March 2009

I have just returned from a series of meetings in the US. I have outlined what happened below - these represent a great opportunity for more people across the world to hear the gospel!

My first meetings were with Lifeway in Nashville, Tennessee. Lifeway is the 'biggest publisher in the world.' At these meetings we agreed that Lifeway will publish a More to Life training kit and Discovery course to accompany the More to Life DVD in the US. I will write these materials and they will be made available to churches across the USA and beyond. As well as writing the materials i will present the teaching aspects on DVD that will be included in both the training kit and discovery course. These will be released by December 2009 and accompany the DVD which will be marketed at Christmas. A great opportunity to reach thousands of lost people with the gospel.

Over the next couple of days i will be scripting and presenting a short promo DVD that will be shown by Lifeway to key church leaders in the US preparing them for what is to come.

In case you are interested the More to Life materials will consist of the following:

TRAINING KIT
o Session 1 – Causing heaven to celebrate – to motivate people to join in with God’s passion for reaching the lost – use will be made of Luke 19 and 15.
o Session 2 – Reaching the lost (Far off people) this will encourage people to identify those that they may reach and introduce the four story approach as a way to make this possible.
o Session 3 – story 1 – practical help in enabling people to gain the confidence to give the outreach DVD to another person – very practical session.
o Session 4 – story 2 – help in telling ‘my story’ emphasis on it being a story that is present tense and that will be told in such a way that it is helpful to the person that is hearing it.
o Session 5 – story 3 – encouraging people to learn how to listen to/get to know/develop a friendship with the other person rather than just hitting them with the gospel and expecting immediate response. We will look at the four encounter stories that are used in the Discovery course and highlight how Jesus listened and understood the person’s need rather than just talking at them. This session will also include a preview of the Discovery Course.
o Session 6 – story 4 –helping people to present the gospel – major focus will be on the Discovert Course, but it will include presenting the gospel outside of the Discovery Course.

The DVD aspect of the Training Kit will be filmed in Nashville in front of a small live audience in an informal setting.

DISCOVERY COURSE.

This is made up of four sessions each based on a personal encounter with Jesus in the gospel of John - I will include more details of this in my next blog.

Following on from my visit to Lifeway, I travelled to Washington DC to attend and contribute into the annual meetings of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) . I am a member of the Evangelism and Education Executive Committee.
I had been asked to make a presentation to this group outlining some of the key trends happening around the world regarding people’s receptivity to the gospel and to suggest some key considerations as to how the BWA may speak prophetically into this situation. The presentation was very well received along with a firm conviction to develop this at the next meeting and to produce a plan that would inform the international evangelism strategy for the next five years.
I was also invited (during the meetings) to address the youth committee and facilitate a similar exercise with them – it was again a really fruitful time with this group also resolving to prioritise some key steps forward into enabling BWA to help churches engage more effectively with emerging generations.
In addition to this input, I was able to network with a significant number of key leaders from around the world. I also spent some time talking with David Coffey regarding the ministry that I am involved in – this is always such a useful and helpful time and I really appreciate it.

After the BWA meetings I met with Lamar Duke and Richard Taylor – from the Baptist Convention of New York (BCNY).
I had met Lamar when he was a Director of Mission in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was keen to explore More To Life when he moved to be State Director for church planting in New York. He had introduced MTL to his colleague, Richard Taylor (Director of Evangelism). I met with Lamar and Richard in Scranton, North PA and outlined MTL, highlighting the 3 ‘ingredients’ (Training Kit, DVD, Discovery Course). Richard was absolutely taken with the whole approach and is keen to make MTL the state-wide initiative to deliver the North American Mission Board (NAMB) National Initiative for evangelism. (This is known as GPS). He was also extremely keen to present the More to Life approach to the national office and encourage them to see More to Life as a key component of their national initiative. This, linked with Lifeway, could be even more enormous than the potential of Lifeway alone!! We have pencilled in some time in May, between my visit to Virginia and filming with Lifeway, when he will ask them to come to meet with me in New York City.
The picture continues to unfold in an amazing way – i moved on to Pennsylvania where i met with a group of pastors who are keen to develop More to Life in their region.

Back home i am now developing a major evangelistic initiative in London and am soon to have a new guy working closely with me - he is just passionate about Jesus and I can't wait.

More next time.

Dennis