June 18, 2012

"The minister who makes the word of God his constant companion will continually bring forth truth of new beauty.  The Spirit of Christ will come upon him, and God will work through him to help others.  The Holy Spirit will fill his mind and heart with hope and courage and Bible imagery, and all this will be communicated to those under his instruction."   Gospel Workers, p. 252

IN THIS ISSUE
Editorial: Assessing Interest
IMPORTANT
How to Participate
Reaching Washington with Good News
Challenging People with a "Next Step"
Tools of the Trade
Editorial: Assessing Interest

I was almost certain that Lawrence would be joining the church that evening: he'd never missed a meeting, he'd attended every Bible class, and his eyes were moist with emotion every time I made an appeal.  

 

I was wrong.  

 

When I invited him become a part of the church family, he leaned across the desk, paused for a moment, and said, "Shawn, I've got some questions."  


 "Well," I answered, "I don't know if I've got any answers, but let's give it a try. Go ahead."

 

"I've been doing some reading - a lot of it, in fact - and there seems to be some question as to whether or not Jesus actually existed as a real, historical figure."  

 

It wasn't anything I hadn't heard before.  The question still took me by surprise, however, because it's not the kind of issue people typically raise after more than twenty hours of study.  If someone has doubts that Jesus was (or is) real, it usually surfaces well before they study the entire breadth of the Adventist message.  By the time you've worked your way through the major prophetic portions of the Bible, there is little doubt that God is real.  You might not have finished crossing every t and dotting every i, but typically, the existence of God has been confirmed for most beyond a reasonable doubt.  

 

So what could I say to Lawrence?  I suppose I could have started with an apologetic approach.  I could have presented the available evidence for the historical Jesus - but I knew Lawrence well, and sensed that wasn't really what he was looking for.  You don't typically come to evangelistic meetings for a month without sensing there's something to what you're hearing.  

 

"Let me ask you a question," I responded after a brief moment of silence.  I picked my Bible up off the desk and held it up. "Do you hope this is true, or do you hope it isn't?"  

 

I wanted to know if he was really protesting, or merely struggling. It was his turn to think quietly, and his eyes moistened, just the way I'd seen a half dozen times during altar calls.  He barely whispered his answer.  "I hope it is true."  

 

"That's what I figured," I said, "so let's go back through the basics of what we've been studying with the assumption that it is, and you tell me if it makes sense."  We began to review the baptismal vows.  

 

Sometimes, when we argue (and I love to argue), we lose sight of an essential evangelistic principle: people don't come to our Bible classes or evangelistic meetings if God hasn't already been speaking to their hearts.  Human evangelists simply don't have what it takes - no matter how logically sound their arguments are - to make a person interested in spiritual matters.  Paul is clear: "... the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."  (1 Corinthians 2:14)

 

If people are interested in what we have to say as Seventh-day Adventists, it is because the Holy Spirit has created that interest. People do not become spiritually sensitive because we have been clever; they become spiritually sensitive because they have heard the voice of God.  God works with people long before He introduces them to us. And by the time we meet them, very few people hope the gospel isn't true.   

 

With Lawrence, it was important to keep that in mind.  It wasn't really a matter of not having enough information to make a good decision.  It was more a matter of helping him clarify his intent towards God.  He wanted a relationship with God.  Just like everybody who walks through our doors.  

 

IMPORTANT: Evangelism Offering
NAD Ministerial is sending you an important information and resource package for the outreach offering appeal on June 30.  If it hasn't already landed on your desk, it will be arriving at any moment.  
 
Each year, the ministerial team is inundated with requests to support evangelistic projects - far more than we can realistically fund.  Tragically, a lot of the proposals that we have to turn down because of limited resources are worthy of support.  

The NAD evangelism offering is primary tool through which we can help pastors accomplish their dreams in the field.  When the packet arrives, take a moment to watch the very short introductory video, and please consider using the materials for your offering appeal that week.  (Watch Shawn Boonstra practically beg you to use the material!!!)  You can read more about the offering here, and you can peek at the support webpage and videos here.   
How to Participate in Best Practices for Evangelism

We need your help!!!

