Month: May 2013

How churches are grounding their congregations

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By This Name Clas in SingaporeRecently we received two testimonies. One was from a ladies’ small group from a church in Alberta, Canada and the other was from a church in Singapore. These two churches were an ocean apart but they had the same vision: to ensure every member understood a clear gospel.

These two churches found it useful to use By This Name as the book for small group study. Longtime churchgoers as well as and people still seeking to understand what the Bible is all about benefited from going through the creation-to-the-cross approach used in the book. They saw how the Old and New Testament tied together as one story, and for many, it made them want to read the Bible more! Here are their stories.

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I found my faith in Christ through this study

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Ladies Church StudyOur ladies’ study group consisted of 12 ladies with different levels of Bible knowledge. There were ladies with no knowledge at all, some with many of years of study and everything in between. The study ran for two months and we met every Wednesday morning. Our book study was By This Name by John R. Cross of GoodSeed International. The commitment was to read 1-3 chapters every week and fill out the companion workbook before the sessions. At the sessions we would watch video segments that would reinforce the previous week’s reading as well as go through and discuss the questions in the study guide.

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The Bible had always been confusing for me

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By This Name ClassA church in Singapore regularly runs its own version of a TERM Seminar. They use By This Name as the text and run the course over seven Friday evenings. All types of people, from long-time church goers, to new believers, to those who are just seeking to find out what the Bible is all about attend. Here is a testimony from a recent participant.

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This I can read!

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The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus (Large Print Edition)

When sharing the Good News of the Bible with aged parents or older friends, one of the challenges is that they simply can’t see the text of the book clearly enough. It’s for this reason that we have a large print edition of the The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus. The bigger text is a lot easier on the eyes. The pictures, charts and maps are larger too so anyone can read the book with ease.

Resources: The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus (Large Print Edition)

 

 

Dad, are you ready to die?

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Photo credit: Bruce on flickrStuart* levelled his eyes steadily at his father Frank. He took a breath before asking one of the most difficult questions a son could ask: “Dad, are you ready to die?”

Frank had been in and out of the hospital over the past few months with a series of problems. First there was a fractured hip, then the cancer and now there was fluid in his lungs. The doctors had run tests and determined the problem—his kidneys had failed.

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He took every copy we had

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He took every last copy we had

We received the following story from a couple in the UK who helped a pastor with tools to lead a Bible study.

 A visiting pastor spoke at our church this past Sunday. We told him about the Bible studies we’d run using The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus. He lit up like a christmas tree! In fact, before he left town, he took every copy of the book and the companion workbook that we could spare. He said he had been praying for material like this. He explained that all the outreach efforts at his church were now taking place in homes or outside the church and he had been looking for tools that would help people who said they were believers but their understanding of the Bible was limited.  One couple had said to the pastor that the preaching at the church was way over their heads. They didn’t understand much! They told the pastor that they needed to review the basics. So as the pastor had been praying about what to do, he met us. He thought the meeting was arranged by God!

After passing him all the copies of the book and workbook, we also gave him our last set of the Ambassador Series and a copy of “By this Name.” He was elated.

I just got an email from him yesterday. He said he had already started a Bible study using “The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus.” It never ceases to amaze us how opportunities to guide others through the Bible seem to spring out of nowhere!

 

It never ceases to amaze us how God uses those who are prepared to share the Good News.

Resources: The Ambassador Series: Learning to teach as Jesus taught

 

The Ambassador in the coffee shop

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The Ambassador in the coffee shopWe recently received an email from someone who was taking the mandate to be an Ambassador for Christ very seriously. The first story in the email is about being proactive and offering to do a study with a friend. The second little story illustrates how God can use us when we (as individuals and as a church) are ready to share the Good News at any moment. Some encouragement for a Monday morning!

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These healers used white and black magic for their treatment

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Photo credit: Phalinn Ooi on flickrEditor’s note: Previously, we had shared Kaspar’s story on how he came to put his trust in Jesus. In this post, we present Alys’s* side of the story.

I grew up “religious” but have always felt an inner emptiness. I kept asking myself questions concerning the meaning of life. I couldn’t find satisfaction for my soul—neither in philosophical views nor in wealth and success.

During my school years I became friends with a Christian woman. For my birthday, she gave me a book entitled, Der Fremde auf dem Weg nach Emmaus (The Stranger on the road to Emmaus in German). At that time, the book did not really interest me, so I put it aside on a bookshelf and there it sat.

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I was filled with a deep and cavernous void

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Photo credit: Matías Ávalos on flickr

A testimony from Kaspar.* (Read the follow-up post from Alys.)

Ever since I was a child, I thought I was a Christian. I lived my life how I wanted, spent a lot of time at wild parties and did everything that I thought was fun. I thought I was living life to the fullest. All of this went “well” for a while, but when a long-term relationship broke down I began asking myself what the meaning of life really was. Nothing was fulfilling anymore. Initially, I didn’t find a satisfactory answer to these questions and so I was filled with a deep and cavernous void. Everything seemed pointless to me–having a family, going to work or making a lot of money. When my father became seriously ill I asked myself where he would go after his death. I did believe in a heaven and a hell, but I still couldn’t be really sure. I became ever more depressed and could even understand people who had committed suicide. Life made absolutely no sense.

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Trained and ready to lead

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Practising hand motions at the TERM Seminar

Over the weekend, we finished up a TERM Seminar in Olds, Alberta. Unlike previous ones, these participants had the advantage of having access to all the leader’s notes and visual aids. In the past, participants had to take down notes, write in the margins of their books and then back at home, they had to make their own visual aids. It took some effort to get ready to guide a friend or neighbour through the course.

Now with the Worldview Rethink curriculum and visual aids, the preparation was done. They could lead a course literally at a moment’s notice. “Oh, you want to start tonight? Well, sure you can! Come on over for supper and we can begin right after.”

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