Tag Archives: Hope For Life

Church Inside Out is here

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IMG_5650It rained styrofoam peanuts and snowed polystyrene flakes. Books and workbooks came out of the box, and a dream became reality. The first copies of Church Inside Out had arrived.

As I’ve mentioned, this is a book that I feel that I’ve put a lot of myself into. Helping the church improve its outreach and discipleship efforts is very important to me. This book/workbook set is my contribution to this effort. I hope to have the chance to go through the material in person with congregations through the seminars Hope For Life (a Herald of Truth ministry) provides.

I hope you’ll take a few moments and look at the material. 21st Century Christian has posted sample pages of both the book and the workbook.

Workbook Cover
You can find the book sample here: https://www.21stcc.com/pdfs/samplepages/9780890989159.pdf

Workbook Cover
You can find the workbook sample here: https://www.21stcc.com/pdfs/samplepages/9780890989166.pdf

You can order the book from the 21st Century Christian website. You can arrange for seminars focused on Church Inside Out by contacting Bill Brant at bbrant@heraldoftruth.org. There is no charge for the seminars. Churches need only cover my expenses and allow me to update your congregation/leadership on what Hope For Life is doing in the world.

2016 Cuba Men’s Conference

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Men's conferenceAs part of my work with Hope For Life (Herald of Truth), I get to go once or twice a year to Cuba. I usually get to go at the time of the national men’s conference, which was held last week in Varadero. In some ways, the conference is an excuse; that’s how we get the religious visas that allow us to freely teach and preach. (And yes, despite what you may have heard, you can freely teach and preach in Cuba, within certain limits)

The conference brings together church leaders from across the island(s), with somewhere between 250 and 300 men attending. I got to deliver two keynotes, as well as teaching a class.

Our main purpose is to visit Tony Fernández, Herald of Truth’s representative in Cuba. He continues to do amazing work, planting churches and ministering to those in existing churches. Our radio programs generate hundreds of responses every month; Tony follows up by mail, phone, and personal visits. No media outreach can be successful without consistent follow-up on the ground. We’re blessed to have people like Tony and his team.

Spiritual hunger in Cuba

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tonyOne of the great things about working at Hope For Life / Herald of Truth is the fact that I get to work with some amazing people in other countries. One of them is Tony Fernández, who continues to inspire with stories of his work in Cuba. I’ve shared the following in several places, but wanted to share it here as well:

Neat story from Tony Fernandez in Cuba. He was coming back from Havana, and several other drivers warned him of a police control on an upcoming bridge. Sure enough, as Tony approached, the policeman was waving him over. Tony started getting his papers ready, but the policeman said, “Please, put your documents away. I just want to know if you can get me a Bible. That’s always been my dream, but I’ve never been able to get one.”
Tony didn’t have any with him, but told him where to hear the Herald of Truth radio program and gave him the post office box number so he could write in.
Reminds me that the thousands Herald of Truth raises every year for Bibles in Cuba are going to good use. And reminds me that we have faithful brethren around the world working hard to spread the message every day.

Hither and yon

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OK, so the blog has been neglected a bit. And may be neglected some more. Here’s what’s going on:

  • Last week was the campaign on Long Island for Hope For Life ministries (Herald of Truth). We had worked for quite a while organizing this campaign, motivating and training the churches to carry out an evangelistic effort. It was great to see the congregations working together in this concerted effort and to see them excited about reaching out.
  • I had to leave the campaign early. My mom fell a week ago Sunday and broke her hip. She’s now in a facility for physical rehabilitation.
  • Tomorrow, Carolina and I leave on a trip to the Holy Land. A generous, anonymous benefactor offered to pay my way, the Texas International Bible Institute (organizers of the trip) offered Carolina a partial scholarship, and we were able to use air miles and hotel points to defray the rest of the costs. There’s still some expense involved, but it will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Special thanks to Hope For Life Ministries for letting me take the time off, to my sisters for coming to be with Mother, and to TIBI and the donor for making this possible.

I’ll definitely post some about the trip, though I’m not sure that will happen during the trip.

New seminar (under development)

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drawingAs part of my work with Hope For Life/Herald of Truth, I’m developing a new seminar for churches. I’ve been doing the “Christ and Culture” seminar for several years and would like to have something else to offer as well.

I want to do something that will address a need felt by many churches and do it in a practical way. I’ve decided to focus on how to get church members’ focus outside the building in order to get outsiders in. I want to look at analyzing the community in general, the neighborhood around the church, and each member’s immediate neighbors. I plan to talk about how a church can make itself more open and inviting to outsiders. I want to look at the topics of evangelism and discipleship.

What do you think? What topics do you think your congregation would want to see addressed? What items do you yourself see as important?

I’ve got a working title, but would definitely be open to suggestions on that as well.

Image courtesy MorgueFile.com