Gary Rohrmayer's Blog, page 3

Engaging Your Heart in the Harvest - Prayer Walking

There is an old adage, “Speed of the leader, speed of the team.” The evangelistic temperature of any church can be measured by one person – the pastor. If the pastor has a heart that is broken and continues to be broken for the lost in their community, it will spread like a virus through the board, staff, lay leaders and members. 

It will guide every decision.

It will affect their calendar. 

It will impact their schedule. 

It will be reflected in their budget.  

Let me offer a few thoughts to help pastors and planters raise the evangelistic temperature of their hearts, thus raising the evangelistic temperature of their churches.

Walk Slowly and Prayerfully Through Your City

While Paul was waiting for his traveling companions in Athens, he walked through the city and his heart became ‘distressed’ (Acts 17:16 NIV) by what he was seeing. His heart was broken for the wandering souls who were striving to connect with God. It is very easy as a pastor to let our hearts become hardened towards people. We can become hard out of our own weariness from ministry and our frustration in leading people who don’t want to be led. This is when we need a fresh vision and a new burden for the masses of humanity right at our own doorsteps who are striving to find a connection with God. Jesus’ missional heart was broken for his people when he cried out, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing” (Matthew 23:37 NIV).  So, our hearts must be broken for our cities, our counties, our states, our country and our world.

Routinely, as a pastor, I prayer-walked through the heart of our city, praying for business and community leaders. During those times God would strangely warm my heart to the needs of our community as I would start to see our community from Jesus' eyes and with Jesus' heart.

Is prayer walking a discipline you practice?

My friend, Dan Maxton, provides a great summary of the basics involved in prayer walking.

Download Basic Guidelines for Prayer Walking for free!

Evangelism Immersion Experiences

Two weeks after I received Christ, I was invited by my new Christian friends to attend a Saturday seminar on evangelism. To be honest, at that time, I didn’t even know what evangelism was or even meant. I was just excited to be with my new friends. By the end of the day, I discovered that evangelism was just sharing what Jesus has done for me with the people who come into my life.

At the end of that training, the leaders gave us an opportunity to practice what we had just learned. My friends asked me if I wanted to go with them to a local college campus and live out the principles we all discovered that day. I did not know what I was getting myself into. That next Saturday, I was engaging in spiritual conversations with college students! The leader and I would walk up to a group of college students, he would initiate the conversation, and at some point, he would say, “Gary, tell them what Jesus has done for you.”

Three weeks after trusting Jesus as Lord and Savior, I was completely immersed in evangelism. It was life-changing. Every time I shared my faith that day, the gospel was deepened into my life, and I gained confidence in what I was communicating. This is why my life verse is, “I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.”  (Philemon 1:6)

When we deny our church members opportunities to get outside the church walls and touch the world with the love of the gospel, we deny them faith-stretching moments, the ability to see God at work and the blessing of understanding the richness of the gospel in deep ways.

Jesus Created Missional Immersion Experiences

Jesus used immersion experiences to train his disciples; first, the Apostles (Luke 9:1-6,10-11) and then the Seventy (Luke 10:1-24).

Jesus did a quick orientation

Jesus sent them out on a specific mission

The disciples reported back what happened

Jesus debriefed and celebrated them

Five Key Ingredients for Creating Missional Immersion Experiences

Leadership: Leaders who live, breathe and exemplify the behaviors they want to be lived out in their people.

Orientation: A short motivational instruction that reviews the whys and hows of the outreach activity you are doing.  This is a time to go over the dos and don’ts as you send the team out.

Multi-Sensory: This experience must touch a person’s heart (move people deeply), their soul (force a deeper sense of faith), their mind (stretch then intellectually) and their strength (involves physical activity).

Reproducible: This must be a behavior that a person could do without the leader or the team.  It must involve something that they can take with them for the rest of their lives.

Celebration:  A time for the group to report, debrief, and celebrate with the leader.

Takeaways:

Study the Gospels and look for other immersion experiences that Jesus used in training the disciples.

View the Webinar on Equipping Your People in Evangelism.

First, take your leaders and staff through an evangelistic immersion experience

Prayer Walking

Servant Evangelism

Plan a 21-Day Evangelism Campaign in your church with a church wide evangelistic immersion experience at the end of it.

