For NBF, aftercare is the spiritual support someone needs upon release from corrections, or as they are coming out of addiction.
We need Titus 2 Brothers and Sisters. We also need leaders willing to launch new groups and provide Children's ministry at NBFW meetings.
Based on Titus 2:1-8, these are Christian men and women who attend and participate in Discipleship Groups. Primarily, they focus on building relationships, and become "passive mentors." These men and women do the work of modeling how to follow Christ.
NBFW is New Beginnings For Women. This is branch of the ministry is for the women who love a New Brother: mothers, wives, girlfriends, etc. It also provides aftercare support for women coming our of corrections or addiction.
God's success rate is 100%! Every man who gets connected and stays connected, stays out of jail and out of his lifestyle of addiction and sin. In the past 12 years we have worked on this mission field, this has been true for countless men. It is God's work, and He does it well.
7.3 million Americans are in prison, or on parole or probation.–that is one in 31 adults. The Body of Christ cannot ignore these statistics, or the vast mission field in our own backyard.
There is a popular, Christian colloquialism that says: Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor in the morning the Devil says, “Oh, no!” You may have seen this, or something close to it, on a mug or plaque. It’s a very popular meme* on social media. I guess it’s meant to be motivational, but every time I see it I get kind of bothered.
Why is anyone trying to impress Satan?
Hate to burst any bubbles, but even at our best—our most devout and faithful—Satan still thinks we’re easy prey.
I just want to encourage you to do one thing today: ask God.
Ask Him for anything and everything. Ask Him for whatever it is you desire or need. Ask Him for the thing you would never admit to wanting, but long for desperately in your heart. Just ask Him. Go ahead!
Honestly, I feel really strongly about this. I really believe we ask too little of God, and try too hard to make things happen for ourselves. I’m not opposed to us trying to make things happen for ourselves, and sometimes that’s the way to do it, even as we pray for the Lord’s help in our doing.
However, too often we just don’t think God cares about our problems. We don’t think we deserve His help.
As I think about the New Year, I just cannot resist the temptation to look back at 2016. I don’t want to speak ill of the dead, but this past year was not my favorite. I’ve been looking forward to a new calendar!
However, I have no reason to think 2017 won’t be full of the very same challenges that kicked my tookus in 2016. Let’s be honest: our problems don’t belong to the calendar. They belong to us. And, they go with us wherever we go—new address, new relationship, new year.
There is a way to overcome our problems, though. That doesn’t mean our problems will go away, but it does mean we can overcome them. That distinction matters.
“Why are you always judging me?”
“Jesus said, ‘Don’t judge, lest you be judged.’”
“I just want to be encouraged. You’re always focusing on my sin.”
These are just three out of a myriad of statements I hear in the course of my day, working with a man in a discipleship relationship. In fact, there is a mindset throughout the church in America that believes there is no place for the Christian to judge; everything we say from the pulpit or to one another should be loving encouragement that never highlights sin, erroneous thinking, or plain rebellion to God. I honestly have to ask myself if people are even reading the same Bible. Have they read even one of Paul’s letters, or Proverbs, or the Prophets, or the words of Jesus?
The ministry verse of New Brothers Fellowship is 1 John 1:7, which reads:
This ministry is entirely funded by the private, freewill offerings of individuals and churches. Please, consider supporting the work God is doing with your monthly pledge or a special gift.
Offerings may be mailed to: