New Ministry Ideas

[Preacher Nathan Knight]

Hello everyone! It has been forever since I posted here last. I and a few other people are looking to start a new mission group called Sweet Manna Ministries. However, we are undecided on what type of ministry to start out with. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Debby in Philly]

You have a name for it, but you don't know what it will do yet? Surely you have some general idea.

 

[Preacher Nathan Knight]

We want to do several things:Tract distribution,feeding the hungry,etc.

We just arent sure where to start and would like some other, maybe different,ideas.

 

[Dr. Bob]

This is the opposite of what you should be thinking, Nathan. You should have a God-burdened mission/ministry that you MUST do.

THEN worry about a cute name.

What is it God wants to do through you and your group?

 

[RomOne16]

Something you could do almost immediately would be to distribute winter coats/hats/gloves or blankets to the homeless in your area (while witnessing to them).

You could make a coat/blanket drive an annual event for your group, and with a little help from the local newspaper, the turnout could be great.

Most people have extra coats and blankets stuffed away in closets from previous years. I bet you could collect quite a few from your congregation and their friends and families.

God bless you all in your new ministry!

 

[donnA]

A new ministry should start with God. God puts it on your heart,and others hearts as well. God will give confirmation from others that He has given the same burden to. Through prayer and study God gives guidence as to what a new ministry should be.
You've decided to start a ministry and have come up with a name, it looks man made.
Now dump the plans. And start praying for God to tell you if He wants you do a new ministry with you and what it is. It may or may not be feeding. Then pray for the name of the ministry, it's His minstry, let Him give the name of it. God makes the plans, we just follow.
Pray and don't tell anyone ehat your praying about, then pray God would give the same vision to someoen else and then send them to you. Two, three, four people start getting the same vision (and I'm not taking about people having visions, but God putting something on someones heart and won't let them let go of it, they know God is doing something) without knowing anyone else is praying about the samething, without knowing God has given the vision for ministry to anyone else, then you know it's from God. You won't need anyone to give you ideas, God will do it.

 

[Artimaeus]

A good place to start would be your local church. I have yet to see a local church who couldn't use a few willing volunteers.

II Cor 8:12 For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.

 

[gb93433]

Jesus alrady gave the vision and command in Mt. 28:19,20.

 

[donnA]

Originally posted by gb93433:
Jesus alrady gave the vision and command in Mt. 28:19,20.

Then are you saying we just go and start ministries with out God. We don't allow Him to tell us what He wants from us. We just start a ministry and hope for the best. Becasue if God wasn't behind it we have no reason to expect Him to bless what was essentially our ideas.

 

[Ransom]

donnA said:

Now dump the plans. And start praying for God to tell you if He wants you do a new ministry with you and what it is. It may or may not be feeding. Then pray for the name of the ministry, it's His minstry, let Him give the name of it. God makes the plans, we just follow.

It's a good thing Paul didn't do his missionary journeys this way, or the Church would never have expanded past Antioch.

 

[donnA]

Originally posted by Ransom:
donnA said:

Now dump the plans. And start praying for God to tell you if He wants you do a new ministry with you and what it is. It may or may not be feeding. Then pray for the name of the ministry, it's His minstry, let Him give the name of it. God makes the plans, we just follow.

It's a good thing Paul didn't do his missionary journeys this way, or the Church would never have expanded past Antioch.

Paul was without a doubt God lead. There is a difference, I would think you would know that. You don't just start a minisatry and hope God blesses it, what if God didn't want you to do that ministry. Do you expect His blessing on it anyway.
Might as well throw out the will of God and Him being the leader of our lives.

 

[USN2Pulpit]

Originally posted by donnA:
Paul was without a doubt God lead. There is a difference, I would think you would know that. You don't just start a minisatry and hope God blesses it, what if God didn't want you to do that ministry. Do you expect His blessing on it anyway.
Might as well throw out the will of God and Him being the leader of our lives.

Come on, donnA, ease up just a little, so we can figure out what the story is. Perhaps Preacher Nathan hasn't given us the whole story yet. It's a lot harder to tell or to know the whole story when you're "on-line" and we're not going to figure it out if we keep flaming this guy. There's got to be a lot more to it than we know just now.

 

[Ransom]

donnA said:

Paul was without a doubt God lead.

Paul was definitely led by God. What I said was, there is no established pattern in Acts or in his epistles of Paul remaining inactive unless he had a clear sign from God first that he should do this or that.

No, rather, Paul made plans, sometimes because apparently he had an explicit divine command to go (such as his trip to Macedonia), but more often because it was expedient. Having made plans, he, acted on them. He trusted in Providence for the outcome.

For example, the second missionary journey didn't begin with Paul praying for the Lord's "leading" to determine whether he should go or not. He decided to check out the churches he and Barnabas established on his first tour, and acted on his decision.

