I just finished a full french press of freshly roasted Colombian coffee from Mission Coffee Roasters. I listened to the Daily Audio Bible for the day and I wrote down three things God is speaking to me- through His Word. As I made the connections with integrating my “quiet time” with study (Daily Audio Bible), relational fellowship (devotions), and my outreach ministry (Friendship Fellowship) I began to make the phone calls for my daily business contacts. I feel good about integrating since it is taking elements and not so much multi-tasking but taking each tool and enjoying time and treasure. Then comes integrating talent- what if i wrote a worship song in this worship? What if I wrote my column, my e-mails and gave it all to Go in worship? That’s my daily bread, with my daily work, and my daily study integrated with my daily fellowship, my daily finances, my daily meetings that are all-inclusive because they all include God! If my business planning, my forecasting, my ministry outlook and my gifts and talents could be rolled into 24/7 access to study, relationships and outreach would we not be more effective, more productive and more focused? That’s what evangelism needs to be- available all the time. What I like about David Roger’s thesis on the 5 strategies to thrive in a digital is that they are the 5 strategies to integrate media with outreach and culture that I have been preaching about for the last 7 years!
I believe that every organization that wants to reach their community starts a coffee house in the heart of the city. It has to be a place that engages the culture by integrating marriage, family, study and outreach in their towns, and becomes the centerpiece in doing so.
ENGAGE-become a source of valued content
As a minister and a leader, as a communicator and a pastor, I have in my possession “the greatest story ever told.” Unfortunately we seem to bog that story down with out of context editorials and our agendas. Being Biblical has no other agenda besides a “what’s in it for you” which in the long run conquers sin and death and it is real. It is valued content and it has a beginning, a middle and an end and in context the message, the music, and the mission of biblical, systematic and evangelical theology is a message designed for all.
CUSTOMIZE-make your offering adaptable to your customers’ needs
Customizing is recognizing your unique gifts and talents, being mentored and mentoring people. Friendship Fellowship is a customized church, that reaches out to a specific community instead of discriminating or telling a social gospel instead of THE Gospel, it is our mission to make the Gospel real to our friends who are intellectually disabled, invite their families and caregivers to read, listen, and view, and then develop mentors to lead, shepherd, and minister to each other and participate in the gospel, the worship and the mission.
CONNECT-become a part of your customers’ conversations
As the invisible become visible through invitation and communications we connect through integrating our media, our worship and our outreach that connects with our friends, caregivers, families and mentors.
COLLABORATE-involve your customers at every stage of your enterprise
If we can’t collaborate through leading studies, relational fellowship, and outreach, we all fail our community. If we fail to pass it on to people in other communities then we have failed because we did not collaborate. Friendship Fellowship is interactive and it develops because we collaborate with the disabled community.
This is our task for 2012. And for me as this develops it is important that the integral parts of who I am as a minister/pastor in Triology: Bible study, Systematic approach, and Evangelical lifestyle , a leader in my communities, ( USA, Canada and Europe), and a communicator in message, music and mission, locally in Colorado Springs and in Denver.