A Busy New Year

Well, it's here, 2008 has come at last and for our team it looks to be yet another year filled with opportunities for greater impact in the Kingdom.  Each new year brings a fresh start to our lives, seemingly beginning with a "tabula rosa", or clean slate on which our lives are painted.  Our prayer is that you will see this new year the Lord has given as an opportunity to advance His Kingdom on this earth. 

We are gearing up for several events in the first quarter of the year.  Next week, our team travels to San Diego to hold a local training conference where we expect up to 300 small group leaders in attendance.  The third week of January, we travel south to sunny Phoenix to host a regional training conference at Scottsdale Bible Church.  In February, we trade in the sun and warmth of Southern California and Arizona for the snow and cold of Minnesota, as we train small group leaders on February 9th in Hastings, MN. 

Whatever your plans and dreams for this new year, we pray you will join us in putting all our hopes, dreams, opportunities and threats in the hands of the One who holds everything together in His master plan.  May we find ourselves and our plans lost in the plans of God, as He continues to fulfill His Kingdom on this earth.

Happy New Year!

Share a Story of Transformation

Everywhere we go, someone stops us and shares how much the Lord impacted their life through The Truth Project.  It is both humbling and amazing to hear so many lives being transformed by God through this study. 

If you are someone in your small group was radically changed in the study, we would love to hear it. 

Feel free to share a story with us here on the blog.

We look forward to hearing from you!

A Call to Prayer

Yesterday was a very disturbing day for many of us.  Some of you witnessed the horrible events at YWAM and New Life Church here in Colorado via your television sets or computers.  Many of our staff were actually present at New Life Church prior to and during those horrifying moments.  The tragedy of yesterday hit very close to home for our team.

We are reminded once again of the Cosmic Battle raging all around us between the truth claims of God and the lies of the world, the flesh and the devil.  We ask you to join us in praying for the victims, their families and everyone affected by these two senseless acts of violence.

May we never grow weary or fearful of doing good, while being light and salt in a world that so desperately needs the peace of Christ.

TTP Goes Global

We're excited to share with you that The Truth Project is now in 14 foreign countries, with trained leaders leading small groups in the following countries:

Australia, Egypt, Iceland, New Zealand, China, Canada, Guatemala, Guam, Ireland, Great Britain, Iraq, Bermuda, Cayman Islands and The Netherlands.

It does appear that the Lord is blessing our meager efforts, as up to 450,000 people world-wide have experienced the content of The Truth Project to date!

Soli Deo Gloria!

The Truth Project  Team

Happy Thanksgiving From Our Team to You

In 1863, with his country torn in two by Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a day of thanksgiving for these United States.  A portion of his proclamation reads below:

"The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God...

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union."

                                     President Abraham Lincoln, circa 1863

We too, are thankful for all that God has done this year and pray He will continue to bless you and your family as you pause to remember His divine providence over this great nation.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Satellite Simulcast Training in 2008!

Be a Truth Champion

You and I are engaged in a cosmic battle -- a battle that is raging for the hearts and minds of people the world over, pitting the truth claims of God against the lies of the world, the flesh and the devil. It is a battle over what you truly believe.

If your heart is heavy from what you see daily in our culture and you long for a spiritual revival within the church, we'd love for you to consider partnering with and representing Focus on the Family for our first ever nationwide LIVE Truth Project Simulcast Training Event on Saturday, September 27, 2008.

In this powerful and interactive one-day training taught by Dr. Del Tackett, participants in your church will be thoroughly prepared to make a Christ-centered difference on culture by applying God's principles to daily life, and specifically to be trained to lead their own small group following the conference.

Participants in the live Training Event will receive the complete 12-lesson Truth Project Curriculum on DVD and access to The Truth Project Learning Support Web site.

Be a Truth Champion for
Your church and your community.

Host The Truth Project Simulcast Training Event.

TTP in Branson, MO

Thank you College of the Ozarks!

This past weekend, our team was blessed to deliver a training on the campus of College of the Ozarks in Branson, Missouri.  The students, staff and faculty welcomed us with open arms and provided a great venue to bring The Truth Project to Southwest Missouri.  Over 450 people joined us from over 12 states, with 200 students attending from College of the Ozarks.

We are now off to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.  We ask for your prayer support as we travel north this coming weekend!

