People no longer have that understanding, Mittleberg said. And that makes evangelism more difficult.
As people have become less connected to congregations, that common understanding of being disconnected from God – let alone that any gap between people and God can be filled by Christ – has waned significantly, Mittleberg said. A common language and worldview no longer exists between an increasingly non-Christian populace and Christ-followers seeking to share the gospel.

“People are moving farther from the cross,” Mittleberg said during Texas Baptists’ Unapologetics Conference at Grace Point Church in San Antonio. Evangelism training conferences like this are made possible by gifts to missions through the Texas Baptist Cooperative Program, the primary giving channel for Texas Baptists.

The UnApologetics Conference was produced by Texas Baptists’ Evangelism Team, San Antonio Baptist Association, Baptist University of the Americas, Wayland Baptist University and Grace Point Church.

Not only have individuals moved farther from a relationship with Christ, they have erected intellectual walls that make them resistant to evangelism efforts, Mittleberg added. In order to bring people back to Christ, His followers must care for others as God cares about them, understand people no longer realize they are spiritually lost and commit to following Christ passionately in order to see life change in others. Christians also must be prepared to provide answers when they’re needed.

Answers are exactly what Author Lee Strobel said he needed. An atheist from childhood, Strobel attempted to put his journalistic skills to work investigating Christianity after his wife converted to the faith.
“I began to investigate whether it was historically credible that Jesus died and rose again,” he said.

Throughout a nearly two-year-long investigation, Strobel became convinced the Bible was accurate. He noted multiple sources inside and outside the Bible during the time of Christ that confirmed the biblical narrative. Critical contemporaries of Christ confirmed portions of the biblical story. Eye witnesses affirmed Scripture.

“I realized it would take more faith to maintain my atheism than to become a Christian,” he said.
The investigation led to Strobel embracing the gospel. The decision changed his life, he said, turning from an immoral drunkard to become a better father and husband. He became a minister and now defends the faith he was once trying to disprove.

“God changed my life,” Strobel said. “He changed my wife. He changed my daughter. He changed my son. And now He’s working in the lives of my grandchildren.”

Evangelism in contemporary society requires Christians who are willing to invest in the lives of non-Christians, working through the struggles – spiritual or otherwise – that might be encountered, Mittleberg said.

“We need to learn to think like missionaries,” Mittleberg said.
Thinking like missionaries means people need to be prepared to share the gospel at any time, Strobel said. Christians must look for opportunities to share their faith relationally.

“You just never know what might happen on your average and routine day,” he said. “Someone might ambush you with an opportunity.”

We have been giving a leadership training that we call “MISSIOLEADER” focusing on spiritual formation. We use the name MISIOLEADER because we want to be mission-minded and impact others as we see in Acts 1:8. We also want to put what we teach into practice.

How can I share the love of God to someone that is hungry? First I need to feed them. It’s about sharing Gods love through actions. While giving the MissioLeader training, for the past ten  months of Spiritual Formation training, twelve leaders are responding to their call in house churches. The MissioLeader training has helped us to grow spiritually and has taught us how to deal with conflicts and serve in community ministries. The training has also taught us how to respond to a call.

The communities are being impacted by our actions. It’s very easy to say that we care. But if we don’t serve them, our words don’t mean anything. The most important thing is that families and children are coming to know and receive Christ as their Lord and Savior.

We have about 250,000 people in Laredo and about twelve baptist churches. Approximately 185,000 people don’t go to church at all and some of our baptist churches run under 100 in attendance. We need to go beyond the four walls of our church buildings. People may not come to a church building but we can go to them. Remember it’s not about you and it’s not about me, it’s about them (the unreached).

We will be making mission trips as MISSIONLEADERS to serve your town or city and our house churches are making mission trips within the United States.

We want to encourage you to come to Laredo and see what God can do through you and through your mission team to lead people to Christ.

Your mission team will reach what we can’t reach, we want to encourage you to come to Laredo and use your gifts and talents to lead others for Christ.

May the Lord continue to use you and God Bless You!

Please feel free to contact us at any time at (956) 693-1136 or LbaLaredo@gmail.com

Mario Garcia
River Ministry

I know that God’s grace is there as stated in so many places in the Bible. One that stands out is Eph. 2:8-9 – “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

God’s love for us is demonstrated in His grace, that He sent His Son to us when we were disobedient and running from God, and His son freely laid down His life so that grace and salvation could be poured out on our lives, restoring our relationship with the Father.

Today I had a unique experience where I was reminded of this and how I often push away God’s grace.

