90 Days or 90 Seconds of the Gospel?... Yes! And, 90 minutes! Part 2

Hypothetical: I jump into a cab and the trip is going to take a few minutes to cross town.  Is it worth my time to give a declaration of the Gospel to the cab driver?  We have trained this out at The Bridge and it is probably the most common way that the Holy Spirit saves people.  The Gospel is declared (maybe in the form of your 90 second testimony...I once was...then, Jesus...now I am), and the Holy Spirit saves people. So, the answer to the question is yes.  We will not negatively affect someone if we love them with Good News.  Remember, we do so with gentleness and respect.

But, what if you get on a plane and will sit next to someone for 3 hours?  This provides the opportunity for a 90 minute Gospel presentation. Let me give you an example.  I was on a flight to Salt Lake City one time and found myself with a young man who had just completed his Mormon mission in Detroit.  He was returning home to start college  I listened to his story to understand his perspective and knew that we had 90 minutes, so I asked him to give me the complete message of his mission. I listened carefully to his description of the 3 heavens and the other 2 or 3 post-death destinations and determined for certain that his teaching from the Book of Mormon was that good deeds from others could move people around in the afterlife.  I, then, asked him two questions. "Do you believe this book?" I had a Bible in my hand.  From his training, he told me that he did. And, "Did you know that a lot of what you just told me over the last hour (I just listened for an hour, more on that in a minute) is in contradiction to the Bible, our final authority as Christians?" He said that he was not aware of contradictions, and I believed him because I did not believe that he had ever read the Bible.  I showed him in Luke 16 where a chasm was fixed in the afterlife between Lazarus and the rich man and that no movement was ever allowed - once to die and then judgment.  Then, I told him that the reason that no movement was necessary was because of the sufficiency of Jesus' work on the cross and no good merit by any person was necessary to change our locale because of His magnificent work on our behalf.  In the last 5 minutes that we had, I prayed him through the Gospel and simply asked him to continue to pray that the Holy Spirit reveal the truths of the Bible to him about the true Gospel.  I did not rail against what he believed, but I did brag on the glory of the Jesus of the Bible.  He thanked me as we left, and although I will probably never see him again on this version of earth, I am looking forward to possibly seeing him in the one true heaven -- the one that does not require good works to attain.  I left him to deal with the Holy Spirit and the Gospel -- a good team when on mission.

That is a 90 minute Gospel mission.

Then, we should all be working on 90 day Gospel presentations where we are getting to know someone at work, at school, in the coffee shop we frequent (somebody has to do it), or in the foreign land we have been sent.  Relationships are important and filling needs in the relationship out of true love essential, but without Gospel proclamation, no mission has happened.  If it gets much beyond 90 days without finding what Tim Keller would call the "defeater beliefs" and work the Gospel -- the good news of Jesus -- into those defeater beliefs, we may just be walking in unbelief of the abilities of the Holy Spirit to win the day and in some kind of people approval idolatry sin.  Or, in other words, chicken.

Listen! Listen more than you talk.  In the 90 minute and 90 day efforts, we have time to answer the questions that this person has rather than the ones we want them to have.  To learn the questions we must listen.  And, PRAY! In prayer, the Holy Spirit will determine the day and the course to take to bring the Gospel to bear.  Also, we ask the Holy Spirit to save this person.  I had two running prayers that day on the plane.  Well, three.  After asking God to keep the plane in the air (I figured I could have more mission if actually alive), I asked him to provide me someone to share his great story with.  Then, I just bluntly asked Him to save the young Mormon.  I look forward to seeing one day if God's glory was revealed in salvation on some day that I never even knew about with a person that I cannot remember his name.

Remember, one of your identities as a child of God is as a missionary.  That means you are a lover of people and a presenter of the Gospel -- the good news that we are in a spiritual nightmare of our own doing and Jesus came, lived sinless, died sacrificially, rose again in victory, ascended, and is returning.  These 90 second, minute, and day proclamations are what you were reborn to do.  Jesus was a missionary and learning to do this and doing it makes you like Him which brings Him glory.

