Thursday, March 5, 2009

Broadcasting The Means of Grace,
Low Cost:
Feel Free To Steal My Concepts



I am the True Vine." John 15. Drawing by Norma Boeckler.

NKJ John 15:1 I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 "By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.


I am in a state of perpetual shock that two full-time theatre operators have so little time to do real mission work.

KJV Romans 10:14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

The only way to start is to provide genuine worship services and education opportunities.

NKJ Isaiah 55:8 For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways, says the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. 10 "For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, 11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

In this age of instant communication, the Internet has provided many different ways to broadcast the Word (Matthew 13, the Sower and the Seed) without spending much money.

NKJ Matthew 13:19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. 20 But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 "yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. 22 Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. 23 But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

Anyone can create a website filled with content, using templates. Or, the material can be produced through a blog, which is essential the same, only easier.

Anyone can get a $75 web camera, buy monthly broadband, and broadcast live (with saved files) for free, using Ustream.

Anyone can create podcasts, email mailings, and twitters with worthwhile messages. Some people have helped me with technology issues, and I do not even know their names.

Add Lenski and the Book of Concord, plus boxer shorts, and a legitimate pastor can allow God to accomplish His will through the Word.

One of my best and wisest friends wrote about the time he was in the grocery business. The store kept trying to sell everything except groceries. He wondered, "Why are we ashamed to be grocers?"

The same thing can be said about an Imax theatre which failed when it had a clear focus on a specific business, but suddenly becomes a mission. Now we are to assume that a vast sum of money can be spent to hide a church underneath a cloaking device, an Imax theatre, and the failed movie-house will become a successful church by copying Andy Stanley ("20 sub-woofers behind that screen!") and plagiarizing Craig Groeschel's sermons. When the CORE website was partially down for a few hours, I thought, "They are getting rid of the Groeschel evidence." But later, the same sermon titles copied from Groeschel showed up again. That is no accident, because Ski went to two different Andy Stanley events, one involving Groeschel, and he bragged about it. Drive 08 was the first event. Catalyst was another. Why did Ski hide the link to his Drive 08 pilgrimage?

KJV Matthew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. 16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

The total content of the CORE website, created by a professional, is almost zero. If the sermons preached so far were so great, why not publish them as sound files or in print? Why not print the services if the Word has power?

Quotations

"Whoever comes to faith can only say that the Holy Spirit comes when and where and to whom He pleases at the time He pleases. He comes when and where He pleases, and also gives a person as many gifts as He pleases."
What Luther Says, An Anthology, 3 vols., ed., Ewald Plass, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959, II, p. 665.

"That we may obtain this faith, the Ministry of Teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments was instituted. For through the Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy Ghost is given, who works faith, where and when it pleases God, in them that hear the Gospel, to wit, that God, not for our own merits, but for Christ's sake, justifies those who believe that they are received into grace for Christ's sake. They condemn the Anabaptists and others who think that the Holy Ghost comes to men without the external Word, through their own preparation and works."
Augsburg Confession, V. #1-2. The Ministry. Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 45. Tappert, p. 31. Heiser, p. 13.

"He [Paul] thus extols co-laborers that they [the Corinthians] may not despise the external Word as if they were not in need of it or knew it well enough. For although God might accomplish all things inwardly by the Spirit, without the external Word, He has no intention of doing so. He wants to employ preachers as assistants and co-laborers and to accomplish His purposes through their word when and where it pleases Him. Since, then, preachers have the office, name, and honor of being God's assistants, no man is so learned or holy that he may neglect or despise the poorest preaching; for he does not know when the hour will come in which God will perform His work in him through the preachers."
What Luther Says, An Anthology, 3 vols., ed. Ewald M. Plass, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House 1959 III, p. 1118. W 17, II, 179; SL 12, 436; sermon #3572; 2 Corinthians 6:1-10.

Thus, for Luther, preaching and teaching were everything. He often grew tired of preaching and the congregation's indifferent reactions to it, but we are still reading his sermons 500+ years later.


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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Broadcasting The Means of Grace, Low Cost:Feel Fre...":

Jeske is trying to copy ..his latest venture is an e-Church.