Look at the Harvest (Steve Wilson)
Steve Wilson shares on the harvest and the power of the resurrection.
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Tag Archive for: Mission
The River: Community in Mission pt 3 (Rosebank)
Marco Broccardo continues our River series where we have been looking over the last few weeks at how in God’s Kingdom we are called into community with each other to be on Mission with God.
4 June 2017 at Rosebank.
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Key Women: To Know Jesus and to Make Him Known
Adele Herbert shares on the theme of 2017’s Key Women: To know Jesus and to make Him known.
8 February at Key Women, Bedfordview
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Does Evangelism Make You Cringe?
What we’re trying to do with our Love Joburg Equipping course is shift the way you feel and what you perceive when you hear the word ‘evangelism’. This is the most used word to describe what we want to present as a lifestyle of sharing your life of faith with others. But does the word ‘evangelism’ make you cringe? Does it make you worry? Does it remind you of something you don’t like? What picture appears in your mind when you think of evangelism?
The first thing to do is cover what evangelism isn’t. Here is a brief list to make you think:
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Evangelism is not a sales pitch.
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Evangelism is not apologetics (clever arguments about God). Apologetics has its place, but it’s not how most of us are wired.
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Evangelism is not trying to make people into ‘church people’.
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Evangelism is not convincing people that your church is ‘cooler’ or ‘nicer’ or ‘not like “those” other churches’ etc.
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Evangelism is not the phrase, “Preach the Gospel, and if necessary use words.” It is both words and action.
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Evangelism is not filling churches. Full churches are a result of people coming to Christ, but full churches are not the goal per se. The goal is churches that are full of people who are going people.
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Evangelism is not a cool event or a ‘crusade’. These might help, but they are not how we define evangelism.
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Evangelism is not handing out tracts at street corners. There’s nothing wrong with handing out tracts, only that it isn’t how evangelism is defined.
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Evangelism is not shouting out in the streets that people are going to hell. This might be necessary in some cases, but it’s not how we define evangelism.
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Evangelism is not knocking on doors or going to hospitals. These could form part of it, but it’s not how we define evangelism.
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Evangelism is not a notch for your spiritual belt – God is not measuring how many people you are evangelising to, and is not more pleased with you if you evangelise more than someone else. Sharing your faith does make God happy, but it does not make him more or less pleased with you.
By now you would have noticed a trend. Evangelism is how you live your life. You have faith in Jesus and you are simply sharing that faith with others because that faith defines your life.
However, sometimes the idea that evangelism is a lifestyle can be too vague, leading us to never know how to practically share our faith. Which is why we have courses like Love Joburg to help us. Sharing our faith is a culture that we develop in our churches and in our lives over time – and it’s our prayer that we will learn and grow into this more and more.
Being a Disciple: Making Christ Known
by Marcus Herbert
21 February 2016 at Bedfordview AM
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Malawi Feedback
by Glenn van Rooyen
Our time in Malawi was simply fantastic. We’re really seeing some amazing fruit from all the tough work that Hennie and Anton Keyter have put into the area. Some of the church leaders have been working with Hennie (and now Anton) for as much as 40 years! The strength of relationships and the outworking of real brotherly love was simply fantastic.
We travelled 5,800km to bring New Testament Bibles to the Malawians. None of the vehicles gave us any mechanical problems, which was fantastic. But perhaps even more miraculously, we only got one speeding fine! That’s a long way to go without looking to put the foot down at least a little bit…
Many of the leaders were encouraged and, subsequently, the people they’re lading. Some of these guys have planted more than 40 churches. Hennie hasn’t personally been to Malawi in ten years but Jesus has been building His Church in such a powerful way.
Here’s the route we took – we first went up to Malawi and then came back down through Mozambique.
We met with leaders and distributed Bibles at:
1) Blantyre
2) Mulange
3) Chikwawa
4) Ntcheu
It was also great partnering across churches on this trip – we were joined by Newday Church, the Rustenburg church, and people from South Side and Bedfordview. We had the great privilege of encouraging over two hundred leaders representing more than four hundred churches.
