Most Popular Articles

• Closer to Christ: The power of Christian community

  Aug 28, 2024 Gabriel 0 Comments

  Intro

  
  In a world that often feels disconnected, the idea of community is a source of hope, offering a place where we can connect, support each other, and feel like we belong. For Christians, community is not just a nice idea; it’s an essential part of growing closer to Christ. The Christian community, often called the body of Christ, helps believers deepen their relationship with Jesus, strengthen their faith, and live out their calling. This article explores the power of Christian community and how it helps us grow closer to Christ.

   

  The Biblical Foundation of Christian Community

  The idea of community is deeply rooted in the Bible. From the very beginning, God showed us that we’re not meant to be alone. In Genesis, God says, "It is not good for man to be alone" (Genesis 2:18), showing that we need companionship and community. The Israelites, God’s chosen people, lived as a close-knit community, united by their faith in God.

  In the New Testament, the early church gives us a powerful example of Christian community. Acts 2:42-47 describes how the first believers "devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." They shared everything, supported each other, and grew in their faith together. This early model shows us that spiritual growth happens best in a community.

   

  How Community Helps Us Grow Spiritually

  Christian community plays a big role in helping us grow spiritually. Our faith journey is not something we do alone; it’s something we do together with others who can encourage us, teach us, and hold us accountable.

   

  1.Encouragement and accountability

   

  In a Christian community, we find encouragement to live out our faith. Hebrews 10:24-25 tells us to "consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, but encouraging one another." This encouragement helps us keep going, especially when life is tough.

   

  Accountability is another key part of spiritual growth. Proverbs 27:17 says, "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another." In a Christian community, we challenge each other to grow, to avoid sin, and to strive to live holy lives. This kind of accountability helps us stay on track and grow closer to Christ.

   

  2. Teaching and Discipleship

   

  Christian community is also a place where we learn and grow through discipleship. Jesus told His followers to "go and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19). This mission happens within the community, where older or more experienced Christians can mentor and guide others.

   

  Discipleship happens in many ways, like in small groups, Bible studies, or one-on-one mentoring. These settings allow us to have deep conversations, get personalized advice, and build close, Christ-centered relationships.

   

  How Community Strengthens Our Faith

   

  Faith is like a journey, and it’s easier to travel with others. The Christian community helps keep our faith strong, especially when we face challenges.

   

  1. Shared Faith and Worship

  Worshiping together is a powerful way that Christian community strengthens our faith. When we gather to worship God—through singing, praying, and reading Scripture—we’re reminded that we’re part of something bigger. We’re part of a global body of believers, all united in our love for Christ.

  Shared faith also gives us support during times of doubt or spiritual dryness. When our faith feels weak, the community can remind us of God’s faithfulness and encourage us to keep going. The experiences and stories of others in the community can inspire us and give us hope.

   

  2. Carrying Each Other’s Burdens

  The Christian community is a place where we can share our struggles and get support. Galatians 6:2 tells us to "carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." Whether we’re dealing with emotional, spiritual, or physical challenges, the community is there to offer comfort, prayer, and practical help.

  This kind of support helps us feel connected and loved. Knowing that others are praying for us and walking with us through tough times gives us strength. It also reflects Christ’s love, who calls us to "love one another as I have loved you" (John 13:34).

   

  Community Helps Us Live Out Our Christian Calling

  Christian community isn’t just about growing and finding support; it’s also about living out our calling as followers of Christ. In the community, we’re equipped, encouraged, and sent out to serve others and share the Gospel.

  Service and Mission

  Christian communities often get involved in service projects and missions, both locally and globally. These activities allow us to put our faith into action by serving others in the name of Christ. Whether it’s feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, or spreading the Gospel, the community gives us opportunities to live out Jesus’ teachings.

  Serving others within the community also teaches us humility and selflessness. Jesus set the example by washing His disciples’ feet, saying, "Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet" (John 13:14). By serving others, we learn to put others’ needs before our own and show Christ’s love to the world.

  2. Evangelism and Witness

   

  The Christian community is a powerful witness to the world. Jesus prayed for the unity of His followers, so "that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me" (John 17:22-23). The love and unity within the Christian community show the world the truth of the Gospel.

  Evangelism is often most effective when done in community. When non-believers see the genuine love and support within a Christian community, they’re often drawn to learn more about the faith that brings the community together. The community acts as a living example of Christ’s transforming power.

