Rose Leads Shelter Efforts During Historic Flood

In response to the historic flooding along the Arkansas River, it’s all hands on deck for local shelters, including Evangel Temple in Fort Smith. 

Over 70 people stayed overnight at the Red Cross shelter because their homes are underwater. 

Evangel Temple’s Associate Pastor, Ryan Rose, said they have been housing displaced people for seven days, and each day they have been taking in more people. 

With more people, comes more food and Rose said the shelter serves two meals at a time three times a day. 

“The Salvation Army is the arm that is taking care of the foods,” Rose said. 

With the help of Red Cross, which runs the operation, the church contributes in other ways. 

“We aim to be the hands and feed of Christ. We want to do anything and everything to help people in their time of need,” Rose said. 

 

This anything and everything? Includes a hot shower. 

 

“They are just providing a basic need that we take for granted,” Rose said. 

 

The shelter sees between 75 and 100 people in and out throughout the day, Rose said there is still room to take in more. 

 

“Right now we are open if people have a need in the Arkansas River Valley, Oklahoma side of the border, Van Buren side of the river — anyone and everyone is welcome,” Rose said. 

 

There is not a set date for the shelter to close and will continue to provide shelter and security as the storms continue. 

 

For more information or to donate to the shelter, click here. 

Read More

Evangel Temple Hires as Associate Pastor

Evangel Temple welcomes new associate pastor, children’s center 

Evangel Temple Assembly of God, 1201 Towson Ave. in Fort Smith, welcomes its new associate pastor, the Rev. Ryan Rose. Rose and his wife, Tiffany, have previously served on staff at Butterfield Assembly of God and at Calvary Assembly of God.

Children’s Center dedication will be 10:30 a.m. Sunday at Evangel Temple. 

Visit ExcitingET.com, call (479) 782-9121 for find Evangel Temple on Facebook for information.

https://www.swtimes.com/entertainmentlife/20180914/religion-notes---91418

Read More

Save $1,000 in a Few Months

1 Timothy 5:8 says, “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” There are very obvious spiritual and moral implications to this verse, but I believe  you can directly apply this to your personal finances as well. If you do not provide well for yourself and your family you are not living up the call of God to be responsible and a good steward of what He has blessed you with.

A very  beneficial and needed aspect of your personal finances is an “emergency" fund. Sometime or another an financial emergency is bound to happen in your life, it's up to you whether you are prepared for it or not. Some people allow these financial hardships to shape or detour their foreseeable fiscal future, and others are able to overcome and move past them due to wise planning and solid execution of a simple plan.

Click HERE to read more... 

Read More

Follow Jesus' Example of Masculinity

I had the opportunity to do a couple of devotional segments for our District Men's Ministries, here is the second one:

Post by Arkansas AG Men's Ministries.

Read More

Unshakable Foundation

I had the opportunity to do a couple of devotional segments for our District Men's Ministries, here is the first one:

Post by Arkansas AG Men's Ministries.

Read More

Sacrificial Availability

I want you to think of a close friend or a family member who at any time you'd drop what you were doing to help them out. Now most likely you'd take a phone call from them, run them gas on the highway if they ran out, pick them up from somewhere, loan them money, offer advice, be a shoulder to cry on, right? Why? Because you care, they are important to you, their needs are important to you and their future is important to you.

Now I want you to think about someone you know that you aren't exactly "close" to on the same level as the person we just talked about. Get someone on your mind...

Do they know Christ? If they are a believer, are they grounded? Do they have a good support system, could they benefit from you reaching out to them?

Over the years I've had people come in and out of my life, people that I believe God positioned in my life so that for a time or season I might have some positive influence on them (some more than others). This isn't a "oh wow Ryan you are so wise and almighty" comment, I think God allowed me to learn as much if not more from the experience than what I was able to impart to these individuals. One thing I've taken away from these experiences, which I was reminded of recently in my Sunday School class(we now call them Connect Groups), to truly reach someone and be there for them, we have to make ourselves "Sacrificially Available."

