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HDHC Small Group Leaders Meeting - 08/19/07 |
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Mrs. Feddema began the meeting by sharing providential news. She said that September will be the climax of the Jubilee year. Rev. Geller attended the North America Leadership Conference. On the second day of the conference Hyun Jin Nim led the meeting. After listening to everyone’s report he shared the main point of visiting Mega Churches. He said that he had received that direction while praying. Mega churches are churches which have over 1,500 members. He pushed all the District Directors to visit Mega Churches in their area. In Los Angeles they visited the Crystal Cathedral, where Robert Schuler became famous. His son promised to attend the conference. Besides the Crystal Cathedral, they visited Rev. Blakely’s Church. He took over for Bishop Peterson. Rev. Blakely is more open minded than the previous minister. The previous minister Bishop Paterson persecuted Rev. T.L. Barrett. Other churches that were contacted were Rev. James Meeks and Bishop Jordan churches. Rev. Meeks has a congregation of 10,000. They have two services on Sunday. Bishop Jordan’s church is in Chicago. Rev. Geller gave a report of visiting a Mega church in Newark, Rev. Wattley’s Church. He has over 6,000 members. 800 people show up for his Wednesday, noon service. There are 13 people in the entourage with Hyun Jin Nim, Rev. Jenkins, Dr. Yang, Bishop Kim, Arch Bishop Stallings, Rev. Jessie Edwards, Rev. Geller, In Jin Kim, Mr. Moffat, Rev. Ferrabolli, Rev. Onishi… ( I didn’t catch the names of the other 2 persons in the entourage.) Rev. Jenkins introduced the movement to Rev. Wattley, who is a graduate of Princeton University (Theological School). He gave Rev. Wattley materials on AFP and ACLC. Archbishop Stallings has known Rev. Wattley for 10-20 years. He testified that he gives good sermons. Then HJN spoke for 20 minutes about the concept of “One Family Under God.” Go beyond the barriers of denomination. He shared what True Father wants to do and how much True Father loves Jesus. Then he raised the issue about the Messiah. HJN said he is the one who brings God’s word and helps… Rev. Wattley was humbled that they chose his church. They invited Rev. Wattley to attend the UPF conference in September. He asked that they give more detailed information. However, he did agree that we are living the post denomination era. He also mentioned that he had been to Korea 3 times. He asked if they had ever met Paul Cho. He wanted to know how he felt about our church. HJN responded that the Christians were stuck on denominations. It limits the creativity of God’s Kingdom. Dr. Wattley agreed with this. HJN said that Christian Churches are not fulfilling their mandate. He sighted the example of Virginia Tech. No one cared for the lonely boy. In Texas Rev. Jenkins and Rev. Hernandez (the District Director) got a picture with Joel Osteen (a famous preacher in Houston – Lakewood Church.) He has seating for over 40,000 people in his Cathedral. Among all the Mega Churches that they visited, Rev. Wattley was the only one who asked what they wanted him to do? HJN was happy about this. HJN said that the spirit world is really working now. We should visit all the Mega churches. Then Mrs. Feddema passed out the list of families who are not currently in a small group. She asked the leaders to look over the list and pray about the families whom they may want to invite to their group. She arranged the list and names according to the area and noted whether the couple was Japanese, (mixed) western and Japanese or a western couples. She also announced that she had selected 20 couples from the list that she felt could become small group leaders. They will be contacted and invited to become leaders with the requirement to attend the 1-day workshop and HD School or Leadership School in the future. The goal is to connect every family in New Jersey to a small group by the end of the year. Then we can reach out to all people. Rev. Geller and Rev. Sato introduced the witnessing material that they made. Rev. Geller had a flier. The theme was World peace and Ideal Families. There were questions on the bottom of the page. The questions can be read to the people that the members meet when they contact people door-to-door. Rev. Sato also had a similar flier and a brochure that her group used to contact people door-to door in the neighborhood. Mrs. Feddema showed the brochure that Rev. Compton made about small group activities. She said having pictures of the activities on the brochure, was a good idea. (It was general pamphlet that could be used by anyone in the New York area. It had the church address and phone, and listed contact information about small groups in that person’s area.) We need something to reach out to people, a leaflet is good. Wherever you go you should bring a pen and paper in case you meet someone. She had an experience that an opportunity was lost because a member (in her group) met a good person but didn’t have a pen or paper. Even though she met the person on two different occasions she was not prepared and missed the chance. Please prepare yourself so you don’t miss an opportunity to make a new contact. This member requested that a pamphlet be made to give to the people we meet. Mrs. Feddema introduced the testimony of Mr. Inose about a Korean leader who got success witnessing in Korea. The leader shared that in his group every member has a home church area. The members always go back and visit there to build good relationships. Then when they have an event they already have people they can bring. If we had a certain area where we visit regularly we could build up relationships with people (and bring them to events and eventually to the small groups.) In the 3rd week of September she will post the names of the leaders of the existing groups (who want more families to join them) as well as the names of the new leaders. Members can sign up under them too. The meeting ended with prayer. Mrs. Feddema invited the leaders to go together to the Holy Ground to pray.
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