EvangelismCoach

Missions

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You’ve helped me to pray

Some doubt the effectiveness of their prayers because they are uncertain if they are

  • following the correct format,
  • obeying all the right rules, and
  • fulfilling all the necessary requirements for God to hear them and answer their prayer.

Nagging doubts about rules and formulas shape their perceptions of prayer.

Expectation

But the spiritual thirst and hunger is there.

Pastors with little formal seminary training (practically a requirement for US Pastors) who struggle to lead growing churches.

Church leaders who want to prayerfully increase the impact of their local church to serve their community.

Several in our audience these days lack basic spelling skills, so conferences like we are here to give are effective methods of learning.

But when the teaching is over, many report the freedom of relating to God and His word and enjoying the presence of the Lord in prayer.

Day 1: Jinotega, Nicaragua

Approximately 9 pastors are among the 40 people who have set apart a workday to attend the PRMI Ignite conference on Prayer in the mountain town of Jinotega, Nicaragua (pop. 40,000).

Jinotega

Several have sacrificed a workday to attend, but their desire to grow in the power of prayer has motivated them to make that choice.  Some had heard the reports of last November’s Ignite and couldn’t wait for this conference to arrive.

They have gathered in the 2 room church of Vida Abundante (Abundant Life).  Expectation is in the air.

Conversation times, breakout, prayer ministry times all accompany the teaching.

Experiential learning gives people a taste of the power of prayer.

The personal devotional breakout session allows many to hear from God about something personal.

The systematic teaching provides a framework for people to both understand and participate in the work of prayer.

Jintotega Preaching

That evening, a different group has gathered for the evening worship and ministry time.

They hear about God’s call and vision, and respond to the invitation to receive prayer.  People come forth for prayer ministry that lingers for a while, as participants do their business with God.  Some weep, some rest in the Spirit, others are refreshed in their personal commitments they’ve been making before the Lord.

One pastor comments:

Thanks to your teaching on prayer, our church will launch a 40 day season of prayer.  We are passing through some difficulties, and your conference has renewed my passion to lead this church in expectant prayer.  You’ve helped me understand more about leading in prayer as well as praying in agreement.  I look forward to sharing with you what God does with us when you return for the next conference.

Another one wrote:

Through your solid teaching, the Lord confirmed many things that I had experienced already in prayer.  I believe the Lord brought me to you all to help me learn more about the Holy Spirit.  I love the emotional and noisy side of our traditions, but I really loved your solid biblical and intellectual teaching.  Plus, your methodical labtimes and guiding us to pray one at a time is confirming some other things I’ve been learning.  It was worth the quietness to listen and learn deeply!  I loved your teaching last fall, and glad that you returned to share more, particularly from leaders who have had experience and can teach.

Days 2-4: Matagalpa Nicaragua

For the weekend, the team moves to the mountain city of Matagalpa, Nicaragua (pop. 100,000).

Building on the prior teaching events in that beautiful village, the teaching team gives the conference on prayer.

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Again, nearly 50 people from 5 churches make the sacrificial effort to attend the Friday through Sunday event.

A few who had been at prior Dunamis events shared personal testimony of how they teach the material in their church and the impact the Dunamis teaching has made in their ministry.

An article like this cannot capture the glow in their eyes, the excitement in their voice, and all the results of ministry they have been doing as a result of Dunamis.  This time, they bring more people from their churches.

The host pastor writes:

2013-04-21 12.42.20I’ve come to understand deeply through the truth of the word, the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

At times, our church has experienced a deep growth in desiring the Lord and a longing to walk with the Holy Spirit.  God brought me to your conference to solidify me in the manifestation of the gifts, and that I can lead the church in not fearing the gifts of the Spirit.

If I had to describe this conference to some one, I’d ask them: “Do you know the work of the Holy Spirit?  Dunamis is not a superficial class, it is deep and real.”

You’ve given me much material to help me with further study.  Since your first visit a few months ago, our church has been longing more for the work of the Spirit through prayer and fasting.

The host pastor allowed the team to teach and preach on Sunday morning.

As the evangelistic and renewal invitation was given after the sermon, many people came forward for prayer, seeking out the prayer teams formed by several class members.  Putting some of the learned prayer principles into practice, these team members cooperated with the work of Spirit in ministering to those who wanted more of the Lord.  Some were reconciled to the Lord, some wanted healing, some surrendered their life to the Lord.

