About Us

The spirit of New Testament style evangelism has been nearly lost in many places today. As a result, the understanding of true salvation from all sin, Bible holiness and the present reality of the kingdom of God, has reached an all time low among a lost and dying world. Instead of sharing this truth, we have buried it within our walls, expecting people to come to "church" to find it. 

In earlier days, teams of saints called “flying ministers” were sent into various fields of labor with the express purpose of winning souls to Christ and building up the kingdom of God. These teams did not consist of a select few persons who were at the distinguished head of a movement, but rather they were made up of common people who had experienced a common salvation and who had a common vision and burden. The results were truly amazing. Congregations were planted all across North America, and the spirit of evangelism extended into many foreign lands, with God confirming His Word with signs following. This reality is reflected in one of the early holiness reformation songs that says: “There’s a mighty reformation sweeping ore the land.” Can this be said yet today?

Sadly, as lukewarmness, apostasy and compromise set in, God began to withdraw His presence, and the spirit of evangelism began to diminish. From time to time, the spirit of evangelism has been somewhat revived but it has been short lived, as a result of numerous splits primarily over issues of doctrine, race relations, worldliness and ministerial disputes. It is said that the early church turned the world upside down. Today it would seem that the world has turned the church upside down!

At the height of the holiness movement, the thrust of evangelism was to reach souls for Christ and then make disciples of the converts. As it was in the days of the early church, everyone was called to minister in some capacity. Much effort was expended in exhorting the saints to seek spiritual gifts and callings. The more seasoned ministers in the faith spent much time training, mentoring and encouraging the younger with one sole purpose in mind; to send them into the fields of harvest. This same pattern is yet followed in various foreign mission fields today. It is in these places that the God's church is expanding, and God’s divine favor is resting upon the people.

The thrust of today’s church seems to be that of maintenance. By that, we mean that the church seems to be reaching out primarily to those whom its members are already in immediate contact. The average non-churched person is unaffected by the church's message and is not likely to come in personal contact with it. World population is estimated at 6 ½ billion people and the United States population is at 300 million people. Very few people have come in direct contact with truth, yet, evangelistic efforts dedicated at reaching out solely to the lost are a thing of the past. “Revivals” are primarily focused on messages to the saints. They come and go and not too much lasting “reviving” seems to take place. Old fashioned campmeetings, which in earlier years were focused on reaching the lost in a local community, have turned into social gatherings of persons from established congregations. Now these meetings come and go, and our local communities are unaffected or not even aware that a campmeeting is being held. In days gone by, the saints spent much time in prayer and fasting for such gatherings. Today the focus seems to be upon temporal preparations. As one minister put it “The church began in the upper room with the saints agonizing, and it's ending in the supper room with the saints organizing."

While we have the theology of unselfish service, it would seem that we have come up short in actually living out our theology when it comes to reaching the lost or those snared by false religion. Many congregations today have become sponges rather than watering pots. They absorb truth, but give out little. How often do we hear of a new congregation being established through sacrificial outreach? Many of the smaller congregations have less than 20 – 30 saints in regular attendance. Do we expect them to sacrifice a major percentage of laborers into the fields while the larger congregations work to get even larger? Are the larger congregations to tear down our buildings and build bigger buildings, incurring more and more temporal costs, while there are places all around where there are no congregations at all? This approach is what we see in the institutionalized churches and is what the early pioneers came out of. It takes tremendous sacrifice to get out into a new field of labor and leave our comfort zones, our padded pews and our comfortable buildings. It takes courage to witness to the lost and to testify to religious people who are different than us. Someone has to do it. Jesus said the greatest commandments are to love God supremely and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Can we say we really love them while we do little to seek them out? We say ‘No’. Saints, it is time that the church wake up from her long sleep, face reality and be about the Father’s business.

This includes us as well.

