How to Stop Evangelism

Gary & his students in Asia

This may seen like a strange topic for an Evangelical Minister but I am struck with how few of us do any outreach to the unchurched. The Bible is clear that Cristian's are called to reach out to their neighbors and friends but so very few do so. There must be a reason.

There are almost 900,000 Seasoned Citizens who live around Greater Cincinnati and about 2/3 of them are unchurched. That means that there are 600,000 people our age who are staying away from Christianity on a regular basis. Despite this fact, there is almost no effort by churches or active members to bring them to worship or Bible study. There must be a reason.

Thom Rainier, a Southern Baptist expert in evangelism, says that many of our age wave group are waiting to be asked. His research indicates that many people are thinking about returning to a church but are waiting on an invitation from a friend that never comes.

Several Seasoned Believers have told me of their attempts to start an outreach to invite people to Christ. Most were rebuffed by church officials. I suppose they have a good reason to stop outreach programs, but I cannot imagine what it is.

Maybe new people are too messy. New people, especially those who are not yet trained in "Church Language and Norms" are very messy. They may use bad language or not know the most important factors about Jesus such as the fact that He was a capitalist. And, many are sick, tired, poor and needy. If they all showed up what would the church do?

Maybe the leaders would be uncomfortable if these folks came so they let everyone in the church know that hurting people are not welcome. And, of course, unBelievers in Jesus, will definitely feel out of place and most will never return, so why invite them.

Change the Culture

What If?

What if the greatest untapped resource in any church is people who have been following Jesus twenty years or more? What if those people could be engaged in a way that moved them beyond feeling left behind and stuck? What if the great gifts and rich experience of these people could be unleashed into a greater level of living and involvement in the purposes of God? What if the people and the church could help make that happen? What if you are in this group?

When: Saturday, April 23 9:30-12:30
Where: River Hills Christian Church, Loveland, Ohio
Who: All Ministers, Church Workers and Seasoned Believers
What: Dynamic and Innovative Ideas about kingdom expansion
Cost: Registration is $15.00 at the door for materials, food and fellowship

How: Register online http://www.sweetenlife.com/sbwregistration.aspx
Event PurposeTo help Seasoned Believers to become fully devoted followers of Jesus through:

A. Living with full potential, experience and joy

B. Unleashing Seasoned Believers to into Kingdom Ministry

C. Engaging in meaningful dialogue, synergistic relationships and collaboration with like-minded people.

D. Expanding awareness of Seasoned Believer & Seasoned Citizen demographics with suggestions for outreach and ministry to the group in Greater Cincinnati.

E. Understanding the incredible opportunities to recruit, mobilize and engage Seasoned Believers in the Great Commission Event Uniqueness (Worth the Price of Admission!)

Learn cutting edge ideas about church growth
Great conversations with Gary Sweeten, Ron Tate, Jeff Metzger and other innovative thought leaders

Event Summary

“People over fifty were expected to retire resign and relapse into a coma in past generations. That is different today. People are not just living longer they are living stronger. They have a legacy to leave future generations. How will they leave a great legacy? Find fellow travelers and become unleashed to enjoy, worship and serve the Lord in their own, unique, chosen manner. You have earned the right to soar in the Spirit with the other Eagles.”

More than any other time in the history the world has an abundance of men and women who have served God and humanity faithfully for decades. Some 807,000 folks over 45 in Greater Cincinnati. As a group, they have been blessed with enormous mental, emotional, spiritual, and financial resources.

Unfortunately, they are largely overlooked and unused. How can we better engage and recruit the 250,000 Believers of that group into the mission of Jesus? Let’s come together and discuss that issue.

When: Saturday, April 23 9:30-12:30
Where: River Hills Christian Church, Loveland, Ohio
Who: All Ministers, Church Workers and Seasoned Believers
What: Dynamic and Innovative Ideas about kingdom expansion
Cost: Registration is $15.00 at the door for materials, food and fellowship

How: Register online http://www.sweetenlife.com/sbwregistration.aspx

Directions: http://www.riverhillscc.com/

An Interesting Ministry

Silver Heirs
I was excited to be with the Silver Heirs yesterday to speak about the booming growth of Seasoned Believers in society and the fact that many of them are abandoning the organized church. Silver Heirs, a group at the Evangelical Community Church, is dedicated to gathering Seasoned Believers together for fun, fellowship and mutual encouragement.

