Last year we had a series on leadership that got significantly interrupted by life in 2020. We ended up fitting it in at different times, and we have one of those posts remaining which we are “fitting in” at the start of this new year. OPC Pastors shared not just thoughts on leadership, but we […]
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Adapting Outreach During Strange Times
How are we supposed to reach people when we can’t find people and can’t hang out with them or even get close to them? We asked our church planters how they are learning to adapt their outreach efforts. It’s a challenging time, but here are some helpful, specific things OPC church plants are doing and […]
Specific Examples of God at Work During a Pandemic
Is God really at work during the pandemic? Are references to positive things happening just things we tell ourselves to keep encouraged and thinking positively? We asked our current church planters to tell us if they had one specific example of new people who have come to the church because of the circumstances of the […]
You Have Spoken: Your Top 3 of 2020
We are thankful for over 6,000 visitors and 15,000 views of various posts this year. Thanks for reading. listening, watching AND thanks for your feedback throughout the year. We love to hear what is working and what is needed from our audience. With that, a highlight of the top 3 posts of 2020 with a […]
What I Learned From Big Evangelicalism About Reaching People
Following up on the 2-part podcast we did with 3 OPC pastors, we asked Jesse Pirschel to write an article about what he learned during his time in Calvary Chapel that still influences his ministry, especially to the lost, even if he’s had to nuance and tweak those helpful things once he came to a […]
Communication Series: Loving Their Story Part 2
This article is a continuation from last week. You are free to read this post as a stand alone, but it will make more sense in the context of last week’s part 1, which you can read here: Loving Their Story – Part 1 Part 1 also includes a preface from John Shaw that we […]
Communication Series: Loving Their Story Part 1
Preface To This Week’s Article By John Shaw: Every person is drawn to a good story. Does that statement sound too bold? Too certain? Absolute statements are often too simple, that we can all agree on. (See what I did there. Another absolute.) Yet I think, if we pay attention, we see that story telling […]
The Only Christian In The Room
If you missed earlier posts in this series, “Truth & Love: Communicating Gospel Truth In Speech & Action,” you can find them here: “Truth & Love Communication Series”. For today’s post we asked Brad Peppo to write on an intriguing topic: What do you do if you are the only Christian in the room? Brad […]
Communication Series: Discussion & Highlights #1
We are about 5 weeks into our series “Truth & Love: Communicating Gospel Truth in Speech & Action.” We know there is a lot of great stuff to read and not enough time. When we’ve done these longer series, we have found it helpful to jump in at various points and create a post that […]
Truth & Love: Do You Want to Love Your Neighbor?
If you have missed earlier posts in this series, “Truth & Love: Communicating Gospel Truth In Speech & Action,” you can find them here: (Series Posts). Today’s post is from Jeremiah Montgomery, one of the pastors at Covenant Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Vandalia, OH. He is previously a foreign missionary in the OPC and former […]
Truth & Love: Practicing Hospitality As A Gospel Welcome (Al Tricarico)
Last week Al Tricarico discussed the importance and call of hospitality as a display of God’s welcome to us (Link: Part 1). This week Al continues with some practical thoughts about how to build a pattern of hospitality….Here’s Al: Know your neighbors Love of neighbor needs to be qualified. At least that is what the […]
Truth & Love: Hospitality Communicates Gospel Truth (Al Tricarico)
This series, “Truth & Love: Communicating Gospel Truth in Speech & Action,” began last week with a podcast with John Shaw (Find that here: “Podcast- Shaw”). This week, Al Tricarico digs into the call of hospitality as a gospel welcome. As many will know, Al is the Associate General Secretary for Home Missions and former […]
Truth & Love: Communicating Gospel Truth in Speech & Action
As the September issue of New Horizons gets released in the next few days, readers will see an article from John Shaw about communication. There is an attached advertisement about a new, related series here on Outward OPC for this fall. That series will formally start next week with a podcast episode with John. For […]
Lessons in Leadership – Part 6 (Dave Holmlund)
This series got interrupted by life the last few months, but here is another installment of OPC pastors reflecting on what they’ve learned about leadership from a particular book they choose to breakdown. A reminder about this series: We are seeking to always cultivate leadership that is effective and displays the compassion of our Lord. […]
Recap, Regroup, & Moving Forward
In recent months we’ve focused our posts on ministry and outreach during the two dominating themes of the year: the pandemic and the racial unrest throughout our country. For a review or to dig into those posts, you can go here: 1) Pandemic: Evangelism & Ministry During Pandemic Probably the most popular post from that […]
What Are You Doing? OPC Pastors and The Current Events
As the last few months have been dominated by the pandemic and the racial unrest in our country, we’ve sought to give you updates on how God is at work and what our churches are doing with such unusually demanding and pervasive “current events.” We asked several pastors what they and their churches were doing […]
OPC Pastor Prayers For Time of Racial Unrest
Last week, the OPC Facebook page shared some prayers from 5 OPC pastors about the racial unrest in our country. We thought they may be helpful to our audience, so we gathered them in one pdf file linked below. They may be helpful in your own prayer life, or in sharing (or maybe praying) with […]
An Opportunity to Listen (by John Shaw)
Last week, I shared an article by Sam Allberry, where he reflects on three lessons he learned from Ravi Zacharias. All three lessons help us learn how to listen well, and how to speak rightly, in a world where sin and its painful, poisonous fruits bring great pain. This week, I am sharing another article […]
What Ravi Taught Us…Even For This Exact Moment (by John Shaw)
Two weeks ago, the church mourned the death of one of the more effective and well-known gospel communicators of his generation – Ravi Zacharias. A gift to the church, he worked tirelessly to help Christians learn how to share the gospel with all sorts of people all over the globe. We can give thanks for […]
Stories From the (Virtual) Field: Webinar in TX
Carl Miller, OPC church planter in New Braunfels, TX recently hosted a free webinar on “Grief & Perseverance in Suffering.” He did the same presentation twice at different times of day to accommodate peoples’ schedules. He used ZOOM which allowed him to give a presentation, including PowerPoint slides, and a Q&A after with those who […]