Sign up for Global Gathering: https://thealliancecanada.ca/global-gathering/
Christmas Offering: https://thealliancecanada.ca/christmas-offering/
Support the Global Advance Fund: https://thealliancecanada.ca/gift/406
Alliance Video Stories: https://vimeo.com/showcase/alliancestories?share=copy
Transcript:
Christmas is a busy season and many of you are prepping for your Christmas services, finalizing programs, maybe even inviting your neighbourhood to join you for Christmas Eve service.
Global Gathering is also on the horizon and things are coming together for March. I can’t speak more highly of this gathering. We’re going to have panels on the next gen engagement with a leader from Alpha, Tim Teakle. Darrick Tam from Bayview Alliance Church will lead us in worship. You might remember him from Assembly. Doctor Stanley John will take us through a journey in Acts and being a church on mission.
We’ll have intentional prayer times, International Worker panels, stories, and more stories of God’s miraculous faithfulness. Thai iced tea and sunny, warm weather. I cannot wait. You will not want to miss this. Registration is still open and I strongly encourage you to join us as we continue the conversation started at Assembly that are now ongoing in our churches and districts.
As we prayerfully ask the Lord what he has for each of us as we trust him to double our reach. It’s going to be another opportunity to encourage one another and challenge one another to walk faithfully as we trust Jesus for his fruitfulness.
Will you also prayerfully consider giving a Christmas offering to support The Alliance Canada? Last month, I highlighted our upcoming end of year Christmas offering towards our Global Advance Fund, the Global Advance Fund does to so many things and sometimes I know it can feel abstract, but every story I’ve shared throughout the year has happened because of this fund and your generosity.
For many of us, this is a last chance to give in this fiscal year and receive a tax receipt for 2024. But our Alliance Canada’s Christmas offering is much more than this. It’s a tangible way where we choose to partner together in our shared mission to proclaim Jesus here in Canada and around the world.
Friends, I am praying the Lord would move us towards what would seem to the world as irrational generosity for the name and fame of Jesus Christ. The spirit has given us a bold vision, and it also requires faithful and bold generosity, specifically as we look towards the next generation.
As I shared previously, as a reminder, as we look to this next generation in Canada, there are 4.4 million teenagers in Canada today, and 53% of these say they have unanswered questions about faith. Additionally, 45% of these, almost half again, are ambivalent towards faith, meaning they are neither positive or negative towards it. They are open.
And so we are in an era with one of the most incredible opportunities to reach the next generation. How will the church respond? How will The Alliance respond? We’re looking to raise $14.1 million this year to support all of the amazing work God is doing. At the time of this filming, we’re at about 74% funded for the year. 74% means we’re looking to raise an additional $3.6 million by the end of the year. That’s a big number. I believe we will reach it, but I can’t help but wonder if the Lord might want us to do something significantly more than this.
As you think of your children, nieces, nephews, godchildren, grandkids. This is all very real and very personal, isn’t it? And I’m committed to the mission of Jesus and the wide scope of the ministry reach the Lord has given the Christian and Missionary Alliance of Canada, but I’m very committed to the next generation. And so if this resonates with you, would you pray and ask if the Lord would be asking you to consider an above and beyond sacrificial gift to fuel and jumpstart our intentionality towards these unique moments the Lord has us in? Thank you.
One more thing. To encourage you this Christmas, and to continue to build hope and courage within us, to remind us that the Lord is already doing a growing and expanding work amongst us. We put together a highlight video from all the stories from this past year. Pastors, if you show one video in your church or perhaps you as an individual in your Bible study or small group, I recommend this montage to you. We’ve also put a link to the library of all the stories that we’ve shared this past year. And so as you watch this, be encouraged. God is on the move in our midst and we are asking him for more.
Come, Holy Spirit, continue to fill and empower us, bless each church with increased influence and fruitfulness, and grant us supernatural courage to submit, surrender and obey you an ever greater measure. Lord, let it be so. Merry Christmas everyone.