www.joelnews.nl

JOEL-NEWS-INTERNATIONAL-392 * 4 JANUARY 2002 * WWW.JOELNEWS.ORG

IN THIS EDITION:

JN392-1. New articles on the server

* CHURCH GROWTH
- Study on megachurches (Various)
- Multiplying house and cell churches (Maurice Smith)
- G12 multiplication (Cesar Castellanos)
- Ten largest cell churches (Joel Comiskey)
- Getting beyond the numbers (James Engel)
- Conversations or conversions? (Brian McLaren)
- No altar call (Rick Warren)
- Listening to unbelievers (Rick Warren)
- God's vision for your church (Rick Warren)
- Building your ministry plan (Jim Horan)
- Just a thought (Dean Comerford)

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DONATE - Support Joel News with an annual donation. Check out the options at http://www.joelnews.org/donation-jni.htm
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URGENT PRAYER - Gong Shengliang (46), the leader of an evangelical house church network in China's Hubei province may be executed by the government Jan. 5, a Christian worker in East Asia says. His niece, Li Ying (36) also was given a death sentence suspended for two years. (Source: Advance)
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MISSION 2002 - TEMA/Mission2002 created a new hub for youth mission mobilisation, training and information: http://www.mission.org. The aim is to make the website available in every major European language.
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RECTIFICATION - We found out that the comments attributed to Anne Graham in the article 'Why God?' (JNI 391) do not conform to what she really said in The Early Show of 13 September 2001. For that reason we removed the article (graham-11sept-response) from our server.
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QUOTE - "The only hope of a decreasing self is an increasing Christ."
(F.B. Meyer)
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JN392-1. New articles on the server

The following articles can be retrieved from the server by sending an e-mail to <lyris@xc.org> with one or more of the mentioned commands in the body of your mail (leave the subject line empty).

For a step-by-step instruction how to retrieve files from the server, go to http://www.joelnews.org/getfiles.htm.

Please note that although the reports in Joel News International are selected with care, the publisher cannot be held responsible for any incorrectness in these reports. Visions, opinions and prophetic insights are entirely the authors' own views.

* CHURCH GROWTH

1. STUDY ON MEGACHURCHES. While only one church in 100 could be considered a megachurch, large congregations are viewed by many as 'the trendsetters of the contemporary world'. Two reports on the first major study of megachurches in the USA.
COMMAND: get joel-news-international study-on-megachurches

2. MULTIPLYING HOUSE AND CELL CHURCHES. "I believe that God is preparing to pour out the River of Life in unprecedented power, not through buildings, organizations or institutions, but through homes, families and individuals," says Maurice Smith in this article on house and cell churches. He calculates that in theory a multiplying house church of eight people could reach the whole world in just eleven years.
COMMAND: get joel-news-international smith-house-church-multiplication

3. G12 MULTIPLICATION. Two articles on the G12 cell church and multiplication model. The first article describes what happened in the International Charismatic Mission in Bogota. Over the last ten years this church has grown from 70 to 20.000 active members. In the second article pastor Cesar Castellanos describes the 'secret' behind the G12 model.
COMMAND: get joel-news-international castellanos-g12harvest

4. TEN LARGEST CELL CHURCHES. Joel Comiskey wrote an article on the ten largest cell churches in the world. The commonalities he found show why cell churches are so large and successful: they value prayer, their purpose in life is clear and leadership is for everyone.
COMMAND: get joel-news-international comiskey-ten-largest-cell-churches

5. GETTING BEYOND THE NUMBERS. A veteran missiologist gave a brilliant, multi-media demonstration to show how much of the world we have won to Christ. The audience remained in awe as a women began sharing how her nation was also 85% reached. She asked, "Can you guess where I am from?" When no one could, she answered, "Rwanda, where in 1994 a million people were brutally butchered, often while hiding in churches." In this article, James Engel, professor, author and founder of Development Associates International takes a look beyond the numbers game towards discipleship.
COMMAND: get joel-news-international engel-beyond-the-numbers

6. CONVERSATIONS OR CONVERSIONS? An interview with Brian McLaren on reaching people who think negatively about Christianity.
COMMAND: get joel-news-international mclaren-how-to-evangelize

7. NO ALTAR CALL. From the very first service, Saddleback Valley Community Church in Lake Forest (USA) broke with the tradition of a 'come-forward' alter call at the end of each service. Pastor Rick Warren says that has actually increased the number of decisions for Christ without compromising the message.
COMMAND: get joel-news-international warren-no-altar-call

8. LISTENING TO UNBELIEVERS. "The longer you're a believer, the less you think like an unbeliever," states Rick Warren in this article. So It's important to learn about unbelievers by listening to them. Warren gives five survey questions you can use in door-to-door conversations with unbelievers in your neighbourhood.
COMMAND: get joel-news-international warren-listening-to-unbelievers

9. GOD'S VISION FOR YOUR CHURCH. "One of the questions I'm asked most often is 'How do I get God's vision or dream for our church?' Frankly, a lot of pastor's visions that I've heard have more to do with ego needs than God's will." An article by Rick Warren in which he gives keys to discover God's vision for your church.
COMMAND: get joel-news-international warren-gods-vision

10. BUILDING YOUR MINISTRY PLAN. An outline of Jim Horan's book 'The One Page Business Plan' with good advice on how to put a business (or ministry) plan on paper. The key elements are: vision, mission, objectives, strategies and plans.
COMMAND: get joel-news-international horan-ministry-plan

11. JUST A THOUGHT. Two excellent columns by Dean Comerford from New Zealand. In the first column he aks why pastors attend conferences. "Many leaders attend conferences trying to find a magical cure to their failing churches, not realising that the problem is at the very DNA of their own leadership." He suggests that "rather than hosting conferences, the church needs to be looking for the God-inspired, Spirit-led innovators who are at the grass roots, showing raw innovation and courage, and seeing results." In the second column he addresses the 'revival-is-just-around-the-corner-disease'. "It seems to me that when it comes to revival, we are often waiting for God to show up and do the miraculous, however, God is waiting for us to show up and do the obvious."
COMMAND: get joel-news-international comerford-massive-blessings

* ALL ARTICLES

INTERESTED IN ALL THESE ARTICLES? Then send an e-mail to <lyris@xc.org> and copy and paste the commands below in the body of your mail:

get joel-news-international study-on-megachurches
get joel-news-international smith-house-church-multiplication
get joel-news-international castellanos-g12harvest
get joel-news-international comiskey-ten-largest-cell-churches
get joel-news-international engel-beyond-the-numbers
get joel-news-international mclaren-how-to-evangelize
get joel-news-international warren-no-altar-call
get joel-news-international warren-listening-to-unbelievers
get joel-news-international warren-gods-vision
get joel-news-international horan-ministry-plan
get joel-news-international comerford-massive-blessings

Source: Joel News