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MY DAUGHTER, KRISTEN ON MISSION TRIP TO BRAZIL

Pictured is my daughter, Kristen pointing to Ribeirao Preto, Brazil.  She is traveling there with the Free Will Baptist E-Team.

Her mother and I left her on Tuesday at the Free Will Baptist Bible College for a week of training.  She will then be in Brazil until the end of June. We are anticipating the Lord to do great things in her life!

Free Will Baptist have had a ministry presence in Brazil since the mid 1950's when pioneer missionary Thomas Willey visited Brazil. His findings prompted the FWB Board of Foreign Missions to send missionaries to share the good news with Brazilians.

Click here to read the history of FWB ministering in Brazil.

SACRIFICE 2 VENTI LATTE'S AT STARBUCKS - Give $10 for Go10 Walk for the World

Join me in giving up two "Venti Peppermint Mocha Latte's" (or whatever you favorite coffee may be) in order to give $10.00 to help spread the Gospel to the unreached people groups around the world!

Go10 Walk for the World is an invitation to young people to experience a life-changing commitment to missions through a 2,500-mile walk for the world.  Each walker is raising $500.00 for the purpose of spreading the Gospel. An anonymous donor has pledged to match all monies raised through this walk—up to $500,000. Therefore, this walk provides an opportunity to raise over $1,000,000... that’s one million dollars!... to share the Gospel with those who have never heard it.

I am going to walk in this event and I would love for you to sponsor me!  Just click here and it will take you to my Go10 Walk website and you can give online.

Thanks for assisting me in spreading the Gospel!  Click here to learn more about Go10 Walk for the World.

Go10 Walk for the World

Go10 Walk for the World is a challenge to young people to consider their role in reaching the nations with the gospel in their generation.

The year 2010 is the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of FWBIM’s modern missions program. Laura Belle Barnard was sent out as our first missionary to India in 1935.

To commemorate this event, we are challenging Free Will Baptist young people to a life-changing commitment. They commit to walk a 10-mile segment of a 2,500-mile course. Teens will also commit to a 40-day prayer and devotional journey in preparation for the walk.

Would you like to participate in this walk?  If so, click here.

Maybe you cannot walk, so why not prayerfully consider sponsoring me in the walk to reach the world - click here to make a donation.

Thanks for all you do to assist us in this endeavor.  Please keep Go10 Walk as a top priority on your prayer list!

KRISTEN CANNON SELECTED TO SERVE ON 2010 E-TEAM Ribeirão Preto, Brazil

My daughter, Kristen Cannon has recently been selected to serve on the Free Will Baptist E-Team to Brazil in June 2010!  She is very excited and grateful for this opportunity to serve on the mission field.

Free Will Baptist have had a ministry presence in Brazil since the mid 1950's when pioneer missionary Thomas Willey visited Brazil. His findings prompted the FWB Board of Foreign Missions to send missionaries to share the good news with Brazilians.

Kristen will be traveling with seven other high school students to Brazil.  They will begin with a week of training at the Free Will Baptist Bible College in Nashville, Tennessee, then travel to Ribeirão Preto, Brazil for two weeks of ministry.

Kristen needs to raise $2,990.00 to go on this trip.  We are working now to get her scheduled in as many churches as possible to share about her opportunity and ask for a prayerful and financial partnership. 

If you would like to make a tax-deductible contribution to her account, please contact the Victory Church office 618.622.9360.  Please keep Kristen in your prayers.  Thanks and God bless! 

Click here to read the history of FWB in Brazil.

Go10Walk - Walk for the World

Make plans now to experience a life-changing commitment to missions through a three month (April - July 2010), 2500 mile walk for the world!  

What is the Go10Walk?  The purpose is to challenge young people to consider their role in reaching the nations with the Gospel in their generation. The year 2010 is the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Free Will Baptist missions program. Laura Belle Barnard was sent out as our first missionary to India in 1935.

To commemorate this event, we are challenging Free Will Baptist young people to a life-changing commitment. They will be asked to commit to walk a 10-mile segment of a 2,500-mile course. Teens will also commit to a 40-day prayer and devotional journey in preparation for the walk.

Go to the Go10 website and pick your day to walk! For more information click here.

PRIORITIES MATTER MINISTRIES

After a season of prayer, I feel the Lord has led me to begin a new ministry called "PRIORITIES MATTER MINISTRIES (PMM)." 

I am a Free Will Baptist pastor and former church planter, and one of my greatest desires is to be an encouragement to the local church pastor and congregation.  The purpose of PMM is to first and foremost assist the local church in fulfilling their God-given mission.

Through PMM, I am able to come along side the local church and minister in a variety of ways: 

• Revivals / Camp Meetings / Bible Conferences / Mission Conferences
• Stewardship Seminars / Discipleship Training Seminars
• Marriage Retreats or Seminars
• Men’s and Ladies’ Retreats
• Youth Camps, Retreats or Rally’s
• Parenting Conferences or Seminars
• Leadership Seminars, Conferences or Retreats
• Local Church Leadership Team Strategic Planning Retreats

To learn more about me personally and PMM, please take time to visit my webpage at www.PrioritiesMatterMinistries.org. 

