The Church of God of Landisville is attempting to launch the first church community in Global Media Outreach's Always Ready program.
A community is composed of a leader and a specific number of persons who work over the internet to answer questions of people seeking to know more about Christ, helping others make decisions for Christ, and beginning the discipling process with new believers. The church's Chairperson for Outreach and Evangelism, Samuel Ruggiero is currently working with the Conference's community. He will be introducing this program Sunday in hopes of enlisting at least 10 persons, not including the leader, who will work together in this ministry.

Suzanne Dietrich currently leads the ERC conference community with members from Shippensburg, Landisville, Linglestown, Fairview Bethel, and Duncannon.  We hope to enlist at least one dozen more persons for this group by September 11th. For initial information on that group, contact Dr Steve Dunn at sdunnpastor@coglandisville.  Dave Anderson of our Mount Joy Church will ultimately lead the ERC group.

Remember to visit the new site of this BLOG so you will not lose connection when we shut down this blog on Blogger.  Go to that site and register for an email subscription.

EVANGELISM TODAY is now being posted on a different blogging engine called WORDPRESS because it gives us better opportunity and tools to serve you as a conference.  We intend to stop posting at this web address on August 15. Please go to the new site and register your email subscription so you won't miss out.  You can also read today's post on Dallas Willard.

EVANGELISM TODAY

Evangelism Today is moving to a new blogging engine, Wordpress.com in order to give us more flexibility and accessibility. We will not immediately shut down this blog site but are beginning the process today of double-posting. Note, however, that some items that WordPress permits we cannot duplicate on this current site.  We encourage you to visit our new EVANGELISM TODAY blog site and set up a subscription there.

One of our evangelism mentors, Dave Anderson (who is currently available, by the way, for local church assistance) sared with us a new blog called THE GOSPEL COALITION.  This post was from Brian Croft.

"I was emailed recently about how the pastor can better engage in evangelism. After all, we can easily remain in our “bubble” as we shepherd the sheep. The pastor must be arguably more deliberate than anyone to engage non-Christians throughout the week to share the gospel with them. Deliberate spiritual conversation with your neighbors, frequenting the same stores and restaurants, walking the streets knocking on doors, and meeting with the non-Christians that are visiting your church are all good and fruitful ways to increase evangelism in the pastor’s life. There is, however, a very fruitful and unique way for a pastor to do evangelism that can only be provided to the pastor:

Offer your services to a local funeral home to do funerals for those families who use their services and don’t have a pastor.

Not long after I came to pastor Auburndale Baptist Church, a local funeral home a block from the church approached me and asked if I would be interested in doing funerals for them when a family came in who had no connection to a pastor or knew any clergy to conduct the funeral. I agreed thinking it would provide some opportunities to meet some people in the community as the new pastor. I also thought the challenge and opportunity to preach would do nothing but help me grow as a preacher. Little did I know what fruitful opportunities would come to share the gospel with non-Christians.

Through meeting with the families of the first few funerals, I realized that most, if not all of them, were not believers. I began to see a pattern. If the funeral home was calling me, it meant that the family was so detached from any church involvement that they didn’t even have a distant uncle or friend who could conduct the service.

To follow this story further go to GOSPEL COALITION

GLOBAL MEDIA OUTREACH is sponsoring a series of information breakfasts in the Harrisburg and Lancaster area.  If you missed their presentation at conference on the On-Line Mission Program, you might want to attend one of the following:

TUESDAY, AUGUST 3 @ 8:00 AM - HERSHEY FARMS
FRIDAY, AUGUST 6, 2010 @ 7:30 AM - LANTERN LODGE, MYERSTOWN
THURSDAY, AUGUST 12 @ 7:30 AM - LIVING HOPE COMMUNITY CHURCH, 2823 Columbia Avenue
TUESDAY, AUGUST 31 @ 7:30 AM - OREGON DAIRY
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2010 @ 7:30 AM - LIVING HOPE COMMUNITY CHURCH, 2823 Columbia Ave

Breakfast is provided.
Each month more than 13 million people around te world viist the websites of Global Media Outreach (GMO), a Campys Crusade for Christ on-line ministry. More than 1.5 million indicate a decision for Christ.

Find out how you/your church can get involved.

RSVP to Josh Glacken @ 717-715-5810 or Josh.Glacken@ccci.org
 
Note that our conference commission on Evangelism is sponsoring a community with scholarships for the first 27 persons. For more information contact Dr Steve Dunn at sdunnpastor@coglandisville.org

Pastor George Jensen and Jim Klock and the Enola First Church of God have a new outreach called OPERATION LIFE BOAT. Check out their blog LIFEBOAT

“The business of the church is to make more and better disciples.” – Bob Logan Beyond Church Growth

The church is a supernatural organism with a missionary purpose. Jesus makes that very clear in his instructions to his disciples recorded in Matthew 28, “… go and make disciples of all nations.” We are commissioned by God and given the authority of God to make disciples of people everywhere at all times and in all circumstances. And how is a disciple made? By introducing people to the Risen Christ and inviting them to enter into a life-transforming relationship with Jesus and becoming a part of His servant community in the world.

Church growth advocates often see the ministry of the church in marketing terms. “We need to be gaining and retaining members.” Churches of a mission from God think in terms of evangelism and discipleship.

Disciples are members of the Church, the Body of Christ. Members, however, are not necessarily disciples. Actually, you cannot be a member of the Church (including its local manifestation, a congregation) without being a disciples. Only a Christian can be a member of the Church of God.

The purpose of the church is to make more disciples. Church growth and church membership drives are often about getting more of the existing disciples into a local congregation. Whenever that is the primary reason for a church’s invitation and recruitment you sow the seeds of disobedience to the Great Commission. The purpose of the Church is to make more disciples, to add new people to the Kingdom of God and to His church. To add new disciples.

Gaining is about evangelism. You cannot be faithful to your calling as the Church if you do not concentrate on evangelism. Gaining is not about quality programs well packaged and properly advertised. Gaining is not about recruiting more people to do the work of the Church and to pay its bills. Gaining is about making new disciples for Jesus Christ. Programs, advertising, invitational campaigns are tools of evangelism – important tools. But unless they are drawing people into committed relationships with Jesus Christ we have not carried out the biblical mandate for gaining