Identifying your congregation’s gifts and talents This article was written by Randy Bloom, US Regional Director, East. Many years ago, at the end of a planning meeting, our supervisor shocked us with the statement, “I’d advise you all update your resumes. Not that we expect anything; it would be good to be updated just in … Continue reading "Your Congregation’s Resume" Read the article
Engaging your community This article was written by Pastor Sam Butler. Healthy churches desire to make an impact in the church community. The question raised is often, “How do we start?” I suggest our starting point, the framework from which we engage, is not a how question, but a who question. In other words, our … Continue reading "God’s Love in Action" Read the article
The location for the Sermon on the Mount—the Beatitudes—is between the ancient cities of Magdala, the home of Mary Magdalene and Capernaum, the fishing town on the northern shore of Lake Gennesaret. Magdala is a recent archeological find that has great significance. The population of the town was around 10,000 people and it was the … Continue reading "Magdala and Capernaum" Read the article
This article is written by GCI pastor Mark Mounts. My wife, Debra, and I recently had the opportunity to visit the “Holy Land” with a group of GCI church leaders. It was a life-changing journey we will never forget. The geography and the sites we visited gave us a new perspective into the ministry of … Continue reading "The Beatitudes" Read the article
Churches often use the terms mission, commission, missional and missionary. While the words are related, we need to know the difference between missional and missionary as we participate in the Great Commission. The Gospel of Matthew ends with Jesus commissioning the 11 disciples. Have you ever noticed that Matthew begins his Gospel in a similar … Continue reading "Missional or Missionary" Read the article
This article is written by Jeff Broadnax, Director of Generations Ministry and Assistant Regional Director. When someone becomes one of the answers to your online banking “security questions,” you know they have made an impact in your life. Hollis Dane Mitchell was such a person. For years he was an answer to the question, “Who … Continue reading "Engaging Leaders" Read the article
Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” The man replied, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?” And he urged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him (Acts 8:30-31 NLT). Whether it’s learning about Jesus or learning … Continue reading "Bringing Others in the Know" Read the article
The power of equipping and empowering others Jesus didn’t just send instructions to a group of people to go and share good news—he had a systematic way of training disciples, who trained disciples, who trained disciples and several generations later trained you and me. Now we are called to train the next generation of leaders. … Continue reading "Developing Leaders" Read the article
Lending With the Promise of Repayment Written by George Hart, retired GCI pastor My first memories of Lent are not particularly positive, but not necessarily negative—more indifferent. I remember when I was six years old, in the first grade, and the Lenten season approached. I was given a Lenten coin folder, the type with slots … Continue reading "A New Look at Lent" Read the article
The Value of Life-on-Life Mentoring Written by Anthony Mullins, National Coordinator for pastoral residents. interns and coaching. Have you ever had a parent, teacher, coach, pastor or mentor tell you something you did not want to hear, but you knew you needed to hear? I mean the kind of words that hit you like a … Continue reading "Being Called Up" Read the article
