Great Opportunities Abound...

CBA member retailer Gunnar Simonsen from Christian Supply Center in Portland, Oregon, emailed our team recently with some great information on what’s been happening in his area and how Christian Supply has been reaching out to the churches and customers in its community. We hope his words will spur your thinking and encourage you in your work.

The main thing right now is with the Momentum Conference. This is and has been grass roots the entire way. I just received word that we are now nearing 400 students registered for this event that was not even on our minds 60 days ago.

The beauty in this is that the heart is this... "It's not about the numbers...it's about the hunger."

This year, the Luis Palau organization is returning to their own backyard and holding a massive waterfront event in Portland. The last time they were here, we saw 150,000 people show up in a town that many say is the moat unchurched in America. What is so exciting about this year is that they have added a twist to the experience by calling on the local church community to rise up and commit to various service projects around the city. At their kickoff meeting this past spring, we saw 750 churches represented. It was an amazing event that called for Thy Kingdom come and not that of our individual churches or businesses. Meaning, it is not about my kingdom or yours, but His.

From there, and in partnership with the Palau team, we held a luncheon for 120 youth pastors in the area to launch this season of service. This is important to note, the event was held in our main store music department while we were open. Our main store is located on Division Street. We made sure all were mindful of this gathering in unity on Division Street. It was an amazing event as we had enjoyed great food, great music, great message, and great prayer. From this, came the Momentum conference and the Momentum grassroots website.

In less then 10 minutes, we were able to develop the website using wordpress.com blog sites. It is free and very simple to use. The beauty of it is that is that it doesn't have to be Christian Supply branded all over it. It's simply Momentum. However, when you want to purchase any of the suggested resources, we then drive it to our product focused site. And now, in less then about a month... we have seen 1500 hits to the site, and students coming to the open forum page to ask their theological questions where we have several top scholars in the area responding. This is so amazing in that is now a center piece to the several, what we are calling dialogue focused sites. These are sites where dialogue comes first and product/branding our name comes second and third.

In this, we feel that in seeking first the Kingdom of God... all the other stuff will take care of itself.

With the Momentum Conference, we also have several top local speakers playing a part as well as partnering with local youth pastors to have workshops at the event. It has been so amazing to watch God move in this.

Other dialogue focused sites we have launched or are preparing to launch are...

www.palautalk.wordpress.com - this site link our partnership with Palau and the in-store kiosks we have set up to get in-store guests involved with the season of service.

www.thenewintellect.org - this is another grassroots site the explores the entire web and stories of faith, art, culture, music, even looks at opposing views. For instance, we recently posted an article by Christopher Hitchens, who is a well known atheist with a book on the New York Times Bestseller list. Now, we don't believe or endorse what he says. But, what is wrong with being aware of what culture is talking about? Why can't we dialogue on topics such as this? In this, we hope that we can gain a better grasp of what we believe. Now, it would be more difficult to do this under our retail name. Reason being, some might completely misunderstand what we are seeking to do. Of course, you will probably not find his books in our stores. But, during a recent trip to the beach, I ventured into a small general market book store and saw his book right next to The Reason for God by Timothy Keller. A book that we do carry. I thought to myself... why can't we dialogue? What are we afraid of?

www.nextliners.wordpress.com - This is a fun concept some friends of mine and I came up with over the last few years. It is the idea of starting a story line, and then have website viewers write the next line to the story, and the next line, etc. etc. We haven't done much with it yet. But, it does sound fun.

Other sites to look for in the future will find themselves within these above mentioned sites. Kind of like, sub-features. In this, ones we will be launching are...

www.keelstalk.wordpress.com - this will find itself within the momentum site and specifically speak to youth pastors from pastor Steve Keels. He speaks at the Willow youth conference, was the editor to the TruthQuest Bible, and has served at his church since 78. He has a lot to say. So, we are recording a podcast with him and for him to broadcast on the site along with blogs. This will be a very informative site for anyone looking for encouragement in ministry as well as getting into it.

www.ariaanaforian.wordpress.com - another fun concept as we will be partnering with this fresh new worship leader in the Portland area. In this, we have asked her to help us get the dialogue going and perhaps this will attract other area worship leaders to both take part online as well as with in-store worship events. She is currently working on a ten part series for us.

We also have a MySpace page, a Facebook group has now started, and we will be partnering soon with some mission/evangelism organizations to develop online dialogue sites that also link in-store promotions.

Bottom line here is that there are a lot of great opportunities all around us to partner with others to help encourage, strengthen, and grow the Kingdom of God. And, the funny thing is that it doesn't cost much to do this stuff... just time.

Comments

[Gunnar]

Just a quick update...we just completed our Momentum Conference and it was amazing! Check out the site we built for the conference...www.momentumconference.wordpress.com Please note...check out the forum page on this site...these are real students logging on and asking tough questions. So grassroots and so possible. Mark 9:23 says, "Anything is possible, if you hsve faith." I praise God for the opportunity to connect with our community in such a way. And for any of you who may be reading this...you too can make a difference and are making a difference in your community. This is just one example of how you/me/we can connect.

The lasting friendships built from this are amazing and from this, will come other ideas to help encourage, strengthen, and grow the kingdom .

Gunnar