Greetings dear friends and fellow disciples,
We are writing to inform you of the beginning of what we hope and pray will be an exciting and fruitful new phase of our life – to the glory of our gracious God.
For years, we have sought to encourage disciples, build local congregations, and to strengthen God’s church all over the world. Through teaching, preaching, presenting workshops, writing books, consulting with church leaders and training up staff, elders, and local leaders…by means of all of this – and more – we have sought to help advance the gospel and strengthen God’s people.
At this season of life, we would like to help more churches, do more teaching, and take more time to share all we have learned in a lifetime of serving the Lord as workers in his kingdom. To do so, we plan to be freer to travel, to write, to consult, and to speak and teach. Therefore, we are seeking to free the local church where we currently serve (the Palm Beach Region of the South Florida Church of Christ) of the level of salary and support we have received in the past. We are taking a salary reduction in 2017, and plan to support ourselves by means of our ministry of teaching and writing, and by serving more frequently in various churches and church families around the brotherhood.
We are calling this new effort “Progress and Joy in the Faith Ministries” because we, inspired by our brother Paul in Philippians 1:25-26, want to help God’s people to make more progress and have more joy than they have ever known before!
We are providing you with a suggested list of ideas and topics below. Feel free to contact us if you would like to know more about any of the topics, and to discuss with us the possibility of crafting of an event that could powerfully meet your church’s needs.
Note: Next to each topic we list the books we have authored that relate to it.
Marriage: Friends and Lovers; The Essential 8 Principles Of A Growing Marriage, Hot and Holy (Original title: The Five Senses of Romantic Love)
Parenting and family life: Raising Awesome Kids (Reloaded); The Essential 8 Principles of a Strong Family; The Wonder Years (Parenting Preteens And Teens); The Tender Years (Parenting Preschoolers)
Men: Warrior; The Warrior Workbook; Mighty Man of God
Women: A Life Worth Living
Special note: all four of our children are disciples, and are married to strong disciples. If you so choose, you may invite one of them and/or their spouse to speak along with us for a marriage, family, parenting, men’s or women’s program. Inter-generational connection is a wonderful thing!
Spiritual growth and development; Specialty subjects and topics: Be Still, My Soul; The Guilty Soul’s Guide to Grace. Note: Feel free to contact us on this – we have multiple, unique options available!
Church growth and renewal: Sample topic: Rekindling Close, Spiritual Relationships and Effective Evangelism
Church leadership development: Sample Topic: God's Fellow Workers - Building a Unified Team
Biblical workshops: Studying individual Bible books or topics
"Prime Time" workshops and inspiration: Helping older disciples find energy, renewal and direction for this season of life. Note: We are also eager to do teaching to help build cross-generational connection in your church. It is our joy to help connect Millenials, Gen X-ers and Baby Boomers into effective, respectful partnership for our Lord.
If you have any questions whatsoever, feel free to contact us.
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Thank you for taking the time to read this announcement. Please pray for us as we step out in faith, seeking to serve our Father and his Son in a new manner - one that we hope brings "Progress and Joy in the Faith" to the lives of countless numbers of souls all over the world!
Your brother and sister in the faith,
Sam and Geri Laing