Cut the Ministry Fluff: 6 Honest Ways to Tell It Like It Is

Evangelastic: When Exaggeration Undermines the Gospel Let’s be honest. Many ministries under the banner of “evangelical” Christianity are guilty of a subtle but dangerous habit: “evangelastic” storytelling—the tendency to stretch or inflate numbers, outcomes, and spiritual wins in order to sound more faithful or fruitful than we really are. We’ve all heard it (and maybe…

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Words of Love That Follow Deeds Of Love

Love

One of my ongoing frustrations in Servant Evangelism has come in seeing people verbalize the Good News. The tendency of human nature is to speak little in the context of serving others. It is rather easy to recruit people onboard with the serving part of the equation (the “S”). The evangelism (the “E”) is more…

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How About A Summer Outreach Lab

Frozen Treats outreach

If you haven’t taken a stab at Kindness Outreach, the summer is the perfect time for doing a “Lab” – that is, to do some experimenting to learn a few lessons about how to build a heart connection with the those in your community. Any season has its advantages for connecting with people, but the…

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Succeed by Persevering

skyscraper wall

So much is riding on our capacity to simply stick with the plan—to continue to love our city into a relationship with Christ. Success in all of this is not that difficult if we can just continue to show up in faithfulness. I am continually asked by people about new ideas for outreach as if…

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Go Out During Bad Weather

wrong shoes

When inclement weather hits it is surprisingly not the time to draw back and wait for the climate to change. We have an amazing open door before us when bad weather strikes. On bad weather days, those we serve actually are far more impressed by our stick-to-itiveness than when we go out to serve on…

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What to Say When Serving

speaking

When we serve people it is important that we have a clear idea of what we want to actually say to those we serve. If we hope to make an impact upon those we serve we need to say something to the point – something we can convey much with just a few words. Consider…

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Getting A Heart For People

David and friend

How are you doing with your heart? Specifically, how are you doing in the realm of outreach and your attitude toward others? After doing outreach for many years now I can attest to the vital importance of having a heart that is ignited toward others. It is human nature that our hearts have a tendency…

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It Only Takes A Little

water girl

It only takes a little bit of life to make a difference. Sometimes we talk ourselves out of attempting something significant for God because we think it takes a great thing to make a dent in life. Nothing could be further from reality. God delights in taking something rather small, anointing it and blessing it…

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Adding Services

steeple

As we continue with serving it becomes fairly normal that we will expand to multiple services. By serving we are folding into the community in creative ways with the life of God. That life has a way of making room for itself much like the verse in Proverbs, “your gifts will make room for you.”…

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No Matter What You Are Up to You Can Do This…

fishing

Relatively few of us are gifted in the area of evangelism. In fact, many of us have a rather dismal track record when it comes to sharing our faith. Yet, in spite of our evangelistic shortcomings, we want to share Jesus with others. Is there a way we can be involved in sharing the gospel…

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