A year ago, you told us about your plan to launch a decade of mission for Elim, then the pandemic struck. As we emerge from it, is this still your vision?
Yes. At the beginning of 2020 I sensed that Elim needed to advance in terms of radical mission and discipleship and I still believe God wants us to do this. Towards the end of 2020, the National Leadership Team felt reminded that God was speaking to us about going afresh into a decade of mission.
Elim churches are really diverse, so to help them do that we established four priorities last year that remain just as relevant now: we want to make disciples – mature men and women of faith who are going to grow, be fruitful and live life for Jesus in every sphere. We want to develop leaders – not just pastors, but people in all areas of ministry; we want to plant and grow healthy churches; and we want to reach the nations.
That’s our priority for the next decade and we want to work with our churches to help them achieve this.
Can you give an example of how you’re supporting churches and leaders to develop in these ways?
We have an initiative for Easter, Really Good News, which is a strategic gospel push that invites people to have a fresh encounter with Jesus. It’s in three parts and is headed up by our evangelist Mark Greenwood, who has been focusing on creating online resources for churches over the past year.
For the build-up to Easter, his team produced 30 or so daily video testimonies, telling short, varied stories about how Jesus has changed people’s lives.
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