Here are three things we must do to reach this goal with the Faith-Based Community (FBC):
- Offer services and resources to support and build the FBC .
- Enlist intercessory prayer support for major issues.
- Assess and report key data about the activities and growth of the FBC – His Church – in our community.
Here are three things we must do to reach this goal with the Secular Community (SC):
- Offer resources to help with both major emergencies and the ongoing needs of individual members of our community.
- Enlist intercessory prayer support for major issues affecting the community.
- Assess and report key data about the activities and effects of the FBC on the health and well being of our entire community.
Why do we do this?
One of the most important books of the Bible begins with this awesome illustration of God’s passion for communications:
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John, who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it;for the time is near. (Revelation 1:1 -3, NASB)
Because we share His passion for blessing our readers with good news, the goal of the Communications Division is to be a vital information exchange between the Christians, churches, and Christian ministries of our community. As this community-based network becomes operational, it can become a very believable information resource to meet the various common needs of the community. We will use personal contacts, group meetings, the internet, and telephones to connect with the community. Here are some of the resources we plan to offer.
What are the vitally needed spiritual services and resources we offer:
GMI has a very unique ministry in the Kingdom of God. Our ultimate vision in this Division is to form a worldwide communications network of Christian churches, organizations, and individuals. Only then will we be able hear in authentic and compelling words what we need to do to see the Church of Jesus Christ continue to grow as He promised it would. In order to accomplish this, however, we must provide local leadership, services, and resources to our own community. Here are a few of the areas we intend to impact:
- Leadership in the battle to revitalize our churches: The greatest need we have in our nation today is revival of the spiritual values that made America the world leader in God-honoring activities. We are currently seeing the steepest decline in church attendance and spiritual commitment in the history of our great country. Every year, from 6,000 to 8,000 churches close their doors! Sadly, we are only seeing between 3,000 to 4,000 new churches started during the same time period.
Every major denomination in the country is either plateaued or declining, including the Roman Catholic Church. The reasons for this decline are complex and challenging. At the same time, every American should realize that the values our nation was founded on came from godly men and women who gave credit to the Almighty Creator of the universe for their ideals. Therefore, GMI will use its extensive network of contacts to identify and evaluate the many resources that are available to revitalize the Church of Jesus Christ in our nation. We will then make these resources available to churches, ministries, and individuals in our community.
- Leadership in the battle to overcome rampant materialism: Jesus Christ said “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” We certainly believe that Christians should be very concerned about the physical and material needs of people within our communities. Jesus taught about this constantly, and we must demonstrate His love by our love and compassion for the physical needs of our neighbors. At the same time, Jesus also taught “What shall it profit anyone if they gain the whole world, but lose their own souls?” (Matt. 16:26).
- Critically-needed prayer support: We realize that prayer is indeed a spiritual resource. At the same time, prayer is so vital to any significant work of God, we want to emphasize this by having a separate classification for prayer. We are actively recruiting and organizing prayer partners who will continuously intercede for the general and specific needs that we identify in our community.
We will have Prayer Team leaders who will meet regularly with other intercessors to actively pray as groups for the needs of the various churches, organizations, and leaders of our community. We intend to sponsor or support the ministry of others who sponsor community-wide prayer events where we enlist larger groups of believers on concerted prayer efforts regarding our community. We will pray specifically for the various churches and ministries that are working for our Lord in our community and throughout the rest of the world. And, just as importantly, we intend to report answers to our prayers.
- Community-wide Analysis of Total Church Growth and Activities: The idea of a community-wide analysis of our churches was taught by Jesus Christ. It was so important to Him, that He made a unique return to this earth to personally conduct this analysis. This very significant event is recorded in Revelation chapters 1 – 3.
After He completed this assessment, He told John to write the analysis and send it to the leaders of these seven churches: “Write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches” (Revelation 1:11). And, as we showed in Revelation 1:1 (see above), He also wanted this assessment sent to all of His bond-servants. Of course, every true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is a bond-servant of His.
What Does the Bible Say About our Responsibility to Analyze our Local Churches?
Not only did Jesus instruct these analyses to be sent to the respective church leaders and the entire Christian world, but He also instructed those of us who have “…ears to hear, to hear what the Spirit of God is saying to our churches” today! This is the last biblical command given to us by Jesus Christ. And, just to make sure we understood the command, He repeated it word for word seven times! This command is found in identical form at the end of each analysis of the seven churches (Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22) “Those who have ears should listen to what the Holy Spirit says to the churches.”
These three chapters raise some very significant questions:
- Why did Jesus wait almost 70 years to return to earth to do this analysis?
- Why did Jesus give the same command seven times?
