This year I attended some special events that highlighted the awe-inspiring fruit God has been growing through the influential leaders Legacy Shepherding Ministries has invested in. Here are some examples:
Alums and Current Mentees Put on Their First Ever Church Movement Conference!
I had the immense privilege of attending the first ever Church Movement Conference hosted by Mission Church! There were 65 church leaders in attendance! Many attendees left re-evaluating how they want to do church moving forward.
Jon, Tommy, Dan, Kylie, and others at the church shared how they are living out the dream God placed on their hearts to be a church that equips and sends people into their neighborhoods on mission through Missional Communities.
Dan & Tommy (Top Left), Kylie (Top Right), Jon (Lower Middle), Michael (Legacy Shepherding alum) & Breakfree breakdance missionaries in attendance (Lower Left), Randy praying for an attendee (Lower Right).
What’s a Missional Community? A Missional Community is a group of Christians who have a common passion and heart for a specific people group who they feel called to in order to serve the needs of those people and help them find and follow Christ.
Here are some examples of what the Missional Communities are doing:
- Four women began meeting weekly at a coffee shop for community and encouragement. They started a Meet Up group online, opening the group up to any women in the area looking for community. One woman who responded to the Meet Up invitation became a Christian while attending the group! A few days before this woman was planning to get baptized, she had a massive stroke. The other ladies gathered around her hospital bed and baptized her a few days before she died.
- Two former addicts decided to join forces. They began regularly visiting a halfway house for men coming out of addiction, and in some cases prison, to support and encourage the men on their sobriety journeys. As they built relationships, they began leading a weekly Bible study at the halfway house. That led to them bringing a vanload of men to church every Sunday. The men’s hearts are opening up to the Lord in their time of need.
- One missional community runs a Christ-centered after school program for grade-school kid; ● another group works with abused women at a women’s shelter; ● some men’s groups work out at gyms together and build relationships with other regulars at the gym; ● one missional community is a running club; and so on.
The Missional Communities are meeting people where they’re at, not waiting for them to attend church. Many of the missional communities end up inviting people they meet to attend the church’s Alpha program where they can ask their questions about God and faith. Alpha is an 11-week Christian course used by many churches worldwide. Many attendees become Christians through the Alpha experience.
Mission Church has over 184 Missional Community groups andover 650 people attending their Alpha course each week (30-40% being non-believers). It is currently the largest Alpha course in the country (and most likely the world)! This has led to a lot of baptisms (see the next highlight)! Many of the people are baptized not by pastors of the church, but by the Christians who have been actively involved in their lives, who know them and love them, and who introduced them to Jesus.
Not surprisingly, other churches have taken notice and began asking Mission Church staff what they were doing to make all this happen. The staff would humbly say, it’s a movement of the Holy Spirit. They are trusting people with the Holy Spirit inside them to do the good works the Holy Spirit is prompting them to do. They are simply equipping people, mainly through three 8-week “Growth Track” courses, to empower people to accomplish the good works God has prepared in advance for them to do. With many churches asking questions, Mission Church decided to get them all together and put on a conference to explain and envision other churches.
Over the years, I’ve had the honor of mentoring many staff members and key volunteers at Mission Church (including Jon, Tommy, Dan, and Kylie seen in the previous photos), starting back when the church was just a dream and then when it started with 25 people meeting in a basement. I’ve had a front row seat (or perhaps a back stage pass), watching what God has been doing. And it has been astounding! These Legacy Shepherding Ministries alums and current mentees are giving away what the Lord has given them and teaching others how to as well! They are multiplying!
123 People Got Baptized One Weekend!
I mentioned lots of baptisms! This year, I was recruited by Liz, one of the women I mentor, to be a volunteer on Baptism Weekend at Mission Church. I was put in a “Shepherd” role, where my job was to meet briefly with people who spontaneously wanted to get baptized to make sure they were ready and understood what they were doing, and then to pray with them. It was an exciting weekend seeing 123 people going public with their faith!
The church has people write their names on a wall in the church after they get baptized. It’s amazing to see all the names. All total 224 people have been baptized at the church so far this year (as of mid-September)! God is working!
You’re Invited to Be Part of What God is Doing!
One hope of this ministry is that people will multiply, that they will pass on whatever the Lord gives them through the mentoring experience. The people we are investing in are doing just that in their own unique ways. People’s lives are being impacted through our investment, people we don’t even know!
Come join us! Be part of the support team that makes this possible!
Would you please join my financial support team and join me in praying regularly for these influential leaders?
Contributions are tax deductible and life-changing.
Every penny will help!
In His Love, Randy
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