The major cities of the United States are changing both in their belief systems and ethno-cultural makeup. How should the Good News be presented to them in order to be Good News? Besides sharing biblical inspiration plus stories of God's grace at work through our ministry in various parts of the world, I hope to address this and many other issues important to our Christian faith.
Search This Blog
God is Glorified at SWIM's Five Year Anniversary Celebration Event
A hundred and eighty of our ministry partners joined us over dinner to celebrate what God has done through SWIM ministries over the last five years.
Individual lives have been transformed by the power of the Gospel of Christ as we have stepped out in faith and obedience to the Great Commission. By God’s help, 308,000 have so far participated in our Festivals in six different countries over these five years. A total of 38,937 individuals have prayed with us to receive Christ into their lives as Lord and Savior. 1801 pastors and leaders have participated in our Leadership Conferences. To God be the glory!
There are three basic motivations that continue to inform our engagement with the gospel of Christ. First is our human reality of being lost from God. Through Christ, His death on the Cross and His resurrection from the dead, we can all be reconciled to God if we repent and come to God in His Name. We are thus obliged to preach the gospel because we love our fellow human beings and seek to call them from darkness into the light of Christ.
Second is the urgency of the call and commission from God to His church. It is part of our Kingdom identity to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to all peoples of the world. We cannot truly say we love God and yet fail to obey His Great Commission to go and make disciples of all nations of the world.
Third and final is the glory of God. This is the greatest reason that we preach the gospel of Christ. He is worthy of our love and of the worship of all humanity.
As we look ahead to the next five years, we anticipate a tripling of our evangelistic efforts and Kingdom impact. We recognize the divine excitement at one sinner who repents and turns away from sin (Luke 15). We are thus committed to daily reaching out to call everyone to come follow Jesus.
We equally recognize the urgency with which God desires that all of humanity be saved and the great need for laborers. We are committed to using all the means possible to reach as many people as possible with the love of Christ. Would you pray with us that abundant strength, wisdom and resources would be released to us to carry out the mission unhindered?
Thanks to all of our partners who came and to the many others that were unable to be there but pray for us and give liberally of their resources so that we may preach Christ and Him crucified.
Special thanks to Dan Adler and Heart of the City worship band who led us all in heart-warming worship, Mzizi Church International Youth team for dramatizing the power of the gospel during the event, Destiny Faith Ministries youth team for the African worship demonstration, Dan Dye who served as our evening host, Ceallaigh Anderson who served as our event coordinator, Lighthouse Media who put together the vision video, Westwood Community Church for hosting the celebration event at the church facility, Maranatha Church U of M for the volunteers, and the SWIM Board of Directors and staff for their leadership. Thank You!
None of us wished for it. But COVID-19 delivers to our doorstep what is, perhaps, the greatest evangelistic opportunity of our lifetime. It is an unusual opportunity in the Twin Cities, North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and around the world. A scared world is open for spiritual business. The masks are off. People are open to hear that there is hope through Jesus Christ. For the church, the times we are in may have changed, due to COVID-19. But the mission we are on has not changed . The need to share the hope Jesus provides is now more urgent than ever. Our nation is now the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. Severe cases and deaths are mounting from coast to coast. Doctors, general medical workers and other essential service providers continue to do all they can to stave off the pandemic. 3 million Americans have lost their jobs. Children across the nation and worldwide are out of schools. Our economy and other global economies remain on shaky ground. All profession...
It is the Christmas season 2009. Like Joseph and Mary 2000 years ago, a young couple are on the virge of the birth of their first baby boy. Although they are doing everything to prepare for the big day, it still catches them by surprise. Instead of the regular 40 weeks, the baby is arriving six weeks early. Because they are not expecting it this early, their bags are not packed nor is the nursery fully furnished. Safe for an early morning warning in a dream to the father to prepare to be in a delivery room and with assurance (from the Lord) that it would be o.k, the day started off as any other day. At 6:00 AM, the couple prays together for about 40 minutes in their home in Victoria. They take showers. At about 7:30 AM, the husband goes to work briefly from his home office while the wife prepares something for their breakfast together. Within a couple hours they will have a routine prenat...
For most of us, nothing and no one describes the kick-off of this year 2009 more vividly than does Charles Dickens in his A Tale of two Cities. Dickens captured the contradictions of his time in these amazing words: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only." My comparison of our time to that of Dickens does not lie in the historical events. It is rather a paradoxical comparison. It lies in the juxtaposition of b...
Comments
Post a Comment