My Journey To Orthodoxy: EV-500 Evangelism, Church Growth, and World Missions. session one notes

EV-500 Evangelism, Church Growth, and World Missions. session one notes

-Goal of this course-

1) Learn the Biblical/Patristic Gospel message.
2) To reaffirm in your heart the vision of the ICCEC.
3) To develop Evangelism skills.

We live in a ‘post-Christian society’ where Christianity no longer affects every person in their daily lives, it no longer fully permeates our society, our language is unaffected by Christian theology. The average person in our society does not understand even the basic tenets of our faith, they assume how Christianity should be from outside Christian sources, terms such as Eucharist, Nicene Creed, Constantine, and are lost on today’s western populace. Society is steadily disenchanted with Christianity-

Yet a ‘Post-Christian Society’ is more like the early church-

Commonalities between Rome and Today’s society are:

Negative:
Pluralism,
Intolerance for a ’set way’ of belief,
Intellectualism,
In Rome was the practice of Deity Worship; this would be Authoritarianism today; many, many people look to the governments of the world for their salvation, rescue, and provender.
We ‘amuse ourselves to death’ with instant gratification, sporting events, and war.

Positive:
Commonality of language,
Ease of travel- no or few restrictions on travel.
Pax Romana and the relative world peace that exists today thru might or right.

3 reasons that people are converted thru the Gospel message.

1)Rational Questions-
Are the gospels reliable?
Why is Jesus (Yashua) the only way?

2) Emotional Issues-Need to develop relationships
Suffering/hurt
Angry at God (YHWH)
-More than ever people are coming to Christ thru relationships as ‘Paul Planted, Apollos watered’.
Depression is prevalent and is medicated instead of dealt with.

3) Spiritual Need-
‘a hole in our hearts that is God shaped’- St. Augustine
We long for:
to be healed,
intimacy,
loved,
appreciated,
companionship,

Biblical Soteriology:

Evangelism: Is the Good News of Christ, He came to earth to pay the debt of my sin and pay the price of my sin; freeing me from my sin.
To tell the story of Jesus’ (Yashua) life death and resurrection.
It is my job as a Christian to tell the message and the job of the Holy Spirit to call them to come to Him.

Church Growth: God (YHWH) does not concern Himself with numbers; He concerns himself with the character of the person’s heart.

The concept of “Church Growth” was first bridged by Donald McGavin in his books ‘Bridge of God’-1955 and ‘Understanding Church Growth’ Where he divers cash flow to the places where growth is the most. Defined as people movement, or homogenous unit principle, target audience.

A positive definition might be- insight from the Holy Spirit concerning the health, expansion, of the church catholic in fulfilling the Great Commission(an evaluation process)
There is no formula for church growth it is dependant upon the Holy Spirit.

World Missions: Taking the Gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit to those who have never been reached before. We must adapt the Gospel to their culture; and not adapt their culture to our perception of civilization. (the Argentinean model used by Fr. Pierre-Jean De Smet)

‘Silence’- Shusaku Endo on the persecution of the early church in Japan.

The “10-40 window” is the largest unreached area in the world where the Gospel has not been spread.

There are two church approaches to seeking the lost.

Seeker Sensitive
Prefer less symbols
Less relgious talk
Focus on the visual arts
Anonymous
Non-confrontational
Small groups
Intimacy
No theological sermons
Preach to felt needs
Heart for the lost

We will fill your needs. Changing message to a changing culture.

Anchiet Future, Anchient Evangelical, Catholic, Anchient faith church
Goal to develop mature belivers
Commitment
Passion
Attitude
People hungry for stability
The need for a foundation in the truth of 200 years
Architecture designed to point to Christ
Service is based around Christ and the Cross
The Table
Theological Content

Seeker does not know what he wants (that is why he is here) they are lost so through the power of the Holy Spirit we will provide the need. Unchanging message to a changing culture.

No comments:

Achtiname of Muhammad

The Achtiname of Muhammad, also known as the Covenant or Holy Testament of Muhammad, is the document or ahdname which is a charter or writ ratified by the Prophet Muhammad granting protection and other privileges to the monks of Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai. It is sealed with an imprint representing Muhammad's hand. ""This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them. Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by Allah! I hold out against anything that displeases them. No compulsion is to be on them. Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries. No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims' houses. Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God's covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate. No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight. The Muslims are to fight for them. If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray. Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants. No one of the nation is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day."

Prayers by the Lake - St. Nikolai Velimirovic

Who is that staring at me through all the stars in heaven and all the creatures on earth?

Cover your eyes, stars and creatures; do not look upon my nakedness. Shame torments me enough through my own eyes.

What is there for you to see? A tree of life that has been reduced to a thorn on the road, that pricks both itself and others. What else-except a heavenly flame immersed in mud, a flame that neither gives light nor goes out?

Plowmen, it is not your plowing that matters but the Lord who watches.

Singers, it is not your singing that matters but the Lord who listens.

