On Saturday, September 7, there was a Zoom conference dedicated to the preparation for the International Mission Congress, “Church and Missions”, which is planned for May 14-16, 2020 in Sacramento.
The representatives of the Congress organizers and the coordinators took part in this video conference.
The meeting began with a time of prayer. Aleksey Yanovskiy reminded about the importance of evangelism (Phil. 1:2-6):
“It is important to realize what God is doing though His church today. Our testimony must be in line with the contemporary challenges and the issues we are faced today…The goal of the congress is to encourage the church – Body of Christ – to missionary ministry, equip current and future missionaries for their ministry, attract people from all ages to be obedient to the Great Commission. To some degree this is a celebration of the past (glorifying God for His work through the missionary ministry; study of history, and lessons from the past), present (glorifying God for what He continues to do: testimonies of missionaries; analysis of the international missions ministry), and the future (studying the needs of missions, its direction and methods; identification of strategies for the development and coordination of the missionary ministry).”
The meeting participants agreed that the theoretical part of missions (seminar speakers) and practical (missionary testimonies) must be balanced because Jesus first instructed, and then sent out His disciples. There was a suggestion to talk about the topic of Bible translations – as part of the diverse ministry in Africa, Europe, South America, Asia, and the ministry to the blind and deaf in Ukraine. There was also a discussion about sanctification, and practical missionary work among the Muslims, Hindu, and Buddhists in the U.S.
It was decided to identify and affirm the seminar speakers and missionaries who will be presenting as soon as possible. There was a suggestion for another category: “Local Evangelism”. There was also a discussion of how the congress’ church service will look like, spiritually edifying music program (every association is responsible for the preparation of their participation), broadcast, registration, advertisement, financial, and prayer support.
Irina Karkhut
