WITHOUT DELAY

“As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him. When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.” (Mark 1:16-20)

Welcome to the Washington DC International Christian Church! Most of us are still having Berean-like Quiet Times from our bi-annual Global Leadership Conference (GLC), entitled “One in the Spirit.” This bonding week was full of excellent and convicting preaching!

Just as the Scripture above teaches us, disciples follow Jesus “without delay,” which is still true today! Without delay, we follow Jesus and get about his business, and that is exactly what we are doing! Excitingly, in 2022 our bold Movement Leaders and our father and mother in the faith in LA, Kip and Elena McKean, are leading our movement to 26 Church plantings! Internationally we are praying for strong mission teams to go out to Bahrain, Berlin (Germany), Casablanca (Morocco), Cochabamba (Bolivia), Edinburgh (Scotland), Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam), Ibadan (Nigeria), Kampala (Uganda), Lviv (Ukraine), Naga (Philippines), Sao Carlos (Brasil), Stockholm (Sweden), Sucre (Bolivia), Taipei (Taiwan), Tijuana (Mexico), and Warsaw (Poland)! Domestically we are planning 10 OPERATION EAGLE plantings to Auburn (Alabama), Baton Rouge (Louisiana), (Newark) Delaware, Fresno (California), Iowa City (Iowa), Kansas City (Kansas), Louisville (Kentucky), Manchester (New Hampshire), Oklahoma City (Oklahoma), and Portland (Maine). God-willing, at the end of 2022, we will be in 37 of the 50 states!

Here in the mid-Atlantic States (The BRAVE Family of Churches), we just completed the leadership transfer of the Browns taking over Delaware and the Schafers coming to DC as Ron & Tracy’s right hand couple in DC! In 2022, Dylan and Jazmin Harding are slated to plant Columbia, South Carolina. Then in 2024, we have Morgantown, West Virgina, and our final Operation Eagle Planting will be Raleigh, North Carolina – the last planting of Operation Eagle!

With so much exciting news and forceful advancement before us, we must take “on board” the message of the Bible to follow Jesus and have an impact here in DC “without delay!” Over the past six months, we have learned to follow Jesus in so many ways. Let us take a moment to reset our primary focus of what we are builing into the hearts of our Disciples in the BRAVE Family of Churches.

DISCIPLING WITHOUT DELAY
“For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.” 2 Timothy 1:7

In May and July of this year, we had the restructuring our many Groups, forming two Regions in DC. We went through our annual process that we call Prepared for Service, where we reviewed the ministry structure, order, and protocols. That time of change was a time to remember that every disciple has the Spirit of God, and therefore we must have a vision for every disciple and work with who God has given us. In a discipling relationship, we must have daily communication and spiritual goals we are fighting to achieve together. We learn to train and equip one another with great Bible studies (like COPs, Dodeka and Dokime) to ensure we are ready for the roles that God has called us to fulfill. We all need accountability on our weekly schedules to ensure we can be fruitful and effective, not just busy.

As an important improvement, in 2022, we are now also asking shepherds to take personal responsibility for weak disciples and fallaways, including inconsistent givers, along with insuring the strength of the ministry leaders. This will allow our ministry leaders to focus on baptisms and restorations and create more of a partnership with their shepherds, who are better equipped to keep the “back door” shut.

Another improvement we made to continue build the DC family, was for the Singles to have one evangelistic mixer and a Disciple-Only Devotional each month. This combination of fun and evangeligelistic events are to get our singles fired up and bond everyone together…because Discipleship is fun and encouraging!

Also, a discipling relationship is not just one-on-one. It includes a whole Bible Talk team around us. We want to turn the “trial” (James 1:2-8) of COVID 19 into a blessing that re-focuses us on the need for EVERY Bible Talk to be a close, strong family that can evangelize their local community. Therefore, if a COVID outbreak cause us to cancel “meetings of the body” (Hebrews 10:24-25), we will meet by Bible Talk for worship services, rather than Virtual Services. We will then get back to our regular services as soon as possible. Then only those positive for COVID or who have been exposed to COVID can zoom/ Facetime in if they cannot meet by Bible Talk for worship. Then, someone in their Bible Talk should bring them communion so we continue to be an in person church. We call these small services Microns! We will not retreat to zoom, but stand firm and grow with Micron!

