Creatively Connecting w/ Your Community

I. Discovering Community Needs

1. Develop a community survey
2. Train Members how to survey
3. Organize data
4. Develop Ministries -> community focused? only do what you can do well and maintain
5. Church leaders should meet with

• local school administration
• Civic leaders
• other community leaders
• to discover other ministry opportunities.

II. Through Special Events

1. Mass evangelism - Movie Night, Youth Rally, Ministry Day
2. Multi-Site Events

• Felt needs events - parenting, marriage finances
• Focused events - sports clinics, teacher's day, public safety day
• Community events - parades

3. Covering Your City with Prayer

• pray for your neighbors, follow up and invite them to your church!

III. Discover Sources for New Ideas

Get on the mailing list or consistently visit the website of 10 churches you want your church to be like, or in similar cultures who are effectively reaching their community.

Books:
101 ways to outreach your community
Minister to others

Becoming a Contagious Christian

What is Jesus standard approach to evangelism? He didn't have one!

"The formulation of a problem is often more essential than its solution." (Albert Einstein)
Let evangelism be a LIFE STYLE!

"Oikos" Evangelism
An oikos (household) consisted of ones circle of influence - families, friends, associates.
Cornelius (Acts 10: 7-24); Lidia (Acts (16:15); Philippian Jailer's (Acts 16:31-34); Stephanas (1 Corinthians 16:15); Paul (Acts 20:20)

Five Keys to Becoming a Contagious Christian

1. Authentic

• We are to be good news before we share good news.
• Be yourself. Be human. Be normal. Be real. Be intentional.
• Develop "no strings attached" friendship with people.
  

2. Put Others First (see 1 Corinthians 9:19-23)

• We must LISTEN to others ... defer to their iinterests, hobbies, schedules, opinions, openness.
• Practice PRAYER over preaching
• Priority of LOVE over theology
• Be Aware - Be AVAILABLE - Be Likable
  

3. Verbal (see Romans 10:14 and Acts 4:20)

• Words without actions or actions without words are incomplete
• What to say? Word of TRUTH, Word of TESTIMONY, Word of SALVATION
• When to share? DDIS is it!
• Death; Difficulty; Illness; Status Change
  

4. Process Oriented

5. Team Oriented

"A person's coming to Christ is like a chain with many links, there is the first link, middle links and a last link. There are many influences and conversations that precede a person's decision to convert to Christ. I know the job of being the first link at times a middle link usually, and occasionally the last link. God has not called me to only be the last link. He has called me to be faithful and to love all people."
(Cliff Knechtle)

class conducted by Rev. Emory Gaskins, based on the book "Becoming a Contagious Christian". We went through an "Evangelism Styles Questionnaire and Assessment", and I found that my stile is "serving", like Dorcas in Acts 9.....interesting.....

Becoming God's Miracle

I attended God’s Miracle – Equipping God’s People Conference today. I learned so much in the classes of “How to Become a Contagious Christian”, “Churches Creatively Connecting in Community”, and “Leadership Lessons from Jethro”. New ideas are generated from all the teachings.

For the Chinatown community:

Christmas evangelism

HCCMGC has been hosting children evangelism event in Christmas time, but the low attendance in the past three years urges me to change, and to do something different. If we keep stepping on the past footsteps, we can never learn. I had no idea what to do until today.

During Christmas time, all churches have special programs for children and adults, and one of the mission statements of HCCMGC is to serve churches. Instead of hosting duplicate programs and draging resources around, why don’t we focus on being a servant of churches this year? What will the churches need from us? I can’t be sure until we ask the church leaders.

Some things that I can think of are to help their event promotion, or to provide transportations to and from Chinatown for the participants. What about starting a children choir for Christmas, and let it sing in different churches as part of their Christmas program? Any other ideas?

Christmas present delivery and visitation: We really act as a bridge of churches and the community!

1. Request survey from our newsletter. The purpose of the survey is to find out the need of the community.
2. Those who respond will get a Christmas present.
3. We cooperate with churches. The churches that participate will get a name list. Brother and sisters from that church will adopt a family for the Christmas present and prayer.
4. Around Christmas time, HCCMGC will arrange visitation for the church representatives to deliver the present, and they can either invite them to their Christmas events and to preach the gospel.

For Hawaii Kai or any communities:

I learned some excellent and easy ways to outreach!

Cover your city with Prayer was hold in churches in San Diego. Participants choose 5 neighbors to pray for. Certainly, they had to visit the neighbor and find out what they need to pray for. After a committed period, the participants invite the involved neighbor for dessert or coffee, follow up and build relationship with them, then bring them to church!

Join parades, set up booths in public events, adopt schools and help their school projects....

More sharing will follow....

Happily Ever After: Session 3

Rags to Riches: the power of transformation
John 2: 1-12 Jesus transformed water to the greatest wine!

Signs that God's power to:
1. Change emptiness to abundance - the wine tanks were empty until Jesus filled them up.
2. Change ordinary to extraordinary - the wine filled by Jesus was the greatest.
3. Change condemnation to celebration - the servants may be condemned if they couldn't provide wine, yet with Jesus' intervention, the celebration just began!
4. Change old to new - the wine was not like the old ones, but new and the best.
5. Change despair to joy - no wine, no joy in wedding; with wine, much more joy!
6. Change falters to followers

Happily Ever After: Session 2

This is the story of Cinderella. She was so sad when she couldn’t join her sisters to the prince’s party. When life is in tatters, we ought to replace panic with peace! We read Mark 4: 35-41, where Jesus calms the sea, while everybody was in panic.

What are the panic producers?

1. Misplaced Fear

Fear arises when the circumstance seems to be beyond my control. The disciples see the waves bigger than God, so they panic. Really? Do the waves really bigger than God?

Isaiah 57:12 Those who walks uprightness enters peace.

We need to reverse our fear: to fear God more than the circumstance!

2. Misplaced Trust - God isn’t interested enough?

Isaiah 26:3 God keep those who trust him in peace.

God cares, but we need to trust him first.

3. Misplaced Expectation – God isn’t good enough?

Do not expect to control God.

Do not ask “why” in storm, ask “what”. What do I learn? What do I trust? What do I live for?

Happily Ever After

Ever thought about being a princess, but after all it is just a fairy tale?
No, it is not, we are the princess, and Jesus is the prince, who is always there waiting for us at the "castle" to live with him happily ever after!

I attended a Christian women's conference last week, and found it very refreshing. The speaker is a well-known writer, Mary Kassian.


Session 1: Jesus met with the Samaritan woman at the well at mid-day (John 4)

Remember the wishing well where Snow White wish to see her prince? The Samaritan woman met her prince at the well. The cup of emptiness was filled!

Remember at the Enchanted Forest where Snow White was disappointed because the prince never showed up? The Samaritan woman hoped that some day, Messiah will come and explain all things, and not realizing that Messiah was right there with her!

Snow White wants to meet her price so badly, so she has to take all chances. She even ate the wicked woman's apple, because she does not realize that she has already met the prince! The result was terrible. She fell and died. However, at the Prince's Castle, it brings about the cup of Restoration and Fulfillment!

Isn't it romantic? Jesus loves us so much, and even died for us, yet we still look for fulfillment somewhere else for happiness. The apple may look good, but it will also lead us to death. Look up to Jesus, who is the only way to live happily ever after....