Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Evangelism Resources.
LERG, When Gimmicks Are Not Enough

Women rabbis and women bishops -
just don't seem right somehow.


Evangelism Resources:


The Local Evangelism Resources Group (LERG) aims to help make parishes aware of initiatives and resources which will assist their outreach efforts.

Back to Church Sunday
This national initiative is helping churches to develop a culture of invitation and has helped hundreds of people in our Diocese to reconnect with their parish church.

London 2012 Olympics
The Diocese is encouraging churches to make the most of the excitement surrounding the 2012 Olympics to connect with people locally.

Experience Easter
Invite children from your local school into church to experience the Easter story.

Mission Teams
Revitalise your church and reach out to your neighbours with a Mission Weekend. A Mission Team from the Diocese can be a support and an inspiration.

Biblefresh
Inspired by the 400th Anniversary of the King James Bible, we would like to encourage churches to make the message of the bible heard and experienced.

Enquirers' Courses
Many churches use short courses to help enquirers work through the questions which need to be addressed before they are ready to believe in Jesus and join a church.

Discipleship Courses
Growth to maturity in faith can be helped if people take part in a discipleship course.

Links & Resources
There are many organisations who provide courses and resources for evangelism and outreach.


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Evangelistic events focus of GPS 2012 - Babtist Bandwagon



Evangelistic events focus of GPS 2012:


ALPHARETTA, Ga. – Following the inaugural success of GPS (God’s Plan for Sharing) 2010 two years ago, GPS 2012 will focus on attractional evangelism events enabling Southern Baptists to share the Gospel across North America in the days leading up to next Easter and beyond.

In 2010, thousands of Southern Baptists trooped door-to-door in American neighborhoods, placing door-hangers, Gospel tracts and invitations to attend church on front doors. Attractional evangelism in 2012 will include block parties, wild game dinners, sports clinics, antique car shows, golf tournaments and other events, according to Thomas Hammond, the North American Mission Board’s evangelism team leader for the biennial GPS initiative.

Hammond said training for such events—to be selected by local churches—started this fall across the country. For the majority of the 42 state conventions, the GPS “window” of evangelistic events will run during the three-week period leading up to Easter Sunday, which falls on Apr. 8 in 2012.

“It’s vital that churches participate in GPS 2012 at a high level,” said Hammond. “If the local churches get behind it, we’ll have a much greater level of success. Just a billboard here or there isn’t enough. Churches must support it and follow up.”

With a theme of “Hope: Find It Here,” GPS 2012 will utilize more Internet social media – like Facebook and Google Ads – along with “drive-time” radio spots and less TV advertising, although some TV ads will continue to run in dozens of markets across the United States. A half-dozen 30-second TV spots in English and Spanish have already been produced.


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FAQ's - Babtist Easter Evangelism

FAQ's:

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6 Easter Outreach Ideas | Evangelism.net.
Bunny Power!



6 Easter Outreach Ideas | Evangelism.net:


Easter is a unique time for evangelism because many people are more open to going to church and talking about the meaning behind Easter. To give you some ideas for how you can use this time evangelistically, our staff has thought of 12 ways you can reach out to your friends, neighbors, and coworkers.

Prepare and deliver gift Easter Baskets for the children in your neighborhood. Hand deliver them and include a book that tells the Easter Story like “An Easter Gift for Me” by Crystal Bowman. If you have a lot of children in your neighborhood, check your local dollar store. They usually stock baskets, decorations, candy, and other goodies at reasonable prices.

Invite a neighbor or coworker to Easter services at your church followed by Easter brunch at your house or at a restaurant. Studies prove that people are more likely to go to church on Easter than any other time of the year. You can relax and let your pastor preach the gospel, with follow-up conversations at brunch.

Consider organizing an Easter outreach for kids at your church. The first station could be for a photo station with live animals if you have access to rabbits or lambs. Another station could be a craft table where the children make a simple craft. Another station could be a stage in a room where the resurrection story is told by someone playing one of the disciples or women who visited the tomb. Another station could be a room with an egg hunt every 10 minutes for 5-8 kids at a time. The final station could be a giveaway of a book telling the true reason for Easter or a New Testament along with information about your church.

Easter Bunny—Do you have some neighbors or friends with kids? Dress up as the Easter bunny and bring some candy, or an Easter Basket over. It will show that you enjoy having fun with them, and make them more inclined to talk about important spiritual issues or join you for other activities such as a church Easter Play. Need a question to break the ice? Try, “Did your family have any religious traditions during holidays when you were growing up?” It is almost always fun to share and listen to each other’s family traditions.

