Jeff Leake's event

I should start this with a disclaimer: Jeff Leake did not authorize me to do this. I could be messing up some of his plans, I don't know. I lifted this off his blog directly.

But I have been to his events similar to this in the last few years, and find them incredibly life giving. I think you should know about them. I'd love to see you there.

His new church planting school, and growing vision through his church planting network, is really excellent, and rare. I think it would be cool to see a couple of you visionary types there next week!

Gerry Stoltzfoos

Coming Soon: HARVESTCRY 2008

Next month, Allison Park Church is going to host our first HARVESTCRY event in partnership with Mission SOS.

What is HARVESTCRY?

It is three nights of services/events to celebrate what God is doing around the world and to focus our attention on the cry of those unreached with the gospel.

It is also an opportunity for prospective students to check out the MCM Ministry School by attending the MCM Classes for a day.

What happens each night?

THURSDAY 7PM - Jeff Deyo in concert. Jeff was formerly the lead singer for SONICFLOOD. He has written some powerful songs like BLESS THE LORD and JESUS I SURRENDER. The concert is FREE to all.

FRIDAY 7PM - David Santistevan will lead us in worship and Johannes Amritzer from Mission SOS will be our special guest speaker. Before and after the service the concourse will be filled with inflatables and lots of fun.

SATURDAY 6PM - APC Missions Celebration Service - during this evening service, we will celebrate some of the happenings and testimonies from our missions endeavors around the world. Johannes will again be our speaker for this special evening.

SUNDAY 9 AND 11AM SERVICES - This weekend the Saturday and Sunday services will be distinct. Johannes will speak on Saturday night. I will speak on Sunday morning. During the Sunday services we have some special testimonies planned and we will celebrate communion together to conclude this wonderful week.

What about the MCM MInistry School?

The School will be highlighted at all the evening events. But Friday morning will be something special. ANYONE WHO IS INTERESTED IN ATTENDING THE SCHOOL IN THE FUTURE, can attend the MCM classes on Friday morning.

If you want more information, or would like to sign up for this MCM Ministry School Experience, CLICK HERE.

Before He Speaks

Special thanks to Jim Pentz for passing this along!

'Let it Rise': A Benefit Worship Concert

I know this is far in advance, but there is already much angst locally regarding the numbers of families that are going to find their heating fuel bills overwhelming this winter. There is no one solution, but the churches in State College are prepared to help be part of the solution.

On Sunday, November 23 (the Sunday before Thanksgiving) at 7 pm, there will be a community benefit worship concert held at State College Assembly of God, in which a collection will be taken to assist needy families in this regard.

There will be worship bands from 3 congregations participating: Unity Church of Jesus Christ (who may have the best worship team in town), Calvary Baptist, and State College Assembly of God. The music will be superb and the evening will end with 3 roof-raising songs with all 3 bands joining as one. The event will be heavily advertised in various local media outlets, and the Salvation Army has agreed to administer the funds.

With broad support, together we hope to make a big difference. Also, we hope to introduce many community members to contemporary worship at the same time.

This might be an idea that you might want to use. If you start right now, there is still time to pull something like this off in your community for the glory of God.

Seeds planted in unreached tribe

I visited our local skate park in Shamokin alone last night with 7 Bibles in hand to give away. Last week a group of 17 of us cleaned up their park again and served BBQed burgers and dogs, but I think we overwhelmed them and felt we invaded their turf. The Lord showed me last week what I needed to do to plant some seed. Going alone was the right thing last night.
As I got out of my car I approached a group of about 8 youth in the parking lot and asked if they wanted free Bibles. They were suspicious and unreceptive and said they did not need a Bible. I was glad there was another group over by the skate ramps or this trip would have been a bust in 30 seconds flat!
As I approached the group by the ramps I was glad I had called for prayer support from my wife Faith. I could feel the Lord's hand on me. Cold call evangelism is not my style, so I was glad when some of the kids recognized me from our previous clean up trips.
I asked them if they would like a free Bible and they all said "sure". I then asked if I could read a chapter to them and they said "no problem", and started asking me questions about heaven before I even got started. I was concerned that one wise guy would dominate and distract the group with silly questions, but his questions turned out to be sincere. He even told me that he gets afraid sometimes that heaven is real and he won't be there.
There were 7 kids at first, all boys, but then a few others came over to see what was up. We talked for 40 minutes and I got to look into their eyes and see a lot of pain and hunger. I told them that connecting with God was the most important thing, we talked about repentance and drugs and demons and miracles. Some of them knew quite a bit about the Bible, and you could tell which ones knew right from wrong. The focus was on Jesus and what He came to do on this earth. I left when it got dark and told them I would be back soon. I need more Bibles...
This was one of the most exhilirating times of evangelism I have ever had. I think it was because of the uncertainty. I like security and usually try to make any ministry opportunities a "sure thing" with no room for error. I don't think Jesus operated that way. He was on the edge all the time. It did not make Him nervous, but it gave the disciples fits!

