Speakers Challenge at Symposium
Tim Hill opens the Symposium on the Great Commission on Monday night, September 14.
Hundreds gather at Mount Paran Church of God in Atlanta for the Symposium on the Great Commission.
Atlanta, GA—Delegates from as far away as Hawaii heard an opening address by Church of God General Overseer Raymond Culpepper on Monday night. Culpepper was the first of four featured speakers for the two-day event which is slated to be repeated on the west coast September 17-18 at the Riverside, California Convention Center.
First Assistant General Overseer Tim Hill opened the Symposium saying, “we are called to be fishers of men and our nets must be woven together to accomplish the Great Commission!” Following praise and worship led by the Mount Paran singers, Culpepper delivered an instructional message outlining the challenge of the Great Commission to “go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.”
“We came here to talk about the meaning and calling of the Great Commission,” he said. Culpepper then called upon Church of God Director of World Missions Douglas Leroy who quoted statistics of the success of the evangelistic effort to reach lost souls. Leroy reported that since last year, 396 new churches have been planted outside the U.S. and 402,000 people have come to a saving knowledge of Christ. He also reported that the Church of God continues to reach into targeted “unreached people groups.”
Culpepper called everyone to service by saying, “We are not here to build a denomination or a career, but we are here because Jesus died for our sins and rose again…we need members to be missionaries today, whether they take their witness down the street or around the world.” Culpepper filled his message with research and statistics from declining church attendance to church plants. He outlined his sermon by naming five requirements of the Great Commission which are: 1) Connecting, 2) Converting, 3) Discipling, 4) Equipping and 5) Empowering.
The morning session on Tuesday, September 15 included testimonies from pastors leading the way in the challenge of the Great Commission. Videos were presented on Maryville, Tennessee pastor Ron Hepperley and his wife, Jeannie, who have taken their unique brand of jail ministry to prisons around the world. Culpepper then interviewed Jeannie on the stage of the church. He did the same with Pastors Byron and Rosa Straube who have an active GC ministry based out of New Jersey, which includes 21 satellite churches.
The keynote speaker of the morning session was Pastor Niko Njotorahardjo who shared his amazing testimony of growth and evangelism through his church in Indonesia which, over the past two decades, has grown to include 500 satellite churches, 6,000 cell groups and over 200,000 members. Pastor Niko credited the incredible growth in large part to the church members’ dedication to a 24-hour prayer emphasis.
The final two sessions of Symposium East included a sermon by Ana Diaz of Honduras and an evening keynote message by Loran Livingston of the Charlotte Central Church of God.
Complete information on the Symposium, including speaker bios, registration details, accommodations and available resources can be found on www.churchofgod.org and clicking on the Symposium graphic. Live video streaming of every session is also a feature of the event.
In conjunction with the start of the Symposium, a two-week shutdown of the Web site www.forwardtogetherinchangingtimes.com ended over the weekend as the newly-revised site was launched. The site includes information, devotionals, a blog and resource materials on both prayer and the Great Commission, two of the three emphases of the 2008-2010 General Assembly period.
