Witness Express 5 (Jan 2010)
Looking Ahead to 2010
As a Christian (Union) leader, what do you see ahead for believers in 2010? What are you telling your followers, family, or friends to expect in 2010? This question the editor sent to CU leaders. Following is one reply that speaks well of the future for this church.
“In 2010, here at Bethlehem Christian Union Church the folks can expect to see more service projects that connect us with the community and demonstrate God’s love in a practical way. Some projects may include passing flowers door to door on Mothers Day, giving free windshield washer fluid at the local gas station, pulling weeds from people’s flower beds, giving free pop at public events, etc.
“Also, it is our desire to preach sermons that apply to young families, since this is the age we most need to reach. We will seek to make our services and programming more attractive to young families so that growth can take place, and the future of God’s kingdom can move for-ward. As a result, we will create small groups that mentor parents and spouses to grow in their parenting and marriages, for we feel that this will create a church full of healthy families, which is vital for us.
“It is our desire to worship God better this year too. We are encouraging our people to become more expressive as we praise God together. We hope that this can be done through public testimony, developing our worship team through training, creating an enthusiastic environment full of joy and singing, and providing opportunities for folks to express themselves to God.
“We also hope to do a couple of teacher training workshops to better equip our teachers.
“And last, but not least it is our desire to grow as an official board. Our official board is reading books together, listening to leadership seminars by John Maxwell and other great leaders. And we are hoping as a board to do service projects and commit ourselves to being the best example to our congregation that we can be. We want to be team players moving forward to grow God’s kingdom, both spiritually and numerically.
“We feel that 2010 is going to be a great year for our church. God is moving, and we plan to move with Him. Praise God!”
Looking Ahead to 2010… Background
“When I first came to Bethlehem in 2009 the board had a unified vision to reach younger couples. We immediatly started brainstorming, and God started working. The first question we had was internal… “What about our church needs to change for us to attract younger families?” So we made some internal changes based upon the fact that young families love children and music. We developed a nursery rotation, made sure we had equipped Sunday School teachers for all ages, trained folks to better run the sound board, developed a worship team, etc. We decided that as a church we were going to go out of our way to be the friendliest congregation around. We began to gear the sermons toward younger couples. And we preached a series on unity called “Biblical One Another’s” (Based on a book by Gene Getz), which has helped develop our church’s health. These internal changes were essential to growth. People won’t come back if they feel that the services don’t apply to them.
“After changing things internally, we asked “How are we going to get these young families to come.” There is a Chinese proverb that describes how many churches do evangelism “Man stands long time with mouth open before roasted duck enters.” In other words, “They aren’t going to just come because your doors are open. You have to go to them. So with much discussion we decided that the best way to reach our community is through service projects.
“We did our first church-wide service project right around Mother’s Day. There were only 4-6 of us. We went door to door and passed out flowers to the mothers in Buckland. From this project we had 10-15 unsaved folks visit our church. And the service projects continued from there. We passed out free pop at the Auglaize County Fair and free windshield washer fluid refills at the Marathon Station in Wapak, we did a leaf raking project in Kossuth, we started a share/care room to collect food, toys, school supplies, and other items to share as a church and to give to those in need around us. Our reputation in the community has boosted greatly. Folks are excited and they are inviting their loved ones. Growth is happening here both numerically and spiritually. People are being transformed. We went from about 60-65 on Sunday mornings to 90-110 in attendance. God is moving and we are praying for continued unity.
“We also did our first small group geared toward young families. We met for 7 weeks to do a series called “FireProof.” There were 10 young couples (20 people) that joined. One man gave his life to God and several others walked away feeling like God was moving in their marriages. This was a great time of growth for us all.”
Pastor Brad Colley
Bethlehem Christian Union Church (Auglaize County)
pastorbradcolley@yahoo.com
www.bethlehemcu.org
419-657-2428
PASTOR MARK McKAY OF ZION C U CHURCH, Van Wert County, Ohioshared the following:
“I have thought prayerfully about this important and timely subject, and have come up with my perspective.
“WHAT WE DO in the coming days will result in either the strengthen-ing, weakening, or remaining static of Christian Union as a denomination, which includes the church here at Zion-Van Wert. Furthermore it will effect ALL Christian denominations and local churches, with the potential of weaken-ing all of us into significant showcase complacency. WILL WE REMAIN STEADFAST IN OUR PERSONAL WALK WITH GOD AND IN OUR OWN PERSONAL AND CHURCH MINISTRY OR WILL WE COM-PROMISE SO THAT WE CAN ESCAPE REAL OR IMAGINED ATTACKS AGAINST OUR BODY?
“The former will very likely cause Pastors, Elders, and Church Officers possible unwanted scrutiny by enemies of Christ (as if it doesn’t already exist) but will strengthen us because of His promised added grace. The latter will surely bring smiles to the same enemies of Christ who will gladly use us as examples of what “Christianity really is.” We must be aware of how the enemies of Christ are working and strengthen our work with total dedica-tion to the Lord. We must present and practice a strengthening redemptive ministry to everyone everywhere. If there is to be anything “status quo” it should be that.
“We here at Zion-Van Wert are working by the grace of God to streng-then our flock, refining our message, and working to raise up new leaders in faith in Jesus Christ. A new midweek Children’s ministry, “Lighthouse Gang”, which has come forward be-cause of a burden of one of our moth-ers, will kick off on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2010. It will focus on Preschool through 8th grade children while the adults are in Midweek Prayer & Bible Study. Area families not associated with a local church will be contacted so that their children (and Moms and Dads also) will become involved, with the prayer that they will come to Christ. We are also putting together a tool that will enhance our outreach both inside and outside the church.
