We continue taking lessons from John Leonard’s book, “Get Real.” In the past couple posts, he has intentionally startled us with his opening thesis. Today, it seems like maybe he’s been with us on several occasions in our lives, maybe even hanging out with us at work or a group lunch! “It has happened to […]
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Evangelism Reader’s Digest: Get Real #5 – Who Gets Evangelized & Who Gets Discipled?
If you’ve been following along with our series on lessons from former Westminster seminary prof and current PCA pastor John Leonard’s book, “Get Real,” then you know he likes to throw some cold water in our faces to start an idea. This week is no different in his chapter, “Evangelize Christians and Disciple Non-Christians”: “Conventional […]
Evangelism Reader’s Digest: Get Real #4 – An End to Friendship Evangelism???
We return to our series looking at lessons from John Leonard’s book, “Get Real.” This week Leonard opens with a jarring and pointed statement: “Friendship evangelism is not biblical! OK, that’s an overstatement. And yet, the conventional wisdom today is that friendship evangelism is the only form of evangelism.” Now, stick with him as he […]
Midwestern OPC Church Planting & Evangelistic Tradition: Jim Hoekstra – Part 2
This is part 2 with Jim Hoekstra of Immaneul Church (OPC) in Anoka, MI. Jim is a long-time OPC pastor in the Midwest and has been involved in multiple church plants. We continued to talk about church planting with Jim and he also shared some of the long tradition of church planting and evangelistic efforts […]
Hidden Gems – Part 2
We introduced this series last time that we are calling “Hidden Gems.” After almost 5 years and 250 posts, we have detected several that had a distinct influence on people but maybe didn’t get the attention or circulation warranted. So we are sharing those on occasion over the next few months. This one had a […]
Hidden Gems – Part 1
Outward OPC will soon be 5 years old and we have published almost 250 articles, videos, and podcasts. Because we have a committed audience, we are able to get a good idea of what posts hit a particular chord with people. We can see the analytics (reads, shares, social media posts, etc) but we also […]
Developing Church Plants In The Midwest: Jim Hoekstra – Part 1
We interviewed Jim Hoekstra of Immaneul Church (OPC) in Anoka, MI. Jim is a long-time OPC pastor in the Midwest and has been involved in multiple church plants. We talked to Jim about his experience, what he has learned about church planting, and how they are growing a church plant in Minnesota. You can listen […]
Evangelism Reader’s Digest: Get Real #3 – Party Evangelism
In “Get Real,” author John Leonard has an interesting chapter called “Party Evangelism.” There are two sections to the chapter. The first is establishing that the western mindset has distorted the focus of Christianity to overly individualistic at the expense of the community aspect. This distortion has a significant impact on the role of the […]
Evangelism Reader’s Digest: Get Real #2 – Be Normal!
We are looking at lessons from John Leonard’s book evangelism called, “Get Real.” In his opening chapter, he poses the following story and commentary as the over-arching principle: “I have a problem,” began the young lady as she took a seat in my office. “My sister is coming to live with me and her life […]
Evangelism Reader’s Digest: Get Real #1 – Two Pictures of Evangelism
We are going to start a new series that will be interspersed with other topics and posts in the coming months. We are calling it “Evangelism Reader’s Digest.” We will take select chapters from good books on evangelism and share snippets from the chapter with our commentary and application for Reformed churches. Some of these […]
What’s Next?
Well, summer is winding down and while it’s not a new calendar year it’s that time where it feels like we start a new year. It’s funny how summer ending and the school year starting is so deeply rooted in us as a new year–even in the life of a church. As we head into […]
Getting Down To Business (Evangelism Conf.): Chris Hartshorn – Part 3
Former OPC church planter and recently installed Regional Home Missionary for Southern CA, Chris Hartshorn leads a conference on evangelism for the churches of SoCal. If you don’t know Chris, please take our word that this will be worth your time. Watch on your own, as a family, or as a church. For each of […]
We Can & We Will (Evangelism Conf.): Chris Hartshorn – Part 2
Former OPC church planter and recently installed Regional Home Missionary for Southern CA, Chris Hartshorn leads a conference on evangelism for the churches of SoCal. If you don’t know Chris, please take our word that this will be worth your time. Watch on your own, or together as a family, or as a church. For […]
Evangelism Focus Month: Are You On Board?
“Brothers and sisters we need to win sinners into our churches, right off the street, right out of our communities. People who have never set foot in a church need to come directly into our churches. We’re going to have to reach people out there because they’re not coming in here. Have you come to […]
We Should, But We Don’t (Evangelism Conf.): Chris Hartshorn – Part 1
Former OPC church planter and recently installed Regional Home Missionary for Southern CA, Chris Hartshorn leads a conference on evangelism for the churches of SoCal. If you don’t know Chris, please take our word for it, that this will be worth your time. Watch on your own, or together as a family, or as a […]
Reformed & Evangelistic: Trusting God In A Growing Young Church
This is Part 2 with Pastor Michael Schout (pronounced “Scout”) of Grace Fellowship OPC in Zeeland, MI. Harvest. Grace is a young church that has seen God’s abundant blessing in many areas. They have grown both spiritually and numerically in a fairly short period of time. The leadership and Pastor Schout are quick to note […]
Reformed & Evangelistic By God’s Grace in Michigan: Michael Schout – Part 1
We interviewed Pastor Michael Schout (pronounced “Scout”) of Grace Fellowship OPC in Zeeland, MI. Grace is a young church that has seen God’s abundant blessing in many areas. They have grown both spiritually and numerically in a fairly short period of time. The leadership and Pastor Schout are quick to note that such growth doesn’t […]
Mother/Daughter Church Planting in Ohio
Here is a helpful video with RHM Mike Diercks interviewing Matthew Patton, one of the pastors at Covenant in Vandalia, OH. They are talking about church planting in general, but also the specifics of mother-daughter church plants that they have done in Ohio. Below the video, we have supplied a few questions for thought or […]
OPC Talk Outreach: The Best of The Best – Part 2
This has been an extended series and we are grateful to all the OPC Pastors who participated in the interview. They provided great insights and examples. But we know that your lives are saturated with information–even great information. So, our final two posts will be some of the great quotes from the series. If you […]
OPC Pastors Talk Outreach – The Best of Best Part 1
This has been an extended series and we are grateful to all the OPC Pastors who participated in the interview. They provided great insights and examples. But we know that your lives are saturated with information–even great information. So, our final two posts will be some of the great quotes from the series. If you […]