Series held March 30, 2009 – June 6, 2009

It was wonderful to be able to start a new series immediately following the close of Jac Colon’s “Revelation Now”.  He and ‘dena provided a wonderful evangelistic  program, and left us with several interests.  Since those interests showed up to “Revelation Now” because of an interest in Bible Prophecy, it seemed natural to provide something for them to keep studying in an area that interested them. 

God blessed us with 35-40 people attending “Daniel and Revelation Chapter by Chapter” (DRCC), 8-10 of whom were pre-members from the “Revelation Now” series, as well as many new members.   We met on Monday and Wednesday nights as well as Sabbath mornings. 

Though we had no direct baptisms from the series, I’m glad for what it provided, which was a further opportunity to appeal to their hearts from God’s word.  An example of this was seen in a couple whom Jac and I had interviewed and invited to join in with us toward the end of “Revelation Now.”  However, they wanted to wait and continue to study.  I was thrilled to see them show up and attend nearly all of the DRCC sessions!  How easy it is for warm interests to cool off after the evangelist leaves and never see them again.  By the way, Jac excelled at promoting DRCC, urging people at the “Revelation Now” series to be sure and attend – this did more for advertizing for DRCC than anything else!  And even though this particular couple has not yet joined in with us, they are still faithfully attending weekly prayer meetings and church services on Sabbath, thank God!

Another individual came to many of the Daniel and Revelation Chapter by Chapter meetings, which I feel kept this person interested and attending.  For me, if they are attending, it means another chance to influence and encourage them to make Jesus their best friend. 

Bottom line?  Even though we have not had any baptisms from the series as of yet, it was well worth the effort and energy expended!

AN OPEN INVITATION TO CHURCHES ALL OVER NORTH AMERICA

The 2009 Year of Evangelism is almost history!

But soul-saving never goes out of style. What follows is a wonderful opportunity for your church and the people you’ve been working with all year long, hoping they’d make decisions for Jesus, the Sabbath, the remnant church.

The NAD Year of Evangelism Steering Committee is making available an evangelism reaping resource designed to gather in those still in the valley of decision . You may have held meetings this year, but some have not yet come through. These short “Net” like series may be just the approach to help them cross the finish line. You may choose to invite your people to the following event shown to all NAD Churches via the Hope Church Channel.

No registration necessary!

HELLO FROM SAVOONGA!

Bill & Elouise Hawkes, AMA Volunteers

Our church is active and growing; we voted six people into membership, two transfers and four baptisms from an evangelistic series by Pastor Mel Matthews. We had a church business meeting and the members want to get water and plumbing in the church as soon as possible. They made plans to do the expansion for another class room. That will give us three class rooms or the option of having one large room for our fellowship meals. I estimate that this expansion project will run about $7,000.00 for building materials for the addition, and that’s not counting shipping or labor. Some of the members will donate their labor, but how do we get the funds to purchase the materials and get them shipped? I know that I have some folks that are sending a few more dollars to help out, but I doubt that there will be $7,000.00.

I got enough carpet at the dump that someone had thrown out to carpet the class room and the foyer which will help keep it warmer. Most of the carpet was still on the cardboard tube. I put it in on Sunday with the help of a neighbor who is always looking for work. While I am away for my surgery, I plan to stay in touch with the building committee chairman on the progress and will order supplies to be shipped by barge next summer.

Click Here to view the rest of the Arctic Mission Adventure Newsletter

November 11, 2009

Dear NAD Ministerial Secretaries,

 First of all, thank you so very much for your support and leadership regarding the 2009 Year of Evangelism.  God is clearly blessing the Church, and we’ll have a year like no other in recent memory. Now, regarding the 2010 initiative, Share the Hope Again, I’d like you to know several important things as you plan for this in your fields.

