Year-End Discipleship Report |
|
|
2020 has certainly been a year none of us will ever forget! In the midst of a worldwide pandemic, over 2000 men, women and couples were impacted by God as they went on a journey to find an intimate, abiding relationship with Christ. Read the letter from our founder, Rocky Fleming, as well as individual updates from our Regional Directors.
Now, more than ever, we need to Abide in Christ and Go Make Disciples. The world is looking for answers, and we can help guide people to The Answer.
|
|
Watch Stories of Impact from 2020 |
|
|
Letter from Rocky
LOOKING BACK OVER 2020- THANK GOD FOR COVID-19
|
I’ve heard many people say they feel that the year 2020 was the worst of their life. Many feel that things will be much better a few days from now when the calendar clicks over to 2021. They say things will get better when there is a vaccine or when masks are no longer needed, or when churches can gather or sports can open up again, and so on. People long for the good old days to return. Maybe they will or maybe they will not? But what is true is that God is on His throne and because of it there is good in all situations if we will look for it. As a ministry, Influencers has seen the good work of a good God this past year, and it has been an amazing experience seeing it unfold in spite of the limitations that Covid-19 brought to the world. It had the opposite effect as we saw this ministry grow to people and places that we had not reached before. Let me share it:
The last nineteen years I’ve repeated a message over and over that Influencers is an organism and it will survive and grow if it remains healthy. The health of this ministry is not about the form or forms that we use but rather the heart of it. Our heart as a ministry is to seek and stay close to Jesus and faithfully go where He takes us. This is the DNA that we seek to protect, nurture and release as we expand outward. The forms that are used to take this message to people are sometimes different in the various regions and cultures that we are sent. However, at the heart is always our DNA. Because of this, our regional and global health and expansion has been incredible, for we have protected the DNA as we expanded. Here is an example:
God had already prepared us to expand our form of gathering small groups using The Journey back in 2018. We were already using Zoom technology back then for such groups. We hammered out the use of it, became familiar with it, and worked out the kinks before the great need of it was required. As a result, in early in 2020 when our groups were challenged with not meeting due to the pandemic, we were able to step easily into Zoom Journey Groups around the world, and especially in the USA. This allowed for record breaking expansion of Journey Groups beyond our hopes and dreams. These Zoom groups became a “seeding” for other groups to be established, and exponential growth of groups and reaching people has been propelled forward. So, if you were to ask me, I will tell you. As hard as 2020 has been for all of us, God has blessed us beyond the inconvenience and loss it brought. We have seen sickness and even death, loss of jobs and many other hardships come near us. But our God has prevailed over all of them, and we have nothing but praise and celebration to share because of this past year.
Today I want to share with you my joy for what our King has done for this ministry and our staff. We have been well cared for and exceedingly blessed. I pray that you will feel God’s tender love for you and that you will be assured that He knows, cares, is willing and is able to enter this time in your life and make good in spite of the threats that this period in your life brings. Join us with praising Him and thanking Him for His great love and protection that He places over His children. He is so good.
Finally, I would like to thank those of you who have supported this ministry with your prayers, your service, and your financial partnership. As a personal investor into this ministry, my wife Sallie and I feel that it is a privilege to do so, and it is the best investment in lives and Kingdom work that we’ve ever been part of. If you too will continue to join us or join us for the first time in this great investment into God’s work, I ask you to give to your local regional office. Our regional staff are putting it all on the line to serve your region, which includes you, and we would appreciate your investment into the regional ministry where you are located. I ask you to get behind them.
God bless you dear friends. Thank you for allowing us to be a beneficiary of your prayers and financial partnership. May we continue to make our King famous and to do what he told us to do which is to go and make disciples. May 2021 be the best year yet for this mission.
To Our King Jesus’ glory,
Rocky
|
|
UPDATE FROM INFLUENCERS REGIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES TO SUPPORT BELOW |
|
|
We have a new Regional Branch called the "Virtual Branch". Tom Seay, former Regional Director for Influencers Northwest Arkansas is now focusing his efforts on virtual groups. This is allowing us to reach men and women in new cities all over the world. No longer do we have to have an Influencers branch near a person. They can go through a group virtually and then, bring it to their city.
Prayers and Focus for 2021:
- Virtual Guide Training for in-person Journey Groups and for Virtual Journey groups on a monthly basis.
- Connect with individuals wanting to go through the journey from cities across the USA and the world.
- Virtual Journey Groups have started and are starting in countries in Central America and Africa.
- For more men and women to become Virtual Journey Guides for Men’s, Women’s and Couple’s Journey Groups. More will be needed.
|
Paul Holzmer took the reigns from Tom Seay this year as Regional Director for NWA. It was an odd year to take over with COVID restricting so much gathering, but Journey groups continued to reproduce in companies, churches and small groups all over the area. Also, NWA is taking the lead in Guide mentoring to raise up more Virtual guides for groups reaching the world.
