DEAR CHURCH

Dear Church,
We are grateful with what the Lord has done with us in Bandung for these past three years, a lot of struggles but now we see the seed that planted is growing up. Although in the very beginning is very hard to break the ground but now we see something happen. It’s still a long way journey to fulfill God’s will in Bandung or even Indonesia my beloved country.
Our journey is not smooth or even far from smooth; it’s very rough and tough. The Lord not put aside our mountains but we must climb them. If the Lord is not giving us the strength, we will not survive. Many times the temptations are just to give up and just “working again” and “playing church”, just look after the middle class and high class church members, so I can provide enough finance for my family. Must I compromise the vision that the Lord put in our heart and mind, only because we don’t have enough money? When I shared to my senior brothers, they just share and give advice to me, to just let go the vision. These are what they said,” It’s too hard to minister to the subcultures, unchurched and unreached people if you don’t have any financial back up. So if the finances not there, it’s better for you just to let go the vision because you have wife and children to look after. Just let go and join our church and bind into our vision.”
Our ministry now is more to reach the unbelievers and making disciples and then send them back as God’s church. We are moving from house to house even most of the times from one café to another café or public places. We don’t have any place to come together even a house (our house or so called house is very small to come together), but we don’t want to give up. We are learning that Jesus never allowed circumstances hold HIS ministry. He is teaching in the mountain, from a boat, on the shore, on the synagogue, on a house, etc.
Doing business is a very new thing for us, even to become a writer for me now. My family is starting a catering business, because now we must look after my mother in law (she’s a widow) and also our sister in law and our nephew. It’s a burden for us, very heavy because our finance is not enough even if they are not with us. But we can’t just neglect them, how we can love others if our family members neglected. Sometimes our business stuck because lack of finance, you know sometimes the business also not running well. I’m praising the Lord because our first son, Philip, 10 years old (July 21st) really such a blessing for us. In the moment of hardships, he is still full of joy and very creative. He can’t go to mall or children playground like usually he did in the past with us but he never complain. Now we are playing football or badminton on the park. Sometimes we must fasting because we have nothing but our son never complain, he said,” Mom …Dad…don’t worry, Philip is very happy can pray and fasting together, the Lord will provide for us.” There’s a time that we are praying and fasting for three days only have faith that the Lord will deliver us. On the third days, the Lord moves people to be a channel of blessing for us.
I’m praising the Lord that after these past 19 years in ministry, I’m just finding out three years ago that the Lord wants me to start writing and I can do it by HIS grace. In one side I’m very happy that the publishers like my writings and publish them. On the other hand, some of them never paid my fee or if they paid me it will took a very long time. They only want to publish my writings about “the sweet things”, like the love of God, forgiveness, the heart of God, family values, etc. But if I talk about evangelism, outreach, holiness, the people of God as the church, etc….everything that’s “hard”. They don’t want to publish them. My dream that one day, I can publish them by myself or there’s a publisher who bind to our vision.
Our disciples most of them are young people, they are still on their last grade in university or just start their career, so we also can’t depend on them. Actually they need also our support. We are praying for some breakthrough, to start a community business. Because most of the disciples are musicians and people who like or involve arts. We are starting to make Christian t-shirts (or more to Christian values) and Event Organizer. Please pray along with us, we have heart and compassion to reach and bless the city. Now we are also trying to share to some people that want or may interest to invest to our small community business.
Our urgent pray for next month is a house. Our house rental will be over this year (next month - July), and we still don’t know where to go. On the end of the year the Lord give us another son, George Alexander Broos, a cute baby boy. My wife got a high blood pressure, so she can’t deliver the baby normally and must have a cesar operation/surgery. To cut the story short, the budget for delivery the baby was big because my wife blood pressure unstable, so she must stay for a week in the hospital and the baby stay for ten days. Normally it cost only 8 million Rupiahs but because of the circumstances I must paid those 20 million Rupiahs. The miracle things happen was when the doctor said that we didn’t have to pay her. It reduced the cost until we are only paid 16 million Rupiahs to the hospital. The problem arises now because we are using our savings that we put aside for our house rental. The finance is still not there yet, we want to move to my parents home (both of them past away, my step dad died last year) but my step sister don’t allow us to move in. Humanly speaking there’s fear and doubt. How and where to go? FIRSTLY DON’T MISTAKE US. WE DON’T ASK YOUR MONEY, BUT PLEASE PRAY ALONGSIDE US AS A FAMILY OF GOD. If we must go through this valley and climb the mountain, I pray that we have the strength, joy and thanksgiving in HIM.
In our journey with the Lord we are focus on doing what the Lord wants us to do, sometimes we feel lonely and misunderstood by others. I feel a need of a band of brothers that stand together to encourage to one another.
Thanks for hearing us and pray along side with us. It’s very encouraging to know that I have a family that care and pray with us in every side in the world.
Greetings,
Dave, Novie, Philip and Georgie
The Broos Family