Check out Additional Spiritual Conversation Resources

Increasing the Spiritual Conversations of Your Board Members

“Helping to fulfill the Great Commission is the single most important task of the Church. Therefore, developing evangelistic leadership to carry out that mission should be a top priority.” – Bill Bright

Are your board meetings filled with a burning passion to see every man, women and child reached with the gospel in your community?

Three ways to call your leaders to engage in more spiritual conversations:

First, reinforce the vision of your church. Calling your leaders to the mission of Jesus should be what permeates every leadership meeting in the church— business meetings, elders meetings, deacon meetings, finance meetings, youth meetings, children’s ministry meetings, worship practices, etc. Everyone leading those meetings should lead them in a way that reinforces the vision to reach the community with the gospel of Jesus, not just to maintain their ministry area.

Second, create a sense of urgency. If your leaders have no sense of urgency, they will never seize the evangelistic opportunities that God gives them.

How does one create an ongoing sense of urgency among their leaders?

John Kotter in his book, A Sense of Urgency, describes five ways we can create a sense of true urgency every day:

Purge and Delegate – Don’t let an overcrowded calendar slow you down; purge low-priority items, don’t get distracted, and learn to delegate.

Move with Speed – Respond quickly to people’s calls, requests and emails. Never end meetings without clarity about who will do what and when.

Speak with Passion – Talk to others with feeling so others catch the urgency and passion of your message.

Match Words and Deeds – Don’t just talk about something and then not do it yourself; be real and be an example to others.

Let Them All See It – Be visible as often as possible to as many people as possible. Let them see your sense of urgency.

Third, make sure every leader can share the gospel in a compelling manner.

Assumptions kill evangelism! Thinking a person who is in leadership knows how to share the gospel effectively is a big mistake. Continual training and retraining of leaders is imperative.

Four Takeaways:

Equip your leaders on how to reinforce the vision of mission through every level of the church.

Model the urgent reality of the harvest (John 4:35) in all you do.

At every leadership meeting, ask the following question: How can we pray for those in your life who need Jesus?

Schedule an evangelistic training opportunity just for your leaders & staff.

Additional Spiritual Conversation Resources

Creating Evangelistic Immersion Experiences for Your Disciples

When it comes to equipping your church to be actively engaged in evangelism, many start with a class or a seminar because that is the way we were taught.  It is not that I am against classroom education or equipping seminars, I just believe that these trainings should come after one's heart has been captured through positive experiences.  Providing your people with positive, low risk experiences that build on each other is one of the best ways to design your equipping strategy.

What entry-level evangelistic opportunities will you provide your church? Here are a couple of ideas to start with:

1. Prayer Walking: In equipping people for evangelism, I would start by offering specific opportunities for individuals to talk to God first about their community rather than teaching them to talk to their community about God. Prayer is a mystery, but prayer walking is even more mysterious. I don't completely understand why prayer walking works but I know it works. I have seen its impact on communities and impact on participants. Here is a free prayer walking workbook. (Download Here)

2. Community Service: There is an ever-widening chasm between the church and our culture. Churches that have an outreach orientation seek ways to build bridges over the chasm through simply serving their communities. Robert Lewis, in his book The Church of Irresistible Influence, writes, "The church is to be in the bridge-building business, according to the design of Jesus Christ. Over this bridge the church must travel and prove its reality to a disbelieving world." He continues, "Our world must experience the same incarnational influence as the first century experienced when Grace and Truth himself suddenly bridged that Great Chasm and became flesh.” (pg. 30) Mobilizing your people to love their community through acts of service is another way to engage their hearts for outreach in a positive way.  Download a free Summary: The Church of Irresistible Influence.pdf

3. Servant Evangelism: Steve Sjogren's motto is, "Small Things Done with Great Love Are Changing the World." Servant Evangelism goes beyond community service in that it uses an act of random kindness to earn the right to give a person a connection card. The connection card is key to the process in that it gives a positive message coupled with specific information about the church that is blessing them that day. Servant Evangelism seeks to win the heart before it confronts the mind. A small act of kindness nudges a person closer to God, often in a profound way, as it bypasses one’s mental defenses. The average Christ-follower is willing to hand a stranger a can of cold Coke on a hot day (low risk). The high grace is seen in the typical reaction. "Oh, thank you!" "This is so nice!" "I can't believe this is for free!" And, "Why are you doing this?" Kindness builds the bridge for the person to receive a touch of love from God. It's simple, practical, effective, inexpensive and fun! (Servant Evangelism) Giving your people fun, positive and meaningful opportunities to share God's love with their community will lift them to a whole new level of evangelistic commitment.

