100,000 isn't 6 million - BUT IT'S A START!

Back in the early 1990's I had the wonderful opportunity to meet a Cambodian pastor who deeply desired to reach Cambodian people in his country for Jesus.  I remember hearing him say that his desire was to reach 6 million Cambodians for Christ.  I asked him how many people lived in Cambodia.  His answer?  6 million (Today that population is much higher).  His goal was to reach every person in his country with the Gospel of Jesus.  Talk about vision!

Back in February the Elder Board here at the Gaylord E-Free Church established a Vision Task Force to prayerfully and strategically work through a proposed 3-year vision plan for our church.  That team was made up of 3 people from our Elder Board; 3 people from our Leadership Team; and 3 people from our Ministry Staff.  This team met every other week for 6 full months.  Last Monday night they made their final presentation to our full Elder Board who unanimously and enthusiastically approved it.  In the coming weeks and months it will be unveiled in its entirety to our Ministry Teams and to our entire church family.

I can't give you any details yet, but I can tell you this.  Our Vision Plan is much bigger than the 3,600+ people that live within the city limits of Gaylord, Michigan.  In fact, our Vision Plan is much bigger than the 24,000+ people that live in Otsego County.  There are well over 100,000 people who live within Northern Michigan.  That's our focus.  We don't just want to target Gaylord.  We don't just want to target Otsego County.  We deeply desire and believe that God is calling us as a church to make an all-out effort to reach Northern Michigan.  How do we do that?  Our 3-year vision plan is just going to be a start.  In actuality, the sky is the limit as to what we could do.

Multiple worship services in our own building?  Why not?

Live services on the Internet?  Why not?

Radio Ministry?  Why not?

TV Ministry?  Why not?

Satellite Campuses?  Why not?

I remember Dr Falwell using the term "Saturation Evangelism" which he defined as reaching every available person through every available means with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  What do you say, E-Free?  Let's go for it!  Let's not settle for Gaylord!  Let's not settle for Otsego County!  Let's ask God to give us all of Northern Michigan for Jesus and then let's throw all of our efforts into being used by God to see it happen!

If one Cambodian pastor can believe God for all 6 million people that were in his country at the time, surely we can believe God for 100,000 who live up north!