Sleepers, it is not your sleeping that matters but the Lord who wakens.

It is not the pools of water in the rocks around the lake that matter but the lake itself.

What is all human time but a wave that moistens the burning sand on the shore, and then regrets that it left the lake, because it has dried up?

O stars and creatures, do not look at me with your eyes but at the Lord. He alone sees. Look at Him and you will see yourselves in your homeland.

What do you see when you look at me? A picture of your exile? A mirror of your fleeting transitoriness?

O Lord, my beautiful veil, embroidered with golden seraphim, drape over my face like a veil over the face of a widow, and collect my tears, in which the sorrow of all Your creatures seethes.

O Lord, my beauty, come and visit me, lest I be ashamed of my nakedness—lest the many thirsty glances that are falling upon me return home thirsty.

Who put me in this bed of worms? Who buried me in the dust, to become a neighbor of snakes and a banquet for worms?

Who pushed me off the high mountain, to become a companion of bloodthirsty and godless men?

My sin and Your justice, O Lord. My sin stretches from the creation of the world, and it is swifter than Your justice.

I count my sins throughout my entire life, throughout the life of my father and all the way back to the beginning of the world, and I say: Truly, the name of the Lord's justice is mercy.

I bear the wounds of my fathers on myself-wounds that I myself was preparing while I was still in my fathers—and now they have all appeared on my soul, like a spotted hide on a giraffe, like a cloak of vicious scorpions that sting me.

Have mercy on me, O Lord, open the floodgate of the heavenly river of Your grace, and cleanse me of leprous evil, so that without this leprosy I may dare to proclaim Your name before the other lepers without them ridiculing me.

At least raise me up by a head above the rotten stench of this bed of worms, to inhale the incense of heaven and return to life.

At least raise me up as high as a palm tree so I can laugh at the serpents chasing my heels.

O Lord, if there has been even one good deed in the course of my earthly journey, for the sake of that one deed deliver me from the companionship of bloodthirsty and godless men.

O Lord, my hope in despair.

O Lord, my strength in weakness.

O Lord, my light in darkness.

Place just one finger on my forehead and I shall be raised. Or, if I am too unclean for Your finger, let a single ray of light from Your kingdom shine upon me and raise me-raise me, from this bed of worms, O my beloved Lord.

III

Are there days gone by, O man, to which you would wish to return? They all attracted you like silk, and now remain behind you like a cobweb. Like honey they greeted you, like stench you bade them farewell. All were totally filled with illusion and sin.

See how all the pools of water in the moonlight resemble mirrors; and how all the days that were lit up with your levity resemble mirrors. But as you stepped from one day to the next, the false mirrors cracked like thin ice, and you waded through the water and mud.

Can a day that has a morning and an evening as doorways be a day?

O luminous Lord, my soul is burdened with illusions and longs for one day—for the day without doorways, the day from which my soul has departed and sunk into the shifting shadows—for Your day, which I used to call my day, when I was one with You.

Is there any happiness gone by, O man, to which you would wish to return?

Of two morsels of the same sweetness the second is the more trite. You would turn your head away in boredom from yesterday's happiness, if it were set out on today's table.

Moments of happiness are given to you only in order to leave you longing for tme happiness in the bosom of the everhappy Lord; and ages of unhappiness are given to you, to waken you out of the drowsy dream of illusions.

O Lord, Lord, my only happiness, will You provide shelter for Your injured pilgrim?

O Lord, my ageless youth, my eyes shall bathe in You and shine more radiantly than the sun.

You carefully collect the tears of the righteous, and with them You rejuvenate worlds.

My elders taught me, when I was a youth, to cling to heaven and earth, lest I stumble. For a long time I remained a child, and for a long time I used to lean on the crutch that they gave me.

But once eternity flooded through me and I felt like a stranger in the world, heaven and earth snapped in two in my hands like a frail reed.

O Lord, my strength, how frail are heaven and earth! They look like palaces built of lead, but they evaporate like water in the palm of the hand in Your presence. Only by their bristling do they conceal their frailty, and frighten uneducated children.

Get out of my sight, suns and stars. Sunder yourselves from the earth. Do not entice me, women and friends. What help can I receive from you, who are helplessly growing old and sinking into the grave?

All your gifts are an apple with a worm in its core. All your potions have passed through someone's entrails many times. Your garments are a cobweb that my nakedness mocks. Your smiles are a proclamation of sorrow, in which your feebleness is screaming to mine for help.

O Lord, my strength, how feeble heaven and earth are! And all the evil that men do under heaven is an admission of feebleness and—infirmity.

Only someone strong dares to do good. Only someone who is nourished and watered with You, my strength, is filled with strength for goodness.

Only someone who sleeps in Your heart knows rest. Only someone who plows before Your feet will enjoy the fruit of his labors.

My childhood, nourished with fear and ignorance, came to an end; and my hope in heaven and earth vanished. Now I only gaze at You and cling to Your gaze in return, O my cradle and my resurrection.