For the past few years, our burden has been to reach out in a greater way with the true message of the gospel. Besides laboring in a local Springfield, Ohio congregation, we have been involved in various outreach efforts, including working with a couple of smaller congregations, writing and distributing books and tracts, foreign mission field work, holding services in an assisted living center, Internet and website ministry, etc... But, this is not enough. We are not satisfied with the little we have accomplished for God. After much prayer, we have moved out further in faith on our longstanding burden. We are taking the teachings of truth and holiness that we have come to know, understand and love into places where they are needed. In Luke Chapter 14, we read an account of the great supper, which is symbolic of New Testament salvation. The workers were sent to the highways and hedges to compel them to come in. This expression, “come in”, was not referring to a local church assembly nor a "sacred building", but a call to come into the family of God, into a personal relationship with Christ. The highways in Palestine were filled with rocks, bushes and shadowy places. Souls perishing in the highways of life are those whom we will have to go search for. Inviting them to “church” is not the answer.  We must meet them on their ground. Paul said he became “all things to all men” so he could win some to God. To successfully work with people, we cannot always expect them to come to where we are. We have been commissioned and called to go into all the world and preach the Gospel! In days gone by, the saints preached and sang in public places, they passed out tracts and literature and God blessed their efforts--those who needed the true gospel heard about it. God sent the message to the audience that needed to hear it. That is our burden!

Today we have a new generation to reach and we would rather attempt to reach them and fail, than to do nothing and succeed. 

Please remember us in prayer that we will be faithful to all God is calling us to do.

Prayerfully submitted,

Bro Joe and Sis Joanne Coons
Bro Dale and Sis Debbie Rude

Gospel Outreach Ministry Update 
May 16, 2007

 
As we reflect on the accomplishments of this past year, and look forward to the challenges facing us in the coming year, we felt it good to share with you what God has done with regard to the Gospel Outreach Ministries.
 
First, let us say that we are grateful for what our heavenly Father has done for us, both individually and collectively. Even with all of its difficult challenges and fiery trials, it was said that this past year was the most rewarding time that we have ever had in our Christian life! When we provided our Open Letter to the Saints last May, we were not exactly sure where God would lead us, or what He would be doing through us, but we were willing to follow Him “wheresoever He goeth”. Through much prayer and times of tribulation and persecution, we have walked through each door of opportunity as they have been opened to us, not always knowing what was immediately out ahead. This outreach ministry has been an exercise of true faith and determination, and we are thankful to say that “Jesus led us all the way” and He has met each and every need.
 
Secondly, we are deeply indebted to those saints who have held this ministry up in your prayers. We are also thankful for those who have supported the special outreach meetings by their attendance. We trust that they have been an inspiration and encouragement to you. We know your prayers, your presence and your participation has been a source of great inspiration to us!
 
We would like to share with you a few of the accomplishments of this Gospel Outreach Ministry thus far.
 
First, we were privileged to conduct four series of evangelistic outreach meetings in South Charleston, Ohio. Prior to each series of meetings, our families and some our friends canvassed the entire village of South Charleston, going door-to-door and passing out hundreds and hundreds of flyers and evangelic literature. As some of you may know, this is the little village where Sis Faye Rude (Earles) was raised, and to some degree, we felt that we were honoring her life and memory by reaching out to those in her home town. Some of her distant family still reside there and we are thankful to report that a few of them attended these outreach meetings, as well as other community members who have known the Earles family for many years. Everyone who attended the meetings that personally knew Sis Faye spoke very favorably of her, and in a sense, through these outreach efforts and our lives “her works live on.”
 
The very first time we canvassed the community, we found ourselves on the same street as a little chapel known in the community as “Shorter Chapel”. It seemed to be abandoned and was in need of much repair, but it caught our attention. It is a small, plain chapel built in 1881. It comfortably seats about 75 people. We stopped in front of the chapel and had prayer regarding the potential use of it. Knowing no one in the community who could tell us about the owners of the chapel, we jotted down a phone number that was written on a public service notice regarding a community church painting project that had occurred in the past. To make a long story short, we eventually called the phone number and God opened up the door for us to hold meetings in the chapel. Our Gospel Outreach team undertook a cleaning /restoration project of the chapel and to date, we have not had to pay much for the use the building. Also, unbeknown to us, we became the “talk of the town” as the neighbors appreciated that we were cleaning up a longstanding “eyesore” within the community. While our focus is certainly not on a building or a specific location, we are thankful that we have a temporary place to worship and invite the community.
 
