Daniel R. Schafer

(*This blog seems highly unorganized. It is basically just a collection of sayings and stories that Dan had told. I was more concerned with listening to him to write a coherent and organized blog*)

Dan is a chaplain worked with agencies during 9/11. He is also a pastor in New Jersey. He was in the police force before and during his ministry. He has been in ministry for 47 years.
 Crisis Intervention Intl. LLC

"Just trust in the Lord and it will open doors." "The Holy Spirit opens the doors for us."

He helps run a "racer sunday." It's a car show for the community.

He is closely related to NASCAR racing

Red, White and Blue service. It's for the police, fire and EMS departments.

September 11, 2001

He lives an hour from NYC. He was a chaplain at a couple police departments. He went to the outside of the city and the next day was put into the position of mobilizing and organizing the chaplains. He did over 50 memorial services. They helped those process everything that was happening. They did not preach but helped needs. Every piece of human remains had a "service" or prayer over the body at different sites. The person or body could have up to 4-5 services, each "site" (the place where the body was found, ambulance, hospital and other sites) had a service for the body.

Tells of a time where they started to sing hymns and songs. Everybody took notice and gathered and sung. He says, "You could feel the Holy Spirit wrap His arms around the area and just say, "I'm here, I'm here."

In terms of stress on the workers there, he helped them by something he calls ministry of presence. People will forget your words but never your presence.

It's just doing things for people. You don't touch people, unless you know people. You don't have to know the answers. You just tell the truth. "In the hands of the Lord."

Funerals are some of the greatest times to minister, but you have to know how to say the right things.

"No such word as closure or getting back to normal. You find a new normal."

On April 11, 2002, Dan was there when the last two full bodies were found at the site.

He is a chaplain mostly of the police. He states that those guys are in such an area of stress. They take everything they see home and stuff it all in. They need to vent and get rid of what they see. It's not what you say, you just have to listen.

He works with police in all situations: murder, suicide, shootouts, accidents, crashes... etc.

Words are more powerful than a gun.

Recognize our limitations.

80% of my coping mechanism in Christ, 20% from professionals. (No medications.)

He is a chaplain for 4 police department, 4 fire departments, and 1 EMS department.

This speaker was by far my favorite so far. He is very practical and gives really practical advice! He is a great man of God and a witness of what God can do through just serving people.

Tom Rees

Tom grew up in West Philly with his mom and dad. His mother was from Italy and his dad was a regular dancer on American Bandstand. At age 5, his parents divorced. Tom did not grow up in a Christian home and lived a very turbulent childhood.

He asks, "What do you do when you have all this anger inside of you?"

In an amazing turn of events, she ends up walking into a Baptist church and talks with the pastor. The pastor told her that if she was to hang onto the anger it would destroy her. This hit her and she cries out to God and asks for help. She is born again and begins to believe. She begins to watch the early televangelists like Billy Graham and asks Tom to watch them with her.

His first real instance with God was through tracts that he found while working at a record store. He was saved after reading the first tract about how works do not equal salvation. His mom and Tom begin to go to meetings with a group called the Catholic Charismatics (Mainline). They began to go to an Assemblies of God church and through the church and went to a summer camp called PTL in South Carolina.

Student a VFCC for 4 years and got a job at a mental health home. He planned patient activities. He really enjoyed the opportunity and states that he "Loved that job." It did come with some trials but it showed him that this is real life, life and death. Tom says that the job helped slow him down and look at the life of Jesus.



After two years he moved on and began looking for a job in ministry. He looked at three different churches and was glad he looked and went to each church. "If you can eat dinner with the family that is hiring you. You will learn loads!"

"Don't just jump because it is something for you to jump into. Makes sure it's a fit."

He was hired to work with young adults, shut-ins, and then eventually children's ministry. It taught him a lot and humbled him a lot.

He realized that people were getting saved but the church was not growing. He realized that by pouring into kids lives they will have a greater probably of coming back. He was talking about discipling. He realized that if he could disciple kids and make friends with them an walk through life. He also realized that he needed to develop a team. Discipleship is not a one man band but a team.

