harvestersforChrist's Xanga

TAKE NOTE!

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 15:35:19 GMT

Get out your calendar, Harvesters is coming to a Thursday near you!

Dec. 6 - Caroling in Wyoming 7PM
Dec. 13 - Spanish class 7:30 PM
Dec. 20 - Spanish class 7:30 PM
Dec. 27 - Storehouse Family Dinner 5:30 PM (We will lead the group in a time of devotions and then hand out food at the pantry.)

Jan. 3 - Study Group - Chapter 3 of "Tell the Truth" 7:30PM
Jan. 10 - Spanish class 7:30 PM
Jan. 17 - Street Corner Ministry at 7th Reformed Church (pending their "ok")
Jan. 24 - Spanish class 7:30 PM

Notice I changed the date of the Storhouse dinner to the 4th Thursday so we wont be rushed to get the people through the pantry.

Notice also that there will be no study the month of Dec. and starting in Jan. we will only be meeting for study the 1st Thursday of the month. The third Thursday will be used for some evangelistic activity.

Notes from 10/18

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 21:26:58 GMT

1) We started reading Will Metzger's book, "Tell the Truth." We will discuss chapter 2 at the next meeting on Nov. 1 at 7:30PM at Bethany URC. Remember the study questions are in the back of the book.

2) We discussed how to revamp the Street Corner Ministry. We wanted to be closer to a church where we could direct people we meet. We also wanted to be a permanent presence so we can form relationships. Andrew and Aaron will look into canvassing their neighborhood. Plan on another test run on Friday, Nov. 2.

3) We discussed caroling again this year in Mr. Warner's old neighborhood. In addition we would like to carol the street surrounding Aaron and Andrew's apartment. We will pick dates at the next meeting.

4) Storehouse. We discussed taking the Storehouse ministry a step further and begin visiting people in their homes. We decided to pair up and go visiting when it is convenient for our individual schedules. We also decided to hold another Fellowship Night with the intent to make it a monthly event.

5) For information: Spanish class is every 2nd and 4th Thursday.

6) Continue memorizing Scripture and praying that God will use you to speak His words to people whose hearts are ready to hear the Gospel.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 22:14:13 GMT

Assignment for next time (Sept 6): Part 3 of Chapter 3 in Packer's book. I still have a few copies left so invite some people from your church to join us. Memorize: Deut. 10:12, 1 Peter 2:1-3 and Hebrews 10:23.

Mandy reported that Sarah from Hopkins is interested in teaching Harvesters beginners conversational Spanish as well as helping us start a TESOL program. Mandy will call and invite her to the next meeting. Mandy also got info on a class in Holland but the Fall session is full. The coordinator will call her in the Spring.

Ruth Ann also reported on a TESOL program in the OPC denomination. She will research that project more for the next meeting.

The Classis Michigan Missions Committee asked Harvesters to spread the word about the Fall Missions Rally. It is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 4 at Bethany URC in Wyoming. Rev. Steve Poelman will be speaking and there will be a presentation by the 2007 Summer Mission Team. Specifically we are asked to inform our youth group leaders about this event and to encourage young people to attend.

Note the date for the evangelism conference at Dutton URC: Saturday, Sept. 22.

The Street Corner Ministry will start Friday night, Sept. 7 from 5-7:30 PM. Kristi will get labels made with the contact info of the churches that replied to our request. Mandy will put announcements in bulletins asking for baked goods to distribute that night.

Audra will be in touch with the Garden of Hope. We want to send a portion of our group to the Eastern sight on the 7th as well. Please get Mary's or Julie's number from Audra before then so you can set up a time to visit the Garden and get some training on speaking to women about abortion.

We are putting together a book list of study materials for Harvesters to be approved by the Bethel Counsel. Mandy will submitt the list on Aug. 20 at the Outreach meeting.

Prayer Request

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 23:14:59 GMT

Please pray for David Venneman and his family as they had his Grandmother and great Uncle pass away last week.

