GYC Europe 2012: The Hour Has Come

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Personal Evangelism 1

Michael Dörnbrack

Small Group Evangelism: A Longing for the Real Christian Life- Part 1

This message was presented through a partnership between GYC and GYC Europe at the 2012 conference in Linz, Austria.

For other resources like this, visit us online at gycweb.org.

I would like to just start with a prayer shall we stand together as we do that Our dear Lord Jesus, thank you so much for bringing us together here to this place.

And we are here to learn, learn more about you, learn more about ways to reach people, to prepare them for the second coming.

And we now ask you that you are here with us and that you will teach us and that you will impress us with thoughts and ideas that we can take back home and implement them there.

Thank you Lord for being here in our midst.

We all, I think, long for churches that grow, right?

And we all long for churches that naturally grow, that are places where people are drawn to, like if this is a magnet, where people who don't know Christ are drawn to naturally and stay.

Often times, this is not, in most cases I should say, this is not the reality in our local ethnic churches.

We are always glad to have a baptism or 2 per year, but in most cases we are not used, we don't see our church as the place where it's the normal thing that people come to and find Jesus.

I just see a good friend in the last row.

We long for a place, we long our churches to be a place where we just get used to seeing people getting converted.

And we have tried different methods, haven't we?

And probably your church has tried small groups before.

How many of you have been part of a small group before?

It's not about the method that makes a difference.

Because I have had small groups that were not successful.

We used the right method without being successful.

I'd like to write a word here on the flip chart.

What you believe is part of your identity your lifestyle yeah has to do with your identity my history my behavior okay yeah my behavior there's a lot to say about identity.

And 1 of the main points I want to bring across in this seminar, that success and mission has not so much to do with what we do, but with what we are.

It has to do not with a method, but let me put it this way, it has to do with my spiritual DNA.

And I'd like to start with a Bible passage that talks about identity.

And we find that in The Gospel of John, Chapter 1.

And I would like to start to read in verse 19.

Now this is a testimony of John when the Jews sent spies and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who are you?

The question is about Identity the question is who are you?

And he confessed and Did not deny but confessed I am not the Christ and they asked him what then are you Elijah?

And they said to him, who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us?

He said, I am the voice of the 1 crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said.

Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees.

And they asked him, why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?

John answered them, saying, I baptize with water.

But There stands 1 among you whom you do not know.

It is he who coming after me is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to lose." All right.

They come with a question to John the Baptist, what is your identity?

First, let me say, I am the voice of the calder on a desert.

He says, what I do here today before your eyes has been prophesied before by the prophet Isaiah.

So his identity has to do with a prophetic calling.

It has to do with a prophetic calling but more than that He talks about more than this prophetic calling what else can you see in the passage yeah he knows who is not it's good to know who you are not if you want to know who you are uh-huh what else right He talks to his relationship with Jesus.

You see, 1, it's an integral part of our identity to know what we are there for, what we are there for, our commission.

You know, sometimes when we talk about Adventist identity, we make a mistake.

Because we say, well, those people who understand our prophetic calling, who know that we are a prophetic movement to prepare people for the coming of the Lord, who have the right theology, they are the ones who have a good Adventist identity.

But if you have a conservative Adventist with no relationship with Jesus and not working for souls, you have someone who does not have a good Adventist identity.

So because even in New Testament times, in the time of Jesus, you had people who were very rigid about rules.

They had a, well, I wouldn't say they had a good theology, but they had a conservative theology in their eyes.

But they didn't care about lost people, the Pharisees.

So we must never separate identity with mission.

Whenever we separate the both, we are Pharisees.

Small Group Evangelism: A Longing for the Real Christian Life- Part 2

Okay, shall we start with a word of prayer?

Our dear Lord, as we now dive into our topic, we ask you that you will bless us and that you will help us to to really understand how to do mission work through small groups because this is what you did when you were here on earth and we want to learn from you in order to be able to reach people that are so much on your heart today thank you for being with us here thank you for blessing us in your precious name I think that's fine for a year If you want to just go to that corner, I think that's absolutely fine.

How many of you have been involved in small groups before?

How many of you already had a small group?

How many of you already had a small group that died after some time?

Today I would like to share a few things about small groups with you that kind of have developed at the mission school.

I I'm a pastor in southern germany and my main drop is the leadership of the just sign mission school maybe you've heard about the school It's a school for evangelism that is run by our local conference, by the Baden-Württemberg conference.

And we have been operating now for 5 years.

We just had graduation a few weeks ago and so in september we will start our our sick or sick course yes this school is about it's about bible it's about evangelism and it's about medical missionary work So we try to cover these different areas.

We have learned from mistakes that we have made.

And the things that I would like to share with you have grown in that time.

And they have proven to be effective in our training imagine this is your church Are we not looking for a church that is really attracting people from the outside, like a magnet, attracting people, lost people from the outside to come and stay?

If I look to the New Testament, especially to the Book of Acts, I see that it was a healthy normality that people came into the church.