The group consists mostly of friends from College Hill Presbyterian Church where I was on the staff for sixteen years. I sure loved seeing them again and hearing the stories about what they are doing to bless people. This is one of the most gifted and compassionate people I ever knew and I am excited that they are still so actively ministering. This is one of the few ministries to Seasoned Believers in this region. Keep up the good work.

http://www.eccfellowship.org/
There are some 870,000 Seasoned Citizens in the Greater Cincinnati area. It is estimated that 2/3 of them are unchurched and many are what we are calling, "Church Alumni". They have been active church members in the past but have dropped out after graduating to things more interesting.

But most of these Alumni are looking for a dynamic church that will take their contributions seriously by engaging them in active ministries. These folks want to influence the culture and change society but few churches have any place for this group of people to serve.

In order to penetrate society and bring faith to people we have to get out of our padded pews and engage the culture, including the 870,000 Seasoned believers who are just waiting for someone to invite them to get involved.

Our Brand

It is hard to communicate in today's world of overwhelming noise. It seems that almost everyone is trying to sell us something and their messages are so many and so frequent that it makes understanding difficult.

We find it difficult to communicate accurately who we are and what we do. One reason is that we have been around so long and done so many things that people get confused. It is not their fault it is ours.

So, here is our latest attempt to communicate who we are and what we do. We teach, train and develop people with the ability to enjoy

"A lifetime of great relationships." TM

Great relationships are central to healthy and growing families, healthy and prosperous businesses, healthy and faithful churches, healthy neighborhoods that lead to dynamic and civil societies.

Ever since I entered college I have been convinced that building peopl and organizations with Great Relationships was key to physical, mental and emotional health. That conviction was strengthened in Graduate School when I studied the power of groups to influence their members. My assent grew even more during doctoral studies when I read volumes of research that confirmed the biblical statement that, "Life and death are in the power of the tongue."

Every one of my books, articles and equipping classes ends up supporting the notion that strong, healthy, uplifting relationships are promoted by the Bible precisely because God created us to love and care for one another.

So, it takes sense that Sweeten Life Systems will focus on developing people, families and organizations that support and build up Great Relationships.

"A Lifetime of great relationships."TM

Sweeten Life Systems is always building

Great relationships with God

Great relationships with family

Great relationships at work

Great relationships with neighbors

Great relationships around the world

Abiding is Hard Work

One of the most fascinating aspects of faith in Christ is how hard people work to develop faith rather than works. Not long ago a friend wrote to assure our little band that even though he was a Reformed man full of faith, he had not stopped trying to develop more faith so he could heal more people and have more prayers answered.

In response I wrote up my recent research on abiding in the vine and how to abide better. Here is the summary of my research.

I spent a year researching grapes and how they managed to abide in the vine. I interviewed the big, juicy, fat grapes, since they had mastered the abiding techniques well. It was an intense process because grapes rarely want to share their secrets and hard work of abiding and developing faith.

Gary: Hello, Mr. Grape. You are so big, juicy and well developed you must have worked very hard to get so healthy.
Grape: What!! Are you nuts? I did nothing. I simply hung on to the vine.
Gary: But, Mr. Grape, how were you able to abide so well? It must take a lot of work and faith to make yourself so secure in the vine?
Grape: Where did you study agriculture, the USSR? I am telling you that abiding is resting and I can do nothing on my own. In fact, I have no ability to do anything in the realm of sticking or working to abide more. The vine holds on to me not the other way around.
Gary: So, it was your faith in abiding that allowed you to develop so much juice and produce so much? How did you develop into such a giant of faith? Was it hard to do? What about all your failures?
Grape: What do you mean, develop stronger faith so I could be a “Grape of Great Faith”? I have no idea why you are trying to make this so hard? The vine does it all. I do not even know how to ask the vine for more let alone make it produce better. By the way, you are making me so nervous it may interfere with my juice production. Anxiety makes me have acid and that eats away at my juice production. Why don’t you go interview some apples or figs? Go see how hard they work to grow so large and juicy.
Gary: Well, ladies and gentlemen, there you have it from the horses, er, Grapes' own mouth. They refused to share their secret techniques, exercise regimen and faith building program. That is really too bad and I hope the grapes will write a book on "Becoming a Faithful Grape"! However, I am not confident that they will.