Back to This Blog

I started this blog, at least the concept of it and the first few posts, while I was sitting in the waiting room at the local oncological hospital. I would regularly take my mother-in-law for radiation therapy for months in 2009. Waiting rooms are the biggest time outs in life. Life goes on hold. It can be a good opportunity to read or write.

I’ve just gone deaf again. Another time out.

Today, I sent word to all my English students that I would be suspending classes for a while. I will continue to keep and build on my ministry schedule, but my teaching work is now on hold.

I plan to use this quiet time (I do expect it to be temporary) to get back to posting on this blog. I have several others which have taken center stage lately. This is my favorite blog, though. I look forward to regularly posting  here starting in February.

My Favorite Posts of 2011

Here are my favorite posts on going Beyond Outreach from 2011, a year with few posts.

1. Daily Evangelism

   The best evangelists I know are not pastors or preachers. They are not ordained. They are not very good public speakers. They are not “leaders” in the business sense of the word. Most of them work full time jobs, but they are lower-middle class at best.
   
   What separates these evangelists from the rest of the pack, including me, is that they can not have a conversation about anything without including Jesus. Read more ...
   
   

2. Excluding People from the Good News!

   Ninety Percent of church evangelism methods, discipleship materials, and ministry strategy targets the highly literate. In fact, the overwhelming majority of church ministry is done in such a way that it is difficult or impossible for an oral preference learner to follow.
   
   Many churches have not addressed the need to evangelize and disciple using oral methods because they have not felt the need. There are always enough literate prospects in the area to grow a church. The result is, that a great number of people are selectively excluded from the gospel message.  Read more...
   
   

3. When Values Collide

   It is among those outside of traditional church culture that the fields are white unto harvest. This is where the lost sheep have gone...[Unfortunately,] many Christians think that crossing cultures is a step beyond the general mandate. 
   
   
   One of the great challenges for churches, however, is to make that transition to real evangelism among those who don’t readily fit. Many churches don’t even understand that a transition is needed because they have a skewed perspective of who they really are... But the values a church claims to hold are not always the values a church demonstrates by its actions. A church’s true values are revealed in their behavior, not their mission statements. Read more ...
   
   

4. Top Evangelistic Churches–Things to Copy

   Just 3% of the churches in the Georgia Baptist Convention accounted for more than 26% of  all the baptisms in the state association in 2008. These churches reached and baptized nearly ten times as many people as the typical Georgia Baptist church of the same size.
   
   These churches were studied and the Georgia Baptist Convention published a booklet revealing the statistics and lessons learned from these churches...  Here is my summary of the top ten observations underscored in this booklet. Read more...
   
   

5. Daily Telling

   All day long I will tell the wonderful things you do to save your people. But you have done much more than I could possibly know. -Somewhere in Psalm 71

   One of the greatest means of evangelism is a daily broad-based telling of what you have learned of God each day. Like scattering or sowing seed, some will land on good soil and produce a harvest of souls. It is neither argumentative nor manipulative (a straw-man argument many make against witnessing). Read more...
   
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Daily Telling

All day long I will tell the wonderful things you do to save your people. But you have done much more than I could possibly know. -Somewhere in Psalm 71

But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all your works. –Somewhere in Psalm 73

Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul.  - Somewhere in Psalm 66

One of the greatest means of evangelism is a daily broad-based telling of what you have learned of God each day. Like scattering or sowing seed, some will land on good soil and produce a harvest of souls. It is neither argumentative nor manipulative (a straw-man argument many make against witnessing).

Start your day with meditation on God’s Word and prayer. Spend the rest of the day telling people, everyone, as you can and as it fits, what you learned from God. If there is no natural in, just say “Today I learned something about God,” or “God taught me something today,” or “I read something interesting in the Bible today.” Just leave it out there. Some will ask, “What was it?”

Share.  Do this daily.

If you don’t meditate of God’s word regularly, you won’t have much to share, and you will keep quiet. So, build this habit too, if you haven’t already.

