firstIMPRESSIONS
from Senior Pastor Timothy Satryan

There always seems to be a lot of talk about discipleship, and the programs or ministries that a church offers in that area. While there are many discipleship ministries that churches, including WFA offer, I don’t believe that any ministry or program can replace what is the essential Biblical method of discipleship – mentoring. When I was a young believer, I grew in the Lord not because of any church created program or structure, but rather due to mentoring.

Howard Hendricks, a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, writes in his article “Men of Integrity” (Leadership, Vol. 1 No. 1) that every man should seek to have three individuals in his life: a Paul, a Barnabas, and a Timothy.

A Paul is an older man who is willing to mentor you, to build into your life. Not someone who’s smarter or more gifted than you, but somebody who’s been down the road. Somebody willing to share his strengths and weaknesses—everything he’s learned in the laboratory of life. Somebody whose faith you’ll want to imitate.

A Barnabas is a soul brother, somebody who loves you but is not impressed by you. Somebody to whom you can be accountable. Somebody who’s willing to keep you honest, who’s willing to say, “Hey, man, you’re neglecting your wife, and don’t give me any guff!”

A Timothy is a younger man into whose life you are building. For a model, read 1 and 2 Timothy. Here was Paul, the quintessential mentor, building into the life of his protégé – affirming, encouraging, teaching, correcting, directing, praying.

Do you have these three guys in your life?

Here is your copy of firstIMPRESSIONS, Volume 7.26. Live for God, on purpose, pouring your life into another, so that they may in turn do the same.

Get ready to be blessed! This Sunday, June 28th, for one day only, Evangelist Tiff Shuttlesworth will return to WILMINGTON first assembly of God!

No stranger here to WFA, this will be Tiff’s fifth visit here. He and I have linked together in ministry for many years, and in many locations. In every pastoral charge I have held, there has always seemed to be an unmistakable tie between us. During my years as our district youth director, there was a standing invitation for Tiff to be the camp evangelist every other year. Likewise, in my last pastorate, as well as here in Wilmington, God has continually blessed and poured out His Spirit each time Tiff has ministered.

There are some individuals traveling in ministry who call themselves “evangelists,” but they are primarily used of God to stir the church toward a closer walk in the Lord. However, Evangelist Tiff Shuttlesworth is a man who truly is called, biblically, as an evangelist, and preaches to win souls for Christ. During his visits with us here in Wilmington, we have seen hundreds of people ask Jesus Christ to be their Lord and Savior.

Make your plans to be here now! And, most especially, invite your friends, co-workers, family, and neighbors to come with you to church! You will be glad you did, and they will too!

You can visit Evangelist Tiff Shuttlesworth’s web site by clicking here – http://www.lostlamb.org

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While megachurches and multi-site churches continue to grab the spotlight, another type of church is being evaluated and recognized – the multiplying church. Multiplying churches, or churches that plant other churches on an ongoing basis, believe that the mandate of Acts 1:8 requires them to focus their resources and energies not just on themselves, but on birthing new churches.

An article appearing in Outreach magazine analyzes America’s top 25 multiplying churches. Based in part on a church planting study conducted by Leadership Network (http://www.leadnet.org/), the article attempts to explain the characteristics of churches that see church planting as a priority, and have also had success in actually birthing new churches. For example, the top three churches on the list – Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, Mars Hill Church in Seattle and NorthWood Church in Keller, Texas – have each planted 100 churches since their founding.

While many of the churches on the list are megachurches, there are also those that have an average weekly attendance of under 500. First Southwest Baptist Church in Alief, Texas (No. 23 on the list) has a weekly attendance of 120, but has planted 68 churches since 1978. Columbia Crossroads Church in Columbia S.C. (No. 19) – attendance 450 – has planted 17 churches in the last seven years.

Ed Stetzer, who wrote the article for Outreach, and is the director of LifeWay Research, points out that successful multiplying churches have a number of values in common:

• The belief that God has called them to reach the unchurched in their communities, their states and the world.

• The importance of establishing long-term strategies and goals that will involve both staff and church members in the planting process.

• A focus, not on becoming a larger church, but on the growth of the Kingdom around the world.

• The importance of maintaining fellowship with daughter churches as they become more independent.

