Sam: Hi, everyone. I know it’s been a tough few months for all of us. We’re spending a lot more time at home, more time online, and I don’t know about you, but everything that’s happening right now has left me feeling a little uneasy, sometimes anxious, and I’m definitely missing what life was like before
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Shelter in Place
Sam: sheltering in place was the norm. Thankfully though, a few months ago, a good friend shared with me a link from
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incmedia.org
Sam: her message said,
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Look Sam, I know you said you’re not looking for a church right now but I’m pretty sure you could use something uplifting. So check out this story from incmedia.org
Sam: and I’m glad I did. You see, INC Media has given me a source of inspiration for tough days. Like the day I found out, I might lose my job. I also found videos that introduced me to what God can do when I was starting to feel overwhelmed. And it even gave me an opportunity to get some of my Bible questions answered. And from the looks of it, I’m not the only one. So like most people, Anushka turned to Google for the answers.
Anushka De Alwis (JOINED THE INC IN 2020): I searched [on] into Google, [for] about any person which I can contact and talk [to]. I saw the website INCmedia.org.
Anushka: The first thing I saw [was], ‘How can knowing God help my family?’ That is the first thing I saw. Secondly, there’s a small column, let’s try to find out.
Sam: Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in Malta, William Ritchie was on his own search for answers. When he ended up on INCmedia.org.
William Ritchie (JOINED THE INC IN 2020): I went to the website first and I looked through website, I think there was quite a few testimonials of people who had converted to the Church, and they were giving their experiences. And again,that got me even more interested.
William: So I clicked on the ‘contact us’ section, and send off an email asking some questions. And I was surprised how quickly they replied to me from the INC [Iglesia Ni Cristo]. So it was amazing how quick things started to happen.
Sam: Anushka and William aren’t the only ones who have sent in a question on incmedia.org. Every week, emails from all over the world pour into INCmedia.org with questions like:
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What is the right way to pray?
Sam: Why doesn’t your church allow divorce? Some questions come in more frequently. So INCmedia.org has an FAQ page to help seekers get started.
Brother Matthew Capistrano: INC Media is one of the media sites of the Iglesia Ni Cristo or Church Of Christ.
Brother Matthew (MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL): And also because of its high quality production, we’re able to share our faith with our fellow men based on the teachings of our Almighty God.
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Topics
Brother Wilfredo Santos (MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL): INC Media is a very powerful tool to reach out, because people will see and hear testimonies from the members of the Church Of Christ, from different races and nationalities all over the world.
Sam: As you can see incmedia.org really does have something for someone searching for what God can do in their lives. Maybe that’s why so many members of the Church Of Christ, turn to incmedia.org, to not only find something that will help them get through the day, but also as a way to start a faith conversation, like Tracy Nguyen from Nevada.
Tracy Nguyen (IG: @TRACY_LYNN_WYN: The hardest part about sharing our faith on social media is just doing it. So now, I use my new public Instagram account to share my faith. What I do is I will watch videos or read articles, either on INC Media or on the Pasugo website.
Tracy (BLUE DIAMOND, NEVADA): And usually when I do that, I think of somebody or somebody will come to mind. So when I share that content, I make sure to tag them on it. Just saying you know, read this, watch this, thinking of you, hope you’re okay. And general responses you know, either complete silence or they’ll strike up conversation saying hey, it’s been a while, you know, how are you and so then you can start that conversation of, you know continuing to share your faith.
Cake Cayabyab (HILLSBOROUGH, CALIFORNIA): When it comes to sharing my faith. I look at myself as a farmer. So you know you have to constantly keep planting seeds and these cards, the INC Media cards is basically just a teaser. So what I would do is I have like a group of people that I would text on a monthly basis. First week I would sent you know, group of people to my mom’s relatives or to my dad’s relatives.
Cake: Second week will be like co-workers or clients. Third week will be like acquaintances and stuff like that. So those are the kind of seeds that I plant. And when it comes to sending them links, I would definitely use INCmedia.org to share them stories like, how you can overcome stress. It’s not like whenever You send things like this, you know, it’s always rosy, I get rejections.
PJ Bradley (TORONTO, CANADA): Sure you get no’s but then they don’t stay no’s forever quite often. Sometimes, you may just take a couple times like I know a few of my friends who, after a couple invitations, those no’s went to maybe, went to “Oh, I’ll see if I have time”, went to “Okay, I’ll go and check this out.” And then I guess some of the greatest reactions I’ve received are just full on blown out hourly long, day long, week long, conversations just about, about faith, about the Church, about religion, about the Lord God and everything like that. And it really is wonderful, especially knowing that as a member of the Church Of Christ, not only do we have the obligation, but we also have that truth and we also have that assurance that our faith is completely based on everything written in the Holy Scriptures.
Glen Bratcher (FREMONT, CALIFORNIA): I start conversations with someone about my faith whenever a topic we might be conversing about gives me an opening to do so. I usually start by saying something like, “Interesting, because for me and my Church,” and then I go off of that, and I like to tell them how it comes directly from the Bible. That’s my favorite part actually, is when I get to say that’s actually in the Bible. I’ve used INC Media cards because that’s the easiest way. I’ve given them to random people in cafes. Sometimes I catch them reading the Bible or talking about religion in some way. I also like to use the videos as they give much more in depth analysis. I use that whenever I have conversations with friends and co-workers that start to leak into religion.
