Practical Strategy of our Vision

In my seminary days most students knew a phrase used by a certain teacher, a really famous phrase: “2 am business” – meaning it was so important that if awaken at 2 am you should be able to answer that!

Last Sabbath I shared with you these 5 practical steps of accomplishing the Mission and Vision of our church. And I expect you to know these as “2 am business”

1. Pray for the entire World.
2. Read through the entire Bible
3. Sacrifice luxury for a Godly project
4. GO and enter a new culture, understand a new worldview.
5. Mentor a disciple for Christ’s family

On October 1^st we are starting the Experiment. A whole year, 12 month experiment of recommitting our lives for what really matters. Elder Clara Baptiste will introduce next Sabbath details on prayer and Bible reading. Some of you already reported on doing it. I am encouraging especially the youth, teens to read the Bible entirely.

I pray that you are analyzing your life to see what needless luxury things you may sacrifice for the good of others. The life of simplicity is a life of blessing. The reason for simplicity is not guilt, duty or obligation, but the necessity of having more time for personal spiritual growth, more time to spend with God, instead of pursuing gadgets, money and entertainment. Give up a thing or two that takes your time but has no eternal value, and invest that time with God and in service of fellow men and you will discover blessing and happiness beyond anything you experienced before.

Finally, the last two challenges are geared toward growing the Kingdom of God as a family. Thanksgiving weekend is coming – invite someone, chose someone you would like to mentor through the year, to help them grow. Invite a family from a different cultural background, maybe a neighbour whose belief system is different. Befriend a person who may not know Christ yet and try to understand their interests. As you mingle with people, you will discover their needs. As you genuinely care for them and serve their needs you will win their confidence. Only then lovingly you could bid them to follow Jesus.

Family, lets make the Revival and reformation real in our lives!

Resources for you

Last Sabbath during the Sabbath School time I mentioned some resources and you were asking for more details. So, here are great websites for to download and listen Adventist sermons:

Dwight K. Nelson http://www.pmchurch.tv/

Ron Halvorsen Jr. http://www.collegeviewchurch.org/article.php?id=121

Charles A. Tapp http://www.sligochurch.org/2011-sermon-library

Another good resource is www.churchpond.com

And, of course, do not ignore our own site www.adventistlondon.ca where sermons are also archived, and links are provided for seminars and resources.

Shifting gears here ... Today you will hear a challenge for a Radical Experiment with Your Life, starting October 1. I challenge you to apply extraordinary commitment to practice five ordinary steps:

1. Pray for the entire World.
2. Read through the entire Bible
3. Sacrifice luxury for a Godly project
4. GO and learn a new culture, discover a new worldview.
5. Mentor a disciple for Christ’s family

I will explain more in the sermon. We will also prepare handouts, through newsletters, blogs, website, to assist you with your Bible Reading Plan, and with the list of countries we will be praying for.

For now check out following sites:

For prayer http://www.operationworld.org/

For Bible Reading http://www.youversion.com/reading-plans/all

We also would appreciate more volunteers to facilitate and coordinate this long-term commitment effort for our church. If you feel the Lord calling you to get involved more than what you had done before – do not hesitate – speak to church leadership and make a difference!

School of Discipleship – year around

This coming week students will return to school after the long summer break. Some will move on to the next level – College, University or High School. The most dreaded experience is to be left behind for another year, to repeat a grade because of lack of progress! The principle is the same – to achieve a higher learning.

Here at the church we also shift gears in our schedule for more work and teaching after summer breeze. And how is your personal experience of growth? Are you moving to the “next level”? Are you learning continually?

Much has been said about personal spiritual growth of believers. Here I want to outline a few basic steps that make it obvious how a person progresses on a journey with God:

1) An initial contact with Bible, or with a credible Christian

2) A verbal witness that shared God in a meaningful way, to explain God’s plan of saving people

3) Visiting the church to “check it out,” to see the Body Assembled together, to see if there is evidence of Spirit

4) A decision to return to the church, because of the encounter with God’s spirit at work, because of acceptance experienced

5) A commitment to Christ through baptism, a desire to grow

6) Joining a small group to dig deeper, to learn more

7) Discovering and developing personal spiritual gifts

8) Getting involved in a ministry based on giftedness

9) Maturing as a devoted follower of Christ in all areas of life, including stewardship and evangelism

10) Mentoring others, becoming a spiritual parent to new seekers.

Where are you on this journey? Do we have seniors on “Step 10”? Have you passed “Step 7 “ and learned your spiritual giftedness? Or have you got stuck on “Step 5” and not sure how to advance?

As we move into this fiscal year, the Small Groups is our top priority, top need. We need mature leaders to facilitate house churches, where an experience of growing and maturing would exist. If you need any help – we got “guidance counsellors” – elders.

Make a decision to belong, to grow, to develop, to mature, and to bless others.

Our church is a School of Discipleship!