I mean, this is the Lord added daily to the church.

And I don't think that God has reserved that to the first century.

I think, I mean, The Great Commission is just as valid today as it was then.

And so we should expect that conversions in our church are really something that is normal.

But if we are honest, we see it's not as normal as we would like to see it.

And somehow, somehow we have got used, and I speak generally.

It may be different in your church than I'm happy.

But somehow, we have got used to the idea or to the reality that it's normal if we baptize 1 or 2 people per year, if at all.

But if I look to the Bible, I see a different picture.

And even today, we are speaking about small groups.

1 that starts and does not attract non-Adventists and dies after some time.

And the other 1, vibrant and healthy, attracting new people, seeing conversions, and all of them in the same culture, all in the same city.

What could be the difference between 2 small groups and the same context, the same city?

1 is growing, attracting people, experiencing conversion, and the other 1 dies after some time what what might be the difference I lack of prayer, I lack of asking the power of the Holy Spirit.

In the beginning we get sworn fire about it, but after we are more concerned with our own life, so we like to spend that time in prayer to the good growth.

We think when it's done, how you will keep going?

So you you talk about prayer that the fire file east what else What else could be a difference between these 2 kind of groups?

Oftentimes, we hear these mission reports from the third world, and churches are growing in Africa, South America, wonderful.

But we would like to see it in our world too.

But even in our world, we see small groups that are growing and small groups that are not growing.

Oftentimes we say, well, in Africa and South America, people are poor, so they are more open for the gospel.

But whenever we see churches or small groups growing in our European culture, we know we cannot blame the culture.

So there's something else we have to think about We are a little group from this church, and we make other little group.

The difference between us is that in the first time we organized a lot of action.

We go out, we go see people, we were in the street, and We have all the time for praying because it was our organization.

But when we become a church, all people who come don't pray in the same sense.

Now, when we think about mission, we have to understand that there are 2 levels we are talking about.

This is our heart, our values, our character, our relationship with Jesus.

And this is the method that we are using.

What do you think, where should we start when we talk about successful small groups?

K it's not a continuation it's a review error a repeat repetition it was just a two-hour workshop, okay?

That's fine Yeah, we should start here and I think success about mission success about a small group has more to do with the heart and I'm talking about our values our character our relationship with jesus and among each other it is more to be put our inner values than with without method oftentimes the we want success in mission and we just want the right method.

But if the heart is not right, if the values are wrong, we spoil the best methods.

And on the other hand, if this level is right, if you have the right values, the right motivation, then we can use many methods successfully.

And I think we oftentimes make the mistake, we're looking for answers here on that level, the right method.

And I think this is the wrong place to start.

And so today, I would like, we will talk about methods, yes.

We'll get very practical in the second part of this workshop.

Where do we best see the character, the values, the motivation, the relationships, the convictions?

Where do we best see the characteristic of the New Testament Church?

Yeah, let's go to Acts, to the book of Acts.

You see, there are many, many good books about church growth and evangelism.

And I'm not saying we shouldn't read these books.

But you know, after reading many, many of these books, I always come back and have to discover I haven't really learned anything new that is not found in the Book of Acts.

And if you want some more detail, take the book, take these 3 classic books by Ellen White, Evangelism, Gospel Workers, and Christian Service.

Arnold Zwahlen

The Fragrance of Life

Okay friends, We're happy to welcome you here in our workshop, Fragrance of Life.

So I would like to first to introduce our team.

And we come from Switzerland, as you see.

And I would like to just have a little overview on our activity so you can understand what we present to you.

The His Hands of Mission team is a group of missionary-minded Seventh-day Adventists in a district.

I'm the pastor of this district, and we have here 2 missionaries who work here.

And we do many kinds of outreach activities, not only in our district, but also outside in other churches.

So we see here some teams who went out in different churches, young people from our churches.

The vision we have is to help us spiritual revival and missionary revival to develop in the churches.

And we have a vision making disciples as quickly as many and as radical as possible wherever the Lord leads until he returns.

We have outreach, workshops, and we present the sermons.

And the churches are very much revived after such a program and start to do more missionary work.

We also have campaigns in Ethiopia once a year, where we teach and preach and baptize many people.

We have also creation film and exposition once a year in 1 of our churches.

And we have developed a program to help the creation film be more effective and bring people to faith.

And we have the His Hands volunteer service, which we developed and which makes all these activities possible because we have more personnel, We have more resources then.

And they will present to you part of the seminar.

So Steffi is the first 1 who wants to present their part.

I hope you will get my English and if there are some questions, please ask because it's not my native language.

I'm from Germany and now working with the latest hands team in Switzerland And my part, this is really a workshop.

When you don't get what I'm saying, please raise your hand and ask.

I will have some exercises doing with you and I will ask you some questions.

So if nobody answers my question, I will just pick 1 person.

Dear Heavenly Father, it's a privilege for me to have this workshop with those people here.

And I ask you for your presence right now in my heart and in the hearts of the people.

Please Come with your Holy Spirit and revive our lives.

