June Ministry Update
A one-page, printable PDF of this update can be downloaded here.
We’re half-way through the year; here’s what’s going on…
Evangelism: Since it’s raining almost every day (in the afternoons and evenings), we’ve had to change our outreach strategy just a little bit since we can’t spend as much time out on the streets as we can during the dry months (December through March). We’re still going downtown to preach open-air on Central Avenue, but we have to get down there a little earlier, so we’ve chosen Saturdays to do it. At least one Saturday a month, we meet at the church and head downtown to preach, witness, and pass out tracts before the rain starts. We’re also forming teams to take our “Revista” (evangelistic literature) door-to-door throughout the east side of San José on Saturdays. So, even though the rain changes things a little bit, we’re still out on the streets, striving to intentionally seek out the lost to witness to them any way we can. Our prayer: Mar 15.16; 1Cor 3.6.
Discipleship: Discipleship this year has taken a giant leap forward! And it’s all due to one thing: A leader with a heart for discipleship. Simón is one of my key men that has been with the ministry for many years. He’s a computer software engineer and this year he has taken over the entire discipleship ministry. He has a heart for people, for getting the Word of God to them, and for helping them grow in the faith so that they in turn can reproduce themselves in others. He’s also a great communicator and “people person.”
In January we started a new group of people in our Biblical Discipleship ministry, and they have held together very well. They are currently in the third course, meeting as a small group in the church after lunch on Sundays. (We have several people who travel quite a distance to get to church, so it’s very convenient for them to be able to participate in discipleship on Sunday afternoons.) Everyone in the group has been faithful and Simón has delegated the teaching to another “up and coming” leader, Jorge, who is doing a fine job directing the group.
We also have several individuals being discipled one-on-one. When someone shows interest in learning more and growing in their faith, Simón sits down with them, finds out where they are at in their walk with the Lord, and then pairs them up with a discipler.
Needless to say, I am very pleased and content with the leadership God has provided in Simón for our discipleship ministry. Please pray for him: 2Peter 3.18.
Mid-Week Workshop: On Tuesdays nights we have our midweek Bible study and this year we are using the time to not only study the Bible together, but to also train up several people who want to learn how to study the Bible in order to preach and teach it expositorily. I’ve taken some time to walk my people through several methods of personal Bible study and also some instruction on “how to preach / teach.” Several have chosen a book of the Bible to study, and we meet on Tuesdays to answer their questions about how to do this or that. When they have a study ready (it could be a passage study, a word study, etc.), then they teach the whole group during our time together. They get the benefit of laboring in the Word of God, and we all get the benefit of good Bible teaching. There are about eight or ten people participating in the workshop. Pray: 1Tim 4.12-16.
Leadership Development: Obviously, one of the goals of a missionary (or a pastor, for that matter) is to replace himself with capable men who could lead the ministry in his absence. Regardless if the missionary or pastor feels led of God to go elsewhere, it’s simply “healthy” and biblical to train up your replacement. It’s been my experience that this process is not a very fast one! But, I’m thankful that God has given me a group of men with whom to work in this area: Ronald, Carlos, Alex, and Simón. Ronald and Carlos are my two deacons, Simón is my discipleship leader, and Alex (many of you know him as “Bimbo”) leads music and preaches in the jail. We are meeting together every other week and studying the pastoral epistles together. In time I hope to be able to work with these men in a pastoral team (if God doesn’t send them elsewhere to labor in the ministry). Prayer: Acts 20.28-32; 2Tim 2.2.
Sunday Series: I decided to take a break this year from preaching through a book of the Bible, verse by verse. We took all of last year to study the Acts as our “manual for ministry” and it was a very motivating series. This year, though, it seems we need grounding in some doctrinal areas, so I’m currently preaching a series on systematic theology, a study of the Person and works of God. It’s been a great time so far and we’ve only just begun! Prayer: Psalms 119.18
The Family: Many of your write and ask about the family, so I thought I’d let you all know that everyone is fine. Rebeka is eight (2nd grade), Kevin is ten (4th grade), and Alex is twelve (6th grade). Rebeka is having a blast participating in gymnastics; she’s won several medals and enjoys it a lot. Kevin and Alex have been going a few times a week to a kickboxing gym where the father of one of Kevin’s school friends teaches. They’re learning fast and really like it. Suzy is doing well and keeps more than active running around from school to church to gymnastics to kickboxing… As for me, I’ve started some new studies that I hope will prove useful in the near future in the work of training men and women for the ministry of Word.
