Army advances!

Good news people! I heard about this the other day but thought Id blog it, taken from New Frontier publications:

When William Booth died, The Salvation Army existed in 56 countries. With the opening of this new outpost in Saipan, that number officially doubled, as Saipan became the 112th nation to fly the Army flag.

Hallelujah!

Also, went to a Purpose driven church confrence today, fantastic but more about that later!

Immediate results

Ive been challenged recently about how fast we expect people to be transformed by the gospel. I hear people talking about how "it takes time" for someone to be saved. How people wont accept the gospel straight away, you need to show them this and that first. I get confused because I know revival can sweep through a place terribly quickly and I look at The salvos fast rise but look at us now and wonder, what did they do that we dont? What is the difference? I found this interesting passage which talks about why The Salvation Army was succeeding...

by George Scott Railton from "Heathen England"


1. The Army succeeds by aiming at immediate results.
We have always aimed at immediate and definite results, believing that the
Gospel of Christ, properly preached in the demonstration of the Spirit, and with power, ought to prove, must prove, visibly as well as in the heart, its divine efficiency. What, indeed, can be the use of preaching, unless it secures some immediate result? Especially must this question arise when the audience largely consists of those who are little disposed even to listen to the Gospel; who have never come under its sound before, and never may again.


II. The Army succeeds by making the most of the converts.
When people are converted, as in the Apostles' days, so now, they not only love and bless God, but it is easy for those who have given them a hand, and lifted them on to their feet, to lead them about the city anywhere — marching, singing, praising and blessing God, where "all the people" can see them. The people always did, and always will, run together wondering at such a sight. Upon the principle of utilizing every convert to proclaim the glad tidings to others, the Army has always diligently acted, and therefore at every station it has opened, a band of men and women have been organized and trained daily to attack the kingdom of the wicked one, and daily to expect to gain recruits for the ranks.


III The Army succeeds by teaching converts to be Holy.
Not content with merely setting before sinners the way of salvation from the guilt, power, and punishment of sin, the Army has constantly pointed out to its converts that full salvation which Jesus has been expressly declared to offer to His people, so that they "being delivered out of the hand of their enemies, — might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of their life.”


IV. The Army succeeds by teaching its hearers to do their utmost towards
meeting the expenses of the work.
The cost of hiring the buildings used, and of maintaining the officers and their families in the circumstances they have been accustomed to as working people, has been increasingly contributed to by those who have attended the services, and only supplemented by the liberality of Christian friends throughout the country, who have appreciated the opportunity of helping those who were thus diligent in helping themselves; so that, during one year, more than £12,000 are received from the poor, as against £4,000 given by the rich: We think it a vastly important test of the value of any work done amongst the poor, to what extent they themselves help to keep it up.

wow! Imagine if we did all that as an Army. Im going to try to work out how I can do that where I am now! Please, join with me in faith as we try to rekindle the coals!

6For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. 1 Timoth 1:6-7

my life...

Whats been happening recently in my life? Im glad you asked...

Been working at Plenty Valley Salvos! Such a great place to work! We had a greenhouse consultation (or something like that) which looks at the church and tries to put the church on a fast track to growth by making the corps healthy... Anyway, Ive joint the church at a great time! Everyones so positive and wants to see God glorified in our community!

Monday night was a great night! Went to "Strike" which is Macleods youth cell group and I taught them some listening prayer! They got prophets there! Their junior soldiers are awessome prophetesses! God spoke and we heard Him! Hallelujah! Then I had bascketball and topped scored, we lost but im happy! ; )

Tuesday had brekie club at the school with awessom results. Got a few of the guys there who said theyd join my indoor soccer team. I also got a few others who said theyd help me with a school holiday club im running! Praise God theyre open to hanging out and helping out! God save them!

Today was full on. Long day. Im enjoying working at church! I know Gods called me here and I know Gods got big plans for the place and people!

Heres a quote by Michael Phelp the swimmer who keeps smashing world records in pretty much every stroke. After winning and smashing ANOTHER record
Reporter: "How do you keep going faster?"
Philp: "I listen to my coach and take the beating in and out of the pool!"

Wow!

How do you stop sinning?

Church advancement

I WAS thinking, while I was reading the lesson, that, supposing we could blot out from our minds all knowledge of the history of Christianity from the time of this Inauguration Service--from that Pentecostal Baptism--or, at any rate, from the close of the period described in the Acts of the Apostles, suppose we could detach from our minds all knowledge of the history of Christianity since then, and take the Acts of the Apostles and sit down and calculate what was likely to happen in the world, what different results we should have anticipated, what a different world we should have reckoned upon as the outcome of it all. A system which commenced under such auspices, with such assumptions and professions on the part of its Author (speaking after the manner of men), and producing, as it did, in the first century of its existence, such gigantic and momentous results. We should have said, if we knew nothing of what has intervened from that time to this, that, no doubt the world where that war
commenced, and for which it was organized, would have long since been subjugated to the influence of that system, and brought under the power of its great originator and founder! I say, from reading these Acts, and from observing the spirit which animated the early disciples, and from the way in which everything fell before them, we should have anticipated that ten thousand times greater results would have followed, and, in my judgment, this anticipation would have been perfectly rational and just.
Catherine Booth (JAC Aggressive Christianity)

How BIG is God to you? How BIG is the revelation that God has given you of Himself? How BIG is His GRACE? How BIG is His POWER? How much does He LOVE the world? Do you believe God has the GRACE and POWER compelled by His LOVE to transform THE WORLD?

Do you believe He can heal people? Do you believe God can change the world in a second? Do you believe that once someone gives their life to God He can transform their life? That when people come to Jesus addiction and depression can fall off? Do you believe God has the power and the love to do so?

