Broadening Your Friday Night Ministry
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RU Sunday School Class
If you do not have your RU Sunday School class activated, we strongly
encourage you to do so. The ultimate the goal of Reformers Unanimous is
to get people connected Christ and to His local church, as it remains
God's support group to minister to addicted people. A few ideas to help
you implement or IMPROVE the RU Sunday School class:
1. We follow a similar format as Friday night, just somewhat different.
First, we talk to each other through fellowship. Many of us get there
early and have coffee and a Danish of sorts. Though sometimes it leads
to actual counsel, often it's just friendly fellowship. Second, we
"officially" open class by talking to God in prayer and testimonies.
This is done in a briefer format. Here in Rockford, we dedicate 10
minutes to popcorn testimonies (people just pop out short testimonies of
God's goodness). And third, God talks to us through the message.
2. The curriculum for the Sunday School class has many options. One, you
can use the Nevertheless I Live book, but at the other end of the book
(i.e., if you are in chapter one on Friday, be in chapter 6 on Sunday or
chapter 3 vs. chapter 9). Or, you can use the Tall Law or Umbrella
Fella Sunday School curriculum which has a teacher's guides and
corresponding student's guides. These should be purchased by the
student separately. Battleship is a great 8-12 week study as well! Or,
thirdly, you can teach through what your church uses for their Sunday
School class, but make sure you are angling it all toward teaching the
crucified Christian life, and not a "try harder to do better" mentality.
3. In the starting of your 2nd RU class, be careful not to mandate that
all of your leadership or even longer attending students attend without
your pastor's approval. The truth is you should build this class with
people from your community. This does not mean that it would not be
helpful to have a handful of workers from your church join your
students, particularly your leadership if available. This should be
navigated with your pastor as not to hurt other ministries already
operating in your church. Don't start a R.U.S.S. ministry (RU Sunday
School Class) and then take students or your class leadership from other
classes. It only leads to resentment. We should always be known as
the church's primary ministry that produces fruit, not plucks fruit.
4. However, if I were your director, I would watch the parking lot AFTER
SS to look for people coming in to church that do not appear to attend
a Sunday School class and ask them to consider visiting your RU class
for some intense discipleship. This could be a way to gain more people
from the church on Friday night.
5. Remember. Though most every church at first considers it an extra,
unnecessary ministry, they soon realize it is just too big of a stretch
to expect addicts to assimilate into our SS formats in their earliest
months of recovery. Let them have their own group until they are
comfortable around the church folk and then let them augment into the
ministry. We don't make the singles hang out with the seniors, or the
young married's with the teens. If they can have a clique for such a
time as this, so ought the "newbee's" who have just come to believe and
are looking to be received.
I think all of this indicates that an RU Sunday school class is not
only a wise ministry to have within your chapter, it is an integral
ministry.
Kidz Club
In the early years, we've had some chapters that did not start out with a
Kidz Club in their chapter. Today, we highly discourage this. Why?
Because not only do the addicts coming to the your RU class have kids
between 6 and 12 years old that need something worthwhile in which to
participate, but the workers have children who need the same. We have
observed that chapters who failed to start a Kidz Club when they first
began, but subsequently started within the first 18 months invariably
doubled the size of their class within just a few short months. They
also saw a greater consistency in student attendance, leadership
retention and a general lowering of recidivism back into the world. I
think all of this proves it also is not only a wise ministry to have
within your chapter, it is an integral ministry.
RIP
We also highly recommend established chapters to start a RIP (Reformers
Institutional Program) ministry in the county jail or area prison or
both. It will not only reach the incarcerated, whom are in the jail for
minor skirmishes with the law up to charges that have a maximum of 364
days, but their family members as well. Most county incarcerated are
blue collar and even white collar who are there for 60 days or less
stints in the county clink for offenses from writing bad checks, dui,
driving without insurance, domestic issues or other intoxicating issues
that all but guarantee they need your program as a "get out of jail
free" card. I have KEY and I mean KEY staff that I first met and
ministered to while they were incarcerated in the county jail. Your
efforts on the behalf of your county law enforcement will also provides
an opportunity for you to personally reduce recidivism in your community
upon their release by plugging them into a Friday night RU and your
local New Testament church. All of these ideas will increase your
effectiveness in ministering to the addicted.
I think all of this proves it is also not only a wise ministry to
have within your chapter, it is an integral ministry.
In closing on these three ministries, we have tools and training
available for all three of these programs. If you do not currently have
a 2nd RU Class on Sunday, an RU children's program, or a RIP program,
please call us. We have supplementary kits that can get you started
right away ministering in these three additional ways. Expand your
ministry. Costs are extremely minimal and the benefits are huge)
Summer Advertising
Addicts ALWAYS want to sober up on January 1st (New Year's Resolutions!)
and on June 1st (They want a sober summer!). It is now that time of
year when the weather begins to break from the cold! We recommend that
you prepare for the summer by stocking up on your advertising and
implementing a strong summer Battle is ON! Strategy. It's so easy and
your students WILL follow a motivated leader into enemy territory to
look for soldiers will to defect to the Lords Army. If you will
motivate, they will participate!! It would be a good idea to reactivate
your bar drops, along with your community outreach poster drives on
Saturday with your students.
We give out envelops with 7 tracts to all students who raise their
hand to give them out over the course of a week or so and we do this
LITERALLY every week. You can't go wrong with our high quality, low
cost tracts! Our church handbills are designed for YOUR church
bulletin. You just have to follow it up with an announcement to the
church member for each to PLEASE post in a prominent place or distribute
with a heart of grace.
If nothing else, lay out your ENTIRE advertising package you received
with your starter kit on an 8-foot table and encourage your people to
distribute at their leisure and announce it every Friday and or Sunday.
C'mon Directors, "if you do what you've always done, you will get what
you've always got!"
Please call Barry today if you need to place an order for these
things at 815-986-0460 ext 108.
Freedom Threads
This is a fundraising arm of our ministry that allows our ladies to make
a small income to assist in the cost of their stay in the Women's Home.
We have high quality t-shirts and imprints available for purchase. If
you or your church is in need of a custom t-shirt, then please contact
us. Some ideas would be RU shirts as a fund raiser for your chapter,
church softball team, youth department, custom RU or Kidz Club shirts,
or personal customized shirts. Please call Will Fowler for a free quote
at 815-986-0460 ext. 133.
Ministry Travel
Bro. Burks is currently booking travel for those who represent our
ministry for the summer of this year. If you have a desire to book Bro.
Steve Curington, Dr. George Crabb, Bro. Ben Burks, or any of the
advanced trainers of our ministry, then please call Bro. Burks at
815-986-0460 ext. 109. We seldom book out more than 90 days in advance
so our chapters and supporting churches can have our services when
needed most.
Question and Answer
We would like to begin a question and answer section for our Friday
blogs. If you have a Friday blog question that you would like to see
Bro. Curington or one of the staff answer, please submit these questions
by addressing it FOUNDERS REPORT QUESTION and emailing it to
weneedu@reformu.com and be sure to mention it as a Friday blog question.
We may not be able to answer all of them but we will answer as many of
them as we can and we sense your questions will help others develop
their chapter as well.
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