BRIDGEBUILDERS SEMINARS

Bridgebuilders Seminar is a six-hour training event created by Dr. Steve Dunn to help traditional churches reach their unchurched neighbors.  Part of the challenge of this effort is that it is often a cross-cultural experience for which traditional churches are ill-equipped by temperament, knowledge, and skills.  Even if they believe that they are called to reach the mission field that is outside their front door, they often see it as a matter of getting people in the door so that the church might survive. And too often they believe that simply re-packaging a bit what they do will make them attractive to people for whom church is simply irrelevant to their daily lives.

The Seminar breaks down into six sessions:
+"The Mission Field Outside Your Front Door"
+"What Every Missionary Needs to Know"
+ "Christ's Respectful Ambassador"
+ "Listening to the Holy Spirit and the Culture"
+ "Tools to Building Bridges"
+ "Getting Started as a Church (And as Individuals"

 The next scheduled Bridgebuilders Seminars is in the Middle Atlantic Region.  It will be held at:

September 22,2012
Newville Church of God

475 Shippensburg Rd

Newville PA

9:00 am-3:30 EST
Host pastor: Rev. Wayne Good

Under a special agreement with the Commission on Evangelism of the Eastern Regional Conference of the Churches of God (which is sponsoring this event) the cost is $15 per person or $50 flat fee for churches registering four or more.

To register go to the Commission's web site EVANGELISM PLUS and follow the Bridgebuilders link.

If you would like information about bringing these seminars to your church, region or adjudicatory, please contact Steve Dunn at sdunnpastor@gmail.com (717-892-7494)

CONSIDER BRIDGEBUILDERS

I have designed a new resource BRIDGEBUILDERS-HELPING TRADITIONAL CHURCHES REACH THEIR UNCHURCHED NEIGHBORS.  This is the first of a series of articles about the ministry.

WHY BRIDGEBUILDERS?

4 05 2012

BY STEVE DUNN

We live in a church culture that is enamored with programs and prescriptions. What’s the sure-fire program to bring people to Jesus Christ? What three simple things can we do to achieve our responsibility to share the faith (and maybe make a few new Christians). This seminar is built on the premise that people are more important than programs in the process of evangelism. People living a Christ-like life committed to helping others to be transformed by Christ are the most valuable resource in evangelism after the work of the Holy Spirit.

Three observations have prompted this seminar. Three reflections, which I believe are grounded in God’s Word, form the foundation of its message.

(1) Many times traditional churches engage in evangelism because of survival issues. They equate evangelism with church growth. True evangelism is committed to growing the Kingdom of God.

(2) Still others are drawn to evangelism to make a better community. We downplay that people are lost without Jesus Christ. True evangelism seeks to transform lives.

(3) And too many churches want to engage in evangelism without leaving their comfort zone. To quote BIll Hybels, “God does his best work in the zone of the unknown.” True evangelism requires us to enter someone else’s world, not to expect them to meet us in ours.

Bridgebuilders was conceived out of my personal encounter with the writings of four men: Bill Hybels, Walt Mueller, Dan Kimball, and Leslie Newbiggin. You will see their influence in this material and I am indebted to them.

Bill Hybels is perhaps the most familiar to many for his teaching at Willow Creek and particularly his evangelism training Becoming a Contagious Christian. Bill is the first person to ignite in me the profound realization that “Lost people matter to God. Lost people should matter to God’s people.”

Walt Mueller is the head of the Center for Parent and Youth Understanding. His excellent work Inside the Mind of Youth Culture helped me grasp how truly different the world is today and the major issues involved in passing along the Faith to people who have been shaped by the postmodern mind.
Dan Kimball serves the interesting Southern Baptist congregation called Vintage Church. His work on They Like Jesus, But Not the Church helped me understand the challenge of mobilizing the traditional church to genuine evangelism and the terrible dilemma the world finds itself in because too many authentic Christians chose to live within “the Christian bubble.”

