NEWS ITEM

sence and power to be with us, we ex-

pect to see this accomplished!
Goa12000!
Who would have believed just a few
weeks ago that people would be free to
leave East Germany to go to the West,
that the Berlin wall would be being
literally demolished? Dr. Joel Neder-
hood, world known radio preacher for
The Back to God Hour, concluded his
keynote address to the assembly saying,
"I am A-Millenial. But seeing what is
happening in Europe in these last few
days has made me wonder ifi shouldn't
reconsider J>ostmillenialism." Yes, by
2000 we believe that God can bring
about universal redemption, revival, and
reformation. I don't believe Paul had a
GOAL 100 AD. And I am not trying
to say that it is wrong to set goals. But
goals express attitudes, perspectives,
faith. Paul set out to convert the whole
world in his day. He preached the Gos-
pel and God established churches. But
his goal was not narrowed or defined in
terms of a few churches. Churches
were simply the fruit of his preaching
the Gospel of the Kingdom of God,
by Wayne Rogers
The North American Presbyterian and
Reformed Council (NAP ARC) is an as-
sociation of Reformed churches in
America which was formed a number of
years ago in order for Reformed
churches to meet together to discuss
mutual interests, concerns, testimony,
and to allow for the opportunity to pur-
sue the possibility of merger between
denominations. This year our denomi-
nation, The Reformed Presbyterian
Church in the U.S., was invited to send
observers to the annual meeting which
was held in October at Philadelphia.
I attended a consultation on Home Mis-
sions and Church Extension while I
was there. Representatives of the mem-
ber churches gave reports on church
growth and goals for the future. Many
of the churches stated specific goals
with reference to the year 2000. One
church set as its goal 400,000 total
members by the year 2000, an increase
of 100,000. Another denomination has
as a goal 50 new churches, another 200
new churches. One, more modestly,
has a goal of 6 new churches.
As I listened I became aware of how dif-
ferent our goals are, our perspective is,
in terms of the future. What is our
GOAL 2000? Our goal for the year
2000, if you want to put it in terms of
numbers of churches, is 400,000,000
new churches! Or, to put it another
way, our goal is the world-wide con-
version of all the nations to the Lord-
ship of Jesus Christ! And we believe
that this can be done even before the
year 2000. Why, by then, we could be
enjoying the fruits and blessings of
God's Covenant personally, socially,
economically, nationally, and inter-
nationally.
In other words, our whole perspective
on "church growth" is different. We
aren't thinking in terms so small, and
in a certain sense, so ecclesiastically
self-centered. The churches we already
have need to be reformed, to be vitalized
with the truth of the Lordship and
dominion of Jesus Christ, and the appli-
cability of the Word of God to all of
life and culture. What good is it going
to do to have 400 or 4000 new churches
of the same old stripe which have no
commitment to the Lordship of Jesus
Christ over all of life?
As I told the assembly when I was
given the opportunity to represent our
denomination to the body, the distinc-
tive mark of the RPCUS is our commit-
ment to the Great Commission. We be-
lieve that we are to go and to actually
make ALL the nations of the world
disciples of Jesus Christ and to teach
them to observe ALL that he had com-
manded. Second, because Christ com-
manded us to go, promised His own pre-
Acts 28:31.
Our denomination is a place where men
can come and be free to preach the
whole counsel, of God, the kingdom of
God, unhindered! Our Goal 2000 is a
goal of our children living under the
dominion and Lordship of Jesus Christ
in a world that has been Christianized
by the grace and power of God! n

tuaty
Offering Masters & Doctorate degrees
through directed studies
Member of the Florida Federation of
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Write to:
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P.O. Box 6321
Lakeland, Florida 33807
Florida's only historical Presbyterian seminary
The C01,1nsel of C:halcedon Jan.-Feb., 1990 page 41