A Great Email

Sometimes I have a few moments to catch up on past email.  Some are good, but a few are outstanding!  This morning I read through an email I received last month.  I thought you might enjoy it.

God bless,

John

From the e-mailbag:

Hello, My name is Linda, I attend an evangelical church in Utah. I've been doing EE for going on 4 years, Xee for 2 yrs. This quarter our leader asked me to teach Xee. I'm looking very forward to this big step. 

God has changed my life in many ways through EE. It's amazing! 10 years ago I would have never thought I'd be doing this . I used to be  very shy about sharing Jesus with others. I didn't want to step on any toes. I thought I'd show people Jesus by my life. but I'd always in some way mess things up. 

When I learned the tools the Lord has given us through EE it made all the difference. Now I'm always looking for opportunities to share with family members, co-workers, friends & neighbors. 

With EE I led my 81 year old Grandmother to the Lord! I look forward to leading many more to the Lord.  The Lord has given us more than a tool through EE. It's a ministry that has changed my life.

Thanks for everything, you're the best!

EV2

Dear friends,

We are so excited about the new 7-week Adult EE Ministry called "Everyday Evangelism" or "EV2"!  We are conducting an EV2 Launch in Birmingham, Alabama this week and those attending have expressed lots of excitement for the training.

Here is an update from a key EE Church in Smithtown, New York:

The Smithtown Gospel Tabernacle clinic has long been an "EE Tradition" on Long Island. Ed Lewis, launch administrator, was asked earlier this spring if he would consider replacing the Classic "clinic" which was scheduled for August 10, 11 and 12 with an EV2 Launch. After checking with Pastor Rich Collingridge, they both were very excited to be the first EV2 launch on the east coast. It was no surprise that they had 28 students in attendance. The most memorable event happened during Wednesday's "lunch" on-the-job activity. During this OJT, the students are to grab a quick bite to eat and then, using the EV2 questionnaire, venture out on their own and give it a go! The discussion time that followed, once everyone returned, was electric. It was reported that six people prayed to receive Christ. Praise the Lord! Authentic learning - the process of integrating exploration and action into a classroom setting - has come of age and has had a resounding impact on our EE leadership training.

Would your church be interested in hosting an EV2 Leadership Launch or Cell?

• Do you have excellent EV2 or Classic trainers?
• Do you have a person who is gifted with administration?
• CALL SANDY IN THE TRAINING DEPARTMENT FOR MORE INFORMATION AT (954) 456-2233

If you would like more information about EV2, you can check out the website at:

http://www.eeworks.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=78946

God bless you today,

John

A Great Opportunity!

Dear team,

I've had a few questions about a website that lists me as the "Minister of Evangelism."  (http://www.thenewpresbyterianchurch.com) I'm sure that has raised a few eyebrows.  Please allow me to explain...

It's been years since I've had the opportunity to run the EE ministry in a local church.  I was the Teacher/Trainer at Christ Community Church in Omaha, Nebraska for 1995 and 1996.  Don't get me wrong, I've participated throughout my time on staff with EE in various churches with many of the ministries that we offer.  And I've had the joy of teaching clinics as the Senior Clinic Teacher.  But I've wanted to find a church where I can run the ministry, try some things, and train a group of people for the greatest fun this side of Heaven.

That chance has come.

With the planting of a new church out of the core group of Coral Ridge has come a great opportunity for me.  This is, for the most part, the founding group of Coral Ridge—great EE supporters!  Included in the group is one of the founders of Evangelism Explosion International, Mrs. Anne Kennedy.  I had the opportunity to preach there last month and as I surveyed the sea of smiling faces I felt like I was home.

When Jim Carlson (another key player in the founding of EE) asked if I would serve as the Minister of Evangelism I couldn't help but say yes.  He assured me that this new church would be an EE friendly place, open to trying some new things, and growing together as we share Christ with those in need.

The position is a volunteer position with no required hours except for the running of EE.  I'm sure that you are aware that all EE staff participate in a local EE ministry, so this is not anything out of the ordinary.  When I'm traveling, we'll find another church member, or another EE staffer, to fill in.

The idea of a position like this is not without precedence.  Many of the former heads of EEI have served as the evangelism pastor at Coral Ridge.  The past President had a role at CRPC (as you know!) and I guess that worked out OK.