God has worked out so many circumstances for us that it is truly amazing. As an example, one such instance is as follows:
 
When the weather began to get cold, we found that we had another obstacle to overcome. The old fuel burning furnace in the basement of the little chapel was broken and previous attempts by the owners to have it repaired were unsuccessful. We purchased a couple of kerosene heaters thinking that they may provide enough heat to warm the chapel and would therefore allow us to continue to hold meetings over the Winter. However, after just a few services when the weather really began to turn cold, we realized that it would not be possible to heat the chapel in extremely cold temperatures with these types of heaters. In fact, we came to realize that unless God worked a miracle, we would only be meeting there a few more times. Being a small start-up ministry, we did not have the financial resources to have the old furnace repaired, in fact, we didn't have the financial means to even have a professional come out and look it over! We asked the saints to pray about the situation. We let God know we would obey Him in whatever way He would led us. Time was quickly running out. We committed the situation to the Lord.
 
But God likes to work when your backs to the wall….
 
Well, God saw our desire and He answered prayer. A brother heard of our dilemma and felt led to ask another man who is a furnace professional if he could come and look at the furnace. They went to the chapel and examined the furnace. They were able to quickly locate the source of the problem and make the necessary repairs on the spot, all with no charge. The repairman even had the right replacement part with him in his van!
 
From August 2006 to April 2007, we were able to have four series of community Gospel Outreach Meetings. In all, 16 individual outreach services were conducted at Shorter Chapel. These meetings were well attended by visitors from the local community, as well as saints from various congregations of the church of God (see meeting reports). The services were evangelistic in nature and the messages were focused solely on the plan of salvation. The Gospel Outreach Ministry team, which has now grown significantly, has been encouraged and renewed by being obedient to our calling and burden. We know that where seeds are being planted, His Word will not return void.
 
In addition to our burden for the reconciliation of sinners to God, we have felt it necessary to try to tear down divisional walls that have needlessly separated God’s people in past years. These include walls built because of doctrinal differences, personal disagreements and misunderstandings, differing religious customs and traditions, and even racial barriers. While we stand strongly against an ecumenical spirit of overlooking sin and wrong doing, we believe that God has called us to “reach our hands in fellowship to every blood-washed one”. These “networking” reconciliatory efforts have been fruitful in that we have experienced saints from different “groups” and backgrounds coming together at the outreach meetings for a common cause, i.e., the salvation of lost souls. We believe that having a ministry of reconciliation among brethren is also very much needed in our day. We have met many new people and have reestablished relationships that were needlessly broken apart by past divisions. Our sphere of fellowship and influence has grown in ways that we would have never imagined.
 
In addition to the Gospel Outreach Meetings, we held weekly Discipleship Classes and home meetings and Bible studies. The focus of these gatherings is to establish believers in the “faith once delivered to the saints.” These gatherings have been relaxed, informal and interactive and they are primarily focused on the teachings of Christ, as well as other New Testament passages and principles. These gatherings are usually led by a different person each meeting, and have been a great inspiration to us all. We, the adults, have learned many things through these gatherings, and we believe that they have also greatly benefited our children as well.
 