Preaching El Tabernaculo

Read this commentary from various participants from the different events:

  • The workshop was full of wisdom that I don’t have any questions at the moment.  I liked this seminar and can’t wait for you all to return.
  • This seminar moved my heart and I kept desiring to learn more.  May  you continue to be invited to permit us these great workshops that are of much spiritual help!
  • I learned more about how I could pray.  The structure you shared with us helped me to pray with some order and direction.  You’ve provided some great training in this area.
  • You helped me to know about the ingredients of prayer.  I had doubts that I was praying in a wrong manner, or if I even knew how to really pray.  Your conference helped revive my desire to pray, as you taught and shared with me ways of prayer, particularly the work of intercession.  Your teaching was clear and it was a great blessing for my life.  This seminar helped answer my questions!

A special thank you

I want to give a special thank you to the supporters of this ministry.

Your financial gifts enabled this ministry to take place.   Some of you were on our prayer team that made this happen.

If you would like to contribute to future events and mission in Latin America, your can make your donation online to this work.

Every gift you make, or every purchase you make from our store supports the work in Latin America.

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Travel to Nicaragua on Mission

La fuente PastorNext week (April 16-22, 2013), I’ll return to Nicaragua on another teaching trip, particularly to the cities of

  • Jinotega
  • Matagalpa.

I teach for a ministry called PRMI (Presbyterian Reformed Ministries International).

I serve as their Missions Faculty for the Americas and have the joy of helping grow their work in Latin America.

Pastor Raul (pictured with me a few years ago) is one of the host pastors.

Teaching the saints how to pray

Paul exhorted the Christians in Ephesus to:

…pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayer and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints (Ephesians 6:18).

We’ll be teaching a conference prayer, particularly the work of intercession.

1. Pray for workers: When Jesus saw the crowds, he instructed his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the Harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field (Matthew 9:38).”

2. Pray for Open doors: Paul wrote the Colossians, “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ (Colossians 4:2-3).”

3. Pray for the Gospel to Spread and to be Honored: Paul asked the church to intercede for his mission team, “brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored … (2 Thessalonians 3:1).”

Where?

There are 5 Matagalpa churches that are on board as participants.  The credibility of our work with Young Life Latin America over 10 years has opened up the doors for these churches to invite us in.

There are at least 3 churches in Jinotega that will be sending people, building upon our first visit with them last November 2012.

I look forward to telling you the stories of this trip.

Travel Agenda for Prayer:

  • We arrive on the 16th
  • The 17th we will visit the pastors’ association meeting and maybe radio in Jinotega
  • The 18th we will do the meetings in Jinotega from 8am-8pm
  • The 19th morning is free, meeting starts at 4 and goes to 8pm in Matagalpa
  • The 20th in Matagalpa meetings from 8-5
  • The 21st in Matagalpa meetings from 8-12
  • Sunday evening the 21st we will meet with the house church we have.
  • Monday, 3:00am leave for the airport for flights home.

Your prayers and financial gifts create the foundation for me to go.  Several readers have bought my product out of the store, and others have given financially to help make this possible.

I’m responsible for the $600 airfare and some incidentals to get there.

How can you help?

1. Prayer.

This is spiritually challenging work and we need significant prayer covering.

If you want to pray daily for me during the trip from April 16-22, I’d like you to contact me to be put on the intercessor’s list for this event.

2. Finances.

Make a donation to our support through PRMI, the ministry that covers us.  Read more here.

Or purchase something out of the store that you can use in your ministry.  100% of what is sold on this site supports our Latin American efforts.

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Training Latin American Missionaries with OM Panama

This week, I spent time with Operation Mobilization Panamá, teaching in their school of missions.

Eight missionaries in training from 3 different countries gathered in a small town in the Western highlands of Panamá.

TeachingClassOMPanama

One of their biggest fears about doing missions is contact evangelism:

  • Getting conversations about faith started
  • Steering conversations towards faith
  • Diagnosing spiritual condition in relationship with Christ
  • Open air preaching that no-one appears to be listening to.
  • Appearing to judge people
  • Being viewed as a religious whack-job.

Fear is the biggest obstacle to personal evangelism

Rather than diagnose the different fears, I showed ways that people can overcome their evangelism fears by focusing on

  • the sovereignty of God (the key to timing)
  • how to listen for spiritual thirst (the open door)
  • simple conversational skills centered around your own journey to faith.
  • simple gospel presentations.

Mastering these cover a lot of ground quickly in helping to minimize fear.

Going to the streets

After some class time, the team took their dramas to the street.

We visited a AIDS treatment clinic, where the team visited with patients receiving treatment and then shared the good news of the gospel via drama and conversation.
AIDSClinic

A few first time visitors to this outreach dropped by to see what all the noise and commotion was about.

Each drama raised a question related to spiritual thirst.

At the end, a short message about that spiritual thirst led to an invitation to further conversation.

Second stop: the park

OpenAiratPark

Our next stop was more drama at the town square.

Using dramas to gather a crowd, the team told the redemption story through a drama called “Light and Darkness.”

Afterwards, one of the team members raised the question of spiritual thirst and then invited conversations.