It is also not a statement against Coral Ridge.  Not at all.  CRPC has a great Evangelism Ministry in Duane Mellor.  I've offered my help to Duane any time he needs it.

No, this is just an exciting opportunity for me.  I've prayed for this.  Many of your know my heart in this area.  

We'll start with getting the trainers together this fall and planning the spring semester.  I'm excited about it and certainly appreciate your prayers.

Yours in His service,

John

XEE

Dear friends,

We've been working hard on continuing to add to the XEE tool set. The web team is adding elements to the XEE website and the team is writing materials that will help local groups use XEE to witness to their friends and neighbors.

Recently, Langdon Stewart, one of the original team members that helped develop XEE, was in the US helping Adam Bond, our North American director for XEE, film some new segments that we'll use in the training. He put together a website that shows some pictures of the filming. I thought you might enjoy them.

From Langdon:

Thanks also for praying for my time away in the US over the last few weeks. We are entering a new, exciting season of ministry in Oceania and throughout the world re-calibrating for the future. My role is changing accordingly which I will formally let you know more about soon. One of the implications is that we are looking at the next 3-5 years of ministry in Oceania and what that will look like, and how can we make the most of developing the national ministries. In the US I was able to meet with our VP for Finances and work through the accounting implications, as well as meet with the Senior VP for Operations in Atlanta and North American staff in North Carolina, strategising and planning and seeking God for the next season. I apologise if this sounds a little vague but you will hear more about this in the following months (or just give me a call). The time away was very significant and fruitful where a lot of questions were answered and even more were asked.

Whilst in the US, the trip enabled a time to meet with potential new supporters of the ministry in Oceania, including in Arizona where we had a great evening of sharing and gelato. I also worked with the North American staff in the production of an XEE DVD tool for churches to use within the with non-believers as a gospel conversation starters. You can see a video of the production process at:

http://www.thismoment.com/moment/view/47215/connecting-starts-here-dvd-shoot

May the Lord bless you this weekend as you worship Him!

John

A call to believe!

David Clark, our Director for the western states here in the US led us through Luke 24 this morning and talked about the little decisions that we all make that have profound impact.

He reminded us of the decisions that the disciples had to make regarding what they were learning about Christ. We are in the same place.

Jesus is alive! He told us to go into all te world. But what so we believe?

I pray God will bless you greatly today.

John

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Praying through the Lord's Prayer

Dr. Ken Silva taught this morning how to pray using the Lord's prayer in Matthew 6.

1- prayer is about a Person
2- prayer is about praise
3- prayer is about His purpose
4- prayer finds provision
5- prayer is a place of pardon
6- prayer offers protection as we rest in Him
7- there is power in prayer

Then led the staff through a great season of prayer.

It's a great day in Jesus!

Yours in His service,

John

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

EE announces Voices of Hope

Today, Shirley Beattie shared a new vision for the ministry of Evangelism Explosion called Voices Of Hope. Our goal, by the grace of God, is to offer training for every volunteer at Crisis Pregnacy Centers across the United States.

Voices of Hope began as a partnership with Hope Women's Centers of Florida.

EE plans to develop specific tools for equipping counselors to share the Gospel in a sensitive way. A takeaway DVD will be created that gives messages of real hope in a crisis moment.

Please pray for the development of funding for materials.

For more information, contact Shirley at sbeattie@eeworks.org.

God bless you today.

John

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

EE announces new prayer initiative

Dear friend,

Today, staff at the EE Summit announced the beginning of a prayer initiative to blanket the ministry in "air support", according to Dr. Darrell Farney, the project coordinator.

Joshua Sorensen, Richard Kalehoff, and Tony Castro are leading the technical design.

It's our hope to start prayer teams all across the US that will meet weekly to pray for key events within the work of Evangelism Explosion worldwide.

You can volunteer to start or join a prayer team by writing to Dr. Darrell Farney at dfarney@eeworks.org.

Hope you have a great day!

Yours in His service,

John

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

EE announces Everyday Evangelism

EE announces Everyday Evangelism, a new 7-week version of Evangelism Explosion. We've listened to the needs of pastors in North America and developed a simplified training tool aimed at getting people comfortable with sharing the Gospel in their daily lives. More soon on the web site. It's a great new tool!