If you have questions about this ministry please give me a call; I would love to speak with you about ways we can serve you and your church.  I am scheduling now into 2010, but I do have some openings for the remainder of 2009. 

Just contact me and I would be thrilled to travel and speak in whatever venue you feel is needed.  May God richly bless you and your ministry!

VICTORY CHURCH LAND REDUCTION FUND

Victory Church has just purchased 20.7 acres of land on Scott-Troy Road and Hwy 50 in O'Fallon, Illinois.  I just got a report last week that 28,000 cars drive by our property everyday!  That number is staggering!

Currently we are having our weekend worship service at Moye Elementary School in O'Fallon, IL.  We also rent office space for our administrative offices.  We desperately need to get our first building on the new property. 

Will you prayerfully consider making a donation of any size to the Victory Church Land Reduction Fund?  As soon as we pay down the debt on the land, we can then pursue with the plans of construction of our first building. 

If you would like to speak with me more about this, please email me at [email protected] and I will be more than glad to share with you what God is doing through the ministry of Victory Church.

God bless you and thanks for furthering God's Kingdom!

Relocation Process - Article 5

Last week I shared with the congregation of Victory Church that we have a signed contract with the City of Mascoutah to purchase our facility for $450,000.00 and our closing date is set for June 29, 2007. We have agreed to lease back our facility for a period of one year.   This will give us time to make a smoother transition in relocating.

With that being said, I have been writing for several weeks on the “church” in particular, and “relocation articles” on the move of Victory Church.  If you have missed the previous articles you can read them here on my blog; just search for the “Relocation Articles.” 

In my previous articles I have shared about the description, ownership, and mobility of the church.  Today I would like to focus on the mission of the church. 

• What is the mission of the church?
• Why are we here anyway?
• What are we to be doing as a church?

To answer in short, our mission is world evangelism!  World evangelism is the main work of the whole church until Christ returns.  This means that every decision we make as a congregation should be made in light of that decision’s impact on the successful execution of our mission—world evangelism.

World evangelism means that we are concerned with every people group, every nation, every culture, and every language group.  Listen to what the Apostle Paul said, “I am a debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise” (Romans 1:14 KJV).

What Paul was saying is that he, and we, are obligated to reach every people group with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ!  Therefore, if we can best accomplish our God-given mission of world evangelism by relocating, then it is a simple matter of obedience to do so!

So, in closing, what is at the heart of Victory Church relocating?  A mandate from our Lord, “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel” (Mark 16:15)!  We are relocating so that Victory Church can better carry out the great commission of reaching people for Christ and seeing their lives radically transformed.

Special Guests @ Victory this Sunday

I am very excited about our special guest that will be with us this Sunday, February 25th during our 10:30 AM celebration service.  Our guest speaker this Sunday is Dennis Teague.  Dennis, Carole and family are church planters in France; they lead several teams in planting churches and seeing lives changed.  Dennis will be sharing with us this Sunday how the Lord is moving in France.  You will be blessed just listening to the "passion" that Dennis has for planting churches. 

Make plans now to attend Victory this Sunday and be sure to invite a friend!

New Church Plant in Collinsville, IL

I just spent time doing what I love the most (outside of spending time with my wife and kids of course!) and that is spending time with a church planter.  Steve Gray is planting a Purpose-Driven church called "Discovery Family Church" in Collinsville, Illinois; his first "preview" service is this Sunday and he is very excited.  We here at Victory Church are assisting him with our resources and talents in preparing and printing off some promotional materials for him. 

Please pray for Steve and his launch team as the Lord uses them to dig out another PDC (purpose-driven church) in the Metro-east.  If you would like to encourage him by sending an email just click here, I'm sure he would love to hear from you and know that you are praying for him.  Keep up the good work Steve!

Witnesses...Not Judges...

   "...you shall be witnesses..." (Acts. 1:8) 

These are the last words that Christ spoke to His disciples before His ascension.  Question: "What is it that Christ has called us to be?"  Answer: witnesses!  Christ has called us to be witnesses, not judges, prosecuting or defense attorneys, just witnesses! In other words, we just share with everyone what we have seen and heard.This is what I spoke about yesterday morning at Victory Church (you can listen to the message via our podcast).

Witnesses, this is what we are to be as Christians.  There is a word for witnessing, actually it is one of our five purposes of life and one of the five purposes of the church...evangelism!  Unfortunately, evangelism has a negative cognition in our culture today and many Christians are disappearing as witnesses, but that is exactly what Christ is calling us to do. 

There are five (5) "Great Commissions" or "calls" in Scripture where Christ pleads with His followers to share about Him, (one I have already brought to your attention in Acts 1:8).  The other four can be found in the Gospels and with each Great Commission there is a promise!

1. Promise of His Presence (Matthew 28:18-20).
2. Promise of His Protection (Mark 16:15-18).
3. Promise of His Power (Luke 24:46-49).
4. Promise of His Peace (John 20:21-23). 

