IPHC Ministries Celebrate the Mission Introduction

Celebrate the Past
We are on the threshold of a new decade, a new century and a new millennium. Like everyone else who has been anticipating this transition for some time now, we are also planning to celebrate, although not for the same reasons.

We have a great many things for which to celebrate. As we look back over the past 20 years, there have been so many incredible developments that can only be attributed to God's miraculous working on our behalf. As we recount those events, we cannot help but break out in joyful celebration.

Look at some of those changes with me. Back in the early 80's, when we adopted Target 2000, we planted fewer than 20 churches each year; added about 2,500 new members each year; and reported a total membership of just over 250,000 members worldwide.

At the end of 1999, our global membership exceeded 1 million for the first time.
In the US, our annual church planting effort has quadrupled, to more than 100 churches during three of the past six years, with an annual average of 82 new churches each year for the past decade.
World wide, we have more than tripled the number of churches from 2,674 to 8,383 in 89 countries.
Our average church size has grown from 93 members per church in 1980 to 124 per church in 1999.
The number of churches with more than 180 members has more than doubled from fewer than 100 in 1980 to 211 in 1999.

During this same period of time, God has been faithful to "provision the vision." Our faithful members and churches have responded to the growing vision of growth, church planting and missionary activities. In 1980, our total annual receipts were reported at $5 million. In the annual financial report for 1999 just released, our total annual income from all sources was $17 million.
Five-fold Paradigm Shift

The grace of God has enabled us to strengthen those things we did well and to develop new models for ministry. The result has been a five-fold change in our perspectives.

First, we have become united in purpose — we know what our priorities should be. We may not always agree on the best way to get things done, but there is no disagreement on our overall objectives.
Second, we have a clear evangelistic focus. That focus is being expressed through evangelism, church planting and missionary activity at unprecedented levels across our church.
Third, we have a continuity of mission that spans several quadrennia. Methods and strategies may be modified and strengthened, but we continue to move toward our God-given objectives.
Fourth, we are developing a strong global identity and perspective. One of the most significant documents in our history, The Jerusalem Proclamation, came out of our first World Conference in Jerusalem in 1990. Some of those prophetic words are just now beginning to be fulfilled. A second World Conference was held in 1995, also in Jerusalem and a third World Conference is being planned for 2003, this time in Costa Rica. We also have created a World Fellowship of Pentecostal Holiness Churches to recognize our global community. Our training materials are now being written with our global members in mind. The materials are used extensively in many nations around the world and are being translated into several languages to make it even more effective.
Finally, our paradigm has shifted from a clergy centered ministry to "every member ministry" and the empowerment of lay ministries. This shift has led to a renewed emphasis on spiritual gifts, intercession and spiritual warfare and to a new sense of freedom in our worship styles.

Celebrate the Mission
Mission21, initiated in 1997, is the natural descendant of Target 2000. Its focus is on our mission for the first decade of the 21st century. In anticipation of that mission, God has been at work among us, renewing our minds, building our faith, cultivating our gifts, honing our skills and testing our resolve.

These incredible developments and changes I have mentioned did not take place so we could simply celebrate them as historic events. Hardly! As Shakespeare wrote in his play, The Tempest, "What's past is prologue." We have just gone through a period of preparation. To borrow a military metaphor, we're just graduating from boot camp.

The most ambitious decade of our existence is just ahead of us. We're standing on the banks of tomorrow— a new decade, a new century and a new millennium lay before us. We have been equipped; we have been given the vision. All that remains is for us to respond and do what we know, by the Spirit of God, needs to be done

It will take the commitment of every member minister actively involved in evangelism, discipleship and prayer. That's why our strategy includes a personal evangelism emphasis, Reach3, a church planting emphasis, Plant3 and a prayer emphasis, Lighthouses of Prayer.

Reach3, is a simple-to-implement and easy-to-administer friendship evangelism strategy. It requires no special funding, no special training and can be done by virtually any member in your church.

Plant3 is a church-planting focus based on this simple idea—a vibrant, mature congregation should be reproducing itself by helping to plant daughter churches. In order to leave its spiritual legacy for the next generation, each church should be involved in planting at least three daughter churches: one like itself; one cross-culturally; and one trans-nationally.

The third focus of our strategy is prayer—not a general prayer time, but a very specific and focused prayer effort. Each family can become a "lighthouse for prayer," in short, leaving the light on for neighbors to find their way back home to their heavenly Father.

This is our decade of miraculous reproduction. This is our true heritage: to become an evangelistically aggressive, church-planting movement. As we move through this doorway of opportunity into our future, let's do it like the ancient Israelites did it. Let's put the musicians and song leaders out in front of us, to lead us against the enemy with singing, rejoicing and celebration.