PRAYER GOALS FOR 2010
The Children sing Christmas Carols to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas!
“I will pour out my Spirit on all people… Your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit” Acts 2:17-18.
“Visions and Dreams” is the 2010 theme for the City of Angels Church!
On May 6, 2007, the Spirit sent a 42 member mission team from Portland to Los Angeles forming the City of Angels International Christian Church.
In this second full calendar year, God added locally to our number 104 baptisms and 23 restorations! Our weekly pledges now total over $11,000 per week, meaning that the 230 disciples of the congregation are giving on average $50 per person! All of this has been accomplished in the wake of the Lord sending out 37 disciples in 2008 on three mission teams – Honolulu, New York City, and Portland – and then in 2009, strengthening our daughter churches by sending out Javier Ochoa to Santiago, Mike Underhill to New York City, and Jake Ramsier and Ashley Godwin to Honolulu. Then, sent out with many prayers in December 2009 to lead the Washington DC Church, were the “DC 5” – Carlos & Lucy Mejia, Jack & Jeanne McGee, and Afa Maile.
Today, the Spirit is sending out 14 more disciples on the San Diego Mission Team to plant the Mission Bay International Christian Church. Not only were more disciples sent out these past two years – 61 – than the number that initially started the congregation, but $3,500 per month was given to support Matt & Helen Sullivan for their missionary work with our dynamic sister church in Santiago, Chile. Amazingly, when the impact of the City of Angels, Honolulu, New York City, Portland and Santiago Churches are combined, the Lord blessed us in 2009 with almost 900 in attendance with over 500 disciples, over 200 baptisms and a weekly contribution of nearly $19,000! Reflecting on this past year, the most memorable events were Michael & Michele Williamson’s appointments as Evangelist and Women’s Ministry Leader, Damon & Vicky James becoming our newest congregational shepherds, Sasha & Louisa Kostenko moving from Moscow to LA to join the new movement, our Day of MERCY sponsored by MERCYworldwide, and at the 2009 Global Leadership Conference the presentation of the Crown of Thorns Project – our plan to plant discipling churches in the 12 most influential cities outside the United States!
With this year’s theme of “Visions and Dreams,” the City of Angels Church leadership has set before the Lord the following prayer goals for 2010:
1. “Win As Many As Possible” – 1 Corinthians 9:19 In 2009, over 100 were baptized through the Spirit working through all of your efforts. Since we have now been equipped and strengthened through our Winter Workshop – entitled Tears – and since our numbers have multiplied from last year, we are praying that “God adds to our number” even more disciples in 2010 (Acts 2:41, 47).
2. “Win The Weak” – 1 Corinthians 9:22 In 2009, 23 were restored to Christ. To strengthen our efforts to keep all of our brother and sisters faithful, a new Follow-Up Study Series was given to the congregation this past September. Once we began teaching these studies after baptism – and on campus the Persecution Study before baptism – our young disciples have been more eager to spend time with God, more zealous in sharing their faith, and more engaged in the life of our congregation. To oversee that the needs of the young and weak are being met in every region, we are praying that the Lord will raise-up a shepherding couple for each region by the end of the year
3. “The Word Of The Lord Spread Through The Whole Region” – Acts 13:49 Presently in the City of Angels Church there are five regions – North, South, East, West and Orange County. Our vision is to build five more regions in the next two years. Added will be new regions in Ventura, Inland Empire, Central LA, South Central LA, and prayerfully this summer an Arts, Media & Sports (AMS) Region. Also, since our attendance increases over 100 on regional service Sundays, starting on January 31, we will meet on Sundays in regions and once a month as an entire congregation in Downtown LA. With this increased regional focus, in December, we asked Victor & Sonia Gonzalez to lead the East Region. We then dissolved the Latin Region to become house churches in the East and Orange County Regions. This allows all the disciples in each region to evangelize anyone – English or Spanish-speaking – and bring them to a relatively close meeting place. Our prayer is that every region will have a Spanish-speaking house church.
4. “Entrust To Faithful Men [And Women]” – 2 Timothy 2:2 Paul instructed Timothy to raise up more faithful men in leadership, just as Paul had raised up Timothy. In 2010, we are praying that the Lord raises-up from LA and our daughter churches at least three Evangelists and Women’s Ministry Leaders. Today, we are excited that Ron Harding, the preacher and architect of the great Portland Church, will be appointed Evangelist in the Kingdom of God!
5. “Extreme Poverty Welled Up In Rich Generosity” – 2 Corinthians 8:2 The impoverished Macedonian Church was a splendid example of sacrificial giving for all the churches in sending money to her mother church in Jerusalem. (2 Corinthians 8-9) All of you in the City of Angels Church are to be commended similarly to the disciples in the Macedonian Church. This past year, you not only gave a 15X Missions Contribution in April, but then in the midst of the most difficult recession since the Great Depression, you gave a 4X Missions Contribution at Thanksgiving! The total of these two missions contributions was over $170,000! On Easter Sunday, April 4, 2010, we will have our next 15X Missions Contribution, which will allow the Spirit to send out the first planting of the Crown of Thorns Project, the London Mission Team led by Michael & Michele Williamson.
6.“Remember The Poor” – Galatians 2:10
MERCYworldwide, under the creative leadership of Nick & Denise Bordieri, is supported by all the church plantings in the new movement. Each church is responsible for giving 2% of their weekly contribution that sponsors varied benevolent programs in America and around the world. For us in Los Angeles, this is approximately $1,000 per month. As the new movement multiplies and these contributions increase accordingly, Lord willing, the Bordieris will become full-time in leading MERCYworldwide.
7. “Sound The Trumpet” – Nehemiah 4:20 During the restoration of the walls of Jerusalem, Nehemiah admonished God’s people, “The work is extensive and spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall. Whenever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us!” Nehemiah realized the need for God’s people to come together for direction and mutual encouragement. As a new movement, our churches are geographically “spread out.” Therefore, we have planned the fifth World Missions Jubilee for August 5-8, 2010. To forge an even greater unity among all of our church leaders, on Wednesday August 4, 2010, our annual Global Leadership Conference will commence. At the end of the Jubilee, prayerfully the Lord will send out the London Mission Team, which will be joined by the 30 disciples waiting in the London Remnant Group. Given the magnitude of this occasion, we are “sounding the trumpet” for all the disciples in the US and as many as possible internationally to come and participate in what promises to be an historic event.
In the first century, “Visions and Dreams” were promised to the young and to the old, to men and to women. If we dare to be God’s Church in the twenty-first century, then each of us must be filled with dreams to “turn the world upsidedown” (Acts 17:6 KJV). “For without vision the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18 KJV) And to God be the glory!
