Positioning the Church of God To Fulfill Her Call
Church of God General Overseer Mark Williams recently delivered an address to the International Executive Council, outlining the mission and vision for the Church of God.
The following is the address as presented on September 25, 2012, the opening day of session for the 2012-2014 Executive Council:
Williams
The mission of the Church of God is to communicate the full gospel of Jesus Christ in the Spirit and power of Pentecost. At the heart of that mission are seven core values: Prayer, Pentecostal Worship, World Evangelization, Church Planting, Leadership Development, Care and Interdependence.
The vision of our Church arises from our understanding of what the Sovereign God purposes to do for and through His Church. The Great Commission remains our mandate from Jesus Christ.
The Church of God is to be:
1. A movement committed to the authority of Holy Scripture for faith and direction.
2. A fellowship whose worship brings God’s power into the life of the church and extends that power through the lives of believers into the marketplace of life.
3. A body that is directed by the Spirit, fully understanding that the baptism in the Holy Spirit is both a personal blessing and an endowment of power for witness and service in fulfilling the Great Commission.
4. A people who hunger for God, experience the presence of God, and stand in awe of His holiness as He changes believers into conformity with Christ.
5. A New Testament church which focuses on the local congregation where the pastor nurtures and leads all members to exercise spiritual gifts in ministry.
6. A church that loves all peoples and stands opposed to any action or policy that discriminates against any group or individual because of race, color, or nationality.
7. A movement that exercises love and concern for the hurts and loneliness of the unsaved through aggressive evangelistic, discipling and nurturing ministries.
8. A church that is Christ-centered, people-oriented, and need-sensitive in all its programs and ministries.
9. A movement that promotes policies and ministries that reflect an open, sincere effort to remain relevant to each generation.
This vision and mission, these core values did not originate with me, but represent the hopes and dreams of a people searching the Scripture, sitting together as the Church of God.
The questions we will face during our four years together will be, What decisions need to be made to position this Church, the Church of God, to effectively and faithfully fulfill its call? What priorities must be embraced to see the Church attract the hopes and dreams of a new generation of believers? What will it take to implement a push into the final frontiers of soul-winning and discipleship? What are the non-negotiables? What are we willing to die for? What about the poor? What about the disenfranchised? What about those who are being abused and sold into slavery? In short, Can our kind of Church reach our kind of World?
The kind of world we live in today is drastically different from the world of our parents and grandparents. The population of today’s world has exploded to some 6.9 billion people. Those 6.9 billion people are scattered into 4,300 metropolises, 21 mega cities, towns and villages all over the planet. One out of seven people in the world go to bed hungry every night. One-third of the world is starving. Much of the rest of the world lives with emptiness and meaninglessness.
Globally the world lives under a tyranny of terror. Threats of nuclear and biological terrorism are a real and frightening possibility. The global economy has reached such a level of interdependence that a severe downturn in one country can affect economic security in another overnight. Modern business leaders are now expected to peer into the turbulent economic future and make necessary adjustments to avoid disaster for their companies. The digitalized nature of this century has created increasing expectations among people we are called upon to lead, making this unrelenting advance of communication technology both a blessing and a curse. While the Information Age has given leaders many new tools with which to lead, it has also placed heavy demands on leaders, demands previous generations of leaders never faced.
We look to many places of the world and definitely see God at work! We see Him working and moving in unprecedented ways in places like Latin America, parts of Asia, especially Indonesia and the Philippines, and parts of Africa. The epicenter of Christianity is definitely moving south into the Southern Hemisphere. However, in many countries the Church is being persecuted and is trying to survive in a hostile environment. In the developed countries, the Church finds itself increasingly marginalized and alienated from society. North America seems to be one of the few places in the world where the Church at large is not growing.
True to prophetic prediction, on the one hand we see revival, we also see an increased secularization and even apostasy. Gone are the days of the enlightenment. Enter a world where, in the words of French Philosopher Jean Francois Lyotard in his book The Post-Modern Mind, “there is no one story whether told by Moses, Marx, or MTV that can explain the human condition”. It is a world that has embraced secular humanism, moral relativism, and denies the existence of absolute truth. It is a world that regularly constructs multiple plausibility structures and invokes the impossibility of objective interpretation. It is a world where power has shifted to those who control information. It is a world where truth has been regulated to technology and beauty has been subjected to the eye of the beholder. It is a world where feelings have become synonymous with being. It is a world where philosophy has shifted to the existential; education has shifted to the skeptical; the arts have shifted to the sensual; and man has shifted to the transcendental, believing that he/she is his/her own god and has no need of redemption.
