Ministers and members are launching efforts to implement Pastor General Joseph Tkach's goals for the church in 1997. (See the Jan. 21 Worldwide News.)
In this issue we cover what the churches are doing in Upstate New York, Pennsylvania and Southern California.
Regional pastor Ken Williams conducted two meetings, one for ministers in New York, Jan. 9, and another for ministers in Pennsylvania, Jan. 21.
The ministers discussed the goal for the church to have a trained, Spirit-led, resident pastor in every church to equip members for Christian service as the Spirit has gifted them.
By the end of the year Mr. Tkach wants to have no church circuits larger than two churches, and to have 35 percent of the churches served by a pastor who has only one congregation.
Each church in Upstate New York has candidates who are thinking about applying for lay pastor training. Some have already applied.
Randy Bloom, pastor of the Syracuse and Utica churches, is training church leaders in pastoral work and looking for candidates for lay pastors.
Oleh Kubik, pastor of the Binghamton and Elmira churches, said he looks for leaders who have Bible knowledge, are broken in spirit and have people skills. Good candidates, Oleh said, are those who know that the gifts they have were given to them by God's grace.
Ken asked the pastors to acknowledge the gifts given to brethren by putting them to work in the ministries they appear to be gifted in. This allows pastors to contribute in areas they are gifted in.
Ken said that their region has grown from 17 small groups to 72 small groups since July. Some congregations will be adding more small groups, and some may have hit saturation for now.
John Moskel said that the Buffalo North congregation has 10 small groups in place, which represents more than 25 percent of the church.
The pastors noted that one way to determine spiritual gifts is by recognition of other believers. It could be significant if several brethren acknowledge a person has a particular gift.
Sometimes a person with a specific spiritual gift may offer constructive criticism and show concern about the pastor, or other leaders, neglecting a particular ministry in the congregation. Maybe that is where he or she is gifted and the Holy Spirit is moving him or her to do something about it.
Regional pastor Curtis May gives sermons in the region about the goals, and discusses his goals for the region.
The Pasadena congregation had four weeks of small group training, and conducted a spiritual gifts seminar.
"The Southern California region has about 30 percent of its members in small groups," Curtis said. "Our goal is for 50 percent participation by the end of 1997."
Curtis gave a sermon on spiritual gifts that included members playing roles that showed practical application of different gifts. Curtis calls and receives calls from pastors in the region to share ideas on what pastors are doing in their congregations.
Feb. 18, 1997, WN, page 3
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