Tags:
Wow! My heart is in so many places …all at once.
I’d have to say that my main focus in life is to reach out and touch the lives of those in need.
Whether it be through prayers, kind words, kind gestures, volunteering my time, through donations, etc., I always want to help others and I know the Lord knows this because He always uses me to be precisely where I am needed. Amen!
My calling, however, is with “Women in Prison”. As many of you know, I did advocacy work for women in prison during six years. I had to stop due to health reasons, but this is something I definitely want to do again, in the not too distant future. This experience was very rewarding and I am one to believe that people can change, if they have a genuine desire to do so. Through my work, I’d help in excess of 50 women and their families at any given time and while there were some women who didn’t seem to want to change their ways, I found the vast majority were successful in turning their lives around and currently serve the Lord. As the saying goes, “when you hit rock bottom, there’s no where to go but up,” and the love and appreciation these women express to me through their actions, the changes I’ve witnessed in them, the letters, cards, I receive are overwhelming and I feel very blessed to have been used to help them find a renewed sense of hope, love and faith ...in their lives.
I am inspired to hear what everyone is doing.
My ministry is to advance to the Kingdom through Audio/Visual and Media. My home church here in Atlanta just recently entered into a radio contract with 3 major radio stations in the area. 1 Christian station and the other 2 are secular stations. This is really effective because you capture an audience that would never go to church. Our pastor's Higher Living Minutes sermonetts play over 20 times a week on each station. It has really been a tool to reach people. We also have a full 30 minute sermon that is aired on Saturday's. This is a project that I am responsible for on a weekly basis. We also utulize 2 TV stations in our area. 1 is a christian station and the other is an NBC affiliate which also reaches a lot of people that may not watch religious programing. God has blessed our efforts and we have seen many people come to Christ on a weekly basis.
One other thing that has been effective for us as far as outreach is to use the power of audio/visual in the local shopping malls. We set up a stage and utilize our music ministry and youth ministry and start singing christian music in the mall. We have developed relationships with the mall administration and staff, so there is a real open door for us.
One other avenue I will share with everyone is we utilize a local bowling alley and rent out the entire facility for a weekend and offer the experience to the youth in the area. We bring in projection screens, video cameras, a portable sound system and create an audio/visual experience that really attracts the youth. Our pastor comes and speaks to the kids as well as parents about community security and developing a safe environment for our children. This also opens up a door for the gospel to be preached in an area and to people who are not going to come to church.
I'm a Connector.
My wife and I have been involved in lives of folks all around this nation and in several others as well. We have been firm believers and practitioners of small church and home church and 'un-church'- since the late 1970's. Our life has been one of movement and transition. Some folks say we are chasing rainbows, but I do believe that this is what God has put within our hearts to do.
Often we find ourselves in new relationships, bringing a sense of newness and a perspective to a situation that has not been seen or considered prior to that moment. We are often able to see cause and effect; need and supply; question and answer. We don't have the answers. We are not the solution. But we are frequently able to put one with the other.
We began a life of frequent travel in late December of '05. We sold our home in Mesa,AZ at the end of the realestate bubble, and moved out in what we believed God was speaking to our hearts. The past three and a half years have been spent living in five states and becoming very involved with the lives of folks in at least six states, and building lasting relationships with a wide variety of home churches and small groups as well. We have been blessed to see people come to a real relationship with God, and to come out from under the condemnation that has been set upon them by tradition and rules.
Jesus came that we might have life, and that- more abundantly. There is a freedom and rest that come from true relationship with God, with our Father and our Brother. We are given the freedom to live a Godly life without the confines of the rules that are laid upon people like burdens. There is no place for the man-made rules and regulations that are so often a part of our church today.
It is our hope to see the 'Church Universal' be set free to reach its true potential. It is not constrained by buildings or names or titles. It is not required to have "The Five-Fold Ministry" within four walls. It is not defined by title of gift being given as if it were a first name. These things all bring division. The mere act of calling another brother or sister by the title of their gift divides. We are not to seek the 'spirit of unity' but rather live in the unity of the Spirit. This is the message we bring and the message we live.
© 2022 Created by Juanita.
Powered by