Join us for a Webinar on June 14

Alliance ministries begins its webinar series with Dr. Jim Williams sharing on the topic of family/ministry balance.

Jim will be discussing things such as:

NGA member Nick Hall has been touring the country with the WinterJam tour.  Some amazing stories of life change have come out of that event.  Below is one example, but to read more go to the stories link on their blog site.  Other NGA members involved with the tour are Brock Gill and Building 429.

Crazy Girl

March 30th, 2012 in Blog, Stories

I am seventeen years old, and I have seen myfair share of hurt and pain. I use to always wonder why God placed me in this cruel world.

My mom, whom I love dearly, won’t even look at or speak to me. I lived with her up until I was 12. She kicked me out. She said I ruined her chance at happiness. I was the biggest mistake she has ever made. I grew up with her saying ugly and mean things to me, hitting me, making feel worthless. The only people that made me feel wanted was my dad and my grandma. My mom and dad got a divorce when I was nine. I started living with my aunt when I got kicked out. Started drinking, smoking. I was twelve! I thought it was my only way of escaping. My mom “slept around” and I constantly seen what that lifestyle would do to you. My mom ended up in jail for drugs. My five younger sibilings were taken to my uncle’s house. I tried to commit suicide for the first time. I promised myself I wouldn’t end up that way. I moved in with my grandma to get away from all of it.

Than a month before my sixteenth birthday, the only stable thing in my crazy life was taken from me. My dad. My best friend. My hero. I felt like my world was crashing down, and I didnt know what was going to happen to me. I cursed God, hated him for taking the one of the only two people who loved me away. Two months after that, my grandma fell ill, and was in the ICU for 6 months on life support. I still cursed and hated God for putting all of this on me. I knew if I lost her I would have no one. I am the black family of the sheep. No one in my family talks to me.

One night I threw my hands up and said I can’t do it anymore. Once more, I tried to kill myself. When people heard this, they always told me I was crazy, no one wanted to be around me because I was some “crazy girl”. After six months, my grandma finally pulled through and was able to come home. It was a miracle. I for the first time in my life, fell to my knees and thanked God for letting me keep her.

Things didn’t get easier, in fact things got worse. I was sixteen when I was raped. I wanted to confide in my mom, so when I told her, she and her husband at the time told me that it was my fault. I hated myself, I thought it was my fault. I started drugs, started stealing, and lying. My grandma was the one who got me to realize that I couldnt live like that. I found out a month after that that I couldn’t have kids, I had cervical cancer. The doctor wanted to do a hysterectomy. I didn’t understand why I couldnt catch a break.

My grandma found me a month after my seventeenth birthday in the bathroom cutting myself. She got down on the floor with me and held me, she whispered in my ear “God left me here. He left me here to take care of you. My purpose in life isn’t done yet, and it won’t be until you are okay.” I started crying and knew she was right, but didn’t want to believe it, because if God wanted me okay, why would he put me through all of this.

Than January 2012 comes around, and I lose two of my great grandmothers within a month. I couldn’t help but to wonder why I was losing so many people. I started cutting again. I went to Winter Jam, and when Nick got up and started talking, he brought up how so many people are hurting themselves, and cutting. I started crying. I felt like God gave that message directly to me, so that I would know, I am not alone. I will be attending the Winter Jam again tomorrow in Lexington as I strengthen my faith in God, and try to live my life for him. I learned God never gives you more than you can handle, and he will never fail you, even when you feel like he has. God will never lead you where the Grace of God cannot protect you. You just have to believe and feel him. He’s always with you. I still cut, but God is making it where I don’t as often, because I am no longer weak, I have him making me stronger.

Thank you Nick Hall, and everyone who is leading people to God! I am so glad I got to turn towards the Lord, and see the greatness he brings.

I hope that maybe one day, Ill be able to talk with Nick, and let him know more about what I felt when I accepted God into my life.

I hope anyone who reads this story, realizes, God doesnt always answer your prayers right away, because the answer isnt no, its “Not Yet”. I’ve learned this towards the end of my downward spiral. God bless you all!

Every evangelist faces a huge temptation. No, I’m not talking about sexual immorality, nor am I talking about financial impropriety or, even, pride. Although these are all dangerous pitfalls, there is another that is both perverse, pervasive and powerful. I believe that most evangelists, at one time or another, succumb to its evil whisper. What is this Satanic seduction? It is the temptation to bolster their evangelistic responses (aka “altar call numbers”) by muddying the simple and clear message of grace with works.

I’ve seen this happen again and again all over the United States. I’ve witnessed it at conferences, outreaches, church services, youth groups and Festivals. The evangelist’s temptation is rampant and real.