1. 2010 Initiative Poster and Presentation.  Click Here for the e-poster and Click Here for the edited version of the presentation I made at Year-End Meeting.  Use this in any way you wish, as you communicate with pastors, churches, and other leaders. 
2. 2010 Website.  The current website, www.sharethehope2009.org will be updated and become www.sharethehope2010.org by the end of December.  Our plan is to have a new resource about conducting church fasting and prayer weekends at that time.
3. Promotional DVD.  We are working hard to produce a promo DVD to ship to you by mid to late December.  The DVD will have three sections: 1)A 25 to 30 minute segment of stories and rallying messages to get involved in 2010, to play at training events, camp meetings, or ministers’ meetings. 2)A 10-minute segment with the same basic content for you to use at many upcoming ministers’ meetings, which could also be used in churches on Sabbath  mornings 3)Five 5-minute segments highlighting a particular evangelistic story to play in churches on consecutive Sabbaths, or whenever they choose to do it.
4. NAD Prayer Summit.  Save the date of March 7-10, 2010, for our NAD Prayer Summit at the Billy Graham Training Center in Ashville, North Carolina.  Confirmed speakers are Mark Finley, Ron Clouzet, Ivor Myers, creator of Global Rain, and John Ashcroft, former U.S. Attorney General. Speakers we’re working on are Henry Blackaby, author of powerful best-selling books like Experiencing God, The Man God Uses, and Spiritual Leadership, and C D Brooks. Registration will open through PlusLine before December 1.  All union or conference presidents who come with their team will have their personal lodging and food covered.
5. Reaching the Cities!  This is the theme for SEEDS Plus 2010 Conference, June 21-23, at Southern Adventist University.  We’d like to encourage as many pastors, leaders, and lay members to come!  Check www.nadei.org for updates. 

May God continue to bless your leadership.  Together, God’s will can be accomplished!

Ron E. M. Clouzet, D.Min.

Ministerial Secretary, North American Division

Director, North American Division Evangelism Institute

Professor of Christian Ministry and Pastoral Theology,

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, Andrews University

The North Pacific Union had the privilege of hosting the NAD Hispanic Net meetings held October 23-31, 2009, from Portland, Oregon. The satellite series was titled: “SECRETOS DE LA VIDA” with evangelist Ramon J. Canals. The meetings were aired by Esperanza TV throughout the North American Division and other countries. These meetings were a result of the combined and united work of lay people, pastors and church administrators at all levels of the church organization. More than 500 small group leaders were trained to invite their friends to their homes, teach Bible studies and prepare people for the meetings. More than 500 satellite dishes were purchased and installed in their homes and some churches, including 11 Pentecostal homes and 1 Pentecostal Church.

The reports are still coming in but so far 354 people have been baptized in the NPUC as a result of these meetings. Our goal was to baptized 1500, train 500 small group leaders and plant 5 churches. I am excited to tell you that by the time we began the satellite meetings more than 1000 people had already been baptized. In addition, that same week, there were free medical services offered to the community. More than 1200 people were giving medical care during the day. These include, diabetes and cholesterol testing, medical and dental exams, eye examinations, chiropractic treatments as well as cooking classes and preventive medicine. About 200 people from the community were line up for registration two hours before we began the nightly meetings. About 50% of those who came for medical reasons stayed for the evangelistic meetings. We praise the Lord for His guidance and directions and we thank all those who participated and prayed for the success of these meetings.

Awhile back, Tom Glatts told me he was taking a Sabbatical to Peru. He wanted to find out how the church was growing so fast there, with so few clergy. I asked him for a report, and here it is. LGS

You asked me to let you know what I learned on my Sabbatical in Peru. Sorry for taking so long, but I’ve been in transition. I’ve now landed in Vancouver, BC and am now beginning to put into practice what I learned.

The reason the church is growing so fast in Peru is two words, “grupos pequeños.” Small groups is the basis for their growth. The commitment to small groups is so strong that when conference leaders wanted to have a meeting in Iquitos, they arrived two weeks early and visited all of the small group leaders in a city of 500,000. I went to a training session for small group leaders at 5:30 a.m. on Sabbath morning and found people already waiting.

I attended a meeting in Cusco, where the conference president held a meeting with the small group leaders. They were there to prepare for satellite meetings in November. They plan to baptize 100,000 in the South American Division. Their plan was simple. The SAD has 93,000 active small groups. (They are always birthing new groups. They expect to have 100,000 by November.) Each member was to be praying for 7 people. That’s about 50 prayers per small group (average of 7 members per group). Each group was given 10 sharing books and they were to target 10 people out of the 50 they were praying for. Of those 10, on average 3 would accept Bible studies. Out of the three, one would be baptized. Look at these numbers.

• Praying for: 5,000,000 people
• Target: 1,000,000 for sharing books
• Bible studies for: 300,000
• Baptisms : 100,000

In Peru and all of South America, you reap what you sow.