So you might ask, "What do you mean 'Sacrificially Available?'" Well I'm glad that you asked, I feel like it means to make yourself completely and totally available to a person in order to benefit them to the best of your ability. Often times we tell people to give us a call or shoot us a text if they need prayer or anything at all. Frequently we press ignore on our phones or don't call them back for days. This is not being available at all and certainly not on the sacrificial level. 

So why the sacrifice? To be a Christian means to be Christ-like. What did Christ do? Sacrificed himself so that we might have eternal life. Any chance we can sacrifice something to help someone else we are being like Christ. I feel like true "Sacrificial Availability" means that you put another person's needs and priorities above your own, this would be the common behavior in a marriage or between a parent and their children. This kind of activity obviously breeds love, success, maturity, discipline, the list goes on. Why not try this with someone in need? 

Pray that God opens your eyes to see a person in need, or ask that they literally be dropped in your lap. It can happen, and this is the kind of ministry where we can be really effective in sharing about Christ, what He's done for us, and what He can do for them. Think about Phillip and the Ethiopian eunuch from the book of Acts, Phillip was minding his own business traveling from one town to another town and God brought him somebody....
29 The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” 30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. 31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:

“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
    and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
33 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
    Who can speak of his descendants?
    For his life was taken from the earth."
34 The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” 35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. 36 As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” 38 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him."
-Acts 8:29-38

Phillip, in this instance, made himself "Sacrificially Available" to this man, and because of it, he was able to lead this man to Christ and Baptize him as well. More often than not, our experiences won't be this simple or short lived, but the moral of the story stays the same. As ambassadors of Christ, we make ourselves available to deliver his message, but we don't just leave it at that. We must make an effort to continually encourage and build up those we witness to. Sometimes the continual contact and conversations will minister more to a person than all our efforts to "evangelize" them. Personal contact goes a LONG ways today.

So again, what is "Sacrificial Availability?" I say it means answering the phone when that person calls, it may mean stepping away from the dinner table, muting the TV show, waking up in the middle of the night, or going over to someones house to let them unload all of their emotions. It means going beyond what any normal person would, because guess what? We aren't normal people, we are believers in Jesus Christ, we are Christians, we are more than Conquers and we are empowered for ministry by the Holy Spirit and called by the Great Commission to go preach, teach, and reach.

Become "Sacrificially Available" to those people you are ministering to, or to that friend who needs your help, or that coworker or classmate that really doesn't have anybody. Go out of your way to care about someone else's needs and make their priorities your priorities. Their future ought to matter to you, they need to be important to you, you should care...

Be blessed!

Read More

The Power of Words....

From an experience I had recently.

Things we say, especially those recorded on the Internet forever, can be very powerful for many many years in the future.

Our words have the power to do good and to bring harm, what are you saying when you communicate?

"The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit."

-Proverbs 18:21

Fortunately in the instance I'm referencing, my words did some good. I gave a friend of mine a reference a few years back. She worked under me when we were in a University Television Program. She was awesome at anything she did, but she really excelled in graphic design. One of the lines in my reference was, "(she) is the kind of person you wish you could clone and make an entire team out of."

We are connected through LinkedIn among many other social media platforms, and I happened to see this tidbit listed on her profile. I was shocked to see that she was portraying it front and center on her profile, not because I didn't mean what I said, I did, but I figured there were just better things a person could use to promote their abilities than a quote from little old me. After a little messaging, she shared with me that this quote from me had been very beneficial to her professionally with interviews and promotions and much more. Here is a quote from one of her responses, 
"I have to say this quote has taken me places! ...not only has it given my employers a "better" idea of the kind of person I am, but it has given me a lot of confidence to think of myself in this way and know I can be a valuable team member. Sometimes the job market takes away your confidence! 

So, obviously, thank you. 

Who knew such little things could have such an effect in someone's life, huh?" 

Who knew indeed? It struck me, what if I said something bad about her, or anyone else, and what if those comments had been made in anger, haste, frustration. What if I had posted it on Facebook, text it to a friend, tweeted it, blogged it, etc? What would the affects of those words have been?

The things we say about people have the power to do good...and the power to do bad. What do you choose to do with your words? 

"Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, 2 to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone." -Titus 3:1-2

The King James Version is very clear...

