Las Vegas Outreach Team Newsletter 

January & February 2009

United For The Gospel Conference

                                                                                                       January 1, 2009 marked the beginning of a new event for the Las Vegas Outreach Team (LVOT).  For the past four years the LVOT had been organizing evangelists to head to the Las Vegas Strip to share the gospel on New Years Eve.  The previous years had been wonderful events with many people heading out to the streets to share the gospel to some of the party goers.

                                                                                                       But in the month of October there was a nagging question that kept coming up among the Team Coordinators; Are we supposed to continue doing the same thing?  During the month of October there was some fasting and praying about this question.  Then on November 11th, the Lord birthed the idea for a conference.  The plan of the conference was to bring as many of the churches together to create unity in the body so that we could work together to share the gospel.  Honestly, this very idea had been swirling around in the heads of the local leaders because we had seen how unity could occur amongst many denominations at the Great News Network Boot-Camps.  So on Tuesday afternoon, November 11th, the team initiated a plan to have the conference on January 1st, 2009.  That left just fifty days to get ready.

                                                                                                       Quickly, the plans began to come together.  We were able to get the First Baptist Church of The Lakes to host the event in their church.  Then over the next couple of weeks, the five speakers agreed to come and speak.  We had Pastor Greg Stephens from Calvary Chapel Spring Valley who agreed to speak on Giving It All, a lifestyle commitment in sharing the gospel.  Pastor John Pretlove, the Lead pastor at First Baptist Church of The Lakes, agreed to share with us from his forty-five years in the ministry, Endurance In The Race.  Next, Pastor John Knapp, the lead pastor at Calvary Chapel Green Valley agreed to speak to us on, Walking In Holiness.  Then there was Miles McKee who is a pastor in Nashville, TN who agreed to come and share the true gospel in, It Is Finished.  The last speaker was one of the LVOT Coordinators, Doug Koch, who spoke about United For The Gospel.

                                                                                                        On the day of the event, we had seventy to eighty attendees who came from the following fourteen churches: 

                                                                                                       First Baptist Church of The Lakes         

Calvary Chapel Spring Valley

Calvary Chapel Green Valley                

Lighthouse Christian Fellowship

Central Christian                                  

TCMI

Clearview Fellowship                            

Church on The Street

Grace Reformed                                  

Calvary Chapel Downtown Las Vegas

Destined For Glory

Faithful Central (Inglewood, CA)           

It was a blessing to see and hear from so many people about their desire to see the gospel shared in Las Vegas.  One of the finest moments of the day came at the end of the conference when the Pot Blessing was held.  The people of First Baptist Church of The Lakes brought the food and over fifty people stayed for another hour to hour-and-a-half to fellowship.  There were many other responses from those who came to the conference, but the general response was that this event and the vision for unity is greatly needed in Las Vegas. 

Like one speaker said, the plan for unity in Las Vegas begins today.  This conference was a first step, and Lord willing there will be many more steps to come in uniting.  There is a need to begin looking at church not as each individual group of believers that meets in different buildings every week. But instead church should be all the born-again believers across each Godly denomination in Las Vegas.  Then, once we see the church in the right view, we can begin to work together in taking the gospel to the city of Las Vegas, Clark County, the United States, and the ends of the world.

If you are interested in hearing the speakers for the first time or to hear them again then just click on the links for each speaker.

Greg Stephens – Giving It All

John Knapp – Walking In Holiness

John Pretlove – Endurance In The Race

Miles McKee – It Is Finished (The True Gospel)

Doug Koch – United For The Gospel

 

First Baptist Church of The Lakes

Oversees the Las Vegas Outreach Team

In April of 2007 the Las Vegas Outreach Team was created by six coordinators that were made up of three couples; Frank and Carla Francesco, Marty and Sheila Gillespie, Doug and Jen Koch.  They created the Las Vegas Outreach Team following their departure from the Great News Network.  The basic purpose of creating the Las Vegas Outreach Team was to see the gospel preached throughout the city of Las Vegas to the lost.  But the desire of the coordinators, at the time, was not for the Las Vegas Outreach Team to be a para-church organization but to be under the authority and guidance of a local pastor and body of believers.

Since that time, the Las Vegas Outreach Team has continued to work at taking the gospel to the city of Las Vegas but prayerfully waiting on the Lord for a church body to oversee the ministry.  As of January 1, 2009 the First Baptist Church of The Lakes (FBCL) has agreed to oversee the Las Vegas Outreach Team (LVOT).  This does not change the ministry in any way although the Team Coordinators will seek guidance and prayer from First Baptist Church of The Lakes.

