Evangelism – our duty, our purpose, our calling…

At our recent Prayer Revival someone read these lines penned by Ellen White: “I saw jets of light shining from cities and villages … God's Word was obeyed, and as a result there were memorials for Him in every city and village.” (Testimonies, vol. 9, p. 28. (1909))

Back in the 1960s our church leaders used term “dark county” for regions that were not yet entered by the Three Angels Message. We are present in 202 of the worlds 228 nations. Yet right here in our own land there lays unentered territory. Three counties of Western Ontario do not have Adventist presence: Bruce, Huron and Perth. Who will go there to tell?

Friday night, July 6^th we prayed each individually for the Holy Spirit Power to win 7 people in the next 12 months. But when it came to pray and dedicate our church growth and evangelistic plans not many were aware what these were. Here I take time to renew the vision.

We are to Tell London that Jesus is coming soon. This Fall we present number of successive events:

· September 7-15 Revival week with Doug Batchelor

· September 28 - October 1 “Out of Thin Air” Creation/Evolution debate by Shawn Boonstra.

· October 19-November 3 “Heart Quest” NET 2007 with Mike Tucker – home/groups based evangelistic outreach.

· September 10 – October 4 10^th CHIP session of Health Evangelism

· October 6-13 “What’s the Connection?” program for CHIP graduates, introducing the Spiritual aspect of healing.

· November 10 – Evangelistic rally to connect interests and visitors with both churches.

Ellen White saw in her vision “Hundreds and thousands were visiting families, and opening before them the Word of God. Hearts were convicted by the power of the Holy Spirit, and a spirit of genuine conversion was manifest. On every side doors were thrown open to the proclamation of the truth. The world seemed to be lightened with the heavenly influence.” (Testimonies, vol. 9, p. 126)

Our recent survey showed that personal evangelism is high – you are witnessing to your coworkers, neighbors, friends. But the corporate effort is week. This is where we need to come together locally, organizing as teams, sharing responsibilities and working for greater communal effort.

Together with other churches we are planning to Tell Western Ontario about Jesus soon return by sending our best leaders to start groups in new towns.

7 Secrets of Healthy Churches

A recent article in the Adventist Review (reprinted from an article by Thom Rainer) presents a conclusion from a research on church growth, outlining practices of healthy growing churches.

Seven high standards are set:

1. The church’s leadership and the laity hold to a high view of Scripture, holding fast to all Biblical teachings.

2. The churches and their leaders seek to be relevant, addressing real needs without compromise.

3. The churches and their leaders hold to the primacy of preaching, bringing into it preparation, power,

4. The churches have a healthy small group structure. From small groups in Sabbath Schools to small groups that met in diverse locations, these are nurturing and holistic communities. Pastors and church leaders are involved in groups. Membership in the church is linked to belonging to a group.

5. Healthy churches emphasize corporate prayer and church prayer ministries. They do more than give lip service to the importance of prayer.

6. Churches that are healthy take membership seriously. They do not have inflated membership rolls that have little integrity, means little or nothing and has no level of accountability. A casual attendee does not has the same level of accountability as a long-term leader.

7. The healthy churches are highly intentional about evangelism. They have ministries, programs and emphases that lead members to reach out with the Gospel to their unchurched friends, relatives, co-workers and acquaintances.

Tonight our elders will meet to dialogue about trends in our church. One urgency that is obvious is the need for small groups, communities of care where everyone will be connected, given an opportunity to develop their spiritual gifts, and an opportunity to be loving and loveable. As the leadership team works to develop plans and strategy for improvement, we seek your prayers.

Focus on the relationships in our Sabbath School

Last Sabbath at Gibbons Park the Sabbath School council met briefly to plan for improving what we do during the most significant part of our Sabbath experience – the Bible Study groups.

A month ago group of our leaders attended the rally in Toronto with J.Alfred Johnson II, the director of Sabbath School & Personal Ministries for the North American Division. The highlights of his presentation were to move our teachers from lecturing to facilitating, from class-room to holistic group where caring and sharing takes place. He placed a strong emphasis on the relational importance in the Sabbath School. The Sabbath School class is not a formal unit coming for a purpose of conducting a scholarly investigation once a week for 60 minutes. The Sabbath School class is a group of friends who disciple each other and keep each other accountable for growing in Christ, through the daily study of the Word, through the prayer and ministry to others.

Analyzing our current trends of church health I made an observation that while the understanding of Group’s relevance and necessity has increased significantly in our church, the process of multiplication, process of developing disciples has not improved. Imagine if the “open chair” concept would be the part of every group in our church. “Open Chair” stands for acknowledging that we always have an open room, and an extra seat for a new person in the group. This alone would motivate us to invite people. Once nurtured and integrated the group size would naturally produce a new daughter group. The Sabbath School has always been the primary tool of evangelism. Make it your priority – first to belong to a group, then to grow the group, and finally to reproduce the group and add a new group.

Elder Johnson emphasized the 5 goals of the Sabbath School: study, fellowship, outreach, mission and nurture. A special emphasis was given the last aspect – the Nurture. While different terms may be used the concepts are the same – the 4W of group life: Welcome, Word, Worship, Work. Welcome part is where fellowship begins. Worship is where fellowship is expressed in praise, where mission is celebrated. The Word segment is where the study takes place, and challenge to a mission is given. Work – is self-explanatory – the mission and outreach itself. The nurture takes place in every one of these phases of group life.

We nurture our body as we are welcomed to eat together in fellowship, we nurture our soul as we share and give praises together in worship. Our spirit is nurtured as we meditate on the Word in study. We nurture others as we work, and we are ourselves nurtured by God as we become His co-workers in the work of Evangelism. Think of these things, and may Nurture be the intrinsic part of our Welcome, Worship, Word and Work life together.