Do you know any church wild enough to brainstorm, plan, and
execute a conference for 2650 guests from all 50 states and 33 other countries
in less than 50 days? Do you know anyone with such God-sized, audacious dreams
and vision? Here at Saddleback Church, we do!
The Purpose Driven Church
Conference was held at the end of June at Saddleback Church Lake Forest and
marked the first time in a decade that Pastor Rick taught this conference in
the United States. Last week marked the follow up conference – Purpose Driven
Essentials. A special feature of the June conference was breakout tracks that
enabled pastors and other church leaders from around the globe to sit in on
specialized tracks to learn about more specific vision of empowering local
churches with a discipleship process that helps get every member on mission.
Our HIV&AIDS and Orphan Care Initiatives shared about
the vision of our ministries with conference attendees in separate breakout
sessions and as a part of the Saddleback Signature Ministries panel that also
included The Daniel Plan, Celebrate Recovery, and the Mental Health ministry.
These breakout sessions enabled conference attendees to learn more about how
the local church can be a source of hope to end both the global orphan and HIV
crises and take practical solutions back to their churches.
The HIV&AIDS breakout session went through the
Initiative’s C.H.U.R.C.H.
model of how the local church can become the catalyst of change to end the
global HIV/AIDS pandemic. During the closing session of PD Essentials, Pastor Rick reminded pastors, "Jesus had a three fold ministry: teaching, preaching and healing. So we have a preaching, teaching, healing faith. The church has been caring for the sick for 2000 years... when the church cares for the sick, that's the church being the church!"
Throughout the conference, the message was clear: the local church is
the hope of the world! God always intended to work through His Church, and
Jesus promised that not even the gates of hell will prevail against the church.
The tasks of ending the global orphan and HIV crises may seem monumental, but
through the local church, we can successfully see children placed in loving,
legal, and lasting families and effectively eliminate HIV in our lifetime.
Will you and your church take up this mantle in ending the
global HIV and orphan crises? Perhaps your church needs help mobilizing members
to ministry. For more information about how to start these ministries in your
own church, please visit hivandthechurch.com and orphansandthechurch.com, or
call the HIV&AIDS Initiative line at 949-609-8555.
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