Kingdom Conversations – Keith Duff, Shepherding Pastor, Village Bible Church
I just got off the phone with Keith Duff who is the Shepherding Pastor at Village Bible Church (http://www.villagebible.org/) in Sugar Grove, IL. I asked Keith what his top priority for the church is this year.
He said that the main thing they are trying to figure out is “How do we mover our people to be passionate about the kingdom of God?” Not just who they are as individuals in Christ but about getting involved in what the church is doing as a whole.
Within that Keith sees a number of things they as church leaders could be doing better: helping people to understand their own gifts and how they could be used; communicating about existing ministry opportunities; identifying and going after new ministry opportunities.
To Keith, the challenge isn’t that there aren’t enough people in their church participating in ministry. They have plenty of volunteers.
He wonders, though, if people look around don’t see opportunities to step in to help, so they don’t get involved. It made me think of how a new member to my church described a previous church they had been members at:
The church met in borrowed space and even in the sanctuary you could see boxes and stacks of things that hadn’t found a home yet. Everywhere you looked you could see something that needed to be done and as a result it was easy to roll my sleeves up and dive right in.
Keith’s desire resonates with me. At our last Elder meeting I expressed my frustration that it didn’t seem like we were doing anything to try and set the people, who are currently comfortable or indifferent about their faith, on fire with a passion for what it truly means to be a child of God. To me, the urgency of this is made obvious when you hear Jesus’s warning to the church in Laodicea in Revelation 3:15-16:
15“‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! 16So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.
Keith and I are going to find a time to talk again soon to discuss this further. I’d love to hear from you what your experiences have been. Is this an issue your church has faced? What do you believe can be done?
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This entry was posted on 03 9th, 2010 and is filed under Church, Everything Else, Interviews, Leadership, Ministry.
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“But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise: and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty:” (1 Cor 1:27)
My dear saint of the Lord.This is a servant of Jesus Christ namely Daniel RKanti.
What a great privilege to write to you a good Christian friend,who loves the Lord. Since I found you in the inetrnet I have been so praying for you and your works for God’s abundant blessings,good health and long life.Iam a Christian worker,saved from a ugly and filthy life.Once I loved the beauty world much and lived and experienced dark life,having no peace in me.But the living and loving God jesus Christ saved me from the darkness of sin bandage and disgusted life. My God saved my life though I committed suicide several times.He spared me unto Him to serve him in this corner of the world and living for him and to others,sharing about His love.
There are thousands of villages,slum and tribal areas are unreached.many are hunger for living god and starvation for his word. I have come from the very poor and hindu family .Iam an orphan but God has given me many people as spiritual family.He has given me a great burden for the poor to share the love of jesus in India. We are serving in the areas of back-ward, tribal and starvation line villages and urban poor.
Please remember us and ministry in your prayers.Please support this faith ministry if you are able.Life is very much difficilt among the rural areas and we work among them with our empty hands. In our ministry we found orphans,disabled,destitute and abandoned children who lost the parent with HIV,TB and other deadly diseases.God has given us great love and burden for atleast some of them to be saved and may provide food,cloths,education,shelter and more to share the love of jesus.Pl.pray and help them so that they will find good life in future.We are a small team with big vision dedicated our lives to the service of God. God has given this humble and faith service to the poor and needy.we spare much time in prayer and go to share the good news of our saviour jesus Christ in far-flung villages where the name of Christ not named.If you have able to do any help toward this God’s work please do it,God may be glorified of your kind heart and some may be saved lives.
Could you please take some time at your convinience to visit us and help us in whatever way God leads you. Thank you.we are praying for you and ministry and pl.share if you have any special prayer subjects we, prayer team will put in the list and pray daily meaningfully. Thank you. “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people: that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:” (1 Peter 2:9) .
Yours truly in His service,
Daniel R.Kanti,
Share Love of Jesus Ministry,
#Eliyagaru,Colony,
Chillakallu P.O,
Krishna Dist.,
A.P-521178,India
danielrkanti@gmail.com