4. Investing and inviting: Statistics show that one out of four adults in the United States will go to church if someone invites them. (Marketing the Church, George Barna, pg. 111) Equip your people on how to relationally invest in the lives of their neighbors, friends and co-workers, along with helping them recognize the opportunities to invite them to what Rich Richardson calls ‘soul-awaking events.’ Soul-awaking events are opportunities to "…awaken people to the existence of their soul. These events get people in touch with their spiritual needs and longings. These events do not call people to conversion.  A quick call to conversion is not good stewardship to people who are still a long way from God. It turns them off. It pushes them away….I am convinced that high-quality soul-awaking events are the greatest missing link in evangelism today.  I am also convinced that high-quality soul-awaking events will be the most controversial part of what vibrant evangelistic ministries do." (Evangelism Out of the Box, pg. 76) Figuring out what your people will invite their friends to is a trial and error proposition. This is a place where you are to take risks and push it to the edge. What does a risky 'soul-awaking event' look like in your small groups, affinity events and worship gatherings?

Questions to ponder:

When was the last time you took your church out on a prayer walk?

When was the last time your church demonstrated the unconditional love of Christ to your community?

What would stop your church from implementing a servant evangelism strategy?

What would be the ‘soul-awaking events’ in the life of your church?

Additional Spiritual Conversation Resources

Evangelism Training will Increase the Spiritual Conversations of Your Church

“Evangelism was the prerogative and duty of every church member… The ordinary people of the first century church saw it as their job: Christianity was supremely a lay movement, spread by informal missionaries.” – Michael Green

We will not advance the gospel through the church without serious training for every member in how to share the gospel winsomely and accurately. The Apostle Peter it makes in very clear that every follower of Jesus must be prepared to articulate the hope they have experienced in Christ.

“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”  I Peter 3:15

Here is a challenge for every church to embrace: Seek to train 1/3 of your church in evangelism this year.

In Win Arn’s classic book Church Growth Ratio Book, he states, “One of every three adults should receive evangelism training at least once a year.”

Why?

One of the gifts needed to build up the church is the gift of the evangelist (Ephesians 4:11-12). In many churches the emphasis is on nurturing existing Christians and strengthening the faith of current members is a preoccupation. While this is important it is incomplete if your spiritual formation plan has no evangelism component. If this training lacks little focus on reproduction it will lead to an inward mentality that will puff up the church instead of building up the church. Churches that continually make it a goal to train a significant portion of the congregation in evangelism tend to be more outreach-focused. If you have a church of 150, that means 50 people need to be trained in outreach. If you have a church of 1000, that means 333 people need to be trained. As your church grows bigger, I believe that achieving this ratio gets harder and needs for more focused attention from leaders.

How?

1. Develop a training rhythm that touches people weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually.

Weekly: by creating an investing, inviting and including culture.

Monthly: by providing entry-level immersion experiences

Quarterly: by offering full day equipping opportunities.

Annually: by offering Sunday morning/small group spiritual emphasis campaigns.

2. Start training trainers.

I have discovered that the faster I can get the training out of the professionals’ hands the quicker the lay leaders own the process.

Which lay leaders can reinforce your investing, inviting and including culture?

Which lay leaders can lead and promote your entry level experiences?

Which lay leaders can be mentored in training others to share their faith?

How many leaders can you engage in an annual spiritual emphasis campaign?

3.  Focus on one tool that will mark your church.

When you think of Campus Crusade (CRU), what evangelism tool comes to mind?  Four Spiritual Laws! When you think of Navigators? The Bridge!  The Billy Graham Association? Steps to Peace with God! What do people think of when it comes to your church?  Anything?  Find a tool and work the tool.  If you can’t find anything that fits your culture, then create one.  That’s what we did years ago with the Spiritual Journey Guide. It shaped our church and is now shaping thousands of other churches.

Action Steps

Keep track…how many people are you training a year?

Identify the evangelism in your congregation.

Find trainers…who can help you?

Find a tool…what works for you and your church culture?

Additional Spiritual Conversation Resources

19 Quotes from J. Hudson Taylor

Over thirty years ago, I saw my first Christian movie. It was about the life of J. Hudson Taylor. That movie and his books laid a spiritual foundation in my life on what it means to abide in Christ.  Here is a short bio and some of his faith-stretching thoughts.  May God inspire you through this man’s humble faith and precious insights in walking with Jesus.

