Dan Amos – Page 10 – Gospel Minutes for Everyday Missionaries

December 1, 2011May 31, 2012

Black Friday and the budget

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On Thanksgiving night the attention for many turned to the Black Friday sales. I looked through the ads and saw lots of bright, shiny things I would like to have, but prudence reminded me I can’t spend what I don’t have.

Prudence also guided development of Elim’s 2012 budget which we will vote on this Sunday. We serve the infinite God who has every resource at his command. He has the entirety of creation under his personal attention and care. That is, He sees both the forest and the trees; he sees the big picture yet is active in the tiniest detail. But in this life, He has chosen for us to serve him in more focused and resource-limited ways.

The Elder Board, Staff, Ministry Directors and Stewardship Team each year go through an exercise balancing faith and wise stewardship of the resources we expect to have available to further the ministry of the Church through the local body at Elim. A lot of people have spent a lot of time in preparation, prayer, and discernment of the strategic direction of Elim and this is reflected in the budget. This is most evident in the Holistic Outreach part of the budget. The entirety of projected spending to spread the Gospel of Christ in word and deed won’t be found in just one designated section. Our commitment to discipleship is found in every section, such as AWANA in Children’s Ministries, MOPS in Adult Ministries, and significantly in personnel with the addition of an internship for Holistic Outreach.

Previously we had contracted out leadership of local compassion ministries (through support to Bill Bowers) but our involvement has grown beyond that level. We need someone who can devote regular, concentrated time to directing and leading Elim’s people in spreading the Good News to South Hill and beyond. We expect to propose for 2013 for the internship to be expanded to a full-time staff position. This will continue the expansion of our efforts to involve everyone in the Great Commission.

These are bold plans, but the message is life to those who don’t have it.

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October 6, 2011May 31, 2012

From missions to holistic outreach

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by Dan Amos

For many years Elim’s ministries outside the walls of our building have been growing and changing. It began with enabling missionaries to go to foreign lands and spread the gospel, but is rapidly becoming a ministry of personal involvement for our people. This is partly because the face of missionaries is changing; countries once served by Western missionaries are now sending out their own, some even to the United States and also partly because the need in our own community is so great.

As the missions team and the Elder Board have been seeking to adapt and serve in the new environment, we have been placing a greater emphasis on our personal action and growth in sharing the good news and serving others. Several years ago the Elder Board directed the missions team to begin the process of evaluating supported missionaries for effectiveness in reaching unreached people groups and ways in which we can partner with them and emphasizing short term missions as a means of growing our people in the process.

We can see this in the Democratic Republic of Congo where we have already sent two teams in life-changing experiences for our people and real support to the ministry in the Congo which is on the frontline of reaching unreached peoples. Rich and Marla Henderson and Ernest Dyck both have recently shared how we can partner with them in the future, potentially tying in with the Congo, too.

Last year, two missions we had previously supported discontinued their ministries such that we discontinued financial support. This has been part of the process of refocusing our limited financial resources towards partnership ministries and unreached peoples. With this has come a name change to Holistic Outreach and efforts to organize and connect locally. Last year we supported a local ministry in Bill Bowers who helped connect Elim with local compassion and outreach opportunities.

This coming year we are proposing to take a giant leap. We are in the process of finalizing the 2012 budget and you will see a number of changes. The first change is to rename “Missions” to “Holistic Outreach” and to move it to the ministries section of the budget. In the past it had been a separate part of the budget and symbolically it was not part of Elim’s ministries.

Support for the Herrs, whose ministry is supporting AWANA, is being moved from the Holistic Outreach section to the Children’s Ministries section under the AWANA line item. This better reflects our partnership with the Herrs. The Holistic Outreach team began the process of thinking through these changes in discussions with Linda Sauke who helped the team shape actions including redirecting support for her, Bill Bowers, and the Glenhaven Youth Ranch in Arkansas to local outreach efforts.

This is being achieved by partially funding an internship for a Holistic Outreach Director. Stan Peterson is completing ministry training and is seeking ordination through the Evangelical Free Church. This is a fairly rigorous process and requires candidates to be in full-time ministry of at least 32 hours a week. We are proposing in the 2012 budget to support this position with $7,500. Additional support, just like the other missionaries we support, is being raised independently.

In this position, Stan will lead and equip Elim’s people in the Holistic Outreach ministry. We will be saying much more about this in coming weeks and are planning an informational meeting on Holistic Outreach for October 23 after the Sunday morning worship service.

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September 2, 2011June 1, 2012

Chainsaw theology

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by Dan Amos

I have an electric chain saw that I’ve been using since the mid-90’s. On the manliness scale of tools it doesn’t rate very high, but it gets the job done. It’s not uncommon though that when using it, some well-intentioned person will say they have a gas-powered chain saw that will easily do the job. I generally acknowledge the prowess of their chain saw and continue on.

The point is, I have a job to do and I can get it done now with the tools I have available to me or I can I accept the potential of help at a later time that may never come. With my old chain saw I get the job done now; with their chain saw it may never get done.

As this scenario played out again for me recently I thought about how we can always wait for the perfect solution to come along and not accomplish anything. But, God has chosen to work through the imperfect — us. By doing so, His glory is shone, not ours and we are forced to rely on Him.