One of the biggest concerns we had when we first decided to press forward with our outreach burden was the affect our decision might have on our precious children. That was in fact the greatest struggle we dealt with. As little minds are so impressionable, we were fearful that if we were to make bad choices, we could cause irreparable damage to their lives later on in life. You only get one chance at raising children and time goes by so quickly. However, when all things were considered, we felt that God was clearly leading us in this direction and we therefore committed them to the Lord and covered them with much prayer. Looking back, we can see where this decision has worked in favor of our children’s spiritual growth. To illustrate this, the children help us pass out door-to-door literature in South Charleston. During one canvassing, the children gave a woman walking down the street an invitation to the upcoming outreach meeting. She despitefully mocked them as being so-called “fishers of men”. They were thrilled! For the first time in their lives, they were being persecuted for righteousness sake! They had read in the Bible about Jesus calling His disciples “fishers of men”, and they had sung about being “fishers of men”, but now they were actually being fishers of men. And someone noticed! They came running to us with happy smiles on their little faces. They had actually experienced what they had only previously heard and read about, and they were blessed by it! They also were excited each time a visitor came to an outreach meeting as a result of receiving a flyer.
 
We can see where our children have grown spiritually. Now, we are teaching them in a real way to carry a burden for lost souls and to sacrifice themselves for the greater good of the Gospel. Our children freely participate in our home studies. They ask good questions, as well as answer hard ones from time to time!
 
Presently, we are meeting with a good number of saints with whom we used to worship with prior to these outreach efforts. God has truly blessed us to be able to enjoy rich fellowship in the Spirit. We are all learning how to better serve God and to be led of His Spirit. Since we have all left the institutionalized church, as well as the spirit of "groupism", we have been given the liberty to worship God in spirit and in truth, rather than tradition and formality.
 
In closing, we look forward to whatever and wherever God may lead us next. We have made ourselves available to be used in any way that He sees fit. We have posted a new Gospel Outreach Ministry website (www.JesusSavesFromSin.com) where we provide weekly meeting reports, pictures, and other interesting information. We have had visitors from all over the world come to visit our Gospel Outreach website. As of May 2007, there have been over 52,000 individual page hits from all over the world and we have come in contact with like minded individuals from both near and far. Finally, we have made ourselves available for evangelistic outreach efforts, speaking engagements and discipleship meetings at other assemblies of saints.
 
God is doing great things and we are thankful and humbled to be a small part of it! We solicit your continued prayers for divine direction and we invite you to any and all of our meetings.
 
Yours for the up building of the kingdom of God,
 
Bro Joe and Sis Joanne Coons  
Bro Dale and Sis Debbie Rude

Gospel Outreach Ministry
Annual Report Update – Dec 2007 
Click here to download and print.

As we begin to face the challenges of a New Year, we are often made to reflect on what was accomplished in the past year. In reflecting on God’s past blessings, we face the coming days with boldness and confidence “that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it.” God has certainly been good to us this past year, as we kept Him first and foremost in our lives! 

As has become our practice, we would like to share with our online audience some of the wonderful things that were accomplished in 2007, as well as some lessons that we have learned.  

We will start with a major lesson learned, and move onto more substantive areas of our outreach. 

In late 2006, we were asked by a small assembly of people who had been involved in an unfortunate, but necessary congregational separation, if we would consider coming to their meetings and helping them out. These are people with whom we had worshiped with for many years. They were well aware of our desire for outreach, as well as specific doctrinal areas in which we had gained a greater understanding of the scriptures. After prayerful consideration and with some hesitancy (we didn’t want to get sidetracked from gospel outreach or involved in more “church problems”, nor did we want to impose our doctrinal views on them), we agreed to help out as much as we could and we began to meet with the saints on a fairly regular basis, starting on Sunday mornings and occasionally Sunday evenings. There was much hurt that needed to be healed and we believe that it was a time of healing for all of us. For this, we are very thankful. 

We spent the first six months of this year working with these saints and we enjoyed a time of rich fellowship. Nearly every meeting and lesson was geared towards spiritual healing and building up the body of Christ, with special periodic Sunday morning meetings being conducted as outreach efforts. We started out meeting in homes, but by March, we were no longer able to comfortably gather in one home, so we rented out a conference room at the local Marriott in downtown Springfield, Ohio. 

