Please bare with me in a little foolish boasting (as Paul said and did!)
In God’s sovereign design I was privileged to work with John Wimber in 1982 for 8 months as a pastoral and research assistant. I researched and wrote the healing courses that John taught – now summarized in my book Doing Healing, and in the 2 Healing courses that I teach at VBI and VLI.
Perhaps more important was a 40 page document that I wrote with John, “Building from the bottom up: A 5 year plan for Church Growth”. It was a systematic explanation of John’s (the Vineyard’s) philosophy of ministry; i.e. how we do church, ministry and leadership, from a Kingdom of God paradigm – practically applied in the local church for health and growth.
When John died in 1997 my first thought was to put this most important of materials into book form (now called Doing Church). By God’s grace it has become a basic textbook for Vineyards – and some other churches – around the world, having been translated into many languages. I am humbled and honoured by this development.
Now VLI in the USA has asked me to teach a comprehensive course called Vision and Planning: Developing a 5 year plan for church growth – based on John’s philosophy of ministry as laid out in my book.
After 37 years in full-time paid ministry (as a church planter and pastor) I’ve concluded that many churches don’t grow simply due to a lack of vision and planned implementation. Leaders fail to envision their people with the Kingdom as a workable plan, and then to work the plan. Some say that’s unspiritual, “just pray and God will grow the church”, while others are so desperate for growth that they adopt the motivational and success ideology of business, the technology of push and pull, of performance and programs, to grow the church.
The course I will teach in early February is the radical middle between these approaches. It will be videoed for the VLI students in the US and internationally, AND IT WILL BE FOR FREE! Seriously, no payment – we will provide tea and coffee and YOU bring a lunch… to share!! And furthermore, I will offer my book Doing Church for R40 (my cost from the publisher, it retails at R85 to R95).
Why am I doing this, why this ‘long’ invite? I REALLY want you, and your leaders and people, to come – because I believe with all my heart that if we learn to do church, ministry and leadership as John taught us, we will see the Kingdom of God come with power. Therefore, invite your leaders and people – and feel free to send this invite far and wide, all are welcome from any church!
DATE: Friday 1ST FEB and Saturday 2nd Feb
TIME: Friday 19h00 – 21h00, Saturday 09h00 – 16h00 (four lectures in total with tea/coffee breaks and Q & A times)
VENUE: Vineyard Community Center, 379 Spionkop road, Northriding, Johannesburg.
Phone: 010-222-0582/6.
Email:
of****@fo************.za
or
of****@va*******.za
Website: www.followingjesus.org.za
FaceBook page: ifollowjesusvcc
Twitter: @ifollowjesusvcc