01 Jan Spreading the Gospel
Over the past several years, God has allowed me to minister to men in the Rochester, NY area. During that time, I met a number of godly men who’ve become dear brothers in Christ with whom I regularly connect. On one overnight visit, my good friend Dean Tzounakos and his bride Holly hosted me at their house where we enjoyed fellowship, food, and fun: what a blast!
In time, Dean and I both experienced significant employment changes. God called Dean to drive trucks and me to become a bivocational pastor (i.e., a pastor with two vocational jobs: one ministry, one secular). And because of the connection God built between us, we both began to sense that the Lord was nudging Dean to increased responsibility within A Faithful Dad.
A ministry partnership
God clearly presented this opportunity in mid-2019 when the organizers of a recurring local men’s event in Rochester, NY invited Dean to serve as a Saturday morning workshop leader. Because my secular job requires Saturday work, Dean and I soon learned what God was leading us to do: Dean would serve as Bible teacher for A Faithful Dad. I couldn’t, but Dean could, and God knew that: glorious!
Over the next few months, Dean and I collaborated on the message and the details, but Dean worked the hardest to make it happen. Dean’s message mirrored our JOY theme with a Rocky Balboa boxing reference: Pure Joy – Perseverance in the Ring. And Dean made Jesus proud in delivering this message! All glory to God, here’s some of the feedback Dean received from the participants:
I have NO idea what that comment about “high-octane speakers” means! 😊
As Dean shared the post-conference feedback with me, I got goosebumps recognizing the many ways God works to spread His Gospel: how humbling! And starting January 27, 2020, Dean will be leading a one-year YouVersion daily Bible study for many of the men who attended our workshop!
It reminds me of how God through His apostles spread Christianity in the early days of the 1st century church. Act 5:42 (NIV) highlights, “Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.”
Sharing the Gospel globally and locally
So, this is the key. Christ’s Gospel reaches globally, because it is spread locally from temple courts and from house to house: like YOUR house; like MY house!
But how can WE spread the Gospel? It’s easier than you might think.
Because I often work nights, breakfast is really the only meal all of us can enjoy together, so we try to make it count. Through the years I’ve loved reading God’s Word to my family in the 7 to 15 minutes I’m able to pack in before the school bus whisks them away.
And here’s a prime example of how God’s divine hand influences our lives: over the past several months our family has been reading from the book of Acts. Until I started writing this update, I hadn’t made the connection between Dean spreading the Gospel in Rochester, NY and my family spreading the Gospel in our house.
WOW!
Guess what? You can spread the Gospel in your own house, your own town, your own world simply by reading God’s Word to your family! Like yeast, God will multiply our meager efforts to spread His Gospel far and wide in both fantastic and subtle ways. Here’s my challenge to you.
Challenge: Read the book of Acts to your family during your devotion time. It may take you days, weeks, or even months to complete it, but you and your family will be SO encouraged by God!
Thus, we can say with the apostles, that we “never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah!”
For His glory,
Travis L. Zimmerman
Pastor and Co-Founder
