Opening Day 2018

Saturday, May 5th was the opening day for the 2018 season of the Downtown Des Moines Farmers Market. Mary and I were able to make it down there around 10 AM, and we got to see our friend Terry Daniel faithfully at his corner on Court Avenue and 3rd, holding his "Jesus" sign and witnessing to the crowds.

Hard to believe, but 2018 marks 10 years of the Lord allowing us to go down to the Downtown Des Moines Farmer's Market to share the gospel and proclaim Jesus Christ to all of our friends and neighbors down there.

There were a lot of people at the market, and it was really quite noisy at Court and 3rd where we usually set up, across the north side of 3rd Avenue from where Terry is in the picture above. The music was just too loud for public speaking, so I dropped my box off next to Terry, and spent an hour or so passing out tracks and talking to people as they walked by. The musician took a break a little after 11:00, so I grabbed my box and got about half hour sharing about Jesus and the gospel of grace. Mary was on the south side of the street, and she shared a ton of tracts with passing people, as usual.

It has been quite the experience, these 10 years of ministry in this location. I've learned a lot, and I hope I have grown in my compassion and love for my fellow man, as well as my love and devotion to my Savior. That's why we go down there; that's what motivates me keep on going, that, and the knowledge that one of these Saturdays it will be the last time.

Life is short. Use it for something that will honor God and last for eternity.

Gideon's Des Moines Bible Blitz

 This past week marked the Des Moines Gideon's International Bible Blitz where Professional Christian men and their spouses lovingly, graciously, and bravely distributed God's Word throughout the Des Moines, IA area. I was so blessed to be a part of this awesome en devour.

Throughout the different camps that attended we were met with alot of opposition, prayed, and the Lord helped us through. The opposition I am referring to was weather, and sickness. We were to experience a ton of snow in the Des Moines area at the start of the distribution. But looking at the weather report, even though it was cold, the snow went AROUND Des Moines, and not over top of us. Praise God for His mercy on us. Even though it did hinder those coming in from Minnesota area, we still were able to get the job done. Crunch time came at the end of our distribution and it was a beautiful 70 degree weather. Many of us, myself included, were faced with sickness throughout the time we spent together. Most of us pressed on and were able to get the job done.

The entire event was extremely successful. We set a goal of 30,000 scriptures to be distributed and I was told we overshot that goal by a few thousand! How awesome is God. Why is this number so important?  Gideon International spokesman Woody Murray said: 

"[Gideon Bibles] are spiritual staples of nearly every hotel room and the only item guests are invited to take. Our statistics show one-quarter of all travelers will read the bible in the hotel rooms and each bible has the potential to reach 2,300 people over its six-year life expectancy."

That number is quite amazing. The average amount of rooms for a limited amenity hotel in the USA is 114 rooms. That means in a 6 year period, just one hotel can have the potential to reach 262,200 people. According to an article from business travel news, in 2015 the hotel industry in the U.S. broke the 5 million room mark at 5,001,163 rooms. That is alot of people who have the potential to experience God's Holy Scriptures just in the U.S. alone and why this project is so important to reaching the lost and fulfilling the great commission.

But make no mistake...a bible can easily outlive its 6 year life expectancy. Once a bible gets decommissioned from a hotel room after its 6 years, if it is in good condition, it will be sent out to prisons, shelters, and other places it is needed. This is why programs like the Gideon Card Program is a great way to honor a loved one who has passed on, and a joy, investment, and a legacy in a living soul can be formed.

Though I am not allowed to include the specifics of this blitz, I will say that the men and women of Gideon's International are some of the most bravest, loving, caring, and especially focused people I know, fulfilling the great commission of Jesus to go into all the world and preach the gospel. In each and every one of our minds, as Gideon's, we know we have a job to do, and to distribute God's word to every person we are able to. It is, and always will be, and incredible sight, to see Gideon's come from all over and to walk hand-in-hand together as brothers, to distribute God's word. We may not do it fearlessly, but we overcome that fear because of love of the other person receiving it, and love for our God and creator. 

Please consider becoming a member, a "Friend of the Gideon's", or even giving through the Gideon Card Program so that more scriptures can be given out freely to those who need them. 

Impact: From A Handful of Dirt And A Question.

Today was a special day for me. I received a card and a letter in the mail from my cousin who is at a Christian substance and addiction rehab facility on the east coast. So far he has been there 8 months, and this is his second time out there. This was my first correspondence with him since he left to go live there, even though I write him between 1 and 2 weeks apart.