However, all uncharted paths are not without their difficulties and obstacles. We share the following, not in a condemning way or to “air dirty laundry”, but as there are many people who are also leaving the Institutionalized Church, possibly we can share both our success stories and our occasional set-backs as a learning tool for others in similar circumstances. 

Frank Viola, a renowned house church and Christian writer, has well noted from his many years of experience with new house churches that an average life span of six months to two years is typical for a new assembly. Within this six-to-two window, the assembly is at a high risk of dissolving due to an irreconcilable split or an unresolved crisis. Viola observed that if the group manages to hold together through the difficult start-up time period, it will either succeed or it will drift toward a scaled down, "small-is-beautiful" version of the institutional church from which it came away. Having survived the first six month milestone, the latter observation is clearly the path that this new assembly was quickly heading down. 

Once we started working with the saints, it soon became clear that not all were viewing the future of this little assembly with the same singleness of heart. Rather than just drift towards becoming a scaled down institutional church, it seemed as though some of the saints actually desired to become a scaled down institutional church. In fact, it became clear that some were determined to recreate the same structure and traditional practices of which they had experienced for many years. Shortly after the six month time period, some became closed to anything that they perceived as being different from their own customs, and they perceived any changes as a departure from “truth”. In essence, some of these brothers and sisters wanted to pattern themselves after the same religious system in which they had left, a system which by all accounts and measures has consistently failed time and time again. For instance, several of them wanted to locate and purchase a “church building” and get a “full-time pastor”. Others were not as eager to make these major decisions so soon, and still others were not in support of this approach at all. Other minor issues developed, such as facial hair, passing an offering plate vs having an offering box set off to the side, the seating arrangements during the service, having an altar at which people could bow down, whether a Christian should pay tithe to the storehouse or give a free-will offering. All of these issues are actually ridiculously insignificant in and of themselves, but they represented a much larger divide in the overall path that was to control and shape the future of the assembly. By summer of this year, it became abundantly clear that all were not of one mind and that we had reached an impasse. 

As Frank Viola had accurately described from his years of experience, this situation resulted in an irresolvable crisis and an attempted power play ensued. We offered several times to bow out and continue with our outreach efforts as we had been doing, but the saints asked us to continue to stay and help. The end result was that some of the group decided to leave the assembly in a somewhat amicable fashion and worship with an established congregation that shares the same background and traditional practices of which they have been accustomed. While we still have genuine love for these dear saints, and we pray that they will be blessed in their spiritual endeavors, we recognize that we had honest and sincerely different viewpoints. Our visions for both the present and the future were simply not the same. It is not necessarily that one was right and the other wrong, but they were clearly different. 

On a more positive note, we continue to meet regularly with the saints and to rent a conference room at the Springfield Marriott on Sundays. Talk about low overhead! You cannot find a better deal than meeting in a Hotel conference room such as this! For a very small weekly cost, we are provided a nice sized air-conditioned room in the summer and a heated room in the winter. We have clean restroom facilities. No grass to mow. No shoveling snow (we pull right up to the outside doors under a covered entranceway. Even the doors open automatically!). No weekly cleaning program. No building repairs and maintenance. We’re right in the heart of downtown Springfield. And for being such a small assembly, we sure get a lot of visitors who come to the meetings. In fact, we usually have 2 or 3 times as many people who come on Sunday evenings then we do on Sunday mornings. We are surely a blessed people! 

One of the ladies who works at the Marriott is now attending the Sunday  evening services during her lunch break. We have gone to her home for Bible study and we have come to really love this sister. It is apparent that the desire of the saints is also for outreach and the goal is to be an assembly of the New Testament church in every aspect. This is readily apparent by the personal and corporate charitable deeds of the saints throughout the entire community, as well as the way we have structured our budget. We lovingly give to others more than we spend on our own needs, which is in part a fulfillment of the second greatest commandment that Jesus taught us… to love your neighbor as yourself. We have created a website for this assembly and you can get updated information at: www.newcovenantchurchofGod.com. 