Come with your Holy Spirit into this presentation that it might not just be words, but that actions will follow, and that we might be a blessing to our churches, to our neighbors, to our friends, to everybody who needs to get to know you.

Please, Father, come into this presentation that they might understand what I want to tell them.

I don't think we should place this now on you.

Again, welcome everybody to this workshop.

My part is missionary lifestyle, SOS, how to help saving my friends.

And that means I am, yeah, I have to explain a little bit about me in my life.

I'm just, yeah, Steffi Binos from Germany and I went to university for the last 5 and a half years.

I studied dentistry Actually, I'm a dentist, but now God had different plans for my life and he guided me in that Wonderful way that now I can work 4 days a week for the church in that mission program and 1 day a week in a dental practice so My life right now is better than I ever ever ever could have imagined Because now I know okay.

I love dentistry and I love doing my job, but when the Lord calls you, it's better than just doing your job.

He fulfills your life and he gives you blessings, blessing after blessing and yeah, I'll tell you more later.

And the last 5 and a half years in university, I was the only Adventist, I even was the only Christian in my group.

Out of 50 to 60 people, the only Christian.

And this is why this topic is so important to me.

Because every 1 of you has, I guess, some friends or family members or neighbors or anybody that is non-Adventist and it's so important to reach those people.

Just by living your faith, by living a lifestyle, by living your faith that it's attractive to other people.

And who of you knows what does it mean, SOS?

Help save our souls and for me if you don't remember anything of my workshop Remember SOS and this will be I think on most of my slides.

What do we have to know to live or to be a missionary to live a missionary lifestyle?

There are just 2 requirements or conditions.

This is the only requirement, the only condition we need to have.

You cannot give a thirsty person the water of life if you don't have it.

You cannot enlighten somebody or you have to set others on fire yourself.

And this is what we learned yesterday evening.

But If Jesus is important to you, he must be important to others too.

And if Jesus lives in you, you want him to live in others too.

If Jesus has set you on fire, he will set others on fire.

And Jesus is the 1 who fills your empty cup, how can he fill others?

Dan Millares

Sharing Divine Words with Human Hearts- Part 1

Okay, so we are just about to start Time is 2 47 so that would be a good time to start so This is the workshop sharing divine word with human hearts.

I have been a Bible worker in Sweden, Scandinavia for the last 6 to 7 years.

And today I work at a TV ministry, a media ministry called Lifestyle TV, where we are broadcasting via satellite and internet stream the Advent message throughout Scandinavia.

So we have millions of people coming in contact with the divine word through what we're doing there.

But what we're going to talk about here is the personal setting of sharing the Bible with others, the personal Bible study.

That will be the first session with a lot of practical tips and tools on how to do this.

Then in the second session, We will talk more about the reaching the heart and to cooperate with the Spirit of God, making appeals and how to help our friends to make the decision of following the truth that we have presented in the Bible, the biblical world, word.

So that's what we're gonna deal with here in this workshop, sharing the divine word with human hearts.

So before we do that, let's have a word of prayer and let's dive into this workshop.

Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for giving us your word.

And now Father, as you know, many of us are struggling with how to share what you have taught us and the Bible and our relationship with you with others.

So Father, I just pray that you will send your spirit to us in this room right now and to everyone listening to this message, That we will be inspired, that we will be trained and become more efficient in helping others to a saving relationship with you.

That is my prayer and I pray in the name of Jesus.

Now the Bible says in 1 Peter 1 verse 23 the following, Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but by imperishable, through the living and abiding Word of God.

Talking about the experience of being born again, the author to 1 Peter here, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, says the Word of God has had an important role in the conversion, new birth experience according to this verse.

You have been born again through the living and abiding Word of God.

I was working at a Swedish company called Volvo cars if any 1 of you know that great car brand Volvo cars I was working there as a system engineer and Raised in secular Sweden skeptical mind I did not have much interest in religion.

I said, well that's good for you, it works for you, but for me this works and that is to have respect for my family and from friends, earning my money and being on this career at Volvo.

But through some circumstances I got in contact with the divine word of God, with the Bible.

A friend started to share Bible studies with me, and through that I became a Christian, was baptized and since that 7 years ago I have been involved in full-time ministry to share the Bible with others.

Now I was called by God just a few months after my baptism.

Through an experience like we have here, I went to a youth conference in Sweden.

And I had studied by then with many of my colleagues from work and also student friends.

So I brought 6 of them to this conference.

And I remember the preacher making an appeal.

I just bowed down, closed my eyes and prayed, Father, speak to them as you spoke to me once.

Now I opened my eyes and I looked for the people that had answered that altar call.

And praise God, 5 of my 6 friends gave their lives to Jesus that day.

Since that day, I have found my greatest joy in leading others to a relationship with Christ.

And the tool that I use is what I believe should be the center of every evangelistic effort and outreach activity that we do as Christians, the divine Word of God.

Series

Personal Evangelism 1

Small Group Evangelism: A Longing for the Real Christian Life- Part 2

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

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