 

Each month, we'll include editorials and articles that share or illustrate key evangelistic principles.  We'll bring you news about evangelistic projects and initiatives from across the Division. We'll hear from pastors in the trenches who have discovered solutions to common problems, and we'll take time to share our best outreach ideas with each other.

 

The best ideas always come from the front lines; tell about the ideas/tools/tips that have helped improve your evangelistic outreach.  

 

Find out how to contribute to the discussion here.

 

Reaching Washington With Good News
 

What happens when eighty-four churches pick up the harness and work the field together? Would you believe: 2,000 community guests from all age groups, and more than 700 baptisms and professions of faith?  Read first-hand reports from the field about this powerful conference-wide initiative, and the powerful ways God worked through the REACH Washington initiative.

 

Click here to read some of the amazing reports from Washington Conference. 

Challenging People with a "Next Step"

Many people find the process of bringing interests and church members into full discipleship challenging.  A few months ago, Pioneer Memorial Church began experimenting with a process that focused on addressing this issue: the "connect card."  It's a tool we adapted from the book Fusion by Nelson Searcy.  What is a connect card?  It's simply a response card that we use at the end of every message that is preached.

 

Discover how Pioneer Memorial is using the Connect Card to encourage a step in the right direction.  Read the rest of the article here.  

 

 

Tools of the Trade

  

Evernote  (www.evernote.com)

 

In years past, when it came to illustrating sermons (especially evangelistic sermons), my best friend was a photocopier and a three ring binder. Any time I came across a powerful story that illustrated one of our key points of belief, I'd make a copy of it, jot down a page number in the upper right hand corner, and insert it in the binder.  Every so often, as the collection grew, I'd have to upgrade the binder to accommodate the gargantuan stack of paper - until actually using my file became utterly impractical.  Determined not to waste the considerable effort I'd invested in the collection of illustrations, I made a valiant effort to paginate and index all of the stories, but the amount of work involved spelled certain doom for the project.  Today, the binder is buried deep up in my garage along with all those books I was sure I'd read some day.

And then I discovered Evernote, a powerful web-based note-taking tool that has completely revolutionized how I illustrate my sermons.  There are a lot of web-based note-taking systems available, but Evernote seems to outshine most of them.  Used correctly, it will quickly become the your best friend.  

 

It allows you to create online notebooks, organized by subject, where you can quickly and easily store ideas as they either occur to you, or as you stumble across them online.  I have created one notebook for each of our 28 fundamental beliefs, plus at least a hundred other notebooks for subjects that preachers need to illustrate from time to time.  Your entire database of notes (mine are mostly news stories) is completely searchable - and accessible from your computer, your smartphone, or your tablet. Anytime, anywhere.   

Not only do you get a free online account, but to make life easier, Evernote also provides free downloadable apps for a wide variety of platforms. Now I can record a radio broadcast with my iPhone as I'm driving, and it will automatically the recording to my account and file in the appropriate notebook.  I can take a picture of a billboard that catches my attention something and file that, too - and if the billboard has text in it, the text becomes searchable in Evernote.  Astounding!  

The platform can handle text, audio, voice memos, pictures - you name it.  I've never been so well organized, and I'm never without a current illustration for our fundamental beliefs.  

There are also plug-ins for your favorite web browser.  I'm a fan of Google Chrome, so I installed the Evernote Extension into that platform.  Now, when I'm reading an interesting article online, I can send it to my virtual notebooks simply by clicking a button on my toolbar. Evernote will (correctly) find the body of the article on the page, clip it, and send it to your account.  It even makes educated guesses as to which notebook to place it in, and it's almost always right.  (A while ago, I sent a news story about the push for Sunday laws in Europe to Evernote, and it correctly guessed I'd want to store it in my folder Revelation 13.  Wow.)    

This is a tool well worth checking out.  You can find more information at their website.

 

There are lots of excited Evernote users who have posted tutorials on YouTube to help you get started. 

 

Send your evangelistic ideas and descriptions of your best ministry tools to [email protected].  

See this article for guidelines on what we're looking for.

 

 

Best Practices for Adventist Ministry is published by NAD Ministerial. Editor: Shawn Boonstra; Managing Editor:  Dave Gemmell. Copyright 2012 North American Division Corporation of Seventh-day Adventists. v(301) 680-6418