Making The Dangerous Doable » Outflow

The quickening

Steve Sjogren — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 11:28:10 +0000

The Scriptures use the word Quickening to refer to the living presence of the Holy Spirit in Believers – and the Apostles Creed (“he shall come to judge the Quick and the dead.”) To be Quickened is to be enlivened with the touch of the Spirit. This is exciting. We can actually walk through in a living sense of the presence of God. True, sometimes we feel little or none of the Spirit upon us, at least that’s true for me. At other times there is a strong sense of the Spirit on us (tactile response). The question to is this: Are you willing to allow God to make you aware of his quickening today? If you are he will re-ignite the quickening in short order.

You are quickened whether you feel anything today or not. He wants you to know his likes and dislikes, not mentally only but through a vital, dynamic connection with his Spirit. He has assignments for you to accomplish today that require your quickening. Walk in his quickened presence and go change everything.

The senior leader is the primary mentor…

Steve Sjogren — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 15:49:06 +0000

The senior leader is the primary mentor… who guides the way in all things related to evangelism. A local church will rarely grow beyond the skill and passion level of her pastor. As that person does, so does the church, for better and for worse. Most of the time, not surprisingly, the pastor of the local church is not naturally gifted at evangelism. He is usually more introverted and oriented toward speaking and teaching gifts. He would rather spend time studying than out with people trying to lead them to salvation. That’s okay. God can take a person like that and bring about exciting change. Remember this important principle: as a pastor changes so changes the local church.
To the degree the senior leader owns his responsibility in leading the way for evangelism God will be able to break through and do something significant. Until the senior leader owns this role little will happen.

Do the work

Steve Sjogren — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:39:56 +0000

It’s all about doing the work, not talking about the work.

Leaders aren’t leaders until they lead.

Writers aren’t writers until they write.

Worship leaders are so until they bring others into worship.

Evangelists are only evangelists when they evangelize. Connect with the Lost.

Don’t just talk. Do the work. Start today.

#8: Follow the leadership of God in evangelism.

Steve Sjogren — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 07:44:51 +0000

It is God’s nature to lead his people in ministry. He is large. He is in charge. Our nature is to seek to take control from God. Thus there is a natural conflict.
If we hope to function effectively in evangelism we must allow the Holy Spirit to lead us.
In our desire to see people come to Christ we can grow impatient and step out of alignment with God. It is easy to grow dull of hearing and simply become disinterested in listening to the Holy Spirit’s voice in ministry. I have met numbers of veteran evangelism leaders who poo-poo the idea of being led by the Holy Spirit in outreach because they grew impatient long ago on asking God in connecting with outreach. They usually see such notions as excuses for not doing outreach. I disagree.
Instead of hearing from the Spirit we trade for inferior voices. We grow accustomed to our voice and those of our friends or Board members. Those voices consistently drown out the Gentle Voice that leads. Those other voices are easy to discern. They push. They sometimes threaten with the withholding of favor or hope or capacity. God’s voice, even when he brings correction, brings hope and passion. He speaks in the proactive perspective. “Move forward! Take that risk! Do that outreach! Pray that prayer.” He gives us encouragement and specific instruction.
There is nothing wrong with your current outreach setting that a decent conversation with God will not improve greatly. Start with a prolonged time of listening to Big God.

The Poor…just around the corner

Steve Sjogren — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 14:12:13 +0000

Over the years I have sounded this message loudly as I have traveled about the world. I have consistently heard back from people this feedback: “You don’t understand–we live in an affluent area. We don’t have any poor people near us” (sometimes I hear that there are no poor in our entire country!) In other words, “We would love to care for people in need but they just don’t live anywhere near us.” This is a case of spiritual and emotional blindness. Jesus said it plainly–“The poor you will always have with you.” They are with us…now. It doesn’t matter where any of us live in the US or anywhere in the world, the poor are not far way.

One of the primary keys to cracking the code with our community—of us winning our community to the cause of Christ—is getting involved in the lives of the down and out near us.

Realize this: the poor aren’t just near us. As God sees it we too are poor. All of us are poor at some level depending on how clearly we view poverty. We can all relate to the plight of the poor because we ourselves are poor. Let’s go after those like us.
“God change the world through us. Give us the courage to see clearly!”