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BestPractices
July 15, 2009
Loren in capThis has been a year of intense evangelism in a lot of places. I don't know if we'll reach the 100,000 goal that we want to reach, but I know a lot of us have tried to do our part.

This issue of Best Practices we're reviewing a new evangelistic tool produced by Vervent: a creative, non-threatening evangelistic series called Living with Hope, which will be available to you on the latest Pastor's DVD. Dave Gemmell (one of the series' developers) describes it, and David Newman tells us how it worked for his church.

By the way, several have asked whether they can use essays and pieces from Best Practices for a church newsletter or website. We are happy for you to use what we've written, as long as you give attribution to the author and to Best Practices for Adventist Ministry e-newsletter. (Please note: this doesn't apply to items on other sites that we've linked to. To reproduce those in full, you'll need those websites' permission.) For past issues, check our archive website.

Blessings
Loren Seibold, Editor, Best Practices for Adventist Ministry
IN THIS ISSUE
Resource: Living with Hope evangelism, pastor's perspective
Media: Eddie Hipolyte, Scott Farrand
Reading: Pope Benedict's new world economic authority
Resource: Living with Hope Q&A, Dave Gemmell
Quotes: "Miss Manners assures you that people do not absorb moral lessons from those who trample on their feelings."
News & ideas: Innovative Church of the Year Nominations
Events: KIDS University
Resource Review
davidnLiving with Hope Evangelism
David Newman, New Hope Adventist Church, Maryland

DAvid NewmanNew Hope Adventist Church just completed the Living With Hope evangelistic series, part of a pilot project with the North American Division to develop a different approach to evangelism. Living With Hope is sixteen presentations on the major doctrines of the church, eight of which we presented in the church service and the other eight in small groups. We encouraged those who came to sign up for small groups and many did. We baptized nine during the series and are following up with ten more who have said they want to be baptized.

We team taught the ten worship presentations. The team teaching was a huge hit with the congregation. While we followed a script there was also a lot of improv, humor and repartee along the way. The audience really loved it. (Even if you are a solo pastor you can still team teach. Just find a gifted person in your congregation or outside it to work with you.)

Some of our members felt the doctrines were old hat, and did not continue in the small group portion. Others loved going over the doctrines again. The small groups are a unique contribution of Living with Hope. I think it was really neat to get people into small groups where they could ask questions and dialog with each other and with the leader. It helped give our small group ministry a great boost.

Living With Hope is quite a balanced evangelistic approach. It presents end-time events, but does not dwell on them. The Living With Hope lessons have now become our standard curriculum for studying with people.

Contact David at [email protected].
Featured Media
Reading For Pastors

Recently I heard a job-search expert lecture on social networking - insisting that now Twitter, Linked-in and Facebook are more important than your r�sum�! Monte Sahlin opines that the church hasn't caught up with social networking, either.

Pope Benedict's call for a world economic authority
has worried a lot of Christians.
Sonia Sotomayor and questions of religion: Her record on church-state relations is hard to pin down.

National guard units are having a hard time finding chaplains.Quote: "The Army National Guard has just six rabbis and no imams for its 362,000 guardsmen. Clergy from smaller Christian denominations and other faiths also are needed."

Taking church to people, rather than bringing people to church:
Here's a stunning website about a Tacoma-based group called Soma, that has done a lot with this idea. Quote: "We began as a small group of people asking the question "What would it look like if the people who call themselves followers of Jesus began to live out their identity of BEING the Church instead of merely ATTENDING church."

When Christians shock to get their point across: Christian singer-songwriter Derek Webb
(10 GMA Dove Award nominations, Dove Award wins and six #1 Christian radio hits) got too graphic for his label. (Webb apparently uses the popular vulgar form of the Greek word skuvbalon (Phillippians 3:8) to describe Christian apathy toward tens of thousands of poverty-related deaths. Peterson's The Message Bible is pretty graphic, too - though he wisely avoids the word Webb uses.)

A gentle reflection on yard sales, from Jeff Wright's Pursuing Truth blog.

I love all of Tom K's Patterns of Ink blog. Here's a lovely example called "The Hardest Kind of Learning."
Resource Review
davegPastor's DVD
Living With Hope Evangelistic Resources

Best Practices: Dave, the pastor's DVD #16 offers a new public evangelism and Bible study curriculum. Aren't there are lot of those already available?

gemmellDave Gemmell: Yes, but not quite like this one. We became aware that some NAD churches were uncomfortable with traditional styles of public evangelism. But their pastors wanted to do public meetings without stressing out their congregations. Living with Hope is the result. Living with Hope is congregation-based. It's purpose is not just to present the doctrines, but at the same time to integrate people into church life. Because the congregation and its pastors make the presentation, it will work best in healthy, happy congregations. You could think of Living with Hope as a marketing campaign for a church to recruit new members, or a combination of evangelism and discipleship.

