Phase II Week 4 Chapter Four (April 23--29)

[New York Youth Leaders Association]

What can your church do to better engage its members in:
Worship
Evangelism
Discipleship
Stewardship
Service

What is your observation from reading the “our witness to the world”
section?

[divine...@gmail.com]

Fr: Debbie Derrick

What can your church do to better engage its members in:
Worship
Evangelism
Discipleship
Stewardship
Service

At Rhema COG, there is a heightened interest in moving the church forward to the next level of spiritual development and maturity. Currently, we are in the process of assessing, evaluating and restructuring each ministry/ department. Under the faithful leadership of our Senior Pastor, Bishop Patrick Phillips we are engaged in expanding and improving upon the core dimensions that were always there. Our members are better prepared, engaged, and eager to grow and mature in:
Worship, Evangelism, Discipleship, Stewardship
and Service. Currently, we are implementing the 5 fold ministry by incorporating the strategic principles of the 24 Double program, outlined by Dr. Owen Weston. We believe that this strategy is designed to maximize our potential as a true disciples of Christ and to allow the full and free course of the Holy Spirit. Our mission is to reach our community for Christ: the unchurched, unsaved, backslidden, lost and broken, and to see souls saved and win for God's kingdom.

We have intensified our commitment to have a compassionate heart and a passionate mind for the things of deep concern to God. These processes help to motivate our members to embrace and to engage in a fruitful, personal spiritual growth and transformation in Christ Jesus.

What is your observation from reading the “our witness to the world”

section? We are the ambassadors and representatives of Christ, as true disciples. Our lives is a witness to the world. A true disciple reflects that Jesus is the answer and He lives and loves unconditionally. We are living epistles and may be the only Bible that some will ever read. We can allow the saving faith, grace, love, peace of God and joy to totally transform our lives. The faith of the believer soars and the unbeliever realizes that God is in complete control and He will have His own way.

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[Najwa Clay_Edwards]

Phase II Week 4 Chapter Four (April 23—29

What can your church do to better engage its members in:

Worship- We can become more engaging in our worship services. We can
create an environment that encourages people to search for a deeper
knowledge of God which creates a desire to have an encounter with Him.
Once they experience an encounter with the presence of God they will
be stimulated to engage in a love relationship in order to maintain
the ability to have other encounters on a deeper level with Him.
Evangelism – We have to first encourage believers to be friendly and
get to know others around them in order to create or utilize
opportunities to share their faith with others. Next we have to
properly equip them with the ability to share their own personal
testimony and then give the invitation to Christ.
Discipleship- We have to develop a higher level of commitment to the
principles of the Bible and develop a way to better communicate the
importance of living by these principles as well as develop a strategy
to coach and mentor others in a way that promotes them to train others
to live by biblical principles and statutes.

Stewardship- We have to develop a plan to help us be more mindful of
how we use the resources available in our churches. We have to hold
ourselves accountable by bring open and honest about financial
obligations and keep the congregation up to date on all expenses on a
regular basis. We also have to encourage each other to follow biblical
principles in regards to stewardship and be transparent enough to
admit when we fall short or make mistakes.
Service-We have to become more aware of what the spiritual giftings in
our congregation are by encouraging others to find out what their
spiritual giftings are , helping them to sharpen those gifts and then
allowing them to operate in those gifts to build the kingdom of God.
We also have to be mindful that service should always be rendered as
unto God and no expectation of payment or repayment should exist. We
should surrender our gifts to God as a reasonable service.

What is your observation from reading the “our witness to the world”

section? I wasn’t really surprised that believers and non believers
didn’t differ that much in their answers to the surveys given. We are
all humans and we are not different in a lot of ways although
“Christians” would like to think so. I personally celebrate this and
think that we can use our ability to learn and grow with the
unchurched community as a means of drawing them closer to Christ as we
grow instead of creating such a large divide between Christians and
others . I think this is what causes no church folks to become so
discouraged because the church is not willing to except our flaws and
shortcomings in certain areas and we always want to appear as though
we have it all together. Don’t get me wrong I d believe that there
should be a distinction between believers and non believers , but I
wasn’t supper surprised when the book stated that there really wasn’t.



On Apr 23, 12:34 pm, New York Youth Leaders Association

[charlesette]

Phase II Week 4 Chapter 4 April 23-29

Worship: To help them understand the importance of worship and what
it mean so the members can desire and make worship a part of their
lifestyle.

Evangelism: To mentor members on the importance of Evangelism by
having classes teaching them about Evangelism and as members we must
share our faith with non-Christian also invite them to embrace Jesus
as their Lord and Savior an invite them to church. Every year our
Youth Department have a Out Reach event where we reach out to the
community with back to school hair cuts, back to school supplies,
clothes give-away free food, games and also the church do a door to
door evangelism around our area sharing our faith and also inviting
the community to come worship with us.

Discipleship: The church has to continue with teaching Bible Study,
prayer meeting and other study because discipleship is th foundation
in every ministry. To have coaching and mentoring for member to have
accountability in the church. George Barna say, believers have fallen
asleep at the wheel. Our failure to recognize absolute truth as the
cornerstone of a viable worldview and to defend it against the attack
of modernism and postmodernism, has resulted in each individual’s
becoming his own arbiter and standard of truth. pg. 71

Stewardship: The church has to continual teaching the importance of
Stewardship. The management of all the resource God has entrusted to
us on His behalf and for His purpose.

Service: The church must continue to teach about the life of Jesus
that He came to serve not to be serve and how He did it with such joy
and humility.

2. My observation from the reading is that as Christian we are not
letting our light shine the way we should and we are not living
according to the way God want us to live. Mark 5:14 say “WE are the
light of the world; a city that sit on a hill cannot be hid. We must
let our light shine in this world and live the life that we are
suppose to live.