipleship group right now where they would have a group of people who are willing to get together with new believers in the church to help them grow and just talk about the Bible and just be able to disciple them just as Jesus discipled many. I think that this idea is awesome and so necessary so that first off, not only can you see the people that are growing in Christ that you are ministering to, but it can also Jason to grow his church even more! I just love this idea of what he is doing and i am personally really going to pray that God would work out something awesome for Jason and the staff so that they can do some awesome ministering in Tulsa!
Another thing that i loved hearing Jason talk about today was how he does team building. This interests me for the reason that i believe God is calling me to work in discipleship ministry and i want to be able to know how to do some awesome team building and finding the right people to work with my vision and what God has called me to one day! One thing that Jason said was, "Pray that God would go ahead of you to build that team first." I like this saying because really when you think about it, God is already thinking about the people that he has picked out for your team. I think thought too that you need to pray and ask God to set those right people before you and that God would help you to choose the right people. I am so excited for the ministry that i will work in one day and what God is going to do in the young adults that i am able to minister to and i just cannot wait! I can't believe how much God has been growing me in my calling in this class. Jason has such a heart and i loved what he talked about today but these two things were exactly what stuck out to me today and i thank God for it!
Today Jason talked about Discipleship and Evangelism. Believe it or not they are trying to start a Discipleship group right now where they would have a group of people who are willing to get together with new believers in the church to help them grow and just talk about the Bible and just be able to disciple them just as Jesus discipled many. I think that this idea is awesome and so necessary so that first off, not only can you see the people that are growing in Christ that you are ministering to, but it can also Jason to grow his church even more! I just love this idea of what he is doing and i am personally really going to pray that God would work out something awesome for Jason and the staff so that they can do some awesome ministering in Tulsa!
Another thing that i loved hearing Jason talk about today was how he does team building. This interests me for the reason that i believe God is calling me to work in discipleship ministry and i want to be able to know how to do some awesome team building and finding the right people to work with my vision and what God has called me to one day! One thing that Jason said was, "Pray that God would go ahead of you to build that team first." I like this saying because really when you think about it, God is already thinking about the people that he has picked out for your team. I think thought too that you need to pray and ask God to set those right people before you and that God would help you to choose the right people. I am so excited for the ministry that i will work in one day and what God is going to do in the young adults that i am able to minister to and i just cannot wait! I can't believe how much God has been growing me in my calling in this class. Jason has such a heart and i loved what he talked about today but these two things were exactly what stuck out to me today and i thank God for it!
Unchurched Friend Interview #2
Sex: Male Age: 21
1. What are you reasons for not going back to a church that you visited once or any church?
Limited amount of time.
Not in particular.
3. What do you think the purpose of church is?
Worship God
4. Did you feel welcome when you walked into church? If not, why?
Yes
5. Do you think there are areas in the church that could be improved or made better? If so, what could be improved?
Not specifically the church. I've had people not like me because of my religion as opposed to who I am and my values. Which sends a bad message toward me. Then again there are people in every type of group that make poor choices.
6. What would make the enviornment of the church more inviting to you?
Church always seems very inviting. I have no advice there
7. Do you believe in the one true God? If not, how come?
No. I have not been able to put my faith in the bible.
8. Is there a way that the pastor and teachers at the church could make it easier for you to understand what they are preaching about?
So far I have been able to understand what I learned at church very well.
9. Do you think that a Christian should go to church on a regular basis? If yes, why, if no, why?
Yes, from what I understand the bible tells them to. Not to mention if you believe in something to that extent, I think it is important for the person to experience it weekly and make sure it stays real in their lives.
10. Do you think that going to church every sunday could change your life around?
I'm not sure I want my life turned around so to speak. I am super happy with my life!. I'm always open to finding ways to improve though. I know the values instilled within people at church, are great values that help to turn their lives around.