The Lure of the Automat

The Horn and Hardart Automat Restaurant in NY City, circa 1960's

My dad was a child of the depression and spent his early years in Brooklyn before my grandfather moved the family out to what was then "the country", but is now just another congested NY City suburb, the Village of Valley Stream. My dad maintained a fascination for the city, linked with a healthy fear that he passed on to his five children.

One thing that had special lure for him was the famous Horn and Hardart Automat in Manhattan (the first one was actually in Philadelphia). I remember him taking us there when we were small. There was an amazing array of freshly prepared foods behind crystal clear glass doors that were available "automatically" when you dropped your nickels in the slot. This was real Americana and the height of consumerism.

In Organic Church author Neil Cole describes the "all by itself" principle of church growth/discipleship that Jesus spoke of in Mark 4:26-29.

"...The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come."

That was the lure of the automat. It seemed as though the food just presented itself without any human involvement at all. That had great appeal in an era when we had yet to really see the dark side of science and technology. (Remember the Jetsons cooking food in those magic machines)

But the fact was that "automats weren’t truly automatic. They were heavily staffed. As a customer removed a compartment’s contents, a behind-the-machine human quickly slipped another sandwich, salad, piece of pie or coffee cake into the vacated chamber." (Wikipeda reference)

Christian Schwarz (Natural Church Development) also speaks of this same principle which says that if the circumstances and environment (church health) are right then church growth and discipleship will begin to happen all by themselves. This runs counter to our strategic style of planting churches which emphasize demographics, facilities, flow charts and powerful launches.

The thing we must wrestle with is what Jesus says. He is the one, in parabolic form, who says that the kingdom grows "all by itself". Our role, according to the parable is to scatter seed in order to grow the kingdom. This task of sowing is emphasized in the Parable of the Soils and the Parable of the Mustard Seed as well.

Sometimes I think we try to reap a harvest when there has been little in the way of real sowing of seed. We spend an enormous amount of resources on impersonal advertising, growing programs, events and churches, but what would qualify as "sowing the seed" of the Gospel gets neglected.

This is meant as a word of encouragement. I have always taken more responsibility for the growth of my church than I think the Lord would ask of me. Perhaps we should spend more time removing stones, turning over ground, keeping our furrows straight, placing seeds in the ground, and keeping them watered. After all, the growth is up to the Lord Himself!

1 Corinthians 3:6-7

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.

So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters,

but God who gives the increase.

Second unreached tribe discovered in Shamokin

My last post seemed to generate some interest so I am following it with this which occurred Sunday night. I do believe that the discussion and implementation of missional ideas and practices is just beginning. Experimentation and retooling are words we had better get used to.

The fact is that unreached tribes make up most of our culture. When we focus on being attractional we see these tribes as competition because we want them to leave their tribe and join ours. But that's not how successful missions work accomplishes the goal of growing the kingdom. We cannot merely put on native clothes in order to infiltrate the new tribe. We must have genuine love for people, and be willing to spend time with them.

Our Faith in Action team of 25 (including teens and children) met at 6 pm for prayer and the Word before heading out on four mercy missions. I shared Luke 14 -the Parable of the Great Supper -to give foundation to our task of going into the highways and hedges. We also included our prayer team, who remained at the church to intercede for our work.

Space does not permit me to elaborate on the amazing God moments experienced by the three smaller groups we sent out. But the group I was leading discovered a second lost tribe of young people at a local skate park. It resembled "Lord of the Flies" as there were no adults in sight, and there was an aboriginal feel to the place.

We first set out for the park where we discovered the "Ultimate Fighting" tribe a few weeks ago (see earlier post). They were nowhere to be found. So we cleaned up the park again and talked and prayed with a group of five who were playing basketball. They seemed embarassed, but grateful as we gave them each a 20 oz. ice cold energy drink.

Next we headed to the skate park. A notoriously dirty and dangerous place. It was filthy, but the tribe of about 30 skaters between the ages of 11 and 20 seemed oblivious to their surroundings. We began sweeping and picking up, waiting for a chance to speak with some of them. We had only 19 energy drinks to give out, but with 30 kids there, I was afraid giving them out would start a riot, so I began to ask the Lord what to do.