I'm not going to show or even write down everything that is in the letter, but he talks about being totally wrecked for Christ and how he had to lose everything to gain everything in Him. He is giving up his life to serve the Lord and not only that, but they have even put him on staff at this facility. At the end of his letter, he writes,

"You were the first to introduce me to my Christian faith. Although it has been a long, bumpy road, you have a huge role in this victory." 

Here is a public video of him sharing his testimony at the place he is staying.

The reason why I wrote about this is because most of us will never know the impact we have in souls we witness to and share our faith with. Most of us will never get a letter, or a thank-you, or a pat on the back. But we don't witness to get these. We do it for God's glory. But it's nice every so often to see some fruit on this side of heaven. The crazy thing to is to not give up hope and trust that the Lord is working, no matter how long it takes.

When I first witnessed to Rich, it was at the log cabins in West Virginia when this picture was taken. I was really young in the faith, newly married, and probably close to maybe 2005. That is like 13 years ago! Rich was borderline agnostic / atheist, who grew up Roman Catholic, but really questioning God's existence. But the story of the first time I witnessed to him was pretty funny. We were hiking along the top of the tallest mountain in West Virginia - Seneca Rocks 2,202 ft above sea level. While we were hiking, he stops at the very top, bends down and scoops up a handful of dirt. He brought it over to me and showed me that in his hands were ocean fossils that scattered all over the top of this mountain. There were so many that all you had to do is scoop up some dirt and you were sure to have some. They were everywhere. So I asked him how they all got here. He said the only logical explanation was that the top of the mountain had to be covered with deep sea water in order for them all to settle the way they did. So I said, "That must mean Noah's Ark is true, huh?" Well, he quickly denied it, but then went on as to what else it could have been. But nothing else made sense. And from that day it really made him think about God, the bible, afterlife, and why Jesus had to die on a cross. I've answered questions through the years, and had some pretty good conversations. But it all started with a handful of dirt and a question.

But here is the one thing I want to stress. "When we do nothing...nothing happens". We won't have an impact on anyone if we don't share our faith. We need to get out there and make disciples. We can't make disciples if we don't share our faith first. The fish aren't going to jump in the boat. We have to take initiative and start the hard conversations, conquer the fear, and get out of our comfort zones. I hope this encourages many of you. To God be the glory.

St. Paddy' s Day Parade Kickoff 2018

Well, the St. Paddy' s Day Parade evangelism season kick off on March 17th went very well and without a problem. This year we gained 4 new witnessing partners for Jesus and hopefully long time evangelism partnership as well. One of our new friends is John from Pella, Iowa whom we met through the Facebook group Iowa Local Evangelism Connections. A group created by Ray Comfort' s Living Waters Ministry, one for every state. This is where we are posting all the evangelism events. He will be instrumental to us in our evangelism efforts in Pella especially for Tulip Time. John brought three young ladies with him and were such a blessing to us.

They followed us along as we passed out tracts and they passed out bibles that were donated to us. Dispite Tony staying at one spot in his wheelchair, out of 300 bibles given, we distributed 185 bibles at this event alone! We also gave out at least over 1000 tracts.

A former evangelist and friend, Mary, joined us as well who hasn't been available for quite some time. It was really cool to see her in action again, especially how she converses with children and the elderly.

The next main event will be the Drake Relays in Des Moines April 25-28.

The Forgotten Officer – A Book Review

Why does the church feel so ill-equipped to share the gospel?  Why are the laity, and even the leadership overcome with fear to share their faith? Why is it so difficult to get people motivated to fulfill the great commission in Mark 16:15 to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature? This book, The Forgotten Officer: Restoring the Fullness of God’s Design by Joe Kohler, brings to the forefront one of the greatest tools that the church has forgotten about, the evangelist. The modern church has pushed out the evangelist and replaced him with tent revivals, traveling preachers, and parachurch ministries. This book biblically shows how the evangelist is to work in and with the local church, alongside the pastor and teacher to grow the church, not shifting believers around from fellowship to fellowship.

The Problem

The main premise of this book is that the officers of Ephesians 4:11-13 (Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers) were given by Christ to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, not for reaching the lost themselves. But he doesn’t stop there. He also insists that the local church leadership / eldership should be made up of the pastor, teacher, AND the evangelist. So, what is the model the modern church has taken on instead of the biblical one? The evangelist has been replaced with Youth Pastor, Maintenance Ministry, or Worship Leader.

Whether forgotten or neglected, the result is the same – evangelists are excluded from their proper place in their leadership roles for the church as they were given by Jesus, which will hinder the church from attaining unity of the faith, knowledge of he Son of God, maturity, and the measure of the stature that belongs to the fullness of Christ according to Ephesians 4:13.

