from Yvon Prehn to help you know, trust, and apply the Bible
What are your expectations for Easter at your church? Especially for those who are visiting for the first time and who may be totally unfamiliar with the Christian faith?
In answer to that question, I’d like to propose that you make it OK for visitors to reject Jesus at your Easter Service and in our podcast today I’ll tell you why (and of course I’ll include how to start then on a path to accepting Jesus in the future).
Following are five realities to keep in mind–
This is a true story. Though the specific event discussed is Easter, the lessons learned from it can apply to any event. In addition to applying to any event, we can all identify with the situation here. The challenges of ministry are so huge it is very easy to get overwhelmed in one area and totally forget another one. May the Lord have mercy and help us all.
Here’s the story–in one of my church communication seminars, at the break, a woman literally came running up the aisle to talk to me.
“Oh, thank you, thank you,” she said, “Now I understand what went wrong.”
I had just been talking about the importance of letting people know what you did on a regular basis (and maybe even where you regularly meet) when you hold a special event if you want positive results from your holiday outreach. The advice had been helpful to churches in the past, but her response was more excited than most, so I asked her to tell me more about her experience.
She then told me about a special Easter service her church put on that was a huge amount of work and an equally huge disappointment in results. Here were the details:
What kind of relationship do you have with someone, if you meet them, have a great time, and then walk away, never to call, talk, or see the person again? Not much of one is it?
In contrast, what about a relationship where two people meet briefly but then keep in touch through letters, emails, phone calls, and other get-togethers? What if they take time to interact and get to know each other? We’d label that a meaningful relationship.
If we want any kind of relationship, friendship, or romance to progress, we know we’ve got to expend some effort to grow the relationship.
As a church, we begin relationships with the people in our communities when we host outreach or holiday events. Sometimes they develop into a meaningful, long-term relationship with visitors, but in the majority of cases, they don’t. Take time to consider some of the following thoughts and evaluate how your interactions with visitors.
A.I. is not a dark force to be afraid of, it is a tool and like any other tool, it can be used to help or to hurt.
But it is very different in one way that is incredibly important for anyone in ministry and that is for you to understand that YOU can make a difference, a BIG difference to the content served up by A.I on the web.
Please bear with me for a few minutes while I explain this because if you understand what I’m saying and will encourage you to do, it can make a huge difference in the lives of untold multitudes around the world now and into the future.
I am not exaggerating.
Here’s why–following is the podcast and then the rest of the text that goes along with it.
Icebreaker questions are those questions we ask at the beginning of studies to get people talking. Some ministry leaders consider them a waste of time and want to jump right into a study or lesson, but from decades of ministry, I think they are essential. Following is the podcast of this content and below that, the text.
I praise God that, though a few detours have taken place, the primary activities of my life have been teaching the Bible, involvement with my church, and Christian ministries. I am incredibly, humbly, and joyfully grateful for the life and many, many ministry experiences the Lord has given me, and though I hope the Lord gives me many more years to serve Him (my grandmother taught Sunday School class into her 90s), I have already been at this long enough that I have some suggestions that might be helpful, some ministry advice that might be encouraging, and some resources that I’ve found helpful.
I feel the Lord wants me to pass them on. They are humbly offered with no claim of expertise or guarantee of success. Most is offered for free–only my personally authored books have a cost. Also, the Bible805 ministry takes no advertising, nor do I participate in any affiliate marketing schemes where I would get paid for promoting something. There are no hidden agendas for anything I tell you about.
This is a new section for the Bible805 ministry, and the Ministry Miscellany Podcast goes along with it.
o
I’ll post the availability of new material here and on the podcast and on the Bible805 Newsletter, CLICK HERE to sign up for it.