Minutes/Agenda 07.19.07

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 19:00:50 GMT

Assignment for next time (Aug. 2): 1st section of ch. 3 of "Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God." More books are ordered if you haven't received one yet. Also, memorize Is 53:11, Acts 16:31, 1 John 1:9.

Kristi and Aaron will report on which churches responded to our letter and we will make a contact list for the Street Corner Ministry at the next meeting. Plan on starting the ministry the first Friday night in September.

Julie from Garden of Hope came to speak about opportunities to witness to women and families facing crisis pregnancies. Times to volunteer to do sidewalk counseling or to pray are:
--Eastern: Wednesday and Friday from 5-7:30PM (Men mandatory)
--Fulton: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 7:30AM - 1PM
We talked about possibly splitting up and going to Eastern the same Friday nights we do Street Corner Ministry. Contact Lindsay or Audra for the number to get in touch with Garden of Hope.

Lindsay, Dave and Mike reported on an outreach opportunity they are putting together. Weekly VBS at a trailer park in Coopersville. They suggested visiting Presidential Park with Cornerstone URC some Wednesday night to see how they're program works. They also asked for help with canvassing in Coopersville sometime in August. The plan is to begin holding VBS nights in September on Friday afternoons from 4-5.

Rev. Klompien invited Harvesters for Christ to attend a conference Sat., Sept. 22 from 10-1 at Dutton URC. Rev. Phil Grotenhuis will be speaking on evangelism and conversion.

We will work on service project ideas at the next meeting.

And thanks Paul for memorizing Is. 53:1-4.

What Hinders Our Evangelism?

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 01:52:26 GMT

Fear – We're afraid of failure, rejection, anger, or being categorized as a fanatic.
Laziness – We don't want to put effort into spreading the gospel, let alone being hospitable towards our (believing or unbelieving) neighbor and engaging in ongoing discipleship
Busyness – We feel as though we have to hurry and can't stop working on our endless To-Do lists. We don't prioritize; we don't “do all to the glory of God” and “redeem the time”, seeing all things as an opportunity to glorify God.
Snobbery - We imagine that the Reformed gospel requires perfection or near-perfection and therefore most sinners are disqualified.
Election (a misapplication of it) – We think that since God has His chosen people, He will save them without our help.
Silence – We hold to the modern adage that actions speak louder than words, and therefore words shouldn't be necessary. We overlook how people of other religions often look more righteous than we do and that our actions need to be interpreted.
Materialism – We are caught up in popular culture and everyday matters and uninterested in people's spiritual condition.
Complacency – We have an “everyone is Christian already” mentality and fear that we'll offend them by witnessing.
Moralism – We tend to admonish our neighbor's outward action without having a deep concern for the inward condition of their soul.
Selfishness – We do not love our neighbor, and we forget that if we do not love our neighbor we hate God.
Pride – We try to make ourselves look like “good Christians” rather than being truthful about our condition and our own dependence on Christ.
Insecurity – We feel unprepared and unqualified for witnessing.

A follow-up post based on this Thursday's Harvesters meeting will go into Scripture to see how God addresses each of these (and possibly other) hindrances, Lord willing.

Latest News 7/16/07

Mon, 16 Jul 2007 22:36:46 GMT

At our July 5th meeting, we began discussion of J.I. Packer's book, "Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God." Read chapter 2 and memorize Is 53:4 and Rm. 5:8 for this week's meeting: THURSDAY, JULY 19, 7:30PM. Steve will also be posting the list we made up of reasons why we DON'T evangelize. Put some time into studying Scripture to find out what it says about these obstacles.

1) Street Corner Ministry. Bethel approved the letter to the churches and they were sent out last week. We will decide which churches to include in our contact list at our next meeting.

2) Mandy will put a bulletin announcement in the URC church bulletins asking for a volunteer to teach us Spanish.

3) At our last meeting we discussed doing more service project with our churches. Aaron suggested that we advertise that we are available to help with yard work or cleaning or any need a family might have. We discussed putting sign-up sheets in our churches. A bulletin announcement would also be good. More discussion on this at the next meeting.