Year End Giving or Anytime Giving

I know that we teach giving our resources to the local church as a very worshipful reaction to the Gospel, and that is very true.  God gave His only son and Jesus willingly gave up His life, so that makes us great givers as the Gospel presses in.  However, that does not mean we have to park our brains as we worship.  If you have invested some of God's money in the stock market, this has been a very good year.  Most mutual funds and stocks have done very well, so I want to make you aware of a double tax break if you donate the stock and not cash to your local church.  You get to write the entire amount of your donation off AND you do not have to pay the 15% capital gains tax that is applied to the profits of the investment.  If this sounds attractive to you as you give so that God may be worshiped and His mission of Gospel declaration can go out, you have about 24 hours to call your broker to get it in on 2013.

But, if not, you know have knowledge for 2014.......

Glory to the King!

Conquering Addiction Goes Viral

While more than a year of prayer and preparation went into starting the GAP ministy, it was on November 4, 2008 that we launched our first Conquering Addiction (CA) course and that we started our relationship with the Community Supervision Center (CSC) residents. Five years ago! So many stories and relationships in those five years! And so many of YOU are a part of this history! It would be impossible to recount all of the GAP connections with all of those who have taken or taught CA, led a table, helped with childcare or hospitality, encouraged, mentored, welcomed or given counsel to someone, given rides, donated a coat or shoes, prayed, brought food, etc., etc., etc. etc. THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN SOME WAY IN GAP'S FIRST FIVE YEARS! And thank you Village Church in Texas for allowing us to teach your amazing curriculum!

Here are a few details for those who are interested in reading more:

GAP was launched November 8, 2008 as one of The Bridge's five ministries. In January 2011 when The Bridge narrowed its ministry focus to three, GAP became the focus of a missional cell family, with LOTS of spill-over and partnering with other cell families and other churches. It was named Great Adventure Project (GAP) for the scripture Matthew 25:34-36.

GAP's Missional focus: Community Supervision Center residents and St. Francois County Jail (we build relationships, bring the Gospel message, mentor, teach CA, bring CSC residents to church and help out with a few needs), and we help with Conquering Addiction at The Bridge (see below).

God continues to bless this ministry, and we are very thankful that more than 2,300 people have been exposed to Conquering Addiction at the following locations:

The Bridge-Leadington

The Bridge-Arnold

The Journey Community Church in Herculaneum

Kaleo/Genesis Church in Fenton (new in 2013)

City Church in Cape Girardeau (new in 2013)

Farmington Correctional Center

Farmington Community Supervision Center

St. Francois County Jail

Aquinas Treatment Center

For more information, please visit www.greatadventureproject.com

--Meg Reiner

90 Days or 90 Seconds of the Gospel?... Yes!

As we studied Acts 22 yesterday, we saw Paul give his testimony to a few hundred Jews that God hushed (as they were trying to kill him just a few minutes before) so that he could speak.  He was bloodied and bruised, but had courage.  Now, I think that most effective evangelism is done in long-term relationships where we are constantly loving folks with the news of the Gospel, but does that mean that we are never to declare it unless we have been in relationship with folks for a long time?  While it may be effective, long term relational sharing is not really what we see in the book of Acts.  In there, you see somebody quiet long enough to listen; you see the Gospel proclaimed; you see people repent and believe.  They are cut to the heart and saved.  I believe that then as they were baptized, they were reminded what Jesus said about if we want to follow Him, we must take up our instrument of death (a cross), deny ourselves, and follow Him.  His dead, but breathing, followers then spent all day every day looking for opportunities to talk about their loving Savior.  Therefore, the Holy Spirit saved more and more and more.  I know that Lance has cracked out the 90 second testimony the last couple of week in Bangkok, so I thought I would remind you what it is.

I once was __________________.  
But, Jesus.....................    
Now I ________________________.  
But, I still struggle ...........................

You need to develop this ahead of time.  Practice it.  Shave it down to a conversation you could have with a grocery clerk or as you pay for gas. 90 seconds.  And, ask the Spirit to give you courage.  Between now and Christmas is a great time to share Christ.  We cannot claim to love people if we remain mute.

