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.
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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!
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