Let’s Preach! W
hat happens when members are trained to do evangelistic preaching? It is no surprise that God abundantly blesses—and miracles prove it. Beginning in 2021 and continuing until 2024, the Central California Conference (CCC) has adopted Arise & Go as its theme for member mobilization and soul winning. Under the leadership of Dan Serns, CCC president, the vision of “the Adventist message to all of Central California Conference and the world in this generation” will support a variety of events now scheduled for the spring and fall of each year. They each will culminate with the “Fill Every Baptistry Sabbath” in every church and school. Taken mostly from the New Testament book of Acts, the themes began in 2021 with listening and prayer and will continue with sharing Jesus, family worship, starting groups, baptizing, sending missionaries, and entering new communities. During the spring of this year, members were encouraged to make a habit of sharing Jesus every day. However, that outreach also included training members to hold evangelistic meetings. Therefore, the “Let’s Preach!” training seminars via Zoom were held in late March, and over 150 lay members and pastors attended an allday workshop at the Clovis Church on April 3. Although there were breakout sessions, Louis Torres, Adventist World
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Central California Conference
Radio evangelist, and Rodney Bowes, ASI evangelist, provided the basic training. Twenty-eight sites throughout the conference took up the challenge and planned “New Beginnings” evangelistic meetings—most of which occurred during the last week of April. Amazing Truth Bible seminar at the Fresno All Nations church God certainly blessed the “Let’s Preach” series held at the All Nations church from April 14 to 30. Justin Kim, senior pastor, and Bryan Bong, associate pastor, invited the members to come together every morning for two weeks before the beginning of these lay evangelistic meetings. They studied the book of Acts and prayed that God would bless their meetings and their lay evangelist, Dolores Jones. While her husband had been the CCC evangelist for many years before he passed away, Jones, an administrative assistant at the CCC office, had never held a meeting in this country. We can expect that ABOVE: Over 150 lay members attend a Let’s Preach training seminar at the Clovis church on April 3. LEFT: Pastor Justin Kim welcomes attendees to the Amazing Truth Bible seminar held from April 14 to 30 at the Fresno All Nations church with Dolores Jones as lay preacher.