It was a crazy morning. My husband and I taught Disciple Now last weekend at our church (which was a wonderful weekend and blessing!), but consequently, I have been quite exhausted this week from the lack of sleep during the weekend and from a lot of extra events happening this week

So today, everything caught up with me. I slept through my alarm, and when I awoke, I bolted out of bed, skipping my morning routine just to throw on some clothes and fix my hair so I looked presentable. I quickly grabbed all I need for the day in hopes of making it on time for a morning meeting I had.

I ran into the kitchen to throw something together for breakfast and lunch. My husband and I are on this 21-day healthy eating program where all we can consume are raw veggies, fruit, natural oils and herbs, making it where I have to prepare everything from scratch (and time consuming).

I hadn’t prepared any food for the day during the evening before since we arrived home late, so I scrambled to grab a few things that would suffice for food for the day.  In all of this hurry, I grabbed my laptop, lunch and keys, kissed my husband goodbye and out the door I flew.

The only problem was I ran out the door without my purse and cell phone. I didn’t notice my forgetfulness until I was 20 minutes down the road. There wasn’t time to go back to the apartment, so I continued on to work. I immediately becoming quite cautious with my driving, not wanting to do a thing wrong and get pulled over without my license with me.

With all of that, I made it to work on time and slid right into my meeting with flying colors. But the problem was still in the back of my mind – I’m without my purse, phone and wallet.

I called my husband from my office phone once I was out of my meeting and he said I did indeed forget my purse. When I called, he was quite busy finishing some paperwork for a mission trip that we are leading in about a month and then he was heading to work too. I knew he had a busy day ahead of him.

He gently offered to bring me my purse, even though it is a good 20 minutes drive from our apartment. I refused at first, feeling quite guilty that I had thrown a kink in both of our busy days. I didn’t want to cause problems or burdens for my busy husband, and I wanted to find a way to fix the problem myself.

My husband kindly offered again, saying he would love to help me. LOVE… something that touched me deep down.

When I hung up the phone, the Holy Spirit softly began speaking to my heart, digging into this guilt I felt about the situation.

“Kaitlin, you know how you wanted to solve the purse problem by yourself, how you didn’t want help? There are many other times in life when you act the same way. You refuse My love, My help, My grace. I’m right here. Come to me and let me help and walk with you.”

The truth sunk deep into my heart. I began to dwell on God’s grace, and I realized there are so many times in life when I try to sweep up the messes I make, only leaving more of a mess of emotions of guilt in the end. I forget about God’s grace. I forget that He came to pour forgiveness and life out in the midst of my mistakes, forgetfulness, disobedience and stupidity.

I’m so thankful for the reminder of God’s grace today, but I want you to hear the same truth. So often, when we make a mistake or disobey God, we feel so guilty that we move away from community and run from God, thinking we are a failure and need to fix the situation on our own.

But this is the exact thing we should not do. We should run into His arms filled with forgiveness and grace, admit we messed up and let God pour His renewing grace over us. If we run away, we are denying God’s sacrifice and saying that it means nothing to us.

So today, let this be a reminder that God has abundant grace and love for you. Just head towards Him and receive it.

A shoes-for-orphans project began just a couple of months after he’d started coming, and it really sparked something inside him. As a police officer he had led many drug abuse prevention assemblies and it gave him a soft spot for struggling kids. This compassion pushed him to shoe store “sales” and discount stores looking for sturdy but reasonably priced merchandise for the orphans. As a matter of fact, he was doing more than anybody else in the church, so they asked him to lead the whole effort. Wow, he took off with new zest once the group expressed that kind of confidence in him. They just followed his example in buying, tying, bagging, and delivering the shoes, and nearly every week he overflowed with personal gratitude about how much it meant to him!

He became passionate about helping others. The next year he not only led the shoe project again, but also wrangled up 1,000 pairs of socks. And, he didn’t just wait for this single endeavor. He started carrying food and toiletries in the trunk of his police car to give to needy families he found in serving warrants.

Jay heard about an overlooked foster child sixty miles away and made sure the boy got a basketball for Christmas. He delivered cash from the church to a transplant patient to assist with the heavy medicine costs. When someone was needed to help purchase, bag, load, and deliver 3,000 pounds of rice to refugees in a nearby apartment complex guess who did it.

People began to see him in restaurants and say, “Hey, I’ve heard that you help people, and I want to give some money (or food or clothes) to help.” Even Walmart started giving Jay big boxes of clothes they couldn’t sell.