• The understanding that staff, salaries and other valuable resources will need to be freely given in order for new churches to more effectively impact their communities. (The churches on the list designated between two percent and 30 percent of their overall budget for church planting.)

• The belief that lack of size or staff, or poor timing are not acceptable excuses for delay.

The list of the 25 churches can be found at http://outreachmagazine.com/docs/25innov_JA07.pdf. Outreach magazine has also published lists of the fastest growing and the most innovative churches in America.

as seen in Focus on the Family’s “The Pastor’s Weekly Briefing,” Volume 15, Number 26, June 29, 2007

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Be About It!

“So we continued the work... from the first light of dawn till the stars came out.” – Nehemiah 4:21 NIV

In the face of overwhelming odds, Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem in just 52 days. How? Because of a single-minded passion to do so. Some of us are afraid to pray ‘Lord, I’ll do what you want me to do,’ in case He sends us somewhere we don’t want to go or asks us to do something we don’t feel ready or qualified to do. You’ve got it wrong! The Bible says God’s will is “good, and acceptable, and perfect” (Romans 12:2). What is there to be afraid of in that formula?

Now, while God’s will for us is ‘good', it’s not necessarily easy. But He gives us a passion for it. Jeremiah said that when he tried to stop speaking about the Lord, God’s Word became “like a burning fire shut up in my bones” (Jeremiah 20:9 NAS). You can’t contain a fire that God lights. When He sets your heart ablaze, you begin to see things you never saw before and get excited about them. He can even take your chapters of regret and write a story of grace.

But it’s not likely you’ll experience much of a passion for anything if you’re just sitting on the sidelines waiting for something to happen. James says “Don’t just be a hearer of God’s word, be a doer” (James 1:22). You’ll get a passion for God’s will once you begin doing it! You’ll think ’this is what I was made for’. And when you have a compelling reason for doing something and know that God is watching and smiling on you, it makes all the difference.

from The Word for Today, June 25, 2007; www.thewordfortoday.com.au

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A junior high music teacher had just organized a band in her school. The principal was so proud of the music teacher’s efforts that without consulting her he decided that the band should give a concert for the entire school. The music teacher wasn’t so sure her young musicians were ready to give a concert, so she tried to talk the principal out of holding the concert, to no avail. Just before the concert was ready to begin, as the music teacher stood on the podium, she leaned forward and whispered to her nervous musicians, “If you’re not sure of your part, just pretend to play.”

And with that, she stepped back, lifted her baton and with a great flourish brought it down. Lo and behold, nothing happened! The band brought forth a resounding silence.

Sometimes we in the church are like that junior high band, unsure of our parts, tentative in our roles, reluctant to trumpet forth the music of faith that God desires of us. And that’s because we have trouble deciding what’s most important.

by Brett Blair, as seen in Rocky Henriques’ “The Timothy Report, www.timothyreport.com, June 25, 2007

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by David Jeremiah

Sometimes there aren’t enough minutes in a day – or days in a year – for all our work. Well, then, how would you like to have a 445-day year? It happened once.

The early Romans established their calendar on a lunar model, and their year had only 355 days. In 46 B.C., Julius Caesar mandated a new solar calendar, making the year 365 days long. To bring the new calendar on track, he added two extra months to that year, sticking them between November and December, and he also squeezed three extra weeks between February and March.

The result was a one-time-only year of 445 days, which became known as the “Year of Confusion.”

Sometimes every year seems like a year of confusion. But the secret to getting all your work done isn’t adding days to the year, it’s doing only what the heavenly Father has ordained for you. When Jesus ascended to heaven, there was still much work to be done, yet He said, “I have finished the work which You have given Me to do” (John 17:4).

Ask God for His agenda each day, and don’t let the urgent usurp the important. Make sure to finish the work He gives you day by day.

from Dr. David Jeremiah’s “Today’s Turning Point” daily devotional of June 28, 2007. www.TurningPointOnline.org

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by Rick Ezell

“For as he thinks within himself, so he is” – Proverbs 23:7 (NASB)

Some years ago a magazine pictured a man staring out of a window; the caption read: “Why does this company pay this man $100,000 to look out a window?” Because the lifeblood of any organization lies in ideas and creative thinking. Thinking is powerful. Flying a plane, air conditioning, cell phones, vaccines, the World Wide Web-without thinking, these were “impossible.” Everything begins with a simple thought.

