By Bill Hall, National Director, Canada I have been blessed to meet many people who have been an inspiration to me. One person I met on several occasions was a well-known Canadian actor who, unbeknown to many of his fans, once lived on the streets of Winnipeg, Canada. Because he is no stranger to poverty … Continue reading "Are You Willing to Change “That?”" Read the article
Part of being a healthy church is consistent communication. To support our local congregations, we have developed a local congregational branding kit. These resources are a starting point that can be edited and developed to reflect the unique context of each of our congregations. We pray that these resources will support you in joining with … Continue reading "Local Congregation Branding" Read the article
Loving community begins with seeing the neighborhood through the eyes of Jesus. By pastor Sam Butler. After his resurrection, Jesus reached out to his followers with genuine love and concern. He met them in the midst of their brokenness, fear and longing. By looking at Jesus as our model we can learn a few things … Continue reading "Loving Your Community" Read the article
God has uniquely gifted you and your congregation for community involvement. By pastor Sam Butler. We have established in previous articles that the motivation behind community engagement is love. Love flows from God to us through Jesus Christ and now through the presence of the Holy Spirit in us, love that flows from us out … Continue reading "Community Involvement" Read the article
Summer is a great time to plan an outreach event for your community and share the love of Christ with your church neighborhood. To assist you in preparing for your outreach event, we’ve prepared the infographic below (click on the image to download). Read the article
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