The conversations are important

SpiritualConversations

The spiritual conversations that followed are the key to effective open air evangelism in the way we practice it.

It gives us a chance to listen to the spiritual needs of people who are willing to engage us in conversation.

We are not manipulating the conversation, but looking for the advance work of God in preparing hearts for such a conversation.

Those who are not ready for conversations leave, but those who are at a place to talk seek us out.

People came to faith

The exciting outcome is that some people were ready at the harvest point in the process of evangelism.  They were ready to make a prayer of faith and decide to start following Jesus.

Others were not yet there, but left with some gospel information and seeds that the Lord could use to further help people along in their process to faith.

My great joy

ClassTeaching2

When it was all over, I rejoice that there were total strangers who willingly placed their faith in Christ that day.

On top of that, the students had the following feedback to give me:

  • You helped take the fear out of evangelism
  • Once I learned about spiritual thirst, I started knowing what to look for in a conversations.
  • I didn’t feel like I had to steer a conversation.  The door was already open.
  • I was able to relax during this outreach and not stress over people’s lack of response.

Support this work

Anything you purchase from me supports our mission work in Latin America.

We also receive free-will donations to enable the work to continue.

If you’d like to become a financial partner in this ministry, read here.  You can make monthly automatic contributions, or one time donations.

Your gifts will enable future mission training events like this one in Latin America.

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Training Young Life Central American Leaders in Prayer Ministry

2012.12.VidaJovenClass2

In December 2012, I spent time with nearly 100 Young Life Leaders from throughout Central America at their annual leadership development camp.

Across two camp sessions, nearly 500 leaders from 6 different countries attended.  The photo above was the group from the 2nd camp.

Our class focused specifically on

  • Listening for God’s voice,
  • Discovering spiritual gifts,
  • Participating in prayer ministry for people

It was a personal joy to watch these students wrestle with spiritual gifts.

Several shared horrible experiences where spiritual gifts had been abused.  Others had never experienced them at all.

Putting the teaching into practice

On the final night of each camp, the class formed prayer teams and setup stations for the other 200 students to make use of, if they wanted.

We had a night of wonderful prayer ministry.

As students approached the teams for personal and confidential prayer, we could sense and see how the Lord was working.   Instead of running from the spiritual gifts, they ran with them.

What joy we had when our students reported to us later comments like:

  • That was awesome!
  • Can we do this again!
  • God was using us!
  • I got to experience [a spiritual gift] and see how God used me!
  • This will change my ministry

During our debriefing time the next day (an important part of our teaching process), we spent nearly 1 hour going over experiences and helping integrate those experiences into our teaching.

Listen in to one testimony from a prior year:

Below is a video I made two years for the PRMI Latin America trip for 2011. This years trip built on top of that one.

It has some insider language for folks in PRMI, but you’ll get a great story line of the work I’ve been involved in for the last 10 years.

Thank you!

All the proceeds from the EvangelismCoach.org store and speaking fees support our ministry in Central America.

Other faithful and regular supporters have helped us teach:

  • Churches in Matagalpa and Jinotega Nicaragua
  • Churches in Colon Panama and Panama City
  • Young Life leaders from: Panama, Nicaragua, Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Costa Rica
  • Young Life leaders in the Dominican Republic
  • Foursquare Church missions conference, Valencia Venezuela

If you wish to support this work via tax deductible contributions, read more here at Support EvangelismCoach via your gifts.

Comments?

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Reaching a Community Via a Coffeehouse

The Evangelism Office in the Presbyterian Church USA (which is my tribe) is putting out some videos on churches doing innovative things to reach into their community.

Check this one out:

I’m impressed with their strategy of Business as Mission, but using their coffeehouse to not only provide job, but a gathering space in the community that includes worship.

One question that some will ask: “Is this church?”

I believe it is accomplishing the mission of the church – to make disciples.


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5 Ways to Bless Your Missionaries for Christmas

Christmas is coming!

You’ve likely seen stores already putting Christmas stuff out, and the shopping season gets longer.  I started seeing Christmas stuff in late September. . .

During this time of year, many churches put together various outreaches to care for their community.  We have done various shoebox programs and angel tree programs – all to help complete strangers with something they wanted or needed.

Right now, we are gathering clothing to hand deliver to Nicaragua via a friend who is travelling there.   But that is completely anonymous help for people our church will likely never know.

Don’t forget your missionaries this Christmas

Along with those outreaches, I want to encourage your church to remember your full time missionaries who are on the field.

Many of your churches support missionaries with monthly or annual gifts and lots of prayer.

Your gifts enable full time servants of the Lord (often living in cross cultural mission fields) spend themselves on behalf of the gospel of Christ.

They sacrificially live on the margins to enable the gospel to go forth to as many as possible.

