Here is part 2 of our podcast with Jeremiah Montgomery, the General Secretary of The Committee on Home Missions & Church Extension. We continue to discuss Jeremiah’s first two years overseeing Home Missions, the ways the Lord is blessing outreach to the lost, the spiritual nature of the work of the Home Missions Committee, and […]
A Deeper Look At Home Missions With Jeremiah Montgomery
Our next podcast is with Jeremiah Montgomery, the General Secretary of The Committee on Home Missions & Church Extension. It’s been two years since Jeremiah was called to this task. In this first episode, Jeremiah shares stories of what God is doing in the work of OPC church planting and some challenges church planters are […]
More Effective Social Media As A Christian – Part 4: What Story Are You Telling?
Your social media feed tells a story—your individual feed, your church feed, every social that you are on probably tells (at least) a slightly different story. What would you want that story to be? Take a couple of minutes and think about it before you read further. What story would you like your social media […]
More Effective Social Media As A Christian – Part 3: It’s Social Media, Not Information Media
Having laid out a couple of conceptual matters regarding social media, let’s talk about a practical matter to help you improve immediately. This idea is urgently needed for churches in particular, using social media as a church account, but it is also helpful for individual Christians. There is a reason it’s called social media–the social […]
More Effective Social Media As A Christian – Part 2: You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know
Last week, we started this series talking about having the ‘right analogy’ in your mind and heart about what social media actually is. You should go back and read that if you haven’t, as it’s critical to the whole series. Social Media – Part 1 But for a refresher: The main point was that posting […]
More Effective Social Media As A Christian – Part 1: The Right Analogy
This week starts a new series. In the Spring, we did “A More Effective Website,” and now, for the fall, we are offering “More Effective Social Media.” These are two of the most requested and needed topics we’ve had for Outward. Your interaction and feedback are always welcome! So, let’s jump right in… One of […]
More From Brad Peppo In Arizona
Here is Part 2 of our interview with Brad Peppo, RHM in Ohio, who is taking on a unique church planting effort in Arizona for 18 months. In this episode, we dig deeper into what Brad is seeing God do with multiple-hour interactions with unbelievers and skeptics, how this church planting venture affects the church […]
What’s An Ohio RHM doing in Arizona?
Our next podcast features Brad Peppo, RHM in Ohio, who is undertaking a unique church planting effort in Arizona for 18 months. In this episode, he will tell you about it and a unique approach to getting to know people in AZ after being ‘dropped in’ just a few months ago. You can search for […]
Outward Preaching (Video #26) – God Saves Fools
This week’s clip is an intro to a sermon that helps set the tone in a deep topic and reasonably difficult text in a way that warms up the hearers but also delivers a deep truth. It’s video #26, here: Outward Preaching
Outward Preaching (Video #25) – Talking About Jesus
This week’s clip approaches evangelism from a more relational and accessible way that doesn’t require a degree in theology (or anything close) to practice. It’s video #25, here: Outward Preaching
Outward Preaching (Video #24) – The Most Important Thing
This week’s clip takes time to press upon the hearers the point of the text and the point of the introduction to the sermon about the most important thing in life. Think about how effective it is when often we would expect a quicker illustration and move on to the next thing. It’s video […]
The Joy Of Participating In Evangelism
As summer fully takes shape, we wanted to encourage you this week. And sometimes there’s no better encouragement than the gravelly voice of R.C. Sproul–and this one seems circa 1980s-prime RC! Alongside this short video, a reminder that last year we shared some posts called “A Gospel Intentional Summer” that were really well received and […]
A More Effective Website – Part 7: What Story You Are Telling?
As we close the website series (at least for now), we wanted to add a couple of things that haven’t been highlighted: Think of your website as telling the story of your church Your website (and all your communication) tells a story about you, whether you want it to or not. The question is: what […]
A More Effective Website – Part 6: Good Examples
In Part 4 of this series, we gave examples of websites whose first impressions were good for outsiders. The examples were specific to that issue. Now, we want to broaden the discussion and use of examples in this post. First, here are 4 OPC church websites that we think do a good overall job of […]
A More Effective Website – Part 5: Audience Affects Everything
In this series, we are focusing on your website’s main front page and how to make it more effective for your most important and neglected audience. We hope we are also helping think through how to do this on your own in a way that makes sense for your context and your sensibilities. So, we […]
More From Church Planting in Sheboygan…
This is Part 2 of our interview with Nathan Strom, church planter of Breakwater Church in Sheboygan, WI. In this episode we talk about building a core group for a church plant, preaching in a church plant, and Nathan’s story as well as what God is doing in Sheboygan. You can listen to this podcast […]
Church Planting in Sheboygan – A Lot You Didn’t Know
Our next podcast is with Nathan Strom, church planter of Breakwater Church in Sheboygan, WI. For those not familiar with that area of the country, you may have a semi-stereotyped image in mind—Nathan helps us understand the context of Sheboygan and why an OPC church is being planted there among other Reformed and OPC churches […]
A More Effective Website – Part 4: A New First Impression
If you’ve been following along, you were encouraged to consider what content you could put on your home page to show your most important and neglected audience an engaged, warm, outsider-friendly welcome to your church. When someone comes to your website, you have about 5-10 seconds to connect with them, or they are gone. So […]
A More Effective Website – Part 3: Content For The Most Important Audience
In the first two posts, we’ve considered different audiences you are trying to reach. We’ve ‘argued’ that the most important one, or maybe better stated most neglected one, is outsiders–unbelievers, church-going but no gospel, etc. The other audiences are those that our churches are already reasonably attentive to on our sites. By way of reminder, […]
A More Effective Website – Part 2: Who Should Your Website Be For?
In our first post of the series, we discussed (and hopefully with you evaluating) your current church website regarding who the content is currently for…in the sense of audience(s). If you haven’t seen or done that, you will benefit from doing that first, here: Website – Part 1 Now, let’s talk about who your church […]