EVANGELISM It’s all about communication, friendship and sharing life

EVANGELISM
It’s all about communication, friendship and sharing life
Mobil “Chevy Nova” merupakan mobil produksi Amerika Serikat yang penjualannya cukup berhasil di negerinya sendiri di era 80-an. Melihat keuntungan yang didapatkan di negerinya sendiri mereka mulai mengekspansi negara tetangga dan negara-negara Amerika Selatan lainnya. Tapi hasilnya sangat mengejutkan sebab penjualan kurang baik meski pun sudah mengupayakan peningkatan pemasaran melalui iklan di jam siaran utama TV nasional hasilnya tetap negatif. “Mengapa hal ini bisa terjadi?” Setelah perusahaan mobil Chevy mengadakan penelitian, hasilnya mengejutkan sebab kurang lakunya peminat mobil Chevy Nova diakibatkan dalam bahasa Spanyol “Nova” berarti “tidak jalan”.
Lain lagi dengan peternakan Perdua Farms, Inc yang memiliki motto “It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken” (Dibutuhkan lelaki kuat untuk membuat ayam menjadi lunak). Pada era 90-an mereka ingin memperluas usaha peternakan mereka di Meksiko tetapi hasilnya sangat mengecewakan, sama sekali tidak animo pada masyarakat. “Mengapa?” Setelah diselidiki akibat alihbahasa Inggris – Spanyol yang salah maka motto mereka tersebut menjadi berubah arti di Meksiko menjadi Membutuhkan lelaki jantan untuk membuat seekor ayam jatuh cinta.
Penginjilan merupakan komunikasi mengenai pribadi Kristus secara efektif dengan tujuan memperkenalkan seseorang pada pribadi Kristus atau iman Kristen. Penginjilan dalam Perjanjian Baru merupakan penyampaian iman Kristen berdasarkan konteks, pesan Injil disampaikan dengan cara yang dapat dimengerti oleh orang yang mendengarnya. Yesus dan wanita Samaria berbicara mengenai topik air saat mereka tengah duduk di dekat sumur, Yesus berbicara dengan Petrus sang nelayan mengenai menangkap ikan, dll. (1 Korintus 9:22).
Pesan Injil tidak berubah tapi metode penyampaian dapat saja berubah sesuai dengan bahasa, budaya dan latar belakang pendengar.
Strategi penginjilan yang terkenal dan dipopulerkan pada era 60-an oleh gereja Barat hingga kini bahkan masih sering digunakan adalah visitasi (baik oleh pendeta ataupun pekerja/aktivis gereja), kelas Pendalaman Alkitab (SOM atau pemuridan), Kebaktian penginjilan/KKR, pelayanan bus atau antar jemput jemaat dan sekarang ditambah sistem kelompok sel untuk mengundang tetangga untuk datang dalam ibadah rumahtangga.
Pola ini tidak efektif memenangkan jiwa baru, sebab hanya fokus pada orang Kristen itu sendiri. Hingga strategi ini hanya menghasilkan “imigrasi lokal” antar gereja saja.
Kondisi gereja kita saat ini:
1. Memusuhi pencari Tuhan. Seorang mantan pelacur dan pecandu narkoba yang tengah mencari Tuhan diminta meninggalkan gereja setelah mengetahui latar belakang dan pergumulan hidupnya. Jemaat yang lain menyangsikan pertobatannya dan takut mencemari kerohanian jemaat yang lain. Di lain sisi ada sepasang orang muda yang kumpul kebo dan merasa diri mereka salah, mereka hendak bertobat dan mencari kebenaran hingga memutuskan untuk mencari petunjuk ke gereja. Tetapi saat mereka terbuka pada para pelayan Tuhan, mereka diminta untuk tidak datang lagi ke ibadah gereja.
2. Tidak peduli pada pencari Tuhan. Gereja model ini merupakan gereja stereo type, mereka hanya ingin berkomunikasi, berhubungan dan bergaul dengan mereka yang sejenis (one type) saja. Mereka bersikap seolah orang baru tersebut “tidak ada” hingga akhirnya jiwa baru tersebutpun pergi meninggalkan gereja tersebut.