(Oh, and if you are the singing type, by all means, sing!)

I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations. –Somewhere in Psalm 89

An Example from Ecuador

I posted earlier in A Guide to Getting Beyond Typical Church Outreach about good soil producing a minimum 2,900% increase. (By the way, now that I am recovered from surgery and travel, I plan to post the rest of that guide soon.)

I also posted an example of this in post WWII China in the post An Observation of Good Soil.

Guy Muse, one of our IMB missionaries serving in Ecuador relates another great example of this declaration of Jesus. This story is so simple and personal. A great read. Here is an excerpt.

What follows is an attempt to briefly describe how seed planted in the life of just one person has produced well over the 100-fold described in Matthew 13...

Marlene was a member of a local Baptist church in Guayaquil. For several years she tried to motivate her fellow brothers and sisters to be more engaged in evangelism, discipleship, and church planting. Excuses were always along the lines of "it is not in this year's budget," "we have a meeting planned to discuss this next month," "we have several outreach activities planned this year that will hopefully bring some new people into our church," "we don't have the money to plant a new church." No surprise that little to nothing was being done.

Marlene was part of an organic church planting training we were asked to do at her church through an invitation made to us by the pastor.
At the end of the training, Marlene respectfully requested permission to start a new house church, explaining to her pastor she wanted to put into practice what had been learned during the training. Her pastor gave his blessing.

Within a few weeks Marlene had won several friends and neighbors to the Lord through her house-to-house visitation, and through contacts made in her local business.

The first year Marlene baptized 18 and spent many hours discipling these new believers. They began meeting several times per week in Marlene's home as a new church start. The "mother church" with all their programs, budget, and paid ministry staff baptized three people that same year.

The story continues, relating how the discipling of one specific couple led to an entire family network coming to Jesus (30 fold), then how relatives, friends and neighbors were reached (60 fold), and finally how this turned into a network of new churches of new believers (100 fold). Read it all in the post 30,60 and 100-fold on The M Blog.

Where do we go from here?

In one of the Looney Tunes cartoons, Wiley Coyote was giving chase to the Roadrunner through a series of pipes. These pipes became wider and wider, or narrower and narrower. The gag was that the two grew or shrank proportionally as they ran through them.

In a ironic moment, Wiley Coyote had gone through a small pipe while the Roadrunner had gone through a big one. It was at that moment that Wiley finally caught the Roadrunner. After standing there for a second next to a bird 10 times bigger than he was, Wiley Coyote held up a sign that said: “Okay, wise guys, you always wanted me to catch him. Now what do I do?”

Christians and churches sometimes go through moments like these along the journey: A moment of glorious success, followed by a complete loss for what to do or where to go from that point on.

The church building is filled to capacity. – “Well, we wanted a full sanctuary, now what?” At this point churches can flounder. Should they go to a two-service classic/contemporary model? Should they invest in an expansion of the sanctuary, or a new building? Should they just let it be, knowing that at some point the numbers will drop? Should the church start a mission?

The neighbor accepted Jesus. – “Well, Rashaad decided to follow Jesus, now what?” At this point Christians often flounder. Should I try to disciple him myself? What do I teach him? Should I refer him to the discipleship director at the church?  Should he be baptized while he is still living with his girlfriend? Maybe if he can just start attending church he will be discipled naturally?

John surrendered to the ministry. – “Well, John surrendered to full time Christian service or to missions, now what?” At this point churches sometimes flounder. Do we send him off to seminary? Do we let him preach a few times to see if he’s “got it?” Should we put him over a Sunday School class? Do we send him to Mexico for a week?

The people we invited to church came. – “Well I invited them and they started coming, now what?” At this point both churches and Christians can flounder. If they like the service enough, they will keep coming, right? Then they will get saved, right? Should we send the pastor to visit them? Should the family that invited them start discipling them? Who is responsible?

