February 12, 2004
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I left you last post with “There are some other things I wanted to share about myself but I’m not sure whether it’s the right thing to do or not at this moment so maybe next time?” Well, even though I received some very kind remarks from my Saturday Night Pastor, I decided I didn’t want to come off as blowing my own horn so I won’t post what he said here except for “I become more convinced that an effective ministry comes not through slick techniques, but through a deep connectedness to Jesus.”
The “quandary” (so to speak) we face is in the planning of the Saturday Night service which, as I’ve mentioned before, went from being an outreach, to being an alternative service, and now is returning to it’s outreach roots. Let’s face it, you’ve got to study the group you are pursuing and present the gospel to them in a way they can relate to. This takes lots and lots and lots of prayer, praise, thanksgiving, and worship before the throne of God to attempt to receive God’s will and revelation for each and every service, down to as much detail as possible. Getting back to the “quandary,” where do we cross the line of grabbing the attention of the lost and then allowing the details and presentation to overshadow the message? There is a lot of talk going around about various ministries and their techniques and how they are watering down the message or selling out to attract numbers but I wonder how many of the critics have ever been involved deeply enough in the planning and presentation of the gospel to different generations to actually speak out of wisdom earned rather than just baseless assumptions generated by a lot of study but not much practical experience? That’s why the above quote meant so much to me because I know we are making mistakes, but the heart of the Saturday Night Pastor and of the Saturday Night ministry teams is have an effective ministry which leads people into God’s presence where He can minister to them. We at times want to base our opinions as to whether we are achieving anything for Him by the numbers we see, but it needs to be based on what God sees and man often doesn’t see and that’s the heart. It’s often easy for us to point out the faults in others while, at the same time, probably not achieving near as much as those we criticize. But enough on that as it’s getting off my subject.
I solved a couple of lingering problems at work today and have a couple of more well on their way to being solved. God is amazing in the way I see Him working in the situations in my life, which often appear hopeless, and then seeing them turned into complete victories. Have I told you lately that “God IS Good!”?
God IS Good!
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Comments (12)
But I like roller coaster rides! hehe.
Have a good weekend!
Yes, God is good!
Can we ever say enough times that God is good, that God is a loving Father?
Carol
By all means...do share!
Thank you for the prayers...Be praying for you guys too...Happy Valentine's Day...or shall I say "Happy Love Day!" Blessigs to you 
thanks! by the way, is that you in the scetch?
What does it mean to "reach people with the Gospel?" Who is a worship service for? Does the Bible say that people are "brought to Christ" through music? Just thought I would suggest some points to ponder.
Praise the Lord that we will not be held accountable by God for the outcome.........but for the effort we expend!
The absolute best example for preaching is the word of God itself. Our example is Paul as it says in Corinthians imitate me as I of Christ. But then he also tell them I did not shy away from declaring the FULL GOSPEL for woe to me if I didnt preach it. and what you see through out the scriptures is Christ being preached. Even if unsaved people listen if they hear God's word God will use His methods to speak to them. You have to trust that the Lord is convicting people even when its not a "fire insurance" preaching. If holiness and sanctity and love is being preached and the leaders are examples of it then the people will be notice that God is there. Even if its not necessarily an outreach.. The bible says that they shall know the length and depth and height of Christ's love and if people see this than they will know that it is God. Lord bless and good luck
I hope you get all that stuff worked out soon so you can relax a little and enjoy yourself a little more; I know it must be a lot of work, though.
Keep on truckin' in your walk, brother. You're on the right path. You don't minister to someone who only speaks French by preaching to him in German. You only know what language to speak by studying the target of your ministry while in a deep relationship with Christ.
Mike
I was just giving you some point to contemplate in my previous post. Your post sounds rather like you are into the church growth movement genre. I base that assessment on statements like this: "Let’s face it, you’ve got to study the group you are pursuing and present the gospel to them in a way they can relate to." This sounds like a marketing technique, yet true Christianity will never sell; it’s offensive to natural man, always has been and always will be. Therefore, instead of pursuing and presenting, why don’t you just try being Spirit-led? What does God want you to do? The Bible talks about belief and repentance; we cannot humanly orchestrate that, so we need to simply ask the Lord to lead us and allow Him to move as He so wishes. You seem to be taking on a burden that God does not intend. I ment no offense, I was just oising questions to help you with sorting things out. I apologize if I irritated you. Blessings,
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