"...To speak evil of no man (person)..."

I challenge you, take a 7 day period of time, and don't say one bad thing about any person. Its gonna be more difficult than you think, but guess what? 

That's what God wants from us 24/7-365

Be blessed!

Read More

Why Young Adults are Leaving the Church...

This is a very well written excerpt from an article I read at CovPresChurch.org, very sobering and depressing on some levels, most importantly it is very informative...
To learn more about "Ignite" our Young Adult Ministry, click HERE!


"Why do so many young adults stop going to church?   Perhaps the most frequently offered explanation is that many students enter college with an inadequate understanding of “the Christian worldview” and an inability to “defend” it against professors who are “hostile” to the faith.  It is unclear how this theory emerged, but it is not supported by the research.  The NSYR found that only 11% of young adults who “stopped attending religious services” did so because of “disbelief.”  The number one answer given was “no reason or don’t know” (41%), followed by “disinterest” (17%).  (This study further found that young adults who attend college are actually LESS likely to “experience declines in religious service attendance and self-reported importance of religion” than those who do not.)

The researchers interviewed very few young adults who had become skeptical of or hostile toward the Christian faith in college.  The majority (about 60%) of those who had stopped going to church sounded something like Brad—one of the young adults who participated in the study.  He attended church pretty regularly with his family during his teenage years, but now, it “kind of depends on how busy the schedule is.  If I get a free Sunday, I’ll go…once in awhile.  But I’m not really into it like some people are.”  Brad did not “lose his faith” in college.  He still believes that “there is a God and…if you believe in Jesus and ask him to be in your life, [you] go to heaven…that sort of stuff.”  In his words, “I still have the same ideas now, I just don’t go to church like I used to every Sunday.  I’ve got a busier lifestyle…higher priorities.”

What the NSYR researchers found is that the young adults who were most likely to stop attending church were those who, though they basically believed the “right” things, lacked a real understanding of those beliefs, appreciation of their importance, and ability to apply them to their everyday experiences.  According to Christian Smith, director of the NSYR project and author of two books on the subject of youth and religion, it was as if the teenagers and young adults were being asked to speak a “second language” that sounded confused and awkward, especially when it came to how their “faith” impacted their daily lives.  Smith coined the term “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism” to describe what he and his colleagues frequently heard in their interviews.  Most young people believe that God created the world and sent Jesus to die for their sins, but in terms of their everyday experiences, God seems to be little more than a cosmic therapist (to make them “feel loved, happy, secure,” etc.) and giver of moral advice (to teach them how to be “good” people and occasionally help them resolve their “problems”)."

There's a lot of info to take in from this article, one of the most important pieces shows only a small % of young adults leaving the church due to disbelief in God. One encouraging note is that the majority of these young adults have a good foundation in their belief system and aren't entirely abandoning the faith. They know God is there, and that Jesus died for them, but because of their stepping back from church, they do relegate God to the sidelines and seek him only when in need as opposed to serving Him at all times. They are a big fan of the Jesus that calmed the storm, but at this point in time not such a big fan of Jesus the teacher (This is not the case with all Young Adult Christians outside of church, but the majority).

The sad news however, is that the Church (as a whole) is no longer reaching or delivering the Word to Young Adults in a relevant and life applicable way. The claim is that their schedule and priorities are superseding their need to go to church, at least at the regular/traditional church times. That's really not a bad excuse, and I don't think of it as a cop-out. I remember being in college, taking 17-19 credit hours, working 2 or 3 part time jobs, being married, having labs, study groups, senior thesis projects etc...church can take a back seat.  What about the young adults who don't go to college and go straight into the work force, get married young, and have kids young? They are getting a real world shock, they are just fighting to get by, pay off their debt and make ends meet!

So what's the answer? Some might say..."Well they just aren't committed" or "They must not have had a strong foundation" or "If they were living right, they'd make church a priority." Are we really supposed to expect them to make the "super spiritual" "uber mature" adult decision to make church a priority when they are still just discovering what it even means to live as an adult out from under mom and dad's roof? Personally, I don't think any of those viewpoints are correct. Maybe it just happens to somewhat be the responsibility of the "Church" to try and find a means to minister and reach out to this group stepping away...?

