• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Outward OPC

Engage | Connect | Reach

  • Featured Posts (Home Page)
  • Blog (All Posts)
  • About
  • Email Us

Home Missions

You Are What You Love – Part 2 (The University)

March 20, 2018 By Home Missions

In Part 1 of our series on James K. Smith’s You Are What You Love (Part 1), we considered Smith’s thesis that people at their very core are most significantly formed by what they love. What a person loves is more formative even than what they think or what they believe. We narrowed our focus […]

Filed Under: ..., Format: Article, You Are What You Love

You Are What You Love (and so is everybody else) – Part 1

March 15, 2018 By Home Missions

What if your neighbor actually loves liturgy more than you? In November at the Regional Church Extension Conference, multiple sessions were dedicated to the topic of 2 recent books by James K.A. Smith—Desiring the Kingdom and You Are What You Love. I (Brad Hertzog) led the sessions with 25 men—chairmen of Presbytery Missions Committees and […]

Filed Under: ..., Format: Article, You Are What You Love

An Unintentional Unwelcoming Welcome

February 14, 2018 By Home Missions

Sometimes our sincere efforts to welcome visitors on a Sunday can actually be unwelcoming and we don’t even know it. This is our third installment highlighting one of the sessions entitled “Building a Culture of Evangelism” at the 2018 Church Planter Training Conference. In previous posts, we looked at an overview of loving people in […]

Filed Under: ..., Building A Culture of Evangelism, Format: Article

Podcast Episode #1 (Chris Hartshorn)

February 10, 2018 By Home Missions

The Outward OPC podcast is born! This will be an occasional podcast, not a set time of weekly or monthly. When we have opportunity, we will be interviewing OPC pastors and some other guests to talk about outreach and evangelism. You can listen to the podcast right here (orange play button) or download it with […]

Filed Under: ..., Format: Podcast/Audio

Preaching & Evangelism

February 1, 2018 By Home Missions

We continue our series of highlights from the Church Planters Conference in St. Augustine. Last week, we considered some matters relating to “Building A Culture of Evangelism” in our churches (Link). During the same session Eric Watkins, the host pastor, led a brief discussion on the role of preaching and evangelism. Eric had an interesting […]

Filed Under: ..., Building A Culture of Evangelism, Format: Article

Building A Culture of Evangelism

January 23, 2018 By Home Missions

Last week was the annual Church Planter Training Conference in St. Augustine. One of the sessions was an extended consideration of “Building a Culture of Evangelism.” John Shaw led this with contributions by Al Tricarico and host pastor Eric Watkins. John & Eric completed teaching their first MTI-OPC class on Evangelism this past August. We […]

Filed Under: ..., Building A Culture of Evangelism, Format: Article

Reading Outside the Box Because We Live Outside the Box

December 4, 2017 By Home Missions

“The First Church of Intersectionality” “Why Asian Americans Struggle to Feel at Home in White-Majority Churches” “Generation X, Y, Z, and Others” These are 3 recent articles from Steve Doe’s monthly curated selections that he passes on to his presbytery.     Steve is the Regional Home Missionary for the Presbytery of the MidAtlantic. He […]

Filed Under: ..., Format: Article

Sneak Peek – Home Missions Video

November 17, 2017 By Home Missions

Take a first look at part of a new intro video about the vision of OPC Home Missions. The full video will be released in the future, but we wanted followers here to get a preview.

Filed Under: ..., Format: Video

Viewing Church Planting Through A Servant Lens

October 25, 2017 By Home Missions

A couple of years ago the Presbytery of the Mid-Atlantic was doing some preliminary work in regard to planting in Washington, D.C. When they expressed the goal of the project they stated it this way: “We do not presume to know, at this time, whether the Lord would have this presbytery engage in church planting […]

Filed Under: ..., Format: Article

Outward Stories From The Field: Houston – House to House After Harvey

October 10, 2017 By Home Missions

The October issue of New Horizons includes a well thought out vision of church planting for Houston from Mark Sumpter (You can download the pdf of that issue here: October 2017 New Horizons). As noted, that article was written before the devastation of Hurricane Harvey. Talk about an immediate challenge to your church planting vision! […]