I was actually really amazed at the answers that i got here. This man was completely honest with me and said how he really felt and actually gave me length to his answers. I was actually very interested in his answer to number 5. It's quite different and i am curious as to what his religion is. The fact that he hasn't been able to put his faith in the Bible and not believing in God is really mind blowing to me in a way. So given that he has understood what we is being preached when he does attend church he knows what the truth is but because he is so enjoying his life right now he doesn't want God, he doesn't want to give up his life for Jesus Christ. I think he is learning a lot and i really believe that God is going to work in his life and i think God may be getting ready to show him some things but maybe just isn't seeing yet. So my thoughts on this interview and how it went, was that it went really well and some of the answers that i got really makes me think a little bit more because here this person believes in God but seems like he picks and chooses what he wants and what he can do and can't do and i'm not sure that he is ready to give up everything to follow after God. I hope that in the future he is ready to give up everything to run after the one and only King of the universe.
Friday, November 4, 2011
Cullen Allen Response
Cullen Allen is on the staff at Allison Park Church. Cullen oversees the young adults and the MCM School.
Cullen's underlying philosophy is "To raise up spiritual warriors for the Kingdom of God, to teach them how to live out the book of Acts in signs, wonders, and miracles." I love Cullen's philosophy here because working in a discipleship program, in my view the point of it is to exactly what Cullen said. I personally want to be able to raise up spiritual warriors for God's Kingdom.
I love that Cullen said their school is very hands on with ministry. I find that to be huge, especially when you are in a ministry school. I'm a believer that when you are able to get hands on in the ministry it helps you grow so much more and it gives you much more experience when it even comes to getting hired in the ministry. I love being hands on because i get the experience behind it and i learn so much more because i'm able to actually do it, not just learn about it.
One of the biggest things that i got out of listening to Cullen Allen was Confrontation. He made the mention that confrontation is a daily and necessary part of our ministry even though it's difficult to do. As Cullen put it, "Confrontation is an art; it's really like trial and error. The way i learned how to do confrontation was by doing it wrong so many times." I had asked Cullen about confrontation and that's what he told me. It kind of hit me hard. Even though i don't want to be bad at confrontation, i do realize that each time i'm able to improve it or learn something that i did wrong that i can improve for the next time. I know this is an area that i am definitely working on right now even as a small leader now. It's not easy and i want to get better at but i'm not really sure how to either. I am going to do my best now as a leader with confrontation when it happens and i really hope in the future that when i am discipling young adults that i am able to do well with confrontation, at least better than i have been and not come across as kind of harsh but to come across lovingly.
Cullen Allen does a great job with his program for just talking to him and i am so glad that he was able to share with us!
Cullen's underlying philosophy is "To raise up spiritual warriors for the Kingdom of God, to teach them how to live out the book of Acts in signs, wonders, and miracles." I love Cullen's philosophy here because working in a discipleship program, in my view the point of it is to exactly what Cullen said. I personally want to be able to raise up spiritual warriors for God's Kingdom.
I love that Cullen said their school is very hands on with ministry. I find that to be huge, especially when you are in a ministry school. I'm a believer that when you are able to get hands on in the ministry it helps you grow so much more and it gives you much more experience when it even comes to getting hired in the ministry. I love being hands on because i get the experience behind it and i learn so much more because i'm able to actually do it, not just learn about it.
One of the biggest things that i got out of listening to Cullen Allen was Confrontation. He made the mention that confrontation is a daily and necessary part of our ministry even though it's difficult to do. As Cullen put it, "Confrontation is an art; it's really like trial and error. The way i learned how to do confrontation was by doing it wrong so many times." I had asked Cullen about confrontation and that's what he told me. It kind of hit me hard. Even though i don't want to be bad at confrontation, i do realize that each time i'm able to improve it or learn something that i did wrong that i can improve for the next time. I know this is an area that i am definitely working on right now even as a small leader now. It's not easy and i want to get better at but i'm not really sure how to either. I am going to do my best now as a leader with confrontation when it happens and i really hope in the future that when i am discipling young adults that i am able to do well with confrontation, at least better than i have been and not come across as kind of harsh but to come across lovingly.
Cullen Allen does a great job with his program for just talking to him and i am so glad that he was able to share with us!
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