Participants:
Series Code: GMS
Program Code: GMS001105A
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00:18 Up close and personal ministry, understanding the Jewish faith,
00:23 transformational stories, inspirational music, 00:26 and much more coming up next. 00:32 Just before He went up to heaven, Jesus gave us a command. 00:38 He gave us a mission. 00:40 Jesus said, Go, go unto all the world 00:44 telling them of His love. 00:48 This is our mission. 00:50 This is our global mission. 00:58 Hello, and welcome to the program. 00:59 I'm Gary Krause. Today's program is coming to you from the city 01:03 of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania. 01:06 Of course, Philadelphia means brotherly love; 01:09 a beautiful name for a city. 01:10 And there's another city of Philadelphia referred to in the 01:14 book of Revelation. 01:16 And the angel commends the church there for being faithful 01:21 to God's Word, and for not denying His name. 01:24 Behind me is the original love statue. 01:28 A statue, the idea has caught on and has been multiplied, 01:32 and you'll find this statue in cities all over the world. 01:36 And there's something about love; it multiplies, it grows. 01:40 And on today's program we'll be seeing people in this city 01:43 who are sharing God's love in very practical ways. 01:46 But first up, let's travel to the South Pacific, 01:49 to the islands of Fiji to see one of the projects that has 01:53 benefited from your Thirteenth Sabbath Offerings. 01:56 Each quarter Seventh-day Adventist members around the 02:00 world give to a special mission offering called the 02:02 Thirteenth Sabbath Offering. 02:04 This offering is an opportunity to support mission, 02:07 and touch the hearts of people around the globe. 02:10 And through this quarterly giving 02:11 countless lives have been changed. 02:13 Mission projects have been funded in virtually every 02:16 region of the world. 02:18 Education is a major focus of the 02:21 Seventh-day Adventist Church. 02:22 Instilling Christian values through quality education 02:26 is top priority in Adventist schools. 02:29 In 2009 your Thirteenth Sabbath Offerings went to help relocate 02:34 Fulton College on the island of Fiji to a much needed new campus 02:38 across the island. 02:39 The new campus is everything this school needed to grow, 02:42 and continue to deliver quality education. 02:45 Jonah is a theology student who will be 02:49 graduating from Fulton soon. 02:51 His experience at Fulton transformed his life. 02:54 Jonah was on his own from a young age, struggling to survive 02:58 in a small village. 03:00 Because of negative influences, he started drinking. 03:03 Despite the struggle, God was always tugging at Jonah's heart. 03:07 He began to worry about his future, and called out to God. 03:31 God opened the doors for Jonah to attend Fulton College, 03:34 so he went there with no money, and complete 03:37 uncertainty about his future. 04:12 Now Jonah has a deep connection with God, and his spiritual life 04:16 is continuously growing. 04:18 Other students at Fulton have also experienced spiritual 04:21 growth because of the campuses atmosphere. 04:38 Jonah and other students are grateful for the Adventist 04:41 education they have received at Fulton College. 05:02 The students and faculty at Fulton College thank you 05:06 for your devoted support of the mission offerings. 05:08 This beautiful campus is just one example of the many projects 05:12 that are made possible, thanks to your support. 05:20 My guest is Tara Vancross, who is the lead pastor, and director 05:24 of Reach Columbia Union School of Urban Evangelism. 05:28 And thanks so much for joining us. 05:30 And this is the building where you're doing it at the moment. 05:32 It is, yes. Tara I would like to have a guided tour. 05:35 Can you show me what's happening here? Sure. 05:38 Now we're in the suburbs of Philadelphia, right? 05:41 We're in Philadelphia. 05:42 This is a neighborhood called West Oak Lane, Philadelphia. 05:45 Good, after you. Thank you. 05:48 And here are the students. 05:50 Here are the students sitting. 05:53 And right here in this building, we actually use it for 05:56 so many different things. 05:58 We change over this room and it becomes a tutoring center. 06:01 It's a classroom. It's our worship space on Sabbath. 06:05 And it's the place where we have grocery 06:06 give-away Saturday morning. 06:08 And it's a place where kids come and encounter story time, 06:11 and have all sorts of great arts and crafts, 06:13 and activities that are taking place here, too. 06:15 So we change over this room all the time. 06:17 And I know the students are always this 06:18 quiet and well behaved. 