Cup O' Joe with Bill

Sunday, June 25, 2017

Rethinking the American Approach to Ministry...

Below is a FREE downloadable guide full of biblically-based prompts to help you rethink our American approach to ministry.

American approach to ministry? What are you talking about?

THIS... and can you guess which person in the video is the "pastor"?

If video doesn't display, go here.

Warning:
You most likely won't get much out of the guide below if you read it by yourself like a book.

However, if you slowly walk through this guide with a few others who serve in ministry with you and stop along the way to look up and wrestle the Scripture, dialogue, and pray—then you'll be well on your way to rethinking the American approach to ministry.

You might even have... dare I say it... fun.

One other thought: I would suggest you slowly walk through the guide with others while enjoying some most excellent coffee together.

Cup O' Joe with Bill indeed.

Have fun. Think. Listen. Ask questions. Search the Scriptures. Debate. Smile. Learn. Encourage.

You can download the free PDF here.

You can get physical copies here.

Related Posts...
* How do you train volunteers for ministry?
* Is ministry just for "ministers"?
* How are disciplemaking and leadership connected?
* Are you leading a program or people?
* Are you successfully failing in ministry?

You, Me, and Coffee Monday...
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Sunday, June 18, 2017

Becoming the Disciplemaker You've Always Wanted to Be...

If you really want your ministry to thrive for the glory of God, then you'd better figure out how to help volunteers be disciples who make disciples who make more disciples.

I have great news for you.

Help is on the way!

Here is your invitation to to make the Summer of 2017 a "summer of love" for God, volunteers, and your ministry. Even more good news: You are free to participate in one, two, or all three of these summer training experiences for one-time tuition of $30 (includes training materials). Here's the plan...

Session #1
Being a Disciple...
We'll explore...
* Why a disciple's attitude is critically important
* How to tap into the power of transformational learning
* Your most important job as a disciple

When?
* Thursday, July 6, 2017, 9 AM to 12 Noon
Where?
* The Metal Barn, 9621 State Rt 91, Peoria, IL 61615

Session #2
Who Makes Disciples...
We'll explore...
* Why programs can either hinder or help disciplemaking
* How to measure the success of disciplemaking
* How disciplemaking and evangelism are connected

When?
* Thursday, July 27, 2017, 9 AM to 12 Noon
Where?
* The Metal Barn, 9621 State Rt 91, Peoria, IL 61615

Session #3
Who Make MORE Disciples...

We'll explore...
* Multiplying disciplemakers step #1
* How to lead up without sucking up
* How to lead when you feel like quitting
When?
* Thursday, August 24, 2017, 9 AM to 12 Noon
Where?
* The Metal Barn, 9621 State Rt 91, Peoria, IL 61615

Each of these three training sessions are filled with practical tools for personal and team assessments. You should use what your learn with the volunteers who serve in ministry with you as soon as possible. You'll leave with clear next steps for immediate application.

Who?
This training is for anyone who serves in a ministry—volunteers and/or paid staff. If possible, please bring another leader (volunteer or paid staff) from your church or ministry as this will help you both process and apply these training experiences. If you aren't able to bring someone from your church or ministry, you're welcome to bring another ministry leader from your network or denomination. If you can't find anyone else to join you for one or more of these training sessions, please come yourself.

Tuition?
There is a one-time tuition of $30 per person (includes training materials) whether you participate in one, two, or all three of these summer equipping experiences.

Training Materials?

Each person will get the updated edition of the Disciplemaker's Guide to Grow, Minister, and Lead book—a ten chapter disciplemaking manual for anyone who works with volunteers in a ministry setting.

Registration?
To save your spot in one of more of these training experiences, please contact Bill and let him know what dates you'll be attending and who you're bringing with you.

Spread the Word?
For a link to share on social media or with a friend via email or a test, copy this and paste away: For a PFD download of this information you can share with others (great for bulletin stuffers), go here.

Sunday, June 11, 2017

Father's Day: Which is better Google or Dad?

If video doesn't appear, go here.

Books, videos, curriculum, and the Internet are all fine and dandy.

But when it comes to learning and disciplemaking, the best way is always with a real person—preferably in an informal way.

Sounds like slow, hard work, doesn't it?

If you've found a "more efficient way" to make disciplemakers than Jesus' disciplemaking friendships approach—please don't take this personally, but I'm sticking with Jesus.

Beware of trading the hard work of disciplemaking friendships for short term efficiency.

While I like efficiency as much as anyone else living in the 21st Century, I'm more than a little suspicious of it.

Many times shortcuts aren't very short.

No, I think I'll stick with Jesus' crockpot approach over our current culture's microwave approach.

It's not very efficient, but, wow, it has a 2,000 year record of transforming people... and the world.

Happy Father's Day to every father—but especially to all fathers who aspire to be disciplemaking dads.

Sunday, June 04, 2017

Summer 2017 God Adventures with Your Cadre Disciplemaking Missionaries...