(If your church does not yet support missionaries, I can connect you with a few recommendations.  Just email me via the contact form).

When supporting your missionaries at Christmas .  . . 

Christmas  is a great time for your church to provide some personal care of their family, plus a chance to strengthen your ties with them.

I want to remind your church of three things about doing this.

1.  Focus first on the missionary’s family, rather than their field projects. 

Living cross culturally can be extremely stressful.  Learn about what the family needs and how your church can provide care them as people.

Talk with them, find ways to pray for them and then do it.

After you have found ways to bless your missionary personally, then talk about some their projects.

If your missionaries have been away from your church for a while, they can feel lonely as well.  Encouraging phone calls and letters from home may have slowed way down.  Some missionaries never hear from their supporting church other than a check that shows up in their account each month.

Personal contact means a lot to your missionary on the field.

Use this Christmas time to focus on their family needs and perhaps rekindle that personal relationship.

2.  Work directly with them on how to get what is needed. 

It might be easier in some cases to send money so the missionary can buy local.

I know of one group that wanted to send their missionary some clothing they had gathered, but didn’t realize that the missionary needed to spend $300 to pay for import duties and taxes.  Another group wanted to send 40 lbs of stuffed animals.  That would have cost the local missionary $225 to receive that box.

Simply sending a heavy box with $500 worth of stuff may be more harmful than helpful.

Talk with your missionary to find out how to get stuff to them.

3.  Work with your missionary to coordinate with other churches.

Many of your missionaries may have various supporting churches.

Keep clear communication open so that your missionary doesn’t receive 17 of the same thing.

After your conversation with your missionary, settle on a few particular needs that your church will take on.

Let me suggest 5 ways you can bless your missionary:

Here are 5 ways how to find out what missionary needs

1.  Talk with them by Skype or Telephone. 

Find a way to connect and have a conversation.

A call from church members is an emotional boost.  This doesn’t have to be the missions chairperson.   It could be anybody.  When a missionary has been away for more than 12 months, those contacts slow down and leave the missionary feeling somewhat disconnected.

Have a cup of tea with them over a skype video call.  Find ways to pray for them as a family.

2.  Ask the missionary about personal family need that you can fix.

What is something that would take a “rough edge” off their life for which they simply don’t have available funds?

  • Perhaps they have a broken piece of furniture, but no available or budgeted funds to fix it.
  • Perhaps they need a dishwasher.
  • Perhaps they need funds to fix a window, paint a room, or replace a toilet.

You might send them funds to fix it, or if practical, send a team to fix some of these things.

I know one missionary who wept in gratitude when a church helped them with a new pair of sandals, a box of Victoria Secret perfumes, and a particular napkin holder for their table.

What is something they need that would reduce a constant stressor in their life?

3.  Donate frequent flyer miles. 

A missionary family should be able to visit with their home churches and family members on a regular basis.  But getting flight for a family of four can run anywhere from $2000-$4000 or more.

Frequent flyer miles can go a long way to enabling this kind of member care.  Work with your missionary to find out how to make that happen.

Help them see their family or make their trip home for their partner development

4.  Ask if there is a technology product or service they need.

Many missionaries live off of donated and terribly outdated equipment.

Perhaps they could use an updated / upgraded mobile phone.  Perhaps an Ipad or Amazon Kindle.  Maybe your missionaries are functioning with a 7 year old laptop with outdated software.

Maybe the humidity in some climates has destroyed their old computers from rust.  Maybe they need that video projector for their training events, or even a video camera and wireless microphone for some of their work.

You get the idea.  Find out what they need and work with them to acquire it.  Remember, it might be easiest to acquire locally rather than shipping it.

Find out what your church can raise funds to upgrade or provide.

5.  Ask if you can provide a “mental health” weekend.

Living cross culturally can be extremely stressful and a weekend away at a nice place can bring a sense of restoration back to your missionary.

Most missionaries I know live on such a shoe string budget that spending a weekend at a resort or in a mountain vacation home is hardly ever on a calendar.

Perhaps there is a nice place within a 2-3 hour drive from where your missionary lives.  Ask about the cost of a full weekend at a nice place, and include the cost of transportation, gas, and food and tips.

I’m not talking about $20,000 family vacations, but maybe $500-$1000 for a weekend somewhere.

What can you provide to give your missionary a respite break?

Encourage these gospel workers

Encourage your missionaries this Christmas season.  They are giving themselves away on behalf of the gospel, often at the high price of living on the margins.

These don’t have to be overly expensive projects.  Living on the margins is stressful.  Work with your missionary to find an appropriate way to bless them with something practical this Christmas.

Hopefully with these thoughts, you are well on your way finding out what your missionary needs.

Your thoughts?

What are some ways that your congregation has directly blessed its missionaries?

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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