This man’s inner self was full and overflowing with helping the persons God brought his way. He says, “Nobody ever asked me to be more than a spectator in such endeavors…this has transformed my life!”

Your gifts to the Texas Baptist Hunger Offering today will help feed people both in Dallas and around the world. The map on this page shows the reach of this Texas-based offering.

Malaysia is one of the places where hunger aid reaches. Rainfall is plentiful and the soil is rich in northeast Sabah, a Malaysian state on the island of Borneo. But the rice farmers there still have difficulty providing adequately for their families.

A local congregation, with the help of another Malaysian church hundreds of miles away and the Baptist World Alliance,
is trying to change the situation and help farmers move out of poverty. Texas Baptists are now coming alongside these groups to continue the effort through the hunger offering.

Word of Life Church is nestled in the lush hills of Tagaroh, a village near the South China Sea at the northern tip of East Malaysia, which is on the island of Borneo. It is a long way, in more ways than geography, from the cosmopolitan capital of the country, Kuala Lumpur, which is on the Malay Peninsula.

Three shining galvanized steel silos now stand behind the church’s building. A portion of the community’s next rice crop will be stored in the silos, allowing the farmers to retain enough rice for their own needs and thus avoid buying expensive rice from stores. It is a matter of organizing and planning for the community to meet its nutrition needs because the money saved will help the families raise their standard of living.

This convergence of economic and agricultural principles is rooted in faith commitments by those involved. Lim “Lloyd” Phang Hong, of Straits Baptist Church in Melaka, on the peninsula, is providing technical direction
for the project. “I always believe it’s hard to speak (about Jesus) to another person who is hungry,” he said. To help the people of Tagaroh feed themselves is an “exercise of my faith.”

Pastor Belunduk Lingungud, who started Word of Life Church and four other congregations in the area, said the people of Tagaroh did not understand the project at first. But Lim explained how the silos could help the farmers retain more of their harvest and save money in the process.

Peter Sugara is pastor of Word of Life Church today. It is a congregation of about 300 farming families, but Sugara sees the agriculture project more broadly. The silos are “not the personal property of the church but the property of the community.”

And it is a community in need. The rice farmers of Tagaroh are in a “very serious trap that will keep them in poverty,” said Lim, who is an agriculture consultant to businesses and universities. “If they do not have their own grain they are really impoverished.”

The trap is caused by three factors. First, traditional processes for drying and storing harvested rice resulted in a high percentage of waste and destruction of the crop. Second, the farmers are tempted to sell their crops for cash and thus avoid the loss. And third, the farmers then have to buy back the rice as they need it at three to four times the cost they received for it when it was grown.

By developing a more effective system of drying and storing harvested rice, the farmers will save the crop and eventually their money. That’s where the Baptist World Alliance comes in. Through its Baptist World Aid efforts, the
world body has supplied necessary funds—about $18,000 to date—to get the silo project started.

The Texas Baptist Hunger Offering involvement will help complete the project and expand it. The offering provides about $150,000 for BWAid projects each year, and the Tagaroh effort is one of the 2012 projects.

Word of Life Church has set up a committee to administer the project, and about 30 families are expected to
participate.

A family in Tagaroh typically has about two acres of rice, and that will produce about four tons of rice per harvest, Lim said. With the new silos, each family is expected to sell about half of its crop to generate the necessary cash for other necessities of life and to store the other half for periodic use until the next harvest.

But grain storage is not the only aspect of the plan. Most farmers do not own their own “tractors” or cultivation equipment. They either work the land by hand or pay someone to till the rice paddy for them. Mechanized approaches
increase yields, Lim said, but most farmers cannot afford it. The church hopes to eventually buy equipment for farmers
to use.

Christian love is showing itself in the village of Tagaroh, as Baptists from Malaysia to Texas and many points in between come together to help a people living in poverty to have the food they need.

“Love costs us in time and energy,” said Lloyd Lim. But it is a cost worth paying and one that produces great dividends.

Taken from Tapestry, Wilshire Baptist Church’s newsletter - http://images.acswebnetworks.com/1/1746/Tapestry020512.pdf

It is very important to note that the situation on the Texas side of the border is not the same as the situation on the Mexico side of the border.  There has been a major increase in violence in several of the cities on the Mexico side of the border but this is not the case for the Texas side.  For the most part most of the towns along the Texas side of the border have not experienced any increase in violence for the past few years.  Most of them are small quiet towns.

