January 2012 Newsletter
Hello friends and family,
Wow, 2012 here we come! At the start of a new year it's great to reflect on the past and set a vision and goals for what's ahead. 2011 was a great advancement in the Kingdom concerning what God has called us to do as we partner together. Many souls were saved, healed, evangelism teams built, evangelism directors set in place, churches renewed, lives restored, and new doors opened. Take a moment to read this letter and see what lies ahead. We made great progress in 2011, and have set strong goals for 2012. At the end of 2011 we had around 18 young men and women gather in our home who felt called to be evangelists. From this group, we have built teams that we plan to raise up, as they work alongside of us as staff interns to help us fulfill what God has called us to do. One of the young men I’ve raised up is Ryan Jones. He just graduated Bible school and has worked very closely with us the past 18-24 months. He is now traveling as an evangelist, but is also working directly with me as an Office Administrator. He will be administrating around six staff interns to help us organize the American side of Global Outreach Day (G.O.D.), constant section connections (regional outreaches), building our national network of evangelism directors, organizing our weekly outreach to the gay and lesbian community, help with filming as we interact with the lost, and with all of the many day-to-day operations here at Joe Oden Ministries. Let's take a look at a few of these goals.
We have been asked to handle America on the Global Outreach Day(G.O.D.) that will take place June 2, 2012. We are joined with many nations around the world with thousands of cities participating. Key leaders organizing and partnering with us here in the U.S. and in other places include Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke, Dr. Yong E Cho, Pastor Bill Johnson, Cindy Jacobs and many others. Our goal is to mobilize 200 locations in 200 cities around America to join with other nations on the same day to reach more people in one day than has ever been accomplished in history.
This is a strong goal, but with the strength of the Lord we can see it fulfilled. I heard a statement that goes something like this: “If you can fulfill a dream yourself it was too small; real dreams are impossible without divine intervention.” As you partner with us in this upcoming year this is something we can see happen.
I am also privileged to serve as the North Texas District Assembly of God Evangelism Representative. The Assemblies of God is broken down into about 40 districts throughout America and North Texas is one of them. It may be the largest district with roughly 560 churches. My job is to train in evangelism and help raise up evangelism teams and directors within this district. There is no way I can do it all and this is one of the reasons I am working to raise up more evangelists who have the heart to equip the local church. Our strategy is to work with regions that are made up of about 25-35 churches. Our goal is to bring them together to equip and release them in their cities. This has been effective and is working so well that other districts are adopting or considering adopting this strategy. Therefore, we need as many evangelists as the Lord will send us. Our team will be key in this with administration and actual fulfillment. Our goal is to produce evangelists that will eventually help serve other districts.
After we leave a church our work is not complete until there is a healthy evangelism director in place. This is the key to good health and consistency in outreach and evangelism. This is one area we are going to put more effort into this year. We have a monthly conference call designed to continue equipping evangelism directors, and we are looking to host a conference for evangelism directors and their teams. This will further strengthen the local church and add more vitality in reaching their communities. It's going to take a lot of hard work. Your partnership is very valuable in this area, as well.
We also lead a weekly outreach to the gay and lesbian area of Dallas Texas. Back in August, we gathered around 100 leaders to cast the need and vision for this area. Since then, we have been averaging between 35-65 people at every outreach. This is very good progress. This year our goal is to add another outreach in this area and get more leaders and pastors involved from the city. With God’s grace and love, we can see this area touched by the power of God in 2012!
We completed a very long process of getting our Acts 29 School of Evangelism series on DVD. It contains 15 different sessions that coincide with my Acts 29 manual (over 110 pages to follow along/study). This is a tool I can now give to churches after I have been there and mobilized a team and director to further strengthen their efforts. The reason we did this is because not every evangelism director has the ability to teach and this allows the team to be fully equipped and mobilized long after I am gone. This is another way to ensure fruit that will remain. We are also working on a second phase soon to get live witnessing accounts on film straight from the street for greater practical strategy and equipping. It will be a great addition!
Along with all of this, I will continue to teach evangelism at C.F.N.I. (I serve as the instructor of evangelism) and Heartland School of Ministry, with Pastor Steve Hill, (I serve as the evangelism director). This is a full plate. Your partnership is so valuable and appreciated to help make this vision a reality that we will celebrate together as the Lamb that was slain will receive the reward of His suffering.
Together in the Harvest,
Joe Oden