MORE THAN FUN IN THE SUN

MORE THAN FUN IN THE SUN
As you read this, I should be sitting (or standing or walking) under Florida’s sunny skies.  Janet and I came here for a   five-day vacation, because I am scheduled to take part in a very special Church Renewal Labs seminar here.  It is that seminar that I want to talk to you about and for which I would like to ask your prayers.


The name of the seminar is More and Better.  It is about all how to make more disciples of Jesus, and better trained disciples of Jesus than we are currently seeing in North America.  In other words, it is about getting back to doing what Jesus instructed us to do when he gave us the Great Commission. 


During our time here will be meeting with pastors who have been successful both as evangelists and disciple-makers.  One Christian Reformed pastor who will be addressing us has witnessed 500 people join his church through evangelism in the past ten years.  Another pastor developed a program of disciple-making and saw 125 people come to faith in Christ and be enfolded into a small discipleship groups in a single year.  He did not lead all these people to faith and undertake their instruction.  Rather it is the people he led to faith and discipled are doing so!


Doesn’t this sound wonderful?  Can you imagine scores of new Christians being loved and taught the faith in an intentional way through your words, example, and prayers as well those of others at Bethel?  That is what happened in the early church, and what has happened everywhere the Gospel has advanced most successfully.


I believe I have witnessed a deepening hunger for God’s Word at Bethel in the last years.  I also believe I am seeing more people investigating faith or renewing their commitment to faith than in previous years.  Let’s pray that we can faithfully disciple those whom God entrusts to us, and that he will Bethel Church in greater way than we have ever imagined.--Pastor Tom
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