Ministry Opportunity/Outlet

Saints,

Please be in prayer for me that the Lord would open up the opportunity for me to minister outside of my local church/fellowship. I believe the Lord has really been putting it on my heart lately to preach and minister to the saints on an intinerant basis.

I've had two thoughts.

One, to find a small place to rent/use for free, that I could teach out of once a month, and have some sort of ongoing conference style meeting that centers around personal discipleship and understanding the major themes of the faith.

The second thought is to contact local area churches and simply ask for the opportunity to speak from time to time, if the Lord so inclines their heart to receive me.

Of course, I'm not looking to make any money off of this. I'd gladly preach for free. I just have a great burden on my heart, and really feel this is something I should be trying to do.

Please pray for me in this regard, that God would open what God would open, and that He would shut what God would shut.

Many blessings,

Jimmy

I say preach the gospel. preach preach preach! go go go! :)

But i'll pray for ya, that the Lord will guide and direct as to how, where, and when.

Lord bless you for your desire to do His will!

Thank you for your prayerful support.

Interesting you should say "go go go." When I received my call a while back a guest preacher at my Church called me out, said I had heard from God recently, and that I was to "go, go, go." Thank you for this confirmation.

It's in the word. we are not called to be idle.

Lord bless you in your endeavors.

How is this going Jimmy?

It's only been a couple days.
But please keep us updated!~!

Well, I've identified a hotel that I would like to rent a meeting room from at. I am now just waiting to hear back from them on how much it would cost to use for two hours on a Friday night. This weekend I hope to compile a list of churches to call around and ask if I could have the chance to speak.

Thanks for praying and following up. :-)

Well, the hotel wants $300 for a 2 hour setup for 40 people. Seems a little too much. But, I'm praying for direction.

Offer them something more reasonable.

"Yet you do not have because you do not ask." James 4:2

Brother, I thank God for willing hearts to lose their lives for the Gospel. I pray the Lord will open doors, and hearts will be forever changed through this work. Keep your eyes upon Jesus dear brother. The fields are white, and ripe unto harvest; but the laborers are few. GO GO Go YE

Thank you for your continued support. The town I live in is a pretty decent sized place, so, finding somewhere cheaper than $300 should be possible to do. I'm sure I could bargin with the hotel. But honestly, I wouldn't want to pay more than $100 for a place that I'm going to hold a 2 hour long conference. Especially since I'm on a pretty tight budget as it is.

Jimmy,

How about someone's house? Are any of the lawyers at the firm where you work believers who would be open to surrendering their homes to the Lord?

My wife and I were discipled by a lawyer (and his wife) for over 10 years. Their home was always open whether it was for an organized Bible study or someone was in need. Although my friend was a member of a denomination the Bible grew to be one of the most diverse groups you could imagine. I've yet to see anything like it since then.

Perhaps as you contact the other churches in your area you could ask them to spread the word and see if anyone is open to the idea of hosting your meetings for a season.

One pastor I know had book studies at the local Barnes and Noble (or some other retailer). This was more evangelistic however, as opposed to discipleship. He would usually pick some secular book (novel, etc) and in the discussion challege the thinking behind the book in a very gracious way as a means of pointing people to the Truth.

Please keep us posted; it's encouraging to hear when God begins to move.

Matthew

Well, I am already involved with three small groups that meet at homes and a coffee shop. We have a lot of such groups in my church. One of those I'm a leader in. I wouldn't be opposed to meeting in somebody else's place if such an opportunity arose. But I would like to really branch outwardly.

God bless.

Jimmy

Have any branches grown as of late?

Matthew

Yes. I visited a church plant where somebody I went to college with is attempting to plant a church. While there, he asked if I would take 10 minutes at the end of service to preach a word about prayer. I have found a hotel that also will give me a decent rate (less than $200) to rent a conference space. I am prayerfully considering renting this and trying to host a localized conference on discipleship. I may weight a few months to do this though.

Thank you for your continued prayer.

I may weight a few months to do this though.

Don't wait long, brother. Months turn into years quickly. Not trying to entice you to move ahead of the Lord, but while the fire burns, burn.

Praise the Lord, Jimmy!
This is fantastic!
will continue in prayer..

I'd attend a conference in NC if i were closer by. I have family in raleigh, so if I happen to be visiting I would sure go! but would probably be rare

Well, it seems the Lord is opening a door of opportunity for me at a nice Baptist church in the area. In a couple weeks I'm supposed to meet with the pastor there, and I guess he'll screen me to make sure I'm good. I come highly recommended by one of his members though, who also happens to be somebody I indirectly work with. :-)

Praise the Lord...

That's Great Jimmy! I will be praying that you pass the pastors screening :)

God Bless,
Matthew

Thank you for the continued prayers. I have also recently been approached by an elder in my church who is attempting to plant a church near one of the university's in our area. He's asked some for my help. Seems like the Lord is opening doors all around.

For now, I've decided to put off doing any sort of local conference. I just didn't feel like there was a green light from the Lord to do that right now.

Good news: My pastor called me today to tell me that he was going to talk to several area churches affiliated with our denomination about having me as a guest speaker. He says there are about 6 or 7 that are small churches, and are often in great need of somebody to fill in from time to time when the pastor goes on vacation, or has some other need come up.

You could probably come to my church it seems almost every other week we have a guest speaker or missionary especially here lately. :)

I am doing my internship and so I have to do a certian amount of preaching from the pulpit. One time I was assigned the Topic of Tithing (which I was currently doing a great amount of research on) and instead of talking about that we ought to tithe I talked about how we ought to tithe if we should choose to tithe.

Well mguldner, if you guys wanna buy me an airplane ticket and give me a place to stay, I'll consider it :-)