This year, we also discovered that we are small part of a great Revolution! That was news to us!  

According to researcher and Christian statistical analyst George Barna, North America is in the early stages of what may well become the most significant spiritual reformation of the past hundred years! Whether we realize it or not, we live in the midst of a revolutionary age, and we, the Gospel Outreach Ministry and the new covenant church of God have become a small part of this great revolution. We have all read about past revivals and spiritual awakenings and we wondered if we would ever see that day again and experience anything like we have only read about. We read the history books and we wept, longing for spiritual revival and a fresh outpouring of the Spirit of God upon our land! Now, slowly but surely, it is beginning to happen. Sadly, many people cannot discern the signs or the times, but we are feeling the tremors of that last and final earthquake! 

Unlike previous Great Awakenings, which worked to bring people into organized religion, this new movement involves people coming away from reliance upon the organized church into a deeper connection with and reliance upon God. Already in our country, millions of Christians have stopped “going to church." Barna expects that in 20 years "only about one-third of the population will rely upon a local congregation as the primary or exclusive means for experiencing and expressing their faith."  

How big is this silent Revolution? According to Barna, some 20 million people, dubbed "Revolutionaries", have left the Institutionalized Church in North America and are now living "a first-century lifestyle based on faith, goodness, love, generosity, kindness, and simplicity". These are people who "zealously pursue an intimate relationship with God." and are now experiencing freedom in Christ as never before. For Christians in other countries like China, Russia, Indonesia and Korea, this time of revolution and manner of worship has been commonplace for years, and by necessity. It is in these countries that true revival is already taking place. As we continue to lose our religious freedom in our own country, is it possible that God is preparing us for days ahead? 

While not using the same terminology, such as “revolution”, “Institutionalized Church”, etc…, the early pioneers of the church of God Reformation movement had experienced this same freedom that we and millions of other people are discovering. It is found throughout their hundreds and hundreds of evening light songs, songs that for us now have renewed life and new meaning.  

For example, just read the words to some of these songs:  

There’s a mighty reformation sweeping o’er the land.
God is gathering His people by His mighty hand.
For the cloudy day is ending and the evening sun is bright.
With a shout of joy, we hail the light!

Free from babel in the spirit,
Free to worship God aright.
Glory, glory saints are shouting,
We are saved in evening light!.

From Babel confusion most gladly I fled,
And came to the heights of fair Zion instead;
I’m feasting this moment on heavenly bread;
I’ll never go back, I’ll never go back.
The beast and his image, his mark, and his name,
My love or allegiance no longer can claim,
Though men may exalt them to honor and fame;
I’ll never go back again. 

Some think I’ve done wrong,
By leaving the throng,
Who abide in sectarian strife.
But I’ve only come back,
Where God’s people belong.
From Babel, I fled for my life! 

Praise the Lord! We rejoice even as we type these very words! In a small way, we are again experiencing what these writers experienced many years ago! 

Now, more than ever, we understand the vital difference between being the church and simply "going to church".  

So, we’re part of a Revolution. What else? 

Let us share with you what God is doing on the more practical side of this ministry. 

This past year, we made significant progress in rediscovering the manner in which the New Testament church operated, including the manner in which she conducted assembly meetings. Coming from a background that was not as structured as mainstream Protestantism, yet very programmed, we have advanced to an environment of openness in our meetings. We are striving to allow the Spirit of God to move freely in our midst and to allow the ministering gifts to be in full operation. The days of spectator church meetings are long past for us. Rather than just one person doing all the speaking (usually yelling) while the others sit back and watch, we are now in an environment where each member of the body adds to the discussion as he/she is lead of the Spirit.  We have found the level of body edification has greatly increased as a result. 1 Corinthians 14:30-31 If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace. For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted. This has now become the standard practice among us, and not the rare exception.     