Put another way, Martin recently advised someone they could do nothing and 10 years from now they would be in the exact same situation. Or, they could pursue a path that will take a long time to accomplish, but at the end of it, they will be a different person, prepared for a different path in life than they are now.

Think of all the heroes of the Bible, besides Jesus, and they all were imperfectly suited for the task God had for them. For some we are told of a lifetime of service where they grew in effectiveness the longer they followed God’s path for them. But for many, we know of only a short-term task where God used an electric chainsaw and did something wonderful. As we at Elim seek to follow him and serve in ministries, sometimes we’ll feel and look like that electric chainsaw — not the seemingly perfect fit, but the job gets done and God’s kingdom is built.

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May 12, 2011May 31, 2012

Two minutes on Hell

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by Dan Amos

Doctrine is not about religion; it is our core beliefs, and they are constantly under attack. This is why Pastor Martin is beginning a series on doctrine this week. It is no surprise the doctrine of Hell is being challenged so strongly right now; it was one of the first doctrines Satan questioned when he offered the fruit to Eve and asserted, “You will not certainly die.” In reality, the truth says everything about how we view sin and its consequences.

Surveys show the majority of people believe in Heaven, about half their number believe in Hell, and only a few percentage believe they are destined for Hell. The truth is we are all sinners against a holy God. Even our “littlest” sin disqualified us from relationship with God and eternity in his kingdom. Additionally, it is so vile we must be punished for our sin in a literal, eternal, conscious Hell. Our rebellion does not want to accept that and so we deny hell, alter its reality only in our minds, and minimize our sin as of no consequence.

But it is real and it is terrible. It is so horrific that God, the creator of the universe, sent his Son from glory to live a sinless, perfect life on Earth ultimately breaking constant communion with himself (listen to Martin’s sermon on the Trinity this Sunday) as he bore our punishment for our sin on the cross. By believing in him we are adopted into his family and the wrath of God’s holy justice which we deserve is satisfied by Christ’s blood. Our belief must be founded on the truth which is the doctrine we will be taught once more over the course of this series.

If we ignore Hell, if we minimize our sin, there is nothing to be saved from, but the truth is we and everyone else who doesn’t know the truth are destined for Hell. It can’t get any more basic than that.

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April 14, 2011May 31, 2012

Out of the Dark

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by Dan Amos

One of the big lies of sin is that we are alone. For those who were there on Sunday, you know that you are not alone. Sexual sin, lust, is not unique to men, but the temptation and attacks are common to most every man. Even though the Bible tells us repeatedly that sin is used to damage our relationship with God and others and that light chases away the dark, this is an issue so wrapped up in fear and shame that it is easy to think we are alone.

I am thankful for the first couple of men to speak with courage and boldness. That was an act of throwing light on the dead moose in the room. And I have to believe the timing coming one week before the men’s retreat is not coincidental. I’m anxious to hear the stories that come back of men teaming up to put this sin to death..

Accountability is a key part of conquering sin, any sin. God knew what he was doing when he made us relational people. These relationships take work and I confess I let my accountability relationship fade away. I need to reconnect. As Woody said in “Toy Story” about accountability partners (“moving buddies”), “If you don’t have one, GET ONE!”

Men, find another man; women, find another woman. If you need help getting connected, talk to Martin or Brian.

One last thing, there are resources available to help with accountability in this area. We have X3Watch (http://x3watch.com/) loaded on our computers at home. It runs in the background and keeps track of the urls for questionable websites visited and sends an email to two accountability partners every two weeks. Programs that attempt to filter out inappropriate content will often degrade computer performance but X3watch does not. There is a free version and a more feature-rich commercial version.

This note will be posted on the Elim Facebook site. I invite you to go there and discuss this issue.

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March 17, 2011May 31, 2012

Radical Community

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by Dan Amos

As we seek God’s direction for his church at Elim, the Elder Board has been going through the book of Acts–sort of going back to the basics of church. One thing that struck me was that the explosive growth in the church did not come during Christ’s earthly ministry, but it came when the believers humbled themselves, prayed for the Holy Spirit and he did mighty things through the people.

They became a radically different community. Their neighbors looked at them and saw they were very different from who they used to be and from everyone around them. The believers came together regularly for worship that must have been thrilling. They sang songs and hymns, sat under the Apostles teaching, prayed, ate together and shared what they had, which they believed God had provided.

We can not possibly emulate what happened then except by each one of us, individually and corporately, being transformed by the Holy Spirit and living in community. In Acts 2:42-47 and 4:32-35 we see the documentation of the living and sharing in community, but in both cases it was preceded by teaching, prayer and being one in heart and mind.

We have long emphasized the need to be in relationships. It was one area of our church-wide REVEAL survey where we were strongest. We have many, many people regularly meeting in community groups, small groups, Bible studies and accountability relationships. These will continue to be a part of who we are.

We will continue to concentrate on living and acting as a community. Martin has often referred to making Elim “a light on the hill.” Our goal is to foster loving, gracious and serving relationships to encourage and support one another as we go out and serve South Hill and beyond. This is how we are called to live and it will be extremely painful if we try to do it on our own. Instead, join us in prayer for the Holy Spirit to radically transform us and prepare to be blessed beyond our imaginations.

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