  3. Challenges and the Need for Authenticity

  While Christian community has great power to bring us closer to Christ, it also faces challenges. Because it’s made up of people, conflicts, misunderstandings, and disappointments can happen. It’s important for Christian communities to deal with these challenges with grace, forgiveness, and a commitment to being real and honest with each other.

  1. Handling Conflicts

  Conflict is a normal part of any community, but how we handle it can either strengthen or weaken our relationships. The Bible teaches us how to resolve conflicts by talking directly, forgiving each other, and seeking reconciliation (Matthew 18:15-17). When we address issues openly and with humility, Christian communities can grow stronger.

  Being real and vulnerable

  For a Christian community to truly be effective, it needs to be a place where people can be real and vulnerable. Believers should feel safe to share their struggles, doubts, and failures without fear of judgment. This level of honesty helps build deep relationships and allows the community to support each other better.

  Being real also means recognizing that no community is perfect. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in his book *Life Together*, “He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter.” True community isn’t about being perfect; it’s about walking together in faith, love, and grace, even when things aren’t perfect.

   

  Conclusion: Drawing Closer to Christ through Community

  The power of Christian community lies in its ability to help us grow closer to Christ. Through shared faith, encouragement, accountability, and service, the community helps us grow spiritually and strengthens our faith. It also provides a supportive environment where we can carry each other’s burdens, live out our Christian calling, and be a witness to the world.

  But for a Christian community to be effective, it must be committed to being real, united, and loving. By embracing these principles and dealing with challenges with grace, Christian communities can fulfill their role as the body of Christ, helping each member grow closer to Him.

  In a world that often values individualism and self-reliance, the Christian community stands out as a place where we can find strength, support, and encouragement. It’s within this community that we find the help we need to draw closer to Christ and to show His love to the world around us.

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• G.R.O.'s Big Launch for 2025

  Jan 11, 2025 Michael Bond 0 Comments

  The Big Launch

  The Big Launch? What do you mean Big Launch? Hasn’t G.R.O. been reaching Muslims by radio for 3 and a half decades? Wasn’t it already launched in 1991? Well, yes, but that’s not all of the story.

  The Big Launch is indeed the next big step for Global Radio Outreach. It is a critical time, a pivotal moment, a turning point in the development and growth of our worldwide outreach to Muslims. Let me explain. As I mentioned, we’d been reaching Muslims for decades via radio. Then, more than 15 years ago, at the direction of the Lord, we began to build our Internet outreach network, including blogging sites, Internet radio stations and all the supporting infrastructure. We began to use it right away, but we spent years developing and using the tech tools as they were being built. We continued to build it out to make it more effective, easier to use and to prepare it to carry the amount of traffic which it will ultimately need to carry. All the while we were struggling to find the money and the people needed to see it go ‘viral’ the way that we knew it could. However, things have changed. The time is right.

   

  Currently, we’re already getting hundreds of thousands of engagements each year and hundreds of conversions in that same period. Now, the Big Launch will help us really step it up, to prepare to add more languages, more websites and more Internet radio stations, in order to provide for more people to be reached, many more. It will provide the capacity to give us global coverage, real penetration and absolute saturation.

   

              The undertaking that we are proposing is just part of the infrastructure which we’re building in, in order to support the expansion that will take place. The first part of the expansion calls for increased staffing, for the people needed to support the growth. We’re finding those people through the MissionNext website, which is a kind of missionary job site. It matches prospective missionaries with agencies, like ours, which need them. We’re also finding people at Missions Fest and Mission Connexion. We’ve found several of the people needed already. Even though they’re coming as missionaries, some of these people will need some financial assistance from us. Our next candidate falls into this category. It’s someone who will help bring stability, order, standards and metrics into our organization. We're calling this our Stipend Fund. Visit www.globalradiooutreach.org/give choose one time or monthly, select an amount. Then put Stipend Fund in the notes box. This is an on-going fund.

   

  So, the second portion of the Big Launch includes increased general needs funding to continue operating. We’re seeking this  through more and better web and other social media activity and events. We’re also seeking a development director to assist in that process, as well as through this article. We also continue to visit churches and exhibit at local and regional missions conferences. Our Comedy Night and Banquet continue. However, we’re stepping up on these by taking them online in a unique way.

   

              The third portion of the Big launch, the part that we’re asking for help with, is to get into an appropriate space (an office), with some needed infrastructure, which will support the current expansion. This Launch originally involved an additional part that was recently met. It was to get our rack of servers, which is the heart of our ministry, moved to a clean, dry, stable environment and get their power backed up. They’re currently living in my dusty, dirty garage in Everett. We’ve now received funds for the backup generator. As soon as the building owner is ready, the servers will move. The other side of that, the one that we’re asking help for, is to help us move G.R.O.’s office to a place outside of my basement.       

