Your mission
offerings at work in Europe,
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the story of a
pioneer missionary
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and mission right here in Maine,
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in the United
States coming up next.
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Hello and
welcome to Mission 360,
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I'm Gary Krause.
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Today's program is coming to you
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from the city of Lewiston,
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in the state of
Maine in the United States.
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Lewiston is the
state's second largest city
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which doesn't make
it a very big city,
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but there was no Seventh-day
Adventist Church here.
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And church leaders saw the need
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and they put a plan in place
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and many
laypeople living in the area
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came to run
seminar and activities
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and health programs
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operating out
of an old Pizza Hut
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on the main road
leading into the city.
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They had a cafe and from this,
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a small group was
planted and now it's grown till
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it's
overflowing and it's too big
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for the building
in which it's in.
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What we're gonna be
looking at more mission
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here in the United
States and around the world,
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but first up,
let's travel to Europe
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to see your 13th
Sabbath offerings in action.
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There were no kids
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in the Sofia West
Church in Bulgaria.
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Fast forward five years
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and children
enter a whole new world
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with arts and crafts.
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Sofia is Bulgaria's
capital and largest city.
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It's a modern and dynamic place
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with more than a million people.
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Here you find relaxing parks,
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convenient trams and
exquisite architecture.
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Unlike most of the
buildings in Sofia,
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this structure looks
plain on the outside,
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but in a small
rented place inside,
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it looks completely different.
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Lyubka, a member
of Sofia West Church
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has dedicated her time to
reaching out to these kids.
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Together with
volunteers from the church,
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she meets the children
at least twice a month.
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Aside from the crafts,
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they also teach
the children about
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life, family,
education and health.
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We teach them good values
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and they enjoy a
lot in our activities.
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I think that in
order to introduce Jesus,
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we should also have
hearts like children.
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The main idea is to
be able to reach people,
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especially to
their social needs.
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Not directly in terms of
faith and religious ideas,
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but rather
interacting with children,
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solving family problems,
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teaching them about
the importance of health,
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building connections, and
establishing relationships.
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The project was
aptly named, Create Future.
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A place where the
church can foster children
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and young adults
to be future leaders,
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but that doesn't
mean that the activities
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are only for
young boys and girls.
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Create Future aims
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to attract kids
and form a Bible group,
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but the kids are so happy
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that they get
their parents interested
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in what we are doing.
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We can't turn their parents away
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and say that
this is just for kids.
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So we work with parents as well.
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Everyone works together
to do something meaningful
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and the masterpieces
are sold to raise funds
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to help those in need.
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Create Future is teaching people
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to be selfless and to
serve their neighbors.
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Through Create Future
we can show the society,
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our neighbors,
the people around us,
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that we care for them,
that our faith in Jesus
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is inspiring us
to love everyone.
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Through actions
rather than empty words,
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we can bring people to Jesus.
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Through the activities,
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Create Future participants
grow closer to each other.
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Lyubka feels like a
mother to the children.
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They're like her family.
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I sincerely ask
God to be with us
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because I am convinced that
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what God can do
is a lot more than
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what merely humans can do.
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The church that
started without kids,
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now has 20 attending regularly.
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And through them more people,
both young and old are invited.
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Your 13th Sabbath offering
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will help build
a children's center
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and worship hall in Sofia.
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The new facility
will allow this church
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to reach out to more people.
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Let's pray for
our friends in Sofia
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as they establish
meaningful relationships
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with their community
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and thanks for your support
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of the 13th Sabbath offering.
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My guest is Scott Christiansen,
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who is the evangelist
and communication director
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for the Northern
New England Conference.
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Scott, thanks so
much for joining me.
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It's my pleasure.
It's my pleasure, Gary.
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Now, describe for us
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the Northern New
England Conference,
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what does it entail?
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Well, it entails three
states and not that many people.
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Okay.
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There are churches
in Southern California
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that are bigger than
our entire conference.
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So we've got
Vermont, and New Hampshire,
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and Maine, which between them
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I think have a total population
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of somewhere around
5 million at the most.
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No, 4, I'm sorry, 4
million at the most.
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And in those 3
states we've got about
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5,500 church members.
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These states are,
tend to, tend to skew old,
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they tend to skew white.
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There's not enough diversity
here but we're working on that,
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and they tend to skew
culturally conservative.
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Okay.
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So that's the
state and our church
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is a reflection of
that except for one thing.
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These states are the
most post-Christian place
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in the entire
United States of America.
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Actually in the entire
North American division,
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and the church
does not reflect that,
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but we are
pushing hard against that
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and trying to proclaim
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our important
message at this time.
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So as you face
this real mission field,
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because it is a mission field.
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Tell us about the
church planting strategy
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that you've prayed
through and planned through?
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We have I think
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what could only be
called a very aggressive
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planting strategy
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and it works on
a couple of levels.
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We've got
standard traditional plans
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where a mother church
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has given birth
to a daughter church.
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We have those, we
have startup church plants
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such as with our
Ark congregation here,
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where a group came
together and really worked hard
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and developed a congregation.
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In addition to that
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though we've got a
very interesting project
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where we are recruiting
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faithful young
people from across,
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actually across the
world, asking them to move here
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on a tent making basis,
training them, equipping them,
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supporting them, guiding
them but these young people,
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we form them into
teams and they live in a,
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what might be called
a missional community.
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A very purpose oriented
group in terms of reaching out
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to their communities
and gathering together
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a group of seekers,
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people that are
spiritually interested
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and spiritually open.
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And moving them
to a relationship
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and the knowledge of Christ.