James Hudson Taylor was a British Protestant Christian missionary to China and founder of the China Inland Mission (CIM) (now OMF International). Taylor spent 51 years in China. The society that he began was responsible for bringing over 800 missionaries to the country, which began 125 schools and directly resulted in 18,000 Christian conversions. He also established more than 300 stations of work with more than 500 local helpers in all eighteen provinces.

Taylor was known for his sensitivity to Chinese culture and zeal for evangelism. He adopted wearing native Chinese clothing even though this was rare among missionaries of that time. Under his leadership, the CIM was singularly non-denominational in practice and accepted members from all Protestant groups, including individuals from the working class and single women, as well as multinational recruits. Primarily because the CIM campaigned against the Opium trade, Taylor was referred to as one of the most significant Europeans who visited China in the 19th Century.

Quotes:

“I used to ask God to help me. Then I asked if I might help Him. I ended up by asking Him to do His work through me.” ― J. Hudson Taylor

“Do not work so hard for Christ that you have no strength to pray, for prayer requires strength.” ― J. Hudson Taylor

“Depend on it. God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply. He is too wise a God to frustrate His purposes for lack of funds, and He can just as easily supply them ahead of time as afterward, and He much prefers doing so.” ― J. Hudson Taylor

“I have found that there are three stages in every great work of God: 1. it is impossible, 2. it is difficult, 3. it is done.” ― J. Hudson Taylor

“I am so weak that I cannot read my Bible…even pray, I can only lie still in God’s arms like a little child, and trust.” ― J. Hudson Taylor

“The branch of the vine does not worry, and toil, and rush here to seek for sunshine, and there to find rain. No; it rests in union and communion with the vine, and at the right time and in the right way, is the right fruit found on it. Let us so abide in the Lord Jesus.” ― J. Hudson Taylor

“All our difficulties are only platforms for the manifestations of His grace, power, and love.” ― J. Hudson Taylor

“There are three indispensable requirements for a missionary: 1. Patience 2. Patience 3. Patience.” ― J. Hudson Taylor

“Our joy in Him may be a fluctuating thing: His joy in us knows no change.“ ― J. Hudson Taylor

“God isn’t looking for people of great faith, but for individuals ready to follow Him.” ― J. Hudson Taylor

“God uses men who are weak and feeble enough to lean on him.” ― J. Hudson Taylor

“It does not matter how great the pressure is. What really matters is where the pressure lies — whether it comes between you and God, or whether it presses you nearer His heart.” ― J. Hudson Taylor

“Let us never forget that what we are is more important than what we do.” ― J. Hudson Taylor

“It is not so much the greatness of our troubles, as the littleness of our spirit, which makes us complain.” – J. Hudson Taylor

“Whatever is your best time in the day, give that to communion with God.” ― J. Hudson Taylor

“Jesus is our strength, and what we cannot do or bear, He can both do and bear in us.” ― J. Hudson Taylor

“The Great Commission is not an option to be considered; it is a command to be obeyed.” ― J. Hudson Taylor

“All God’s giants have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on God being with them.” ― J. Hudson Taylor

“You must go forward on your knees.”  ― J. Hudson Taylor

Increasing the Spiritual Conversations of Your Pastoral Staff

I am amazed at how many pastoral staff members in local churches are woefully inactive at personally sharing their faith or even explaining the gospel.

How does one help their staff or volunteers to increase the number of spiritual conversations they get into in a typical week of ministry?

The place for a leader to start is prayer. Pray specifically for your team members to be active in sharing their faith. Paul prayed for Philemon when he wrote, "I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ" (Philemon 1:6).  When is the last time you prayed for your staff members to be active in sharing the good news of Jesus to those who they come in contact on a daily basis.

The second place would be to raise the faith level of your team by raising the expectations. One of the aspects of being a great team leader is raising the team's expectations. Suppose you are serious about increasing the spiritual conversations throughout your ministry as a leader. In that case, you will have to raise the expectations of yourself and the team God has given you.

What would happen if each of your team members engaged in at least two spiritual conversations a week? That would be hundreds of spiritual conversations a year. How many conversions would come from 100 conversations?  I believe our conversions will increase if we learn to count our conversations.

The third place would be to show them the opportunities right around them. A pastor friend of mine was leading a small group, and after about six months, he walked them through the Spiritual Journey Guide by asking everyone the simple question, "Where are you right now on your spiritual journey?" To his amazement, nearly half of the group identified themselves as spiritual seekers, not followers of Jesus. Assumptions kill evangelism! Because a person attends church or is connected relationally to a community of faith, unfortunately, it has little to do with that person's understanding of the gospel.