Hopes and prayers for 2021:
- Connecting with Guides and equipping them to be champions within their churches and businesses.
- Hope to have a Sporting Clay Shoot or Golf event to raise awareness for Influencers in this area.
- Plan to relaunch NWA Anchor, a weekly gathering event for men to praise, be encouraged and pray together..
|
With Covid hitting in March we felt the need to bring on another staff member because we felt our community would be more in need of Jesus than ever before. So we hired Gary Steffes and he has impacted our city and allowed Influencers to grow in many more areas of our county.
Over 1000 men, women and couples meet weekly in Journey groups, and we continue to get more requests from churches in the area.
This year, God guided us to Tehachapi which is 70 miles away from Bakersfield. We started with 12 men and one group. Now, one year later we have five groups and 120 men. God is so good.
The week of Thanksgiving, we continued the annual tradition of "Turkey Tuesday" as Influencers prepared and delivered 1200 box meals for needy families in our city.
BIG NEWS! One of our generous Influencers has given us a $30,000 year-end Matching Fund. See how you can participate below.
|
Transformation and organic growth continued in the California Central Coast region of Influencers in 2020. COVID tried it’s best to stop the spread of the transforming truth of the gospel. But the power of the Holy Spirit never fails.
The number of Journey groups doubled this year to 25, including 250 men and 50 women and 2 Couples Journey Groups. After meeting on Zoom through March and April, most groups resumed meeting live in June through the November Commencements.
We look forward to what God has planned for 2021, changing lives and healing marriages by learning to abide in Christ.
|
|
Influencers Tulsa has leaned on 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 during this pandemic year!!! We have been “Rejoicing always”, “Praying without ceasing”, and “Giving Thanks in ALL circumstances", which is our Lords WILL for us.
Highlights:
- Journey Groups continue to flourish and we continue to see hearts, minds and souls embracing John 15:5, abiding in Him, even in the darkest valleys.
-
Our weekly Anchor meeting has continued, even when we have had to go "virtual". Every Friday morning, men gather to worship, hear testimonies and pray with one another. It is also a continuous “on-ramp” to connecting new guys to the Journey! To get a taste of the Anchor, click to watch our Anchor Highlight video.
- We continue to have a high priority of pouring into our Journey Guides. We are so proud of our leaders who have done whatever was necessary to stay connected to their groups during the challenges of this year. We see the abiding hearts of our men as they live out the meaning of Hebrews 10:23-25 in and around our city.
- We have been so excited to have Jeremy Warren on board as our new Area Director to support Frank Khalil in expanding the ministry in Tulsa.
Although we have seen many challenges within our finances due to our partners and their businesses and jobs, God has continued to provide. We will continue to abandon ourselves and fully trust the Lord to speak to the hearts of his children to be great stewards and make this ministry part of their financial giving
|
The Memphis Branch continues to grow and multiply. Jay and Nicole Thompson lead the way as they serve men and women in Memphis and into Mississippi.
Focus for 2021:
- Growth of guides and participants
- Growth and favor in partnership with local churches
- Seeing evidence of fruit that is lasting as men and women ABIDE
- In person and virtual group reproduction
- Growing familiarity with Influencers Memphis and growing excitement to share and multiply
|
We are grateful that our Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday prayer times have allowed us to grow and deepen through the use of teleconferencing technology. It has been a powerful way to help men stay focused on the cross and the gospel in the midst of so many distractions and fears of these challenging days.
For such a time as this our new 4M (4 Men) groups are multiplying after a year of effort. Our vision is taken from Jesus calling 12 disciples to be with Him, and choosing 3 to walk more intimately with Him together. We ask our 4M Guides to pray for and to recruit 3 men.
So far we have 14 Guides leading 20 groups amounting to a total of about 80+ men. We are recruiting 16 new Guides who hopefully will be starting new groups early in the new year.
We are excited about having groups in Guatemala that have 3 pastors included in the mix. We also have groups in the early stages in Wisconsin and North Carolina.
We are blessed to have a vehicle that allows us to reach men we would never have otherwise reached, which is one of our primary goals. Our vision is for reaching 1000’s of men, and we believe this is a method that can make that goal possible.
Men are hurting out there today. They are anxious, discouraged, depressed and stressed. Many if not most are struggling in their marriages and they’re fearful of the future.
Please pray for us in this effort to reach as many men as possible with the good news and hope of the gospel in these troubled, confusing times.
|
|
|
INFLUENCERS GLOBAL MINISTRIES
www.influencers.org
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
