For many years, the churches of Tennessee have been great supporters of missions around the world. It could rightfully be said that the Gospel has been spread to every continent of the world by people in our great State. Mission giving over the years has probably amounted to millions of dollars in direct financial assistance and the man-hours expended by mission teams cannot be measured.
One of the burdens on my heart is that while we have given of our time and resources around the world, there is a real mission field around each and every one of us. Our neighbors and friends around us may have never heard the Gospel message even once, and I'm not talking about the people who have immigrated here in the last few years.
At our State Convention I shared that we must move away from being a denomination and return to our roots as a missionary movement. It was not my intention to imply that our mission efforts outside the United States should stop, only that we have a ready harvest right around us, people waiting to be touched and ministered to.
How long has it been since you led someone to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? How long has it been since the cries of new "spiritual" babies have been heard in the altars of our churches? In fact, some churches no longer have altars.
As you can tell, my heart is heavy...it is heavy with the thought of the millions of people in Tennessee and throughout the United States who NEED to hear the message of hope for their lives. My heart is heavy when we close churches because no one attends. My heart is heavy with the fact that some our of ministers go month-after-month, year-after-year reporting no one "converted" under their ministry. Some churches have gone years without adding even one new member to the local church. As funerals are conducted, as people move off to other areas, churches will die if no one takes their place.
I am pleading with you from a broken heart to join me in prayer and earnest seeking of the Lord for a fresh wind of inspiration to blow through the Church of God of Prophecy. We are in desperate need of the fresh touch of the Holy Spirit among our ministry.
In the next few days, I will be trying to express my heart to each of you who read this blog. I will be bearing my soul with the goal of burying a lackadaisical spirit that tries to find residency in our lives, and sparking a fresh wind of Holy Ghost power among us.
I am confident that we have a huge potential for reaching the Kingdom of God in our communities and yes, even in our churches.
Will you join me in prayer?
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