Years ago I’ll never forget having an awkward conversation with a famous preacher about this very subject after hearing one of his evangelistic sermons. I shared with him how much I enjoyed his sermon but that I had a few challenges with the way he executed his altar call. I gently shared with him that I thought his response time could be inadvertantly confusing the audience and may be perverting the gospel itself. “In what way?” was his seemingly sincere response. I explained to him that when he gave the invitation I couldn’t tell if he was asking Christians to rededicate their lives to Christ or unbelievers to come to faith in Christ. He had kind of mixed up the message of the “free gift of salvation” with the “high cost of discipleship” and had, knowingly or unknowingly, mixed a heresy shake that was heavy on “turn or burn” and light on “believe and receive.” His gospel was heavy on human self effort (trying harder, committing more, surrendering all, overcoming sin, etc) and light on faith alone in Christ alone based on his finished work on the cross.

When I finished sharing with him he responded, “I receive what you are saying brother.” I was so excited and relieved (it’s intimidating to confront someone!) But, sadly, the next time I heard him preach he did the exact same thing with his altar call. He confused the gospel and his audience…but the numbers of people who came forward were big…and that’s all that matters right?

Wrong!

What matters is that people genuinely believe the good news. What matters is that authentic regeneration takes place in hearts as a result of responding to the shockingly simple message of grace as articulated in John 3:16, Ephesians 2:8-9 and in passages all over the New Testament. As a matter of fact, the only altar call in the New Testament was to “come forward” to the river to get baptized (Acts 2:38.) But the apostles weren’t nearly as excited about external responses as they were about internal conversions.

Afterward I started thinking about why my evangelist friend went back to his horrific altar call like a dog returns to his vomit. As I thought about it the answer became more and more obvious. If he simply preached faith alone in Christ alone then, during the altar call, some of the limited number of unbelievers in the audience would respond. His altar call numbers would most likely be relatively small. But if he mixed it up a bit and threw in a little for the unbeliever (faith in Christ) and a lot for the believer (dedicate yourself, grow deep, defeat sin, go to church, etc) and then had one big response time he would get a lot bigger numbers during the altar call.

Sadly, big numbers to evangelists are what big muscles are to bodybuilders. This is how we flex and win the competition.

What a dangerous thing to do! How dare we abort the simple message of grace for an external response that bolsters our pride! How dare we add to the gospel so we can add to our ego! Here’s the Apostle Paul’s drastic reaction toward those who were adding just one work (circumcision) to the free and powerful message of grace, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse! Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ” Galatians 1:8-10

If you are an evangelist refuse to mix up your gospel presentation to get a bigger response at the end of your sermon. Speak clearly and separately to each. As a matter of fact I usually have two response times, one for the unbelievers to say “YES” to trusting in Jesus and the other for believers to say “YES” to whatever the text is challenging them to do in that particular sermon.

If you’re not an evangelist then listen closely to the next evangelistic sermon you hear. Pray for the preacher to give the gospel clearly (Colossians 4:4.) Watch closely during the response time. If they add works in one way or another so they can get a bigger response then gently confront them afterward, not only for their sake, but for the sake of the gospel.

There’s too many souls at stake to abuse the gospel so an evangelist can feel good about themselves.

See the charts below for more information we gathered:

Of course, the number and percents only tell part of what you do.  Your stories are what brings them to life.  Here are a few quotes from your surveys with testimonies of how lives are being changed and how you’ve been helped by the Alliance.

I love being around evangelists!
Over the years I have been privileged to see God at work when personally involved in the ministries of Luis Palau, Terry Winter, Michael Green and now as I serve with the Billy Graham team. Seeing people come to Christ deeply moves me and brings me tears of joy. I recall a lady I led to Christ the week before, greeting me effervescently: “This has been the best week of my entire life!” How can you ever get tired of evangelism?
While every follower of Jesus is called to be a witness and can lead people to personal faith in Christ the bible recognizes that some of us have the gift of an evangelist. In Ephesians there is one of the few bible references to “evangelists” – but it tells us something noteworthy about their role in the local church.

“It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up” Ephesians 4:11-12”

Imagine if every local congregation identified at least one evangelist in their midst and that this person would not only be involved in leading people to Christ but would, more importantly, also be encouraged and empowered by the church leadership to “prepare God’s people for works of service” in this area? What would that look like? What would happen to that church for evangelism?
One church in a major Canadian city caught on to this concept and identified an “equipping evangelist”. His main goal is to regularly and continually train the congregation in effective and relevant personal evangelism; assist and equip department leaders to focus their ministry on reaching people for Christ in their area (such as Sunday School, Small groups, Men’s ministry etc.), be a catalyst for church wide and community evangelistic opportunities and “beat the drum” for evangelism with the church leadership so that it never “falls off their radar”. In the first three months of recognizing this “equipping evangelist” over 90 people came to Christ through the combined efforts of this congregation. Maybe the time has come for congregations everywhere to consider identifying one or more of these “different” equipping evangelists that can help us all make a greater eternal impact for Christ in our communities through our local churches.

David Arrol Macfarlane is Director of National Initiatives for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association of Canada and can be contacted at arrol.mac@hotmail.com or at 519 503 8380.