The Solution

The solution that Mr. Kohler offers is that the office of Evangelist needs to be recognized and emphasized as an important part of the leadership structure in the local church in order for the church to grow outside the walls of the community it is in. We have inherited a church culture that does not rightly understand, appreciate, value, or recognize evangelists in the local church. At best, we recognize the ministry of evangelists as a parachurch ministry. We have nullified the word of God with our traditions and therefore lacking an important officer whose job is to help us speak the truth in love, which is critical for us growing up in all aspects into Christ. Pastors and teachers dominate the leadership structures, not evangelists. Sadly, the presupposition that evangelists equal those with the spiritual gift of evangelism has caused pastors to ignore the evangelists all together in the final assessment of local church governance. “Spiritual gift of evangelism” is nowhere found in the bible.

The local church needs evangelists to train the people of God to do the work Jesus commanded believers to do. Without the outward focus of a church being maintained through the leadership of the evangelist, it will naturally become inwardly focused. This is natural because the pastor exists to care for the body by teaching, preaching, counseling, and loving with a focus on the people the Lord has brought to the congregation. Churches are inwardly focused because if only pastors and teachers are present in the leadership and pastors/teachers focus on the health of the body inwardly. We will not become mature when we don’t adhere to all the leadership designed by Christ in Ephesians 4:11-13.
One has to have the recognition of the church as well as the gift and doing the work to be a bishop, evangelist, or deacon in the church. Without some formal recognition and establishment as an official leader, the ability to equip and edify is greatly hindered. Why does the evangelist require a leadership position in the local church? Because why should the congregation adhere to the demands of the evangelist if there is no accountability to the evangelist. We must recognize Christ’s gifting and publicly establish and recognize them in some form in the leadership. Otherwise, the encouragement to obey the evangelist is laughable. We must know who the leaders are if we are to submit ourselves to them.

But this doesn’t stop here. Once an evangelist is publicly established as a leader and recognized as one, many will want to still go to the pastor for guidance in the area of outreach, treating the evangelist as a second-class leader. This practice needs to be corrected thoroughly and quickly. Outreach issues concerning the church should be directed to the evangelist when appropriate. The pastor must clearly communicate that the evangelist’s vision and plans for the body are just as important as his own in order for everyone to work as a team.

Personal Thoughts

I thought this was an excellent book stating the most obvious problem and a solution in the church today. As I started reading the introduction to this book, I was overcome with a feeling equivalent to my team winning the Superbowl. I was overjoyed knowing that many of the questions I had regarding my calling were going to be answered throughout the pages of this book, and indeed they were. I had joy reading the testimonies of Evangelists who are leaders of their local church, teaching members to share their faith, and doing the work they were called by Christ personally to do. I wasn’t jealous or envious or them. I was genuinely happy for them and praised God that they found their place in their calling. That’s awesome.

But being a biblical evangelist that was called by Christ but whose calling is not properly recognized as such by my fellowship and the leadership is a lonely walk. I am active, but dormant. One particular elder numerous times publicly discouraged others in my local church to join me on the streets to reach the lost. No wonder I call it, “Club Frustration”. Ideas get shot down, plans go awry, reminder dates get forgotten in the bulletin. It’s hard to look at an empty outreach signup sheet next to a full one for a pot luck, women’s study, or some fun youth outing.  It’s disheartening. But when things do go well and something happens, it’s short-lived and the excitement doesn’t last. This never was intended to be a pitty-party. But the need for an evangelist leader in the local church is way overdue.

Conclusion

I encourage all Pastors, Teachers, Ministry leaders, and Evangelists who are or are not biblically inserted into local leadership roles to read The Forgotten Officer: Restoring the Fullness of God’s Design by Joe Kohler. Its only $3.99 on Kindle. Think about what is written, what the author is saying. If you are a Pastor, ask yourself why your local fellowship isn’t growing. Shifting believers from one church to another is not growing the church. It may be growing our fellowships, but not the church as a whole. Ask yourself why your programs in the past have died off, or were short lived failing to produce any excitement in the body. Ask yourself why your congregation is timid, fearful, and uninterested in reaching the lost, and what have you done to help guide it. How much consistent quality time have you put in it? Could you as a pastor even do that with your busy schedule as it is? Ask yourself why there is no specific budget for outreach and reaching the lost to which Christ said was our highest calling as children of God.

The only thing that will grow the church, is to preach and evangelize the lost who are outside of it. That is what all Christians are called to do. All Christians. It is the evangelists job to lead them by example, hand in hand with them, teaching them how to do it on their own and make disciples. This is a team effort, and always has been, to work together for the Glory of God.