Ideas are a great moving force of history. For that reason, thinking is a critical need of leadership. We are never free to do what we cannot conceive. A leader’s thinking must shaped by the following:

Vision: What Is Our Dream?
Carl Sandburg was right: “Nothing happens unless it is first a dream.”

Vision is a process of the mind-it’s mental, not visual. Vision is seeing what everybody has seen but thinking what nobody has thought. Vision, in a biblical context, is to ask: What would God have me do? What does God want with our organization, our church, our ministry, our family? Where does God want us to go?

Someone has said that what is needed to build pyramids is someone who can think and ten thousand people who can grunt. Unless at least one person is thinking, no pyramids will be built-and neither will a church or business or ministry or family.

Values: What Is Important?
Values have to do with how we treat people, how we do our work, what is important to our organization. Values are the standards, the principles, the code of conduct that characterizes our organization.

Organizations don’t dream up values, they already exist. But leaders give the organization’s values shape and form. It’s like some universities that decide to pour sidewalks after students have first worn a path. Look at your organization. Where are the well-worn paths-the actions, the beliefs, the attitudes-that matter most. These are your values: make them known.

Venture: What Are We Willing to Risk?
Organizations that make a difference are willing to think outside the box. For example, a company was in the well-digging business. For years the employees had thought only in terms of how to make better augers to dig wells. They hired a new president and on his first day at work he said, “We are no longer in the well-digging business. We are in the hole-making business.” Thus his employees began to think in terms of efficient and effective means of making holes, and they soon discovered that lasers dug holes better than augers. They achieved the same goal but accomplished it more efficiently.

Look at things differently, and take risks as a leader.

Vehicle: What Will Get Us There?
Once the vision, values and venture are in place, we need to think about what steps to take to arrived at our objective. How can we accomplish our desired outcome? A dream without a strategy is merely wishful thinking, but with a strategy it becomes powerful thinking.

Victory: What Will the Celebration Be Like?
A leader thinks like a champion. He or she thinks in terms of success, not just “getting by.” The leader has the ability to stir things up, to capitalize on a unique window of opportunity. The end result is to move forward, to accomplish goals, to be God’s faithful servant, to celebrate being a part of God’s kingdom.

Today, wake up and start thinking. Take off your nightcap and put on your thinking cap.

as seen in Rick Ezell’s “One Minute Uplift” weekly email devotional of June 28, 2007. Dr. Ezell is pastor of First Baptist Church in Greer, South Carolina.

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Mrs. Jones had been a staple of her local congregation for many years and that is why her absence had been noticed lately. The pastor decided to drop by her house to check up on her after the Sunday service. He knocked on her door, and being that she’s nearly 85, it took her a bit to get to the door.

“Hello, who is it?” she asked.

“It’s Pastor Smith,” he answered.

“Oh, Hi – Come in, Come in, how’s the ministry doing?” she said.

“Very well, I just wanted to make sure your prayer needs are being met.”

“Oh honey, I haven’t felt well lately but I’m getting better.”

Just then, the phone rang and she excused herself to get it. The pastor sat near a table with an old Reader’s Digest and a bowl of peanuts. After 15 minutes, then 20, he heard his stomach growl and began to get restless. He started in on the bowl of peanuts and began reading. After 45 minutes, he suddenly realized that he had eaten all of the peanuts.

Right then, Mrs. Jones returned and said, “Oh, I sure am sorry, that was my sister from Pittsburgh. She only calls once a month so when she does we have to catch up on everything.” The pastor, feeling a little embarrassed, said, “I must also apologize, for while you were gone I got hungry and ate all the peanuts in your little bowl there. Please, forgive me,” he said.

Mrs. Jones replied, “Oh that’s OK, anymore all I can do is just suck the chocolate off of them!”

We are concluding a phenomenal week of VBS here at WFA, and the outreach emphasis continues this Sunday as Evangelist Tiff Shuttlesworth returns for a day of ministry. Don’t miss the start of July, as there will certainly be Holy Ghost fireworks to kick things off! Bring a friend, and come expecting a great move of God here at WFA!