Evangelism In Focus

Join our Evangelism Team - Our Focus

Then Jesus came to them and said: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28: 18-20

“Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere..” is the first line of a very familiar Christmas song and appropriately so commands us to do like the verse Matthew 28:18-20 above does. The operative word is ‘GO!’ For a list of the projects we are currently working on, click here. For a touching testimony by one of our youth, Catherine Shanks, click here.

So you might ask, how do we at MPC ‘GO’? The answer is through the Evangelism Ministry Team which has the following purpose statement: The Evangelism Ministry Team exists to assist members of our congregation in reaching out to any and all inviting them into a complete relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Further, this team has established an overarching goal: To equip and mobilize our congregation to routinely share the ‘Good News’ by including Evangelism in all ministry planning thereby increasing participation in the body of Christ .

Supporting objectives include the following:

- Provide training opportunities to encourage and equip our congregation to share with others the reason we chose Christ as our personal Lord and Savior. ( Note: ‘Share His Good News’ classes will be offered from Jan. 2 – Feb. 27, 2005).

- Encourage our congregation to seek opportunities to share their faith with non-believers.

- Participate with our Deacons, Congregation Life and Worship Ministry Teams to develop a plan to welcome and follow-up with visitors to MPC.

- Practice ‘friendship evangelism’ within our congregation by encouraging each member to bring to MPC at least one neighbor, friend or co-worker who is not currently attending a Church. ( Note: Sunday, January 30 has been designated as ‘Fill The Church Sunday’ for the purpose of fulfilling this objective.)

- Encourage all members of our congregation to participate in local community outreach efforts to emphasize MPC’s ‘servant evangelism’ efforts over the next 18 to 24 months with expectations of 50% of the congregation participating. ( Note: Opportunities include our new ‘Keikis for Christ [KFC]’ each Wednesday evening starting January 19; Vacation Bible School; and, our Block Party.)

- Extend our welcome to as many as we can reach within our community and beyond.

- Provide visibility of MPC to the community through publicity, MPC website, news releases etc.

Current members of the Evangelism Ministry Team : JJ Johnson & John Toillion (Elders); Judy Nupen, Doris Evert, and Rich Brink (Members at Large).

As you can see there are ample opportunities for each of us to fulfill the purpose of Evangelism. Prayerfully consider how you will fulfill this purpose either by becoming a member of this Team or by participating in one or more of the objectives noted above.

Midweek Program for Neighborhood Kids

Annual “Reaching Out” Training

Each January your Evangelism Ministry Team offers everyone an opportunity to receive equipping tools for learning how to fulfill Christ’s commandment to ‘Go, make disciples…’. Starting January 2, 2005 we will offer this training during adult Sunday school. Please plan to attend. Contact John Toillion (625-1875) for additional information. Back

Focus on Evangelism – ‘Sharing My Story’

Note : With this month’s focus on our Evangelism Ministry Team, it is most appropriate that we share an example of our Christian walk….sharing what God is doing in our lives. Here now is the beautiful testimony shared by one of our youth…Catherine Shanks…this past Sunday, December 26, 2004.

I think my life has been pretty mellow in comparison to most people’s lives. I haven’t had any really big problems. I have always lived with my family. I haven’t experienced divorce first hand, and I’ve never had anyone very close to me die. I’ve been a Christian all my life, and as far as I can remember, I’ve never doubted that God was the Creator. But I’ve still run into some roadblocks.

When I was younger, living in Maryland, I think I was about the same as any other kid, except that Matthew and I were home schooled. My family all went to church every Sunday, and I enjoyed helping out with the service – Sunday school, fellowship, and choir. I can’t say I had a very deep faith, but I certainly knew that God was there.

Just before my 13 th birthday, we moved here to Hawaii. We had lived in Maryland all my life, and we had only moved to a different house once before because Matthew showed up and he took up too much room. Nearly all of my family, 8 out of 12 aunts and uncles and all my grandparents lived in Maryland. The move here was awful for me. We are not a military family, and I didn’t know any military families in Maryland. Moving seemed such a strange, foreign, horrible thing. How could you just get up and leave? And not only were we just moving, we had to go half way around the world to some island in the middle of the Pacific to live in a grass hut! I had been taken away from everything that I ever knew. There were no friends here [and] no family was here. I remember crying myself to sleep night after night for weeks. That was the hardest time I had had in my life. it took me over a year to adjust to Hawaii, and realize that it really is okay here. I realized that I could be happy and stop counting the days till we moved back.

That first year really was tough for me but looking back on it now it had a huge benefit. Without all of my friends and family, I didn’t have much to hang to. My parents and Matthew were around of course. Don’t take me wrong, they really are great but that wasn’t enough. There was so much taken away it seemed I had a huge hole in me. So I went to God. In that first year I talked to God far more than I ever had before or after the move. I asked Him to give me friends, and I have friends. I asked Him why He put me here, and I came across Jeremiah 29:11. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord “plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future.” God has a plan for me. I have meaning; I have value. I have a purpose, and I’m not useless. I learned to trust God to take care of me, and He sure has. When I think about it now, I had some bad influences back in Maryland, and I would probably have headed down a road to trouble. I realize now that I’ve met some wonderful people here many of whom are in this congregation who have changed my life. I’ve met friends with such a strong faith that I’ve been inspired to deepen my faith. I’ve met so many adults who encourage me and I know I could turn to any of them for advice or support. You see, God has plans and as long as we let Him you can be sure that He’ll have those plans happen. I think our move to Hawaii was God’s way of getting me out of sinking sand and catching my attention. It worked!

After that I went through a few years of just living. Nothing too exciting but I was happy. Now…I’m having trouble again. I think my biggest problem is a mixture of anxiety, impatience, and a controlling nature. I want to know what college I’ll go to, what I’ll major in, what job I’ll get, where I’ll live, what house I’ll have, who I’m going to marry, and how many kids I’m going to have. And I want to know it NOW! I feel like if I don’t know any one of those, I’m going to miss the opportunity that God gives me, and my life will go down the drain. I know God has a plan for me but He just happened to give me free will so I could blow His perfect plan at any given moment. I fell like I’m walking through a mine field. And on top of that many Christians deny God in their teenage and young adult years. There’s a chance I’ll do that too and boy then I’ll REALLY be in trouble! Then I’ll be walking through that mine field blindfolded. Then I realize that all I’m thinking about is myself. Oh, great, so I’m self-centered too.

You’d think this would be an easy problem to deal with right? I think so, too. All I have to do is relax and trust God. After all, He’s the Creator. He knows me better than I do. Well it should be easy yet I still worry. Psalm 55:22 says “Cast your cares on the Lord, and He will sustain you. He will never let the righteous fall.” I know I need to trust God. he can do everything better than I can.

God has His plans – His wonderful, perfect, masterful plans. We have our plans, too, but they could never be as good as His. No matter how hard we try or how many hours we spend plotting out our lives or how careful we are with every tiny detail, we cannot reach perfection. But God can. I, and probably some of you need to let go of my life and truly whole-heartedly give it to the Lord. I can’t speak for you but I want to belong to my God, and to do that I need to give everything I have to Him. I need to give up my life to Him.

That’s my story. Honestly, I know I’m in God’s hands. He gave His Son for me. He loves me. I’ll be alright. We all will.

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