Some other things that have not changed along the border are the big spiritual, physical and social needs of the people.  The border is still the area in Texas with the fewest number of Christians in the state.  It is also the area with the least amount of Texas Baptists Churches.  Major cities like Laredo (over 250,000 in population: 11 Baptists Churches) and Brownsville (over 200,000 in population: 14 Baptist Churches) have very few Texas Baptist Churches.  When you add to this the fact that the border is also one of the poorest areas not just in the state but in the nation, you will understand that the Texas/Mexico border is not a place that we can ignore when we are considering where God would have our churches serve in missions.  But it is being ignored.

Six years ago through River Ministry, Texas Baptist sent close to 400 mission teams to minister on the Texas/Mexico border.  Last year only 80 mission teams worked in this area through River Ministry.

Now this brings up some questions we all need to take the time to answer.  I think we have already answered the first one.

Is there still a need for churches to minister on the border?  I think we would all agree, yes.

This brings us to our next question.

Is God still calling churches to minister on the border?  If God is still a God that is perfect in Love and Peace, we could answer yes to this one too.

If God is still calling our churches to minister on the border, why are fewer and fewer churches going?  This is a more difficult question to answer, but if God is calling and the churches are not responding, this is called disobedience.  Now if God is still calling churches to do mission work on the border, the question should not be whether we do it or not the question is how.  Well, as always, we have three ways we can participate in missions.

1^st Pray- You can make a commitment as an individual, group or church to pray for the needs on the border and Mexico on a weekly basis.  You can use the prayer guide developed by border leaders and the No Mas Violencia ministry leaders.  Share the prayer guide with others and encourage them to pray too.

River Ministry/Mexico Missions Prayer Guide for the Border

Pray for the government leaders in Mexico and the U.S. that they make wise and just decisions.

Pray for the people in authority that they may exercise it with righteousness.

Pray that God sends us a clear strategy on how to combat violence and its causes.

Pray for the protection and the integrity of the security officers who battle against violence every day.

Pray that the Christians on both sides of the border have the courage to share the message of peace.

Pray that Christians not have a spirit of fear because of the violence but a spirit of love, peace and courage.

Pray for relief for the people who have been affected by the violence.

Pray that the people who practice violence have an encounter with Jesus Christ.

Pray that the people who have been affected by the violence experience the Peace only found in Jesus Christ.

Pray that the people who have been affected by violence may be able to forgive their offenders. 

Pray that God may lead Texas Baptist Churches to minister to Baptist Churches in Mexico with prayer and support during this time of crisis.

Pray for River Ministry and the “No Mas Violence” Ministry as they partner together to work with the churches that have been affected by the violence in Mexico and on the border.

Pray for the Texas Baptists Associations along the border as they seek ways to minister to the people on the Mexican side of the border who have been affected by the violence. 

2^nd Give: There is a tremendous need for evangelistic materials, Bibles and bible study/VBS material to help meet the spiritual needs.

3^rd Go:  If your church traditionally took mission trips to Mexico but has not recently because of the reports of violence, consider taking a mission trip to the Texas side of the border.  You can form a ministry partnership with a church on the Texas side of the border.  Part of your partnership can be finding ways you can work together to minister to the churches on the Mexico side of the border.  If your church traditionally worked on the Texas side of the border, pray about the possibility of returning.  Remember there has not been any dramatic increase in violence on the Texas side of the border.  You can more or less expect the same environment as the last time you came to the Texas border.

If God is calling us, we need to answer his call.

Please contact our office if you have questions or you need more information.

E. Daniel Rangel
Director, River Ministry/Mexico Missions
Missions Mobilization Team
Office: 214 828 5394 or 5182
Cell: 214 803 9167   Fax: 214 828 5182   email: daniel.rangel@texasbaptists.org
333 N Washington Ave
Dallas, TX 75246

During January, we’ve looked at what defines Millennials, what drives them, what motivates them and what they hope to do in the world.

Right now, more than half of the world’s population is under 25 and these youngsters are causing change. They are moving and shaking up things… just look in the Arab Spring that began in recent months and the many other political protests taking place around the world, one being the Occupy Movement taking place in our own country. Millennials want to see change and they are not waiting for others to enact it.

Will Millennials cause change in a way that will be for the better? It’s still too early to tell that, but many Millennials deeply believe it will be for the better.

One thing is true, though – Millennials deeply care about people, about relationships. We’ve talked in past blogs that the September 11 tragedy was witnessed by this generation during their formative years and it made a huge dent in the way they see life and value life. Millennials realized life is fragile, and therefore began to see that relationships trump a whole lot of passions and material things that end up as the focus in life.