Early in my evangelism training I encountered Leslie Newbiggin, the great missiologist who wrote Foolishness to the Greeks. Newbiggin has written convincingly of the mission field that is the United States and the need to exegete the culture as would any good missionary who desires to be faithful and fruitful for the Kingdom.

It is my privilege to share this material with you. I passionately hope that it will help the traditional church live out its calling and privilege of being the body of Christ. For I believe in the church—in all its forms—because it is the bearer of Christ Jesus. Or as Paul would say, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” – Ephesians 1.27

His and yours, living in His amazing grace,
Steve Dunn
Landisville, Pennsylvania

September 2010

TWO BRIDGEBUILDERS BEING OFFERED

Bridgebuilders Seminar is a six-hour training seminar to help traditional churches reach their unchurched neighbors.  The Seminar was designed by Dr. Steve Dunn on behalf of the Commission on Evangelism of the Eastern Regional Conference of the Churches of God.

Part of the challenge of this effort is that it is often a cross-cultural experience for which traditional churches are ill-equipped by temperament, knowledge, and skills.  Even if they believe that they are called to reach the mission field that is outside their front door, they often see it as a matter of getting people in the door so that the church might survive. And too often they believe that simply re-packaging a bit what they do will make them attractive to people for whom church is simply irrelevant to their daily lives.


The Seminar breaks down into six sessions:
+”The Mission Field Outside Your Front Door”
+”What Every Missionary Needs to Know”
+ “Christ’s Respectful Ambassador”
+ “Listening to the Holy Spirit and the Culture”
+ “Tools to Building Bridges”
+ “Getting Started as a Church (And as Individuals)

Seminars begin at  9:00 am and conclude at 3:30.  Cost is $15 person or a flat $50 for churches registering four or more participants.  That price includes lunch and a workbook.


To date there have been three Bridgebuilders Seminars involving 20 churches more than 75 persons, plus two introductory seminars attended by 120 persons.





The remaining seminar offerings in 2011 are as follows:

Saturday, October 29, 2011
Germantown Church of God
16924 Raven Rock Road
Cascade MD
Host pastor is Mark Hosler.
Directions

Linglestown Church of God
5834 Linglestown Road
Harrisburg  PA
Host pastor is Barry Stahl.
Directions

You can register for Bridgebuilders by going to the BRIDGEBUILDERS SEMINARS Facebook Page or by going to ERC Evangelism's website EVANGELISM PLUS  Or by calling 717-898-8144.

BRIDGEBUILDERS SEMINARS - FALL 2011

Bridgebuilders Seminar is a six-hour training event created by Dr. Steve Dunn to help traditional churches reach their unchurched neighbors.  Part of the challenge of this effort is that it is often a cross-cultural experience for which traditional churches are ill-equipped by temperament, knowledge, and skills.  Even if they believe that they are called to reach the mission field that is outside their front door, they often see it as a matter of getting people in the door so that the church might survive. And too often they believe that simply re-packaging a bit what they do will make them attractive to people for whom church is simply irrelevant to their daily lives.

The Seminar breaks down into six sessions:
+"The Mission Field Outside Your Front Door"
+"What Every Missionary Needs to Know"
+ "Christ's Respectful Ambassador"
+ "Listening to the Holy Spirit and the Culture"
+ "Tools to Building Bridges"
+ "Getting Started as a Church (And as Individuals"

 The next two scheduled Bridgebuilders Seminars are in the Middle Atlantic Region.  They will be held at:

September 24, 2011
Newville Church of God
(near Carlisle PA)
9:00 am-3:30 EST
Host pastor: Rev. Wayne Good

October 29, 2011
Germantown Church of God
9:00 am-3:30 pm EST
Host pastor: Rev. Mark Hosler

Under a special agreement with the Commission on Evangelism of the Eastern Regional Conference of the Churches of God (which is sponsoring these two events) the cost is $15 per person or $50 flat fee for churches registering four or more.

To register go to the Commission's web site EVANGELISM PLUS and follow the Bridgebuilders link.

If you would like information about bringing these seminars to your church, region or adjudicatory, please contact Steve Dunn at sdunnpastor@coglandisville.org (717-898-8144)