What am I doing about what I learned? I’m starting small groups and a college of evangelism at my church to train the members of those small groups. I found 5 young men who have gone through Mission College, Amazing Facts and Arise. I’m going to put them to work as teachers in our local church college. We are going to see if you can behave like Peru in Vancouver, BC. It could all fail, but I’m expecting great things from the Lord who is gracious.

You can only wonder, why people come to these meetings. You look into their eyes, and see that the Holy Spirit has been working on their hearts. We can only present a message that the Lord has prepared for us to speak. It is not just the speaker who is speaking, but we speak through our smiles we speak through our caring eyes, and the message is carried home by God’s Grace.

We pray that we might have eyes like Jesus did, and see the potential in every person that walks into our church. Jesus hasn’t given up on this world, and we, his servants, continue the ministry Jesus has called us to do. Miracles still happen every day. When we witness someone coming in their sins and guilt, and by the end of these meetings giving their lives over to Christ is the most amazing thing.

We had about 40 guests come to our meetings at the Vancouver Seventh-day Adventist Church, 15 or so regularly, and out of that, 8 decisions for Jesus. We praise the Lord, He still moves hearts. To see another 40 members come to the meetings was such an encouragement to everyone.

Our work is just beginning, not only do we to see baptisms, but we want see them become active members of our church. There were many who came to the meetings that did not make a decision yet, we will continue reach out to them, and know that Jesus is still working in their hearts.

So far in 2009 the Spokane Linwood Seventh-day Adventist Church has baptized 18 new members and one person has been rebaptized! These baptisms are the work of Jesus moving through the members of our church.

Our evangelism plan each year includes two outreach friendship events per month, one friendship event every quarter, and two very large friendship events each year. These events provide an enjoyable and friendly environment for our unchurched friends and family to attend.

Each event includes a spiritual component aimed at encouraging our unchurched friends to accept Jesus as their personal Savior and begin Bible studies. These Bible studies conducted by the pastors and lay members of the church have produced an average of 20-25 new members each year. The best news of all is that the attrition rate is minimal. After five years of following this plan we can account for a little over 98% (actual statistical study) of our new members. They are still attending church and are becoming actively involved in the ministry of the church.

From time to time we also hold a short reaping meeting, which never goes longer than 3 weeks at the most. These meetings are for those who find seminars to be a more convenient and meaningful way to connect with Jesus and be baptized. Currently I am conducting an evangelistic crusade during the church service each week. We have 10-12 non-members in attendance just to hear these messages. In addition we have another 19 people taking Bible studies in preparation for baptism. We anticipate welcoming another 8-10 new members before the year is over.

God has blessed our efforts and we praise His name.

In Christ,

Kevin Wilfley

—-

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 3:18

My website: www.edenconcepts.org

Paige Burghart recently went to the 2009 Osh Kosh Pathfinder Camporee. While there a challenge was extended to her and all Pathfinders in attendance. A Challenge to to go home and “take a stand.” Her response to the challenge was to tell our Pastor, David Glenn, on the flight home from Osh Kosh, that she would like to preach the sermon. Paige is 14 years old and the sermon was given last Sabbath, October 3, 2009. Her subject was on praying for our youth.

You can watch her sermon online on You Tube .

• To watch the first part of Paige’s sermon, Click Here.
• To watch the second part of Paige’s sermon, Click Here.

 

Paige is a member of the Chehalis Seventh-day Adventist Church, Chehalis, Washington

I have just finished the Explore the Prophetic Seminar at the Rogue River Seventh-day Adventist Church. Next Friday I begin the next four week series at the North Valley Seventh-day Adventist Church. In Rogue River we had around 15 visitors from the community over the course of the four weeks. Most of our prime visitors with whom we had been having Bible studies previous to the meetings got the H1N1 flu part way through the series and so they could not finish the lecture series.  So far we have around four individuals who want to be baptized.  A couple who had come from our health outreach we held a few months prior dropped out after the Sabbath was presented. Another couple that were so excited about what they were learning happened on to some websites developed by former Seventh-day Adventist pastors and stopped coming. I am in email contact with them working through their questions.

This was my first evangelistic series given without a translator. I have previously conducted a half dozen or so all in the Russian or Ukrainian language. This series is one of the finest I have seen. I have done extensive editing of this series over the past four weeks as I was giving it. I will no doubt do a bit more in the next four weeks. I am making it available for others to use. There are a number of churches that plan to use this program. Below is a  link where this 700+ MB zipped file can be downloaded.

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1637077/Explore%20the%20Prophetic.zip