3. Mengharapkan pencari Tuhan tapi tidak memikirkan kondisi lingkungan gereja. Banyak peraturan yang libet untuk jiwa baru yang hendak datang pada Tuhan. Pemuda yang trendy mengenakan anting langsung diminta melepaskan antingnya sebelum masuk gereja, demikian pula pria jiwa baru yang berambut panjang dan tubuh bertattoo ala seorang rocker diminta agar segera memotong rambutnya dan melakukan operasi untuk menghilangkan tattoo bila hendak berjemaat di gereja tersebut.
4. Membidik pencari Tuhan. Gereja mengadakan berbagai program bantuan sosial seperti pengobatan gratis, sembako gratis, dll di lingkungan gereja.
5. Peka pada pencari Tuhan. Gereja fleksibel dalam strategi penginjilan dan menjawab kebutuhan jiwa baru atau masyarakat.
JESUS STYLE – JESUS DRIVE BY COMPASSION (Yesus digerakkan oleh belaskasihan)
Belas kasih atau kasih sayang merupakan ciri pelayanan Kristus. Tuhan Yesus kerap tergugah oleh belaskasihan pada orang lain, Ia memiliki pengetahuan tentang kasih yang sempurna dan bukan hanya sekedar tahu tetapi IA melakukannya dalam bentuk tindakan bahkan pengorbanan diri (Yakobus 2:14-17, 1 Yohanes 3:17).
Mereka yang telah mengalami kasih Allah dalam hidupnya berkewajiban menunjukkan belaskasih pada orang yang membutuhkan (Ayub 6:14). Terutama pada anak yatim piatu, janda, orang miskin dan orang asing (Ulangan 10:18, Yeremia 22:3)
Tuhan Yesus melayani dilandasi belaskasihan (Matius 9:13,36), saat Ia berjumpa dengan orang buta (Matius 20:34), orang banyak sakit (Matius 14:14), orang kusta (Markus 1:41), membangkitkan anak janda yang mati (Lukas 7:13), memberi makan 5000 dan 4000 orang (Matius 14:14-20 dan 15:32)
Bila belaskasih Kristus telah kita cicipi dan nikmati, berarti kita memiliki kasih Kristus dalam hati kita, dimana seyogyanya secara otomatis “kasih”Nya akan mendorong kita untuk memiliki belaskasihan terhadap yang terhilang dan berdosa.
CHURCH PLANTING (PENANAMAN GEREJA)
Seringkali kita persepsikan sebagai suatu kegiatan dari sebuah organisasi atau seorang individu/pelayan Tuhan yang tengah berupaya mendirikan sebuah “jemaat baru” di suatu wilayah baru bagi sebuah organisasi gereja, dan itu tak salah sebab selama ini praktik “penanaman gereja” adalah seperti itu.
Tetapi apa yang yang saya mau sampaikan di sini adalah “penanaman gereja” dari sudut pandang yang sedikit berbeda. Kata gereja atau ekklesia berarti “kumpulan orang percaya” dan bukan berarti kegiatan keagamaan kita. Saya percaya bahwa setiap anak Tuhan merupakan penanam gereja, dimana setiap anak Tuhan menanamkan dirinya di tengah masyarakat dan menjadi pengaruh sebagai terang dan garam dunia.
Membagikan kehidupan Kristus sebab hanya Kristus yang dapat merubah kehidupan seseorang atau sekelompok orang.
Lukas 10:1-9, berbicara mengenai friendship evangelism (penginjilan melalui persahabatan) dan church planting (penanaman gereja melalui penanaman hidup dengan hidup bersama & menjadi teladan):
- Ayat 6 berbicara mengenai berdoa dan mencari “the man of peace” (orang yang terbuka pada pemberitaan Injil).
- Ayat 7,8 berbicara mengenai bergaul dan mengenali.
- Ayat 9 berbicara mengenai menjawab kebutuhan hidup.
Robert Fitts, pendiri Outreach Fellowship International, menekankan agar setiap hari kita berdoa untuk suatu “divine appointment” (pertemuan yang diatur oleh Allah). Dimana Allah mempertemukan kita dengan seseorang yang memiliki suatu kebutuhan khusus untuk kita layani, entah itu menolong melalui tenaga, materi atau berita Injil.

