Luke 10:1-21

1. The Call and the Cost: Deciding to become a missional  believer regardless of the personal sacrifice involved. (Lk 10:1)

                 The call from above: Isaiah 6:8

                 The call from below: Luke 16:27-28

                 The call from inside: 1 Corinthians 9:16-17

                 The call from outside: Acts 16:9

                 Three costs: Luke 9:58-62

                 Material, Relational, Spiritual

A key strategy: (Luke 10:4)

Surrender Wealth, Emotional Baggage, Agendas, Relationships

2. The Practice of Prayer: Developing an extraordinary prayer life. (Luke 10:2)

Persistence: Ephesians 6:18

Passion: Hebrews 5:7

Pattern: Matthew 6:9-13

Precision: Philippians 4:6

Patience: Luke 18:1-8

A key strategy: (1 Timothy 4:8) Consistency, Distance, Speed

3. Pockets of People: Gaining access to relational networks. (Luke 10:5) oikos

Noah: Genesis 7:1

Abraham: Genesis 19:12-23

Rahab: Joshua 2:17-20

Demoniac: Mark 5:19

Cornelius: Acts 10:23-25

Lydia: Acts 16:14-15

Philippian Jailer: Acts 16:30-33

A key strategy: L.O.V. E. (John 15:13)

-Listen & Learn

-Offer Help

-Verbalize your Faith

-Extend an Invitation

4. Person of Peace: Identifying God’s insider to reach the   network. (Luke 10:6)

Prince of Peace Isaiah 9:6

Worthy Person Matthew 10:11

Samaritan Woman John 4

Religious Leader John 7:48-50

Ethiopian Eunuch  Acts 8

A key strategy: 12 Step Discipleship (2 Timothy 2:2)

1) Invite them to study the Bible (John)

2) Go through the 10 Commandments with them (Exodus 20)

3) Challenge them to repent (Matthew 4:17-22)

4) Baptize them in water (Matthew 3:13-17)  

5) Lead them into the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1-2)

6) Break any family curses (Exodus 20:5,Ezekiel 18:20, Galatians 3:13)

7) Expel any demons (Luke 11:14-28)

Get them a Bible (1 Timothy 3:16-17)

9) Do a 14 day basic training (Matthew 5-7)

10) Train them to tell their story (Revelation 12:11)

11) Train them to do devotions (Deuteronomy 17:18-20)

12) Get them into a cell (Acts 2:42-46)

5. The Power of Presence: Establishing an outpost for the Kingdom. (Luke 10:9)

                 My church (Matthew 16:17-19)

Two or three (Matthew 18:19-20)

Four things (Acts 2:42)

All of You (1 Corinthians 14:26)

Motivate (Hebrews 10:24)

A key strategy:  Welcome, Worship, Word, Works, Witness

6. The People of Purpose: Multiplying workers into the

harvest. (Luke 10:17)

Disciples Luke 6:12-16

1×12=12  Luke 9:1

6×12=72  Luke 10:1

36×12+72+12=500+ 1 Corinthians 15:6

250×12=3000 Acts 2:41

A key strategy: James 4:7-10 Surrender, Deliverance, Devotion, Character, Compassion, Call, Expectation

7. The Promise of Problems: Dealing with difficulties.     (Luke 10:10-16)

Persecution Acts 4:1-3

Sin in the Camp Acts 5:1-2

Discontent Acts 6:1

Criticism Acts 15:36-40

Overwhelmed 2 Corinthians 1:8

Troubles and Hardships 2 Corinthians 6:4-10

Misc. 2 Corinthians 11:23-27

A key strategy: The armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18)

1) Living in Truth

2) Walking in Righteousness

3) Prepared to Share the Gospel

4) Covered in Faith

5)  Putting on Salvation

6) Using the Word

7) Pray in the Spirit

I found this article from www.buildingchurchleaders.com over at the www.newchurchreport.com. I like the concise and practical way it points us toward the harvest.