We appreciate your prayers, your friendship, and your support. Thank you all very much! ~Greg
June 16, 2009 4 Comments
False Teachers Are God’s Judgement
A very good friend of mine told me the other day that a congregation’s steady and regular diet should always be the exposition of Scripture. I agree wholeheartedly. We need to the feed the flock of God that the Lord has entrusted to our care, and the only way to provide a balanced diet (and not give them only what we want or like) is through expository preaching.
However, there are times when God will provide us a little “extra something” on our plate at mealtime. For some it’s a bitter pill that’s hard to swallow, but for others it’s sweet! I hear messages like the following, and they make me sit up straight and shout, “AMEN! AMEN! AMEN!” (And as I watched the following video, I did just that. Wow!)
I hope messages like this are “sweet” to you and not a bitter pill that’s hard to swallow. I share this one not to “send a message” to anyone. I simply enjoyed the five minutes of good, solid, right-on-target preaching and thought I’d pass it along.
Porque el mandamiento es lámpara, y la enseñanza es luz, Y camino de vida las reprensiones que te instruyen. [Prov 6.23]
May 8, 2009 3 Comments
Literature is Powerful
I ran across a quote by David Cloud, in his Encyclopedia of the Bible and Christianity (highly recommended, as a matter of fact!), and it made me think of an aspect of our ministry here that I’d like to share with you. First, the quote, then the ministry aspect…
Literature, dear friends, is VERY powerful… I preach more widely through my books than [most anyone] has ever thought of preaching with his one mouth! A Christian book preaches. It can preach truth, and it can preach error, but one way or the other, it preaches.
In the Spanish-speaking world literature (book) distribution can be very difficult. The postal systems are anything but trustworthy and reliable. The cost of shipping is often prohibitive (and the fact that it will take two weeks to six months to get there, if at all, is discouraging to say the least). Even the cost of the book is often prohibitive. Remember, about 80% of the population in Latin America lives in abject poverty (and the majority of Christian churches are among the poor; 1Cor 1.25-29).
God has allowed us the privilege of preaching and teaching His Word to hundreds, and maybe thousands, world-wide through our eBook publishing ministry. Everything that I write, preach, or teach goes up on our web site in either PDF or mp3 format and it is made available for free download to anyone that has an Internet connection. We give written permission in all our materials to copy and distribute anything and everything as long as it is not for profit but rather for the advancement of the cause of Christ. We’re talking about thousands of pages of written material and hours upon hours of teaching and preaching on audio.
What would take months and a large monetary investment to ship (printed books) can be delivered in seconds for free on the Internet. And even though many might not have a computer in their home, Internet cafés are everywhere and very cheap (about $1.00 an hour). Our materials can be accessed and read on-line, or downloaded, printed and bound (in copy shops here we can print and bind a 350-page, 8.5×11-inch book with a color cover for about $10.00).
If you’d like to see some of the results of our web-based ePublishing ministry, check out these two reports from Google Analytics. The first is a “Page View” report showing how many times people “hit” our pages each day for the past month. The second is a map overlay showing where those hits are coming from.
What we haven’t been able to do through the “printed” page, we’ve been able to do through the “ePage.”
I’m sure there are a lot (!) of churches and ministries that have a lot more hits from a lot more countries. It’s not my intention to brag about “being the best.” But, many of you know that I am dedicated to the preaching and teaching of the Word of God, and one of the consistent burdens upon my heart is to write books, booklets, and articles based on sound, biblical doctrine. I just wanted to share with you some of the results of our efforts in this area.
One of the greatest needs in Latin America is the propagation of sound doctrine. I’m very thankful that God has allowed us a small part in meeting that need. ~Greg
April 27, 2009 No Comments
