Evangelism and Eeyore!

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It has been a long time since I thought of one of my childhood favorite cartoon storylines that spawned several TV shows. Specials: Winnie the Pooh.  He was a “silly old bear” as Christopher Robin liked to call him.  Pooh was always trying to invent a way to get more honey. His antics to get honey usually put him in positions from which his friends had to rescue him.  He was Christopher Robin's best friend, and his loyalty to Christopher Robin and his friends knew no end. That “silly old bear” was just easy to love.

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Get the Healed Back in the Fight!

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Traveling in church circles I hear the latest cliches, buzzwords, and missional ideologies. Sometimes these things are even worth remembering. Most of the time these words/cliches/ideas change quickly enough that there is really no need to try to remember them. However one of these ideas that has taken root has the theme of the church being a hospital or emergency ward for the hurt and wounded of the world.

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WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN THE MAJORITY IS WRONG? From Acts 27

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About 15 years ago a sermon was preached entitled “When the majority isn’t right.” The message spoke about the strengths and weaknesses of living in a democracy. To the point, it spoke of the fact that sometimes the majority votes and makes the wrong decision. Then, those in the minority are at the least somewhat affected by the majority’s decision. Boy, it would be really easy here for me to speak of the 2020 Presidential election. I digress!

Listen to some instances where the majority voted and got it wrong.

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What Will the New Year Bring?

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We stand on the precipice of a new year, 2022. What will the new year bring? Maybe for the first time in our lives, we really have no clue. After all, our plans for 2020 and 2021 had to be rather drastically altered at times to adjust to the mandates and health concerns of our own church families. Often, goals, events, and typical outreaches planned for our churches had to be scrapped or adjusted because of new realities. Most pastors have been living on untried ground not really knowing what to anticipate next simply responding in faithfulness as an opportunity to minister presented itself or scrapping long-term goals to shorter more manageable time frames…..BUT, maybe this is not a bad thing!

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WHAT DOES THE CHURCH OWE THE COMMUNITY?

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Listening to Christian radio this morning I was struck by the conversation. The show centered on “how does the church get its attendees back post Covid?” It was stated in the broadcast that many churches are seeing as much as forty percent decline from before Covid and that most of those who have defected show no interest in returning to church at all. This struck me as a biblical prophecy concerning a departure from the faith in the last days and the righteous scarcely being saved but that will need to be another discussion.

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Reprioritizing

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It has been said that “desperate times require desperate measures.” I’m going to support this theory albeit with a very important caveat. Taking drastic measures within a church perspective must be birthed from a visionary understanding of changed ministry needs and never from the perspective of panic induced by shock/fear. If one has not already experienced an epiphany concerning the meager results being produced by the church over the past few decades in regards to mission and our failure to counteract and convert an increasingly secular culture, then hopefully events of 2020 have served to cause you to be “woke.” This new “wokeness” should serve to help us realign missional priorities that have long been askew. Two seemingly overlooked missional objectives in desperate need of “reprioritizing” are evangelism and church planting.

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Will You Heed the Voice of the Prophet?

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I like so many of you have been trying to make sense of the past several months as well as predict where we may be headed. I’ve listened to doctors, pundits, reporters, people on the streets, and prophets. As of tonight we continue to be besieged by pandemic, peaceful and non peaceful demonstrations, riots with looting, burning buildings, Marxist ideology, idealogical clashes on social media turning brother against brother, accusations of systemic racism in both the secular and ecclesiastical cultures, unbalanced reporting, cancel culture, political posturing, growing global threats, and suspicion. The list is actually much longer.

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Seizing Hope in Perilous Times.

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We of the Faith have known that these are perilous times and that we are living in the last days. We know this because the Bible, our authoritative guide for faith, life and doctrine reveals this to us. We live, more so now than ever before, with the expectation of Christ’s soon return for His church. The world events surrounding this latest pandemic has sparked a new hope, even longing for Heaven, our home.

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Changing the Chip About Church Planting

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There is no disagreement that America needs more churches. Statistically, new churches reap a greater harvest than older established churches, meaning that new churches reach new people quicker than older churches. These facts ring true in NNE. So, the question is not will we plant more churches. We will! The questions are where, what model will we employ, who will be the planters, and what will the new church look like?

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Church Revitalization

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Church revitalization has become a much discussed topic in recent years. It has been said by many church demographers that over 90% of all local congregations need revitalization. Personally, I consider revitalization as an ongoing process rather than an event or season. Many believe revitalization to be a complex issue, requiring the involvement of trained professionals to steer the local pastor to a healthier ministry and congregation.

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Engage C3

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Engage C3 is our regional theme for The Northern New England Church of God.

  • Engage our CALLING through interaction with the Holy Spirit.

  • Engage our CONGREGATIONS with mission.

  • Engage our COMMUNITIES with evangelism.

By focusing on these three vital areas of ministry, we join the larger Church of God family as we seek to FINISH THE GREAT COMMISSION! Every pastor and every church is VITAL in reaching this audacious goal.

Bishop White