BP: In practical terms, how does it differ from what we've typically done?

Dave: Living with Hope is structured around the fundamental teachings of the church: a Christian picture of God as viewed through eyes of the Seventh-day Adventist church. It naturally teaches our eschatology, but prophecy is not the "hook" as it is in some series. It is a gospel centered, appealing picture of God as someone who would love for us to partner with each other and follow him.

We've designed it to be unusually adaptable. I can see it being used in the worship service, in small groups, as a pastor's Bible class, or with youth. We include materials for both small group and large group events. The small-group component is especially good: one of the usual problems with public evangelism is that new people don't get acquainted with others in the church, and so slip away after they're baptized.

In practice, it functions as a Bible-marking class. At the end, participants will have 16 key lessons outlined, from basic Christian teachings to unique Adventist ones.

BP: How do churches get Living with Hope?

Dave: It is offered on our Pastor's DVD #16, which is distributed through your conference ministerial department. Using the DVD, you can even show the program on a television set, without a computer. You can also download the entire program from our website. We include slides for PowerPoint and Keynote, organizing materials, and .pdf files of all handouts and Bible studies. Just check at www.livingwithhopeseminar.com.
To the Point
Miss Manners assures you that people do not absorb moral lessons from those who trample on their feelings. Rather, they forever associate the unpleasantness of the spokesperson with the cause itself. So if the certainty that you would hurt your friends' feelings is not enough to satisfy you into mere murmured politeness, how about the certainty that you would hurt your cause?
 - Judith Martin (Thanks, Aileen Sox, for the quote!)

Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.
  - Will Rogers

Every hero becomes a bore at last.
  - Ralph Waldo Emerson

All charming people have something to conceal, usually their total dependence on the appreciation of others.
 - Cyril Connolly

Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand.
 - Putt's Law

Most people would like to be delivered from temptation but would like it to keep in touch.
 - Robert Orben

Far from idleness being the root of all evil, it is rather the only true good.
 - Soren Kierkegaard

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
 - Leo Tolstoy

If you're not scared or angry at the thought of a human brain being controlled remotely, then it could be this prototype of mine is finally starting to work.
 - John Alejandro King
News, Ideas & Reminders
  • From Stephen Ertel: "Thank you for including a review for Chuck Scriven's The Promise of Peace in your June 3, 2009 newsletter. The link in your news letter for the book directs readers to Amazon.com's site for purchase - where the book is erroneously listed as "out-of-print". Instead, direct your readers to the Adventist Book Center website."
  • From Dave Gemmell: "Nominations are being accepted for the 2009 NAD Innovative Church of the Year. The North American Division (NAD) Church Resource Center is looking for a church that has successfully taken advantage of opportunities in a changing society with new ways of doing ministry. A cash prize of $2,000 and an all expense paid trip for three individuals to the National Conference on Innovation will be awarded to the winning congregation. Conference administrators, pastors, and lay leaders are invited to fill out an application that can be obtained by contacting Dave Gemmell at [email protected]. The deadline for nominations is August 17."
  • More from Dave Gemmell: "The special edition of The Pastor's DVD volume 16 entitled Living With Hope will soon be delivered to pastors of the North American Division. Included on the DVD are: Sermon Manuscripts, Graphic Slides, Evangelistic Handbooks for Leaders, Small Group Leaders, and Worship Teams, Participant Handouts, Marketing Plan, and contact information for cost effective suppliers. During the first week of July The Pastor's DVD 16 was shipped in bulk to local conference Ministerial confDepartments. For more information about the Living With Hope curriculum go to www.livingwithhopeseminar.com."
Got a tool, resource, site, article, idea or seminar that you like a lot? Share it with us at [email protected].
Upcoming NAD Events

Do you have an event you'd like to invite pastors to? Send details to [email protected].
Best Practices is a Vervent publication of NAD CHURCH RESOURCE CENTER. Editor: Loren Seibold, Senior Pastor, Worthington Ohio Seventh-day Adventist Church. E-mail: Best Practices. You are free to republish pieces from Best Practices in your own newsletter or blog, with attribution to the Best Practices newsletter and the author of the piece.