TONIGHT: Setting Goals for future direction

Last week I shared with you the 6 strategic goals set by the Adventist Church in North America. As we reflect on the need to seek the lost, to bring prodigals back we must be willing to embrace sinners coming to Christ.  We cannot afford to have an inauthentic, judgmental Christianity.  The fellowship in our church must be genuine, or it will turn people off and away.

 Tonight at 7 pm we will come together as a church in the Business session to discuss our future direction, our goals and plans for 2013, and further to 2020.  In preparation for the specific goals we will share I invite you again to reflect on these 6 goals:

1)      “Retention of young adults … through a revitalized campus ministries program along with [local] church activities that engage their interests and energies.” are we connecting with students at Western, Fanshawe?  What are we doing to bring back a lost generation of our kids born between 1980 and 1992, who are not in worship anymore?

2)       Extending “Adventist education [to] everyone using innovative online modalities to increase enrollment of school-age children and youth” as well as “enable the local church to serve as a key community learning center.”   what would it take to get our grades 1 through 8 children into discipling environment of Adventist Church School?  What classes can we offer to community in our facility, parenting, budgeting, cooking?

3)       Expanding “the potential and practice of women clergy” including “better member education, increased mentoring and [improved] recruitment, support and affirmation” from Church administrators.  are we ready to embrace priesthood of ALL believers, regardless gender, age?

4)       “Evangelism and outreach specifically targeted to large cities and native-born [North] Americans.” In the NAD territory four out of five residents live in the metropolitan areas and three out four are native-born, not immigrants while Adventist growth is concentrated among immigrants and local churches are more likely to be in non-metropolitan communities.  notice the explanation: today’s natives of Canada are also white european descendants who lived here for a few generations.  Are we reaching Canadian population with the Gospel?  With London being 15^th largest city in Canada how can we get involved in urban ministry?

5)      Develop “a coherent media strategy with an emphasis on social media” instead of traditional television, radio and print formats.  how can we improve the use of internet media for communicating the Gospel? could we invest in purchasing better video cameras to broadcast our teaching services?  Are we tapping into youth networking to witness?

6)       Continue to evangelize “emerging immigrant people groups” where the Adventist Church has had the most significant response in the last three decades. how can we invest into relationships with new immigrant communities coming to London? 

Setting Goals for future direction

At the Board meeting on Monday I shared with our leaders the 6 strategic goals voted by our Division leaders (North American Adventist Church executive team) on November 6.   In a keynote sermon preceding meetings, president Dan Jackson spoke against “inauthentic, judgmental Christianity” and urged all to face the fact that “genuine fellowship is often lacking our churches … it is not seen and experienced in the way we treat those who disagree or in the way we treat one another … and it is killing us. It turns people off.”

 Next Saturday night we will come together as a church in Business session to discuss our future direction, our goals and plans for 2013, and further to 2020.  As you think what we can do for the community around us, I invite you to consider these 6 goals set for all churches in the North American division of our world-wide church.

1)       “Retention of young adults … through a revitalized campus ministries program along with [local] church activities that engage their interests and energies.”

2)       Extending “Adventist education [to] everyone using innovative online modalities to increase enrollment of school-age children and youth” as well as “enable the local church to serve as a key community learning center.”

3)       Expanding “the potential and practice of women clergy” including “better member education, increased mentoring and [improved] recruitment, support and affirmation” from Church administrators.

4)       “Evangelism and outreach specifically targeted to large cities and native-born [North] Americans.” In the NAD territory four out of five residents live in the metropolitan areas and three out four are native-born, not immigrants while Adventist growth is concentrated among immigrants and local churches are more likely to be in non-metropolitan communities.

5)       Develop “a coherent media strategy with an emphasis on social media” instead of traditional television, radio and print formats.

6)       Continue to evangelize “emerging immigrant people groups” where the Adventist Church has had the most significant response in the last three decades.

Each one of these goals is significant and important to our congregation.  We have scores of young adults related to our church families, living in the community yet not joining this body of Christ with a mission.  We have a church school with excellent teachers, Patricia and Dayna, ready to invest more in your children.  Are you willing to sacrifice to give your children a protected environment for a few more years, to allow their spirituality mature?  What would it take for us to connect with rapidly growing immigrant community in our urban setting? (London is 15^th city in Canada by population size!)  Prayerfully consider how you may make an impact for Christ where you are.

Praying for Reformation and Revival to continue

This week the Adventist church in North America was praying.  Our annual week of prayer focus was on Revival and the Word of God.  Tuesday many were “glued” to their TV (older folks J), or following on their smart phones the live updates of the Big Tuesday, US election.  Your FB posts tell your attitude toward the results. 