Thank you for taking a moment to read and bask in the goodness of God—for his "name and renown are the desire of our hearts" (Isaiah 26:8). Click any image below to enlarge for viewing and reading. Or click here.

We need your help. Details here.

We need your prayers. Details here.

“Dear friend, you are being faithful to God when you care for the traveling teachers…. Please continue providing for such teachers in a manner that pleases God. For they are traveling for the Lord, and they accept nothing from people who are not believers. So we ourselves should support them so that we can be their partners as they teach the truth.” —3 John 5-8

To partner with the Cadre and the Allisons right now safely online,
go here.

We thank God for you!

Sunday, May 28, 2017

Bible 101 Videos

If I didn't find these videos to be insightful and beneficial, I wouldn't be sharing them. Each of these are worth the few minutes it takes to watch them.

If video doesn't appear, go here.

Saturday, May 20, 2017

Allison #5 Graduates from High School...

My favorite 4th daughter, Libby, is graduating from high school.

I love her. I'm proud of her. I thank God for her.

And now I'm gonna sing Butterfly Kisses and cry.

If video doesn't appear, go here.

Finally, if you're celebrating a graduate, you might want to share this:
What a formal education CAN'T do for you.

Thursday, May 11, 2017

On Honoring Your Mother...

I'm an aspiring follower of Jesus today because of the love, prayers, and example of my mom.

Here's how she did it.

Thank you God for my mom.

What are three things YOU love about your mom?

Why not tell her right now?

More Mother's Day Fun...
* Every honest father knows this is real...
* What moms REALLY want for Mother's Day...
* My mom's story...
* This can be your story...
* The one thing you must do for you mom...

Sunday, May 07, 2017

Start Your Summer Ministry Off Right!

You and the volunteers and key students who serve in ministry with you need encouragement and equipping to make the most of this summer for the Kingdom of God.

Here's how you can start your summer ministry 2017 off right...

What?
Cadre’s Ministry Is Relationships (MIR) training experience!
Note: Complete details on the content of the training here.
You'll need to get the WORD out to others ASAP! Here's a WORD doc that you can tweak the details on and then use as a bulletin stuffer.

When and Where?
Saturday AM, June 10, 2017
8:30 AM to 12:30 PM
CrossPoint Community Church, Eureka, IL
Doors will open at 8 AM.
Note: I encourage you to seriously consider doing a light working lunch together from 12:30-1:30 PM in your respective churches and ministries—and using that time for processing and applying as a group.

Who?
Anyone junior high through senior citizen.
Note: The MIR training experience is even better if you get people who volunteer in ministries together to experience the training with each other… i.e., youth ministry, children’s ministry, women’s ministry, Sunday school teachers, small group leaders, elders, worship team, etc. These volunteers can experience and process the training for their lives AND ministry this way.

Cost?
$15 per person for training materials.
Please make checks out to Cadre Missionaries.
Note: We're also asking each ministry/church that attends to prayerfully consider a love offering of any size for Cadre Missionaries. This is NOT required in any way shape or form. That's why we call is a "love" offering.

RSVP?
Please RSVP and get the number of people attending to Bill ASAP.

We're your disciplemaking missionaries!

Sunday, April 30, 2017

How to Raise Your Children

by Charlie Shedd

"How to Raise Your Children."
This was the title of one of my finest efforts. Like all good speeches it had unity, order, movement. It electrified, edified, specified! It grabbed them quick and held them fast with humor, pathos, drama! All over the Midwest I gave it. They paid me a handsome fee and they were glad to get me. "This guy will wow you!" That's what they said, and the people came. With high hopes, they came for "How to Raise Your Children."

Then we had a child!

That sound you just heard was the great elocutionist falling flat on his face. My majestic speech (honest, it was great) had been totaled. Those brilliant ideas had such a droll sound at 2:00 a.m. with the baby in full cry!

In my defense I want you to know this—I kept on trying. I changed my title to "Some Suggestions to Parents," and charged bravely on. Then we had two more children and I altered it again. This time it came out "Feeble Hints to Fellow Strugglers."

From there it was all downhill. The appeal was out of it. My drawing power moved to zero. (I forgot to tell you the honoraria went down with each revision.) But for another thing, I couldn't stand to hear me.

So today I seldom speak on parenthood. And whenever I do, after one or two old jokes, you'd catch this uncertain sound… "Anyone here got a few words of wisdom?"

So what is YOUR take-away from this funny, poignant, and insightful story?

Please leave a comment. I'd love to hear your take-away.

* Note: The above story was take from this book.

Sunday, April 23, 2017

Happy birthday William

As a former English teacher, I've always liked the fact that I share the same birthday as William Shakespeare—April 23rd.

If I start to feel old today because it’s my birthday, I simply call to memory that it’s Shakespeare’s birthday today too.

He’s 453 today.

That makes me feel better... until I consider that Shakespeare is also dead.

Way dead.

Oh well.

From this point on, I would like anyone who wishes me a Happy Birthday to do so in iambic pentameter.

Thank you.

That is all.

More posts where I laugh in the face of old age...
* You know you're getting old when...
* When you're 50 and you celebrate at Chuck E. Cheese
* In your face AARP!
* On moderation and self control
* Best birthday present ever

Thursday, April 13, 2017

About 700 years before Jesus died on the cross...

These words above, taken from Isaiah chapter 53, were written about 700 years before Jesus was crucified on a cross.

Below you'll find...
1. The twelve verses that make up Isaiah 53 , and
2. Just below Isaiah 53, you'll find selected passages showing that New Testament writers understood Jesus's death on the cross to be the fulfillment of the Isaiah 53 prophecy.

Happy Resurrection Day to you!

Isaiah 53 (circa 680 BC)

Jesus in the Old Testament

Who has believed our message?
    To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm?
2 My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot,
    like a root in dry ground.
There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance,
    nothing to attract us to him.
3 He was despised and rejected—
    a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.
We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.
    He was despised, and we did not care.

4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;
    it was our sorrows[h] that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,
    a punishment for his own sins!
5 But he was pierced for our rebellion,
    crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
    He was whipped so we could be healed.
6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
    We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on him
    the sins of us all.

7 He was oppressed and treated harshly,
    yet he never said a word.
He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.
    And as a sheep is silent before the shearers,
    he did not open his mouth.
8 Unjustly condemned,
    he was led away.[i]
No one cared that he died without descendants,
    that his life was cut short in midstream.[j]
But he was struck down
    for the rebellion of my people.
9 He had done no wrong
    and had never deceived anyone.
But he was buried like a criminal;
    he was put in a rich man’s grave.

10 But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him
    and cause him grief.
Yet when his life is made an offering for sin,
    he will have many descendants.
He will enjoy a long life,
    and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands.
11 When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish,
    he will be satisfied.
And because of his experience,
    my righteous servant will make it possible
for many to be counted righteous,
    for he will bear all their sins.
12 I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier,
    because he exposed himself to death.
He was counted among the rebels.
    He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.

New Testament writers identified Jesus as the fulfillment of Isaiah 53...

That evening many demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. He cast out the evil spirits with a simple command, and he healed all the sick.17 This fulfilled the word of the Lord through the prophet Isaiah, who said,

“He took our sicknesses and removed our diseases.”

Matthew 8:16-17

36 “But now,” he said, “take your money and a traveler’s bag. And if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one! 37 For the time has come for this prophecy about me to be fulfilled: ‘He was counted among the rebels.’ Yes, everything written about me by the prophets will come true.”

Luke 22:36-37

37 But despite all the miraculous signs Jesus had done, most of the people still did not believe in him. 38 This is exactly what Isaiah the prophet had predicted:

“Lord, who has believed our message? To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm?”

John 12:37-38

30 Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

31 The man replied, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?” And he urged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him.

32 The passage of Scripture he had been reading was this:

“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter.
    And as a lamb is silent before the shearers,
    he did not open his mouth.
33 He was humiliated and received no justice.
    Who can speak of his descendants?
    For his life was taken from the earth.”

34 The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, was the prophet talking about himself or someone else?” 35 So beginning with this same Scripture, Philip told him the Good News about Jesus.

Acts 8:30-34

21 For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered[l] for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps.

22  He never sinned,
    nor ever deceived anyone.
23 He did not retaliate when he was insulted,
    nor threaten revenge when he suffered.
He left his case in the hands of God,
    who always judges fairly.
24 He personally carried our sins
    in his body on the cross
so that we can be dead to sin
    and live for what is right.
By his wounds
    you are healed.
25 Once you were like sheep
    who wandered away.
But now you have turned to your Shepherd,
    the Guardian of your souls.
1 Peter 2:21-25

You've read this far... you've earned some fun...
Related Posts
* Some of my favorite songs about the resurrection
* Batman and the Easter Bunny
* When you try to explain to Jesus how hard life is...

Sunday, April 09, 2017

Monday Funday: If the President Was a Pastor

If video doesn't show, go here.

Cup O' Joe with Bill

Sunday, June 25, 2017

Rethinking the American Approach to Ministry...

Sunday, June 18, 2017

Becoming the Disciplemaker You've Always Wanted to Be...

Sunday, June 11, 2017

Father's Day: Which is better Google or Dad?

Sunday, June 04, 2017

Summer 2017 God Adventures with Your Cadre Disciplemaking Missionaries...

Sunday, May 28, 2017

Bible 101 Videos

Saturday, May 20, 2017

Allison #5 Graduates from High School...

Thursday, May 11, 2017

On Honoring Your Mother...

Sunday, May 07, 2017

Start Your Summer Ministry Off Right!

Sunday, April 30, 2017

How to Raise Your Children

Sunday, April 23, 2017

Happy birthday William

Thursday, April 13, 2017

About 700 years before Jesus died on the cross...

Sunday, April 09, 2017

Monday Funday: If the President Was a Pastor

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