The Bright Lamp of Holiness

The Bright Lamp of Holiness by Francis Frangipane
When true holiness exists in a Christian's life, it produces a luminosity, a glow around that individual. Infants and little children, because their spirits are yet pure and undefiled and because they are so close to the actual presence of God, emanate this light as well. Their light is visible because their hearts are transparent and truthful. For us, the way to the bright lamp of holiness is this same way of transparency and truth. It is the way to the pure gold of the kingdom of God.

When Your Eye is Single
From the moment Christ enters within us, we are holy, set apart unto God. This kind of holiness is the same sanctification that made the utensils in the temple holy: holy because they were used in service to the Lord. They had no virtue in themselves; their material substance did not change. Christianity, in general, is holy in that sense. But the holiness we are seeking is the fulfillment of having been set apart. We are seeking a holiness that mirrors, through us, the presence of God in Heaven. We are seeking both His nature and His quality of life.

Since true holiness produces in us the actual life of the Holy Spirit, we must be sure we know who the Spirit is. The Spirit of God is love, not religion. God is life, not rituals. The Holy Spirit does more in us than simply enable us to "speak in tongues" or witness. The Spirit leads us into the presence of Jesus. Herein is our holiness received: in our union and fellowship with Jesus Christ.

Again, the holiness we are seeking is not a legislative or legalistic set of rules; it is Christ's very own life. The Holy Spirit works in us not merely a new desire to love, but He imparts to us Christ's very own love. We develop more than just a general faith in Jesus; we actually begin believing like Jesus, with His quality of faith. It is God in us that makes us holy. Let it stagger us. Let it rock us off our comfortable little perches until, with great trembling and great joy, with deep worship and holy fear, we approach the Divine Reality who has, for His own will and purpose, called us to Himself.

"Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" (1 Cor. 3:16). The Spirit of God dwells in us. In this light, let us ask ourselves again the age-old question, "What is man?" We know how we appear to other men but, if God truly is within us, how do we appear to angels, or devils? What light marks us in the spirit-world, what illumination surrounds us, what glory declares to the invisible realm: Behold and beware, here walks a child of God! Think of it: the Spirit of the Creator, who purposed in the beginning to make man in His image, is in you . . . now.

Holiness is a Body Full of Light
There are limitations. There are conditions. You cannot serve two masters. You cannot serve light and darkness, sin and righteousness, self and God. Light is within you but so also is darkness. Our world is a world in darkness. Our ancestors were sons of darkness. Our carnal minds yet remain theaters of darkness. In a world of choices, we must choose light. That is why Jesus taught that we must be single-minded if we would become fully mature sons of light. He said, "The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness" (Luke 11:34 KJV).

If you are focused in your will and heart toward God, your body is full of light and you are giving full expression to the glory of God within you. But, if you are double-minded, if you are dwelling on sinful or evil thoughts, your light is proportionally diminished until your very body is full of darkness. Jesus went on to warn, "Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness" (Luke 11:35 KJV).

If you do nothing about your salvation, fail to seek God, or choose to disobey Him, you are in darkness. Do not console yourself with an aimless hope that someday, somehow, you will get better. Arm yourself with determination! For if the light in you is in darkness, how terrible is that darkness! Son of light, you must hate darkness! For darkness is the substance of hell; it is the world without God!

But our hope is light, not darkness. Your feet are walking the path of the just, that path which grows brighter and brighter unto the full day. "If therefore your whole body is full of light, with no dark part in it, it shall be wholly illumined, as when the lamp illumines you with its rays" (Luke 11:36). This verse gives a very clear picture of what holiness looks like in its maturity: our bodies are radiant with glory even as a lamp shines at full brightness. What a tremendous hope---that we can be so wholly illumined with the presence of God that there is "no dark part" within us! A garment of light and glory awaits the spiritually mature, the holy ones of God, a garment similar to what Jesus wore on the Mount of Transfiguration! A splendor not just put on in eternity but one worn here, "in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation"; here, where we "appear as lights in the world" (Phil. 2:14-15)."You were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light" (Eph. 5:8). Now you are a child of light. These are not merely figures of speech! The glory of God is within and around you; it is a spiritual reality! But what of the darkness that is yet within you? Paul continued,

And do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them . . . but all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. ---Ephesians 5:11, 13

Do not hide your darkness, expose it. Do not sympathetically make excuses for it, confess it. Hate it. Renounce it. For as long as darkness remains in darkness, it rules you. But when you bring darkness out into the light, it becomes light. When you take your secret sins and boldly come unto the throne of God's grace and confess them, He cleanses you from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). If you sin again, repent again. And again, until the habit of sin is broken within you.

Like the prospectors of old, you must stake your claim high in the kingdom of God, being ready to defend your rights to the "pure gold" of Heaven (Rev. 3:18). And as you pitch your tent at the throne of grace, something eternal will begin to glow in you, like hot coals on a furnace floor. And as you persist with the Almighty, the sacred fire of His presence will consume the wood, hay and stubble of your former ways. Power such as Jesus had will reside in your innermost being. Angels will stand in awe, for your gold will be refined, your garments light and your life holy.