Blog update
26th May 2009.
This latest blog is being written in my hotel room in New York City. I have spent the last 10 days or so in the United States – the first part of this trip was in Virginia where I am working with the Baptist General Association of Virginia on an evangelism initiative called 670.
This visit was a little different in that as well as speaking with some groups about outreach, preaching in a church in Richmond and discussing strategy with Wayne Faison (team leader for evangelism), I also spoke at the State conference for youth pastors and leaders.
I took as my major theme the reality that things are changing and if young people are going to become disciples of Jesus and impact their generation, rather than merely survive by retreating into the church, then a new approach was called for where, in some senses, young people must lead the way and help the church in general to know how to live and communicate the gospel into the world today.
As always, i met with some great people who are so passionate and committed to seeing young people become followers of Christ – my prayer is that they will be able to make the adjustments necessary to be able to help young people and churches be in a place to impact people with the gospel in the days ahead.
I guess another highlight for me was preaching at Calvary Baptist church in Richmond – i tag preached with Pastor Bubba (a cowboy pastor) – he started, i finished. It was great to hear that 6 people made decisions to follow Jesus at the service.
Following Richmond I travelled to New York City to spend some time with Richard Taylor, the Director of Evangelism for the New York Baptist Convention. I spoke at United Trinity Baptist church – a church in the middle of a ‘high rise city’ called le frak – a population of tens of thousands of people. The convention is planning to use More to Life in a significant way on this estate so it was great to see it and get a sense of the opportunity and the challenge facing the church. (I will include some photo’s in my next blog – i forgot to bring the lead to connect my camera to my lap-top).
The most significant part of my time in New York was a meeting with the key leaders of New York Southern Baptist Convention (NYSBC) and heads of evangelism and church planting from North American Mission Board (NAMB).
This meeting had been arranged by Richard Taylor to explore the possibilities of More to Life being used as a significant resource in some key projects in New York City and nationally as part of the Southern Baptist GPS (God’s plan for salvation) initiative – the potential of the latter of these is enormous.
It was a really great meeting, helped hugely by the fact that people from Lifeway (who are publishing the More to Life training and discovery materials) joined in by ‘conference call’. Chris Johnson and Philip Nation were able to speak so clearly and enthusiastically about More to Life and how they hoped and believed it would be such a significant resource for outreach in the US and beyond. They spoke so highly of the uniqueness and effectiveness of the principles of More to Life as well as the quality and relevance of what is being produced.
Following this I presented some of the vision and philosophy behind More to Life and how it can be so effective in releasing believers into personal evangelism. A really good discussion followed this presentation – considering ways that More to Life may best be used to reach the increasing numbers of people who are lost across the United States – and beyond.
It was also great to hear Richard share how he was so convinced that More to Life works because both he, and his wife (who is not a natural faith sharer!!!) had used the DVD themselves and were now in conversation with unbelieving friends. His enthusiasm was tangible! He then outlined plans to use the DVD in 2 or 3 high rise residential areas where churches are meeting in apartments as well as in a suburban area and an more rural area upstate..
The people from the North American Mission Board were very enthusiastic about ways More to Life may be used to significant effect as part of their evangelism initiative – some of the possibilities they mentioned are incredibly exciting and result in tens of thousands of people hearing the gospel. I can’t go into detail at this stage as no plans have yet been ‘agreed’ – watch this space!
As a result of this meeting, the potential for More to Life to develop with and beyond what i had anticipated with our partners in the US and is now very real. I confess that I have no game plan worked out for all of this – it just seems to keep growing and More to Life could become a significant tool for outreach across many parts of the world, for now I will just keep on following where he leads. ‘It’s all about Jesus!’ He came to seek and to save the lost and it seems he may is opening up unique opportunities for us to join him in his mission.
Blog update 28th May 2009
I am now sitting at Nashville airport – on my way home!
I have spent the past few days filming with Lifeway in Nashville. I have been filming the six training sessions for More to Life and it has been a great time. The location for the filming was perfect – a loft in the city centre that did not look in any sense churchy – it was beautifully lit – really creative artwork decorated the location which has exposed brick walls and really great windows that served as a perfect background.
As well as filming at the location we also filmed in different parts of town and these again were really creatively done.
Following the filming i was able to meet with some key leaders who have huge responsibility for different ministries within Lifeway – their enthusiasm for More to Life seems to be beyond what i could have ever expected and when the resource is completed and then launched early 2010 who knows what might happen?
When i get back to the UK we will be filming the four sessions of ‘Discover More to Life’ in the Lake district. I will soon be completing the scripts for these and then working on the accompanying notes that will be used in these groups. I would really appreciate your prayers as i do this – i want to get this just right as it is likely that these materials will be used in many parts of the world reaching enormous numbers of people.
My next update will focus on Love London with Premier.
