Wasted Evangelism - Wasted Evangelism in Action

Amy, The Hope Dealer: Huck's Hero of the Week (and ours everyday!)

Fri, 02 Feb 2018 12:35:41 GMT

Tears streamed down as I watched and listened to this segment of Governor Huckabee's talk show. I have never watched the show before, but my super-hero (and honored to say friend) Amy "Hope Dealer" Williams was given the opportunity to talk about her work among the gangs of Chicago. There are no lines of people, lines of Christians, no lines of churches with their ministries, no lines of young Bible College students, seminary students, no line of people lining up to do this. I so get Amy's words. "This isn't about they and them. It's we and us. These are our kids!" I encourage you to watch the segment (not long at all, but powerful) and check out Amy's website and ministry (ahopedealer.org). Amy is most certainly in a Wasted Evangelism ministry.

Wasted Evangelism is my book on the relationship of social action and the church's task of evangelism. Post's like these highlight Wasted Evangelism in practice. Check out the book, Wasted Evangelism: Social Action and the Church's Task of Evangelism–all royalties go to help with the expenses of our church plant and ministry in the Hill neighborhood of New Haven, CT. Check out our CPC in The Hill church plant and ministry >> Click here

Living Bread Ministry asks us to rethink church planting among the poor

Wed, 15 Feb 2017 16:09:03 GMT

Living Bread Ministries is calling us to rethink church planting. Here's a short video which gives a brief overview of what makes LBM ministry distinct and forward thinking.

We have partnered with Living Bread Ministries because we believe their approach to church planting and our vision at CPC in The Hill are similar. Check out their Freegrance website to see more how they seek to empower the local church among the global poor.

When the promo code CPCHill20 is applied to Freegrance orders, 20% of your purchase will also help CPC in The Hill and its ministries.

*This video was produced by Awesome Drop Media.

Love146: Saying no to child and sex trafficking isn't enough--take action

Thu, 24 Sep 2015 15:54:17 GMT

END CHILD TRAFFICKING AND EXPLOITATION
Love146 works to prevent child trafficking & exploitation, care for survivors, and empower a growing movement. Love is the foundation of their motivation.

Love146 is an international human rights organization working to end child trafficking and exploitation through survivor care and prevention. The trafficking and exploitation of children is one of the darkest stories and most severe human rights abuses imaginable. But at Love146, the hope of ending it is a reality. Love146 is helping grow the movement to end child trafficking while providing effective, thoughtful solutions. They believe in the power of love and its ability to effect sustainable change. Love is the foundation of our motivation.

Check out Love146 >>

A NIGHT OF MEANINGFUL FUN
OCTOBER 8th
6:30-8:30pm
STONY CREEK BREWERY
5 Indian Neck Avenue, Branford, CT

Why 146?

Join Love146 for our first ever Hope is Brewing event in Connecticut. Hope is Brewing is a night of meaningful fun where abolitionists and activists can come together for a good cause. Ticket prices include dinner, craft beer, pub games, and a donation to Love146. Bring a friend and your favorite board game. Families welcome – non-alcoholic beverages will be available and children under the age of 5 are free. We hope to see you there!

Partnership and fundraising events also held in Dallas on September 29th (next year again in Houston and Austin, TX).

*Although Love146 is not a faith-based organization, its founders were inspired by the Christian faith to create a system to end child and sex trafficking. Wasted Evangelism in Action supports partnerships that seek justice--and in this case, justice for the world's vulnerable children. Partnering, strategically, outside the Christian circle is a Wasted Evangelism input (resource/activity). Content is adapted from Love146 website.

Sharing Christmas this Fall, an annual outreach of Living Bread Ministries among the poorest on the planet

Fri, 18 Sep 2015 14:37:50 GMT

Share Christmas from Living Bread Ministries on Vimeo.

Share Christmas is an outreach of Living Bread Ministries in which we equip our church plants to provide school and hygiene supplies for children and youth in their communities. Children who are under school age usually receive a toy. All the gifts are distributed by our church plants as part of a long term strategy for planting churches among the global poor and equipping them to minister in a comprehensive way. To learn more visit sharechristmas.org.

Living Bread Ministries is leading a comprehensive church planting movement among the global poor. We plant churches among the marginalized, proclaiming the Gospel and making disciples while assisting them to meet the comprehensive needs of their community. Our unique approach combines church planting, humanitarian aid, and development work in the context of an indigenous local church. Learn more >>

*The material used is from theLiving Bread Ministries website.

“We welcome refugees," harnessing church capacity for a time of crisis

Wed, 09 Sep 2015 13:03:23 GMT

This Sunday – September 13, 2015 We Welcome Refugees are inviting all churches and Christian Leaders to take a moment in your services and gatherings to discuss the incredible humanitarian tragedy and faced by largely Syrian Refugees.

This is the church's moment in history.

“We Welcome Refugees” harnesses the capacity of the church’s diverse social network in order to open doors to the unfathomable number of refugees who are now showing up at our doors.

The world is facing the worst refugee crisis since WWII. There are 7.6 million Syrians who are displaced in their own country and 3.8 million who have sough refuge in other countries. There is not relief for this crisis in sight. In fact, the data and situation suggest things will become worse. These families are moving not simply better their lives, but literally save their lives.

“The local church is the most diverse social network on the planet. And it is rising up like never before to engage the great global issues of our time. God has called individuals, communities and the church to become champions of the poor and vulnerable.” ~World Relief

There is a place for your church, your people, your community, to have a practical, tangible, real way to welcome in the stranger in Christ’s name, a place hosted by World Relief, The Justice Conference, and Ann Voskamp (with more partners to be added soon).