        Affordable office space is also available in that building for $750 per month. There are several reasons that this is important. I won’t be the president of GRO forever. GRO will need their own space outside my home. However, we sometimes run into problems with having the organization in a residential space, as we did recently when seeking interns from universities. Some schools will not respond unless you have a proper business address. GRO also needs a proper place to meet partners and ‘clients’. On top of that, work space is needed, increasingly, for new workers to come to. Please consider helping us get started. We’ll grow it into our budget over the next year to carry it after your gift is used up. It is also an ongoing campaign, though.

   

              The Big Launch’s fourth part has to do with several innovations to the outreach network that we are currently developing, or installing. You might not understand some of these, but they will give our website and radio station missionaries a modern and easy to use platform to reach their audience, in their language. The library server is one of the most important innovations. It will be in a server online for the website missionaries to use and to share their recording and programs into it. Lute is a web-based login to all of the resources available to the website missionaries. Lute gives them a single login to access all of their tools; including the library, their website, their internet radio station, file editing, missions research and more. We’re also updating our website software to modernize the sites and make them easier to use. On top of that, we’re building a new database for the whole system in order to increase its capacity, and speed it up. We’ve added smaller things, like a quiz page to allow the website missionaries to teach and give tests to disciples and students, as well as photo pages and more. These innovations will bring our outreach network well into the 21^st century, making it fast, user friendly, powerful and effective.

   

              The fifth and final part of the Big Launch is perhaps the most important. It is called Seeds of Hope.  We want to reach a million Muslims in the coming year. We use Google AdWords to draw them to our websites and radio stations. In the last year we had about 350,000 visitors to the sites on a relatively small AdWords budget. We believe that with a budget of $100,000 we can one million in 2025. Now, that doesn’t mean that they will all be saved, but that a million will be confronted with the claims of the Gospel. Please stand with us in this. Help us to tell a million Muslims. This is an ongoing campaign. You can give by going to www.globalradiooutreach.org/give and choose Seeds of Hope.

   

              In times past, our whole operation was in spare space at Philadelphia Church. As the church grew to expand back into its own space we had to choose to move. We moved to Everett because costs are lower. In the interim, to save commute time, we moved into our home. Then, Covid-19 pinned us down for a long season. Eventually, a nice free room was offered to us in Lowell (near Everett WA), enough for the servers, which our media library now occupies, and where the servers will soon be. This is where we will put the servers and back-up generator.

   

              I realize that this Big Launch may not be all exotic like a similar need which is located overseas, ‘on the mission field’, might be. We’re not talking about feeding orphans here. However, we are talking about the Great Commission. Therefore, it is of no less importance to the Great Commission than other, fancier projects might be. It is almost certainly more important and more urgent than most others you might select. This is because the strategy that GRO uses is worldwide. In any 90-day period of time we get radio listeners in 200 nations, and currently about 1,000 engagements per day. Furthermore, our continuing growth in the equipping of national workers with our tools, to be used in their language gives GRO a huge edge. Of all of the outreaches that I know, it has the greatest potential to not only reach the lost in every nation, but it also has the potential to spark growth in the Church. It can also help to make the statistical difference in the world, which according to Dr. David Garrison, the Church is not yet making in the Muslim World. We can get that through the coverage, penetration and saturation that expanding this network can provide. Please consider helping us.

   

  The Big Launch Cost

              One year of rental cost for an office space in Lowell (one needed per year) $9,000

              One year of stipend for our next candidate (several needed per year)          $24,000

              One year of AdWords budget to reach a million (needed each year)          $100,000

   

              So, first, please pray for us as we step out in faith to see this Big Launch and the increase in ministry to Muslims take place. Second, if you know of someone who would like to serve with us, please put me in contact with them. Just call me at 425-252-1866. Finally, if you can give, please go to the website, www.globalradiooutreach.org/give, or download the Global Radio Outreach app, or send a check to Global Radio Outreach, PO Box 719, Everett WA 98206. Small gifts, or large gifts, everyone will make a difference.

   

  Thank you! You’ll be a part of a miracle.

   

   

  Mike Bond

  Global Radio Outreach

  PO Box 719

  Everett WA 98206

  (425) 252-1866

  www.globalradiooutreach.org

  

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