Ministry

Announcing Christ’s Arrival (CCB)

/ Jonathan / Leave a comment

I had the honor of sharing God’s word during Advent last Sunday (Dec 14, 2025) at my church, Christ Central Buffalo (CCB). As a ruling elder, I don’t have regular preaching responsibilities, but when it comes it is always such a blessing. I hope this word is encouraging to you. Sorry, I don’t have video for this recording

Photo Credit: Kevin Ng

Sermon text: Luke 2:26-45 (ESV)

(v26-33) In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

(v34) And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

(v35-38) And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

(v39-45) In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

Divine power for Your Calling (CCB)

/ Jonathan

June 8, 2025 – Christ Central Buffalo (www.christcentralbuffalo.com)

Sermon Text: 2 Peter 1:1-15

[1-2] Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

[3-11] His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

[12-15] Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.

Mission Insite Tutorials

/ Jonathan

I made some brief tutorials on how to use Mission Insite’s site to use their analytic services. Mission Insite provides reports for regions of interest to help recognize ministry opportunities. This can be a powerful asset for ministry planning, as it can help identify the baseline along many different axes, as one attempts to better align efforts with community needs. These axes include population size, age, ethnic background, family makeup, occupation and educational attainment, perceived spiritual needs, perceived physical needs, and opinion surveys on religion, politics, social and moral issues.

For example, if a multi-ethnic church had a strong initiative for teaching English as a foreign language, they might want to consider planting a church that focuses on the community to which they are reaching. They could make that decision in light of just talking with the folks they are working with, but to make a multi-year informed decision, it can help to get data on the entire community and look at various trend analyses.

First tutorial: Creating a Mission Insite Account

Why get access to Mission Insite? Who should get access to Mission Insite? How do you create a Mission Insite account? In this video I explain the how and why for getting a Mission Insite account.

Second tutorial: Logging Into Mission Insite

In this video, I explain how to log into Mission Insite. This service is at https://www.missioninsite.com (it redirects to https://acstechnologies.com/missioninsite). Not sure why the audio is choppy at the beginning. I appreciate your patience!

Third Tutorial:

What are Mission Insite reports? How might you use the insights from one of these reports for ministry? In this video I explain the service that acstechnologies.com provides, called Mission Insite. It is available at https://www.missioninsite.com. I explain what an Executive Insite report generates, and give some examples how these graphics and data can help you better plan your ministry. I encourage you to have your report in front of you.

Other tutorials of interest, made by others: