I don’t have three year, five year or ten year
plan. I never had and I don’t think I ever will. It’s because I am not a
visionary and the future is in God’s hands. As I look back the past 21 plus
years of New Life’s ministry and history, I think I have tried to be faithful
in doing what I am called to do one day, one week, one month and at most one
year at a time.
Just recently, however, I have sensed God impressing
upon my heart with this thought, “Eric, I want you to challenge your house
church shepherds and members to go all out in reaching out to VIPs so that in
three years all your house churches will be able to multiply!” And He gave me
two specific verses from the Bible with the appropriate and fitting
explanations.
The first verse is Luke 10:2.
“The harvest is plentiful, but the
workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest,
therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
The second verse is Romans 15:19-21.
“So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum,
I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ. It has always been my
ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I
would not be building on someone else’s foundation. Rather, as it is written,
‘Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will
understand.’”
Through these verses, God has reminded me once
again that:
- Reaching out to our VIPs
passionately and compassionately to increase God’s kingdom instead of
going after those who are already churched and saved to grow the size of
our church is God’s will and He is deeply pleased with it
- There are plenty of VIPs near
us who need and want to be reached out to by us and whom God wants to see in
heaven
- If we pray to God asking Him
to use us as His harvesters bringing in the VIPs to His kingdom, He will
gladly do it
- If we faithfully do our part in
doing God’s will, all current 76 house churches can multiply in three
years!
If you know how to read anything accurately and
critically, you will come up with the same observation and conclusion that I have
made above after reading the verses that God has brought to my attention except
for the “three years” in the last statement. However, I realize that even the “three
years” are connected to the word “ambition” in Romans 15:20. Paul had the
ambition of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth, and
to him, at that time in history, the ends of the earth was Spain. Paul had the
ambition to travel to Spain to preach Jesus. But the history tells us that he
never made it there.
Therefore, there is nothing wrong with having this
kind of God-pleasing ambition, the ambition of passionately and compassionately
reaching out to our VIPs so that in three years, all 76 house churches here at
New Life will multiply making the total number of our house churches 152! God
is willing and able to help us to accomplish this. The big question is, “Will
we embrace this challenge and do the work that is necessary to see this happen
at New Life by the end of 2021?”
If every current house church makes it an annual
goal to reach out to just one VIP family or two singles and help them come to
know Christ through RJM and become members of New Life through Class 101, then
in three years, all of our house churches will be able to multiply. And I can’t
even imagine how joyful we will be if we get to witness all these right before
our own eyes! And for sure, God will be greatly pleased with this!
“I tell you that in the same way there will be more
rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine
righteous persons who do not need to repent.” (Luke 15:7)
New Life, let’s take this challenge from God and
press on! He will help us fulfill this!
Your pastor,
Eric
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