 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|||
|
Dear Brothers and Sisters in the Minnesota Conference, This summer has gone by quickly for my family and me. I had the privilege to speak at three different camp meetings, spent ten days at our camp meeting in Hutchinson, twelve days in Atlanta for the General Conference Session, five days at meetings for the presidents of the Mid-America Union Conference and then we had the joy of being at our youngest son’s wedding in Omaha Nebraska; it has been busy! One item that really has me excited is a decision that was made by the executive committee in June. We voted four specific items that we want to encourage and promote in our conference over the next few years. 1. We want members to read through their Bible in 2011. 2. We want to encourage 100 percent of our members to be faithful in their stewardship. 3. We want to continue to encourage and promote programs for our young people 4. We have set a goal to reach 9,000 members by our 2012 camp meeting. Number 1: Into the Word We want to encourage every church member to read through their Bible in 2011. Our entire church must be in the Word. For some time now I have been reading through God’s Word every year; I have found tremendous blessings in spending that time walking daily with God. Notice what it says in Psalm 119:105… “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” I believe if we had all of our folks (young and old alike) committed to reading God’s Word through next year it would make a big difference in our homes, churchs, and conference. I challenge you to find a Bible reading program and follow it for the year! Number 2: Stewardship We want to encourage 100 percent of our members to be faithful in their stewardship. Currently about 50 percent of our people are tithing! If we just had 60 percent tithing it would mean another million dollars coming into our conference. Instead of cutting positions we could be adding positions around the conference. Can you imagine what would happen if we had 100 percent of our people tithing? We need to share the gospel with everyone in our conference and it takes money to share the gospel. Remember what it says in Malachi 4:10… “’Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and prove Me now in this,’ Says the Lord of hosts, ‘If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.’” What an exciting challenge and promise from God! Number 3: Young People We want to continue to put our money and efforts into our young people. Young people are our most precious commodity! We are going to do this in some pretty specific areas. A. Christian Education We want as many of our young people as possible in Seventh-day Adventist Christian Education. Please be a part of our newly developed M.A.D.E. in Minnesota Education project. This is a project where we have people from all over the State who do not have a local school giving money so more of our kids can get into one of our schools. Please contact your pastor and sign up to support this program. We also encourage you to be a part of the SchoolWorks program September 11-12 at Maplewood Academy. This is a program designed to be more strategic in helping our schools grow and be all God wants them to be. B. Youth Ministry We want as many of our young people as possible engaged in the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Minnesota. Our conference has made a positive step toward significantly making a difference with our young people by hiring a youth director for the conference: Jeff Wines. Among many youth activities he is over Adventurers, Pathfinders and Master Guides. He also runs our summer camp program at North Star Camp, and is encouraging young adults to be involved in the local church. We are thrilled with the progress that God has already blessed Jeff with this summer. North Star Camp (NSC) is a wonderful asset to this conference and a lot of programming takes place at our camp for young people. We have developed a comprehensive master plan for NSC and are excited about having a first class camp for young people. Number 4: Evangelism We have set a goal to reach 9,000 members by our 2012 camp meeting! After the vote, one of our Hispanic pastors said “you can count on us for 400 of those baptisms.” One of our African pastors said “you can count on us for 200 of those baptisms.” After hearing that I was encouraged. With the Lord’s help we can reach this goal. We are hoping to go over 8,000 yet this year, so you can see we have our work cut out for us. In order to facilitate our evangelism goals, Pastor Devin Locati will be using one weekend a month to instruct in lay training around the conference. Get him signed up to come into your district soon! We have also asked our pastors to do more lay training. Our pastors are to let us know when the training is taking place so we can advertise around the conference. In this way you can get trained to share Jesus even more than you are now. The pastors cannot do this by themselves! We all have to work together. Please pray about these four initiatives. I believe God can do great things as we work together! I praise God for this great conference! D. Edward Barnett, President |
 |
|||||
| 7384 Kirkwood Court • Maple Grove, MN 55369 • Phone: 763-424-8923 | |||||||