06:20 Always! I'm impressed. 06:21 And is Pastor Dwight Nelson studying here at the moment? 06:25 Yes, we have great guest teachers. 06:30 And so we're just gifted with these incredible people 06:34 to get to come and share with our students. 06:36 Wonderful! What are the sort of things they're learning? 06:39 Oh, so much! We have about half of their time is in academic 06:42 instruction, because they do get academic credit, 06:45 university credit for what they're doing, 06:46 and the other half is in the practical ministry. 06:49 So they're engaged in the community. 06:51 They're thinking up ideas for needs that they meet 06:54 when they're doing community assessments, 06:56 and then they're getting to implement those ideas. 06:58 So it's really cool, because some of the curriculum they've 07:00 designed themselves, because they think through, 07:02 and they think of ideas that are needed, 07:05 and then they get to lead it, too. 07:06 So I'm incredibly proud of this group right here, 07:09 and how God is using them. 07:10 Fantastic! Now it's an urban evangelism school. 07:13 How would that differ from just a straight evangelism school? 07:17 Well, they're were the people are. 07:19 They're right here in this city of six million people. 07:23 It's the fifth largest city in the United States. 07:25 No better place to engage in sharing the good news about 07:28 Jesus Christ than where people live. 07:30 And they get a chance to be able to learn how to 07:32 do that right here. 07:34 Everything from personal Bible studies, to meeting real needs; 07:36 they're bringing it all together right here in this place. 07:39 Right. Now, as you mentioned, this is also a worship center 07:42 on Sabbath, but it's basically a center of influence to the 07:45 community as well. 07:47 What sort of activities do you run here? 07:49 Everything is run right out of this place. 07:51 So on Saturday mornings, actually on Sabbath, before we 07:55 ever gather and worship, right here families are getting food. 07:59 We have donors, like Trader Joe's that donates their food. 08:02 When it's just barely off the shelves, 08:05 we get a chance to receive it. 08:07 And people line up outside the doors to be able to come 08:10 in and to be able to gain that assistance in helping to 08:13 feed their families. 08:14 Then we go into worship on Sabbath. 08:16 Other things that take place here is tutoring from K through 08:20 8th grade in reading and mathematics. 08:22 We have students here learning. 08:24 Education is a huge problem here in our city of Philadelphia, 08:27 so they're able to increase their grades, 08:30 and increase their competence. 08:31 And it's fantastic to see how it changes for them. 08:35 Terrific. What's through this door here? employees only? 08:38 Yes, come on in. Thank you. 08:42 Right back here we have kind of a hub of activity going on. 08:45 We have so many different people that are engaging in making 08:48 sure that ministry happens well here. 08:50 Crystal, Tanya, Jason, who are part of the church, 08:54 the Reach Philadelphia Church staff, as well as Reach Columbia 08:58 Union staff, and really helping to create organization behind 09:02 all that's happening in the Center of Influence. 09:04 Yeah, I now you also have, upstairs I know you have like 09:06 a children's room, etc, but you're pretty cramped here. 09:10 Yes, this space, I mean we could easily use four of these 09:15 with the amount of changes we do in this room, 09:17 and all that has to take place right in this building. 09:20 So we are going to move from here to another building. 09:23 What's the other building we're going to? 09:26 So we purchased an old bar and nightclub. 09:28 And this has a history of being a bar and nightclub 09:32 for six decades, and so we have changed it completely. 09:36 We've actually taken out everything that was inside, 09:39 and now it's going to become six thousand square feet of 09:42 ministry influence for our community. Wonderful! 09:46 So we have four different levels. 09:47 I'll show you all of that when we get over there, 09:48 but we can't wait to get in. 09:50 I'm sure you can't! 09:51 After seeing what we're working with, you know that that's true. 09:54 Wonderful! Well, let's go to the next building 09:56 and see what we can see. 09:58 So, Tara, here we are in the new ministry 10:01 center being renovated. 10:02 Describe what we're seeing here. 10:04 So this is six thousand square feet, 10:06 as opposed to what you just saw. 10:08 That's the most significant difference for us. 10:10 It was a bar and nightclub; and long time bar and nightclub 10:14 in our neighborhood. 