Here at the ministry, we absolutely love to hear what you folks are doing for the Lord and about the impact you are making in your communities and beyond. I have met three people in the last couple of weeks who needed to be impacted with truth. They have developed severe depression because of all the restrictions being placed on them these days. They needed to hear the hope of the gospel.
We all have to make some adjustments in life, but at the end of the day, soul winning is what we and our churches need to be about. Enjoy this email that we received from Jane:
Mark,
Our pastor recently led a 7-session study of One Thing You Can’t Do in Heaven during Sunday school. Thank you for providing the study guide. We downloaded, printed, and copied it for the participants. In addition to your book, our pastor used the DVD “Reaching the Lost Now.” We also ordered your Witnessing Starter Pack. As usual, you gifted us with more items than were ordered. Thank you.
Since the Covid lockdown, we had only been meeting on Sundays for the morning worship service, and this study was our “kickoff†for resuming Sunday school post-pandemic. As a small rural church, pre-pandemic we averaged 45 for Sunday school attendance. The study began in April while we were still under some virus-related restrictions here in Alabama. Some of our members, due to age or health issues, had not come back into the building for worship. These factors, plus knowing that the topic of having spiritual conversations is so “scary,†we (my faith was weak) didn’t expect more than a committed core of 10-12 people to attend. God blessed it, and on our first Sunday, there were 30 in attendance with an average of 24 in attendance over the 7 weeks of the study. As Outreach Director, I am encouraged. The material was well received, and I heard many positive comments each week.
Several people took tracts to share, and some shared stories of how they practiced what they were learning during the week. One ten-year-old girl handed a Paradise tract to the server (a “strangerâ€Â) at a fast-food restaurant. She didn’t say anything when she handed it to the server, but she planted a seed. It was the first of hopefully many more seeds this young girl will plant.
One of our ladies is a baker, and a customer had sent her teenage son to pick up his dad’s birthday cake. Our baker lady told the mom that when the young man came, she would carry the cake to the vehicle and get it safely settled into the car. When he arrived, she had the cake and a tract and had planned what she was going to say. When she and the boy got to his truck, she was surprised to see there were two other boys in the truck. She told me that, for a moment, she was flustered by how her “plan†had changed, but the Holy Spirit provided her with the words to say. She gave them the tract, which they promised to read. Instead of planting a seed with one boy, she had the opportunity to have a spiritual conversation with three boys! (The boy who was in the front passenger seat wound up holding the cake.) We will do follow-up with the boys and their families.
We want our church to be on Satan’s “hit list!â€Â
Trying to help fill the nets,
Jane
_____________
Romans 1:16
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
2 Corinthians 5:20
Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
Jane and her church are on a wonderful journey. As I told someone at a coffee shop yesterday, Satan does not like soul winners. Make sure he doesn’t like you.
Jane and her church are heading the right direction. Pray for them. But you and your church need to have the same mindset. Big church or little church, it doesn’t matter to God. Faithful Church is what He is looking for. All of us believers truly need to be on Satan’s Hit List!
Until the Nets are Full,
P.S. The “hit list†that Jane is referring to is actually found in One Thing You Can’t Do in Heaven. “The Hit List†is the title of Chapter 13, which is found on page 200.
P.P.S. After last week’s newsletter that warned about how a college education can destroy the faith of kids, we received this heartbreaking story from Amy which makes that point:
Mark,
My nephew came out of UGA an atheist. Our whole family is distraught over it! My dearest friend’s son came out of UGA so messed up that he married an unsaved girl who fights for rights of homosexuals and has two moms rather than a mom and dad. He defied his parents and married her. He was home schooled and raised right his entire life. It has been a shock and so devastating to the family and friends. My thought is that when these kids are so grounded, how on earth can college change all that? I don’t get it. So sad! I don’t recommend UGA or public college to anyone now because I’m not sure which kids can handle it. Do you know any who can get through four years standing strong and firm in the faith?
Amy