He now works with the Penn/Del church planting and the assistant to the superintendant. He helps get church plants/planters get started by finding people for the plants and getting them started and getting them connected with people that can help them.

Most difficult part of ministry is... me. He states, "He wanted to be part of a successful ministry. He then read this book called "Liberating the Ministry from the Success Syndrome" It changed his life and view on ministry.



Tom is married to Cherri since 1985. They met at Potomac Youth Convention when Tom was on 3D (skit team). They have two kids.

Tom is an awsome guy and teaches this class. He has a heart for God and is  great communicator.

Unchurched?

I interviewed a few people that for the most part are "unchurched" or in other words have not been to church in a while. I have found that at one point all of them had at one point have gone to church. All of them say that it was when they were young. All of them are in college now and I realized that all of them believed in the relativity of truth. They each thought that what they had was truth but that there was no such thing as an absolute truth. What was also interesting was their view of church. Some said that they still would go from time to time while others said that they did no longer. The major reason why: hypocrisy. They saw the hypocrisy in the church or have been on the receiving end of it and it has put a bad taste in their mouth. They saw the things that are happening in the Roman Catholic church and with the child molestation and have written off the church. None of those that I interviewed were against church, they just viewed it as it was not right for them but it could be right for others. They believed strongly in coexisting with people and allowing others to follow what they wanted to follow. 

From what I could gather from these interviews was that people are not really opposed to church but are more opposed to people forcing things on them. They want the freedom to believe what they believe. I see a generation that is truly looking for truth but to shout at them and tell them how much of a sinner they are is not going to help them listen to you. If anything we need to love on them and build a relationship with them before being able to speak into their lives. This means going out to the people to serve them and let them know we genuinely care for them before being able to have the privilege of speaking to the about Jesus. I lines up with John 13:34-35. That by loving each other the world will know Jesus. IF we love each other.

Jason Lamer

Jason works with Penn/Del District.  Grew up Littlestown, Pa and he went to North Central University in Minneapolis. Came to know the Lord when he was little and all he knows is serving the Lord. HeL  learned servanthood early from his parents. His life is about serving needs. His father as well as Jason was bi-vocational. He states that "ministry was who we were not what we were" when talking about ministry.

He put himself through college (with some loans of course). He went as a pastoral major but his heart was for evangelism. He lead worship at a church north of the school and married at age 19 half way through college. A church put him on staff as youth pastor and even went to community college, because it was cheaper. He attributes this to the hand of God because he feels they were right where God wanted them.
After graduation Jason got a job in Uniontown, Pa to be a youth pastor. He was there till 2006 when he got involved with Youth Alive.

Exciting to see how many kids were serving God after they left youth group and also that every service they held in youth group, they expected someone to get saved. They were running 110 kids and he attributes this to the fact that they did campus mission.

The craziest youth group event they did was to pay one dollar to shoot the youth leaders with a paintball gun while they ran in between obstacles.

He is called the McDonald's evangelist because he knows everyone behind the counter at a McDonald's and if he doesn't he will get to know them.

For where they met, they took what they had and made it somewhere for them to hang out. They would actually go to the school's and pick up kids before youth group. Within a month they needed another van and quickly grew out of their meeting place. "Unless the Lord builds the house, we can't do anything."

He built relationships with people. Mayor's, principle's, anyone that he could. He capitalizes on relationships, not opportunities. It doesn't need to be getting them where you want them and then saying "gotcha!"

After youth group he got involved in leading Youth Alive and The Seven Project, which is about reaching public school's through assemblies during the day with character development and at night talking about God.
Site: The Seven Project
Site: www.yausa.com

"Don't even let fear stop you from doing the things God wants you to do."

Jason Lamer is a man after God's heart and and wants to do and be in His Will. I love his views on evangelism and outreach and his heart for reaching kids in public schools. If I took away one think from Jason Lamer it would have to be that being in the Will of God is a must and that He will provide and take care of those who are in His will.
He didn't really talk to much in depth about his personal life but more about what God has done for him and everything he is doing to bring God glory. I think that is really interesting because it shows that he is truly passionate about God and reaching out to those who do not know about Him.