As we move forward to another Opening Doors group, I hope that you will not stop learning, engaging, talking with, studying, praying for and befriending Millennials.

Yes, Millennials do things a little differently than other generations and function with a few different habits (mainly technological habits), but they desire to know people.

This is your chance to get to know them. The door is open to build friends, to start conversations and to ultimately infuse the gospel into these meaningful times together.

The gospel probably will not connect with Millennials through events, Christian TV shows, tracts, Sunday School, door-to-door evangelism and other traditional gospel-sharing methods (I say “probably” because God ultimately can use anything to draw people to Him). But trends have shown that overall, Millennials are disinterested in religion. So for the gospel to touch Millennials’ hearts, it more than likely is going to come from intentional, compassionate, transparent relationships that YOU build with them.

Though Millennials are ambitious and may seem extremely independent in their endeavors, they don’t want to disassociate with other generations, with people different from them. They want to get to know other generations, work together to find better ways to improve the world and see good results. They just may have a few new ideas and methods for doing it.

So may this be your challenge to pray for open doors with Millennials. Pray that God will give you opportunities to strike up a conversation with a 20-something just to learn more about their generation.

To keep learning about Millennials, check out a few of the resources that have we’ve connected with this month.

The Millennials by Thom and Jesse Rainer

Soul Searching:  The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers By Melinda Denton

iY Generation, Our Last Chance to Save Their Future  by Tim Elmore

Millennials: A Portrait of Generation Next by the Pew Research Center

Texas Baptists Collegiate Ministry

A Challenge to Boomers and Builders from a Millennial-Loving Boomer

The Millennials Opening Doors project

Thanks for joining us this month on our Millennial journey. Now go get to know a Millennial!

In December of 2010 I took my first trip to the nation of Haiti with Hope for the Hungry ministries (www.hopeforthehungry.org). This was my first international missions experience and I tried my best to come into it without any preemptive filters on my perspective. After that week of making incredible friends, celebrating the coming of a new year, and falling in love with a nation and itʼs people, I knew that God had brought me to a new chapter in my life.

The earthquake that killed nearly 300,000 Haitians and destroyed most of the infrastructure had occurred 11 months before I arrived. However, looking around at the devastating destruction it would be easy to believe that it had happened within the month. There was much work to do in a country that was already the poorest in the
Western Hemisphere before the tragedy had even struck. While the overwhelming nature of the catastrophe was evident, there was a light shining brightly in the midst of the darkness. God was truly there and as we were doing our best to rebuild the houses and buildings that were in shambles, He was doing a greater work rebuilding the hearts and lives of the beautiful natives to that land.

During the church service that week in Guibert, Haiti I took the time during the sermon (which was in the native language of Creole) and jotted down a song, “Rebuild”. The song in the following video (video by Coley Taylor) is “Rebuild”.

Click here to view the embedded video.

(Verse 1)
Break through clouds to see the promise of a broken Land.
Hearts they break the earth it quakes, how could this be Your plan?
Beneath the rubble silver liningʼs hard to comprehend.
Have you left us Lord? If not please help me feel Your hand.
(Chorus)
Rebuild, Remake.
As the sun rises each morning, fill this thirst thatʼs desperate yearning.
Rebuild, Remake.
Flood these people with Your light, give us strength and give us might.
And as the days turn into night…
Rebuild
(Verse 2)
Lashes set the frames to eyes that tell the story line.
A window to the soul, the pain we can not realize.
Tears held captive by the will to never compromise.
Our visionʼs crippled if we never see through others eyes!
(Bridge)
Break foundations of the walls weʼve built inside our hearts!
God donʼt relent until everyone falls apart!
And as weʼre broken, seeking shelter from our deepest sin,
We will ask once again!
(Songs For Hope on Itunes/Amazon… Search: “Clay Tyner”)

Since 2007 I have been a traveling musician and worship leader with my band One Less Stone (www.onelessstoneministries.com). After my first trip I quickly signed up for the trip back to the same village in March of 2011. On that trip, God provided the confirmation I was seeking and soon after we returned to America I began working for Hope for The Hungry as their “Ambassador of Hope.” I now am getting ready for my fifth trip this coming March. We have partnered our ministry as a band with Hope for the Hungry by raising awareness and funds through sponsorship programs that we set up at every event we play. I am beyond blessed to have formed the relationships I have in Haiti and to get a chance to continue to go back. Grace Fellowship where I am the worship pastor in Lampasas, Texas has contributed immensely to funding my trips and preparing me as an individual to pour into the people of Haiti. My prayer is that God continues to rebuild all of our lives to shape us into the image of our Savior.