More good news.  We are not used car salesmen!  God does not say, "Go sell my Son!"  He says proclaim the Good News - the Gospel.  Our job is to observe with folks that we are mess and hopelessly in need of a Savior, that the Savior Jesus came and lived sinless, that He died sacrificially to repair the damage and dysfunction, to forgive the wrongs against a Holy God, and was raised again to conquer sin and death and show that we can trust that HE is God.  If we get a second or a third audience with folks because we have relationship with them, it is good to start with the fact that God created all things GOOD - perfect!  But, we messed it up, AND there is a day coming when ALL things will be restored to PERFECT - to GOOD!  Gives them the whole story - that things did not start with sin and death, and things will not end with sin and death.  The Holy Spirit goes to work and reveals that proclamation as truth and does the saving.  We are but a conduit. A messenger. A herald of Good News!

Stayed tuned because we are going to be discussing and asking the Holy Spirit to train us to be able to contextualize the Gospel to this Post-Christian culture that we live in.  You may have noticed that the conversations have changed out there.  It is time to start giving Gospel answers to the questions that people have today, not the questions we want to answer. Stay tuned, lots of discussion coming.

But for now, over 3 million believers have come to faith in China using the 90 second testimony in just the last few years.  Why not here?  Why not now?

Lazarus Was Surely a Christian, Wasn't he?

I was speaking at the Plant Midwest Quarterly yesterday and all of a sudden I started talking about the difference between Gospel transformation and moralism.  It just seems that a church youth program with chastity as a goal and not DEEP Christ transformation or a Biblical 12-step with sobriety as a goal and not a DEEP Gospel resurrection feels like we would deem it possible that Christ said, "Lazarus, come out!" and a formerly dead cat walked out of the tomb, past Jesus, said thanks, and never thought of Him again.  Implausible as that sounds, we must so focus on the power of Christ to not only clean up some behavior but to save souls as four new Conquering Addiction courses take off so that someone leaving the 15 week "sober but going to hell" is just as implausible.  Please Father, don't just dust off some wandering sheep; cut them deeply to their soul and save them for Your Glory. May we present such a glorious Jesus that it may be so.

Sober, but going to hell, is not acceptable.

Porterbrook St Louis is Here

I believe that quality churches really pay attention to 2 Timothy 2:2:
"and what you heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also."
So, if church leaders are serious about releasing teaching of Gospel, counseling in the Gospel, leading in the Gospel, planting churches in the Gospel, they should take this 2 year course and bring the folks they are discipling and releasing to the course.

Steve Timmis, co-author of Total Church, which originated much of the contemporary discussion of Gospel-centered and missional, is the primary developer of the Porterbrook material.  I, personally, do not know of a more Acts 2, 1st century approach to theology and church planting than the Gospel-centered, missional approach of Porterbrook.  If it radically changed that world for the glory of God, then that is the way to roll now.  Click on the syllabus below and you will see four areas of study: Character, Bible & Doctrine, Church, and World. A student receives four one day conferences at the Porterbrook STL learning site which is in Arnold.  Then, the student will study at home and with a local study group in their local communities.  We are hoping to have local study groups meeting in Cape Girardeau, Farmington, Arnold, St. Louis, St. Charles, O'Fallon, and Edwardsville, IL.

This training is very cost effective.  Each year contains 12 courses of curriculum and 4 superb conferences for only about $500.  This is the best $500 that can be spent toward the "making disciples who make disciples" Great Commission!!!  Send your interns, send your ministry leaders, send your missional community leaders, send your elders, send your pastors, send your moms and dads!

We can change the world for the glory of Jesus!
“These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also,..."
Acts 17:6

Lots of ways to follow Porterbrook St. Louis:
Porterbrook STL website is HERE
Porterbrook STL Facebook is HERE
Porterbrook STL Twitter is @porterbrookstl
Worldwide Porterbrook website with syllabus is HERE

Tass Saada, Once an Arafat Man, coming to The Bridge!!