The Truth Project Team

TTP In Toronto

Over 600 attendees joined us this past weekend in Toronto, Canada for the launch of The Truth Project in Canada.  Our team was blessed by the warm welcome and the humble hearts of all those who attended the training conference.  We are thankful for our friends and partners, Focus on the Family Canada, for hosting the event and allowing us to bring this curriculum to our friends and to the Body of Christ in Canada.

We continue to pray that the Lord will bless our efforts and that He will raise up a generation of Christ followers in Canada that will take the Truth of Christ into their individual spheres of influence. 

Our team made it through customs and back home today, though one of us was flagged on the "do not fly list" and almost missed our flight!  Thank you to all our new friends in Canada, may the Lord bless you and keep you in His will.

Your Sphere of Influence

Jesus issues the call to "Come, Follow me" so often in the Gospels that I was at first taken aback by His response to the man in the Decapolis that he had just healed from a 'legion' of demons.  After being healed, the man begged to go with Jesus back across the lake, but strangely Jesus denies this request.  Instead of allowing the man to follow him, Jesus commands him to

"Go home to your friends, and tell them what wonderful things the Lord has done for you and how merciful he has been." Mark 5:19

Jesus' command points us toward a fundamental call of discipleship.  One that first and foremost begins within our own sphere of influence.  Jesus tells him simply to go home and tell his friends and family about all God had done for him.

I do not know where you live, or who is in your sphere of influence, but if God has transformed your life, you have a duty to go first to your family and friends and share all the Lord has done for you.  There is a reason why you live exactly where you live.  There is a reason why you work exactly where you work.  There is a reason why your friends and family are exactly who they are.  God has placed each of us in our own communities for a purpose, to share his grace and mercy.

As you begin to pray about who the Lord wants to join your Truth Project small group, understand the high calling God has on your life to make an impact in the sphere of influence He has given you.  Begin by identifying those with whom you are in relationship and pray that the Lord will raise up 10-12 people to join your small group. 

He has entrusted us with His purposes, to go and make disciples where we live. Our prayer is that The Truth Project will provide a specific tool to assist you in transforming your community for Christ.

Gary Alan Taylor

Personal Transformation Leads to Community Transformation

If you've been journeying with us for any length of time, you know the primary objective of The Truth Project is transformation.  A deep, lasting renewing of the mind and heart that mirrors that of Isaiah's, when confronted with the Living God responded, "Here am I.  Send me!" (Isaiah 6:8)  This personal transformation is the catalyst for community transformation.  Just as you are being metamorphed into the image of Christ, you cannot help but disciple others through that same process.  Life on life discipleship is the very praxis of our worldview.

We see this played out in Jesus' ministry.  In the Gospel of Mark, we learn that Jesus and his disciples crossed the Sea of Galilee and entered the area known as the Decapolis, or the 10 pagan cities of the Gentiles.  Mark tells us that as soon as Jesus got out of the boat, he was approached by a man possessed by a legion of demons.  Jesus healed the man of his posseession, sending the demons into a herd of pigs feeding on the hillside.  Those tending the pigs went out to see what had happened, and found Legion sitting on the ground, clothed and in his right mind.  At this point, Mark tells us they were afraid and begged Jesus to leave the area.

It appears Jesus complies with their request, not being one to go anywhere He was not welcomed, but as he was getting back into the boat, the man who had been possessed approached Jesus and begged to go with him. 

                "Jesus replied, Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you,     and how he has had mercy on you.  So the man went away and began to tell in the Decaplis how much Jesus had done for him" (Mark 5:19-20).

But the story doesn't end there.  Matthew then tells us that Jesus returned to the region of the Decapolis and...

             "Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them.  The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing.  And they praised the God of Israel" (Matthew 15:30-31).   

Where did these "great crowds" come from?  Are not these the same people that begged Jesus to flee their region after seeing their little pigs drowned?  It appears that the transformed 'Legion' did exactly what Jesus commanded him to do.  He went back into his town, to his family and friends and proclaimed how much his life had been transformed by God.  Thus, upon Jesus' return to the region, a multitude was awaiting His arrival, bringing the poor, disenfranchised and hurting for Christ Himself to touch and to heal.

I love this story.  From one man came a multitude.  Our prayer is that God will use The Truth Project to transform your life, and that through you, multitudes will come to know and love this merciful God we so desperately long to serve.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Gary Alan Taylor