10:16 So there was so much that happened here that is 10:18 the opposite of what's going to be happening here now. 10:21 We have the basement, we have next level, next level, 10:24 all the way up: four levels where ministry will be 10:26 happening on every level. 10:28 And the church all pitched in together. 10:30 We have a predominately youth, and young adult church, 10:32 so a lot of young professionals. 10:34 We did the demolition together, and we got a chance to remove 10:38 that which was old; the old lifestyle from the building, 10:41 and being able to see what new was going to take 10:45 place in the building. Wonderful. 10:46 So one of our young professionals was saying, 10:48 as we were busting through these windows, 10:50 because the building had no windows, and it was painted 10:53 all black inside, and we're busting through to get windows 10:57 and light was flooding in, and he said this building used to 11:00 have darkness permeating it, and the people's lives were 11:03 filled with darkness, and now there's light flooding in 11:05 just like there will be light flooding into their lives 11:08 when they encounter Jesus Christ here. Wonderful. 11:10 And I think that sums up what we hope for, and wish for 11:13 with things happening here. 11:15 Wonderful. Now when you talk about the church, 11:17 there is a church that had been planted in this area. Yes. 11:21 And you're caring for that church, but it's very ministry 11:23 focused, trying to reach out to the community, right? 11:26 Definitely. So it's four years old. 11:28 The church is pretty young. Wonderful. 11:30 And the average age is twenty-seven years old. 11:33 So it's young in more ways than one. Yeah. 11:35 And it's been the dream of this young congregation to 11:39 be able to see God continuing to use us. 11:43 We believe that every single person has something to bring 11:46 to the table, so even the first time guest ends up saying to us, 11:50 Like can I get involved in that? 11:51 And so there's this focus on how can we all be a part 11:54 of what's happening? 11:56 So definitely that engagement is huge for us. 11:58 So there'll be space now to worship on Sabbath? Yes. 12:02 But this is not a Sabbath morning center, 12:04 this is a Seventh-day Center. 12:06 It is, definitely yes. 12:07 So right now we're on the floor where we're going to have the 12:10 Urban Evangelism School; so much more space to be able to teach, 12:15 and have students learning academically, 12:17 and applying it practically. 12:19 Downstairs in the lower level we have the tutoring center 12:22 where students will be learning again, in reading and math. 12:25 And we also have workout classes that will take place there. 12:28 We added in a sound studio, so that we can record music, 12:33 pod casts, testimonies. 12:34 And then some of the neighbors want, elders want to share 12:37 their stories, too, so it's a good outreach. Yeah. 12:40 Then we also have the vegan cafe, 12:42 which is a dream of this church. 12:45 So on the same level as where we will worship, 12:47 on the other six days of the week, there's going to be a 12:50 place for people to gather in community, 12:52 to eat wholesome food, to be able to learn about how 12:56 we believe holistically we are called to live. Fantastic! 13:00 So we're pretty excited about it. 13:01 Yeah, wonderful. Now we're on a busy street corner here. 13:04 Just describe the neighborhood that surrounds us. 13:07 So we're in the neighborhood of West Oak Lane. 13:09 And one of the reasons God led us here, first of all, is 13:12 there's not an Adventist church in this neighborhood, 13:16 and there's a lot of young adults in this neighborhood. 13:20 So the demographics also really match for our church. 13:24 And we find that is a great meaningful connection between 13:27 our church members, and the neighborhood, too. 13:29 But we're right up a really popular area center. 13:34 Visible. Very visible. 13:35 So this wall that we're actually looking out the window, 13:38 is going to be our mural wall, so we have it all painted white, 13:41 and it's incredibly visible to all of those driving by, 13:44 and walking by, and taking the bus, that they can look up, 13:47 and be able to see this future mural we're going to create 13:50 together as a church and community. 13:52 Fantastic. Tara thanks so much for sharing with us. 13:55 Thanks for coming. 13:57 Wonderful. And viewers at home, please pray for this initiative, 14:00 this worship center, this church that is focused on putting 14:06 Christ's method of ministry into practice, to connect with 14:10 the community to share God's love. 14:11 We'll be right back after this break. |
Revised 2016-06-20