Ricardo Hayag (ATLANTA, GEORGIA): I am a mail carrier and in my route, I always befriend all my customers. One of my customer approached me just to say hi. And then she started to open up to me. And so I shared an INC Media card that I always carry with me and convinced her to check it out, and check out the programs,The Message, that’s all about the anxieties that they’re having. And then the following day. I’ve asked her, did she understand The Message, and she was so inspired by it. I asked her to attend our next Sunday worship service.
Ricardo: At the beginning, she was hesitant to come to our worship service. After about three times, asking her to attend the worship service, one day she showed up and surprised me. And the same day, she also signed up to become a Bible listener.
Sam: INC Media is organized to make it easy for you to find exactly what you’re looking for. Wondering whether or not being anxious is normal, and what the Bible says about trusting God. Look for Christian Living on the menu to find stories, blog posts and videos on the subject. Or maybe you’re talking with a good friend about why you don’t believe the trinity is in the Bible? Type in ‘trinity’ in the search bar and find videos to help you navigate the discussion. Or perhaps your friends are like me before. I had questions about the Bible. And so a friend of mine suggested, I tap the red questions flag found on every page on INCmedia.org to ask my questions within days someone reached out to me. On top of that, INC Media is also on social media. I love starting my Mondays with the messages from Verse of the Week.
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Brother Andrew Fisher: Hi, everyone. I’m Brother Andrew Fisher.
Brother Barry Thompson: I’m Brother Barry Thompson.
Brother Juan Fisher: (Spanish) Hello. I am Brother Juan Fisher.
Brother Michael Pineda: (Italian) I’m Brother Michael Pineda.
Brother Barry Thompson: I hope that you and your family are well at this present time.
Sam: Or laughing out loud with the Tired Moms podcast.
Sam: I share those with my mom and aunties by the way, “Hello everyone. Welcome to Faith and Family. We’re a Christian family community, that aims to promote Christian values…” and they think they’re hilarious! A friend at INC Media even asked me to help with short videos about what to share with friends. You can check them out on stories highlight on IG and Facebook.
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FOLLOW US
Brother Jason Dulalas (MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL): Which INC Media content is my personal favorite? That’s an easy one. It’s the INC Media cards. I find these very effective especially when I’m around and about whether it’s in the grocery or on my way to a visitation. It’s very easy to just pass this to somebody. And I’ve also, what I’ve done with some of the cards is I’ve taken some of the artwork and I’ve actually placed my information in the back. So this serves as my actual calling card. Whenever I meet somebody new.
Brother Matthew: Especially now in these times we know because of the present pandemic, everyone is more tuned into their devices, and they continue to stream material from the comfort of their homes.
Brother Jason: INC Media content is very diverse. Whenever we are able to have gatherings, it’s always nice to present something from INC Media because of the diversity that the content has. And it’s very relatable to those who are able to watch it.
Brother Wilfredo (MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL): Personally, I like all the programs we have in the INC Media. But it really moves me when I watch Stories of Faith and the INC News World because it all the more inspire me to do more, of course, with the help of the Almighty God, to reach out and share our faith to all people.
PJ: One of my friends this past week, who I’d met in high school had recently reached out to me. It’s like, “Hey PJ, I see all of your posts on Facebook and on social media. And I’m wondering like, what is this church that you belong to all about it? It’s actually really interesting.”
Cake: I really enjoyed watching the videos because I got to learn about other people’s journey inside the Church. And because of that, I was able to build that habit of constantly watching videos on INCmedia.org.
Cake (JOINED THE INC IN 2012): So, when I got baptized, I really took it to heart to constantly share my faith, because as a new member, I feel that the only constant way I can truly serve God is sharing what I’ve learned.
Glen: Now, my go to show is That’s in the Bible. I love this show, because of the questions asked are very common questions from those that are outside of our faith and the program does an excellent job of sort of showing how the Bible would answer all of those questions. I also love it because it’s generally short. And that’s it’s a great resource for sharing my faith because I know it won’t take a lot, a lot of a person’s time.
Tracy: There’s so much content out there. It’s so easy to pick something that you can relate to and be eager to share. It’s just the muscle of actually doing it. It’s like working out. If you don’t do it regularly, it becomes difficult to do. So just implementing, I usually do it at the start of my day. Just because it’s such positive content. It’s a good way to start the day.
Sam: As you can see, INC Media is a great conversation starter. It’s informative, jam packed with inspirational content, and as you’ve seen, it’s life changing. Just ask my friends, Anushka and William.
Anushka: The person sitting [here] right now is completely different. A positive thinker searching for the correct ways to do everything. And at the moment, going in organized life. That’s the person who I am right now because of the Church.
William: I feel that sometimes in the past when I have problems, I would maybe keep them to myself. Now, I use prayer a lot, which I never did before. And I think that really helps knowing that I’m praying to God, and the Almighty God is listening to me and He’s there to help me. But before, when I had a problem, I was on my own. Now, [I’m not] I don’t. I would definitely say go along, find out more, because I’m sure that you too would be amazed by the work that the Church does.
Sam: I know my journey is just beginning, and I’ve got more questions to ask. But I’m thankful someone took the time to share. How about you? How can INC Media work for you? Still on the fence? Why not give it a try? I’m glad I did.
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