Saturday, August 11, 2007

A Great Article by Justin Childers

Our good friend Justin C. has a great article in the Wilson Daily Times today about growing in Christ. You can read it here.

JN

13 comments:

Pastor Randy said...

Very good article Justin C.

pastor justin said...

Thanks guys. It was really just a simple attempt to help someone see and savor Christ.
JN, do you get the Wilson Daily Times?

TheBeastMan said...

That is great. Do y'all know if Rocky Mount has a section like this in their paper?

Justin Nale said...

Justin,

No - I don't get the Wilson Times. I've probably looked at one once or twice in my whole life. It was purely the providence of God that I was meeting some guys in a store for breakfast and happened to pick up a Wilson paper and look through it.
I cut out your article and put it on our church bulletin board.

Oh - how did the car wash go?

Jim, I don't know if our paper has something similar. I looked on the Telegram's website the afternoon after I read JC's article (he always has the best ideas! I love to copy them!) I couldn't find anything similar there. Maybe someone who gets the Telegram tell us for sure.

Ofcourse, we're always welcome to send letters to the editor, but I've always had difficulty getting them to publish.

JN

Justin Nale said...

Jim: someone called "anonymous" (I know who it was) has asked you and I a question on the last pre-mil / amil debate page. The question is this:

"In what ways are your positions consistent with Rom 8.18-23 and the connection between the resurrection of believers and the deliverance of creation from the futility it has been subjected to in this present time?"

Um...you first?

pastor justin said...

The car wash was great. We didn't wash as many cars as we were anticipating. We figure it was because of all the rain surrounding Saturday.
However, we had about 20 fantastic conversations. My people shared the gospel with about 6 people and I had one woman and her daughter who promised they would visit Christ Baptist Church.

The main blessing, as I anticipated, is how our members grew together by servng. Our gathering on Sunday was buzzing with conversation about how fun it was and how we should do it again. I learned things about my members that I would have never known. For example, I had one mother of 3 kids who was absolutly crazy as she waved the "Free Car Wash" signs and yelled at people to stop as they drove by. It was amazing to behold!

Justin Nale said...

JC -

That's great! We're doing one of our own in three weeks. We also came up with another idea: in November, we're going to get up really early and cook chickens - making barbecue chicken plates with sides, dessert, tea, and all - and sell them for $2 a plate (first come, first serve!) We intend to lose money on the deal. Our prayer is that hundreds of people from our community will stop by for the super-cheap lunch and give us an opportunity to speak the Gospel.

So, who else has a good evangelistic idea?

BTW - I registered for the DC Conference. I should be hearing about housing soon.

pastor justin said...

Great idea. How do you guys intend to get the word out about the $2 chicken plate?

Pastor Randy said...

So far here is what I've come up with for Evangelistic Outreaches:

1. Free Car Wash (so I didn't actually come up with this one)
2. Community Cook-out in our neighborhood park
3. Fall Festival (though I would rather call it a Reformation Celebration)
4. Offering assistance to yard cleaning in the fall for our community
5. Racial Harmony weekend

Every one of these events would be for the purpose of sharing the gospel. I'm not sure yet what we would do for racial harmony weekend, but it would be an activity aimed at celebration equality among the races. I am still thinking through these.

pastor justin said...

Randy, I like these ideas. Share more about the yard cleaning idea. How will you find people who want/need help with yard work?

Here is another one we are contemplating:
We get a list of new movers in our zip code every month. Everyone who moves into the area is on the list. We are gonna take a Saturday and drop off a gift bag at each new resident's house.

Pastor Randy said...

Justin,
I am still wondering about how this will work myself. My thought is that as the leaves fall we will take a Saturday (or two or three) and walk through our neighborhood and offer to rack or clean people's yards. The purpose would be to meet a need (especially for the elderly) and build relationship in our community with the hopes of getting the opportunity to share the gospel.

Justin Nale said...

JC - you asked about how to get the word out about chicken plates. We intend simply to put it on our sign:

$2 Chicken Plates
Saturday, 11/15 11-1
First Come First Serve

Since hundreds of people drive by our church each day, if we have the sign up for a week before, I imagine we'll have plenty of people come.

I like your idea about the new movers. We're working on something similar. Our ladies also recently put together gift baskets for new mothers and distributed them at the hospital.

I'd also like to talk more about the idea of a marriage or parenting seminar (or finances - a lot of people would be interested in that, I think).

Randy - I like the idea of you guys using the park behind your church for a community cookout. That should allow you not just a few minutes but perhaps a couple of hours to speak with people in conversations about the gospel.

What do you guys think about signs. JC, I know you guys have them in Wilson (I saw one on the way to Dick's Hot Dog Stand recently). Have they been a positive outreach (obviously no one learns the Gospel from them, but have they brought people to your church where they CAN hear the Gospel?)

pastor justin said...

So, you know about Dick's hotdogs? Legendary!

Yes, we bought about 10 signs and placed them all over Wilson. Some of them have been taken down/stolen. Some of them have been in strategic locations for a few months (hundreds of people seeing them). So, they have been worth the money (about $20 each for double sided). We have had people say, "I saw your sign." However, no one has visited our church because of them. Our main goal was to get people to our website. I have no idea if that has happened.