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The Lord of the Fellowship
Report: International Discipleship Jubilee -
June 18-20, 2004
6/27/2004
"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come." LOTR
"Historic!"
"Life-altering!" "I've missed strong preaching!"
"My bitterness is gone! I see the difference between God and the
church!" "I have my dreams back!" "I've been
reborn!" "I have new dreams!" "I cried during the
whole conference over my lukewarmness!" "Your teens are so fired
up!" "I put my [preaching] job on the line to come. It was more
than worth it!" "I was fired because I chose to speak in
Portland!" "I got in touch with my heart again." "This
is my first time at church. I want to move here and become a
Christian!" "We needed to be called back to be radical!"
"The gates of hell are once again being assaulted!" "I feel
relieved the revolution will continue to evangelize the world!"
Above
are just a few of the heart-felt quotes from the participants of the
Jubilee. "The Lord of the Fellowship" truly moved the 500 people
that gathered for the International Discipleship Jubilee. Interestingly,
several were disciples that are in the full-time ministry who regained a
passion to preach the Word in their home congregations no longer in the
fear of men, but of God. In the Portland Church, we felt so honored by
everyone‘s sacrifice to attend. The main speakers all gave inspirational
messages delivered "with power, with the Holy Spirit and with
deep conviction." (1 Thess 1:5) Chip Mitchell of Boston in
his speech "Israel Had No King, Everyone Did As He Saw Fit"
challenged and urged us to recognize the need for strong spiritual
leadership and discipling. Steve Johnson of Savannah stepped up and filled
in for Sasha Kostenko of Russia, who was threatened with considerable loss
of financial support for Russian missions if he spoke. Steve gave the
message, "I Was Delivered From The Lion's Mouth." He has lived
out this passage in the past year as most of his "friends" have
deserted him. Courageously with no bitterness, Steve reminded us that our
enemy was not each other but Satan! On Sunday Peter Garcia shared in his
lesson "I Can't Carry the Ring, But I Can Carry You" that as a
"heartsy Latin person" his heart was particularly vulnerable to
Satan's attacks over the past several months. However, the Jubilee has
"rocked his world." Therefore he was repenting and was no longer
going to be lukewarm in life and preaching. He then called all of us to
follow his example. Mark Templer gave the keynote address, "The Lord
of the Fellowship" and encouraged us never to quit but to be honored
to continue to carry the cross of Jesus as did Simon of Cyrene.
In my
lesson on Saturday night I challenged everyone that Jesus' call to go to
all nations in our lifetime/generation was not optional! This dream was
prophesied in the Old Testament (Daniel 2:31-35), commanded by Jesus
(Matthew 28:18-20) and accomplished in the lifetime of the disciples
before the temple was destroyed in 70 AD. (Matthew 24:9-14)) I taught that
the principle of "scattering and gathering" was
God's hand on His movements. (Nehemiah, 1:8-9) I shared a new movement was
not needed. However, many of our congregations were lukewarm, but filled
with well intentioned disciples. Fearless preaching and loving discipling
will revive these churches. However as in the 1980's, the campus ministry
churches were so damaged by sin and division, that a new planting was
needed and that Portland is in the process of targeting cities where
former "ICOC churches" have abandoned discipling and world
vision. We also shared that our internet ministry would be called Upcyberdown21,
signifying our effort to "turn the world upsidedown"
in the 21st century! (Acts 17:6 RSV) This will begin in
September. Overall, the Spirit called back all the disciples to God, to
His grace as our motivation, to total commitment, to discipling (both
group and one-on-one) focused on the mission to evangelize the world in
our lifetime!
I also
heard so many comments about the classes from Ron Clark's "The
History of the Churches of Christ" to the prayer class of John
Causey, to Guillermo Adame's class on discipling, Scott Green's class on
motivation for a lifetime, Ben Arcellana's class on rebuilding the Campus
Ministry and the Bible study class of Anthony Galang. The sisters were so
encouraged to have dynamic classes for their needs taught by Lynne Green,
Pat Gempel, and Elena. Of special note at the Jubilee was the World Report
on Friday night. Brothers shared about God's work in China, India,
Philippines, Afghanistan, Europe, Africa, and Central and South America.
The sharing concluded with the history of the Portland Church. In only one
year's time, God is rebuilding the church after a devastating split into
an ever-increasingly, powerful beacon of light for the lost of Portland.
We also appreciated Bob and Pat Gempel giving an informative presentation
on HOPEworldwide. Roger Lamb also shared about a new "internet
magazine" Disciples Today! Also, the band "The Edge"
led by Jeremy Ciaramella and composed of disciples from Eugene and
Portland provided a fun filled close to the activities of Saturday
evening!
Finally,
it was so exciting to see Cristina Enamorado of the Latin ministry and
then Lauren Bertalot, the eldest daughter of Bob and Marcia, baptized on
Saturday evening! (Bob is one of the elders-in-training.) Also, it was
incredible Sunday to see five more people place membership: Luis and
Maricela Diaz, Alfredo and Rosie Alaniz, and Eloisa Murguia! Then the Lord
of the fellowship blessed us with a contribution of about $35,000! No,
this was not a special contribution!
Please
be praying that news will spread of next year's Jubilee! We are changing
the name of this event to remind us of God's dream. The second annual
Portland World Missions Jubilee will be held at the Oregon Convention
Center August 19-21, 2005! Pray that God will gather all His scattered
disciples in the ICOC, Churches of Christ and the Christian Churches and
those who have walked away or fallen away to become a united movement to
evangelize the world in our lifetime. And to God be the glory!
Kip McKean
Missions Evangelist
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