Tass Saada will be appearing at The Bridge Community Church www.bridgelife360.com on July 15.  We are partnering with our friends Mike Harrison and Parkland Chapel of Farmington to make this happen.

The following are excerpts from the foreword by Joel Rosenberg of the Joshua Fund to Tass's book Once an Arafat Man that will be available for signed purchase at the event:

Tass Saada was a killer.
Tass and his closest friends murdered Jews in Israel. They murdered civilians and soldiers alike. They attacked Christians in Jordan. Sometimes they tossed hand grenades at their homes. Sometimes they strafed God-fearing homes with machine gun fire. They once tried to assassinate the crown prince of an Arab country. They nearly succeeded. And they did all of this willingly. They did so eagerly. Tass certainly did.  His nickname was was once Jazzar --- "butcher."  It was a moniker he relished.
He was raised in a world of radical Islam and by his teenage years Tass was a cauldron of seething, roiling hatred.  His family was close to the Saudi royal family.  He once met Osama bin Laden.  He became personal friends with Yassar Arafat, a man he once regarded as a hero, and happily killed in his name.

If the story ended there, we would obviously hesitate to bring Tass to The Bridge and into our homes.  But it doesn't end there.  More from the foreword:

In his amazing grace, God gave Tass Saada a second act. And a third.
....a story of a violent revolutionary who was radically transformed one day by the power of the Holy Spirit and became a man of peace.  At its core, Tass's story is a story of the greatness of our great God. It is the story of a man who fell in love with a Savior who loves Arabs as well as Jews....  His love is so amazing , so divine that he actually offers all of us -- Jew and Gentile alike -- the free gift of salvation through the death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. He wants to adopt us.... He wants to bless us. He wants to take care of us. He wants to heal us and make us like him. And, then he wants to empower us to be a blessing to others.  Tass said yes to that love, and he was changed forever.

Tass will tell us about sharing the Gospel with Yasser Arafat, and even about sharing the Gospel with his parents and brothers, AS THEY WERE ACTIVELY TRYING TO KILL HIM.  The stories of Arabs and Jews who were both violently trying to kill each other before salvation that now hug and work together for the glory of Christ will bring you to your knees.  We will hear of huge amounts of Muslim conversions in the Middle East.  And, we will hear how we need to actively support and pray for folks like Tass and his ministry partners who are actively carrying out the Great Commission in a hostile, still deadly, environment.  It takes great courage to bring the Gospel and to plant churches in the middle of the Muslim world.  I love it.

The is easily the greatest conversion story that I have ever been around, and it just keeps bringing great Kingdom fruit. Folks who attend that love Jesus will be blessed, but I believe that God will do great work in the hearts of unbelievers if they will hear the Gospel from this man.
July 15 at The Bridge.  An evening that I don't think we will soon forget.  Put it on your calendar and invite all that you know.

Checklist for Mission Cell Family Living

I put myself through a checklist for missional cell family (missional community) living yesterday.  This is far from a comprehensive list, but it is a continual battle to learn and then teach out the difference between missional living and "1 hour a week, 1 Bible study a week" living.

Check these out:
1. Did I take time to pray for the members of my missional cell & for the future members of my cell?
Can we really claim to love somebody deeply, as a family member, if we don't pray for them?  I did pray for one specific member of the group this week that is having financial issues.  When we understand community, I understand that their financial woes are my financial woes.  I don't have to stress over them, but understand how the Gospel addresses the stress for us to trust Christ, and let the family know that I care.

2. Did I make contact with the members of my missional cell other than the two hour meeting on Thursday night?
This family thing is 24/7.  This is where we live out the New Testament "one anothers."  You know: serve one another, rebuke one another, love one another....."

3. Did I center my interaction with the missional cell on the Gospel?
The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is the centerpiece of all of this interaction.  I don't want to give them good advice; I want to point them to Jesus, to the cross.  I don't want to just pray for them; I want to acknowledge that Jesus is the one to receive glory in HOWEVER He answers the prayers.

