April 2020 Prayer Update from Bob and Susan Engel
With the corona virus putting a relational (face-to-face) “lock down” on ministry we have made a key tactical change to continue to do all we can to see a healthy church planted in every community of poverty around the world. That tactical change is making our Evangel School of Urban Church Planting, Dean Training available online. We prefer to gather church plant movement leaders for our onsite training but, like war, we must improvise. The advancement of the Gospel and His Kingdom doesn’t stop. Please pray for me as I oversee the direction of all the changes needed to make the online certification available within the next couple of weeks. The potential is incredible as we can literally increase our “world impact” by equipping church planting movement leaders to host their own Evangel School of Urban Church Planting in their context for their church planters.
I have set a goal to identify 5 new church plant movement leaders this quarter (April – June). One potential group is in Milwaukee. There is a group of about 40 pastors who gather regularly to pray and talk about planting churches in their community and region. They have a heart for communities of poverty but not sure what to do and have reached out to me. I went for an initial visit several months back and we are now moving to the next step. Dr. Davis and I were to visit with them but now have to do a video conference. Join me in praying for the Spirit to lead us clearly as we listen to their vision and strategically pray and think through initiatives to partner with them in planting hundreds of churches from and for the poor.
Tom and Gail joined me at the Exponential Conference in Florida for an informal “Think Tank” gathering around the topic of equipping Released Citizens to plant churches that change the world. There were approximately 30 of us gathered ranging from those who are doing it (Bernard Emerson) to some who weren’t sure why they were there but afterwards were glad they were. One outcome from the time was to gather for a video conference which is set for April. The topic is, Church Planting Movements and Released Citizens. The invitation will go beyond those who attended the Think Tank. Please join me in praying that many will respond to the invitation and that we can discover together several strategic advantages as next steps in equipping Released Citizens to plant churches and facilitate church planting movements.
Pray that the Spirit of the Lord would protect and draw the Engels closer to Himself in Christ Jesus.
“…not of those who shrink back…”