Looking Ahead To The Next Era

Last week the Johannesburg Church celebrated its 25th anniversary. God has done amazing things on the continent of Africa through our churches. The Jo'burg church was the first of our churches to be planted on the african continent and now there are over 70 churches with over 10,000 disciples. It was a great moment to reflect on what God has done. Justin and I also appointed Cornelius Xulu as our newest evangelist. Cornelius grew up in Soweto and has been an inspiration to the whole church as a great example of a God-reliant and humble man of God.

Today, I preached a sermon entitled "Looking Ahead To The New Era." What will it take for our church to continue forward for the next 25 years? We have seen many victories but we have also seen God's discipline and many casualties. Are we able to learn from all of it and keep our dreams? What should our dreams look like in this second generation?

The southern african geographic family of churches covers twelve nations. We only have nineteen churches in these twelve nations so far and only seven are led by full time ministers. We need to raise up many more evangelists. We need to plant many more churches. We need many more men and women to go into the ministry.

We need more elders, deacons, Bible Talk leaders, and staff members. We have only begun to see the beginning of reaching the lost. South Africa has eleven official languages. How will we take the gospel to people that speak native tongues that are not english? South Africa has the second highest HIV/AIDS rate in the world. What impact will our church make? South Africa also has a 40% unemployment rate. We cannot change the world without serving the poor.

We have only begun to dream.

We have only begun to see what God will do.

We have a daunting task ahead of us but God has already shown us His desire to work through us.

We must live for what we do not see.

We must remain in the vine.

We must dig deep to kindle the fires of motivation.

I believe that in 25 years, we will once again stand in awe at what God has done.