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| Wednesday, June 25, 2008 |
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Light in the Darkness
Church of God Ministries, Church of God - General, Global Missions
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Missionaries commissioned in closing service of 2008 NAC
By Joseph D. Allison
 The 2008 North American Convention closed with a service commissioning missionaries to go to Africa. Kay Watts was commissioned for service in Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa. David and Bonnie Baylor’s family was commissioned to go to Kenya in East Africa.
Led by Bob Edwards, coordinator of Global Missions, and Jeannette Flynn, director of the Kingdom Ministry Team, the congregation prayed for these ambassadors of Christ and pledged to support them in their new assignments.
The missionaries then pulled ribbons from the stage, connecting them to rows throughout of the crowd, to demonstrate their connection to one another. In keeping with a long convention tradition, the crowd then lit up the darkened auditorium with glow sticks and sang together. Curtis Ferrell led the congregation in “Light of the World,” a fitting commitment to carry the gospel of Christ into a darkened world.
Earlier, Pastor Paul E. Sheppard, of Abundant Life Christian Fellowship in Mountain View, California, had stirred the crowd with a message on Ephesians 4:14–16 titled “Growing.” He told worshipers that if they apply God’s truth to every area of their lives, they are certain to have spiritual growth. He said that three things indicate that God is leading a person to grow:
First, God gives a believer a strong desire to grow spiritually. “You realize that your spiritual life is good, but not good enough,” Sheppard said. God looks for people who have a “holy discontent.”
 Second, God gives a believer a sense of new direction. “You may be content with your life, but the Holy Spirit will show you that God has something else in mind,” he explained.
Third, God often gives a believer a surprising development to prove his sovereign control over that person’s life. Pastor Sheppard described how God led him to California to become pastor of a small urban African-American congregation. Over several years, it has become a thriving multiethnic church of more than five thousand people. Pastor Sheppard said this “surprising development” proves that God is leading the church.
“If we let God be God,” he concluded, “he will bless us ‘exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.’”
A version of this article appears in the Thursday, June 26, 2008, edition of the NAC roundup/08 newsletter. To view the newsletter in its entirety, click here (1.57 MB). The document is in PDF format and requires Adobe Acrobat in order to read and/or print it. If you do not have Acrobat installed on your computer, you can download a free copy of Acrobat Reader here.
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