March/April, 2019 Carolina's 10,000 P5, part 3

6. Remembering and Keeping in Focus Our 2020 Vision

VISION V: FOSTER A CULTURE OF SOUL WINNING

PRAY AND COMMIT to leading at least 1000 new souls every year to embrace Christ and His truth as members of God’s remnant church. To accomplish this, every pastor will receive encouragement and support to:

Develop, communicate and implement an annual plan for kingdom growth in each church. This plan should intentionally include and involve the youth and young adults of the church.

Host or personally hold at least one evangelistic/reaping effort annually in their church district. Opportunities should be explored to involve students who have participated in a ShareHim series of meetings.

Follow with an extended plan of discipleship that includes an intentional involvement in the life and ministry of the church including that of being an actively engaged disciple-maker.

This visionary goal is aimed at praying for and making a conscious commitment to enhancing and encouraging our members to embrace Adventist education as a vitally important ministry in the preparation of our children and youth for service in this world and to nurture their lives in a deeper relationship with Jesus.

Across North America, the secularization of society has corrupted the curriculum – and every day we are seeing a moral decline from the standards of God and His Word.

A shifting of priorities and financial commitments has also unfortunately impacted God’s remnant people. Sadly these factors have impacted a downturn in our overall enrollments — especially in our church schools across the North American Division — including our own conference.

Develop, communicate and implement Churches who have become complacent with decline have become experts on only one doctrine of the church – The state of the dead!

Friends, let me be very clear about this. Jesus had one mission, and that must be the mission of His end-time church. That one mission is embodied in His recorded words of Luke 19:10 – “For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.”

Our prayer is to commit our energies to leading at least 1000 new souls every year to embrace Christ and His truth as members of God’s remnant church. Some may say this is just a focus on numbers. But those churches who have no prayerful commitment to a faith goal for reaching souls are likely going to remain stagnant.

A church without a faith goal can best be compared to the man in Jesus’ parable who simply buried his one talent. This must never be for our glory and always only for God’s glory. Every one of those numbers represents a life for whom Christ shed His blood on Calvary.

2 Peter 3:9 underscores the value of every soul in these words – “The Lord isn’t willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

I am so grateful that the vast majority of our Carolina pastors will be involved this year (2019) in holding or hosting at least one series of meetings that are intentionally focused on reaping a harvest of souls that reflect the kingdom growth Jesus desires in His remnant church.

I will be joining our church in Summerville, South Carolina to begin a month-long effort through the month of April. I solicit your prayers – not only for me, but for every Carolina pastor that has placed evangelism as a priority in the missional focus of their church district.

We hold the conviction that the Holy Spirit will bring people into the church by the power of proclaiming the truths of God’s Word. However, only the power of compassionate love will keep them connected to Christ and the mission of His church.

7. Remembering and Uplifting God’s Anointed Leaders for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Continuous Prayer: