History of Diligence Applied Ministries
Past
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he story of Diligence Applied Ministries is interwoven with the story of Jeremy J. Lundmark. In the fall of 2001 Jeremy enrolled at Baptist Bible College and quickly began serving God in a youth ministry roll at Bethel Baptist Church in Scranton. During the course of his first year at Bethel, Jeremy's roll went from secondary to primary. Bethel Baptist was a small church with a small, rambunctious youth group. Working alongside Pastor Joe Santos, and youth workers Wade and Michelle Rosart, Jeremy began to refashion Bethel's Youth Ministry.
It was during the summer of 2002 that the seeds of Diligence Applied Ministries were planted when Jeremy developed a 21-week course based off of a promise found in 2 Peter 1:5-11. The promise was that if virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love were increasing in the believer, that believer would “never fall”. Jeremy developed a youth ministry plan that spent three weeks on each of the seven qualities and began to teach the youth at Bethel Baptist.
Jeremy graduated from Baptist Bible with his Associates Degree in 2003 and married his wife Alison in December of that year. Determined to continue his education Jeremy started attending classes at Davis College (formerly Practical Bible College) in Johnson City, New York. In the summer of 2005 Jeremy Lundmark accepted a call to serve as the Assistant Pastor of Community Baptist Church in Apalachin, New York where Diligence Applied Ministries would again revive in the heart of Jeremy J. Lundmark.
With Web based ministry in the forefront of his mind, Jeremy Lundmark began recording messages from the pulpit of Community Baptist Church, then filled by Senior Pastor Rob H. Anderssen. Jeremy would take the pulpit on various occasions and out of this period would come his first messages and his first series “Scripture Abuse”. Using a small digital recorder sermons were already being recorded for the ministry at C.B.C. and would later become the first sermons available at Diligence Applied Ministries.
In June of 2007 Pastor Rob Anderssen stepped down from the pulpit at C.B.C. and handed the reigns over to Assistant Pastor Jeremy J. Lundmark to serve as Interim-Pastor. Knowing the power of the web, Jeremy quickly began working hard to put C.B.C. on the web and in the process began to build the ministry that had been growing in his heart for nearly five years. After considering a number of options Pastor Jeremy found Monk Developments “Sermon Cloud” web site which offered free sermon uploads. Utilizing this tool, Pastor Jeremy quickly purchased CBCAPALACHIN.COM and the host of this site LISTEN2JEREMY.COM. Diligence Applied Ministries was born!
Community Baptist Church and Diligence Applied Ministries began offering sermons from the C.B.C. pulpit in August of 2007. During that time Jeremy as Pastor, Founder, Teacher, and Web Developer has learned how to make C.B.C. and Diligence Applied Ministries more available to the world of the web. Since June of 2007 both sites have carried every sermon, with the exception of a few, recorded by Jeremy J. Lundmark.
In mid-January Pastor Lundmark continued his research by interviewing Pastor Gary Dull of Faith Baptist Church of Altoona and founder of Way of Truth Ministries. Pastor Dull helped put direction to the dream of Diligence Applied Ministries. This meeting lasted some 7 hours as both Gary and Jeremy shared ideas for the church as a whole and particularly for Diligence Applied Ministries.
Currently Diligence Applied Ministries is still in the building process. Right now Jeremy J. Lundmark is writing articles and posting new sermons on a weekly basis. In January of 2008 a number of new things have come to Diligence Applied. The first is a clothing line. In late December of '07 Jeremy discovered Zazzle.com, a company that allows users to develop custom apparel products. In January Diligence Applied Ministries launched 9 articles of clothing bearing the Diligence Applied Logo and a slogan on the back declaring a commitment to developing the seven qualities of 2 Peter 1:5-7.
Also, January brought a new, easier to navigate, web design. This new design allows people to download recent sermons, read daily readings from Spurgeon's “Morning by Morning” and excerpts from the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689. It also allows any visitor to jump to any portion of the site from the main page. In the left hand column new articles are posted as soon as they are ready as well as information regarding upcoming article topics. Diligence Applied ministries also overs a weekly podcast featuring Jeremy's most recent sermon from the C.B.C. pulpit. This can be subscribed to using the feed url: http://www.listen2jeremy.com/listen.xml
Pastor Jeremy is currently preaching a series of sermons entitled “The Fury of God” focusing on the wrath and justice of God. Stayed tuned each week as new sermons are posted every Sunday Evening.
We are currently experimenting with video sermons. You can now watch each weeks sermon on our home page or at Google.com/video.
Now that we are working w/Video we hope to begin producing both Audio CD's and Video DVD's as we continue to build a library of messages and teaching series.
Over the course of the next year many changes will take place that will affect this ministry. In June of '07 Jeremy intends to step down from his position at C.B.C. to pursue further education at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, FL. Also, due in February is Jeremy's first child, Alexander James. These events may slow the development of Diligence Applied Ministries but they will not stop it.
By the end of 2008 Diligence Applied Ministries hopes to continue offering weekly articles, and sermon audio that focus on the seven qualities of 2 Peter 1:5-10. Also, Jeremy hopes to begin recording short sermonettes that will be available on a daily basis. These will be the heart of Diligence Applied Ministries and will be the focus of 2008-2009. Two daily broadcasts are intended to launch by Jan. 2009, the first entitled “Sharpen Your Sword” meant for morning Bible study and the second entitled “Shades of Grey” meant for evening Bible study and self evaluation. These broadcasts will be 8-10 minutes long and will focus on a particular book of the Bible.
Other plans for the future include book ideas, and children ministry ideas. Jeremy Lundmark has created and continues to work on a series of short stories that are to be used to illustrate deep Biblical truths. This series has been entitled “The Douglas Adventures” and boasts characters ranging from young Douglas (a new warrior in the King's army) and his warrior friends Ashley archer and seasoned veteran Martin who bears the “staff of righteousness”. This series follows the life of a young boy who is called to battle in the army of the King. As he experiences defeat, amazement and victory kids will also learn deep theological truths that would normally seem dry and boring. The goal is to attach a picture to Biblical teaching so that parents and teachers alike can say “Just Like Douglas”.
The plans for the future span far and wide in the mind of founder and teacher Jeremy J. Lundmark. At this point Diligence Applied Ministries and Jeremy Lundmark are going to provide as much as Lord allows. Please continue to visit the site often as you diligently apply virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly-affection, and love your faith.
~ Founder and Teacher Jeremy J. Lundmark
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