Going through old notes and files is good to stir my memory for what I wanted to accomplish by coming back to the USA. I felt very convicted as I read this and hope to do better at putting it into practice
The pastor and the leadership of our church do hereby commit themselves to whole heartedly to endeavor with God’s help to do the following as soon as possible
1. Work at evangelizing the world in their Jerusalem by committing to knock on and evangelize a minimum of 50,000 people that live close to their church at least twice a year
a. That means knocking on a minimum of 13,000 doors at least once each year and preferably twice a year in a systematic and organized fashion leaving a piece of literature in the house or on the door. This works out to approximately 250 doors a week if you plan to use another means to get the gospel to your area in the same year
b. Use the postal service or other means to get the gospel to each one at least one more time a year
c. Use radio, television and or Internet to reach their Jerusalem with the gospel.
2. Commit to have their church divided up and organized to pray to the Lord of the Harvest that he send forth laborers to His harvest.
a. Every part of the world will have leadership interest in prayer
b. Every missionary will have someone who takes a personal interest in the work and the country
3. The church will organize its ministries so that World Evangelism is taught and put before the people every week through the church, the pulpit, the Sunday School, VBS etc
4. The Church will strive to give 50% of its income to the support of World Evangelism as soon as God so enables them.
5. The church will commit to be a discipling church. Where discipleship is important from the pulpit, every person is involved in discipleship and being prepared for the work
6. The church will encourage, enable and motivate its people with a goal of having a minimum of one third of the church on the mission field and visit regularly getting involved in actual mission work. Short term missionary endeavor
7. Be a soul winning church where the members are accustomed to seeing people get saved and lives changed
8. Provide material to its members that will motivate and prepare them to do more to reach the world
9. Get everyone involved in the ministry and carrying the load of God’s work in their local church. Preparing men to take the load of the ministry even to the point of preparing a man with the ability to take the pastors place in the future
10. Aggressively seek to plant other local churches here in the USA sending their own members, money, prayer, and labor.
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These goals are BIG goals; our community doesn’t have enough doors to hit 250 a week for one year. 50% of the church’s income to World Evangelsim? Wow! I believe that sharing the Gospel message is the most important work for Christians to be doing. On that I hope we all agree. There are some things (like whether you know Christ) that will matter for all eternity, and others… not so much.
I believe that no matter where we are we need to find ways to reach as many as we can. I realize that many communities are small and thank God that you are ministering faithfully in a place like that.
It will be a long time before we at Vision will be able to get to 50% but it is still my prayer and goal. I so agree with you–we must get the gospel to as many as we can