Who Say's You Can't Get Anything For Nothing?

While snooping around the web... I found this FREE book called Facebook For Pastors. If you're keen to check it out then Click HERE.

WOW... isn't it exciting when you can get your hands on a bargin : )

What have been your experiences in using technology to connect with people, share your story and your faith?
I look forward to hearing your stories.

Connecting With Our Postmodern Culture

I got this great quote from my mate Jeremy's blog:


This is a quote from Ravi Zacharias that has huge implications for evangelism in the emerging culture.

"We must learn to find the back door to people’s hearts because the front door is heavily guarded."

The Moscow Rules - Part 1

Over the past 3/4 weeks I have had a bit of an obsession...
I have consumed just short of 4 seasons of the TV show Alias!
Its a great show with plenty of suspense and adrenaline pumping action.

If I must be totally honest... I've even had a few "CIA" dreams...
Anyhow... a few blogs ago I did a post on 'Innovative Church Leaders Move Into The Neighborhood' which spoke about the Buzz Conference 07. At the Buzz conference Mark Batterson did 2 messages on 'The Moscow Rules'. I thought I'd take a few of his thoughts, mix them with some of mine and do a few blogs on these various rules.

Before we go there... heres a piece on the Moscow Rules:
The list may never have existed as written; agent Tony Mendez wrote "Although no one had written them down, they were the precepts we all understood ... By the time they got to Moscow, everyone knew these rules. They were dead simple and full of common sense..."

So here are 10 of those rules:
1. Know Your Mission
2. Gather Intelligence
3. Maintain A Natural Pace
4. Vary Your Pattern
5. Blend Into The Crowd
6. Be Aware Of Your Environment At All Times
7. Avoid Defensiveness At All Times
8. Assume That You're Under Survelience
9. Never Go Against Your Gut
10. Never Look Back

So today lets look at rule #1: Know Your Mission

Our mission as Christians is simple... To win people over so that we can share our lives and faith with them.
Jesus left us with the great commission (Matt 28:18-20) but in the church today it has become more of the great omission!
Jesus said that he came for the sick... but how much of our lives are spent in pursuit of the sick, the lost, the hopeless?

I must admit my greatest challenge is prioritizing space in my life for hanging out and doing life with those who need Jesus. Life is sooo busy, and I have just found over and over again that without great initiative and proactive planning on my part... this just doesn't happen.

Those who work statistics will tell you that after 2 years in the church, the average Christian doesn't spend anytime with non-Christians! How sad!!

This life will be over in a few blinks of the eye... you'll look in the mirror and wonder where the past 70 years have gone...
This life would have been wasted... even if we busied ourselves in church programs and devotion without concern for those who don't personally know Jesus!

What do you need to change in your week?
What tips do you have for keeping on mission?

I look forward to your comments : )

The Most Powerful Way To Share Your Faith

The following is an article taken from the 'Here I Am Send Me' website which is run by Jeremy Sargent of Eastside Church in Hamilton.
Make sure you visit his website, its excellent! You can subscribe to their 3 Words which the following article is taken from (March 07). You can subscribe to this monthly encouragement for free.

Evangelism would be very easy if everybody who was going to be saved would wear a fluorescent sticker on the forehead stating “Please tell me how i can be saved.”Wouldn’t this make the job of the evangelist so much easier and save a lot of “Wasted” time?

Well, the Lord hasn’t chosen this “Ideal” (or so it would seem) way of dealing with those who don’t know him.He has instead given us a very simple way of dealing with those who don’t know him; Listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit.In the book of Acts, Phillip the evangelist was told by the Holy Spirit to go and stand by the Chariot. He did, and he found a hungry soul looking for salvation. It all turned out well and the convert even suggested his own baptism should occur.

So, good evangelism is not witnessing according to a particular teaching (although teaching is necessary for good evangelism) nor is it presenting the same formula over and over to different people in order to get a result.(although if you process enough people with this method you will have some return for your work)

Good evangelism is listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit as to WHAT THAT PARTICULAR PERSON NEEDS TO HEAR AT THAT PARTICULAR TIME, and listening to what the person you are talking to is really saying.

Example;I met a man at the Otorohanga Fair Last weekend who used to go to Church. He had just had the death of one of his Children in December and was still reeling from grief. He had also had another one of his children die previous to the last one. Not all have the fortitude and strength of Job to bear up under extreme circumstances like this. He had returned to drinking alcohol for comfort.

He didn’t need to hear that getting drunk was sinful, but he needed to hear some truth. So I said to him, “Alcohol is a thing. It is not a person and so it cannot really comfort you. You need a person to comfort you in your grief. I recounted how God himself had to watch his own Son on the cross. God is acquainted with grief more than anyone in this world. I then said I would pray for him regularly. I have put his name on my mobile phone to remind me of his situation.The Spirit blows where He wants to. Listen up and be ready to obey.

Peter Guyot

Let me encourage you to put this article into practice today! Trust me, when you ask Jesus for opportunities, and you ask Him to guide you each step of the way, you'll be amazed by the results!

So log on to the 'Here I Am Send Me' website and share your faith adventure stories under the 'Breaking The Sound Barrier' tab.