"Let's Celebrate"
by: Dave Manske, Director for Church Multiplication
and Missions Mobilization
Fall and harvest season is a great time to celebrate! There are winning football games, bumper sugar beet harvests, and lots of great tasting apples... just to name a few superficial reasons to celebrate.
For us, in the "church business"... there is much more to celebrate!
We are having a great missions season -- where at least 11 Alliance missionaries have been visiting our churhces. Lots of good reports are coming in -- from missionaries and pastors! One pastor said his passion for Christ's cause has been rekindled. A missionary wrote, "I enjoyed my time here! The level of missionary awareness and commitment was evident." We are seeing this reflected increases in our financial support for global missions (GCF) too.
Thank you pastors, church missions teams, and visiting missionaries for a good missions celebration season!
The "harvest is plentiful" and we are seeing people come to Christ! Our newest church plant, North Star, has seen 10 people make first time commitments to Christ in the church plant's 4 weeks of public services. They even had a conversion on their launch Sunday! One of our South Dakota churches just baptized six people, as neophytes identified and followed Christ in this step of discipleship!
Thank you, fellow believers, for living your faith in a visible and compelling way that impacts and influences the lives of others around us!
Lost people matter to God -- and He wants them found! These words are more than our missions theme for 2008. These words are more than our first core value. These are core beliefs in our lifestyle and ministry, too! In fact, one of our missions candidate couples is putting this belief into action -- and are taking steps for a potential 2009 engagement in missions where they will incarnationally take and live Christ among people of another country and language!
Friends, let's celebrate our life in Christ, and the opportunity we have to live and tell about Him in such a way as to impact the lives of our friends, neighbors and relatives, making a visible influence on our communities!
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