When coaching pastors in evangelism, I encourage them to look at the fringe people of their church first. They are always amazed at the receptivity of these people who have attended their church in the last year or infrequently for years to a phone call, personal visit, or an invitation to a small group designed for them. How many receptive people are there on the fringes of your ministry?

The martyr missionary Jim Elliot said, "Work where God is working. Don't hammer at unprepared soil when there is ready ground nearby."

Takeaways:

Start praying for your staff as Paul did for Philemon.

At every staff meeting, ask: Will anyone share one of the spiritual conversations they engaged in this last week?

Start identifying and praying for those on the fringe of your ministry.  Churches have hundreds and even thousands on their mailing or email lists.

Find a coach that will help you guide, inspire or lead your people into the work of evangelism. Contact team@garyrohrmayer.com for more information on the three-month coaching process that will help you increase your spiritual conversations.

Additional Spiritual Conversation Resources

Special Annoucement

 

Dear Friends,

After 35 years, we have closed Your Journey Resources' website. However, we will still maintain this blog so that you can find some of your favorite posts. We are excited to announce the launch of our brand-new website and blog! I will add new content and update old content on our new site.

www.garyrohrmayer.com

After months of hard work and dedication, we’re thrilled to share a fresh, user-friendly experience that we hope will make connecting with us easier and accessing the resources you need.

What’s New:
• Modern Design: A clean, sleek interface for more straightforward navigation
• Improved Functionality: Faster loading times and more intuitive features
• Mobile-Friendly: Optimized for all devices so you can stay connected on the go
• Enhanced Content: Updated information, blog posts, and free resources tailored to your needs

We invite you to visit www.garyrohrmayer.com and explore the new site. Whether you’re looking for the latest updates, resources, helpful guides, or our services, we’ve made it easier to find exactly what you need.

We’d love to hear your feedback. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to let us know.

Thank you for your continued support. We look forward to serving you even better through our new online home.

Best regards,
Gary & Mary Rohrmayer                                                                                                                                                                                                 

New Email: team@garyrohrmayer.com                                                                                                                                                       

Ten Practical Steps to Creating Momentum for Your Relaunch

“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:18

Every church will have a unique opportunity to Relaunch its ministry this fall. Whether your church is six weeks old or 170 years young, each church will have a chance to reorient its ministries, equip its leaders and inspire their people to fulfill the mission of Jesus of making more and better disciples in their unique context.

Here are ten practical steps to help you and your team to think through your Relaunch Plan.

1. Develop a team.
Too many pastors try to carry the load all by themselves, which is an unbiblical notion. Christianity is a team sport. Team building is one of the skills successful pastors need in their tool belts. Learning to pick the right players on your team is crucial. Guiding and leading the team is imperative. Trusting the team to execute the plan is empowering. Celebrating and encouraging the team is vital. I encourage pastors to use short-term task forces with a specific task, along with a starting and ending point. If you built a task force for each of your major outreach initiatives for fall, winter, and spring, your team-building skills would improve each time. Team building is a skill that is honed through the “learning by doing” process. Getting key influencers involved in the process is vital to building positive momentum throughout the church.

2. Determine a Date.
You will first need to pick a date for this relaunch. Some communities will be in early August, others will be Sunday after Labor Day, and still, others will choose early October. Whatever date you pick is okay as long as you select a date. Momentum will be generated as you bring focus to a specific timeframe. Remember, God, in his infinite wisdom, chose to launch the church on Pentecost. This date has a rich theological significance as well as many practical implications.

3. Develop a timeline.
To develop a reasonable schedule, start with the last date of the project, and work backward. If you are doing a fall growth push, here are a couple of ideas. End your fall outreach campaign on the first weekend in November with a family-friendly, social distancing appropriate comeback event and start July first with the selection of the team. We call this the “three-month rule,” which is to begin the detailed planning process at least three months before the launch of the outreach campaign. Here is an overview of what would happen in those three months:

4. Create a Theme or Big Idea.
Brainstorm ideas for delivering strong biblical content that addresses the heart issues of your mission field. Many pastors struggle with the creative aspects of leadership. I recommend that pastors research and purchase some of the excellent outreach or spiritual growth campaigns available. Many of these come with timelines, job descriptions, graphics, sermon ideas, and small group materials. The key is planning. After the church has done a few of these campaigns, then they can take a shot at developing their own.