In the running days interesting details came to light.  Sunday before the election Roman Catholic celebrating priests read appeals from their bishops, as they were required, of not so thinly veiled endorsements of a certain candidate, some played a specially produced video “Tested by Fire” emphasizing pro-life, pro-marriage, pro-freedom.  Billy Graham had taken public steps to embrace Romney for president week before, removing Mormon religion from a list of cults on his website and taking out an advertisement urging Christians to vote on Biblical values.

Thinking of Biblical values…really?!  A campaign that was ran on lies?  A representative of a religion that was built on the notion of white supremacy? Did anyone check if Romney sees himself as the fulfillment of the controversial “white horse” prophecy that may shaped Mormon’s understanding of their role in prophecy? This August as we traveled through Adventist heritage sites and birthplaces we also stopped in Palmyra, NY, and toured sites around the Mormon religion origins. It would take more than a paragraph to describe cultic devotion we witnessed there. According to Mormon teaching, a time will come when the United States constitution will be “hanging on a thread,” and the United States will look to the Mormon Church for  “exceedingly fair and delightsome” deliverer to replaces the one who bears the “curse” of a “skin of blackness” (check the context in the Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 5:21).

Why am I addressing these matters in a “Sabbath church-time” blog?  Because the religious confusion should be a concern to all Bible-believing Christians. Politics and religion shaking hands is the Babylonian confusion from which we must call believers out.  It has been 495 years since Martin Luther nailed 95 accusations against church corruption on October 31 to his church front door.  Is the Reformation still ongoing in our lives, in our community?  What is our stand on the Sola Scriptura?  Is the Bible still sole basis of authority in our lives?  Are we standing on the Word of God?

The Reformation is under fire in the land of it’s birth.  A year ago (September 2011) the current pope BenedictXVI spoke for the first time in German history to the Bundestag (parliament).  The event was boycotted by hundreds of MPs not attending, which were replaced by former members for attendance numbers.  Will the Reformation be annulled on its 500^th birthday?

The only defence against the “wine” of Babylon is the Word of God.  Bible is the sole basis of all reforms, and beliefs.  Could we say with Martin Luther “Here I stand and I could do no other”?  How is your personal devotion to the Bible, to the Word of God?  Are you following popular trends of comfort and pursuit of personal happiness and pleasure, or are you staying free from confusion, seeking safety of “It Is Written” of God’s Word? Is the “Sword of faith,” the Word of God in your arsenal to have victory over deceptions?

Praying for our need of Holistic Small Groups

Today (on November 3rd) I am ministering in the Word at the North London church.  Even as I look forward to a fellowship in praise, study and at the table, I am also looking forward to be with our church family tonight as we begin the Week of Prayer. 

This weekend leaders of North American Adventist churches (Conferences and Unions) are gathered together in Washington DC for the annual council.   The session was preceded by the Diversity Celebration.  Pray for our leaders as they chart course and adjust the strategy for the next year of leading people to Christ.  I am looking forward to the communication after the meeting, as we would be organizing our calendar of events in coordination with the sisterhood of churches in Ontario.  Next Thursday, November 8 our Church Growth team for Ontario Conference will meet again to consider how to move from status quo management toward expansion of work, toward entering new territories with the three Angels’ Message.

Meanwhile my greatest concern is for our church in London, where we need to begin community forming for discipleship, for mentoring new believers through small groups.  Talking “church growth” without a follow up strategy is like planning to harvest without barns built to store the harvest.  When we do evangelism and bring people into commitments to follow Jesus they must be placed into nurturing communities.  Such are house churches/small groups, and we are lacking in this area.  We have church for believers, for those who had been in the “message” for a while.  The new believers need more nurturing.

This week as we come to pray together, reflecting on our year, asking God for vision toward the future, some of you may not be able to be here every evening.  Some may be opening their homes and inviting friends to pray together.  Remember that these are qualities of truly Holistic Small Group (or a House Church) - it is a group which:

o  Helps me with the challenges of my life

o  Spends lots of time on things that are urgent and relevant to me

o  Helps me to grow spiritually, and connects me with Christ more

o  Is safe to talk about personal problems

o  Has an environment of trust, where we trust each other

o  Integrates newcomers quickly, and is welcoming

o  Will pray with me when I need it

o  Makes me feel at home

o  Has caring leaders well trained to serve

o  Actively seeks to multiply and grow other groups

We hope to have a few functional groups in addition to the two existing groups, ready to welcome and look after new believers before the end of this year.  But first – commit this to sincere prayer.