Can you think of any other successful moments in ministry that often get followed up with “Oops, now I just don’t know what to do?”

About Me in 2011

These blogs are a hobby of mine. I have a history of updating them in spurts, and taking long unannounced breaks when other projects come up. There are a number of posts on the backburner right now, but I just haven’t had the time to write them out.

This year, 2011, started with a number of challenges for us. We returned from our Christmas visit to the US, only to find that we had to make some quick adjustments.

We found out that we had to move from our apartment and in short order. We prepared and moved into a house in a nearby neighborhood. Our son’s afternoon preschool closed down, so we enrolled him in a new preschool near our new place. We had to make a significant change in our budget and so we reduced it by a third and I started working teaching English again.

Though we have been planning to move to the US for a while now, our church search process has taken longer than we expected. We’ve come close, but God guided us in others directions. Following His lead, we have set a definitive date to move to the US even if that means moving without a church position. We are still watching for God’s assignment there.

In the meantime, there is much to do here. Loaise continues to run and manage her company, and plan for our transition. I am preparing to travel to a few different places in Brazil and lead training workshops this year. I am helping a local church to learn the ropes of starting daughter churches in nearby neighborhoods, and assisting its pastor and deacons in better organizing the church’s committee structure. I continue to teach Bible storying and oral discipleship methods in this city.

Those of you who know me, know of my challenges with hearing. I was born with hearing impairment and have used a hearing aid for 30 years. Even so, I have been able to learn other languages and work effectively in ministry and missions. Most of the time I don’t remember I am hearing impaired.

This year, I learned that I could receive a cochlear implant and hearing rehab through the Brazilian One Health System. I had never considered this surgery in the past, as it was both extremely expensive and indicated only for my hearing ear. This would mean destroying the hearing I already had.

Technology has advanced. I can now receive an implant for my deaf ear instead. By using both my health insurance and the One Health System, I can have this surgery without charge, and in my own city! This could significantly improve my hearing range and comprehension, and there is no risk to my hearing as it is now. What a blessing!

We continue to work hard in mission and ministry in Jesus name. There are many who need to hear, and many who need to follow. We are working steadily on transition as well. I also have a number of online projects that I will be revealing in the coming months. We continue to talk with churches in Louisiana, mostly in the Baton Rouge area, and believe that God has been preparing a church for us, as he also prepares us.

Where ever you live, continue to serve God, doing the hard work of evangelism and disciple making to the glory of Jesus. We are coworkers in his Kingdom.

Keep watching this blog and my others as I will be bringing new blog articles and updates.

http://stephenmyoung2.blogspot.com

http://smy2brazil.blogspot.com

http://beyondoutreach.blogspot.com

Churches are Unique

When I began serving as a Minister to Single Adults, our church was deeply involved in a grief and divorce recovery ministry. That ministry has been going strong for nearly 15 years now. It has been a steady tool of evangelism and discipleship for the church, and will continue to be as long as the ministry continues.

What amazed me, though, was how so many other churches wanted to implement the exact same ministry. Our pastoral care pastor wanted so much to break out and expand to ministry to chemical abuse addictions, sexual addictions, homosexuality issues, etc. He is always looking for the edge. The other churches just wanted a reliable, predictable ministry that they could copy.

I often wondered why smaller churches never specialized.(The one I served in and with whom I maintain membership while on the mission field is a larger church.) It seems logical that one church targeting a specialized ministry area and another targeting another would be extremely beneficial to the overall goal of evangelism in a city. This is not something that can be organized from a hierarchy, however. Even so, if churches payed attention, each one could find a niche ministry, and that would be a good thing.

This concept of churches being unique is explored by Will Mancini. Here is an online version of his book you can browse through Issuu. (Issuu is a great web resource I will be using more in the future.)

The Church Unique Visual Summary is an engaging overview of the key concepts from the book Church Unique by Will Mancini. Have a look.

Open publication - Free publishing - More church unique