One Voice

Mel Gibson has "lifted up Jesus" in a world-impacting way through his movie. "The Passion of the Christ" gives us a new depth of appreciation for Jesus' physical and mental anguish that He willingly embraced for our sakes. A stunning message about how deeply He loved us - so He could continually love us and be with us on earth and for eternity. There is a condition, however, for our relationship with Him to continue. We must allow His presence and influence to bring change to the way we live our daily lives (Luke 9:23). What He is, determines what...

Most of my life I have consciously benefited from the passion of Jesus, the Christ. After seeing Mel Gibson's movie, for the rest of my life I will more deeply appreciate the pain that Jesus embraced in His human body so I can know Him. He decided to die out of His love for all humans who all need to be loved by Him. Jesus clearly stated, "I lay down my life - only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it...

In the textbook for Evangelism Explosion, D. James Kennedy makes the following statement regarding discipling new believers: "To disciple another properly requires a vision of what the grace of God can do for a person. Those who are satisfied with merely proclaiming the Gospel and receiving professions are like immoral seducers. The seducer is satisfied merely to exploit and then tell of his exploits rather than entering into a meaningful marriage commitment." When I first read these impacting words, all I could think of was - I didn't want to be an immoral seducer! I didn't want to just lead...

An unreached and overlooked people group in the U.S. are all around us. They live in our neighborhoods and share the same work and trade space with most evangelical Christians in our country. They are members of the FRAN tribe. A few outreach minded churches have called special "FRAN Day Sundays" to try to reach this tribe, but with limited success. FRAN tribe members tend to be resistant to special events with big crowds and high impact programs. They are suspicious of ads for Christianity that paint Christians in an idealized fashion that often does not resemble the real behavior...

"REVIVAL" BRINGS, DISCIPLING ADDS. The Jerusalem church did not count decisions at Pentecost, they only counted additions who "devoted themselves" to participating in the life of the church - which included continually adding more (Acts 2:41-42,47). Following is a simple cycle of increase patterned after the New Testament church that I call "Everyday Evangelism". Consider it prayerfully. There is no easier or more economical way to mobilize an entire congregation to do one-to-one evangelism and one-to-one discipling of new believers - every day! (Ask Pastor Earl Banning, Braeswood Assembly of God, Houston, Texas.) Phase One: "Seedtime" - On a designated...