In September & October we posted a 5-part series of OPC millennials talking about reaching millennials. We have a couple more posts coming in the series, but wanted to pause and give you a single post summary and recap. The authors have been very forthcoming and helpful and there are probably 20 things in this […]
Format: Article
Making the Gospel Clear in Our Culture – Part 2
Last week, Jeremiah Montgomery established the importance of gospel clarity in our communication to a culture that is no longer familiar with biblical/Christian ideas (Link: Part 1). This week he digs into examples of how we do that. Here’s Jeremiah: Making the Gospel Clear (Part 2) When my children were young, one of the books […]
Making the Gospel Clear in Our Culture – Part 1
We want to bring to this audience a two-part post by Jeremiah Montgomery that was originally published in New Horizons back when Jeremiah was church planting in State College, PA (before he went to the mission field in China). In these posts, Jeremiah lays out the importance and need for gospel clarity in an age […]
Do You Know Their Playlist?
Recently, John Shaw read an interesting post on a blog some of you may know called, Gentle Reformation. It’s a thoughtful piece–insightful with the right balance of qualifications–about the powerful messages of some of the most popular music of the day. You’ll notice from the title of the post that it’s a prod to pastors, […]
OPC Millennials Talk Reaching Millennials – Part 5 (Kerri Ann Cruse)
This is installment 5 in our series. You can find the other posts here: (Millennials Talk Millennials). This week, we hear from Kerri Ann Cruse. Kerri Ann is 27, mother of 1 year-old Jacob. She is the Social Media & Video Coordinator for the OPC. Kerri Ann is also the wife to Jonathan Cruse who […]
OPC Millennials Talk Reaching Millennials – Part 4 (Jonathan Cruse)
This is installment 4 in our series. You can find the other posts here: (Millennials Talk Millennials). This week, we hear from Jonathan Cruse. Jonathan is 27 and the pastor of Community Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Kalamazoo, MI. During Jonathan’s time at Community, the number of millennials has grown to about 25% of the congregation, […]
OPC Millennials Talk Reaching Millennials – Part 3 (Everett Henes)
This is installment 3 in our series. You can find the other posts here: (Millennials Talk Millennials). This week, we hear from Everett Henes. Everett is the pastor of Hillsdale OPC in Michigan. He’s 43 (yes we know that’s not a millennial), but he’s had extensive ministry opportunities with millennials for the past decade at […]
OPC Millennials Talk Reaching Millennials – Part 2 (Tiffany Ward)
Last week was our first installment of a series with OPC millennials talking about reaching millennials. (Link: Part 1: Ben Ward) This week, we hear from Tiffany Ward. Tiffany is 25, a consultant for a healthcare company, and an author of a thriller trilogy (Amazon: TA Ward). She has a degree from Gordon Conwell Seminary, […]
OPC Millennials Talk Reaching Millennials – Part 1 (Ben Ward)
We start a new series where we asked several OPC Millennials to talk about reaching Millennials. We provided 4 broad categories of questions, which you will see summarized, to prompt our respondents. These were simply prompts, and we gave them broad leeway to talk about important matters related to the OPC reaching millennials. A millennial […]
What We’ve Learned From You
It’s been about 18 months since we started Outward OPC, which leads us to reflect on a couple of things we’ve learned over the first year and a half of this project. 1. There are many remarkable and wonderful things happening in the OPC regarding evangelism. From the simple and quiet development of gospel-directed relationship […]
New Books on Evangelism
Over the past year, John Shaw has recommended 2 books on evangelism to churches and to Outward OPC. Numerous people have confirmed their value. They are: Get Real by John Leonard The Gospel Comes With A House Key by Rosaria Butterfield Within the past year, there has been a small flurry of interesting looking books […]
Reader Q&A: Tracts?
Reader Question: What gospel tract do you recommend, especially for purposes of giving something out when your church has a stand at a fair or festival? This can be a challenging question because there is some subjectivity involved and it seems that no tract is perfect. We will, however, make our best attempt to answer […]
Stories From the Field: Winston-Salem, NC
We recently checked in with Calvin Keller, the church planter at Harvest OPC in Winston-Salem, NC. Calvin just recently moved to Winston-Salem to take the call and has been on the ground for about 6 months. Upon moving to NC, Calvin and his wife had to temporarily live in an apartment complex and as Calvin […]
Helping Our Churches Be Appealing, Not Appalling
After 35 years as pastor of Franklin Square OPC, Bill Shishko is now leading a new church plant on Long Island (website: The Haven). In this new work, Bill is giving a lot of thought and effort to how this new church might reach people–unchurched or those with only a passing familiarity with the church. […]
When You Are at the Front Door & God Uses the Side
Have you caught an update in Home Missions Today or on Facebook about what’s happening at Grace Fellowship OPC in Huron, Ohio with church planter Larry Oldaker? After an extended season of discouragement, God is bringing another congregation in the area to join and be a part of Grace Fellowship. They have 21 people in […]
Rosaria Butterfield on Community & The Lord’s Day
We’ve featured Rosaria Butterfield here before (and will again), and John Shaw has talked about her book “The Gospel Comes With a House Key” on a podcast. Below is an article that is a short excerpt from part of that book. It is a thought-provoking and heart-stirring approach to living in community on the Lord’s […]
An OPC RHM (Home Missionary) Hits the Road To Grow & Learn
Recently, Mark Sumpter (RHM – Presbytery of the Southwest) shared a story with us about an opportunity he had to learn about church planting from outside of OPC circles. Mark has a friend from Houston who is taking a church planting class at RTS Jackson. Mark was invited to tag along to a full day […]
Who Will Attend Your Church This Sunday?
82% of unchurched people said they were “somewhat likely” to attend church if they were invited. 21% of active churchgoers have invited anyone to church in the course of a year. (And the number that invite an unchurched person is more like 2%!) Evangelistic Accelerant: This Sunday is arguably the day that an unchurched person […]
Welcoming Pastor (by Shane Lems) – Part 3
Last week, Shane Lems explored some insightful thoughts on being a welcoming pastor in leading worship and preaching (Welcoming Pastor – Part 2). Here’s Shane continuing to look at the pastor’s interaction with visitors: Love in Conversation Another angle of being a welcoming pastor is that we show love in conversations. Whether we talk to […]
The Welcoming Pastor (by Shane Lems) – Part 1
In the first part of this series, Shane Lems took us through a 3-part approach to being a welcoming church: biblical, balanced, and a missionary bent. You can read those posts here: (Welcoming Church). Later in the series Shane will focus on the congregation, but in this second part he focuses on the pastor. Over […]