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And I have to
underscore, you know,
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we think of
evangelism as taking someone
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to the decision point.
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And traditionally it has been.
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But when their knowledge
and cultural familiarity
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with
Christianity is close to zero,
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that moving people
to a decision point
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is tremendous
change that takes time.
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Whereas quite often,
in evangelism in the past,
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there has been a smaller change.
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From Christian to our
variety of Christians.
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Yes, yes, exactly.
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And from a
cultural understanding
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and biblical familiarity
and those sorts of things.
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This is a huge life change now
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and we have to
approach it with caution,
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not so much caution
as careful intentionality
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and not too fast.
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Right.
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So we're talking to huge change
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for the people
that are involved.
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So when you use
the word tent making,
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you are talking about
these young people coming,
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finding their own
work, their own jobs,
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but they come
with a larger intent
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and that is to help
build a community of faith.
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You know, it's fascinating,
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we recruit and we talk to people
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and say, okay,
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we have a
horrible offer for you.
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You pay your own way here,
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you find your own job,
there's no real security.
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We train you,
you work really hard
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at your own job,
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you work really
hard at your mission
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and there's gonna
be a high failure rate
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and a lot of
people that you think
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you're bringing to Christ,
it's gonna be heartbreaking
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but in the end you'll
probably build a church.
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That's our offer,
what do you think?
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And a
surprising number of people
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say yes because,
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then they only say
because God calls them.
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Right.
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Well that's a blessing. Amen.
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Now another innovative
thing that's happening here
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is you're looking
for a digital pastor.
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What's it all about?
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Well, that's part of a strategy.
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Now, let's just, let's just...
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Let's just admit that
our church planting strategy
00:09:48.15\00:09:51.69
with tent makers
is an experiment.
00:09:51.72\00:09:56.29
So now we have an experiment
within that experiment,
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where we are recruiting
00:10:00.53\00:10:03.70
a digital
pastor and having them.
00:10:03.73\00:10:08.97
Sorry, what is a digital pastor?
00:10:09.00\00:10:10.51
A digital pastor is someone
who forms an internet church.
00:10:10.54\00:10:13.44
Okay.
00:10:13.48\00:10:14.81
So, here the members of a church
00:10:14.84\00:10:17.31
of a digital
pastor would be someone
00:10:17.35\00:10:19.15
who goes their YouTube site,
00:10:19.18\00:10:21.32
at least once a month
and gains spiritual knowledge
00:10:21.35\00:10:25.02
and strength and a beginning,
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a beginning relationship
with Christ from that site.
00:10:27.19\00:10:30.09
So, you know the
pastor in most cases
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wouldn't even meet
his or her members.
00:10:33.13\00:10:36.97
Well, a digital
church could have members
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from all over the world.
00:10:40.20\00:10:42.04
So we're recruiting right now
and we think we're talking to
00:10:42.07\00:10:44.67
some amazing people
00:10:44.71\00:10:46.88
and we're
saying okay, come here,
00:10:46.91\00:10:48.48
same deal, we can
hardly pay you anything,
00:10:48.51\00:10:50.98
you're gonna work really hard,
00:10:51.01\00:10:53.25
but we want you to
build a digital church,
00:10:53.28\00:10:56.02
have thousands of
members all over the world,
00:10:56.05\00:10:58.49
and we want to
invest in trying to have
00:10:58.52\00:11:02.06
as many of your
members as possible
00:11:02.09\00:11:03.76
from Northern New England.
00:11:03.79\00:11:05.79
And then we want
you to hold meetups.
00:11:05.83\00:11:08.76
We want you to go around
places in Northern New England,
00:11:08.80\00:11:12.77
and we want you to
invite your members
00:11:12.80\00:11:16.44
to meet you face to face.
00:11:16.47\00:11:18.01
And when you go
to various places,
00:11:18.04\00:11:19.77
we want you to meet those,
00:11:19.81\00:11:21.58
meet your members with
our church planting teams.
00:11:21.61\00:11:25.48
We want to try and
transition digital members
00:11:25.51\00:11:29.55
into a physical,
spiritual seeking community.
00:11:29.58\00:11:33.15
That's nice.
00:11:33.19\00:11:34.52
And have a pipe way,
00:11:34.56\00:11:35.96
so people who
go on the internet,
00:11:35.99\00:11:38.23
out of curiosity,
then end up, some of them,
00:11:38.26\00:11:41.60
a few of them in
actual fellowship
00:11:41.63\00:11:44.60
and eventually
actual church members
00:11:44.63\00:11:47.64
in the
Seventh-day Adventist Church,
00:11:47.67\00:11:49.10
proclaiming the
soon coming of Christ.
00:11:49.14\00:11:51.27
Fantastic.
00:11:51.31\00:11:52.81
I wish we had more
time to talk about this,
00:11:52.84\00:11:54.61
but God bless you
in what you're doing.
00:11:54.64\00:11:56.18
Thank you,
Gary, I appreciate it.
00:11:56.21\00:11:57.55
Our viewers at home,
pray for the mission field
00:11:57.58\00:11:59.81
that is the Northern
New England Conference.
00:11:59.85\00:12:01.68
God has given tremendous
ideas, creative thoughts
00:12:01.72\00:12:05.52
and it looks like
He's also providing people
00:12:05.55\00:12:08.22
to meet these needs.
00:12:08.26\00:12:10.03
Please pray for them
this will develop that
00:12:10.06\00:12:11.79
the Kingdom of
God will be expanded
00:12:11.83\00:12:13.46
in these territories.
00:12:13.50\00:12:14.83
We'll be right
back after this break.
00:12:14.86\00:12:16.67