Reformers Unanimous Blog » ru updates

RU UPDATE

Reformers Unanimous — Fri, 07 May 2010 09:50:18 +0000

FRIDAY SUGGESTIONS: Directors, show your love every single week. No matter how hard your week, no matter your personal struggles, no matter your battle-love them with humble transparency. Humilty is allowing people to see you as you really are. PROJECTION is killing our brethren. Do not project yourself to be someone you are not. It will wear you out and those who follow you will be lost and wander aimlessly. Only the Truth makes free! Share your hurts and struggles, but do so as a symbol of love for their hurts and struggles. Don’t share your struggles in a way in which they will feel sorry for you, but rather in a way they will simply follow you.

INTERNATIONAL WORSHIPS & SHOPS: The Kingdom of God is a reward that is available both here and now through an abiding agape relationship with Father God. Heaven is a place of love and so can be our heart. Please study John 15 and pour the simple overflow of its truths to your students. Prepare them for the “Way of Agape.” And by all means, be here for this year’s Conference! I call every director, leader, helper, and student to consider what could possibly be more important on the week of September 27-30 than our International Workshops and Conference. Pastors, on behalf of our man of God, Dr. Kingsbury, I would like to equally implore you to explore what God is doing through the ministry of Reformers Unanimous everywhere else by visiting us here. In Rockford, we and our students are nothing without our church and the “gates of hell support” she provides us. Likewise, your chapter will be nothing without your church and our churches are useless assemblies of apathy without Jesus Christ-Agape Incarnate!

THANKS FOR A SUCCESSFUL GRAND OPENING: Well, we didn’t crash the server, but we had one great Grand Opening for our new Web Store! Special thanks to Will Fowler for all his work to improve the quality of our web store by tenfold or more! Nearly 2,000 people visited in just one day. Thanks for stopping by and we hope you will continue to check out our weekly and monthly specials. As for now, we continue until the end of the month with our sale of 30% off most every product. If you haven’t invested in your personal walk, please do so soon or miss out on the highest savings ever offered. Please remember some items are available only while supplies last.

NEW CHAPTER WEB STORE COMING NEXT: Chapter directors, secretaries, or chapter purchases – your site is next! Bro. Fowler continues his exemplary work in preparing a high-powered, well-developed website offering many new “bells and whistles.” Bro. Barry is working on new chapter specials and I am working on new discount strategies for awards and curriculum. Yes! We will soon be offering discounts that will reach bookstore percentages. As God has provided increased collective buying power through chapter growth and vendor sacrifice, we are ramping up strategies to become a greater source for addiction recovery and relationship restoration. So many hurting people are being helped through the resources of Reformers Unanimous. It truly is a blessing to be a blessing. But those blessings would fail to abound and those discounts would never develop if it were not for your desire to reach people. Thanks for your agape love. It’s the only way to bring the Truth to their life.

R.U.T.H. GRAND STAND: Well, our grand opening is just “around the corner” as we wait on the fire marshall to test every single fixture and mechanical equipment. Remember, rules are NOT a terror to good works (Romans 3:13). If you quote that 1,000 times today, you will catch up with us! J We are having a PRE-GRAND OPENING this Sunday at 3pm and should gain occupancy next week and move in at the same time we anticipated-the first of the month. However, we will hold the actual Grand Opening until we have done all of the above and can focus on making that event all it should be. We are begging God to provide the financing for the costs of this remodel, less the charitable receipts to date. Please join us in that prayer and consider whose life our home may help.

RU Update This past week I asked our International Director, Bro. Burks,...
Chapter Update: The New RUI Web Store GRAND ANNOUNCEMENT…. The launch of our new and improved RUI...
RU Update: Dear RU Nation Dear RU Nation MANUFACTURE RECALL: Here at Adversity University, we...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

RU Update – RU In the Court System

Reformers Unanimous — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:15:29 +0000

RU in the Court System

We are continuing to experience good reports all across the country concerning those that are in legal trouble being court ordered to treatment and Reformers Unanimous is allowed to be one of those choices for treatment. One of our chapters in Michigan was interested in how to gain that kind of influence in the court system along with potential students to see this venue opened up for the benefit of their local chapter. The following advice is what we gave them.

