HUB sign, new partnerships New Manna team Jo Lynn & Gaylyn Kathy & event planning Monthly shepherd meetings Finances Sermon series Keri--greeter

PAIN: What is it that breaks the heart of God that also breaks your heart?

JOY: What kind of personal ministry would you love to do, along with a group of others, to touch this pain with God’s love?

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness your deep gladnessand the world’s deep hunger meet.” the world’s deep hunger meet.” Frederick Buechner Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC

(What some of our leaders heard.) Healing, especially in our house churches. Healing will bring growth. No Vacancy! Building fully used for ministry. God will unleash existing gifts in some of our present leaders. SURPRISE! Sense that 2016 may be a breakout year.

Ephesians 4:11-16 NLT 11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. 11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. 14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.

Billy Graham was asked: “What would you do if you were the pastor of a local church rather than a traveling evangelist? “I think one of the first things I would do would be to get a small group of eight or ten or twelve men around me that would meet a few hours a week and pay the price. It would cost them something in time and effort. I would share with them everything I have, over a period of years. Then I would actually have twelve ministers among the laymen who in turn could take eight or ten or twelve more and teach them. I know one or two churches that are doing that, and it is revolutionizing the church. Christ, I think, set the pattern. He spent most of his time with twelve men. He didn’t spend it with a great crowd. In fact, every time he had a great crowd it seems to me that there weren’t too many results. The great results, it seems to me, came in his personal interview and in the time he spent with the twelve.”

(“Just us chickens.”) What does it take to be an effective homegrown church leader? 1. Dependability 2. Integrity 3. Humility

1. Dependability The most important ability is dependability. “Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.” 2 Corinthians 4:2, NIV

2. Integrity Are you the same person in private as in public? “Those who have been born into God's family do not make a practice of sinning, because God's life is in them.” 1 John 3:9 NIV

3. Humility (Teachable spirit) “Listen to advice and accept discipline, and at the end you will be counted among the wise.” Proverbs 19:20 NIV “Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but whoever hates correction is stupid.” Proverbs 12:1 NIV “ No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” Hebrews 12:11 NIV