Christ Follower: Barnabas

There are not many verses in the Bible pertaining to Barnabas. However, what we do have paints us a picture of his passion and character.

   We first hear of Barnabas in Acts 4:36, here he (and his wife) have sold their land and have brought the proceeds to the apostles in order so that those that do not have anything or are in need, would no longer have a need. This shows that he cares for other people and also his passion for letting others know about the Good News.
   The next time we hear about Barnabas is when Saul, now called Paul, enters Jerusalem after his Damascus road experience and also after being snuck out of Damascus through a hole in the wall. Talk about a black ops mission. The apostles and believers are a little weary of Paul because of his past. Barnabas steps in though and tells them all about Paul's experience and how he has been preaching the Good News to everyone around him. The apostles were amazed and let Paul stay with them. Paul continued the work he started in Damascus in Jerusalem and preached and debated with the Jews there to the point they tried to kill him so he was sent away to Tarsus.
  There is a few more chapters that pass without mention of Barnabas. We pick up in Acts 11:22 when two men from Cyprus came to Antioch and were preaching the Good News there. Jerusalem sent Barnabas to check out what was going on. When he arrived and saw what they were doing, he saw that the grace of God was there and he was glad. He encouraged them to stay the path, so to speak, and stay with God.

We see that Barnabas was known as a good man but most importantly he was full of the Holy Spirit and faith.
  Here is a good place to explain that Barnabas's real name was Joseph. However the apostles renamed him Barnabas, which means Son of Encouragement. In Antioch, we see the truth to his name in that he encouraged the prophets and apostles to stay the course. In the same passage mentioned above, we see a description from Luke (who wrote Acts) of the character of Barnabas.

" When he arrived and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he encouraged all of them to remain true to the Lord with a firm resolve of the heart —  for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit  and of faith—and large numbers of people were added  to the Lord." (Acts 11:23-24)


 We see that Barnabas was known as a good man but most importantly he was full of the Holy Spirit and faith. This means that Barnabas was know as a good man and was liked by many because he had a passion to encourage others and especially to encourage others in faith. We see that he was full of the Holy Spirit, meaning he has received the Holy Spirit and operated in it. But not only that he had much faith. He was passionate about God and spreading the Word, we see this particularly in Acts 4:36 when Barnabas and his wife sold all they had to help the apostles. We also see that he is trustworthy because the church send monetary aide with Barnabas and Saul. Barnabas also is very much into evangelizing. He goes with Paul on his missionary journey's and in the Scriptures is said to debate and preach with as much passion and fervor as Paul did. Barnabas only leaves Paul because of a sharp disagreement between him about allowing a young man named John Mark to come with them. They disagree because John Mark had left them on earlier missions and Paul does not want anyone that cannot finish it till the end to come with him. Barnabas saw it otherwise.

  But this brings up the fact that Barnabas is interested in discipleship as well. We see this in Acts 15 that Barnabas wants Mark to come with Paul and him. I think, because we know Barnabas is an encourager, wanted to look past Mark's shortcomings and encourage him and help him.

  We lose track of Barnabas here. However we know that what he did with Mark... worked. We know this because in 2 Timothy 4:11 Paul says:


"Only Luke is with me. Bring Mark with you, for he is useful to me in the ministry."


Mark was useful to him.


 There is not much in the Bible about Barnabas, his name only occurs 28 times. But what we do have we learn that he was a Spirit-filled, passionate, and faithful man. He was a man of character who loved God and wanted to encourage, and disciple God's people and spread God's word. He started out as everyone else, selling his belongings and grew to an evangelist walking and preaching with Paul.

John Ratz

John Ratz was born in Hong Kong in a pastor's home. He moved around a lot and states that sometimes it was hard to move around but he kind of feels bad for those that have to stay in one place all their life. A majority of his time was spent in Western Canada between teenage and Bible school years.

Fast forward to Brightmoor Christian Church

He was originally hired to work with the technology and married couples but eventually wanted to start small groups. After a year of planning, a meeting was held to see who was interested and trained. After modeling the groups and training them, 60 groups were started in host homes set up personally from the start. At one point 60% of the adults were in the groups.