So when are we going again? The Malawi Equip is happening on 17 October. Contact the office at 011-616-4073 or email info@www.cornerstonechurch.co.za if you’re keen on coming along.
Evangelism
By Clint Barry
15 June 2014 at Bedfordview PM
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Evangelism (Colossians 4)
By Mark Meeske
9 June 2014 at Bedfordview
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Montenegro and Johannesburg: What are we doing?
by Lance de Ruig
Keir Tayler and I have just come back from the country of Montenegro, after having met (literally) all the Christian leaders in that whole country. There were three. One guy has been there for 25 years and has only 30 people in his church. Another guy has been there for 15 years and only has seven people in his church. He has just suffered a church split where his deacon took a whole lot of people with him, but they have nowhere to meet so they don’t even fellowship together.
That’s not easy. But caring means nothing if God doesn’t change our hearts.
Here’s how this motivates me. Montenegro might be on the other side of the world but I ask myself this question: What is stopping South Africa from being like that in a hundred years time? What is stopping our city from becoming like that?
I’ll tell you what’s stopping that from happening here: you and I telling others about Jesus.
You might never get a chance in your life to go to Montenegro or send money for the people there or do anything along those lines, but what you can do is care for your city, the people around you, and ask God to work on your heart. You can make sure that your children and your grand-children and your grand-children’s children grow up in a country where Jesus is loved and praised.
We can ask God to give us a heart for the lost simply because it’s something we say, or we can really let the reality of that sink in and mean it. Here’s a reality: 99 percent of Montenegro’s population right now is going to spend an eternity without Jesus. There are only three men giving up their lives to try and stop that from happening. So the question is, what are we doing?
Let’s open our heart to God and ask him to give us a heart for the people in our city, for the people in Montenegro and Eastern Europe, and the people of this world. This is about this world – this is about the fact that so many people are without God and hope. What are we doing? There are millions of people in Johannesburg right now without God and hope. We have a mission before us.
Testing your Faith in Lesotho
We regularly make trips into Lesotho to work with the churches we have partnerships and relationships with there. Check out our trips for 2014 post for details of when we’re going to Lesotho this year (our next trip is in June).
Odette dos Santos went on our recent Lesotho trip to Maputso and tell us how it went, the challenges there, and what impacted her:
What are some of the challenges the people and churches are facing there?
Unemployment and housing are big issues there. It’s difficult to build and have adequate buildings and houses. The church that we work with needs a bigger property and a building to meet in.
Also, many of the men feel inadequate – they feel that they can’t live up to what’s expected of them in their role as Christian men at home, as part of a church, and in the the community.
Plus many of the youth have huge challenges with peer pressure and their relationships. It’s difficult to hold up Biblical values.
Who do you think would be able to make a significant impact in this area?
Looking at the many challenges, people who are passionate about these things (or who do these things) should really think of going on the next trip:
- Youth workers (youth and leadership development)
- Children’s church teachers
- Women (to encourage and minister to women)
- Builders/handy-men/skilled labourers
What was your highlight of the trip?
The hospitality of the family that we stayed with as well as their welcoming and humble hearts towards us. Also, the women’s group: their hunger for a closer relationship with God as well as for God’s word. Their reaction to being validated as a “beautiful” and “specific” part of God’s creation i.e. Having a specific purpose in God’s kingdom was especially encouraging.
Will you go again?
Yes. I feel that these trips often “test” our faith in how God can use us to reveal Himself to others. Also, I believe that there is a lot of potential, at this specific church in Lesotho, for us to equip, encourage and mentor on an ongoing basis.
What would you say to others about going on such a trip?
It’s really quite simple: just be obedient and available to wherever you feel God calling you. He will do the rest. It is amazing what God can do through you when you have this kind of attitude!