Wow!  What awesome promises Christ gives to us as we go about carrying out His commission.  But the question still remains, "How are we to witness?" 

I will be the first to admit that there are many methods of evangelism, and to be quite frank with you, after watching how some Christians go about evangelism, it is not a surprise to me why there is a negative cognition when the topic of evangelism is mentioned.

So, how does Christ tell us to witness?  Look what He says in Matthew 5:13-16: salt and light.  He says that we as Christians are the "salt of the earth" and the "light of the world."  What is salt and light?  Here it is...salt is influence and light is our testimony! 

So, the questions now are, "Are you influencing those around you for Christ?  Are you sharing your testimony when the opportunity presents itself?"  This is what I believe is missing in many Christians lives...influence and testimony.  This in short is called lifestyle evangelism.

Why not today make a vow to the Lord that you will begin making a positive influence for Christ in your workplace, school, community, home, or wherever you may be.  Also, look for those opportunities to share your testimony.  That is, just tell someone what the Lord has done for you and how He has helped you through different situations and phases of life.

Together let's be witnesses for Christ!

Today's E-vangelism - Godcasting

Let me ask you something, "When you are working out..walking, running, lifting weights, etc... are you working out your spirit also?"  There is a wonderful way to work out your spiritual life while giving your physical body a work out, and the greatest thing - you work them out at the same time!  What am I talking about?  The iPod, or MP3 players!  Just think about it, all you have to do is download some messages, music, or seminars and redeem the time with a little spiritual multitasking!

Mark Batterson, pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D.C. wrote a great article in the Summer 2006 issue of the Leadership Journal titled: Godcasting.  Here is a little of what he said: More than 12,771 people visited National Community Church last month.  Truth be told, they didn't really visit us, we visited them.  How?  These 12,771 people clicked into our www.theaterchurch.com podcast.

He goes on to say: We were already recording every message on CD.  We simply started uploading them to MP3 format so that people could download them to their iPod.  We only had a few takers when we launched the podcast in July 2005.  Now, months later we're impacting more poeple via our podcast than we are with our weekend services.  It's redefining the way I think about evangelism and discipleship.  Podcasting 101 wasn't offered when I was in seminary.  Neither was Blogging 101.  But the digital revolution has presented us an unprecedented opportunity.

Like John Gutenberg did when he used his new printing press to get more Bibles into more hands.  Why not redeem the iPod into a tool for evangelism or discipleship?  The message is sacred...the medium isn't.  We need to use the resources we've been given to share the gospel with as many people as possible. 

Be sure to subscribe to the Victory Podcast, then listen on-line or download until it's time for your physical and spiritual workout!

A Little About Our Trip

As you already know, I am in Yuma, AZ on a mission trip with the West Central Illinois Free Will Baptist.  We are here assisting church planter Jason Taylor and the Yuma Community Church reach this community for Christ.

Today our thirteen member team walked approximately 10 miles (according to Ron Malone's pedometer) and distributed about 3000 door hangers.  Now that's a lot of walking!  Tomorrow we are planning on hanging 2000 more door hangers and then doing some Servant Evangelism where we give away free movie tickets and $3.00 Starbucks Coffee coupons.  It's pretty exciting to see what can get accomplished when we all work together.

Be sure to check back in a few days for pictures from our trip.

Trip to Yuma, Arizona

It's almost time to take off on our mission trip to Yuma, Arizona to assist church planter Jason Taylor in spreading the news about Christ and the new church plant Yuma Community Church.  We will be leaving on Tuesday, February 7th and I am very excited about this because I love to share the Gospel and help church planters/pastors in any way possible.

The group that is going consists of Bryant Harris & Matthew Lappin of Bear Point Church, Travis Penn of Calvary Church, Ernie Lewis of Blue Point Church, Stephen Gray, Tom Harmon, & Roman & Jessica Sotelo of Rescue Church, Ron Malone of Peace Church, Mike McClintock of Bethel Church, and Eldon Schmidt, Brad Range, and myself of Victory Church.

Here is a brief description of some of the events we already have scheduled:

Tuesday afternoon: we will eat Supper with Taylors (first things first, right?) then go to College Campus and pass out Starbucks gift cards along with flyers about Yuma Community Church

Wednesday: we will distribute "Door Hangers" around the city and have a prayer service that evening.

Thursday: we will distribute more "Door Hangers" around the city and go the nearby mall passing out free movie tickets along with flyers about Yuma Community Church

Friday: once again we will distribute "Door Hangers" around the city.

Besides these planned activities, some of the group to bury electrical and plumbing lines to the camper home in his back yard.

Jason will also be on a local radio station this week on their "Drive at 5:00" to talk about the church and this week’s ministry to the community. He will explain the free Starbucks cards and movie tickets and where they can get them.

Please pray for safety in travel and that we have a successful trip with 1000's of contacts made for Christ.  For more information about Jason and Yuma Community Church click here.