Evangelism

New York Times, USA Today, and the BBC ran obituaries the day Billy Graham died. Various evangelical voices are adding their reflections on this historical and often controversial North Carolinian. The Billy Graham Center at Wheaton has a good biography of his life on their site. It is estimated that he preached to 250 million people in his lifetime as an evangelist. He is known for preaching an uncompromised gospel at a time when compromise was infecting the American church in massive proportions.

The Eteam wants to encourage the church by passing on reports of different ways SGC members are sharing the gospel and inviting others to church. It’s always exciting to hear of the ways God works through his people. It also encourages us that we can do the same. Here are  testimonies from two ladies in our church:

I would like to share with you a little bit about my beloved home country, Japan. I am mostly Japanese with a mix of Chinese and Caucasian. I was born in Japan and grew up there until I was 11 years old. Although I had always had a special love for Japan, I had very little contact with the Japanese community and the culture after I moved to the states. Even after I became a believer and I began praying for and reaching out to unbelievers, I did not have any special focus on the Japanese. It was not until I heard about the tsunami in Fukuoka in 2011 that the Lord put a special burden on my heart for Japan and it’s people.

Last Sunday Phil spent a few minutes at the start of his sermon introducing his class on apologetics. The class starts tomorrow night at 7:00pm, and you can sign up here. Apologetics is not apologizing for the faith, though the words look similar. It is the study of defending the faith....

Here is an excerpt from Donald Whitney's book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, which we'll be using for our fall Sunday morning class on the spiritual disciplines.

A quote from The Trellis and the Vine: The Ministry Mind-Shift that Changes Everything, by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne.

"Not all of us are eloquent or engaging. Not everyone can think on their feet. Some people are simply not good at speaking to strangers and forming new friendships. One of the practical benefits of the three-strand model of evangelism [building relationships, sharing the gospel, introducing people to community] is that it gives a role to all of God's people. By making evangelism a community project, it also takes seriously the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit in distributing a variety of gifts among his people. Everyone has a part to play--the new Christian, the introvert, the extrovert, the eloquent,…

This past Sunday a group of us met for what we called a "missions round table." The point of the meeting was to talk with others at SGC who are especially interested in the cause of foreign missions. We all agreed that the gathering was encouraging and exciting. God is accomplishing his purposes throughout the world, and it is a joy to hear about some of that. (Don't miss the end of this post where I explain who was there and what they contributed.)

THE BIBLE AND THE NATIONS

We began with a brief look at the Bible's promises regarding…

In June two of our families, the (Joby) Ruhls and the Greguses, went to the Agua Viva Children's Home in Guatemala. Here is a letter from the Ruhls.

Dear Friends,

Below is a family update and a praise report from our mission trip to Guatemala. We are continually grateful for the friendship and support from each of you as we walk through life together. We look forward to continued growth in our relationship with each one of you as we walk through life together here at our new "home" in NC.

Family Update

We moved into our new…