A Global Calling New Life Missions Conference: Feb. 10-13

“Can you just explain to me why this is important?” “Well, it’s part of our calling as Christians and as a church.” “Yes, I understand that, but there’s so much work to be done right here.”  “Oh don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying that this should be the first or only priority of the church. I’m just saying that our church should place a high value on missions, sending teams and individuals on short- and long-term trips and supporting missionaries around the world.” “Yes, I understand that, but I don’t agree!”

It may surprise you to know that this type of conversation is rather common for churches like ours in a rural area and closely connected with their community. Perhaps even worse, this conversation might not surprise you at all. In fact, you might even agree with it.

Right now you may be getting defensive, or you may be thinking to yourself “Preach it, brother!” Regardless of how the concept of foreign missions causes you to react, we as Christians must come to terms with these facts: 1) recent statistics show that the Christian church in United States is stagnant and starting to decline, 2) the Christian church in United States is losing an average of 3,000 churches a year, and 3) the Christian church in other countries is becoming so vibrant that they are starting to send church planters and missionaries to the United States to evangelize and to start revival.

The Francis A. Schaeffer Institute conducted a survey where they studied the growth of forty-four churches over the course of fifteen years; and while many factors influenced the churches’ growth and failures, all the churches in the top 40% were heavily missions minded.

With this in mind, I would like to strongly encourage you, brothers and sisters, to come to New Life’s second annual missions conference, February 10–13. During the conference we will have the immense privilege of getting to hear from the Pfeils, a missionary family we support working in Japan. We will hear from some of the Campus Crusade staff from New Life about their experiences with (and the importance of) missions, and we will get to enjoy foods and displays from various countries and missionaries.

There will also be a special program for the children where they will get to experience what it is like to travel to other countries and learn about what God is doing there as well as play games and activities related to that culture. It will be a really fun and exciting time of celebrating the universality of the gospel and the God we worship, as well as fellowship with our congregation and brothers and sisters serving Christ from all around the world.

It is important for us to realize that while we have a duty and a calling to our people and our communities, we also have an international calling and role as the bride of Christ. Kingdom work is a global calling not just an individual role.

In Him,

Adam Delaplane