The song is old, the clothes are old, but the good news of heaven is just as needed today as ever. Here is a beautiful testimony and moment with Joni Eareckson Tada & Vestal Goodman. Make sure you get 5 minutes in.
What a song! May we be witnesses of Jesus’ forgiveness!
I look at a lot of numbers. If you follow this blog, you know that “Church Growth” is the most tagged topic, and that naturally is about NUMBERS.
But of all the numbers I have written about I believe the numbers I am going to share with you in this blog are the most exciting thus far.
At the end of 2011 we decided to be a host site for the John Bradshaw/It Is Written evangelistic meetings being broadcast from Las Vegas.
One of our prayer warriors came to me with the idea that we get folk from in our church to pray for every single name on our membership roster and any others that we have in our “friends” list. That was a list of over 750 persons. I thought it was a great idea and so we went to our Prayer Director Kristin to see if something could be set-up. The decision was made to call folk to see if they would take a list of names to pray over.
After much calling & some emails Kristin had 7 individuals, not the number we were looking for :), that agreed to take a list of names to daily pray for. So they started with praying for all our active members.
But maybe more importantly, we began to pray for more prayer warriors!
That is a prayer we knew God wanted to answer in the affirmative, and He definitely has!
Today (ALL) just shy of 800 folk connected with our church are being prayed for daily by at last check 60 prayer warriors!
We started with 7 and we asked God to send more prayer warriors and now 5 months later we have 60 folks hitting their knees daily for their church & their church family!
I believe we have seen the difference. Between the Visalia Seventh-day Adventist Church & our northside church plant The Ark we’ve had 20 baptisms, 2 Professions of Faith (so 22 new Adventists), & 7 rebaptisms. An entire family is attending our church because they were led to do so in a dream, and 12+ more are in Bible studies.
In the past those are the things we have primarily prayed for, this year, while we have still prayed for decisions for Jesus, without much forethought our primary prayers and emphasis in church have been, “Jesus give us a greater spirit for prayer.”
The numbers the conference will look at & the numbers church growth statisticians look at are nice, but I believe that all those numbers are a direct result of the most exciting number of this year–SIXTY–60 interceding on behalf of the names on their lists.
I am so thankful for those 60 and I praise the Lord for the many more He will convict to be warriors in prayer for His people and for the city of Visalia.
Where do you live? What do your prayer warriors pray for? What would happen if you started praying less for church growth and more for prayer growth? Would your church grow anyway?
“It is a part of God’s plan to grant us, in answer to the PRAYER of faith, that which he would not bestow, did we not thus ask.” –Ellen G. White, The Spirit of Prophecy, Vol. 4, p. 348.
I want to share with you the greatest danger regarding the issue of ordaining women that is swirling around the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
The greatest danger is not…
By ordaining women we will be opening the door to LGBT clergy. Yes, this is really an argument that is out there I have seen it with my own two eyes. I would say the vast majority of Seventh-day Adventists, even those that believe in ordaining women still hold to the truth that marriage is between a man & a woman. So this is not the greatest danger.
By ordaining women in North America we will alienate the world church, thus causing a great schism. The same countries that are against the ordination of women pastors are also against the ordination of women deacons and women elders. But to the credit of the world church they respect sticking with the denomination even when they don’t agree with all “her” rules, much better than some of us in my part of the world. So if we haven’t alienated them already, I highly doubt this issue will, no matter what the hyperbole is to the contrary. So this is not the greatest danger.
By ordaining women in North America we are embracing the feminist movement. NO! Why does a desire to have God’s calling recognized by the body of Christ have to signal an embrace of feminism? That is a sexist position. This is not the greatest danger of women’s ordination.
By ordaining women we are somehow promoting women to leave home and not be mothers as God called them to be. 75% of women participate in the labor force in the United States, making a choice to ordain women will not suddenly cause those other 25% to jump into ministry and abandon their families. Women work and women will become pastors with or without ordination. I’ve never heard one girl I know say, “well I was thinking of going into ministry, but since they don’t ordain me I’m going to stay home and have kids.” This is not the greatest danger of ordaining women.
By ordaining women we are opening the doors to the agenda of the liberal wing of the church. I’m 100% for women’s ordination and I would not consider myself a liberal (though maybe just by making that statement some of you are saying “yes you are” Trust me the liberals I know don’t agree with you:)) I want our church to be more conservative: To return to focusing on public proclamation of our foundational truths. To return to having it be a reality that the majority of SDA’s are vegetarians:) and believers in the prophetic ministry of Ellen G. White. I could go on, but the point is, I still think women should be ordained because it has nothing to do with liberal or conservative. It has to do with affirming those that God calls on an equal setting. This is not the greatest danger.
By NOT ordaining women we will completely turn off an entire generation! WRONG! My generation is already turned off and it has very little to do with the fact that we haven’t ordained women. Yes, many of us are bothered by this, but I don’t think this will cause a mass exodus from our church. Not anymore mass than has already occured. This is not the greatest danger of NOT ordaining women.
By NOT ordaining women we will miss out on some of the giftings that God has given to the church. REALLY? Doesn’t this limit God a little? Ellen White is the perfect example of if God wants to use a woman’s gifts, He’ll use a woman’s gifts! This is not the greatest danger of NOT ordaining women.
By NOT ordaining women we will not see revival. With great deference to my mentor, this is also a position I am not willing to take, because again it limits God to having His divine will being modified by the action of a committee. This is not the greatest danger of NOT ordaining women.
The GREATEST DANGER in regards to the ordination of women is that Satan will keep us talking about it to each other and in the meantime we won’t be talking about what we need to be talking about to those whom we need to be talking to: Telling a lost world about JESUS!
The following are the 10 most viewed posts on this blog for the month of April. Check out the ones you didn’t yet read.
So there you go the posts that were the most read in the month of April, 2012. Enjoy and be blessed!
April 26th will mark the 16th anniversary of my commitment to Christ. I don’t believe I really had any idea what that meant 16 years ago.
At the time I stood-up for Jesus it wasn’t because I had been attending Bible studies or spending a lot of time searching for God. I didn’t have any thought or hope that I would be saved. I didn’t have a high-regard for Christians. I wasn’t a fan of church. I wasn’t a fan of really anything…
So from my perspective on that Friday night April 26, 1996 it was without any warning that God spoke straight into my heart. He asked me a simple question, “Will you give me a chance?”
God didn’t force Himself. He didn’t yell or bully. But without a doubt I, yes even me, my heathen unbelieving self, knew it was God speaking to me as clear as if we had been talking face to face, and I knew a decision had to be made.
The devil was speaking to me as well though. He was telling me not to be a fool. Not to stand-up. To remember all the things I did that I couldn’t stop doing. He reminded me of the times I had seen others stand only to fall again, and I would surely fall flat!
But there was that voice still asking, “Will give me a chance?”
No one can say to me, “there is no great controversy.” Those voices were both strong and clear!
Yet the Holy Spirit kept asking, “Will you give me a chance?”
I have since analyzed that night and all the nights leading up to that night. I have identified the points where God was clearly working in my life. I have identified the power of prayer on my behalf and the power of struggle that caused me to want something better.
But on that night ALL I KNEW and ALL THAT MATTERED was that one voice, speaking above the din of my satan controlled life, and inviting me, asking me, “Will you give me a chance?”
Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul
Thank you, Lord, for making me whole
Thank you, Lord, for giving to me
Thy great salvation so rich and free