Hi Friends,
I haven’t given you a ministry update in a bit but, over the coming weeks, I plan to give you several. This week, I have a couple of exciting changes to share:
- Next week, I hope to show you a reformatted and updated version of the Carpenter|Theologian blog. We will be adding several new features and preparing for a project I’ve been researching, exploring, and preparing for this year:
- Planting an EPC church in Gloucester County, NJ. We will be doing this through Ashland Church in Voorhees, NJ (25 minutes from us) as the “mother church” and Pam will be transitioning her membership from Presbyterian Church of Kennett Square (PCKS), PA (an hour from us) to Ashland. (As a licensed pastor in the EPC, this is not a formal step I need to take as my membership is through our presbytery.) This month, I’ll officially become Assistant Pastor of Church Planting at Ashland. Then I’ll begin raising funds toward a three-year plan for this part-time position in October. This is largely a tent-making model that interfaces well with what I’m currently doing as Executive Director of Church Outreach & Engagement with Care Net, a full-time (40-hour) position that provides me with a base salary and benefits. If you would like to know more or consider partnering with us in this, please shoot me an email at gregausten@comcast.net
Despite the change in home churches that this adventure requires, we are thankful that our friends at PCKS are not so far away that we can’t stay connected. As we transition to Ashland, a place that has already welcomed and been strongly committed to us, I want to share some of the DNA that we take with us from PCKS. It is strongly relevant to our church plant but, as you’ll see, every bit as relevant to your world. I hope you’ll find it encouraging:
“In 2010 Tim Keller spoke at a major conference on world evangelism in Capetown, South Africa. During one of his talks he listed ten tips for personal evangelism. Here is his list:
- Let people around you know you are a Christian (in a natural, unforced way)
- Ask friends about their faith – and just listen!
- Listen to your friends’ problems – maybe offer to pray for them.
- Share your problems with others – testify to how your faith helps you.
- Give them a book to read. [Note: Now you might better understand yet another reason why I wanted to complete How I Became a Christian Despite the Church and get its message out there.]
- Share your story.
- Answer objections and questions.
- Invite them to a church event.
- Offer to read the Bible with them.
- Take them to an explore course.
Keller pointed out that many of us too often start with numbers 8-10 because we think these are the only things that count as true evangelism. For others of us we don’t do anything because we also think that 8-10 are the only things that count as evangelism and we don’t feel equipped to do those. But Keller says we need to start with 1-4 with most people. Indeed we may need to loop through 1-4 several times before our friends or coworkers or family members become interested to talk more and we move on to 5-10. And you know what? You can do that. You’re called to do that. If you’re a Christian it’s part of your job description.”[1]
May God give us all courage to start with #1. And may we look back a year from now and see how he has touched our efforts. Remember, initiative is, in many ways, the essence of ministry.
[1] Adapted from PCKS Throwback Thursday, a weekly email that is usually written or compiled by my good friend, Rev. Andrew Smith which “revisits part of a sermon, class or bulletin quote from the past to remind us of truths we’ve heard before but that are worth hearing again, with the goal of encouraging our growth in faith and love.”