EVANGELISM…REAL TIME

What a ride! Six nights of presentations are done! We are half way through!

Above All Powers is on! Four presenters shared insights on pain, economy, depression, health, forgiveness. Evangelist Omar Palmer led in faith building prayer. By the way, he’s coming again tomorrow, Sunday evening. This time his request is for those who have specific needs for healing, specific burdens that they pray to be lifted, write them down on a piece of paper, and bring it with you Sunday night. Fourteen musicians and singers blessed us with their gifts during this past week! And above all – the fellowship, relationship building with guests.

My faith has been encouraged in sharing the testimony of our faith in soon coming Saviour. Some of you may not notice – but there is a room to the side, occupied throughout meetings by prayers, people who pray constantly for every aspect of these meetings. When one night presentation got to a “sleepy” start, as tired after work people were getting comfortable in warmed up chairs, a person from the audience went to the prayer room to ask for more fervent prayer. That night the audience was kept awake by an extra long presentation about God’s calendar, the 1844 proclamation of the Judgment, and the three Divine appointments yet to be fulfilled: Return of Jesus in Glory, temporary millennial vacation to heaven, and the return of saints to the Earth made new.

This whole experience is much needed revival for our church in London. There is nothing more efficient in training than “hands-on” training, and it is exciting to see how people are filling gaps.

Eight (8) individuals requested baptism, eleven (11) feel they need to study and understand more. We are planning a special baptismal service on Sunday afternoon. The location is yet to be decided, depending on the number of candidates. I pray that as more messages are presented this week, those who are undecided will be strengthened spiritually, and make commitments for Jesus.

The celebration of Christ continues here for another week. Bring your friends to share the blessing. This experience is the catalyst of change in lives of all participants, both presenters and the audience. When we confess Christ He is faithful to confess us before the Father. (Matthew 10:32)

Evangelism will never be outdated. It is of increasing importance and intensifying need the nearer we come to the end of time. One thing I wish for – more guests, more people invited to hear the truth. I am reflecting on Paul’s words to a church: “Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity” (Colossians 4:5 NLT). We need to be persuasive, it was what Jesus told us to be, if we are serious about what we believe. One of the parables (Luke 14:23) says “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel, (persuade) them to come in, that my house may be filled.”

Apostle Paul in his ministry followed this principle, persuading people to continue in the Grace of God (Acts 13:43; 18:4; 19:26). He was not always successful, as in Acts 26:28 when Agrippa said to Paul, "You almost persuade me to become a Christian." We cannot override people’s choice. God does not either. But it is our calling to be persuasive, and serious about it. Make the most of the next week, as we have 6 more evenings to go!

EVANGELISM! TURNING POINT IN OUR MINISTRY.

I am writing this early Thursday morning, not knowing yet what the attendance will be Friday night. You are reading this early Sabbath morning , and from your perspective it is last night that we had began our first public evangelistic outreach in the city on this large scale.

I know that people are sent by God to our meetings: people, who are seeking because their spirits were touched by the Holy Spirit with conviction. Now it is our work, over the next two weeks, to demonstrate by example commitment. Every night we will be asking our guests for commitment to follow Jesus, and they will be looking in turn on our example of being committed to Jesus Commission.

Paul is writing a letter to a church in Philippi (4:9) “Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do.” Note the word “both” present in the King James translation. Even though there four principles stated the emphasis is dual, and it is expressed in parallels - we learn by hearing, and we receive by seeing. I invite you to show your commitment to the Great Gospel Commission by doing three things (Matthew 28:19-20):

• go out of your comfort zone, set a time for simply going to the meetings, go out of your usual daily routine of work and miscellaneous running around;
• disciple, befriend people in meetings, stay after meetings, come out earlier, mingle, chit-chat to get to know people, associate;
• consecrate yourself, your time, your home, your money to continue in teaching and mentoring, to follow up on relationships you’ve made, imparting to those you chose the Holy Spirit power available in your own life.

We have done all we could, even exceeded our budget in faith, purchasing (not renting!) equipment for the future efforts, knowing that God will bless and we will recover financially before the next effort in the fall. As I drive by the marquee electronic sign on Egerton & Florence I saw the 4 line sign advertising our event. Over last 10 days literally tens of thousands of people read the sign. You’ve taken personal invitation cards to your friends, some of you mailed tens of personal invitations. We have prayed, prepared, organized. Now it is about watching God’s hand at work, God’s Power and Spirit manifested, leading people to repentance.