The reason that FBCL and LVOT have come together is because of the like-mindedness both groups have to see the gospel of Jesus Christ reach the lost.  This partnership will also be a benefit to those who have wanted to donate to the Las Vegas Outreach Team but were unable to claim the donation on their taxes.  Now if someone is interested in donating to Las Vegas Outreach Team they can send a check to First Baptist Church of The Lakes and memo it to the Las Vegas Outreach Team.  This way your donation will be tax deductible and it will fund the work of the Las Vegas Outreach Team.  All donations can be sent to:

First Baptist Church of The Lakes                                                                     9125 Spring Mountain Road                                                                                Las Vegas, NV  89117

 

 Calendar of Upcoming Events

Training & Fellowship                                                               February 5th       Thursday       7:00-9:00 pm                        Sunrise Gardens Clubhouse   

This training we will be going over the Dr. Dino aka Dr. Kent Hovind video Hovind Theory.  Dr. Hovind is a scientist who helps Christians learn about the proof of creationism and the young earth theory, while refuting the evidence of evolution and the old earth theory.  Food and drinks will be provided.  The Sunrise Gardens Clubhouse is at 6150 E. Sahara 89122.                                                                                                    

Training & Fellowship                                                                                       February 12th     Thursday     7:00-9:00 pm                             Sunrise Gardens Clubhouse  

This training we will be going over the Dr. Dino aka Dr. Kent Hovind video Questions and Answers.  Dr. Hovind is a scientist who helps Christians learn about the proof of creationism and the young earth theory, while refuting the evidence of evolution and the old earth theory.  Food and drinks will be provided.  The Sunrise Gardens Clubhouse is at 6150 E. Sahara 89122.                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Training & Fellowship                                                            March 12th     Thursday     7:00-8:30 pm                               First Baptist Church of The Lakes

Sharing Yeshua Effectively    

This particular training will be directed by Rabbi Shmuel Oppenheim from Lev HaShem Messianic Synagoge in Las Vegas, NV.  This particular training is designed to teach you how to share the Gospel of Yeshua without being offensive.  Rabbi Oppenheim will show us how to us the Torah (Old Testament) and the Jewish religious festival to point to Yeshua.  This training will be held at the First Baptist Church of The Lakes at 9125 Spring Mountain Drive, Las Vegas, 89117.  Snacks and drinks will be served afterwards during the time of fellowship.                                                                

Night of Prayer                                                                             March 13th     Friday     10 pm-6 am                                      First Baptist Church of The Lakes    

                                                                                                                                   This will be our first Night of Prayer for 2009.  The purpose of this night is to for the brethren from the Church of Las Vegas to come together in prayer.  We will pray that the Lord will turn our hearts to His heart and make us more sensative to His will.  We will also give us a desire to see that His Kingdom is done on earth as it is in heaven.  We will meet at First Baptist Church of The Lakes at 10 pm and go until 6 am.  You will be free to leave early if you need to but we encourage you to come and battle with your brethren in prayer all night.                                                                    

                                                                                                        San Gennaro Sign-up Begins                                                 March 30th     Monday     12 noon    LVOutreach.com/sangennaro

                                                                                                                             One of the largest outreaches for the Las Vegas Outreach Team is the San Gennaro Festival.  This is a Festival that brings in over 80,000 people in five days.  This will be the fifth festival that the Las Vegas Outreach Team has manned a booth.  Like last year, we will have two booths together and be using the Intelligence Test and other optical illusions to pull people into the Gospel.  Because it costs to get into the Festival the Las Vegas Outreach Team has to have a sign-up so we can get badges to each of the volunteers.  On March 30th you will be able to go to the website above and sign up for you preferred time so we can mail your badge to you.                                                                                       

Prayer Concerns

  • Pray that the Church of Las Vegas (all born-again believers in Las Vegas) will be obedient in taking the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, and the ends of the world.
  • Pray that the Church of Las Vegas will seek God for repentance in the areas of their sin and will live through the conviction of the Holy Spirit and not the condemnation of the devil.
  • Pray that the pastors over the Church of Las Vegas will be obedient in sending their flocks to go and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
  • Pray that the Church of Las Vegas will be obedient in their training to give the Gospel.
  • Pray that the Church of Las Vegas will be obedient in coming together to create a battle plan on reaching the elect and defeating the enemy.
  • Financial Needs
    • The double booth at the San Gennaro Festival will cost $950 and will need to be paid in full before April 21.
    • The tracts for the event will cost about $560 for the five days.  This is figuring that we will need 7400 tracts.
  • Pray for the creation of the Las Vegas Outreach Video.  This video is being designed to highlight individual churches and para-church organizations that are sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ outside the four walls of the local churches.  This project is being financed by the Las Vegas Outreach Team and the filming and production will be done by the video department at KEEN TV Channel 17 Las Vegas.  The tentative cost of the video will be from $500-$750 which we hope to have by March 1st.
  • Please pray for Tom Gidford and a couple dozen brothers who are going to Mardi Gras to share the gospel with prarade attendees.  They will be in New Orleans from February 18 - February 25.  They will be staying at a shelter where the shelter residents allow the evangelists to have their bunk beds.  They will be attending such parades as Babylon, Chaos, Selene (Greek moon goddess), Orpheus (Greek god of music), Morpheus (greek god of dreams), Hermes (messenger for the gods), Isis (Egyptian goddess), Okeanos (greek god of ocean), Thoth (Egyptian god of judgement), Zulu (south African clan, which in the Nguni language means heaven).  Pray that the Gospel of Christ is proclaimed and for their protection since they are hated (John 15:19).