One of the best Wednesdays of the year!

- started the day meeting with two of our most loyal business people in church and talked about discipleship and leadership. I love spending time with people who’ve been there and who are willing to train and impart to the next generation.

- Picked up my mother in law at the airport and celebrated her birthday. Blessed to have a mother in law who loves me and my family.

- Went back to church to polish the preaching and prepared for a talk I was going to give to our church leaders about CHRIST-CENTERED DISCIPLESHIP.

- Wednesday service was full again. Acel – the pregnant worship leader – is one of the most anointed worship leaders I’ve seen. God was in the worship.

- Yeng Constantino – a famous singer in the Philippines shared her story that brought tears to a lot of people including mine. She shared how this GOD cold love her inspite of her shortcomings and sin. Only the God of the Bible can do such a thing.

- preached on the Omniscient God – the God who knows everything and saw almost 20 people received Christ for the first time.

- Met with the Victory Group Leaders of the church – shared the plans of the church and the culture we wanted to create as a church in the city.

- I love this church! I love Jesus! I love my Mother -in Law!

Check out Victory Greenhills TV Channel – click here

Do you have the Stallones, Willis, Statham, Li, Crews, Rourke, Couture who backs you up pastor? Who are the expendables in your church? Who backs you up? Who are the elders or what we call “olders” in church who you run to for advice and bounce back your ideas and recent learnings from Scripture on how to run a biblically- faithful church. I am glad to have some EXPENDABLES in church – older men and women who’ve been there, done that and have gone through seasons of brokeness, humbleness and victories in life.

I honor and thank the Morans, Salva’s, De Jesus, Tans of our church. The Expendables. You cannot not have them on your side. Pastors choose your weapon well.

Here is a part of the preaching of Double Calls: Moses, Moses

“The ministry gift of the Evangelist is given by the Holy Spirit to women and men to preach the gospel to unbelievers and to equip other believers to do the same, while leading the entire community of faith (to which they are connected) to expand their borders as well as plant new churches.”

Ephesians 4:11 says He gave “some as evangelists.” In my research, that number is around 1% of those in a congregation. Identifying, training, and empowering those with that gift is vital to see the church reach its missional potential.

The Evangelist is the catalyst that makes the missional church missional.

Their calling is to preach the gospel and equip the saints to do the same. When an evangelist is practically connected to a local church and in a working relationship with the pastor and ministry team, there is a dynamic power released into the life of that community. When this gift is missing, the fruit of evangelism and outreach diminishes.

Imagine traveling to a foreign country and visiting the churches and noticing there were no Pastors in any congregations. There would instantly be the awareness that those churches would be lacking in a vital grace that God intended to give them through that gift. In the North American context, this scenario is true where Evangelists are concerned. They are virtually missing from the day-to-day life of the church.

Restoring the gift of the Evangelist to the life of the local church should be a top priority for every leader that wants to have a missional congregation that impacts their community with the gospel.

Take the example of C. H. Spurgeon. When he dedicated the Metropolitan Tabernacle in 1867, he said he desired to plant 100 churches in London before he died. He employed two strategies. First, he built a Pastors’ College. Second, he also started an Evangelist Association that had over 100 Evangelists. These Evangelists preached in over 600 places in the city on a regular basis. Whenever there was a breakthrough, he would send in a Pastor from the college to preserve the fruit. The result? When he died in 1892, they had planted over 200 churches in London!

The Role of the Evangelist

The mistaken notion is that the Evangelist is primarily a revivalist or someone who conducts evangelistic crusades. They stir the church temporarily, yet the fruit is said to not last. However, when an Evangelist is properly functioning in the life of a church they are helping to identify and train other evangelists that will be connected to that body of believers and providing daily encouragement and help in equipping God’s people. Gospel meetings are wonderful if they are able to be a part of the Evangelist’s role rather than the only thing they do.

An overview of the job description of an Evangelist:

A preacher of the Gospel – the greatest form of evangelism is simply preaching the Gospel.

Can be male or female – this gift is given to women as well as men. The first evangelists were women instructed to tell the good news to the Apostles that Christ had risen. The Samaritan woman in John 4 was the evangelist to an entire region.

Is a gatherer – that seeks the lost and gathers them to be a part of Christ’s church.

A builder – that lays the foundations of true discipleship. They should go beyond giving an invitation and having people pray a “sinner’s prayer” and make sure that Christ is fully preached and that the foundations of repentance and faith are laid.

An equipper – the Evangelist must mentor other Evangelists as well as train believers to make disciples.

A strategist – they can devise tools and strategies that attract the lost and enable believers to share the gospel more effectively.

A pioneer – they should lead the faithful beyond the church walls into the harvest field. They are able to see outreaches turn into new church plants.

Overall, the Evangelist is a vital part of any church team that desires to be missional.

Pastor Rice Broocks is the co- founder of Every Nation Ministries in which our church – Victory Greenhills is a part of.

….. the more EFFECTIVE.

This is the secret if you want to be effective in almost anything. Discipleship, evangelism, inviting people to church, conversations are far more effective than announcing something on the pulpit, giving out flyers, having a super duper nice poster – all those are impersonal and ineffective in communicating to your people and your target niche.

Let me give YOU as an example. You are walking in the mall and a complete stranger comes to you and gives you a flyer inviting you to look at their model condo units. You either politely decline the ads being given to you or get the flyer and don’t even bother looking at it because you don’t need a condo and you are not thinking about condominiums. You then find the nearest trash bin and dunk it there – am I right? Yes, maybe 99.5% of the time.

People don’t want to be disturbed, distracted and marketed to in a traditonal way. They hate it and the guys giving the flyers also hate their job – believe me. Why? It is impersonal. It doesn’t provoke me to take significant actions. What do people who are looking for condominiums do? They google it. They research. They ask their friends in real estate and sales.

Same goes with church. The more personal, the more effective. Instead of investing on a 3 pesos flyer x 1000pcs – why don’t you just invite your friend for a donut and a coffee. I think that would be more effective.

Same goes with discipleship. As much as I love blogging – this thing is not as personal as me calling you and telling you that I want to sit down and have coffee with you. I have had readers comment how helpful the blogs are but nothing is more effective than sitting with a church planter and exchange ideas with them.

Remember – discipleship is relationship. Church planting is relationship. You will never have church planting problems, only people problems.

(Author: David Mathis) from Desiring God blogsite

Billy Graham once was asked, “If you were a pastor of a large church in a principal city, what would be your plan of action?”

In the modern-day classic The Master Plan of Evangelism (which has gone through over 100 printings since it was first published in 1963), Robert Coleman reproduces Graham’s response, perhaps a surprising answer to many:

I think one of the first things I would do would be to a get a small group of eight or ten or twelve people around me that would meet a few hours a week and pay the price! It would cost them something in time and effort. I would share with them everything I have, over a period of years. Then I would actually have twelve ministers among the laypeople who in turn could take eight or ten or twelve more and teach them. I know one or two churches that are doing that, and it is revolutionizing the church. Christ, I think, set the pattern. He spent most of his time with twelve men. He didn’t spend it with a great crowd. In fact, every time he had a great crowd it seems to me that there weren’t too many results. The great results, it seems to me, came in this personal interview and in the time he spent with his twelve. (page 103, paragraphing added)

Personal note: It goes back to the main thing in building a church – discipleship. Robert Coleman has been trumpeting the call for pastors to make disciples. Pastor Steve Murrell’s new book “Accidental Missionary” has the same message. The 2 books are classics and effective in building a church. Somebody just needs to apply the principles found in Matthew 28:18-20

Matt. 28:18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Matt. 28:19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them ina the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Matt. 28:20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Only do what you can do. If you can delegate the other work so you can focus on doing the things you are supposed to be doing – do so!
What are some things as a pastor that only you can do:

1.    Your own personal development

- your walk with God is something you can’t delegate.

- your prayer time, Bible time.

- becoming a husband and a father.
2.    The discipleship process within your scope of responsibility.

- Honor God and make disciples. Never stop making disciples. Whether its doing one2one or leading a victory group – never graduate in making disciples.
3.    Worship services
- get involved in creating an effective system to make sure your worship services function well.

- learn seasons of micro managing and letting go. Walk the leadership tightrope and manage tensions of responsibility as you lead.

- make sure the worship services are God-honoring.

- create a good impression by leading and knowing what goes on your service – from signage, ushers, background music playing, worship leaders and etc.

Pastors and church planters, we are called to lead – that is our job and our calling. Be on top of things. Motivate, inspire and create the atmosphere of your church – that is your God- given responsibility.

PS: Still working on some of the stuff I just blogged about. Enjoy the journey!

Pastor Jim’s preaching about technology really hit home:

Here are some of the things he said -

“Who do you check with more regularly? Some of us are more connected to Facebook than to God.”

We’ve stayed so connected to our technology that I wonder how connected we still are to God. Draw close to Christ.’

Facebook, tweeter and technology has somewhat got us so connected with people that we forget to connect to the main source of life which is Jesus. I have to admit because of technology, because of being so wired to other people, I tend to forget to connect with the most important people in my life – God, wife and kids.

Actress Danica Sotto Pingris shares how Jesus changed her and how she is making an impact by making disciples