Father, there are so many lost and broken people in our culture. They are filled with anxiety, fear, and insecurity. Many have lost hope, certain there is no escape from the darkness that envelopes their lives. The harvest has never been greater. Father, believers have the solution. The Gospel of Jesus Christ heals, rescues, restores, renews, and transforms. We know - our testimony tells the story of how Jesus has rescued us. Now is the time for believers to demonstrate Your love for our neighbors by our words and acts of compassion.
However, many believers are hesitant to obey the Great Commission in their local community. Local outreach ministry is like a foreign language to them that they cannot speak. How do they minister to people with messy lives? What do they say to someone who lost a loved one or is diagnosed with cancer? What should they do? How will they respond if something doesn't go right in ministry? How will they get hurt trying to minister to others? What does commitment to ministry look like? How do they share the gospel? How do they even start a conversation with strangers? All of these unanswered questions leave people feeling quite uncomfortable with local outreach and ministry. The safest thing for them is to leave evangelism and ministry to the professionals.
Father, the problem is that each believer has a mission field unlike any other person in the history of the world. Each believer has a unique set of family members, friends, co-workers, neighbors, skills, talents, experiences, and life circumstances. Therefore, it is essential that each believer does the Gospel and Kingdom of God work within their network of contacts and with those who cross their paths each day.
Father, please use Gramazin to give believers the courage and confidence to go out into their communities and love their neighbors in need. May our publications, such as Take Every Passage to Prayer, give believers practical applications of the Word of God so that they feel prepared to share the gospel with others. May our publications, such as Take Every Thought to Prayer, give believers an understanding of those who have messy lives and how they can relate with them. May our web applications, such as 72Stories, enable believers to develop strategies to handle the challenges of real-life ministry while they simulate ministry from the safety of their homes.
Father, it is my prayer that You will use Gramazin to strengthen the local outreach ministries of churches far and wide. I ask You to encourage pastors, and other church leaders, to prayerfully explore if Gramazin can compliment their ministry objectives. Lead them to contact me and discuss if Gramazin is right for their congregation. Amen.
What kind of believer is enthusiastic about local missions? It is a believer who has confessed their rebellion from God. It is a believer who has placed their faith in Christ alone for salvation. It is a believer who lives a repentant life in full surrender to the authority of God's Word. It is a believer who loves God so much that they love the people He loves - their neighbors in need. Our book, Take Every Passage to Prayer, Volume 2 - The Gospels, affords teams of believers from your church private online spaces to brainstorm together how their faith can grow to the point that they want to take action to love their neighbors in need.
How can believers make sense of human suffering? How can believers minister to people diagnosed with cancer? How can believers minister to families going through divorce? How can believers minister to people who are estranged from their children? Your ministry teams can chat about each one of the 700+ prayers about the human experience in our two volume book Take Every Thought to Prayer. The result of such discussions will be strategies your teams create to address the various hurts and disappointments their neighbors are facing.
Testimony sharing is essential to local outreach. "What did Jesus do for you?" "Why are you being so kind?" "Do you really believe in this stuff about Jesus?" Sadly, many believers in our congregations are terrified about sharing their testimonies with others. While we don't profess to have all the answers for how believers can gain confidence in writing and sharing their testimony, we have enough passion for testimony sharing to have prepared 72 recordings on the topic. Your teams can listen and then chat about each recording, encouraging each other to share their testimonies with their hurting neighbors.
"My heart is right for ministry. I have an idea how to minister to people who may be suffering with any number of adversities. I've even prepared my testimony. However, I really don't know how to walk into my community, meet people, build relationships with them, and touch their lives for Christ. What's that look like? What if I make a mistake? What if people are nasty to me? How do I respond to them?" Your team members can step into our ficticious communities and make mistakes in ministry with our fictitious characters. Your team can then talk about how to avoid those mistakes in real life ministry.
"Good morning, everyone! Welcome to our Sunday School class on local missions. Over the next 12 weeks, we are going to prepare our hearts and minds for local ministry. Our class will be using Gramazin.com as our private online space to brainstorm how to be effective in local outreach.
Your ministry teams can examine a passage from the gospels and chat about what the passage teaches about ministry. Your team can then chat about one of over 700 life experiences common to the human experience, brainstorming how to minister to people in a similar situation. Next, your team can chat about one of our testimony training audios, encouraging each other to prepare their testimony to serve Jesus Christ. Your team can also choose any one of over 3,100 characters in the fictitious community of West Hunter USA and chat about how to share the gospel with someone like them.
All of these chats are displayed in our Fellowship Space.