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“Never write what you dare not sign. An anonymous letter-writer is a sort of assassin, who wears a mask, and stabs in the dark. Such a man is a fiend with a pen. If discovered, the wretch will be steeped in the blackest infamy.” Charles Spurgeon.
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The following notes are in reference to the Summit we hold each year in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. It is a wonderful time of great blessing. I hope you will make plans to attend.
Thank you for being at and helping make the Summit happen. It was a wonderful blessing and challenge. I had known for two years that I was being directed toward the mission field but I liked having a tangible commitment that will help keep me accountable. I only wish that all my high school students would have come (I teach Spanish and English at a Christian school). Right now I am going to finish teaching this school year and complete my Spanish major in college this summer. Keep standing for the Word of God and for worldwide missions.
God bless,
Faith
I had an awesome time at the summit! The Lord really worked in all of us that were there from our church. After the camp me, Tiffany, and Erica were so excited and all and wanted to do some things, but there were only 3 of us, so nothing really happened. But this time my dad came and all those other young people. And we had 4 guys!!!! Which is great because they can go and recrute all the other guys because they’re pretty popular at church and the other guys usually will listen to them. I can not tell you how excited we all are right now. It was so awesome to see the Lord work in their hearts and 3 of them signed the pledge. Hannah and Lindsay and Jonathan. Jonathan is a great guy and I know God is going to use him greatly. He actually is one of the 6 guys that said they felt like God wanted them to go to Argentina to help Jeff Bush. He is so excited. Friday night when we went to Ober Gatlinburg, after we finished iceskating we ate supper and it was so neat because we weren’t sitting around talking about useless things, we were talking about how we could start a visitation program at our church and just planning how we could impact people in our generation! Then my dad came over and we’ve decided to start a visitation on Sunday afternoons. Our dad is going to train us and then we’re going to start! We’re also going to lead a mission’s Bible study on Wednesday nights for the young people in the church.
Me, Tiffany, Hannah, and Lindsay are doing one for the girls and Jonathan and Zach are doing it for the boys. The ones that went to the summit are going to get together regularly and share and keep each other accountable so our fire doesn’t go out and we’re going to pray for the world each time we get together! Last night at church we had a time of testimony. We were given 10 minutes so we each had about a minute. But even though we didn’t have very long, I really think the Lord used it in the lives of others. Already we have a lot of people coming to the camp, or people saying they want to come! Jillian, I’m so excited! I’ve been praying so hard that God would wake us up and that people at our church could see the needs of the world and catch the vision so we can make history in our generation! I really think the Lord is
answering our prayers! I will definately keep you updated on what goes on!
Hello!
I was privileged to attend the Our Generation Summit this past weekend with 16 others from my home church. God touched every one of our hearts in a very specific and powerful way, as well as uniting us into a team. The purpose of this email is to let you know the great work God is already doing in our church.
We requested an opportunity to give our testimonies after the Sunday evening service (December 19th). Unfortunately, a church-wide business meeting was planned, so they would only give us 10 minutes. Ten minutes for 12 testimonies following a life-changing event in each of our lives! However, God so blessed our brief testimonies that as we gathered around to discuss our plan of action for the next few weeks, other young people began to gather around. More and more young people joined our group as we talked and they begged to be allowed to get involved! We are planning our first meeting of all the young people on Monday, December 27th to nail down our goals for this coming year.
One of the young ladies is organizing a girls’ missions Bible study on Wednesday nights at church, and one of the young men is planning to do the same. All of us will be contributing. Also, Pastor Doug (the assistant pastor of our church who attended the Summit) is helping us jump-start a visitation program on Sunday afternoons. Sunday evening he announced our plans to start that, and already we have had many people express a desire to get involved in that way.
We are almost too excited for words and hope this brief testimony was an encouragement to each of you.
God bless!
Erica
for the energized youth at Calvary
When in the course of Christian events, it becomes necessary to dissolve the emotional bands that bind us to a carnal life, to form a more perfect vision of worldwide evangelism.
Sorry this letter took so long to finally make its appearance, but I wanted to wait until everything was completely settled before I gave an update. At 2:30 P.M. on Wednesday, August 20th, my engagement officially ended. This infamous regime has been put to a permanent end. I thank you all for your prayer and support throughout this whole ordeal. That same night I told my parents everything that I have decided to do and that I have no intentions of changing my mind. They are reluctant yet willing to support me.
I am presently raising money to leave the U.S. on Sept. 30th, allowing me to officially arrive in Peru on Oct. 1st. I know that the Lord will supply all of my needs, including the small sum of $5,200 that is necessary to fund my 6 months of training as a BCWE student. The Bible does tell me that whatsoever state I am in, therewith to be content, but it’s hard to do so when I am in the “state” of Ohio and my heart is in South America.
To God be the glory!