Seven steps closer to reaching the world

In doing the work of global outreach, my church matters. Your church matters. The church down the road matters. Every local church can—and must—play a role if we intend to carry out the Great Commission. Consider these simple ways to increase your church’s commitment to global outreach:

1. Ask God to give you a heart for the world. I have seen entire churches burdened about the Great Commission after God moved first in the life of only one church member. Passionate, mission-minded church members are difficult to ignore!
2. Teach about missions. Train children, youth, and adults about the significance of the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20). Use every opportunity to show why every follower of Christ should be concerned about missions.
3. Promote, promote, and promote again any missions offering that your church supports. Challenge your members to give sacrificially. For example, encourage them to give to missions at least a tithe of what they spend on Christmas gifts this year.
4. Invite stateside missionaries to speak to the church. Nothing speaks to churches quite like a “real live” missionary does, and the time set aside for a missionary speaker is time well spent. Contact any missions agency to find the names of missionaries now on stateside assignment.
5. Challenge church members to pray daily for missionaries. Provide a list of names and needs, being careful to protect missionaries who serve in sensitive areas.
6. Sponsor a short-term mission trip for your church members. Teaching about missions is a starting point, but actually experiencing missions can be life-changing. Set a goal to send at least 10 percent of your church’s active attendees on a mission trip this year. Be sure to commission your members as missionaries as you send them out.
7. Pray corporately that God will call some of your church’s members to be career missionaries. Perhaps he will use some of your members to take the gospel where it has never been.

Communion is one of two ordinances (the other is water baptism) that the Lord Jesus left for us to observe in worship. Cell groups are an excellent place for sharing in communion. Here are some practical suggestions for a cell group communion service.

1) Try and schedule a communion meeting at least once every month in your cell.

2) Begin with a meal. It can be a potluck, a pizza or potato feed, a BBQ or anything else you can think of. Just be sure to begin early to have enough time and to bring enough food for everyone to eat their fill. (See 1 Corinthians 11:21)

3) Go ahead and structure your meeting in the normal way (Welcome, Worship,Word,Works,Witness) but have it around a table with the meal.

4) Establish a scriptural basis for receiving communion from one of the Gospel accounts, from 1Corinthians 11, from the Exodus passover account, or from another appropriate text.

5) Give adequate time for personal and public confession. NEVER require someone to confess sin out loud but ALWAYS give the opportunity. Respond to each and every confession with prayers of love, acceptance and forgiveness. Resist the temptation to give advice during this time.

6) Receive the bread first and then the cup. This is not only scriptural but practical as well to help wash down the food. Any sort of bread or crackers are appropriate but in these days of Alcoholics Anonymous, grape juice is preferable to wine.

7) Be especially sensitive to the free flow of the gifts of the Holy Spirit before, during, and after receiving communion. Allow Him to heal, to speak, and to reveal Himself as He sees fit. Point this out to the entire group. Don’t try to over-control or to rush the time together.

Don’t forget to pray for the lost before closing the meeting

Where should you go?

It’s been 5 years already since I was frantically getting ready to travel with Pullman Foursquare Youth to Thailand and experience my first ever missions trip. I am not a passionate traveler, ready to go at a moment’s notice, anywhere or anytime. The thought of traveling overseas often brings out the worst in me, worry and fear and the unknown. I can recall now many wrong perceptions of what it was going to be like…. traveling in a foreign country.  Recently, a friend sent me a link to the following article:

*Despite Benefits, Few Americans Have Experienced Short-Term Mission Trips 

 
I was flooded with memories of a trip that changed my way of life and my way of thinking. My earlier perceptions were all ridiculous and my expectations were beyond realized. God used the time to shape me and bless me in ways I never imagined. He also built my faith in a way that only He could by showing me the miraculous in my own life.  We often have numerous reasons or excuses why we can’t possibly join in on a missions trip……I’ve used several of them.

Here at Pullman Fourquare Church, there are many possibilities and potential trips in the works. A team recently traveled to Kenya and another team is getting prepared to return to Thailand in the Spring. Have you considered making a short-term missions trip part of your life? Are you willing to let God influence your decision? Think about it…..your life will never be the same!

I was reminded recently why it is so important to be reading your Bible! And although I have always known it is important (even when I am not daily reading it), there are times when I am astounded by how important it is.

I recently had a conversation with a fellow who was asking me about God’s love. He talked of all these feelings he had about who God was, how God loved people, and of how we don’t love one another as God intended that we should. I asked him if he knew what the Bible called it when we didn’t follow God’s way for us? He didn’t know so I suggested it was ”sin nature”. He followed up with several examples of not believing in something so negative and tried to assure me of the contradictions in the Bible. When I asked him if he had ever read through the Bible, he confessed he never had.

Now, the thing that resonated in my spirit, is how many of us (professed Christians in church) have never really read the Bible. Or read it through from cover to cover. That our exposure to the Bible consists of pulpit teachings, cell group meetings, occasional “I’m looking for something specific” moments, or relying on a grace-filled God to overcome our dread of reading His word. We often decide what we believe by what someone else tells us to believe, and when we rely on someone else, and not on God alone, those beliefs will be flawed by our human nature. Now I am not saying it isn’t good to hear from others but it is still our responsibility to line it up with God’s word. And the only way to do that is to read your Bible!

