EVANGELISM TODAY a ministry of the Commission on Evangelism
The Evangelism Blog of the Churches of God, General Conference
Churches of God Eastern Regional Conference Commission on Evangelism BLOG

LANDISVILLE FORMING FIRST CHURCH COMMUNITY FOR GLOBAL MEDIA OUTREACH

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 MOVING - 2ND NOTICE

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

NEWS OF THE COMMISSION

The Commission om Evangelism has added a new member. He is Paul Tatum who is the Senior Pastor at the Shippensburg First Church of God. Paul will initially be working on the Program and Resource Development section of the Commission’s Ministry.  Chuck Frank, our Commission’s staff member is currently spear-heading Local Church Training. Steve Dunn is overseeing School of Evangelism and Local Church Mentors. Dan Masshardt and Larry Hale are working with Web Site and Resources, Samuel Ruggiero and Micah Brickner with Youth and Children Evangelism.  Ron Dull and Pat Bailey are working with Administrative Services. Elizabeth George serves as our Liaison with Ad Council, Tom Weil and  Carolyn Sites have yet to be assigned. Joe Sheedy, pastor of our Edgewood Church is not a member of the commission but has agreed to provide his assistance with Program and Resource DevelopmentDave Anderson from Mount Joy will be working with Global Media Outeach. The Commission continues in its recruitment phase for the Commission’s official members and resouirce persons to work with each of its six ministry sections, Ultimately, the Commission on Evangelism will have 14 members carrying out its six sections of ministry, plus general administration.  In ition it will have a number of resource persons who will not be formal commission members but will work with each of the six sections.

If you have interest in working with the Commission in any way, please contact our chairman, Dr. Steve Dunn at sdunnpastor@coglandisville.org or by calling 717-898=8144,

 The Commission has secured the services of Lisa Thurston: Web and Graphic Design to develop the next generation of our web site to  provide quality support to the Commission’s mission to resource our local churches in their ministries of evangelism.  She will also advise on ways to best deliver our resources to those churches, It is anticipated that the new web site should be ready by October 1st. Lisa is the wife of our church planter, Gilbert Thurston, Jr. You can see more of Lisa’s work on her Facebook Page and at her website www.lisathurston.com.

In the mean time, the Commission has taken steps to build its online services to our churches.  Our blog Evangelism Today has moved to WordPress and has added links to various evangelism resources,  We have also joined forces with the Commission on Church Planting to establish a Facebook Page which as of this posting already has 46 members,  If you have a Facebook account it can be accessed as ERC EVANGELISM AND CHURCH PLANTING.  Currently the Facebook Page is running two discussion threads on MOTIVATION for evangelism and BEST BOOKS OF 2010,  Both of these resources will be linked into our new web site when it is up and running,

The Commission is also planning a series of breakfasts with pastors and church leaders on a common vision for raising the evangelistic temperature and implementing a vision in each of our congregations,  These six breakfasts will be held between the second week in October and Thanksgiving, Chuck Frank and Micah Brickner are setting these up.

please note the Commission is now publishing from a new site EVANGELISM TODAY WORDPRESS We encourage you click this link to the new site and re-register your subscription. August 15th we will stop publishing on this site.

EVANGELISTIC COMMUNICATION TO POSTMODERNS

In today’s culture the form of such preaching tends to be a more wholistic communication, using not simply a sermon but an entire worship context to speak to the non-Christian at many levels to present the Truth that will set them free.  Gilbert Thurston, who has been the pastor for Chambersburg First’s highly successful United in Worship service and is now preparing a new church plant among the unchurched in Harrisburg, has agreed to teach this elective in 2010.  Gilbert has also worked for Rick Warren at Saddleback and the Evangelism Explosion ministry at Coral Ridge Presbyterian with Dr. D< James Kennedy.  His unique experience gives him an excellent perspective to what we are trying to accomplish.

You still have time to register for this class. It will be held at the Conference Office in Harrisburg on Saturday, August 7, 2010 from 8:30 am-3:30 pm. Cost is $25 payable by check to the ERC. To register call Chuck Frank at the ERC 717-652-0255 or email Steve Dunn at sdunnpastor@coglandisville.org by no later than Monday, August 2.

We need at least two more students to confirm the class.  It will definitely we a Saturday well invested for the Kingdom of God.

WE ALSO ENCOURAGE YOU TO VISIT OUR NEW BLOG SITE http://ercevangelism.wordpress.com and to re-reguster your subscription ASAP.  We plan on switching to this new location and end this double-posting by August 15, 2010.

EVANGELISM TODAY IS MOVING

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.

WHAT IS ONE OF THE BEST WAYS FOR A PASTOR TO GAIN EVANGELISTIC OPPORTUNITIES

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 INVITES YOU TO BREAKFAST

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

FACEBOOK

DID YOU KNOW THERE IS A NEW FACEBOOK PAGE FOR THE ERC EVANGELISM AND CHURCH PLANTING MINISTRIES?  IF YOU ARE ON FACEBOOK, CHECK IT AND JOIN THE PAGE?

OPERATION LIFE BOAT

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

MORE AND BETTER DISCIPLES

“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