5. Promote Prayer:
Raise the spiritual temperature of the church. It is a must to incorporate a church-wide prayer project before and during the campaign. One example: Call the church to “pray for five neighbors, for five minutes a day, for five weeks” before the outreach campaign. Another idea would be to mobilize the church to prayer walk your whole community before the campaign. You could also call the church to a season of prayer and fasting. Still, another idea is to do a 21 Day Prayer Campaign to get your churches to focus on praying missionally for your community.

6. Create Buzz Outside the Church:
Brainstorm ideas for creating buzz throughout your church, your community, and all the social media platforms. Work with your team to think of ways to get the word out. I like to use the biblical language of sowing to get the word out to our community and through our social media networks. Here is more information on the Sowing and Reaping Principle.

7. Create Excitement inside the Church.
Create urgency through effective vision casting. Create energy by promoting opportunities. Creating a sense of synergy throughout the church is essential. Drive the theme throughout the church. Getting every section of the church moving in the same direction is a momentum-building experience that creates positive energy and good morale. So, take your theme and drive it throughout the church, from seniors to youth, from singles to toddlers!

8. Develop next step opportunities.
Creating opportunities for new guests to connect relationally and spiritually is crucial to having a successful outreach campaign. Planning some family-friendly event is a great way to get people involved in serving for the first time and connecting relationally with others in the church. Offering entry-level Bible studies like Bible 101 or Christianity 101 within weeks of your outreach campaign is vital in providing the next steps for spiritually interested individuals. Finally, you want to offer people an opportunity to connect with the church and its leadership by providing some newcomer’s gathering or party at the pastor’s event where they hear the church's story and vision and connect relationally with key leaders.

Offer a Clear Call to Action

“Go into our online prayer room after the service.”
“Come to our ‘after party’ immediately after the service to meet other people and discuss the sermon.
“Download this resource for use during the week.
“Call a friend and [fill-in response relevant to the sermon], and then in your online small groups, tell each other how it went.”
“Please let us get to know you better by filling out a digital welcome/connection card.”
“Take this online survey to find the way that you can best serve right now.”
“If you prayed to receive Christ, begin telling others by putting something in the chat.”
“Ask God what He wants you to give financially, and then do whatever He shows you.”
“Sign up for a ‘meet the pastor webinar’ which temporarily replaces our ‘pizza with the pastor’ get acquainted event.”
Source: Warren Bird, ECFA

9. Recruit volunteers to fill needed ministry roles:
Doing a relaunch is an excellent opportunity to recruit and train new volunteers for setting up, cleaning, event planning, children’s ministry, ushers, greeters, follow up, administration, new hosts for small groups, and small group apprentices and leaders, etc.

10. Drive your vision and values deeper into the culture of your church:
Remember, anytime you do an outreach campaign, it is an opportunity to drive your missional vision and values deeper into the lives of your people. The values of evangelism, community, spiritual dependence and community transformation come alive during the campaign and provide personal growth and corporate maturity opportunities.

Conclusion:
Pastors, church leaders, and all followers of Jesus, this worldwide pandemic is providing for us a defining moment. A moment to not only relaunch our churches, but it is also an opportunity to recalibrate our ministry priorities and for you as a pastor to retool pastoral and leadership skills. Pastors, I know you are psychologically exhausted. I don’t think any of us would have imagined that we would be doing ministry in the fashion we are doing today. And yet, it is in moments like these that God shows up and does the unprecedented. May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ give a fresh experience of his strength (Ephesians 3:16), a fresh encounter with his love (Ephesians 3:17-19), and a fresh vision for the future (Ephesians 3:20-21).

Free Resources for Relaunching Your Church This Fall

“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." Isaiah 43:18

Whether your church is 6 weeks old or 170 years young, every church will have a unique opportunity to Relaunch their ministry this fall. Each church will be able to reorient their ministries, equip their leaders, and inspire their people to fulfill the mission of Jesus, making more and better disciples in their unique context.

As we navigate the COVID19 pandemic, we are discovering that many of our churches have been rising to the challenge and finding their unique missional voice during this crisis. In light of this we at Converge MidAmerica and creating an online learning community called Relaunch.

Relaunch is a 4-session online experience designed to help you develop a unique plan for relaunching your ministry this fall. Sign up with your email to access Relaunch resources.