Blog

“The mission field is between your own two feet,” said Jill Briscoe, Bible teacher and author who travels & speaks internationally. EFCA RESOUND women across the nation and in our Rocky Mountain District are increasingly beginning to resonate with that truth! Here are a few comments from the twenty-two women who attended a recent RESOUND Disciplemaking Pathway/Evangelism training in Gillette, Wyoming, with RESOUND Mobilizer, Lea Ann Brookens, and networker Gretchen Carlson:

I need to start doing something! The mission field is here.

The mission field is between my own 2 feet – WOW! Thank you!

I need to look at my sphere of influence and be intentional and stop making excuses for not engaging unbelievers.

I have a plan to change my daily living and venture out of my comfort zone to reach others.
The realization is that it’s in the relational and not the multitudes.

Discipling one or two people – equipping them to disciple and then it will multiply & spread.

Get a disciple, get over myself & let God work through me.

I can’t go share the gospel around the world if I can’t even do it in my own town. Investing personally in one or two people, a true relationship.

That I need to make disciplemaking a part of my mental processes. I need to look at where I need more establishing & determine who in my life I can build into.

Lea Ann Brookens

Rocky Mountain District

Women in Ministry Consultant

EFCA RESOUND Mobilizer

Welcome Nick Doneff to the Rocky Mountain District, assisting in missions mobilization and replacing Mike Harrison who has most recently been serving the RMD in this capacity. Nick works with the EFCA ReachGlobal as Southeast Asia Advocate. He serves churches in the United States by helping them effectively engage in ministry partnerships in Southeast Asia.

Nick joined ReachGlobal after 33 years of residential building and developing in eastern Wisconsin. Kris and Nick have been deeply involved in worship and music ministries since 1976. Nick has been involved in numerous short term mission trips over the 17 years from 1990 to 2007. At a ReachGlobal conference in Thailand in January 2007 the call was clear – to leave the family business and pursue missions full time. Since then, he has visited ministries in Southeast Asia and numerous churches in the United States encouraging them towards deeper relationships with the missionaries they support.

Nick and Kris were born and raised in eastern Wisconsin. They are graduates of Carroll University in Waukesha, Wisconsin. They moved to Evergreen Colorado this past summer to join their adult children, and new grandchildren. His son, Joshua Doneff, is the Youth Pastor at Bergen Park EFC. His daughter and husband, Carissa and Ben Berres, serve as worship leaders. No question where Nick and Kris will worship!

Nick will assist the churches of the RMD as a missions mobilizer. Nick’s personal mission statement sums up his work: “Mobilizing churches, individuals, and specific resources for the work that God is doing to multiply healthy churches among all people in Southeast Asia and the world.”

His services to the RMD will include:

Training
Networking
Mission resourcing
Crisis Response and compassion ministries
Leading churches in vision trips, disaster response and construction trips.

There are multiple  Men’s Ministry training events along the front range this fall. Gary Bateman is our Men’s Ministry consultant in the Rocky Mountain District. Here are some  Men’s Training Opportunities.

What’s Your Church’s History?

How well do you know the history of your church? How about her origin? Or should I say, “How was she planted?”

We can describe the origin of your church into one of the following three general categories….

Planter Initiated Plant – these churches are planted by a pastor/planter and a group of people he gathers to this new vision.

Lay Plant - these churches are planted by a group of lay people who later call a pastor to lead and shepherd them.

Sister/Daughter Plant - these churches are initiated by a church that senses God leading them to begin a new work.

I would love to learn the origin of each of our churches and plants in our district. If you know, please email and identify your church/plant and which of the three categories she falls under.

Now why is this relevant? Trends in planting reveal that the first two are becoming more and more difficult. That is why I am emphasizing the need for church planting churches! Churches that plant churches develop leaders quicker, provide for greater accountability and care, and have more resources.

I believe in this so much that I have requested and have been given permission to give 20% of my time to helping plant a church planting church in Fort Collins. As part of the DNA of this plant we will be operating a residency program for potential planters. (We haven’t yet begun and we have our first potential resident!) The vision is that we (and other RMD churches who share the same vision) will be raising up many of our next generation of planters who will be receiving hands on training and experience in beginning new works.

Greg Pugh heygap@hotmail.com

Director of Church Planting & Development 719-510-9131

The Rocky Mountain District is a creation of the local churches for the purpose of resourcing the churches in our association. You have probably been aware that we assist our churches in cooperative church planting, consulting and training in leadership development, conflict intervention, organizational change, finances and stewardship, missions development and partnership, children and family ministry development, women in ministry training, student ministries, pastoral search assistance and so much more.*

There are now two more consultants available who as volunteers are part of the Rocky Mountain District team available to work with your church, your leadership, or assist you in developing ministries. Over the past year Karen Griffin has joined our team to assist churches with ministry to the maturing generation. As the Baby Boomers and older are a growing part of our culture, Karen is available to assist our churches in both reaching this generation as well as integrating them in ministry in our churches.

Gary Bateman has also joined our consulting team to redevelop a cooperative effort to build men’s ministry in our district cooperatively as well as work with individual churches to assist them in growing men’s ministries. Gary has been very active in Colorado with interdenominational Men’s Ministry training and conferences. We welcome Gary as a dedicated coworker and contributor to our district churches.

How is your church doing with evangelism?

Are you experiencing at least 10% conversion growth?

If not, our Fall Summit on September 15 in Colorado and September 17 in South Dakota is designed to equip pastors, leaders and believers in being disciples of our Lord who, through some very basic Christian principles and practices, effortlessly experience opportunities to share their faith. Information on this one day training is inside this newsletter and can also be found at rockymountaindistrict.org (Click on the rotating banner titled “Fork In The Road.”

Thank you for the ongoing opportunity to serve you, your church and our kingdom effort.