In 1992, God led us away from the Federated Church to answer a call to a church in Jamestown, New York. When a pastor of the Fed, I had about sixty-five people who were zealous for the Lord and were part of five different door to door ministries, and faithful in our bus ministry. A number of people in the Springfield area came to know Christ during these ministries, and I have often wondered why God did not give me the vision to train Christians to reach and teach lost people for Christ while Mary and I were still there!
Let me speculate! If I had written the book, "Learn from the Master" while in East Springfield, there would have been sixty-five people, maybe more, that would have taken the challenge we would be on our way! BUT God's ways are not our ways! There were people in Jamestown, West Palm Beach and Brooksville that have come to know the Lord as we ministered in these areas. We spent about 30 hours a week, counseling while in Springfield, so there was not much time to write! Also, Christians tend to immortalize people when a great new approach to reaching the world Christ is suggested, and God wants His children to focus on Him, not me! I am convinced that "Learn from the Master" is a book that, had he lived, Dawson Troutman, founder of the Navigators, would have written and after my demise, will go viral. We were convinced that we were leaving the church in good hands, in Pastor Ed and Pastor Rick: I had the privilege of recruiting both of them. Their gifts were different than mine and so the church is bound to take a different direction, but not necessarily a wrong one. Had we stayed in East Springfield until retirement, which was our first choice, the chances are my son, Jim, would possibly now be the pastor of the church! The good news is that you can benefit from Jim's ministry by going into you tube or face book and find Jim five mornings a week for morning devotions and his message on Sunday! Jim has the spirit of his grandfather and his messages are down to earth and makes you think of how you can become more effective in your life to the glory of God!
In retrospect, I realized, though difficult to accept, that God brought new things to my father through my ministry (don't laugh) and now he is teaching me new things through my son, Jim! We have also benefited from our son, Tim, in Tennessee! Mary and I listen to Morning devotions each morning and I marvel of how God is using Jim in Aledo, IL. So now you have access to Pastor Jim via you tube and access to what I should have taught you when I was your pastor in East Springfield through this web page! The bottom line is this: if you can pray for and reach two people for Christ in your lifetime, teach the new converts to do the same: when this happens thirty-three times, you can reach thousands, even millions for Christ, just as a result of what you have done (this is explained in session one on the audio-video page)! I am trusting God to inspire several of my friends to get this started, but so far, only a little response! I have a man in OK, who with his wife, have challenged about 150 people to at least consider the possibilities!
God will bless our efforts, I know. He already has in many ways! The material we use in the discipleship training, we use to obtained through "Multiplication Ministries" in California. They stopped printing it. So, what to do? After praying, the people at Multiplication Ministries called me to give verbal permission to print the material, ourselves! I then went to the best printer in the area, Bob Osmond, and after praying about it with his wife, now provides our printed materials to us as a part of their ministry! What an incredible blessing!!
Now our prayer is that God will lead us to an individual who will carry on the ministry after my death and raise enough money to continue to challenge people to share their faith, until the world is reached! It would mean a great deal, if you would pray with us to that end!
With the things that are happening now, in Washington, this action is our best hope and it is what God has called us to do, no matter what (II Corinthians 5:18-20)! We can do this!!! Please pray for the ministry of Evangelism implosion!!!