GENEROSITY WITHOUT DELAY
“Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.” 1 Timothy 6:18

With solid convictions about discipling under our belt, as a church we went ahead over $245,000 in Missions. We also gave nearly $20K to various needs in our African Churches and dispursed more than four times in benevolence than we collected! We know many mission teams still depend on financial help, and new mission teams are going out. We are also training an incredible staff of seven disciples here in DC. As the Bible teaches, “for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21) Therefore, as we were all challenged at the GLC, we asking every disciple to have their heart in the Kingdom and increase their weekly giving by $20/wk. Lastly, we have a Fall Missions goal of 5 times our weekly pledges, which equals $50,000 by Thanksgiving.

DEVOTIONAL LIFE WITHOUT DELAY
“The Lord is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.” Exodus 15:2

With discipling and giving in our spiritual toolbox, we are calling every Disciple to have the best quiet times of your life. If you lead a household or are married, now is the time to establish great quiet times and family devotionals as a way of life and good habit. Every disciple has decided to take ownership of their spiritual strength and worship. However, none of us can handle all the arrows Satan will throw on our own. Therefore, we must dig down deep and set ourselves up for spiritual strength. We must start our day in a powerful and inspiring way with Scripture and prayer. We have to eat right, exercise, and make sure God’s temple, which is our body (1 Corinthians 6:19-20), is a place of health and spirituality. We also want to challenge every disciple to read every SoldOut Press Book that you have not already read, in your quiet times, so you stay in step with what God is teaching His Movement.

Now Introducing The New Primary Focus: EVANGELISM WITHOUT DELAY
“Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Matthew 9:35-38

As we come out of the Zeal and passion created at the GLC, I can say that we are stronger than ever in our discipling, generosity, and devotional life. Yes, we must continue to live with our convictions under our belt; however, now we must establish ourselves as a powerful Spirit-led evangelistic church. In other words, all our other convictions are essential, knowing we run the race of being Disciples as a marathon. Now is the time to decisively establish a powerful evangelistic lifestyle that will stay with us througout the rest of our years as Disciples. As one of our great evangelists recently said, “we must be a going church for a coming Christ.” That means we must each decide to set an example for the believers in our personal evangelism. We must also individually inspire each person in our ministry to pray and fast to be the workers and make workers for the harvest field as Jesus commands above. We must strive to set up as many new studies in September as we can and open our schedule for hospitality, evangelism, studies, and group sharing times. Every Bible Talk should choose and pray over a geographic “turf” to impact this year; a mall, a main street, a neighborhood to door knock, etc. Part of why campus tends to be more evangelistic is that a campus is a place, and marrieds and singles are a social status. Therefore, every Bible Talk (even marrieds and singles) should have a geographic location that they see as their “campus.” We must use our social media to post great evangelistic photos, videos, and announcements. Each of us should aim to have a powerful Bring Your Neighbor Day on September 11th. Most important of all, each of us must simply have the faith that we can convert or restore a brand new friend into Christ as soon as possible!

Our evangelistic goal for 2022 is simple: We pray that God dramatically blesses our efforts so every Disciple can be fruitful, the number of Bible Talks more than doubles, and that the DCICC surges past 200 healthy, generous, solid, and evangelistic disciples as soon as possible! It will take everyone giving their whole heart to achieve this goal. With 133 disciples here in DC (NC & VA included), 16 in Delaware, we will do so much more for the Lord and this lost and hurting world.

It is not time to be distracted by other things – even good things. It is time to focus on building an incredible evangelistic culture that will please God all year. Yes, there will always be distractions, yet as General Patton once said, “A good plan executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.” In DC, we make great disciples and leaders, who believe in discipling, devotional life, and generosity, but are not complete unless they are evangelistically powerful and effective. This is our greatest opportunity and area of need. So let us finish the work.

As a church of disciples of Jesus, let us remember His words that set Christianity in motion. “Come, follow me… and I will send you out to fish for people.” This phrase has always been the definition of discipleship. Let us also recall the responsive hearts of those first disciples who obeyed “without delay.” So let us go now, inspired and full of faith, to see all the amazing miracles God has laid before us as we obey His call. Love you all very much!

And to God be all the glory

 

 

Ron Harding