4.  Do I even love these people?
Nuff said.  Heart check.

5.  Did I interact with our target mission?
We welcomed new folks into a fresh start missional cell this week, so it is a great time to engage our culture and our missional target which are the neighborhoods around our home and our new church building.  I did ask some folks to come and join us.

6.  Are we planning a party, something social, to make connections with new people and grow our group?
Yes, but are you?  It is a great time to have a neighborhood bbq as the weather changes and engage your neighbors or co-workers with just an invitation to food and drink.

7.  Do I see all areas of my life: work, school, social, play, grocery shopping, etc. as mission opportunities to invite to missional cell?  Where am I developing friendships with non-believers so that they can come into a safe environment and learn about Jesus? And, is this because I truly love these people that I am establishing relationships with or just because I want to have a big group?  A claim to be missional?
We are all loving missionaries all the time.

8. When we did get together this week, did we worship?  Did we learn to obey the commands of God (Matthew 28:20) or in other words Gospel-center the Bible?  Did we get to know our folks better?  Did we point to the Gospel?  Did we seek God in prayer?  Did we just hang out with some food and drink to the glory of God?  Did we observe communion?  Did we love on non-believers in the group without backing off of Biblical truth?  Was there such an excitement about Christ that folks cannot wait to return?  Did we do anything for the children present to teach them the ways of Jesus?

9. Did you have non-believers present?  If not, why not?
We have had in recent weeks, but they did not show up this week, so it is crucial that we make contact this week and love on them in some way.

See how different that is than a Bible study or a Sunday School class.
This thing is hard work, bloody, messy if it is lived out like we see in Scripture, but it is empowered by the Holy Spirit.  And, man, it is worth it when we see people coming to Christ, baptisms, and then disciples making disciples for His fame.

Good Reminder - We Are in the People Business

Planting churches is a crazy, busy life - emotionally, a roller coaster.  It is hugely rewarding and worth every minute though.  Those of us that lead do need to remember that while it is for the glory of God, it is a PEOPLE thing -- loving God, bringing Him glory, proclaiming His magnificent Gospel, yes, but also loving people.  I sat down with most all of the members of our church in individual coffee meetings (yes, coffee is a membership requirement, ha) over the month of January and some of February.  This was VERY time consuming, but we limited each meeting to 30 minutes, and worth every minute.  The most surprising thing was the depth of the conversation in that short time.  What helped is that I did not hit them with any 'churchy' agenda.  I just asked them to pray for me when they left, and then I shut up and listened.  I reminded them to pray for me when they got in the car when they left, and I prayed for them according to how I heard them describe their life in the Gospel.  IT WAS AWESOME! 

This is a letter from one of the members that says it all:
Hi Tim. Thank you for taking the time to sit down, share, listen, & pray with us this past Monday evening.  We enjoyed it very much and continue to be blessed because of it.  I feel like I really know you now, and hope you feel like you know us a little better as well.  Your love and support of our family means so much!  We are praying for you for continued good health and wisdom in decisions that are coming up, and also for you, Kelley, Justin, and Virginia as you continue to adjust and grow in His will.
We look forward to to being a part of God's plan and sharing in His ministry along with you and our church.
In Jesus' Love,

Keys to Successful Missional Communities

1. Provide good toilet paper.
Nothing says "don't come back" like some Big Lots #8 grade sandpaper.

2. If you throw a party to invite new folks, don't wear a wife beater and short shorts.
That is unless it is an "Eddie from National Lampoon Vacation" party.  That is a bad gig.  For chicks, a formal dress with a pearl necklace like a bad episode of the "Young and the Restless" is bad gig also. 

3. Don't serve extremely cheap coffee.  Nothing says, "GO AWAY" like the dark roast from Dollar General. I'd give 30% of my income to churches who serve Dunkin Donuts.

Hospitality is a spiritual gift.  Let's use it, so that hopefully someday a person who actually agrees to set aside personal preference and come to your home to hang out with a bunch of "hypocrites" might actually sit on a comfortable couch and hear about a glorious Savior and His great Gospel.