In Him,

John

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

YouTube Video of Randy Forbes

Distinguished Christian Statesman of the Year

Dear friend,

Our press release is done announcing Randy Forbes as the Distinguished Christian Statesman of the Year! You can see the release at:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/07/prweb2611704.htm

Praise God for leaders like Randy Forbes. Can I urge you to take a moment today and pray for Randy and his family as they serve God in Washington D.C.? And add George and Linda Roller to the prayer asking God to fill them with His peace as they labor on Capital Hill.

May the Lord bless you today.

John

XEE—The NeXt Generation

I always enjoy chatting with Adam Bond, Director for XEE Expansion, here in USA. He had plenty to say about XEE and what’s going on with this ministry.

“We are starting to hear some incredible stories of how XEE is impacting people around North America,” he said. According to Adam, the most profound indicator of XEE’s impact is implementation. Among those pastors that attend an XEE two-day Launch, 95 percent of them implement the XEE tool in their churches.

Adam talked with an elder from a church near Indianapolis who cannot wait to implement XEE at his church. “This excitement typifies how people feel about XEE,” Adam shared. “We are just scratching the surface in terms of understanding what we have in XEE.”

By any standard, XEE is leading the way; generationally, it is being adopted by all ages. Educationally, it presents unique methods that work, and its communication platform makes connecting and relationship building enjoyable. Ultimately, it provides more opportunities to share the Gospel. Many people are intrigued by XEE’s approach. “The ongoing development of XEE is only hindered by the number of hours in the day!” Adam explained. The collaborative effort and growing relationships with local churches have made discovering new and very creative ways to share the Gospel extremely successful. “I personally believe that God has HUGE plans for XEE in the next few years,” Adam shared excitedly. People just love XEE when they first hear about it.

As XEE continues to develop, please pray for:

• Its success

• The leaders training others

• Those making professions of faith in Christ

• And that Jesus Christ would be glorified.

You can check out the website at: http://www.xee.info or log onto the Facebook page for XEE NA here.

God bless,

John

D.C.

Dear friends,

Had a great time in Washington D.C. last week. We should get the press release out today or tomorrow. I'll post it here. But here's an email from Shirley Beattie about the events. Shirley did an outstanding job organizing all of these events with George and Linda Roller.

God bless,

John

From Shirley:

Hi everyone - just wanted to thank you all for your prayers for our week in DC - everything went extremely well!

The Politics and Principles luncheon on Tuesday had attendance of almost 100 interns and Hill staffers. Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana spoke to the group and encouraged them to stay strong in their faith.

The attendance at the Distinguished Christian Statesman Award Dinner was around 200, including several Congressmen. Randy Forbes received the award for 2009 - he talked about how important the Center is for reminding people of the Christian heritage of our nation.

We also had a phenomenal Wallbuilders Tour of the Capitol, which included a spontaneous visit from Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann who preached a mighty sermon and blessed us with an equally mighty prayer - right in the old Senate room. Then in the old Supreme Court, Congressman Doug Lamborn of Colorado read several passages of scripture. The night ended with a rousing rendition of "God Bless America" led by opera singers, Chris Holloway and his wife Sasha, who were there as a part of our group. Chris sang two of Rep. Forbes' favorite hymns at the dinner on Wednesday.

George Roller is always pleased to share about this ministry, especially if you know any young people who may be interested in interning with him.

Blessings, Shirley

Urgent Prayer Request

Dear friends,

Here is an urgent prayer item from David Gomez in Guatemala. Please feel free to pass it along to those who you know will pray!

John

PRAYER REQUEST:

(Summary translation from Spanish) On June 25 at the startup of two simultaneous EE
clinics in Guatemala City ---a Kids' EE teacher training clinic and an EE
Youth clinic--- armed bandits entered the "Open Bible" host church, ordered
everyone to lay on the floor and turn over their cell phones or be shot
dead. The thieves also took the laptop computer belonging to Paola Gomez
(the Kids' EE organizer/teacher/facilitator), as well as the ministry's
video projector.

Most of the people present for the training were teenagers, and the
atmosphere was very tense. However, we know that we have the joy of
"stealing" away souls from the Devil who has come to rob. He who is with us
in more powerful and will give us the victory in the next three days of the
clinics.

We invite you to join with us in this great battle, confident of the Lord's
control and power, knowing that he is very present with us, and that all
will turn out for the good.

In the all-powerful Christ who is Lord over all of heaven and earth,

David

Twitter!