Filed Under: ..., Format: Article, Stories From the Field

A Rush On Our Reader Survey? … and more results

September 28, 2017 By Home Missions

Before we get into the next consideration of results, we note that there was a rush to the survey during our last post. 33 people went and took the survey, almost a 50% increase in a couple of days. We were wondering if we were going to see the Outwardly OPC Reader Survey trending on Twitter! (If […]

Filed Under: ..., Format: Article

Where Vos Thought Machen Was Wrong & The OPC Lineage of Evangelism

September 26, 2017 By Home Missions

Consider these selected quotes that have been pieced together and we’ll say more about them below: In the archives at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia is preserved a handwritten sermon by J. Gresham Machen dated March 30, 1925. It deals with 1 Timothy 3:15 and is entitled “The Church of the Living God, the Pillar and […]

Filed Under: ..., Format: Article

Reader Survey: 89% of respondents asked about conversions in Reformed Churches said….

September 20, 2017 By Home Missions

Thanks to all who have taken a few minutes to take our initial survey. (If you haven’t there’s still time–How Outwardly Facing Are We? ). We expect to learn a lot from this and future surveys. So far 75 people have taken it. At this point it’s almost all OPC. That’s intentional, and will change […]

Filed Under: ..., Format: Article

Looking at Outreach Ideas – Some Collected Examples

September 10, 2017 By Home Missions

In the early stages of developing Outward OPC, one of our goals is to share the stories and ideas of what churches are doing to reach people. Last week at the Regional Church Extension Conference in Orlando this need was again discussed. The chairmen of the Presbytery Missions Committees and our Regional Home Missionaries suggested […]

Filed Under: ..., Format: Article, Stories From the Field

How Outwardly Facing Are We? – Take Our Reader Survey

September 9, 2017 By Home Missions

It would be a great help for all of us if you took this quick 5 question (anonymous) survey. We plan to share and discuss results in coming days.  

Filed Under: ..., Format: Article

Google Maps May be Frustrating Your Visitors Before They Even Arrive- And How To Fix It

August 21, 2017 By Home Missions

A potential visitor to your church takes a look at your website to get a sense of what you are about. When they look for your location, hopefully they see a map that tells them at a glance where they will be going. But then, Sunday morning they hop into the car, pull out their […]

Filed Under: ..., Format: Article

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 6
  • Go to page 7
  • Go to page 8

Primary Sidebar

New Content, Resources & Stories (occasional email updates)
* indicates required

Follow OPC Home Missions

Facebook
Twitter

Series & Categories

  • … (156)
  • 10 Things I've Seen (11)
  • Brad Peppo: On the Frontlines (Video) (9)
  • Building A Culture of Evangelism (7)
  • Eric Hausler: On the Frontlines (Video) (8)
  • Eric Watkins: On The Frontlines (Video) (7)
  • Evangelism & Ministry During Pandemic (10)
  • Evangelism in Difficult Times (8)
  • Format: Article (96)
  • Format: Podcast/Audio (17)
  • Format: Video (31)
  • Lessons in Leadership (7)
  • Millennials Talk Millenials (10)
  • Racial Unrest & The Church (6)
  • Shane Lems: Welcoming Church (9)
  • Stories From the Field (15)
  • Truth & Love: Communicating Gospel Truth in Speech & Action (14)
  • You Are What You Love (3)

Recent Posts

  • Communication Series: Discussion & Highlights – Part 2
  • Lessons in Leadership – Part 7 (Al Tricarico)
  • Adapting Outreach During Strange Times
  • Specific Examples of God at Work During a Pandemic
  • You Have Spoken: Your Top 3 of 2020
  • What I Learned From Big Evangelicalism About Reaching People
  • SoCal Pastors Part 2 – Outward Focus
  • SoCal Pastors Part 1 – Evangelistic Culture
  • Communication Series: Loving Their Story Part 2