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February 27, 2014

This past weekend on Feb 14-15 we held the Mid-Atlantic Region Staff/Elders’ Conference at Lehigh. It was a very nice time of warm fellowship and quite honest, open sharing. We had group Bible studies on the passages from Titus 1 and 2 Timothy 2. M. Daniel from Shippensburg UBF preached a very full-of-the-Holy-Spirit message on Titus 1, reminding us to hold fast to the “trustworthy message” we have received. We also heard a message by Dr. Bill from Lehigh UBF on 2 Tim 2, reminding us of the glorious future that awaits those who endure.

In addition, we had two very interesting break-outs, one led by Chris K. on the roles and relationships of evangelism, conversion and disciple-making and one led by M. Moses from Philly on “What’s working and what’s not?” in terms of disciple-making, Bible study and ‘fishing’. The gist of Chris’ session was that conversion follows evangelism, and discipling follows conversion. It seems we do this naturally through 1:1 Bible study, beginning first with the gospel and then discipling new believers. But we also noted that at Lehigh UBF, we don’t seem to be doing any larger scale evangelism – yet even as we discussed this, I realized that the two recent events we held – Dr. Robert Carter from Creation Ministries International and the debate between Bill Nye the “Science Guy” and Ken Ham from Answers in Genesis – were both very much evangelistic in nature. So it seems in fact Lehigh UBF is doing evangelism on a larger scale after all.

Mark V. also comforted us with his report that Chicago “headquarters” is working on several new education/training initiatives to support church planting. There weren’t any written guidelines for UBF members starting a ‘house church’ but thankfully materials are being prepared to help people in many different areas including pastoral care, church ordinances like marriage, baptism, etc. as well as finances and many other very relevant topics that deal with church governance. We’re really looking forward to reviewing the draft guidelines, and once they are finalized, it should be great!! I was really glad to hear these things.

The second breakout, by Moses, was equally profitable. The discussion ranged widely from the merits of traditional ‘fishing’ to the merits of new modes of outreach like using dance. Especially Dream, Chris S. wife, inspired us with her description of the ministry in Indonesia which leveraged dance to reach out to many in Indonesia. She argued that all outreach does not need to be in the form of 1:1 or group Bible study. By using other clubs, other activities, the door is opened to establish relationships with people, and through these relationships some of them will naturally be invited and begin Bible study. It was a really good argument. Others countered Dream’s point by saying that the traditional method of ‘fishing’ is good, and works! So after over an hour of very interesting, sometimes animated and definitely down-to-earth discussion, Moses wrapped it up very well by saying that basically it boils down to one thing: faith. The point he made is that a multitude of different methods can be used to connect to people and evangelize, and they will all work if they are done in faith. Praise God, it was a very good meeting – despite the snow and difficult travel, around 30 people attended, including two or three via Google+ video conferencing who could not make it due to the inclement weather. Praise God!!! We thank Him for blessing our mid-Atlantic staff/elders conference.

by Dr. Bill Pottenger