Clay Tyner

People wander in off the streets and into the sanctuary during services asking for food and money. Kids are asked to step outside if they misbehave during worship. People sing off key. The service itself can seem disorganized.

“We don’t do anything well,” said Co-Pastor Fred Kinney. “I’m just being honest with you. If you came to our service, you’d freak out.”

There is one other thing the Baptist General Convention of Texas-sponsored church start does weird, Kinney admits – the transformational way it cares for others, which models Christ’s love for people and has driven the new church to baptize 20 people in the past six months, many of whom were unchurched and experienced dramatic lifestyle changes as a result of embracing the gospel.

Drug addicts have broken free from their chains. Drug dealers are now distributing the hope of Christ. People who may not have much to eat are giving food to those who have none. Church members are providing for homeless people when they can. At least two of them have taken a homeless man into their homes on a cold night.

A church modeled after what its members see in the book of Acts appropriately is seeing God-sized changes take place.

“I preach the same thing every Sunday: missions. Go and make disciples. And I’m not doing it. Ed’s not doing it. They’re doing it. They are making disciples. They are crossing racial barriers. They are not looking at age,” Kinney said.

“We went back to going into people’s homes, hanging with them while they smoke cigarettes and drink beer. We go into their homes, some of them with bugs crawling across your shoulders, and we sit there and spend time with them. That’s it. That’s what Jesus did. He spent time with people. As a matter of fact, He made it His purpose to go up to people who weren’t saved. He didn’t hang around the Pharisees. He went to Zacchaeus’ house. He went to the sinners, the prostitutes, the drunkards.”

Terri Mital might be the most dramatic transformation of them all. A gang member who dropped out in the sixth grade, she met Kinney while walking down the sidewalk. Kinney asked her if she needed any help, which she did. He gave her some food, talked to her about the issues she was facing and invited her to church.

She came, and her life changed, she says. She embraced the hope of Christ, was baptized and her outlook on life shifted. She saw how Christ had blessed her life. She was able to read for the first time. The physical ailments that were troubling her faded.

“This is the best church in the world I’ve ever come to,” she said. “They accept you whoever you are, what you wear, what nationality you are – they don’t care.”

She has become the congregation’s leading evangelist, bringing person after person to church with her.

“I [have] brung one person, to the next to the next to the next to the next to the next,” Mital said. “Now 15 people have been baptized.”

That includes Humberto Espitia who came to Fort Worth to sell drugs. Now he’s been baptized and feels a call to preach. Within three years, the congregation hopes to send him out to start his own congregation.

“My calling is to preach. It’s one thing I didn’t know until I started reading the Bible, understanding it and seeking Him,” he said. “The Holy Spirit started talking to me and telling me ‘This is what you’re here for. This is your purpose in this world.’”

Mital introduced Kinney to Christina Evans. She, her two sisters and two children started coming to the church. Evans started bringing Anita Tate’s children. Now Tate comes as well. Recently, Tate’s husband came.

People are intrigued by what they see church members doing in the community, Evans said. The community witnesses lives changing and wants to know what’s going on. Christ’s love is leading the church to care for others.

“[People] see,” Evans said. “As much as you don’t think they see, they see. If they see you doing something, they’re going to be like hmm and start noticing it and be like ‘Where is that influence coming from?’ And start coming to church.”

Transformation is still taking place, Kinney noted. Members still are facing issues. People still need food. The overwhelming majority of the congregation is unemployed. There are child protective services issues, including a 12-year-old prostitute and a four-year-old boy who drinks beer and smokes cigarettes. Change is difficult, requires determination and the power of God. It’s no different than people in the Bible.

“We wouldn’t have a New Testament if people weren’t screwed up,” he said. “Paul wouldn’t have written any letters, Peter wouldn’t have written any letters, John wouldn’t have written any letters, James wouldn’t have written any letters, if people weren’t screwed up. We forget about that. So it hasn’t changed.”

Like in Scripture, God continues to work in people’s lives, said Co-Pastor Ed Elliot. His followers are bringing others to Him as they were commanded to do in the Bible.

“God has really been blessing the work and what we’re doing. Just like in the books of Acts, people are just bringing more people. All these kids are just coming. We’re really not trying to do any efforts to bring in more people. The people who are here are doing it.”