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.

If we would have the Mind of God….

Seven years ago at the 57^th General Conference of our Church in Toronto a church historian George Knight published an article entitled “If I were the devil…” musing how devil distracts the church from fulfilling it’s mission. Recently he published a book, critically expanding those concepts. He’s right on many negative trends that are obvious in many churches today. May I suggest that if the church would have the Mind of God the following would be true:

We would put the best energies into accepting and caring for the ideas and plans of the upcoming generation of youth, who are innovative and creative, and encourage the youth to take over responsibilities for the church;

church should think BIG – not just numerical increases, but reaching the entire world for Christ through the magnitude of the latter-rain faith;

people would be allowed to see many alternatives and ways of reaching different minds, different methods of evangelism, and of “doing’ church;

Amplify importance of new technologies in communicating the Message;

Pastors and administrators will not be seen as the main workers, but as equippers of every believer for the work of ministry; churches would be training centers for believers and not entertainment sets for spectators;

The importance of the local congregation should be vanguard, as the health of the larger body depends on the health of each of it’s constituent members;

We would have less administrators hid behind desks and covered with paper, busy with committee work, and more workers who are in touch with people, freeing people and money to finish God’s work of saving people;

Church would not be “afraid” of the Holy Spirit Presence and work among us;

We would stop playing the numbers game and put money where we can get the most conversions for the least investment, but take on the mission field in our own backyard, where it is the most difficult, costly and laborious;

We would never forget our apocalyptic heritage, our roots as a prophetic movement based on Revelation 10-14, we will continue to be a movement instead of becoming a monument or a museum; we would help people see the ongoing apocalyptic events in the framework of today;

We would focus on saving relationships with Jesus as the very center of Adventism, above all doctrines, recognizing that we have no creeds, and our doctrines are just a present-day expressions of ever progressing revelation;

We would never fight each other regarding worship styles and standards;

We would stop thinking tribally, nationally and racially, and develop mechanisms to enrich our multiculturalism and internationalism, emphasizing that we are from one flesh and blood, brothers and sisters, a family of God;

We would never look miserably on Sabbath, we would never treat Sabbath as a penalty for being Adventist, a price of getting a future rewards, but revel in Sabbath as a sign of our Salvation and the day of our blessings and intimacy with God.

We are what we think. Let’s think these thoughts, having the mind of God and beating devils game-plan everywhere we are.

(paraphrased from George R.Knight If I were the Devil. Seeing through the enemy’s smoke screen. A contemporary Challenges facing Adventism. (2007))

Saved?!..... Changed? or just kidding?

Almost two months passed since that tragic Virginia Tech shooting where a 33 lives were lost, yet memories are still troubling many. Recently I watched a student reflecting on his survival. He pretended to lie dead on a classroom floor. Saved by pretending?!

Would that work in Eternity’s perspective? Saved by pretending? Saved by doing certain things to appear certain way in order to be saved? This whole church experience is about being saved. Interacting with people daily I find that many are concerned about having hope, having future. Church comes to attention as a way of getting salvation. But often people in the church don’t look like being “safe” or “saved.” Many disagree with what it means “being saved.” Evangelicals use this term “saved” loosely where it is applied to anyone who accepted Jesus as Lord, anyone who call on the Name of the Lord, just as Acts 2:21 describes the early church experience.

Being saved was the main subject of conversation for disciples and early Christians. Mark 16:16 presents salvation as a result of believing and being baptized. Saved means deliverance from…. , redemption for …., reclaiming of ….., preserving through…... And it also means healing as a process of change, transformation, healing. In the days of Jesus people were healed/saved by faith. We are receiving God’s power while being saved. It is something that happened (Titus 3:4-7), is happening (1 Corinthians 1:18) and is yet to happen (Romans 5:9).

The Apostle Paul made the objective of all his ministry to communicate this Good News: “it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God!” (Ephesians 2:8)

Are you saved? Have you been liberated from hold of sin, from hurts of past, from restraints of guilt, from debt? Jesus has certainly offered that and continues giving it freely. Are you saved from this world’s pain, trials, problems? Not until the process is over, not until the Lord comes to end all things. What are you saved from, for, through….? Churches are split over the meaning of this. Yet any of single definitions are heresy by themselves. It’s only when one considers broad, all-inclusive, comprehensive meaning of “saved” that the truth becomes complete.

The reason I want you to ponder these things is because it is our main purpose of coming together is to be saved together, as God wills for all to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4). Luke 15 presents three parables about three aspects of Salvation and three roles of God as Savior. Jesus the Good Shepherd looking for a lost sheep who does not know she’s being lost, and will never be saved unless the Shepherd goes out. Coin being lost “in the house” and not thinking it’s being lost, until the light of the candle, the Holy Spirit, illumines it being “out-of place.” And then there is the Father, who son is lost, and is quite capable of returning into expecting embrace of the Loving Father, yet he meets a bitter brother who does not want to offer acceptance.

After all this “salvation” thing is all about relationships we have with the One that cares for us. It’s something we cannot make up, act up or pretend. That’s why Paul recommends to all “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” (Philippians 2:12) Can’t just pretend…..