Thursday, May 29, 2008

Already Seeing Results!!

Hello again,
Time for another update. This is very exciting! We are already seeing results as we begin to make phone calls.

Lindale Assembly held a special Compassion Outreach event on Sunday, May 18. Flyers were distributed through the local elementary schools and with the help of a community health services organization. Approximately 145 families attended the event. Each family filled out a visitor card and some of them responded during the altar service for prayer. On Monday, I was able to enter all of the data from the visitor and prayer cards. Tuesday evening, we held a training meeting for the purpose of teaching the volunteers to make phone calls for follow up and with the goal of being able to pray with each family again and invite them back for Bible Study.

The result - 17 volunteers made approximately 66 phone calls, resulting in several families and individuals returning for the Wednesday night Bible study and for this past Sunday's services! People are excited and ready to continue learning and, more importantly, applying what they are learning.


Imperial Valley Assembly - I was able to conduct the second in the training series last night. They are also getting excited about going out into the community. Some of their members are already thinking about how they might add some things to the ministries of their church, in order to be ready for the growth that will happen. Currently, there are no children or teenagers in their congregation. This is going to present some interesting challenges for us, because of the drastic ministry changes that are going to take place over the course of the summer. Please continue to pray for them.

Emerge Church - Pastor Jeff and I met yesterday to discuss how to proceed over the course of the summer. He is planning a "Welcome to the Neighborhood" type of service for some time in June. We will be inviting the residents of the surrounding apartment complexes, as well as the people who have recently moved into the neighborhood. (I get this list through the software company that provides our tracking software.) The idea is to invite them to a service where they are able to meet their neighbors, eat some Bar-B-Que, experience some worship and hear about the vision of the church. Remember, this is a new church planting project, so they are still trying to establish a presence in the community.

Alvin First Assembly - I will be returning to Alvin this weekend for the third in the evangelism training series. Getting closer to the visitation launch date during the second week in June. They are also planning a children's Day Camp program on June 14, which will help in "kick starting" our visitation effort.

I ordered the Bibles, books and supplies for the visitation effort this week. we should be receiving the materials during the first two weeks in June. The churches have provided the finances to be able to order enough supplies for approximately 560 packets.
If you would like to help with this project, please visit our designated donations page on our web site by clicking here.
Donations are tax deductible, through our 501(c)3 ministry, Inner Cities for Jesus, Inc.

Looking forward to what God will do this week. Check back next Thursday for more Good News!!


Blessings,
Rev. Teddy Levron
www.effective-evangelism-training.org

Thursday, May 22, 2008

3-2-1 LIFTOFF!!

Hello everyone,
Great week of ministry!!

People are starting to make CONNECTIONS!!

Lindale Assembly held a special Compassion Outreach Event this past Sunday. There were about 145 new families in attendance. This past Tuesday, I was able to distribute 66 visitor information cards and prayer request cards to those who have been trained for the CONNECTIONS MINISTRY. They will be making calls this week to follow up on the visitors and prospects from this event.

For clarification purposes, Visitors are identified as those who simply filled out a visitor form during the service. Some of them have requested specific information about the ministries of the church. Prospects are identified as those who responded to the altar call for salvation and rededication and also filled out a prayer card with specific needs. The indicators, visitor or prospect, are simply the options available in the software that we are using.

The volunteers are excited about making the calls. I will get their reports back this coming Sunday, and hopefully there will be many in attendance as a result of this follow up. They are planning a very special Memorial Day Tribute service for this Sunday.

I met with Alvin First Assembly for the second in the training series. They are beginning to really see the potential for winning souls in their community. Many of them had specific questions about how to share the Gospel and expressed a real eagerness to "do it right."
They are planning a special Children's Day Camp in June that will help us in meeting people in the community, and gathering information that we can follow up on. Memorial day is this weekend, so we will not be doing training this Sunday. I'll be back to continue the training on June 1.


I was able to conduct the morning service at Imperial Valley Assembly this past Sunday. The congregation's response was very encouraging to the pastor of the church. There were 17 in attendance Wednesday night for the first in the training series. "Very encouraging" is an understatement, since their Sunday morning attendance is approximately 25 - 30 at this time! They have committed to the next 4 weeks for training. By the middle of June, we will begin doing the actual home visits. God is really blessing the beginning of this effort. He has already sent several individuals and couples, who do not regularly attend this church, that have committed to helping them get starting in reaching out to the community. This is going to be interesting to watch.

Emerge Church has experienced a few setbacks in the past week, but they are determined to carry out what God has called them to do, in relation to planting a church in the south central part of Houston. We have not been able to have our first training session yet, but are hoping that things will come in line soon. It is all in God's timing. Not worried, but please pray that God will open clear doors and opportunities for them.

I will be ordering the supplies, Bibles, 3 Essentials Books, prayer cards and bags this week. We should receive the first order in a couple of weeks.

I am also working on getting all of the training materials together in a workbook format and audio CD's, so churches can have it for training in the future.

I've been able to add a link on our webpage for those who wish to donate toward the CONNECTIONS MINISTRY as well. You can check it out by clicking here.
Contributions are tax-deductible through our 501(c)3 ministry, Inner Cities for Jesus, Inc.

Looking forward to sharing more Good News next week.

