“Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.” (Psalm 84:4)
The exciting movement-wide theme for 2024 is The Year of Blessings! Surely, God has blessed the Toronto Church in unprecedented ways this past year! These blessings include the 42 souls that were baptized in Christ, the two new Campus Ministries that were initiated, the new Peel Region, the record attendances of 117 at our Women’s Day event and 168 at our Christmas Service, the ever-memorable Day of MERCY and MERCYworldwide Toy Drive, and the collective twenty-six times Missions Contributions that yielded over $157,000! On top of all that, we were able to send delegates to a few different International Missions Conferences in Mexico City, Mexico; London, England; and Chicago, Illinois (USA)!
Despite all that God has already done last year, we believe that through faith in God’s unlimited power He will do even more in this upcoming year! Therefore, as a leadership team, we would like to put the following prayer goals before you:
1. “He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.” (Colossians 1:28) Our first, and perhaps most important goal, is that every disciple in the Church grows spiritually in the new year! To accomplish this, we have in our calendar a First Principles Class and a Mature Christian’s Class in June! As well, we will have several Congregational Devotionals in which we will focus on reinforcing specific convictions: singing, discipling, and giving! Our hope is that every disciple will “move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity.” (Hebrews 6:1)
2. “So the Churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.” (Acts 16:5) One of the hallmarks of the first-century Church is that there was a multiplication effect. In Jerusalem, the initial 120 disciples were able to baptize 3,000 at Pentecost. How did they do it? Each disciple that was baptized became a disciple-maker! And through multiplication, the “the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:42) Excitingly, by Acts 16:5, the Church in Jerusalem wasn’t the only Church having daily additions. The Bible says that “the Churches (plural) were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.”
Though we are quite a ways away from daily additions, our prayer goal for the new year is to see at least weekly additions – or 52 baptisms for the year! Although we do not have any say whether or not people get baptized, we believe that by planting and watering God will make it grow! (I Corinthians 3:7)
3. “In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.” (Acts 19:20) Another characteristic of the first-century Church is that it had both vertical and horizontal growth! Vertical, meaning the number of disciples within each Church grew; and horizontal, meaning the Churches were able to spread out geographically! We aim to have this same type of vertical and horizontal growth in the new year as well!
Vertically speaking, we believe that we will blow past the 100-disciple milestone very early in the year since we are already have 95 sold-out disciples in the Church! However, we would also like to spread horizontally to at least two new college or university campuses; and possibly plant a new region in the Eastern part of Toronto – Durham!
4. “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” (Luke 15:7) Sadly, one of the things that has been heavy upon my heart, and the hearts of our leadership team, is the amount of fall-aways that we have seen in the Church. In truth, we understand that we will always have fall-aways. After all, even Jesus who was the best minister of all time had all of His disciples fall away on Him. (Matthew 26:31) That is a 100-percent fall-away rate! That said, all but one of them came back!
It is our prayer that we will not only see at least five of our fallen-away brothers and sisters come back, but that we will have our best retention yet in the new year! To accomplish this, we are going to work on training and raising up Shepherds within in the Toronto Church to focus on keeping the saved saved, as well as pursuing those who have already walked away from God.
5. “There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Greeks believed.” (Acts 14:1) As the Toronto Church continues to grow, it is essential that we raise up dynamic leaders and preachers who can be the tip of the spear! Therefore, we have decided to create a training program for young preachers to hone their public speaking skills! This program will initially be for the men only. But in the future the women will have one as well!
6. “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.” (2 Timothy 2:2) In addition to raising up young leadership through Jesus’ ministry style of walking with His disciples, we are also striving to add a scholastic element to our training in order to deepen the faith and convictions of those we raise up! Encouragingly, we have already seen 15 disciples graduate from ICCM-Toronto (International College of Christian Ministry – Toronto). In 2024, we intend on seeing at least six disciples graduate from ICCM-Toronto! We are also striving to add at least another six students to our student roster!
7. “For God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Corinthians 9:7) We believe that the Toronto Church has demonstrated a heart to give cheerfully time and time again! In fact, though we have taken up eight different Special Missions Contributions since I arrived in Toronto in June, 2017, the Toronto Church has NEVER missed a Special Missions Contribution goal! This is monumental, as each dollar raised means more souls can be saved! As such, we will be collecting at least one 20-times Special Missions Contribution in late May! As well, we will undergo a pledge drive in November with the prayer of increasing our Weekly Contribution to at least $7,500!
8. “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” (Matthew 5:7) Lastly, although it was awesome to participate in two very well-planned MERCYworldwide events last year, we aim to expand our benevolent efforts in Toronto by holding additional MERCY events at least once every quarter! Since each disciple is a MERCY Ambassador, they would be highly encouraged to attend!
Brothers and sisters, let us stand in awe of what God has already done for us! And although it would seem impossible to be “Beyond Blessed” in the new year, we believe that God wants to do so much more! Let us fall to our knees and pray for our generous God to pour out His spectacular blessings on us in great abundance! To Him be all the glory!
Evan Bartholomew