We advise them to send a letter to as many judges and prosecuting attorney’s within their local system as possible. We have included this letter in the start-up disc you received when you opened your Reformers Unanimous Chapter
Encouragement was given for the director to schedule several lay people to go to the court on Drug Court day to pass out flyers and the RU Plus Brochures to anyone and everyone entering and exiting the courthouse. The following simple statement is best to use during these handouts: “Hey, I don’t know if you need this, maybe you know someone that does, pass it along.”
The director should, every Friday night, tell those in the Beginner’s Class that if they continue to come, he has a desire and a burden to help them, even those who have upcoming court dates. Let them know you will make yourself available to go with them to see if they can be court ordered to this program instead of others.
Schedule a time to meet with judges and or prosecuting attorney’s a few weeks after your letter has been received. During this meeting you should be careful not to “oversell” the program, but greatly brag on the product we are producing through Christ. If you are aware of other chapters in your state who already have opened the door to court ordering students to a program and Reformers Unanimous is that program, then be sure to give that information and recommendation.
Become familiar with the RU Plus system. Be able to explain it in as few words as possible to judges and prosecuting attorney’s, emphasizing that we want to be a team player in seeing recidivism stopped in your community.
Have a layperson in your church send a letter and a blue brochure to everyone that was arrested in your community. This list of names and numbers may be obtained usually in your local newspaper or online or in some cases you have to go to the county courthouse to retrieve it. This, however, is public information nation-wide. You can obtain a copy of the letter we recommend that you use from the International Director, burks@reformu.com

The church in Michigan that I mentioned sent us an email rejoicing that within two short weeks they had six people court ordered to treatment and Reformers Unanimous was the chosen treatment program. Because every judicial system is different, this process may be slower or quicker in different regions. Regardless of the time frame, if we will remain faithful in reaching students and ministering to them during the times they need us the most, I can assure you that the ultimate Authority (God) will make a way.

Six Challenge Badge

Hooray! You should have finally received your six-challenge badges in the mail as every one of our orders was completely processed on Monday, February 15, 2010. We currently have no back orders on any curriculum or awards at the current time. Thank you for your patience with us and your prayers for us.

September 27th – 30th, 2010

The National Conference Committee is meeting regularly and discussing this year’s conference. I would encourage every director to announce it now to your students and workers, and ask them to keep that week open to go with you to Rockford. I believe this will be a key year, as we will later discuss in great detail. Even though we have much of the conference planned, we would love to hear your ideas, testimonies of lives changed from last year’s conference, or information that would make this conference better. Please send it to Bro. Burks, the chair of our National Conference Committee, at burks@reformu.com.

Rockford Training Days

Today is another one of our very special Rockford Training Day Conferences. The missionary team here in Rockford will be training 29 people to minister to the addicted. They will be receiving certified training. Please pray for other chapters to join us in the fight against the devil for the addicted. If you have yet to receive your certified training, register for a Rockford Training Day Conference today at http://register.reformu.com/.

10 Principles Counseling

One of the vital tools we use in developing students into dynamic church members is the 10 Principles as taught by Founder and President Steve Curington. It is our desire that every program begin with the 10 principles, so that when a student attends a Reformers Unanimous around the country, they can know what to expect. Whether the potential student is saved or unsaved, grounded or ungrounded, these principles will remain interesting and intriguing, if the director will teach their importance. First, by showing the 10 Principles every week, they will help a student who has categorized God in their lives as being at a distance, and bring them ever so close to him in order to help them develop a personal relationship. A wise director will listen to their students give testimonies and will refer to the principle that will either help them or did help them with the temptations in their life. Secondly, every group leader should become well versed in discussing these principles with students that struggle. On Bro. Burks’ bulletin board, in the RU Forum, there are a dozen or more questions for each principle. You can use these questions in your second talk or to counsel hurting students. Our primary goal in helping students is to cause them to realize a relationship with Jesus Christ that is intensely personal and intimate.