Blessings,
Rev. Teddy Levron
www.effective-evangelism-training.org

Thursday, May 15, 2008

First Visitor Cards Being Processed and Contacted!!

Hello everyone,
Things are still going along in the right direction. Not that I ever doubted it would, since God is the author of this effort.

I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day this past Sunday. Time with the family was a great treat for me.

I'm starting to figure out some of the software glitches, with the help of the support team. I've begun entering members from the churches that are involved in the CONNECTIONS MINISTRY. I have also received the first list of "New Moves" for the zip codes that I have selected. These are families that have moved into the zip code within the past 30 days. We will be contacting them by letter at first, inviting them to special "Welcome to the Neighborhood" events.

Tuesday night's training meeting at Lindale went well. The number of attendees was down, but that can be attributed to other commitments, family events, end of school, etc. They are also involved in the final planning stages for their upcoming event this Sunday, so many were in attendance to help prepare for that event.

I was able to start the phone visit process with 4 visitor cards that they had received on Sunday. I will be looking forward to hearing the results from those phone calls. Some of those who received cards to call are first timers. Pray for them as they begin to reach out to the community around them.

I also gave Pastor Meeks the list of New Moves in his zip code, 13 new families in all! They will be sending letters to invite them to upcoming events. The list of New Moves does not have phone numbers, so we will pursue them by mail at first. After the event this Sunday, we will also be following up on their visitor cards by phone, because of the numbers that are expected for the event.

Once we are past the event, then we will settle into our ongoing pattern of visitation to the visitors and the systematic distribution of Bibles.

I will be at Imperial Vally Assembly this coming Sunday morning. They have already begun a prayer focus for reaching the community and are seeing God move in some interesting ways. Since the beginning of the prayer effort, which is only about 2 weeks old, several families have come by to visit on Sunday morning, and they have received an offer of help for door to door Bible Distribution from several members of one of the local missions. God is on the move! Pray for them.

I will also be at Alvin First Assembly on Sunday evening for the second in the series of training meetings. They have also begun to see visitors, even before we have gone into the community. I believe this is an indication that once a church has made a focused commitment to reaching the lost, God will begin to open those opportunities. The "New Moves" list for the Alvin area has approx. 26 new families that we can begin contacting this week.

Pastor Jeff at Emerge Church has also had some success in finding an open door in his community. One of the apartment managers has given us permission to post information about the church in their lobby and also provide "Welcome to the Neighborhood" packets for their new residents! She has also given permission to begin some after school Bible Clubs and the Great Outdoors Club during the summer for the children. We will also begin to hold special "Welcome to the Neighborhood" events in his part of town with the 23 families on our list.

All of this is very exciting. I hope that you are excited about this as well. Please continue to pray for us and the finances to carry this out. Also, please tell all of your friends about this blog and our website www.effective-evangelism-training.org

Looking forward to next week's update.
Blessings,
Rev. Teddy Levron

Friday, May 9, 2008

Training Continues

Hello again everyone,
Things are coming along nicely, with a few little glitches here and there.

Already learning some lessons and modifying the approach.

The 1st Sunday night training session at Alvin First Assembly went well. There were about 30 people in attendance. About 18 of them signed up for hands on assignments and we have already had one person volunteer to help with the database and paper flow between me and the church.

This past Tuesday, the second in the series of training events took place at Lindale Assembly. They are beginning to understand how the pieces fit together between their upcoming event and the ongoing CONNECTIONS MINISTRY. One of their members has expressed an interest in heading up the prayer effort for this new ministry!! Nothing happens without prayer cover, at least nothing good happens. (Know what I mean?)

Between these two locatiions, there are about 58 people signed up for hands on assignments. Really exciting stuff!!

Pastor Jeff and I got together this week. I gave him a prayer list of the neighborhood that he is wanting to target, so that he and his team members can begin praying over the families in that area. I am scheduled to conduct the first training session on Saturday, May 17th, at one of the apartment complexes in their area. Please pray for us.

And now, for a few glitches. I have begun working with the software and have found several bugs and problems. The software has great capabilities, but I have spent quite a bit of time with the support team trying to work out problems in the way the program works, or doesn't. Some of the problems that I am experiencing, they have never seen before. Seems to me that Satan doesn't like what we are doing! He's trying to slow us down, but he can't stop what God has already ordained to be done. Persistence and prayer are the answer.
"I can do all things thorugh Christ who strengthens me." - Philippians 4:13

Please continue to pray for the financial needs of all of the churches involved and our ministry. This is a large undertaking and will require quite a bit of cash to implement.

The feedback that I am receiving about the teaching sessions and the excitement about the beginning of this project is a great encouragement to me. Others are beginning to ask for information about how to become involved in different parts of town, and I am beginning to get requests to speak in churches outside of our area as well. As always, to check on the upcoming training and speaking schedule Click here.

Next week's preview:
Mother's Day is this weekend, so Happy Mother's Day to all you Moms out there. I'll be spending the day with my wife and family.
Tuesday, I'll be conducting a special training session at Lindale Assembly that helps to tie the Connections Ministry to their Compassion outreach, which will be taking place on May 18th.
Wednesday, Pastor Jeff and I are planning to get together again to further evaluate his target area.
Looking forward to updating you again next week.

Blessings,
Rev. Teddy Levron