Let’s remember that Evangelism is about imparting to people what Jesus imparted to us: life, joy, peace, hope, love. And Above All – the Holy Spirit! Pray that you will have Him to give. We give from what we have. Pray to be filled abundantly, that from your overflow of blessings others would be blessed.

EVANGELISM! NO TURNING BACK!

This coming Friday we begin the Evangelistic outreach in the city. For three weeks you have been inviting people you know with postcards. Estimated 6,000 postcards had been distributed by church members alone. If you tune in Sunday 11:30 am to the GraceFM 105.9 you will hear the It Is Written broadcast with an invitation to the upcoming meetings, and a sample of the music, Marian Kossovan singing. The program is in place. Presenters, singers and prayer support are ready. We are praying for the Holy Spirit to empower everyone involved. We are praying that this event would literally turn our churches, and the city upside down.

Last week I shared the format of programming for every night, inviting you to read, visualize, and pray about it. There have been contributions made which already improved the programming. We are expecting live praise music from Indonesian and Filipino groups 15 minutes before the beginning of the program. Come early, for 6:45 not to miss the inspiring praise.

At 7 pm Mike Keim will come out and welcome the audience, helping people to connect with each other and build the climate of friendliness and participation.

From 7:05 to 7:15 every night a unique need will be addressed and a prayer offered for people experiencing these needs. Just to give you a foretaste – Wanito Bernadin from St.Catharines church will speak about tensions in the Youth Culture today; Zak Abdel Sayed will speak three different nights about dealing with pain, surviving economic meltdown, and parenting problems; Gord & Kathy Rayner will address issues of depression, addictions; Jovin Mwizerwa from Rwanda will speak on Forgiveness.

7:15 we will be graced by a musical number, after which there will be a time for Question & Answer period, addressing questions from the previous presentation, ending with a prayer. Each night one of our London elders will pray interceding for the conversion work of the Holy Spirit.

At 7:35 the second musical item will lead into the feature presentation of the evening.

At 8:20 the presentation will end with a closing song and an appeal. By 8:30pm the program will be completed. We invite you not to rush out, to take your time and mingle with people, building relationships, encouraging their questions. At that time there will be spiritually charged environment where convictions are readied. Be sensitive to people searching God and answers to their life.

The need right now is for 24 committed persons/teams to serve as row-hosts, registering people, handing out pens, cards, materials, and collecting correspondence back for the registration team. Please speak directly to pastor Alex if this is your area of interest.

Let’s remember that Evangelism is about imparting to people what Jesus imparted to us: life, joy, peace, hope, love. And Above All – the Holy Spirit! Pray that you will have Him to give. We give from what we have. Pray to be filled abundantly, that from your overflow of blessings others would be blessed.

EVANGELISM, IMPARTING THE HOLY SPIRIT!

The countdown is 2 weeks to our opening of the Evangelistic outreach in the city. You have the postcards to invite people you know. Remember the personal invitation, you bringing a friend, and praying for speaker and other people involved that they would be used by God, for the sake of your friend – is the first ingredient of success.

I would like to share the proposed format of programming for every night. Please read, visualize, pray about, and if you see how the program could be more effective, speak to me directly.

1. Welcome/announcements/MC connecting with the audience, helping people to connect with each other and build the climate of friendliness and participation. 5 min

2. Ministry presentation: health/parenting/finances/family, specifically selected for each nightly topic, presented by guest speakers. 5 min

3. During these presentations the Evangelist (pastor Alex) will ask the audience to write their prayer requests, and to come for the prayer on related needs. For example, if the presentation is on parenting – asking families who need help with parenting, who’s got troubles in their family to come for prayer. When health is addressed – inviting people with those problems to come for prayer. Evangelist Omar Palmer from Toronto will visit with us twice for the special prayer for healing. 5 min

4. Children Story time à parable/metaphor/image to illustrate the message, and to connect with all ages. Done by puppet theatre, by storytellers, and other groups. 7 min

5. Special Musical selection. 5 min

6. Prayer for the Spiritual blessing. Each night an elder from our local churches will pray. 3 min

7. Musical selection. 5 min

8. Presentation/Conversation with Evangelist – Alex Golovenko. 45 minutes

9. Musical selection. 5 min

10. An appeal and closing prayer by Evangelist.

Let me remember that Evangelism is about imparting to people what Jesus imparted to us: life, joy, peace, hope, love. And Above All – the Holy Spirit. Pray that you will have it to give. We give from what we have. Pray to be filled abundantly, that from your overflow of blessings others would be blessed.