In Christ,
Tyler
7. What to do in the actual session
a. Start with prayer
b. Teach him to read his Bible each day
i. Don’t forget that you cant ask him to do anything that you are not doing
ii. You will be accountable to him as he is to you
iii. He is to read a passage that is the same one that you are reading
iv. He is to keep a written record
1. Date, text
2. What the passage says
3. How he can apply it to his life
c. Discuss what he has read each day the past week and motivate him to read to get something from the word each day
d. Have him take notes on all the Pastor’s messages and Sunday School so that you can discuss what he doesn’t understand Matthew 13:10-17, 36
e. Go over the Bible verse for the week
f. Each week have him memorize 5 books of the Bible until he has memorized all the books of the Bible and can successfully find Bible passages
g. Ask him what he is dealing with or might have a question about so that you can help him from the Scriptures
h. Take the lesson of the week and go over it for the remainder of your time
i. Do not progress until he understands and accepts the Bible lesson
j. You are not in a hurry to cover a certain amount of the lesson. Your goal is to love him and help him in his personal and family life
k. Give him some homework for next week and then have prayer
l. Be sure to work at developing your friendship
m. It is your responsibility to spend time with him at church, before and after so that he can be assimilated into the church
8. After about 8 lessons have him seek out his own disciple and begin teaching him.
i. You will coach him each week as you help him disciple others
ii. Make him a success and he will love you for the thrill he gets from helping others
9. Get him involved in the ministry of the church
a. Sit with him and his family
b. Get him to Sunday School and all the activities of the church
c. Teach him to tithe, get to church on time, listen etc by your example
d. Ephesians 4:11-12
10. Remember that the goal is not a series of lessons but to develop a man who can train others also
a. Our Goal is to develop leaders of leaders and not just leaders
b. To truly develop a man you must take him from the very basic level to the priority God wants him to have of being reproductive
c. Prepare all to serve God full time and be shocked if they do not
d. Take them as far as they are willing to go
“Young men and women, why stand ye here all the day idle? Was the land all occupied before you were born? Has the earth ceased to yield its increase? Are the seats all taken? The positions all filled? The chances all gone? Are the resources of your country fully developed? Are the secrets of nature all mastered? Is there no way in which you can utilize these passing moments to improve yourself or benefit another? Is the competition of modern existence so fierce that you must be content to simply gain an honest living? Have you received the gift of life in this progressive age, where in all the experience of the past is garnered for your inspiration, merely that you may increase by one the sum total of purely animal existence?
“Don’t wait for your opportunity, make it.”
Orisen Swett Marden
Do not miss the new blog that Tony Howeth has started called Deputation Tips. It will have a lot of information that will be very helpful to you in your ministry. You can sign up for it via email or through your reader.
4. Remember that true discipleship is more than a lesson from a book
a. It is life on life
b. It is loving them as your family
c. It is investing or pouring yourself into another person
d. It is withness Mark 3:14
5. Get the right attitude towards your disciple
a. It is more caught than taught. They learn from watching us. I Corinthians 16:10-11, 4:17
b. Take them forward at the speed that they are able to go. Genesis 33:13-14
c. Have double vision. See them as they are and then see them where God wants them to be. Judges 6:13-18. (How God saw Gideon)
d. You cannot lead people where you have not already been nor to do what you have not already done or are doing.
e. Have compassion Hebrews 5:1-4
6. Use the right method
a. Allow your disciple to think for himself and to make mistakes
b. Consider what Jesus did with his disciples
i. Luke 10:1, 17
ii. Luke 8:22, 25
iii. John 6:6
2. Pray that God will provide you with a person that you can train and disciple for the kingdom of Christ
a. Jesus prayed all night –God to God—before choosing His disciples Luke 6:12
b. Begin praying now and pray and watch at all times until God gives you a person to train
3. Watch for the man God wants you to train
a. Ask God for a band of men whose hearts he has touched. I Samuel 10:26
b. Be on the lookout for men that you can call to yourself and train. I Samuel 14:52
c. Some will come from our own family as we train our children Noah and his three sons, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the 12 sons
d. Some will come from our ministry Moses and Joshua and the other leaders, captains and judges that worked with Moses
e. Some God will miraculously call out and send to you Eli and Samuel
f. Others will be at work in other jobs and not even in the ministry but God will use you to see them called into His service Elijah and Elisha
g. Others will give their lives to be trained as in the sons of the prophets
h. Men will be drawn to you as they see God’s hand on you and want to be a part of what God is doing in your life and ministry
i. Some will be struggling to find their place and you will be there at the right time to help them Barnabas and Saul
j. Some will be saved under the ministry of someone else but you can adopt them into your ministry as your son Paul and Timothy
k. Some will be prepared under the ministry of another to a certain point and then God will send them to you—disciples of John the Baptist that followed Jesus Christ
l. Some will be saved under your ministry
m. The point is God will get you the men to train as you seek to put his plan into action
Colossians 1:26, II Timothy 2:2
1. Prepare yourself and your personal walk with the Lord
a. How have you developed your private walk with the Lord
i. Psalms 15
ii. Ephesians 4
iii. Colossians 3
iv. James 1:21
v. Confessing and forsaking sin I John 1:9
vi. Accepting the way God made you Psalms 139:14-17
vii. Believing God to use you to help others
b. How faithful are you to your regular or everyday service to the Lord
i. Church attendance
ii. Giving
iii. Praying
iv. Personal Bible reading
v. Witnessing
c. How is your personal relationship with your wife and children
d. Do you pay your bills on time?
e. How do you manage your personal relationships with others
f. How are you serving the Lord in the church and other ways
g. Are you ready to make discipleship the priority ministry of your life?
h. Do you have a Bible conviction that the way to obey God, reach the world, and build a church is through personal discipleship