So, Dianne and I will continue to live for Him, serve His people faith-fully, train new leaders and strengthen the flock, by God’s grace and for His glory. We will continue to love people, looking and praying for the redemption of the unsaved and follow His leading at all times until He comes to take us Home. If the Church will just continue to keep the Main Thing The Main Thing we will weather any storm that comes over the horizon.
“Someone once wrote these words: “Only one life, ‘twill soon be past; Only what’s done for Christ will last.”
“Blessings,
“Mark McKay, Pastor
“Zion-Van Wert Christian Union Church, Grover Hill, OH”
Greatest Moral Issues Facing America
January is celebrated as “Sanctity of Life” month in many churches.
Abortion, moral relativism and mistreatment of others are the top moral issues facing America according to a year-end poll of America’s evangelical leaders. The Evangelical Leaders Survey conducted during the month of October asked “What is the greatest moral issue in America today?”
Some responses specified secularization, homosexuality, pornography and other concerns, they were not at the top of the list.
Abortion was the number one answer. Said Jeff Farmer of the Open Bible Churches: “not because murder is worse than other moral evils, but because of the massive numbers of this killing field and intentionality of so many to put self-gratification, greed and political advantage above life itself.”
Moral relativism was the number two answer. See Judges 17:6. It is “a non-belief in Absolute Truth which permeates every other arena of our society.”
Mistreatment of others is made worse by “our blindness and silence to injustices here and around the world.”
So wrote Sammy Mah, President of World Relief. “Social ills like poverty, malnutrition, homelessness, human trafficking, and so many more are rooted in injustices that must be fought.”
The Evangelical Leaders Survey is a monthly poll of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Evangelicals on which our Executive Officer, James Eschenbrenner, serves. It also includes representatives of a broad array of evangelical organizations including missions, universities, publishers and churches.
My Special Wish for the New Year
That Christians stop sending out Urban Legends without first checking them out,
Dan Wooding, Founder of ASSIST Ministries
I don’t know what your special wish is for the New Year, but mine is very simple — that Christians will stop the annoying habit of blindly forwarding Urban Legends to their friends without ever first checking them out.
Each week, my in-box is filled with messages forwarded by well-meaning friends who still haven’t learned that most of them are not true. Surely, we should hold a higher standard than our non-Christian friends, but it seems not by the evidence I see all the time.
The latest arrived this morning and it read:
“Sorry, I did not mean to ruin your Christmas week celebration !!!
What more proof do we need? Well there are yet more surprises on the way. Let all who voted for him rejoice.
Obama canceled the National Day of Prayer service traditionally held at the White House. Why would he do that when we are historically a Judeo-Christian nation?
Now…….this. [A picture was displayed here]
The Islamic Prayer Day last week at the White House.
For Obama to continue as our President is an insult to our founding fathers (and to all Americans).
If you question the impact of the above picture,
I would suggest you get a copy of the book The Sword of the Prophet by Serge Trifkovic. It is well researched and documented, so it is trustworthy. Anyone who believes that ‘Islam is not a major threat to our freedom and country’ has their head in the sand.”
It all sounds very ominous – if it was true. So I went to www.snopes.com, a trustworthy place to check out this kind of material and what did I find – it’s all false!
Here’s what the web site says:
Claim: Photograph shows President Obama taking part in an “Islamic Prayer Day” observance at the White House.
FALSE
Snopes says that the origins of this e-mail and similar ones is this:
“In 2009, President Obama decided not to host an ecumenical service in the White House in observance of the National Day of Prayer (held on the first Thursday of May) as his predecessor, President George W. Bush, had. Rather than holding a White House service, the president opted to issue a public proclamation and observe the occasion privately:
“Prayer is something that the president does every day,” said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, adding that Obama would sign a proclamation to recognize the day. “I think the president understands, in his own life and in his family’s life, the role that prayer plays. And I would denote that the administrations prior to the past one did proclamations. That’s the way the president will publicly observe the national prayer day. But, as I said, privately, he’ll pray as he does every day.”
“However, the photograph displayed above does not show President Obama instead observing “Islamic Prayer Day” or engaging in a “mosque prayer session” at the White House. This picture of the president was taken at Istanbul’s Blue Mosque (where protocol requires that visitors remove their shoes before entering), the national mosque of Turkey, during the chief executive’s two-day state visit to that country in April 2009.
“Also, as far as we can ascertain, there is no national ‘Islamic Prayer Day’ acknowledged or observed by the White House — perhaps someone has confused the private prayer service held by Muslims on Capitol Hill in September 2009 with an officially designated Islamic prayer day,” said www.snopes.com.
So there you have it. So, once again, please don’t just blindly forward material before thoroughly checking it out.
Happy New Year to you all and may it be one were we all seek the truth, not fanciful messages!
Dan Wooding, 69, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for 46 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS). Wooding is the author of some 43 books. Two of the latest include his autobiography, “From Tabloid to Truth”, which is published by Theatron Books. Wooding, who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, also recently released “God’s Ambassadors in Japan” which is available at amazon.com.ASSIST News Service (ANS) – PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net — E-mail: assistnews@aol.com
Missionary HELEN INMAN has made arrangements to spend most of her time for the next few months with her brother, Bill, who is taking chemotherapy for cancer following brain surgery. His wife died on Memorial Day, 2007.
Except for trips to scheduled events she plans to attend, she will be at Bill Inman’s address: Box 393, Piketon, Ohio 45661. She may still be contacted via her email at helen.inman@sim.org or by phone at 803-493-3545.
Pray for her brother and for her travels!
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