Find a place, find a time, find a method and work at it. It’s not always easy but you will eventually know what you believe but even better…….you will know why you believe it!

In his upcoming book, “Chaordic Leadership:Making Disciples by Leading Among Not From” Gary Gooddell gives a great character sketch of Jesus’ ministry style:

Where Would Jesus Lead?

Who was this walking, strolling, wandering Master Teacher? Who was this peripatetic rabbi whose walks turned into life lessons and whose strolls turned into blasts of transformational truths. Who was this storyteller so skilled at communicating that it was though His stage and all of his teaching aids and props followed Him around to miraculously appear at the maximum moment?

For the woman at the well in John 4, Jesus operated with a word of knowledge and prophecy, Matthew 16 becomes a serious Q & A moment as He used an arousing survey that released the truth about His identity. To the blind man at Jericho it was mud and spittle; to a demoniac in Mark’s gospel it was an exorcism into a herd of pigs that provided a regional evangelism assignment.

To the street walker His pausing in a home for a meal meant an appointed anointing with costly perfume, to a man blind from birth in John 9, it meant an apologetics of generational questions gone bad, and on a stormy sea it was an afternoon nap and a rebuke of the storm that produced both faith and fear in His disciples.

In Mark 6 it was the gathering of a large hungry crowd in and a small boy’s lunch of sardines and muffins that turned into a bread and fish buffet miracle that caused the crowd to want to make Him an earthly king.

To a tree out of season it was a lesson on faith and fruit bearing, to a conspicuous child set in they’re midst it meant a revelation of the character of childlikeness.

And where did all of these learning moments happen? In a classroom? In a school hall? In the assembly hall of the local synagogue? And was this a preset series of preplanned systematic theology that needed to be completed through the fill-in-the-blanks bulletin inserts or notebooks?

What did it mean for Jesus to walk among His friends, doing the Father’s will and being constantly available and ready to debrief with questions, probing ideas, interaction and the constant presence of miracles, signs, wonders, and healings.  What about all of these parables, and what about the stories?

I remember a friend saying to me once, “Gary, do you really want to do what Jesus did?” His answer was to pick a dozen guys, live with them day in and day out, and see what that experiment becomes.

Sometimes we make ministry too regimented and formulaic.  If we are truly led by the Spirit, virtually any circumstance is a ministry opportunity. Let’s “experiment” with Jesus’ methods for a while.

For more info on Gary’s books and other writings visit his site: www.thirddaychurches.com

Women’s Encounter 

September 26-28, 2008

@ Snake River Rendezvous

http://www.snrr.com/directions.html

Men’s Encounter

October 3-5, 2008

@ Field Springs State Park

http://www.parks.wa.gov/parkpage.asp?selectedpark=Fields+Spring

map: http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=field+springs+state+park+Anatone+Washington&ie=UTF8&ll=46.080852,-117.167816&spn=1.373589,2.460938&z=9

WHAT CAN $1 BUY? CHECK IT OUT!!!!

Pullman Foursquare is having a Media/Book Fundraiser for Kenyan missionary, Kennedy Ochieng. Our hope is to start a transportation fund that will allow Ken to travel to remote refugee camps. Please join us in supporting Ken by taking this opportunity to browse and buy ( at cheap prices) books, CDs, DVDs, VHS, and magazines for all ages!

Dates: Friday, August 22:  5-9 pm and

Saturday, August 23: 9am -1 pm

LOCATION: Pullman Foursquare Church

135 N. Grand Ave. (the old Cordova theater) in downtown Pullman

 ell groups are at the heart of ministry here at Pullman Foursquare Church.  Cells are small groups of 3-15 people that grow and multiply by experiencing the presence, power and purpose of Jesus Christ.  They meet weekly at various locations throughout the area (homes, businesses, schools, etc.) to eat pray, fellowship, study the Bible, and pursue God’s vision for his church. 

Cells are organized by life-stage and gender.  Children, youth, university students, and community members all have cells designed especially for them. 

 If you would like more information about cell groups contact:

 · the church office at 332-8612

· email us at 4square@pullmanfoursquare.org

· Check it out on the web www.pullmanfoursquare.org

· ask the person sitting next to you in our Sunday Celebration Service