Developing Students Outside of RU

Bro. Burks and I have enacted several different techniques to help our students develop outside of the three talks of the Friday night class. Three of these happen on Friday night. One of these is what we call Happy Hour. It could also be called the Fourth talk. It is one way a small group leader can do more one-on-one counseling with a student who needs extra attention. It is also a time to encourage people to fellowship and really grow in camaraderie. At the same time we are having Happy Hour downstairs, we are also having Last Call in the Auditorium of the church. Last Call is when all the men are invited to come together and pray for the visitors, the students, and those still in their addiction that should have been there that night. They also pray for safe travel for the night and that everyone makes it back safely for Sunday School, as well as for the services on Sunday morning and Sunday night. Typically, on one Friday night of the month, 20 minutes after class is over, we will have what we call Hangovers. This is for people who like to hang out after class is over. We meet at a local restaurant called Spring Garden Restaurant, and it is a great opportunity to get to know the visitors as well as fellowship more with the students in a very informal environment. Some other ideas are to hold satellite classes. I know of two directors that hold a wake-up or “Book and Bean.” This is when the director will invite the students to meet with them at a time, around 6 AM, at a local Starbucks restaurant. They will use it as a devotional and fellowship time with a small amount of teaching. I also encourage directors to encourage their students to attend every church function possible. A few weeks ago our church had a dessert auction as a fundraiser for the senior’s to go on their senior trip. This was a great time of fellowship and fun, and many of our RU students that attended had a great time. They should attempt to attend weddings, funerals, ordinations, church-wide skating, and other activities that are sponsored by the local church for the purpose of edifying the saints.

RU National Update: Addiction Recovery News CELEBRATION! MARK YOUR CALENDARS: The 2010 National Conference and training...
RU Update: Fellowship for the Sake of Followship Below are just a few of the MANY ways we...
RU Update: Good News! GOOD NEWS: This coming week, we should be receiving the...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

RU Update – Good News on the Horizon

Reformers Unanimous — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 10:15:38 +0000

BETTER NEWS ON THE HORIZON FOR RU INTERNATIONAL: Thank you to all those who prayed for us during these past ten weeks. As many of you are aware, we made a tough decision to orchestrate a ten week layoff of our staff, with the state of Illinois allowing our staff to receive a portion of their pay while remaining volunteers for the organization. During these tough economic times, this move proved to be a very sacrificial step for everyone on staff, and has been a huge help. We truly believe that if God had not brought our staff this rare and unique opportunity to unselfishly show our support for this ministry, we would have had to radically change our serviceability to our churches, chapters, and students.

As a team, we have learned to trust the Lord in a whole new way. Many have testified of miracles. Most everyone has begun the process of raising their own personal missionary staff support. For this and many other things we are grateful. We are also excited about many signs of recovery we are seeing in our ministry of recovery.

Can I share with you some of the benchmarks we watch in order to maintain or regain good stewardship in times of recession? There are just a few and maybe you would pray for these benchmarks from time to time. Some are student related and some financial. But all are important, if we are going to be about our Father’s business. Our benchmarks are as follows:

Overcomer Registrations: This is an important number for obvious reasons. We pray for 100 graduates per week and see that number often. It is our most important number because it represents those who have entered the program and matriculated through the first book.
Product Sales: This number is important for two reasons. Financially, the proceeds pay one- third of our cost of operations. Spiritually, it is symbolic of the depth of discipleship in which our students across the globe are investing. This number has dropped significantly among chapters that are over a year old and it matches the declination pace of our nation’s economy. Though when times are tough people may not cut off their cable, they do cut off their investments in biblically-based study materials. This number has started trending upward slightly.
New Chapters: When we are starting chapters, we are reaching people. It’s another key benchmark in our effectiveness in meeting our responsibilities to the Great Commission. This dropped significantly in 2009; however, in January alone we started 13 chapters! That is the highest January number in our ministry’s history. That would equate to 160 chapters in one year and we have never had more than about 100 a year. So this is a great answer to prayer.
Housing Population: When our homes are full, not only are our investment per person maximized and we see greater growth potential from the peer group critical mass, but we also experience a lower cost of operation per bed. With the inability to find work and people struggling to find the extra income for their loved one’s tuition, we have had to lower our pace of acceptance. For the first time in a long time, we had many open beds through the winter. This number is trending upward quickly. We currently have 15 open beds (10 men and 5 women.) This is down from as many as 30 before Christmas.
Jobs for our men: The lack of jobs has been atrocious since the end of summer. At one time, we only had one man with a job. This not only cripples our effectiveness, as idle time is the devils workshop, it also puts us into debt quickly and rising every single week. But obviously, you cannot just close the homes when you lose jobs either. You have to weather the storm and work extra hard for every potential earned dollar. At this time, almost every man who is NOT working at RUTH is working an outside job or for the ministry (which saves us dollars). Though the jobs are low paying and we have to pay the workers comp and liability ourselves, we see this as a huge positive and our income in this area is trending upward quickly. However, it will be months before this ministry can climb out of its hole financially. Please pray for an economic recovery in hiring not only in Rockford but across our nation.
RUTH: We have had unplanned changes at every turn by a stubborn city bureaucracy that is union and democratically dogmatic. As well, they want an old building to operate as if it were new. We have submitted to every ordinance of man and it has driven costs and slowed us down that we may raise funds for the project. But, to God be ALL the glory… what a miracle we have seen taking place! This building was worth $465K when we bought it for $315K last year. We paid cash from equity in our other home and the generosity of God’s people. The remodel would be quoted at $700K. We are within $75K of finishing this project and have only spent $315K to date (all on no interest loans from God’s people). We do NOT want to borrow any more against the building, so when we place our mortgage, it may be low enough not to hinder operations. Otherwise, we will not be able to do many scholarships for the ladies, as they do not earn income in outside jobs. So, we are praying for God to provide the last $75K in the next month. If you know someone who may be interested in helping our ministry raise the last portion of this huge project, please let us know. We would be so appreciative. Please reach out to Tony Richardson or myself at development@reformu.com if you know of someone who could help. Thank you.

All of these benchmarks are trending nicely, in comparison to the last 18 months. We are grateful for the upward bounce in these key areas and just wanted to share with you our good news. Many of you are there for us in prayer, moral, spiritual and financial support. It is our privilege to report to you when God is answering or rewarding your investment into us.

NEXT WEEK I will send updates on the following questions that have been posed recently:

Can we improve the meaningfulness of the Victory in Christ award? Yes, new criteria will be shared next week for earning this award.
When will we be receiving our 6 Challenge Badges? Argh! I hate this mix up and will regret it for years to come. But they should be to you by the third week in February. Thank your students for their patience. More explanation next week.
When will we receive Behold tests for the Uphold Fruits of Righteousness? They are done and backorders have been sent. We will teach everyone how to get these as downloads from the internet soon and we are dropping all costs associated with these tests.
How long on Uphold Certificates for the tests above? They are in production, but we currently have no backorders for them. (No doubt because you have not had the tests!) We anticipate they will be in stock when your students take their tests.
New Catalog, New Pricing. We are currently working hard to get items produced at better and lower prices. If we can do this, we are going to create a “bookstore rate” for supporting churches and chapters. This will be a GREATER discount than your current rates. Our new retail catalog has been sent to most every supporter, overcomer, worker and pastor. This shows the many new items and their part numbers. If you are a supporting church your prices will be lower. You can find your price by calling in or through the internet. BUT new WHOLESALE catalogs are being developed right now that should be even easier to navigate.

I trust this blog has been informative and helpful. I love you and hope you have a great class tonight or watch us live at www.reformu.com.

Steven Curington

RU National Update: Addiction Recovery News CELEBRATION! MARK YOUR CALENDARS: The 2010 National Conference and training...
RU Update: Good News! GOOD NEWS: This coming week, we should be receiving the...
RU Update – RU In the Court System RU in the Court System We are continuing to experience...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.