Saturday, April 11, 2009

Easter Message from my friend Gil

Dear Bob,
Easter is a time when we remember the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf. He paid for our sins on the cross and was resurrected to prove that He was our Savior and Lord. I personally cannot go through this season without taking time to picture myself laying in the dirt at the base of the cross with Jesus hanging on it. I am weeping for my sins and self-focus. His drops of blood are landing all around me and on me as I hear Him offer forgiveness. To receive grace from God when I should receive wrath is amazing.

May I never recover from the realization that I do not deserve what God has freely given me in Christ.

In His Service,

Dr. Gil Stieglitz
1900 Balboa Drive
Roseville, CA 95661
916.344.3322
www.westerndistrict.org
www.ptlb.com


Thank you Gil! But more importantly thank you JESUS!

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

It's Easter Everyday..

For a recovering American Church pastor, Easter is everyday. Everyday is Resurrection Sunday.

Would you be surprised if I am not all excited about Resurrection Sunday? Why? I'm excited about Resurrection day & everyday in the lives of those I meet.

I'm not excited about Easter Sunday spectaculars because every day is another Easter Spectacular. What we create on Easter Sunday is not match for what Jesus creates everyday.

If you don't see me Sunday, look for me on Monday with the people Jesus came to redeem.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Out of ministry to be in ministry...

I'm out of professional ministry in search of being in ministry.

Professing believers do not pay me, I work as a tent maker. Jesus is the ONE who owns me, not man.

After 28 years of bondage to the church in America I can finally say I am FREE!

How free? You tell me this time.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Moving on and out one step at a time...

Tonight on the eve of my 51st birthday Michelle & I are taking next steps in our disciple making/multiplying journey. Not sure where we will end up but very sure our disciple multiplying efforts will remain the goal of our lives.

Saying goodbye to Disciple Driven Church and her safety net is exciting and full of the possibility of initiating the launch of many more disciple multiplying movements.

God refuses to let us settle in for very long. With excitement following our first step into the Red Sea or River Jordan we have no clue what that second step will look like. We move forward with the promise that God always honors faith and total dependency upon Him.

These are truly exciting days as we walk in His steps. Keep praying for the disciple multipliers who remain with Disciple Driven Church. And, praise God for His work in their lives.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

What's wrong with this picture?




For some time I have been speaking out on the issue of a "Flawed Discipleship Process" in our churches and in the thinking of many parents. We have been taught and taught others to fully entrust our children into the hands of "professional/trained/teachers" for their spiritual development. In the end a perceived good thing like Sunday School and youth groups has brought terrible results. Instead of parents being taught how to disciple their own kids,others took that role for them. Really, handing our children over to the experts and into great programs seemed like the right thing to do. Parental failure to disciple their own children has resulted in consequences too painful to admit or even carry.

No,I am not church bashing/Sunday school bashing/youth group bashing or parent bashing, this article is presented to raise awareness.

The Following article comes from Disciple Like Jesus a ministry that focuses on parental disciple making and the tools to accomplish the task.

Disciple Like Jesus Article:

"What's at Stake?

Your children and your friends' eternal destinies are at stake. According to Barna Research and other organizations, the church is losing between 75 and 88 percent of its children (never to return) by their second year of college. Only 9 percent of all born-again Christians have a biblical worldview; that means that your child and friends have less than a 10 percent chance of having a biblical worldview in the future!

Assuming that only 75 percent of all youth are leaving, this translates into more than 2 million children in America each year who are permanently leaving the church and over 40 million lost in the last two decades. If we do nothing to address this situation, by the year 2050 we will lose another 113 million children!

Regarding adult converts, there has been discussion for decades about the "revolving door" in the church. Many churches have reached a plateau of membership, and many are actually declining.

What’s the Root Cause?

We believe that the root cause is a faulty discipleship process that has been used by most Christian parents for decades. In summary, the process is identical to the training system used in secular society, except for the presence of faith-related activities such as church attendance, prayer, etc. The total time spent on biblical training is less than five hours a week. With less than five hours of biblical training a week and more than eighty hours of nonbiblical training/influence a week, the nonbiblical influence easily wins out shortly after our children leave home. As a result, our children and future generations are lost to the world.

This faulty process is based on information transfer (secular education) rather than the development of deep, lifetime relationships with God and man. Consequently, there is no lasting fruit for individuals or for God's kingdom."

The Planter: The faulty process is not only just "information transfer over deepened relationships with God and man but also one of spiritual authority transfer from the parent to other teachers/leaders. We have given up our most important role of discipling our own children without even realizing it. When we do not disciple our own children they do not look to us as having any spiritual authority over them.

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Declaring God's Glory over Satan's Devastation



Through Disciple Driven Church and Sun Ministries we have accepted the call to plant missionaries in devastated neighborhoods in order to reclaim lives and land destroyed by Satan's evil. We are not planting churches - we are planting trained missionaries to live in these areas and make the Christ difference in them.

I believe Satan mocks God by showing Him the large American cities ravaged by his evil. I can almost hear Satan mocking God, "Look at what I have done to your cities. Where is your power and where is your churches influence? I am destroying everything important to you."

So we are committed to taking the next step to reclaim the hearts and land devastated by Satan in order to Declare God's Glory once again. Satan is mocking us and our God.

Through our Disciples making Disciples efforts we are raising up Holy Spirit empowered missionaries with a commitment to move into these broken down neighborhoods to bring God's redeeming power to the city. In St. Louis just 9 blocks from the arch we have entire neighborhoods of destruction. While many have left those areas many are trapped. As we rebuild many will come back to the inner city.

As these neighborhoods come back -The Glory of God will be restored and disciples who make disciples will also bring glory back to the land. We envision new "God life" rising up from among the ruin.

We are calling missionaries to St. Louis! If you are up to a God sized opportunity -we are recruiting, training, and releasing for this cause.

We are targeting mostly young college grads who long to experience the God they read about in Scriptures but have never experiences and those who long to rebuild people and land from ruin to God's Glory.

Monday, January 05, 2009

Kary Oberbrunner writes...

The excerpt below is taken from his new book "CALLED:Becoming What You Were Meant To Be"


In my experience, the extent of Christianity that I’ve been presented with goes something like this:

1. Accept Jesus and ask Him into your heart.
2. Don’t do bad things now.
3. Withdraw from culture.
4. Hang out with Christians.
5. Go to church.
6. Read your Bible and pray.
7. Be happy that you are saved and not going to Hell.
8. Tell other people about how happy they can be if they follow
these seven steps.

Is it just me, or is this a lame life! Where is the passion? Where is the adventure? Where is the abundant life that Jesus promised us? No wonder we’re bored. The Jesus we’ve been presented with asks for way too little. No one wants to devote their lives to something that requires nothing of them. Like the saying goes, “people figure, if it don’t ask much then it ain’t worth much.”

THE PLANTER: It's time we get stirred up!

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