Dennis
26th May 2009.
This latest blog is being written in my hotel room in New York City. I have spent the last 10 days or so in the United States – the first part of this trip was in Virginia where I am working with the Baptist General Association of Virginia on an evangelism initiative called 670.
This visit was a little different in that as well as speaking with some groups about outreach, preaching in a church in Richmond and discussing strategy with Wayne Faison (team leader for evangelism), I also spoke at the State conference for youth pastors and leaders.
I took as my major theme the reality that things are changing and if young people are going to become disciples of Jesus and impact their generation, rather than merely survive by retreating into the church, then a new approach was called for where, in some senses, young people must lead the way and help the church in general to know how to live and communicate the gospel into the world today.
As always, i met with some great people who are so passionate and committed to seeing young people become followers of Christ – my prayer is that they will be able to make the adjustments necessary to be able to help young people and churches be in a place to impact people with the gospel in the days ahead.
I guess another highlight for me was preaching at Calvary Baptist church in Richmond – i tag preached with Pastor Bubba (a cowboy pastor) – he started, i finished. It was great to hear that 6 people made decisions to follow Jesus at the service.
Following Richmond I travelled to New York City to spend some time with Richard Taylor, the Director of Evangelism for the New York Baptist Convention. I spoke at United Trinity Baptist church – a church in the middle of a ‘high rise city’ called le frak – a population of tens of thousands of people. The convention is planning to use More to Life in a significant way on this estate so it was great to see it and get a sense of the opportunity and the challenge facing the church. (I will include some photo’s in my next blog – i forgot to bring the lead to connect my camera to my lap-top).
The most significant part of my time in New York was a meeting with the key leaders of New York Southern Baptist Convention (NYSBC) and heads of evangelism and church planting from North American Mission Board (NAMB).
This meeting had been arranged by Richard Taylor to explore the possibilities of More to Life being used as a significant resource in some key projects in New York City and nationally as part of the Southern Baptist GPS (God’s plan for salvation) initiative – the potential of the latter of these is enormous.
It was a really great meeting, helped hugely by the fact that people from Lifeway (who are publishing the More to Life training and discovery materials) joined in by ‘conference call’. Chris Johnson and Philip Nation were able to speak so clearly and enthusiastically about More to Life and how they hoped and believed it would be such a significant resource for outreach in the US and beyond. They spoke so highly of the uniqueness and effectiveness of the principles of More to Life as well as the quality and relevance of what is being produced.
Following this I presented some of the vision and philosophy behind More to Life and how it can be so effective in releasing believers into personal evangelism. A really good discussion followed this presentation – considering ways that More to Life may best be used to reach the increasing numbers of people who are lost across the United States – and beyond.
It was also great to hear Richard share how he was so convinced that More to Life works because both he, and his wife (who is not a natural faith sharer!!!) had used the DVD themselves and were now in conversation with unbelieving friends. His enthusiasm was tangible! He then outlined plans to use the DVD in 2 or 3 high rise residential areas where churches are meeting in apartments as well as in a suburban area and an more rural area upstate..
The people from the North American Mission Board were very enthusiastic about ways More to Life may be used to significant effect as part of their evangelism initiative – some of the possibilities they mentioned are incredibly exciting and result in tens of thousands of people hearing the gospel. I can’t go into detail at this stage as no plans have yet been ‘agreed’ – watch this space!
As a result of this meeting, the potential for More to Life to develop with and beyond what i had anticipated with our partners in the US and is now very real. I confess that I have no game plan worked out for all of this – it just seems to keep growing and More to Life could become a significant tool for outreach across many parts of the world, for now I will just keep on following where he leads. ‘It’s all about Jesus!’ He came to seek and to save the lost and it seems he may is opening up unique opportunities for us to join him in his mission.
Blog update 28th May 2009
I am now sitting at Nashville airport – on my way home!
I have spent the past few days filming with Lifeway in Nashville. I have been filming the six training sessions for More to Life and it has been a great time. The location for the filming was perfect – a loft in the city centre that did not look in any sense churchy – it was beautifully lit – really creative artwork decorated the location which has exposed brick walls and really great windows that served as a perfect background.
As well as filming at the location we also filmed in different parts of town and these again were really creatively done.
Following the filming i was able to meet with some key leaders who have huge responsibility for different ministries within Lifeway – their enthusiasm for More to Life seems to be beyond what i could have ever expected and when the resource is completed and then launched early 2010 who knows what might happen?
When i get back to the UK we will be filming the four sessions of ‘Discover More to Life’ in the Lake district. I will soon be completing the scripts for these and then working on the accompanying notes that will be used in these groups. I would really appreciate your prayers as i do this – i want to get this just right as it is likely that these materials will be used in many parts of the world reaching enormous numbers of people.
My next update will focus on Love London with Premier.
Dennis
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