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Ceres SDA Church

Anil Kanda

Chapterless Life

God wants us to grow as a church and he sets things up So so that we would continue to grow the last 5 6 years that I've been here We have several times come across growth barriers in our church.

In other words, we're growing growing growing.

We're hit a ceiling and then we back off We'll grow grow grow grow again hit a ceiling then we back off and every time we back off we become less and less and Then we have to try again and we grow grow grow grow boom We hit the ceiling then we back off.

God is wanting us to break through these barriers Can you say amen to that and because of it we need to realize that our church needs a what a?

Face lift There's some things that need to change Some things that we need to really examine and evaluate and I'm gonna present some things that are tentative Although we are trying to head towards that direction Look what this is right here.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church boasts 18 million Members worldwide we have now just become 18 million member church, but leaders recently revealed that the denomination has lost 1 in what?

3 members over the last 50 years Additionally for every hundred people the Adventist Church gains it loses what?

43 per 43 previous members a hundred come into the church 43 leave the church a hundred come into the church 43 leave the church here.

We are trying to understand something and that is we have a problem.

A leak in our church, and we need to plug that leak.

According to the research presented at the denomination of the first summit on Nature and Retention Reports Adventist News Network.

Here are some Issues that may be the cause of these leaks or the leaks themselves number 1 There is a lack of ability to retain new converts when we first started doing evangelism here We started having strong retention rates but what happened is over a course of time the retention rates begin to go down and the reason why is because we have filled our church with a lot of new Adventists and many of them have not had the opportunity to mature in faith and take on the Responsibilities and roles of those who came before them.

So we have an old church full of new people number 2, there's a lack of leadership training a Lack of leadership training our leaders need to do more than just learn how to give a Bible study but how to effectively make a community that benefits the whole church and learning how to minister to different groups as well We need to have everything across the table when it comes to groups and different kinds of leaderships We need diversity in leadership as well.

By the way, do you know what the very first small group was in the Bible?

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Our church was built upon small groups, and it's going to end on small groups.

It is the backbone of Seventh-day Adventism.

Number 4, there is a lack of unified evangelism with ministries In other words, we have ministry here ministry their ministry there, but there needs to be a more unified purpose to these things Here's another reason.

There is a lack of safety for baby Christians A lack of what a lack of safety Now heed my words when I say this ladies and gentlemen when new people come into our church We need to make sure we're not jumping into relationships with them.

Amen We need to make sure that they are in safe environments and they actually have Opportunity to grow in Christ before other steps are taken and that is extremely important This is why people sometimes leave the church they get into a relationship.

They don't want to be here who would want to be here not me So we need to understand this that when baby Christians come into our church we need to guard them and make sure they are growing in Christ first and Primarily more than anything else.

There is a lack of community a lack of community when you read about the early church in the book of Acts You find that there was this Unified sense of mission and purpose where there was not just about 5 or 6 doing all the work Everybody did some kind of work and they were more of a family unit more than anything else That's why when you look at the qualifications of elders, the elders are not it doesn't say can they learn how to can they know?

How to give a good board meeting do they know how to lead in song service?

When you look at the qualifications that Paul gives to elders the things are like this Are they a good family man?

In other words, what you are seeing about leadership is that God intended the leadership to be family-oriented, Indicating what kind of body he desired and that was a family oriented body.

Vision the what people perish God sets up the leadership so that we can have a wonderful vision and head towards that vision.

And we've been given the 3 angels message, powerful messages for people who are living at the end of time and we need to make sure that is part of our mission and our mindset and purpose.

In the book of Acts we see a very organized yet very organic yet very organized discipleship model.

The new church was fulfilling its purpose by being a community of believers who were united in purpose and mission.

The growth strategy included prayer, small groups, leadership development, and something unorthodox for the times, a willingness to adapt to meet the needs of a growing movement.

Ladies and gentlemen, as I said before, we are not living in 1980s.

God wants us to be founded upon the Bible and to be able to reach people in a very relevant context without compromising the wonderful truth.

God wants us to have both, to be uncompromising and still learn how to be relevant to the people that are surrounding our church, and that's very important.

4 levels of discipleship that we want to include in our church model, number 1, a commitment to Christ, which means to remain in Christ.

Number 2, commitment to the body of Christ.

And number 4, a commitment to be a lay minister In other words, the fourth thing is different from a third thing.

The third thing is about being a good witness.

The fourth thing is making Disciples who can be other witnesses the greatest mark of a leader ladies and gentlemen is somebody who is able to duplicate himself So if you're praying I want to be a good leader in my church ladies and gentlemen learn to duplicate yourself Learn to make disciples who can take your place that even if you are gone that structure is not going to fall apart And that's extremely important.

