ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)–When Mike Martindale wanted members of his church to know what their non-church-going neighbors likely thought about the Bible, Jesus and church, he used “E-ssentials for the On Mission Church,” a new video resource produced by the North American Mission Board.
While preparing more than 30 teenagers in his youth group at Bacon Heights Baptist Church, Lubbock, Texas, to serve as campus missionaries this fall at 10 different schools, he used the video again. When teaching on cults, Martindale found the video helpful in putting a face on Islam.
“It enhanced what we were trying to say,” Martindale said of the premiere issue of “E-ssentials for the On Mission Church,” released in October.
This bimonthly, theme-based video series includes 10 to 15 segments, ranging from 30 seconds to 10 minutes each, featuring intriguing facts or stories designed for use as illustrations, discussion starters or thought provokers that challenge viewers to consider how they can be on mission for Christ.
Doug Keesey, director of NAMB’s electronic media team, said E-ssentials for the On Mission Church supports the ministry of the local church.
“E-ssentials will help mobilize churches to be on mission,” Keesey said. “This tape is designed to communicate to the entire church their responsibility to put their Christian faith into practice.”
The premiere issue of E-ssentials focuses on the depth of “lostness in North America” and “overcoming barriers to sharing the gospel.”
Through this video, viewers are introduced to unchurched people who talk candidly about the church, the Bible and Jesus as part of the “Word on the Street” segment. Thirty-second “Factoids” provide telling insights of North America’s depravity as it relates to homosexuality, pornography and attitudes toward religion.
Another segment in the premiere issue includes a visual description of the spiritual state of North America and a two-minute address by Robert E. Reccord, president of NAMB, who identifies strategies for reaching those who have never professed faith in Christ.
The video also includes two North American missionary profiles, less than three minutes each, as well as a four-minute segment on Islam, one of the fastest growing religions in the United States, with more than 1 billion adherents worldwide.
Keesey said the video segments are designed for easy incorporation into a worship service or small-group study setting. Each issue is undated and produced so that any segment can be used as a teaching or preaching supplement to increase missions awareness.
Terry Hopkins, minister of missions at First Baptist Church, Snellville, Ga., said the E-ssentials video has proven quite effective in his prison ministry as well.
After showing a group of inmates stories about how a Las Vegas homemaker, a wealthy Boston publisher and an alcoholic found freedom in Jesus, more than 30 inmates committed their lives to Christ.
“By watching this they realized that no matter what they had done, they were lost,” Hopkins said. “I believe God has anointed that resource.”
Other topics scheduled for the 2001 E-ssentials video series include church planting, discovering a heart’s passion for ministry, finding Christ in crisis situations, planting “gospel seeds in hard soil” and sharing Christ cross-culturally.
“People are visual learners,” Keesey said. “Too often we just talk at people rather than taking advantage of the opportunity to show them how to be on mission with God.”
In addition to the video series, NAMB offers several free resources ready for downloading from its Internet site, including PowerPoint files and complete sermons and sermon outlines related to the video topics.
Other web resources include sample video clips from the current issue, a video user’s guide and testimonials from those who have used the video in their ministries.
Visit the NAMB website at www.namb.net/essentials to access these materials and request a free introductory copy of E-ssentials for the On Mission Church. A limited number of the free videos will be available.
E-ssentials, the series, will debut in January 2001. The introductory subscription price for six bimonthly issues is $59.99.
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(BP)photo posted in the BP photo library at www.sbcbaptistpress.org. Photo title: E-SSENTIALS FOR THE ON MISSION CHURCH.
