Gospel Outreach Ministry Update,  June, 2008

It has been a little over two years since we started on this endeavor of Gospel Outreach Ministries. As it is our practice to evaluate ourselves and update our website viewers about every 6 months on our progress, it is that time again. 

Since December 2007, the time of our last progress report, we have come through a very long and hard winter. The cold weather lingered up into April, and even the early part of May. Finally, the unpredictable weather broke and now it is beautiful again. 

Due to the cold, we were not able to hold too many outreach meetings since December. We spent the winter studying in the Word, writing articles, posting on blogs, personal evangelism and focusing on instructing our youth. 

In late January, we held the first of three Youth Outreach Rallies. There were 30 youth in attendance, some for the first time. We had two more Youth Rallies, one in February and the other in March. All of these were successful outreach endeavors and have benefited our youth as well as provided them with a practical venue to reach out to other youth around them. We have also focused more of our weekly assembly meetings towards youth oriented issues and lessons. Proverbs 22:6 says to “train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” This month, we had our first week long youth camp that was dedicated to instructing our Christian youth along some very practical lines, including their relationships and roles in the home. We also provided the youth at the camp with a time of having some clean and wholesome daily fun activities. You can read more about this camp by clicking here. We hope to have more of these throughout the summer. 

Our three websites are growing both in substance as well as in interest. We now have reached a combined 150,000 hits from places all over the world and frequent contacts are being made. 

Below are a few examples of recent contacts: 

I just finished reading some of your web site. I appreciate your outreach for souls and will pray for you to reach souls and work toward the converting of souls to Christ. My wife and I are also working to reach souls and be of use in the Kingdom of God… After reading your message I think you are doing your best to win people to Christ not to an organization. Please pray for us to win souls to Christ. 

JST, California 

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Thank you for putting Biblical Eldership on the web. I have been doing a self study on Church Government in the New Testament.

I am part of a local Church in Washington DC. Even though the church is 10 years old we still have a lot of growing and acquiring of knowledge to do.

Your website is very helpful, not only is the information helpful but also to know that there are churches out there practicing biblical eldership successfully. 

I would like to ask for your permission to use Biblical Leadership in my teachings in the church.  

God bless you.

Pastor, J E
Washington, DC 20011

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I wanted to send a small email to you to let you know that you have been a great blessing to me (and many others) by your involvement in the online blogs. I appreciate your input and encouragement, especially when it seems that there are so many that would like to see the web sites 'pulled down'. I pray that God would bless you for it and hope that your involvement continues. 

Bro TM,
Caloundra, Australia

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Greetings from India! We are so glad to meet you through this mail. I happened to visit your website  www.jesussavesfromsin.com just now and I am so happy after reading the contents…We would like to fellowship and connect with your noble ministry. Would you please let us know your heart for our nation so that I can share more about my vision and burden of the Ministry. Thank you. Amen!

 Abraham Kalapala
Andhra Pradesh , India

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Thank God for all of our website contacts and for people who are supportive of our efforts in Gospel Outreach. Little is much when God is in it. 

Locally, as we strive to be a representation of the New Testament church, our meetings have become more and more interactive and less structured. The sisters are now beginning to take their freedom in the Lord to bring lessons and the leadership balance among the elders is being more evenly distributed. Nearly 1 in 4 meetings are led by the sisters, and the brothers are sharing the load more evenly among themselves. We see this as a positive and natural progression as we more fully adopt biblical eldership. 

But having and attending meetings is definitely not our focus. Our personal outreach focus is being shifted away from meetings and is more centered on our own personal lives and sphere of influence. As Jesus said, “the field is the world”. One song says, “Let a holy life tell the gospel story”. While we typically only post online reports about the Sunday morning and evening meetings on our Gospel Outreach website, there is much more that happens throughout the week in our individual lives that never gets reported. This is primarily because it is more personal in nature and is difficult to capture in writing without giving the appearance of boasting in ourselves. In addition to Sunday meetings, we typically gather on Wednesdays in homes or parks, or sometimes we make visits or gather in smaller groups for more focused discussions.  We are definitely the church on the move! But like Abraham, we don’t always know exactly where we are headed! This is where we must exercise real faith and be sensitive to the voice of God. Where He leads us, we follow. 

In many regards, we see the events surrounding ourselves in much the same manner as the events surrounding the early ministry years of Paul, the apostle.

Paul’s Jewish pedigree was quite impressive (Philippians 3:5-6). He studied Jewish law under the famous rabbi Gamaliel (Acts 22:3), likely the best teacher in his day. He was brought up under the strictest sect of Judaism and completely embraced his religion. As a Pharisee, he allowed no variance to the strictest terms of the Law. A rigid adherence to the letter of the law became the focus of his religious activity.

It was Paul, or rather Saul, who consented to the stoning death of Stephen, the first Christian martyr and one of the seven deacons of the early church at Jerusalem. He soon started persecuting the Christians in Jerusalem and imprisoned many of them (Acts 8:3).

Being fully persuaded of his religion, Saul planned to persecute Christians abroad. He obtained letters from the high priest in Jerusalem authorizing him to go the synagogues in Damascus and bring the Christians from there to Jerusalem to be persecuted.

But on his way to Damascus, things suddenly changed. Paul saw the light! He had an eye opening experience!