We have also gained great strides in implementing the New Testament eldership governing model into our assembly. This past year, biblical lessons were brought by various individuals. Only on a few rare occasions did the same person lead in both the morning and evening service, and those occasions were part of a series. Otherwise, we have a different person who leads the discussion, including the sisters among us. The unwritten prohibition that was previously placed on the sisters has been completely lifted (including a proper interpretation of the two misinterpreted scriptures) and we have greatly benefited from their unique insight. 

Even our seating arrangement has changed. While meeting in homes, we discovered the great advantage of looking at each other’s face, rather than the back of each others heads! Now, in our general assemblies, we prefer to sit in a circle or semi-circle, rather than in rows. It is amazing how even this small detail can change the atmosphere of a meeting from one of formality to informality. Of course, we have no reserved or elevated seats for the “ministry” among us, because we are all ministers. We have fully adapted the biblical teaching of the royal priesthood and kingship of all believers. 

But our meetings are certainly NOT the focus of our ministry! 

Jesus said in Matthew 25:35-36, 40,  “For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me… Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” 

Our general assembly meetings are primarily focused on body edification, but our real mission lies outside of the four walls. This is where real ministry takes place.  

We are thankful that conducting outreach and personal evangelism has become “second nature” for us. We are always looking for and finding ways to conduct outreach ministry, both in our personal lives and corporately as well. 

This year, we assisted the saints in ministering at the Forest Glen Health Campus. Biweekly services are held there and we have developed a good relationship with several of the workers and residents there. The Coons family have also continued with their 3^rd year of nursing home ministry at Oakwood Village.  

Bro David and Sis Becky invited us to participate in their weekly Monday night outreach meetings in Snyder Park in Springfield, Ohio. These meetings are part of their outreach burden and we were thankful to help them out. 

We were able to conduct a series of outreach meetings in April and October of this year, one in South Charleston, Ohio and the other here in Springfield, Ohio. You can read reports of these meeting by clicking here. 

We also continued to work with other congregations in the area, specifically the Buxton Ave Church of God and the saints in Washington Court House, Ohio. We have developed bonded relationships with these dear saints and they hold a special place in our hearts. We look forward to many years of sweet fellowship. 

We recently got involved in supporting our local jail and juvenile systems by supporting a ministry that provides assistance and literature to the inmates and their families. We hope to get more involved in this ministry. 

Our Gospel Outreach Ministry website ministry has really taken off this past year. Recently, we surpassed 100,000 hits on our www.JesusSavesFromSin.com website! We have had visitors not only from most States in the USA, but from every continent of the planet and we have established contacts from many of these visits.  This website has brought us into contact and fellowship with many other Christians who have also left the Institutionalized church and are striving to be a local representative of the New Testament church.  

Our New Testament Church Government website, www.BiblicalElders.com, has received over 12,000 hits from many places in the world. We get more Internet traffic from foreign countries on this website. The concept of shared leadership is a foreign concept to many people in the United States, but apparently not to others in foreign countries! However, as time goes by, more and more people are beginning to embrace the New Testament teaching of Biblical Eldership and are forsaking the hierarchal governing models that were introduced in the 1^st century apostasy of the early church and was handed down to us from Catholicism and Protestantism. 

This is just part of the ways in which God has blessed us this past year. However, past blessings will not suffice. 

We are looking forward to this coming year and for what God may have in store for us. We are open to the leading of His Spirit. Where He leads us, we will follow! 

Onward and Upward… 

The Gospel Outreach Ministry Team

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 adopt more of the New Testament eldership model. 

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 individuals 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 is quite impressive (Philippians 3:5-6). He studied Jewish law under the famous rabbi Gamaliel (Acts 22:3), 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 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 the 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 dress. 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 what we have been taught, freeing ourselves from the sectarian mindset that was ingrained into 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.

But not everyone is happy for us or for our new found freedom. First, the devil is never happy 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 now then ever 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, free 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.