Raw Footage of Alex Ielase's Fall Festival Message

Crossroads - Altoona - has a great Day!

This past Sunday, Crossroads Community Church in Altoona had a great friends day with about 50 people in attendance. This is a great encouragement as this work continues to rebuild itself. They are currently in a series entitled - The Fear Factor. To hear Pastor Mark Petras' first message in the series go to www.crossroads-efree.org.

In addition to reaching out to their community through both hands-on involvement and invitations to special events, the folks at Crossroads continue to faithful at seeking to making disciples, not just gather attenders. Again, you can see read more at their website.

Keep up the great work, Mark & Crossroads family!

Sights from Redeemer on the Mount's Fall Festival 09

What a day of outreach on Mount Washington!

Alex & Jennifer Ielase and the growing family of Redeemer on the Mount Church did a fantastic job of loving their community on October 24th. From Hot Dogs to a Chocolate Fondue, from Face Painting to Football, From Gifts and Prizes to Hugs, tears and laughter...young & old, black & white, big & small...it doesn't matter when we come together in Jesus' name we can be one as we trust in Him!

IN THE COMMUNITY ... this is where the church need to be, this is where the church needs to live, needs to minister. Taking the gospel, not expecting people to come to it! Accepting people where they are and taking them to where God wants them to be in Jesus...that is DISCIPLESHIP...that is our Mandate, why we were left here when we trusted in Christ.

Redeemer on the Mount may not be a big congregation yet, but it is growing, and she and her Pastor are quickly becoming the Church (note the big "C") and Pastor to this community...WHY...because they love on this community...they wash toilets, listen to hurts, serve, love, embrace and care and share the Gospel of Jesus!

We've got to be proud of our planters and the work they are doing, and maybe even LEARN from their EXAMPLE.

The Gospel, The Savior...this is what life is really all about!

EFCA Missional Summit – September 09

Hugh Halter – The Tangible Kingdom,
Zondervan

• Community, Communion & Mission are the three things you build around.
  
• Pure Religion, integrated community…caring for people's real need, a place where people feel that they can discover their spiritual journey, mixing saints and sojourners in the same community.
  
• Mix Saints and Sojourners in life…don't make it a worship service, but include talk about God, about the Kingdom, share Scripture.
  
• Your church will emerge from where you live…but church is community. Convergence of saints and sojourners.
  
• We need to talk not so much about the missional, but much more about the incarnational.
  
• Our posture in saying the truth is just as important as the truth…John 1…the word became flesh. Don't just be proclaimers, but incarnaters, that is where the sticking value is in our homes and with those sojourners we rub shoulders with.
  
• Church needs a balance of the gathered (modalic – those structured) and scattered (sodalic – those just wanting to continue to expand). Paul did both…went to places evangelistically (sodalic), then established leaders (modalic). We need to bring both together in the church…whether from organic plant to established church, or from established church to organic outreach.
  
• Help existing churches do an R&D pilot project that is safe for them, but also allows them to try a new approach also.
  
• Gathering people and scattering them are both important.
  
• Moving the church toward the world is really a heart issue.
  
• Both the house church and the mega-seeker church can both be consumer oriented.
  
• Barriers to the tangible kingdom…individualism, materialism, consumerism.
  

What did Jesus order? Make disciples!

• What did He mean by disciples? Not just adherents or attenders. He wants people who are like Him, that is what a disciple is.
  
• Engaging culture costs very little. Developing community costs very little. Developing structures is where we begin to see more costs involved.
  
• When a tornado develops a vortex, all the forces on the inside pushing out create suction…so the church should seek to create vortex.
  

Process of Apprenticeship

• Evangelism training is not good news for most people…teaching people to live incarnationally is.
  
  • Observance - Observe stories – 2 to 3 months – but then a call to come and die
    
  • The Talk – the death talk…you must die to self to become alive to others.
    
  • Preparation – 8 – 10 weeks of spiritual formation process done with friends outside the group
    
  • Public sending at 6 months
    
  • Participation – front end of the entire process has higher bar, here the bar gets lowered
    
  • Partnership – now they are doing the mission
    

From Maine to Minneapolis

I have just completed a week of Team Service Ministry at Fair Haven Camps in Brooks, ME with 2 teams from Pennsylvania. On Sunday Night I wrapped up my time there by training 55 adults and students in the SHAPE overview of discovering how God has wired us. Monday it was off to Minneapolis for our Evangelical Free Church National Conference. Tuesday was a day of StartChurches Team meetings and then the evening concluded with worship and a challenging message by Pastor Bob Roberts about how the conversation we need to have is about making better disciples not growing larger churches. If we make better disciples the great commission will be fulfilled. Today is a day of training seminars and networking with other leaders and prospective planters.

Great Day at Mount Washington Outreach

Redeemer on the Mount Church was joined by nearly 100 other teens and adults from various of our the Allegheny District's Evangelical Free Churches, plus from other groups brought in by Urban Impact.  The day was packed full of activities and prayer and connections in the community of Mount Washington.  I don't know how many t-shirts with information about ROTM we gave away to people in the community.   Kids and adults alike from the community had a great time as we ministered to the community via service projects, prayer walks, and the Kids Olympic Festival in Olympia park.  It seemed that everyone had a great time and ROTM has once again connected in a very significant way with its community.  With the amount of enthusiam that was felt in the park and surrounding community, ROTM should be poised to begin to see more and more people drawn into their ministry and more importantly to Jesus.  Alex and Jen and their Body at ROTM did an absolutely outstanding job in the event, and we give special thanks for the partnership with Urban Impact of Pittsburgh for the opportunity to work together with them.  And Alex is quite the preacher of the gospel!  Go to their website to learn more.

Allegheny District Welcomes First African-American Congregation

Although we are a small district, we take very seriously our mission to "glorify God by multiplying healthy churches among all people."  We have been working on the health and planting part very steadily, but what has been missing is fulfillment of the "all people" component.  That being said, we are so very glad that God has linked us together with Pastor Eugene Williams and Lifeway Church of Beaver Falls.  Over the past 3 + years Lifeway has investigated the possibilities of partnership with the Evangelical Free Church of America and the Allegheny District.  At our Saturday Board meeting, the District Board heartily and unanimously affirmed Lifeway Church to become a member church with us to be affirmed by the conference at our March 27 - 28 District Conference.  We have so much to learn from the urban and multi-ethnic ministry of Lifeway.  Rejoice with us in this new development!