Then it became clear to me that I could stand in the middle of the park and hand the drinks out to those who answered questions I would ask. It was a bit risky, but I ran to the van and got the cooler. I summoned anyone who wanted an energy drink to come close, and instantly had a group of 15 hanging on my words. (the older "cool ones" did not come around, it was mostly the younger ones)

I proceeded to ask them general Bible questions off the top of my head. "Who was Moses and what was the most important thing he did?", "Name one thing Jesus said," "Who was Judas and what did he do?", and so on. It was electric. These kids were thinking and talking about God. One kid recited the entire Lord's Prayer. They came up short on John 3:16, but it gave me a chance to tell them about it.

The spontaneous atmosphere, and incarnational character of what we have been doing opens the door for the Spirit to do more than if we had stayed in our church box. It also gives more value to the times we do meet for worship and teaching because that's where we get fueled for the mission.

As we were leaving some of the boys came and said thanks for cleaning up, and for the drinks. I am hoping they will begin to take pride in the place and keep it clean themselves. Then one of the boys, who was wearing a Led Zeppelin t-shirt, came up to me and said, "I think you were my pastor when I was a kid." I thought he looked familiar, and it turned out to be Georgie. His family had left the church in a split a few years ago, but George always sat up front and loved to be in church. It was great to reconnect with him, and I think something stirred in his heart. I know something stirred in mine.

1 Corinthians 15:58 With all this going for us, my dear, dear friends, stand your ground. And don't hold back. Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort.

Unreached tribe discovered in Shamokin

Many of us have been reading a lot over the past few years about the missional church and how to reach our culture. It is obvious that things are changing rapidly, and we are lurching farther and farther away from the type of church we grew up in. We are clearly at the place where we must be true missionaries who bring the gospel to unreached people, rather than trying to return the culture to a church they never really knew.

In light of this new reality many have spoken of the tribalization of our culture. We are no longer a homogenous "American" culture, but rather a panoply of tiny and distinct tribes. From skaters to goths and from Nascar to NY City arts types, not to mention the many ethnic groups, we seem to be coalescing around fairly narrow personal interests and affinities. The trend is accelerating. The church is seen as a separate subculture all it's own, with numerous sub subcultures. This has profound implications for us in pastoral ministry as we move away from a purely attractional model.

Mountainside began a bold experiment (bold for us, anyway) this summer as "Faith in Action" was born. We morphed a successful in house small group ministry into a team mission approach to reach our own community. The tiny group of 8 who began with us a few months ago has swelled to as many as 32 as we branch out every Sunday night to perform acts of service for whoever needs help. The focus is on the unreached, though we help church folks too. There are no strings attached, and we have not pushed or promoted our church at all. We do pray with people (they almost always cry grateful tears when we do) when we are done, but prefer to wait for them to ask us why we are doing what we are doing. We have had some visit our services, and one single mom has already surrendered to Jesus. Teams then gather at a local eatery to discuss our excursions and share what God did each night.

This past Sunday I took a small group of teens to do some street sweeping and trash pickup at a local playground. As we drove up we were surprised to find a large group of about 35 teens and younger kids gathered on a grassy patch. They were cheering and we noticed two shirtless teens wrestling in the middle. At first I thought they were just wrestling (Shamokin is a wrestling town), but as I spoke with some of the boys, I found out it was their own version of "Ultimate Fighting". There is no punching, but choke holds are allowed, and you either pin your opponent or they have to "tap out". They alternated matches between older teen and pre-adolescent boys. There was not an adult in sight.

I have an extensive history in amateur wrestling and I am not a big fan of the more brutal forms of the sport. Much like missionaries to Africa were forced to overlook the nakedness of primitive tribes in order to be accepted by them I had to withold my criticisms and safety concerns in order to engage the members of the tribe in conversation. I was able to meet a few members of the tribe and set the stage for a return visit in a few weeks.

Shamokin is a difficult mission field. The city is facing bankruptcy and everything good is shrinking, while negatives abound. We have seen 4 churches close in the past few years, with many others holding on for dear life. The situation is dire.

Any strategy to see this community transformed must be long term or we should really not bother. Single events or splashy presentations will not make a ripple. Missions work is not for the faint of heart or glory-seekers. If we had been holed up in church that night we never would have discovered this "lost" tribe. Now we must pray for an open door for the gospel. The need for our being there is acute as we seek to gain their confidence and provide a redeeming presence.