We’ve seen the heart-stopping photographs. And we know that the Love of God, for such a time as now, will not be stopped. And the Church, moved to action, can be God’s answer to untold prayers, to bring grace and justice and redemption in a situation that can seem impossible.

Become a partner

Connect to the potential you have to offer to our neighbors, the millions of refugees needing you to welcome them.

Get Involved

Check out the WeWelcomeRefugees website >>

*The material above is adapted from the “We Welcome Refugees” website.

Running for Water, a Wasted Evangelism in Action personal commitment

Fri, 04 Sep 2015 13:04:58 GMT

A friend is running for water. A partnership with World Vision. This is Wasted Evangelism in Action: combining a passion for running, a social action partner (World Vision), a cause to be advocated for (lack of clean, usable water), and a people to benefit from blessings (African families and children).

I'm running with Team World Vision to help provide clean water for communities in Africa. The needs are real, but we believe that we can end the clean water crisis in our lifetime.

$50 = clean water for 1 person.

Will you invest in the future and provide clean water for 1, 2, 3, or even more people in Africa? We can help change lives, together.

Thanks for your support!

Check out her World Vision running for water page > >

You, too, can join Grete running for water event . . .

Team World Vision runs for clean water & fullness of life for children in Africa.

In Africa they say, “Water is Life”. About 724 million people in the world lack access to safe drinking water. Children and women often walk five to ten miles a day to gather water that isn’t even safe to drink; water that can make them sick. More children die from diseases caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation than almost any other cause - more than AIDS and malaria combined.

Team World Vision empowers people to experience radical life transformation through endurance races, community advocacy, and social giving for the sake of clean water in Africa. World Vision activates partnerships and community engagement to bring clean water to people around the world - helping create fullness of life for children in need.

DRINK COFFEE. DO GOOD., a way to bring gospel reconciliation

Tue, 01 Sep 2015 13:06:33 GMT

At 2013 The Justice Conference in Philadelphia I visited one of the vendor-booths I couldn’t resist: The Land of a Thousand Hills had coffee! I always can use coffee.

Before I had my cup of coffee, the young lady shared their story, one of love, of entrepreneurship, of empowering, and of powerful reconciliation through the gospel of Jesus, the Messiah--and coffee! Land of a Thousand Hills is truly a Wasted Evangelism ministry where social action has biblically centered evangelistic outcome.

In April 1994, Rwanda (an African country half the size of the state of Maryland) experienced one of history's most atrocious genocides. Within a third of a year close to one million ethnic Tutsi and moderate Hutu sympathizers lost their lives to the hands of extremist Hutu militia. The 1994 genocide that left so many innocent people either dead, orphaned, or widowed has now become a focal point of the global community. Rwanda made a commitment to national restoration, even calling upon the church to lead the country in reconciliation. They also turned to the outside world for help with the healing and assistance to eradicate poverty, disease, and illiteracy.

In 2005, Jonathan Golden, founder of Land of a Thousand Hills, recognized a simple and tangible opportunity to make a difference in the reconciliation of the Rwandan people. This realization led him to start a coffee company that pays a fair wage to the farmers of Rwanda, helps them with their basic needs, and brings a quality product to coffee lovers. Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee partners with farmers and local community leaders to develop the coffee into a sustainable income, striving to further meet the needs of the people. When you buy Land of a Thousand Hills, you are receiving coffee that is 100% Arabica, fairly traded, and roasted fresh. Their motto says it all: Drink Coffee. Do Good.®

*The material used is adapted from the narrative on the Land of a Thousand Hills' website.

Click the picture below and help support Land of a Thousand Hills and its mission of reconciliation.

Purchase coffee and other products and help support the impact of reconcilation in Rwanda.

Introducing “The Justice Conference,” a gathering of intentional Wasted Evangelism in Action

Wed, 26 Aug 2015 01:32:02 GMT

In 2013 I was introduced to The Justice Conference, a gathering of evangelical, socially-minded Christians in Philadelphia around issues of justice. I was overwhelmed as over 3,000 Christians came to be challenged about local and global issues on poverty, oppression, and other issues of justice. Hundreds of organizations, agencies, NGOs, and church-centered ministries set up booths—artists, coffee entrepreneurs, hydroponics, medical practitioners, even some young ladies in middle school raising money to send poor African children to good schools.

The Justice Conference vision is “to serve the discovery of ideas, celebrate the beauty of justice, and foster a community of people who live justice together.” Althought the physical conference has found a home in Chicago, the conference is a multisite venue, being hosted in home towns and churches throughout the United States, and as well, also hosted in Hong Kong and Melbourne, Australia). They are one of the largest Biblical and Social Justice Conferences that brings world-class Speakers and artists together, all designed to catalyze emerging works of justice around the globe. The Justice Conference has emerged as one of the premier gatherings for Christian leaders, justice practitioners, students, and learners from all over the world. They seek to leverage the power of community and catalyze the work of justice globally, nationally, locally and personally.

“Justice is our worship in action.”
~Mark Reddy

What if Christians truly lived out the message of Jesus and transformed their communities through their love and the practice of authentic justice?

This idea was put into action by Ken Wytsma (Antioch Church, Bend) and Stephan Bauman (World Relief), who together, founded and facilitated the first The Justice Conference in 2010. Since it’s birth, momentum continues to build and the vision for The Justice Conference continues to reach thousands of people around the world, connecting a generation of men and women around a shared concern for the vulnerable and oppressed. They have created space in the life of the church and in our busy calendars for God’s church to help find practical ways to involve people in issues of justice—both in their day-to-day lives at home and around the world—by providing first rate exhibitors, literature (at the Conference Bookstore), pre-conference sessions and spotlight organizations.

The 2016 Justice Conference is scheduled for June 3-4 in Chicago. Consider joining them >>

*The content above is adapted from The Justice Conference website.