He also lead a group that would call visitors and those that have no come to church in a while. He states that by Friday, if no one had called them, the chances of them coming back drop drastically to 2%. The sooner you call the more likely the will come.

CLC Bensalem, Pa

He was hired here specifically for small groups. The model here was different. The groups were already under way but were in a state of disarray. The groups here were multi-generational

He has no preference to models he says because there are thousands of different models.

His passion is to developing people. Three values drive him Spiritual formation:has to be about growth first, Authentic relationships: you don't get to help someone if you don't have a real relationship, and Missional living: living to help others and the church.

When the groups got bigger, more than 20, he set up coaches to help the leaders of the small groups. He found these by setting up "round table discussions" and observing to see if people would stick out or "bubble up". The skill set for a coach is different than the skill set of a leader he says.

His definition of a disciple is someone that loves God, loves others, is growing in and with God and is involved in missional living.

All in all, I really loved hearing him talk. So much so that I almost forgot to write what he was saying sometimes! He truly is a man of God and has a lot of good things to say abut God, small groups, and how churches can benefit from them. If you get a chance to hear him speak or a chance to talk to him, you truly will be blessed.

Pastor Bob Novak

Pastor Bob Novak is the pastor of a church, Life Christian Fellowship, in Springfield, Pa. Originally from Nebraska and ended up in Pa from a call of God and recalls God had to do some "mystical things" to get him to Pa. Prompted by dreams given by God. His direction was to go to a metropolitan area. After reading mail that he almost threw out, his wife and him felt a prompting to plant churches in and around Philadelphia. He planted a church in Springfield, Pa by raising funds and working with many other people. He says the real test is the implimentation of the church plant is what is tough. Everything about it is tough. The area they planted was a very religious area with strong Catholic ties. They brought no launch teams but used Bible Studies and children's programs to help grow. He quotes, "It's amazing what God will do when you don't quit."

"When you plant and have a small core to begin with it is all about building relationships." he says. They met in an elementary school and actually made headlines in the local papers because at first, it was not allow. They did not want to start a fight but met and talked with the school board and the lawyer. With more than half coming from Catholicism.

What are some things that helped to grow the church?

They tried a lot of things. Their greatest success was individuals that come and connect with Jesus in meaningful ways and became great evangelists. Also using servant evangelism or meeting the needs of people. An example, giving windshield washer fluid to people on snowy or rainy days. It is basically meeting the practical needs of the neighborhood. Building friendships and relationships with people is also a must.

Souperbowl of Caring. Which is going out an canvasing the neighborhood to collect canned goods for families in need.

They also have a preschool on site. Pastor Novak states that it is a lot of work but it has been a good place to help pray and meet the needs of others through it.

Many from Africa live in Philadelphia, especially from areas of civil war. Found that many African immigrants were coming to a church they started in Darby. It is an African church with many different nationalities and a vibrant youth. Their culture is different than ours, specifically church culture.

"It is amazing what God has put inside of you. The potential that is in you is amazing."- Pastor Bob Novak

Internships

In their internship, they pour into their life and require them complete a project that requires vision. They pour into them with leadership, personalities, and much more. The project is something that comes from the intern themselves. They try to expose them to the family life of the church. They are a paid internship: approximatally $300 a week and a roof over their head.

Discipleship

They use Chip Ingram's "R12" based on Romans 12. It is a DVD curriculum with discussion. Their needs to be dialogue and reaction but their needs to be relationships and engagement from those that have been believers for a while.

"Most exhilarating thing about planting churches is hearing the stories of whose lives were changed because of the plant."

Exist to serve the families of delaware county. Connect with God, connect with community and connect with families.

Pastor Bob is a very knowledgeable man. I really enjoyed hearing what he had to say about a bunch of topics. Most importantly I loved how he is very much into relating and forming relationships with people. Serving people is also a very important part, it seems, in his ministry. I also particularly love this because I feel the church today can sometimes look more at numbers as a show of success. Jesus was a very relational person and I feel we need to be relational as well. Jesus genuinely cares for people and He cares about their life. We need to care, genuinely, about what goes on in their life in order to have an impact.

Great man of God and great things to say!