Well, I've finally signed up for Twitter... I'm not sure that's a good thing? But maybe so. You can find my by the user name: jbsorensen.

Have a great week.

John

Kids’ EE Celebrates its 10th Anniversary, and Partners with OneHope

I was recently in Australia with an entire group of Kids' EE specialists working on materials for our partnership with OneHope. One of the specialists was Marcia Ardis and she reminded me about the beginning of Kids' EE.

1999 marked the beginning of Kids’ EE, and now, ten years later, Kids’ EE is planted on every continent around the world. “I feel like we have received a tenth anniversary present from the Lord!” Marcia declares. Those working with Kids’ EE are known to be passionate and oftentimes impatient. This impatience is understandable—children grow up so fast. “If a child’s tender heart is not filled with God, the world will fill it with ‘untruths,’” Marcia explains.

OneHope is a children’s ministry dedicated to child missions and child evangelism. It now partners with Kids’ EE. Together, we share the same vision—to reach millions of children globally, in a short amount of time. Marcia excitedly shares, “This ‘short amount of time’ is what grips our hearts. In just three years, through the partnership, 20 million children will be reached!”

In May, representatives from the worldwide Kids’ EE team met ‘down under,’ in Australia. These reps came together to design a plan to reach these 20 million children. The plan is to have Kids’ EE leaders and field workers train teachers who will then equip children to share the Gospel with others. “This cycle will continue—multiplication at its finest—adults reaching children who reach more children…who reach more…who reach more,” Marcia happily explains. “THANK GOD for this tenth anniversary present!” she exclaims.

Please continue to pray for Kids’ EE, OneHope, and the partnership we are making. God has blessed us so much; pray that He will continue to do so.

The Excitement of Center for Christian Statesmanship is Contagious!

I recently talked to George Roller, Director for the D. James Kennedy Center for Christian Statesmanship (CCS), and long time EE advocate, and friend.  He spoke of the excitement he has for this summer, but particularly for June 21-28, 2009.  This is the week of Mission to Congress when college and graduate students join EE and The Center to reach out to the Members of Congress, Congressional Staffers, and Congressional Interns. 

Last year's winner, Mike Pence, from Indiana

This year, CCS has the honor of bestowing the 14^th Distinguished Christian Statesmanship Award.  Those who have received this prestigious award in the past include:  Senator John Ashcroft, Senator Sam Brownback, The Honorable Kay Coles James, Ambassador Dan Coats, Representative J.C. Watts, Representative John Hostettler, Representative Marilyn Musgrave, Representative Mike McIntyre, and Representative Mike Pence (the 2008 winner).  This year, the honor is being given to Representative Randy Forbes, a Congressman from Virginia.  Randy has been serving in the House of Representatives since 2001 and has been standing up for his faith in Christ and proclaiming God’s love in his actions.  He fought to include God in the Capitol Visitor Center as well as established the Congressional Prayer Caucus.  I had the immense privilege of handing this award to Mike Pence a year ago in 2008, and I again have the honor of giving this wonderful award, this year to Randy. 

I asked George to share some of the excitement he has for this year.  “I’m excited by the caliber of the new winner, Randy Forbes, and his absolute, strong commitment to Christian values.”  After the National Day of Prayer, Randy organized a press conference to counteract what the president had said about America not counting itself as a Christian or Jewish nation.  The purpose of this prayer conference was to outline our history to show that we were founded on Christian principles.  At that conference, the filing of a bill was announced which will make the first week of May every year a Religious Heritage Week.  “I’m excited about Representative Forbes being our new winner for the year,” George eagerly conveys, “and for the week in June that will give us the opportunity to allow many people on the Hill to hear about our organization and to uplift the name of Jesus Christ to these leaders of our country!”

There is going to be an evening tour of the capitol, with a commentary by the Wall Builders Association, headed up by David Barton, which will promote and make people aware of our country’s strong Christian heritage.  “Thousands of interns will also be coming to Washington D. C. this summer and we will have the opportunity to impact many of them to let them hear the Gospel, and to see Members of Congress as role models, sharing the Gospel,” George excitedly shared.  

Last year's intern BBQ

I hope that you all will pray for this upcoming week, June 21-28, that the interns attending will be greatly impacted, and the Congressmen will be affected by CCS and will make a difference in our country for Christ.