Sunrise Service or Breakfast—There is something glorious about seeing the sunrise in the morning, particularly on Easter Sunday! Consider going to a location close by where you don’t normally hold services, such as the lake or the park. This tends to work especially well for churches with older members, although sometimes younger people enjoy it as well too.

Resurrection Eggs—consider purchasing plastic Resurrection Eggs (link:  http://www.shopfamilylife.com/res-eggs-2011.html) created by Family Life as a memorable way to retell the Easter story to your friends, at Christian schools, or perhaps in Sunday School classes at church.

Join us on Wednesday for the other six ideas, and in the meantime tell us any ideas you have for outreach this Easter!


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Easter Planning for Churches – 4 ways to prepare

The Easter bunny sends a profound message to
the unchurched:
We do not trust the Word of God, just gimmicks.


Easter Planning for Churches – 4 ways to prepare:


“Overall, 31% of active churchgoers said they would definitely invite someone they know who does not usually attend a church to accompany them to a church service on Easter weekend this year.” Barna Group

What the numbers might mean for Easter Sunday.

Let’s say this statistic would hold true for your congregation.

If you had 100 members, and 30 of them made personal invitations.

We know that not all invitations will be accepted.

But if half of them accepted and brought their families, you will have 15-60 visitors in your congregation on Easter.

That’s huge potential!


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WELS Hands Congregation a Fish.
Courtesy of the Fuller Aquarium

James Huebner, Fuller alumnus.
Adam Mueller, Church and Change leader.
James Tiefel, Church and Change leader, DUI.
Doug Tomhave - all the "mission" people are CGM.



Brothers,
Attached you’ll find the first letter inviting WELS pastors to enroll their congregation in the E12 program offered by the Commission for Congregational Counseling.    It contains a link to a www.easter12.com, where congregations can go to register.

I had the privilege of joining you in October to explain the program, but perhaps a brief recap is in order.  
·         E12, short for Easter 2012, is a comprehensive leadership training program that includes components of worship, outreach, and discipleship.   
·         We are, in essence, giving our churches a fish: provide high quality worship and outreach materials for this Easter.
·         We are also teaching them how to fish, for along with those materials will come instructions of how to reproduce similar materials in upcoming events. 
·         Along with the materials and instructions will come rationale for “doing things this way,” getting the leaders to think about how to carry out ministry more aggressively with the gifts God has granted them.  So we don’t just want to provide materials but shape a confessional, evangelical mindset.  That’s why we view this as a leadership program, not just a worship or outreach program.
·         Along with that rationale will come devotional materials, since God’s Word provides the foundation, the content, and the motivation for all we do.

This is all being produced by people whom God has gifted to our church with Fuller expertise in these areas.  It is pulling together some very talented individuals from the Commission on Evangelism, the Commission on Worship, the Commission on Adult Discipleship, and the Institute of Worship and Outreach.   

We are asking congregations to provide 5 e-mails: pastor, church president, an outreach representative, a worship representative, and a graphics/design representative.   I know full well most of our churches won’t have all of those.  Some might not have any other than pastor and church president.  That is fine!   We still want five e-mails as we’ll be providing training throughout the E12 program.  For example, if a church doesn’t have a lay person working in outreach/evangelism, they still need to provide someone for that slot.   After using the E12 program that person will at least be familiar with 1) why we do outreach, 2) the basics of outreach, and 3) a rough idea of how to plan for it with the resources available in their specific congregation.   We will have helped that congregation equip a saint for service in this vital area. 

All this information will be disseminated electronically beginning in mid-January.   ALL materials will go to pastors and the church president.   They will see everything that is being sent out.   Some materials will be directed only to the appropriate people. (e.g. The outreach rep will receive only the material that pertains to outreach.)   Weekly e-mails from early January through May will let the groups know what the others are doing, provide encouragement, keep them on pace, and provide opportunities for feedback and questions. 
  
Since material begins to roll out in mid-January, prompt registration is necessary.    Thus, if you could forward this to the pastors in your district ASAP, I’d appreciate it.  I know it’s right before Christmas.   I feel that crunch myself.  But registration takes minutes.    


And it needn’t be done by the pastor.  His secretary or another church leader can easily do it.

I’m sending this to you, the COP, not just to save postage.   I’m sending it to you because, as I mentioned in October, the CCC wants to be a tool for you to use in your calling.   We want to be a way for you to provide nuts-and-bolts help that will have an immediate impact in your congregations.    Having you disseminate this information to our pastorate, we believe, helps drive that point home.