Let's take a good look at some possible options for a facelift Number 1 we need a new vision a mission statement and we'll be heading towards this number 2 We will be looking at leadership development number 3 We will have a very intentional plan for Sabbath schools, and I really appreciate our Sabbath schools But we do need more Sabbath schools that can engage people off the street People who have no understanding of the scriptures who have a partial understanding of the scriptures when they come into a Sabbath school They can immediately come into Into what's taking place?

Ken Cox said this that old evangelist he says you want to know why people don't come back from to church it's because they go to Sabbath school that's what he said you know why because there's sometimes people in Sabbath school who choose to fight over little things and miss the bigger picture and understandings of scripture and This is something we need to really start Evaluating and take a good look at new member development and integration.

We want to make sure our new members not only become solid Christians But they're actually integrated into the body Number 5 we want to make sure small groups become the earmark of series and we have multiple small groups already taking place But to have even more our church needs to be known for small groups In fact Ellen White says that we have been given counsel by 1 who cannot air about Small groups and you want to know the funny thing is The other Christians are already ahead of us in this The other Christians are already ahead of this and that's why their mega churches are exploding because they're implementing What's already been given to us about hundred years plus now look at the next thing possible new first name for series SDA now just hold on for a second there You're thinking yourself.

We're gonna change the name of series SDA No, we are not seventh day Adventism is a special name a rebuke to the Protestant world God has given us that holy name and it indicates our mission and what we believe in.

But we as a church do not have a first name.

Did you know that Ellen White was actually part of naming a church?

It was called the dime tabernacle seventh-day Adventist Church When they were looking to name a church, they based it upon the character by which that church was built up Do you know what supplied the money for the church or how much or how people were supplying the money for that church.

So she called it the, she helped, was part of that naming her and her son the Dime Tabernacle Seventh-day Adventist Church.

All we are known as, as Siri's Seventh-day Adventist Church.

We need to start praying about a possible first name that would characterize our church In fact when I drive by the Modesto Mormon Church, you know What is that what the only thing I believe about that Mormon Church when I drive by when I think about who's in there, only Mormons.

When I drive by the Modesto Mormon, no, no, no, the Modesto Mormon Church, I stop myself there.

Gotcha, got it now, okay, Okay, praise the Lord for his angels, right when I drive by the Modesto Mormon Church I only think to myself there are Mormons in that church and that's all and So there's not this sort of mission or this characteristic that is drawing people There we need a first name to our church and this is part of a facelift It's not compromising our last name and who we are that is a special name But we need to start praying about this as we're looking at a possible facelift and more community outreach focus By the way, you want to know what it was our most number 1 attended event last year It was our Halloween event We did an alternative to Halloween Amy Jones and some of our family and friends let out in that and we had so much Attendance people coming off the street you want to know why Because they were looking for a safe alternative to Halloween.

You know what else we had a lot of people come to?

And then we did the baptismal call at the end?

That had community people come out to that.

Ladies and gentlemen, God is wanting us to go not just beyond just do evangelism, we need to keep doing that, but also to extend it to a community outreach so that the people know us for more than just prophecy, but good works.

And so as we're thinking and praying about a possible facelift, we need to start really asking Jesus What are you calling us to do?

God is a great master worker and by his providence He prepares the way for his work to be accomplished.

This is powerful He provides Opportunities opens up lines of influences and channels of working if his people are what?

Watching the indications of his providence and stand ready to cooperate with him.

They will see a great work accomplished their efforts This is powerful rightly directed will produce a hundredfold greater results then can be accomplished with the same means and what facilities in another Channel where God is known is not so manifestly working in other words We can receive a hundredfold blessing than we've had so far If we are watching for indications of His providences and seeing the direction that He is leading our church, ladies and gentlemen, God wants us to be aware of these things.

Number 2 is this, before we jump into our sermon, I'm going 90 miles an hour because I know we don't got too much time, and that is this, people have to question about church planning.

When are we actually gonna plan a church?

Here's the thing in evaluating church planning and our prospects the last 2 years We've come to some very interesting conclusions and that is this there is a place more ripe than Houston, California and that is Patterson, California Patterson actually has 3 times the amount of population that there's present in the city of Houston The closest Adventist Church is us and that's 30 to 40 minutes away Patterson is right off the 5 freeway.

I mean it is gigantic an Amazon warehouse That has opened up thousands of jobs ladies and gentlemen and as we're looking at what's taking place in Patterson It is remarkable And we really feel that God is opening the doors in that direction Houston we're not giving up on Houston, but Houston is right in the middle of a triangle ad triangle of Adventist churches That means 5 to 10 minutes.

You can be at any Adventist Church But the city of panderson you have to drive literally 30 to 40 minutes away To find an adventist church.

I don't might say this right here new territories are to be worked by men inspired by the Holy Spirit New churches must be what?

Established new congregations organized at this time.

There should be representatives of present truth in every what?

City and in the remote parts of the earth and by the way We don't want just build a church there by God's grace We want to take it the next level to produce something that's never been done before And this is only going to take place when God's people are praying The Bible says that Who can lead us into the strong city?

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