See also Paul's plans to visit Rome in Rom. 15:23ff. There's no talk about "sensing God's leading" whether he should go or not. On the contrary, we see an orderly, thought-out strategy. He writes, "I have been longing for many years to see you" (15:23); therefore, he adds, "I plan to see you" (15:24). But not right away: in fact, Rome is third on his priority list. First, he intends to deliver an offering from the Macedonian believers to the Jerusalem church (15:26-28). Once that job is done, he writes, "I will go to Spain" - his second priority - "and visit you on the way" (15:28). He acknowledges that God's providential control of circumstances may prevent him from arriving and that his visit is contingent on God's will (15:32). And in fact we know from the latter part of Acts that he did get to Rome because Jesus promised he would get to Rome (Acts 23:12) - just not in the way he originally intended.

Garry Friesen writes:

It is interesting to note that most of Paul's plans did come to pass (Acts 18:21; 1 Timothy 1:3), just as most of our well-laid plans are accomplished. Each time a carefully devised plan is successful, two truths are reinforced: the importance of wise, orderly planning (Proverbs 24:6); and the effectiveness of God's sovereign will in accomplishing the plans of men and God (Romans 1:10; 15:32).

The failure of a plan should prompt one to reevaluate the intended strategy with a view to correcting it if appropriate (Proverbs 20:5). Such lack of success should also motivate the believer to thank God that He is working in all things, even our incompleted or aborted plans, to accomplish His divine purposes for good (Romans 8:28; 1 Thessalonians 5:18). Any outcome, whether successful or not, should remind the Christian that finite, human plans work only "if the Lord wills" (James 4:15). (Decision Making and the Will of God [Minneapolis: Multnomah, 1980] 212)

Apropos to this particular thread, Nathan's mistake is not that he is making his own plans to minister for God. His mistake is putting the cart before the horse by thinking up a nifty name before having plans to which he can attach it.

 

[donnA]

Paul was definitely led by God. What I said was, there is no established pattern in Acts or in his epistles of Paul remaining inactive unless he had a clear sign from God first that he should do this or that.

Show me where I said inactive. Nope, you keep doing the last thing God told you to do until He tells you to stop and do something else.
What you saying is you just do whatever you want and forget what God wants. Just because something is a good thing, a good ministry idea, does not mean God wants you to do it, He may have that blessing planned for someone else.
I beleive in doing God's will, I'm sorry others do not.
He didn't say he wanted to go on a mission trip, which is what you are talking about. Thast too different topics. I wouldn't dream of going on a mission trip without God giving to say so on it. Which Paul clearly had.

 

[donnA]

Originally posted by USN2Pulpit:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by donnA:
Paul was without a doubt God lead. There is a difference, I would think you would know that. You don't just start a minisatry and hope God blesses it, what if God didn't want you to do that ministry. Do you expect His blessing on it anyway.
Might as well throw out the will of God and Him being the leader of our lives.

Come on, donnA, ease up just a little, so we can figure out what the story is. Perhaps Preacher Nathan hasn't given us the whole story yet. It's a lot harder to tell or to know the whole story when you're "on-line" and we're not going to figure it out if we keep flaming this guy. There's got to be a lot more to it than we know just now. </font>[/QUOTE]If it's God lead he doesn't have to ask for ideas, thats something God does.
We can not serve God outside of His power and will, when we do we are opperating on our own power with man made plans.

 

[Preacher Nathan Knight]

Wow,I never expected such critizism. For the record I do certainly believe that if God is not in something it will never work out. But I also believe that God will reward anything that is done by His people that is profitable unto Him and His work. God does want us to be soley dependent on Him but I believe He would have to carry out His work in as many ways as we can as long as it is biblical and for the right reasons.Nothing we do truely in the name of Lord and with the right spirit will return unto Him void.

 

[Ransom]

DonnA said:

Show me where I said inactive. Nope, you keep doing the last thing God told you to do until He tells you to stop and do something else.

Whatever. You have no more Scriptural support for this approach than the other.

Hey USN2Pulpit, are you reading this? Here's a "straw man" for you:

What you saying is you just do whatever you want and forget what God wants.

That is NOT what I am saying. I know what God wants, because I have read the Bible and know what his will is.

In particular, it is Christ's will that his Church will "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you" (Matt. 28:19-20).

In other words, we do not need personal and particular marching orders from the Holy Spirit to go and minister, because we are already under general orders to do so. Anyone who doesn't "feel led" to obey the Great Commission is disobeying orders. And "He may have that blessing planned for someone else" is an excuse (and another worldly notion not found in Scripture, to boot).

I beleive in doing God's will, I'm sorry others do not.

I am sorry that you believe you cannot know and do God's will without getting some sort of sign.