Last month ABC-TV ran a story describing how in Portland, Oregon some 500 churches are serving the city in partnership with the city’s civic leaders. The movement was spearheaded by the Palau Association as part of our Season of Service (SOS) efforts to mobilize the faith community to share the love of Christ in both word and deed. As you know SOS is a component of our evangelistic festivals demonstrating the power of collaboration. Reporter Dan Harris was fascinated that Portland’s evangelicals and the city’s liberal politicians were working together to meet numerous specific needs in the community. Here’s the link to the story:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/video/evangelicals-team-up-with-portland-gay-mayor-for-charity-15222989

Let’s keep praying that our working together as evangelists and evangelistic ministries will result in sustainable Gospel movements in cities around the world as we lift up the name of Jesus and proclaim His Good News.

Thank you for your prayers and financial support of our two festivals in Brazil. God moved in a powerful way and many lives were transformed!

On November 18, we proclaimed the Gospel in Fortaleza. The leadership of the church that invited us (Central Baptist Church) challenged their cell groups to invite their unsaved friends to the festival. The event was held in the church’s open aired tent. There were more than 4,000 people in attendance. The place was buzzing with excitement as the crowd waited for Jaci Velasquez and Salvador to perform. When Mike took the stage he immediately connected with the audience and gave a clear presentation of the Gospel in Portuguese. Many responded to the call to action. Central Baptist is already working hard to ensure that every person who made a commitment to Christ is being followed up with by a cell group leader.

The next festival took place the following night in João Pessoa. We partnered with the City of Life Church to make the outreach possible. The event was held close to the city’s center on one of its most popular beachfronts. The reason for the location was to strategically take the hope of the Gospel into the heart of the city. More than 8,000 people attended the event. Salvador and Jaci Velasquez again thrilled the crowd and set the stage for Mike to proclaim the Gospel. Many responded to the call to accept Jesus Christ. Local leaders told us after the event that there had never been a mass evangelistic outreach in their city before. City of Life Church is working hard this week to follow up with the decision makers.

We thank the Lord for the opportunities He gave us in Brazil, many being “firsts” for us. This was our first Portuguese speaking event (a long time dream of Mike & Crystal’s). It was also our first time to be a part of an outreach hosted by one local church.

Our next evangelistic outreach takes place in March 2012 in Matagalpa, Nicaragua. Please pray for this event. It will be a one-day festival featuring musical artists Tercer Cielo, Raza For Christ, Miss Tani and more. Please join with us in asking the Lord to – even now – begin working in the lives of the people in Matagalpa. Ask Him to soften hearts and draw people to the festival.

View more pictures here:

Evangelists, musicians, pastors and stunt dudes come together to give inner-city Portland a Day in the Park. On a sunny Labor Day in Portland, Oregon, the grounds of Lents Park were transformed into an open-air village of inflatable jump houses, plywood skate ramps and tents of food and activities. Music varying from freestyle hip hop to gospel filled the air as local and visiting Christian artists joined the Luis Palau Association’s Next Generation Alliance, Save the City Records and several area churches to host Day in the Park, a free event for Portland’s inner-city community.

“Our heart is really to incorporate all facets and come together as a community,” said Tray Michaels, one of the event’s organizers and an associate pastor at Southeast Portland’s Revolution Foursquare Church. “We really wanted to put on an event where we could get out into the community, shake hands and get to know our neighbors.”

Revolution Foursquare, under the guidance of Lead Pastor Alpha Hayward, began performing park outreaches with its youth ministry over seven years ago. Through collaboration with other ministries, the event has grown into an annual full-day festival featuring a growing repertoire of well-known Christian artists and new attractions such as BMX and skate demonstrations. “It’s an honor to be able to do something like this in the neighborhood you meet in every week,” said Hayward. “It’s definitely a different dynamic when you can see the people you’re reaching out to the next day at the grocery store or the gas station.”

Vic Murphy and John Andrus of Action Sports Outreach, together with skateboarding pro Tim Byrne and team members from SkateChurch Portland, performed air-defying stunts throughout the day. Murphy concluded each show by sharing his testimony and proclaiming the Gospel to the crowds of delighted adults and children.

“Our main goal is proclamation evangelism,” said the BMX rider, who has taken his characteristic mix of stunts and evangelism across the world. “Whether it’s big or small…we just want to serve and partner with others to help them reach people for Christ.” Byrne summed up the event in a single word: Community. “People are drawn to this and they don’t even know why,” he says. “It’s the idea of what the Church is—Capital C. This is Church.”

This year, Save the City Records brought nationally-known artists Group 1 Crew and Byron “Mr. Talkbox” Chambers to perform at the event. When he learned about Revolution Foursquare’s park outreaches, Derek Hoiem, president of the burgeoning record label, decided to come alongside the effort and help it grow. “It was really a big science experiment,” said Hoiem. “Our own cities have become our mission fields. We go where the people are.”

The collaborators expressed a hope that this community-based outreach model would become the norm among churches. “That’s one of our visions—to get churches to do it in their own neighborhoods,” said Michaels. “We really want other people to catch this vision, learn how to relate to their community and go outside the box.”