Not only do you believe HE CAN, but do you believe HE DOES and HE WILL?

I do. And when I see the advancement of the gospel in Australia going so slow when there is such strong spiritual hunger I get upset and cant help but wonder what we are doing wrong.

Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" John 11:40

Structure of the church

Here’s the basic structure of how a church meets together,

1) Call to worship
2) Songs
3) Bible reading
4) Songs
5) Sermon
6) Songs

We have a pretty much professionalised service, we have priests, altars, rituals, non members and a lot of members are in the audience as spectators. Leaders have power and authority. This structure really doesn’t change. It hasn’t changed since it came into being in the fourth century when Constantine made Christianity the official religion.

My last blog showed how ineffective that structure is for getting people saved and discipled.

Up until Constantine the church had been meeting in homes and in open spaces as a big group for a celebration. People were added to their numbers daily. Jesus never said anything about congregations. If we look at all churches around the world, the ones that are actually growing are the ones that have small groups that multiply themselves.

Is it a coincidence, that when Christians get together in their homes, share their possessions and lives, pray and eat together and include all people whether saved or not, that people get saved and discipled? Why do we bother with this other structure that only works once in a blue moon?

What would happen if we stopped all Sunday congregations and instead decided to have house churches or cell/Bible study groups? How many people would we loose? Now, why would we loose them? Because they like the structure of the church as it is, they are comfortable with it, even though the structure we have is not effective!

There can be some problems with house churches, please raise them with me and I’ll discuss them in my next blog! Until then, how bout this as a picture of church:

42They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Acts 2:42-47

ME CHURCH

Ive been reading a book by Wolfgang Simson called "House Churches that change the world." So far it is FANTASTIC!

A church had 50 new people come to an evangelistic meeting, no one got saved or stayed on at the church but the pastor told someone, "Its ok, we're following them up."

Now, most people I know would say that the majority of people get saved through relationmships etc outside of the church building, service etc. Rather its by people evangelising them, talking and journeying with them outside the church.

Why do we put so much emphasis on "church" if it doesnt get people saved o discipled? Its simply not working. Some churches grow yes. But when we look at the population of Australia and see how many are getting saved we're not making any in-roads. WHY?

Is it that people dont want the gospel or we as Christians arent taking them the gospel? In all of my talks to people at target, 614, people on the street etc, from looking at tv shows, songs on the radio, books and magazines in secular Australia, there is NO DOUBT IN MY MIND THAT PEOPLE ARE SEARCHING! So what is wrong?




The definition of crazy, "Doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result." Are we doing that with church? Are we trying to reinvent something that DOES NOT WORK? Why is church as it it? What is its purpose?

From looking at it, its for those already saved, people possibly too traditional, too comfortable to jump out of the boat and into the sea to save souls. Am I being too harsh?I dont think so. But, what do you think about church? Is it effective? (Also, take a look at Mike Colemans blog which talks about the state of TSA...)

I'll explain some of my therefores in later posts....

Youth Workers Confrence 1

Ive been pretty busy at the Youth Workers confrence which was great so heres a couple of the things I learnt...

The early Salvos were about the things on the right, have we gone towards the things on the right these days?

"The Salvation Army use to be about:
Innovation not Tradition
Going not Staying
Worst not Best
Committment not Comfort"

Heres another quote, "95% of churches are aimed at 12% of the population!"

Definition of insanity, "Doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result!" Hmmm sounds like the model we have for church...

Tomorrow I'll put some stuff up from Wolfgang Simson.... Verry challenging

Revelation 2:4-7
Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. 5Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. 6But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Plent Valley

Yesterday I got some great news. I have a job!!!

I am going to be serving God and the people at Plenty Valley Corps as the Community Development Worker with an emphasis on youth! Its a 3 day per week position involving school ministry and developing lots of new stuff, working with Croosroads!

I meet with them next Friday to work out all the details!

Thanks for all your prayers! God is good!

"The harvest is plenty, but laborers are few, beg the Lord of the harvest to send more laborers."

God answers prayer!

Firstly, On an unrelated topic, has anyone ever been to Koorong without a) seeing someone they know, or b) not buying anything, or even c) both??? Its an mazing place...

Anyway. One of the things I love about God is that He answers prayer! I dont believe our prayers are powerful in themselves, rather the God who answers prayer is powerful! 2 stories...

Yesterday I did Junior Soldiers, I did the session with the three young junior soldiers, (around about 7-9 years old...) on "Listening Prayer." I encouraged them and told them they had all heard God speak to them and I got them to tell me some of the times they have heard God speak in a variety of ways. We did some personal friendship questions with Jesus, then we stepped into a Bible story, then we prayed for each other asking God what to say to each other.

The Junior Soldiers were on fire! They asked God what to say then encouraged, prophesied and gave words of knowledge to each other! I was about to finish but I made them do the same for me and what they said was very spot on! God is good and answers prayer!

Then today I had a phone call from some friends who I had prayed with recently. I had prayed that their son would get better. Surprise, surprise, there son has been miraculously healed! Thankyou Jesus!

So, when you pray do you believe God will answer? Or do you leave a message on His answering machine and not let Him speak back to you? When reading the Bible do you simply read the menu or taste the meal? I'll leave you with Gods phone number...

Jeremiah 3:33 'Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.'

Motivations

Heres my two motivations for getting people saved!

1) Love for God!

2) Love for people!

37Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' (Matthew 22:37-39)

And heres a funny clip on motivating people for evangelism...

Whats your motivations for evangelising? Or whats your motivations for NOT evangelising?