Through his Means, may Immanuel be with you and yours in his grace and his power.

Your servant in Christ,
Jon
Jonathan Hein
BEAUTIFUL SAVIOR LUTHERAN CHURCH
720 Old Trolley Road   Summerville, SC  29485
843.873.5522 (office)
843.860.1838 (cell)

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AC V has left a new comment on your post "WELS Hands Congregation a Fish. Courtesy of the Fu...":

"We still want five e-mails...:

smellsfishy@rottenindenmark.com
smellsfishy@rottenindenmark.com
smellsfishy@rottenindenmark.com
smellsfishy@rottenindenmark.com
smellsfishy@rottenindenmark.com

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AC V has left a new comment on your post "WELS Hands Congregation a Fish. Courtesy of the Fu...":

"Thus, participation in E12 requires FIVE e-mails be provided."

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFQtaTU0Zk9oY1RJbkdINWdLTWxCUXc6MQ

naivepastor@lemming.com
naivepastor@lemming.com
naivepastor@lemming.com
naivepastor@lemming.com
naivepastor@lemming.com

***

GJ - Franchisees will note that WELS can contact any member of the congregation at any time. Posting their emails and contact information will help the Shrinkers in getting rid of any dissent by speeding up the process.

When the Son of Man Returns,
Will He Find Faith...among the Hierarchy

This is a good time to review
as Joel Hochmuth suggested.


I remember the day in Greek class when I learned that "hierarchy" means "the rule of priests." History records many examples of the corruption, greed, and depravity of the priestly class. WELS is now vying with the Borgia popes for record-setting violations of all the commandments. I have more information coming through, but that has to wait.

WELS, Missouri, and the Little Sect on the Prairie have a lot in common. In each franchise, decisions are made on the basis of friendships, classmates, and DNA. The Scriptures never enter the discussion until the conclusions are drawn.

Today I had four interesting contacts about what is happening in the Olde Synodical Conference. That is all I can say.

Mrs. Ichabod, "How about a hint?"

No hints. But the contacts show how the apostate leadership is unraveling. The shun him button is not working effectively.

SP Mark Schroeder, like the rest, came into the position by never offending anyone. I do not recall Schroeder, Harrison, or Pope John the Malefactor ever speaking against false doctrine. Compare that to the public positions of Jack and Robert Preus, or the days when WELS had big conferences about the apostasy of the Missouri Synod. Those people would be called fanatics, unbalanced, and crazy today.



Schroeder is a product of the system and owes the system. His best opportunity to show leadership is to oppose the New NIV, but he is silent. His timidity speaks volumes. Either he favors the New NIV or he is too chicken to oppose it. Either version suggests he should be not a leader of anything.

Mrs. Ichabod asked if Schroeder should step down. The problem is, there is no one to provide any positive leadership. The only leadership is on the Shrinker-Emergent side, where Mark Jeske the Orange runs the whole show from behind his curtain.

These people are not impressed with Schroeder's response to the Hochmuth crimes. They are WELS members. The Wisconsin sect seems content to lose a few people at a time until they are pure Emergent Babto-Methodist.

I could say the problem is CGM, or Emergent Church, or the New NIV, but those cancers are not the cause. They are just symptoms. The cause is lack of faith in the Word of God. Starting with Walther and his dominance of the Olde Synodical Conference, faith in the Word of God has been trained out of the clergy and members.



Walther, the American Pope, kicked out Bishop Stephan, committing and supporting many crimes in the process: land fraud, grand theft, armed invasion, physical threats, and armed kidnapping. Walther took over the cult and maintained the same level of control that Stephan demanded.

But Walther, trained in rationalism and Pietism, was in no position to establish Lutheran orthodoxy. He established his own quirky ideas and false doctrine with dubious theses, which were delivered and accepted the way Mormonism was revealed to the gullible masses. Even today, something is true just because Walther wrote it, even when he contradicted himself in the same paragraph. To question Walther is slander, although the synodical Lutherans have no trouble dissing Martin Luther himself. The Reformer is good for statues-preps-colleges, not for doctrine.

Watch the ELS, LCMS, and WELS continue to use the process learned from ELCA and the secular change agents. Full participation is welcome, as long as dissenters are removed and everyone drinks the purple Kool-aid. They let the flowers bloom, as Mao said, so the heads can be cut off.

Faithful laity, pastors, and teachers remain, but the Synodical Conference is doomed by its own lack of faith.

The Olde Synodical Conference teaches the Huber fallacy,
excommunicating those who teach justification by faith.