- Why did He keep the Apostle John alive to record this amazing analysis of 7 representative churches?
We believe the answer to these questions may be important keys to why the Church in America and in the entire Western World is in a major decline and loss of spiritual power.
- Answer 1: If we use a time span of 20 years to cover one generation, Jesus waited until these seven churches were filled with family members spanning three to four generations. When God gave the 10 commandments, He noted the problems that would be passed on from parents to children and grandchildren. He told the Israelites “Don’t bow down to them [idols] and don’t serve them because I am God, your God, and I’m a most jealous God, punishing the children for any sins their parents pass on to them to the third, and yes, even to the fourth generation of those who hate me” (Exodus 20:5 MSG). Most of the decline in our American churches has been caused by a failure of leaders to recognize and eliminate the inevitable growth of sinful behaviors in churches that last long enough to be dealing with three or four generations of members.
- Answer 2: Jesus gave the same identical command seven times because He wanted us to understand the importance of doing this constant analysis of our churches. He also wants us to understand that it does not matter what kind of problems or successes the churches are experiencing, they all need constant analysis to identify problems, potential problems, and opportunities for service.
- Answer 3: We believe Jesus kept John alive until the churches had advanced to the third and fourth generations because He knew the total respect the churches had for the Apostle John. All of the apostles had a truly unique position in the early Church, and the fact that John was the almost undisputed author of the Book of Revelation gave it great authority in the early church. Once John had written the book and it began to circulate, we know that it had great impact. One of the ways we know that the disciples of John understood they were to model the analysis done by Jesus on the seven churches of Asia Minor is that Ignatius of Antioch, who was the bishop of Antioch, and a likely disciple of John, wrote seven analytical letters to churches and their leaders. He even wrote to three of the same churches that Jesus analyzed.
We believe that it is imperative that we obey the Lord and use our ears to hear what the Spirit is saying about our churches and devote ourselves to eliminating problems caused by our disobedience to His Word.
How are we unique as a Communications and Information Source?
We are able to use TOGS: We have been blessed to have been given the Total Organizational Growth Systems model for understanding and assisting churches and non-profit ministries. As a result, we have a unique way to catalog, measure, and utilize the information that comes from “having ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.” This will enable us to cooperate and collaborate with all Christians, churches, and ministries throughout our area and eventually throughout the world.
We are following the strategy given by Jesus in Acts 1:8: Unlike most other organizations we know of, our vision is to start with a local community. This local community can be a city, a country, or a combination of cities and counties. Once we have created local community networks, we plan to link them together. Eventually, when we have covered an entire state, we plan to repeat the process in neighboring states until we have linked together the entire country.
Once we have linked together the USA, we plan to take this same biblical process to neighboring countries, especially those that were formerly Christian. Then we hope to link those neighboring countries into continents, then the continents into the Northern Global hemisphere and the Southern Global hemisphere. Our final goal is to link the Global hemispheres into a worldwide communications network.
What are the incentives for these Christian churches, organizations, and individuals to become part of the local network?
We start by identifying common needs amongst a particular local network. Then GMI representatives personally contact as many of the key Christian leaders as possible and show them how GMI can meet their greatest needs.
In the spiritual dimension, the needs might be for:
- Consulting or coaching services GMI provides or refers.
- Community-wide prayer emphasis for significant activities and community officials.
- Access to other ministries and resources that GMI makes available to our members.
- Opportunities for non-profit ministries to make their services known to other members of the community. This type of collaboration between ministries can have a very valuable effect on the community.
- There are numerous other spiritual needs that can be identified as as we develop “ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to and through the churches” (Rev. 2:7).
In the physical dimension, the need might be for:
- An opportunity to be part of a network that can respond to a community wide disaster.
- Unemployment.
- Medical Help.
- Food and shelter for the disadvantaged.
- Access to reliable resources to professional services available in the community that have been vetted by GMI and added to a select referral list.
- There are numerous other physical or material needs that can be identified as we develop “ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to and through the churches” (Rev. 2:7).
What are the resources that we can offer to our constituents?
In addition to meeting the spiritual and physical needs identified above, GMI can also offer resources, services, and opportunities for service that God wants for His Church and His people. This can include such things as online Bible study courses, training, and specific opportunities for volunteers to have a role in the work of Christ in this world. We can also link to the social media where we can make an additional impact on the organizations and individuals who become our constituents.
How do we finance this Division?
This Division must be primarily financed through contributions from the churches, organizations, and individuals who will benefit from the services provided by the Division. This includes local businesses and professionals who have a vested interest in the stability and well-being of the community.
Eventually, the value of the information that GMI will eventually have and control could make it possible to charge a fee for members to have access to some of the information or services.