Yet, it is for such a time as this and into a world such as ours that you and I have been called to lead, to stand and to proclaim, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for He hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4: 18,19 KJV).
I do not believe for a moment that God is finished with the Church of God. I do not believe for a moment that the best days of our movement are behind us. I believe the best is yet to come. But it will take spiritual discernment and courage to face challenges and push forward to lay hold upon that for which Christ has laid hold upon us.
As we begin our journey together the Executive Committee and I believe there are at least 5 points of emphasis that over the next four years we must turn our attention to.
The first of these emphases is Scripture. I believe the Lord is calling upon us to renew our commitment to the centrality of Scripture for both faith and practice. We live in a day of Scriptural illiteracy and innocence. It is a day of unbiblical individualism and privatized spirituality. The spirit of antichrist is at work. And because we as a movement have become slow to develop a standardized, measurable plan for discipleship, our Church is vulnerable to false doctrine and teaching. That’s why I feel so compelled to call our Church to renew its passion to learn, love and live Scripture.
Next week, the International Executive Committee is launching an initiative to mobilize 100,000 people in our movement to read the Scripture daily in 2013. We are calling this initiative READ. The letters of the word “READ” summarize the objective. As we read we want to:
R – Reflect
E – Engage
A – Apply
D – Disciple
In short, we want to read Scripture that we might encounter God in a life-transforming way, and take what we learn to teach others to become fully committed followers of Jesus Christ.
Additionally, I will call upon pastors to organize their congregations to corporately read thru Scripture aloud during the first seven days of January. I believe this reading the Scripture into the atmosphere will spiritually set the stage for a Christ awakening to occur in our movement.
Tyndale Publishers is partnering with us in this effort to make reading guides and promotional materials available to our churches, free of charge, in an easy to use, downloadable format. There will be posters, reading guides, bulletin inserts.
The Second point of emphasis for our journey will be Students. I am burdened for a new generation to rise up in the Church of God. I am burdened to see our sons and daughters take their place in the body of Christ. I want to see a youth revival sweep our Church. I want to see the passion of youth intersect with the mission of God. I want to see us raise up a Samuel and Joshua generation.
Specifically, I want us to go after the millineals and the 4/14 window – one of the largest unreached people groups in the world. We must Ground them in a Christ-centered relational world view, empower them in a transforming Christ-like faith, and unleash them to live out Christ’s life in the world.
A third point of emphasis will be Shepherds. Today, Shepherds are called upon to carry out the mission of God in an age of religious pluralism and materialistic world views. It is a day when the church and it’s message is being marginalized. Those coming to Jesus today have little or no exposure to Christianity and will face increasing pressure from family and even persecution from coworkers for making a decision to follow Christ. Families are being redefined. People are historically dislocated. It is an age of addiction, and pastors face intense spiritual warfare almost as never before. For this reason the Church of God must give priority to affirming, resourcing, training and caring for its Shepherds.
Next week, a new resource will be introduced for pastoral ministry. Dr. Paul Walker along with Pathway Press is debuting a new video series titled, “As One Approved”. This series will feature a contemporary look at Pastoral Ministry the issues they face.
Further, USA Missions will be tasked with strengthening small churches and the Division of Education with developing a competent and adequate labor force.
A fourth point will be Cities/Church Planting. The International Executive Committee and USA Missions has entered into a strategic alliance with World Missions to create a Global Plan for Urban Evangelism and Church Planting, including the United States. Our goal is to the major cities of the world for Kingdom Expansion.
A fifth point will be Social Justice. The Church of God must regain its prophetic voice and speak to the social ills of our day, such as abortion, pornography, human trafficking, and the sexual exploitation of children.
I need to point out that these points of emphasis will not necessarily be linear in application will rather will overlap and some them concurrent throughout the four years we are together.
The responsibility for change lies with us. The process must begin within us not to close our minds prematurely to the shock of new ideas and the surprise of radical redesign.
Above all, it means actually beginning a process of meaningful reconstruction now.
Now, while the opportunity is so great.
Now, while the need is so urgent.
Now, while the window is still open.