Paul gives us a pretty good road map for how to reach those we aren't reaching in 1 Corinthians 9 

"19 Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings."

1 Corinthians 9:19-23

Sounds to me like Paul said, "Become what you must to reach those who don't know about Jesus." ...like a Jew to the Jews...like the weak to the weak... get this one, "TO THOSE NOT HAVING THE LAW I BECAME LIKE ONE NOT HAVING THE LAW" ... "so as to win (to Christ) those not having the law." So I think Paul makes it clear, we aren't supposed to just sit here and twiddle our thumbs and expect the lost, the struggling, etc to just come find us, but we are to go seek them out and minister to them in their culture, setting, etc. We need to be doing our part to be reaching them on their level where they are at. Occasionally I'm in downtown Fort Smith, AR around lunch time and I see a community outreach that does sack lunches to the needy, feeding the hungry. Imagine if instead of making those meals available and advertising it to the homeless community, they just sat on their hands and had those sack lunches sitting in a fridge somewhere saying, "well we got the food here, if they want it, they'll come find it!"

We are re-launching our Young Adult Ministry at my church this month, my goal is for us to reach the young adults on a level that church isn't getting to them. Right now, our meeting time is going to be on Wednesday nights at 7:00, that may not be best in the long run. We have to start somewhere and that's where we are best equipped to start, as things progress and the ministry grows, we may evolve into another time, location, style etc for whatever best encourages personal growth as well as reaching more and more individuals. We must make the gospel readily available, even if it takes us outside of our "normal" comfort zone of Sunday mornings. We must also remember, we have a formidable foe in the devil, who is on the prowl like a hungry lion, ready to strike. Each young adult we alienate for our own "comfortable agenda" we make more available pray to the devil...

Read More

Going the extra mile...

Sorry that I haven't been blogging lately, kind of been a little behind with church stuff and have been playing catch up all year so far. A young man got saved this past week and it really just stayed on my mind and I wanted to share about it.

We have a Discipleship Ministry at our church on Wednesday nights, WednesdaysOnPurpose. The ministry consists of discipleship classes that last about 90 minutes. Right now we have 4 different classes going on, to learn more about the ministry, visit our site: WednesdaysOnPurpose.com. 

Right now we are in the 2nd round of "Man Up", a men's class. Well the teacher of this class and his two sons took a first time visitor (who I'll refer to as Young Man) out for pizza after church. The class, as far as I know, went just fine and was engaging and interactive as always. The men of our church just love the class. Steve Gann, the teacher is one of the best we got. I digress, back to the heart of the story, Steve and his sons took this young man out for pizza after church and continued to minister to him, speaking life, testifying about all the great works that Christ had done in their lives, and the importance of living for God. 

The young man obviously was looking for God to show up in a big way. I met him before church, very polite and pleasant, I shook his hand, said hello, and moved onto what I had "going on" that night, I was too busy or caught up in my own schedule to really take the time to realize what God was about to do in this young man's life. But these guys, Steve and his 2 sons...they went the extra mile...the young man sat in church that night listened to the message God had for him, then some "church people" asked him to come join  them after church for some fellowship time. 

They continued ministering to him, outside the walls of the church, after church was over, probably past a time that was convenient for their "schedule". Long story short, that night, at the pizza place...they led this young man to the Lord. He accepted Christ, came to church Sunday Morning, came to my Sunday school class (new believers class), and as far as I know came to church Sunday night and I'm pretty sure is planning to come back to church this Wednesday. 

Steve and his family are continuing to lift this new believer up and encourage him. I'm praying God continues to show up in this young man's life in a new and awesome way.

My whole reason for posting this is to encourage any of you who might read this, to realize that Christianity isn't just coming to church, sitting down, clap a little, put a tip in the offering plate, then go home. Christianity goes beyond the walls of the church, it goes beyond our personal agendas, it takes us outside of our comfort zones sometimes. We need to daily be praying that God helps us to recognize the opportunities he gives us to minister to the hearts of those who are searching for Him.

go the extra mile...

Read More