4) The Lord's Storehouse. We decided that we need to be more proactive in reaching out to new people who come to the food pantry. Many of them do not even know about the Bible Study. We also want to offer ourselves to assist these families with needs around their houses.

5) Mark reported that the Bethany Outreach committee should soon have a list of kids for us to contact from their VBS last month.

Monday, July 02, 2007

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 20:44:03 GMT

HARVESTERS FOR CHRIST

July, 2007 Report

1) At our last meeting on June 21, Rev. VanderMeulen of Bethel URC spoke to us a word of encouragement. To briefly summarize his message, he explained the role of the Church in four key areas: worship, relationship with fellow Christians, relationship with the world and vision. He distinguished between the aspects of Church which are negotiable and those that are non-negotiable. For example, the people in the church must love each other – that is a non-negotiable. If something is preventing us from doing this, it must be removed; it is a negotiable. Another aspect that is non-negotiable is that the Church must be outreaching. It is called to be a light in a dark world which means that it has to be going out into the world right around it. One common notion that a church adapts that is negotiable is church size. In order for a church to be outreaching, it must be engaged in planting more churches, not growing its own size. This notion must be dropped.

2) Assignment for next meeting: Read chapter 1 in J.I. Packer’s “The Sovereignty of God in Evangelism.” Also, memorizeIs. Gen. 3:15 and John 3:16.

a. The bill for the books comes to $159.52. Mandy will seek reimbursement from the Bethel Outreach committee per their approval of the book.

3) Kristi is putting together a list of area Reformed churches to hand out during the Street Corner Ministry. The plan is to meet at either Franklin Park or Rosa Parks Circle on rotating Thursday and Friday nights and hand out flyers as well as baked goods and coffee. We will contact churches not represented in Harvesters for their cooperation. Mandy will purchase more Ultimate Questions booklets to handout as well.

a. This plan is pending per the approval of the Bethel Outreach Committee (see flyer)

4) The Storehouse Fellowship Cookout went great. We were able to learn more about the personal lives of some of the people who use the food pantry at Covenant URC in Byron Center. They all have had very hard lives. We will be publishing an article about the event in our church magazines.

5) We would like to learn Spanish as a group. We are currently looking for a teacher. Mandy and Kristi will look into a couple options.

6) We continue to pray together for our unchurched family and friends.

7) The desire to be involved in the Muslim community is still there, however definite plans are limited.

8) As with the Muslim community, plans are still pending for involvement in a pregnancy resource center.

9) Something we’ve learned from both Rev. Green and Rev. VanderMeulen is that evangelism starts in our own churches. It is our hope and prayer that we will take on a life of love toward our fellow brothers in Christ and that it might be contagious so that our Reformed churches will shine more and more brightly the glory of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

6/7/07

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 21:39:23 GMT

It was so good to finally meet again, crew.

Mr. Warner opened with prayer; Steve closed. Please remember to pray throughout the weeks ahead for our unchurched friends/family.

Rev. VanderMeulen will be speaking to our group at the NEXT MEETING ON JUNE 21 AT 7:30 IN THE ACTIVITIES BUILDING AT BETHANY. Discussion of our new book - Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God by JI Packer - will begin on July 5.

We're having a Fellowship Cookout at the Activities Building on June 22 from 6-9PM. We're inviting our families as well as our friends from the Lord's Storehouse.

Plans are underway for a Street Corner Ministry. Kristi is researching the corner and putting together a brief contact info flyer. We'll submitt to Bethel Outreach Committee Elders for approval. We'd like to hand out Ultimate Questions, church info and refreshments each week alternating Thursday and Friday nights.

We're now in search of a Spanish teacher. Any leads yet?

I didn't take notes so if I've forgotten something; please just forward to the group.

Do I have everyone's e-mail address?

Monday, May 07, 2007

Mon, 07 May 2007 23:52:10 GMT

NO MEETING MAY 17.

NEXT MEETING JUNE 7.