So what's different?
We put together a team to establish a new global vision and direction for our church. They were some of the most spiritually passionate people I know. God was truly the initiator in all of this, and in a very real sense we felt then and now like we can hardly keep up with him and the doors he is opening. We have embarked on some kind of crazy-holy adventure, where our church could actually become a place to reach the nations. Scripturally, we embraced Acts 1:8 and the Antioch church example for ourselves.
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Members came to me about the need to do something to lead our church into a true global vision |
We began to regularly profile missions work in our worship services. We put missions into the budget and developed a plan for future international campuses of our church in two key global cities. We are beginning to take trips to these cities, and are also looking to partner with our cluster missionaries in greater and seamless ways.
Our short-term mission trips have increased (about 40 people went on 20 different trips in the last three years). We developed a global prayer base with over 50 intercessors who pray regularly for our international work. Locally, I was invited to preach the gospel to 200 Muslims and this has now led us to host an annual province-wide prayer rally for the people of Islam everywhere in our world.
Last summer, we partnered with Place of Rescue in Cambodia (Marie Enns) and raised $100,000 to build a school and two houses for AIDS orphans. As I write, our youth are gearing up to go on a missions trip to Mexico. At our Annual Meeting, our members approved a budget increasing our giving to the Global Advance Fund, reaching a tithe portion. To strengthen our local outreach, we launched a mission work called the CREW to be the hands and feet of Christ in our city. Over the next 12 months, we are trusting God as we launch our 5th S (Sea to Sea) plans by starting two new campuses in our city aimed at two distinct tribal and cultural groups in Airdrie that we have been unable to reach in the past.
God has fanned something into a flame at Airdrie Alliance Church and we are amazed by it. This mission to me is now tangible, real, and something we work on every day. The motivation for being involved in it is desire and not just obligation. And we see it as God?s mission, not ours.
The thing the Lord did in the heart of this reluctant pastor is something he alone could do. And if he did it for me, he can do it for others. We, in our local churches, are the missionary team, linking with others across the street and around the globe to reach a lost and broken world.
Sandy Isfeld is Senior Pastor at Airdrie Alliance Church, Alberta
and will be one of the guest speakers at Assembly 2010