After his conversion, he soon realized how wrong he had been as a religious Pharisee. He found out that the way of Christ, the very way that he had persecuted, was the right way and that he had been dead wrong. He found out that his closed minded and legalistic religion had led him down a path of self destruction and that his view of those who were outside of it was much too restrictive and self serving. After his conversion to Christianity, he first attempted to share Christ with his fellow Jews, but he and his message were firmly rejected. They preferred Law over Liberty.

Following his enlightenment and humbling down before God, Paul did not jump directly into his missionary journeys. He spent three years in Arabia having to unlearn much of what his Pharisaic religion had engrained into his thinking (Galatians 1:17-18). He had to unlearn what was wrong and relearn what was right, and he would rely on no man to each him. Rather, he relied on the Holy Ghost to instruct him in the things of God. Galatians 1:11-12 But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Like Paul, we too were schooled in a rigid religious institutional environment. We were taught by some of the best preachers around, well meaning brethren. Being totally convinced that we were “the true church”, we looked on outsiders with skepticism, especially if they did not adhere to our peculiar outward standards of behavior and appearance. While we might have given them the benefit of the doubt that they could be saved outside of our church, we believed deep in our hearts that if they were honest and sincere they would eventually come to the truth, believe like us and affiliate themselves with one of our few churches worldwide. After all, we were the Church of God and the rest were Babylonians!

However, like Paul, we too have been enlightened. We found out that we were wrong, not only in our uncharitable attitude towards others, but also in some of our teaching as well. While we were totally convinced that we were right, in fact, we were indeed wrong.

Talk about having to swallow a humble pill! Actually, we required a whole jar of them. Thank God, He knows how to get truth to every honest hearted person despite the system of religion or obstacles that may be standing in the way.

So, where are we now?

Not unlike Paul, who, after his conversion and personal enlightenment, dedicated himself in Arabia for three years to seek God’s face for direction, we too have had to spend much time unlearning much of what we have been taught, freeing ourselves from the sectarian mindset that was so deeply ingrained in us. Now, rather than a man, we are allowing the Spirit of God to teach us His ways. It has not been an easy task. Old habits die hard and we have been met with opposition all along the way. Not from those whom we are reaching out to, but from those religious persons whom are locked up in a cold, rigid and slowly dying religious system.

Paul emerged from his three years of soul searching a new man. He did not seek an easier way nor was he granted one. He had to endure much persecution and suffering as a result of his enlightenment. However this continual opposition by his former associates only served as a means to further spread the gospel.

But now Paul had a new audience, the Gentiles. This was an audience that was much more receptive to the things of God. These were those whom his former religion considered to be “dogs” and “outcasts”. Paul went on to write fourteen epistles of the New Testament and was greatly used by God.

Thank God, we too are beginning to see a clear path up ahead. As the old song says,

Tell me, watchman, oh, what of the morning,
Do you see as the mist clears away?
We behold in its spender the dawning
Of a bright and glorious day.

Just as Paul did not abandon all of his Jewish upbringing, neither have we entirely thrown out the baby with the bathwater. But we have pulled the drain plug and have let out the dirty water! Now that much of the traditional muck and mire have drained off, we are discovering that what is left is clean and much like that which was practiced and taught by the early church and even the early church of God pioneers. What has become new to us was actually very old, but over time was cast aside for a “new and improved way.” A way that has repeatedly failed. Miserably so.

But not everyone is happy for us or for our new found freedom. First, the devil is never happy for when people make spiritual progress, he always loses ground. It is usually those persons who cause him no trouble that he leaves alone. He goes after those who are a threat to his kingdom. We have been no exception. Second, some of our personal acquaintances within the church affiliation/system that we were a part of are not happy either. This has been the most hurtful part.

Rather than defend ourselves and enter into a never ending battle of words, we have chosen to look forward and not backwards. We have chosen to look up rather than look around. Jesus said “Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you.” (Luke 6:26)  In one sense, while it is not pleasant, the naysayers are keeping the woes from coming upon us. In another sense, persecution has always worked to further spread the gospel.

The persecution in Jerusalem of the early church caused the believers to disperse abroad and preach the Word everywhere they went (Acts 8:4). So, being persecuted is not always a bad thing. Aside from spreading the gospel, it also brings a greater bonding in love for those who are the target of the hostility. Today, as an assembly of local believers, we are much closer to the saints then we have ever been before.

Even bad news can become good news. Several have told us that they heard evil reports about us, our Gospel Outreach focus and our teaching, but when they examined it for themselves, they too became convinced of its biblical foundation and have made similar moves in their lives.

Finally, we have demonstrated that the biblical form of church government works when put in practice as God designed. For slightly more than two years, we have been operating in an eldership manner, allowing God to operate the ministering gifts among us in a manner that He has chosen. We have no salaried pastor and no one among us has received compensation for exercising their spiritual gifting. Freely given, freely give. We look to no one person to govern or lead us, except for Christ. The spiritual oversight responsibilities are shared among the biblically qualified elders.

The saints have given testimony that they have grown spiritual leaps and bounds since we have left the institutionalized church system. Since everyone feels a sense of personal and shared responsibility, it is only natural that we are seeing a deepening in the lives of the saints. While the naysayers have said, and are yet saying, that the church can’t operate without a salaried and positional pastor at the head, God is indeed doing just that. After all, it’s His church and the government is on His shoulders!

We look forward to a busy and prosperous summer.