THE HOPE OF ALL NATIONS!

NORTHEAST PRAYER GOALS FOR 2014
“In his name (Jesus) the nations will put their hope.” – Matthew 12:21

GOOD MORNING and welcome to our 2014 Northeast Winter Workshops, entitled, “The Hope of All Nations!” This year we have the privilege to meet in the historic city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as we prepare our hearts to have a faithful and fruitful New Year! The Northeast congregations in our SoldOut Movement have come from Boston, MA, New York, NY, Syracuse, NY, and Washington, DC to celebrate our unity and worship together as we dream to evangelize this city and the rest of the nations in this generation through the power of our God!
IN AN AGE of lukewarm standards in Christianity (Revelation 3:16) and false religious teachers (1 Timothy 1:3), the hope of finding truth through God’s Word and His church has faded for many. “Hope” is simply defined as “the person or thing in which expectations are centered; believing that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best.” As disciples of Jesus, our hope must be in the Lord as we trust in His will and hold to His Word! Despite our worldly and spiritual challenges, we must believe that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him” (Romans 8:28) so we can be “joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” (Romans 12:12)! It is through our faithful expectations (hope) that we can be faithful in prayer to our God!
IN KEEPING with the unity of our Movement and our focus on having a joyful hope that leads to faithful prayers, our Northeast theme for the coming year will be The Year of Prayer! As we begin 2014, it is inspiring to reflect on all the miracles and highlights that God has done in 2013!
LAST YEAR the Lord graciously added to our Northeast churches 171 souls: 115 baptisms, 21 restorations, and 35 place memberships – many who came to us directly from our former fellowship seeking revival! Our average weekly attendance was 447, and our average weekly contribution was $16,134! Highlights of the year included our 2013 Northeast Winter Workshop – “Entrusted to the Saints”, the start of the DC Deaf Ministry, our NYC & Boston Women’s Day – “Secure in Heart”, the inspirational send off of the Denver Mission Team by the DC Church, the appointment of Joel & Courtney Parlour at the GLC, Syracuse celebrating their 20th anniversary with 125 in attendance, a significant increase in contribution in Syracuse, our NYC Men’s Forum – “What’s Inside You?”, the launch of the Boston Songleader College, the inauguration of the NYC Latin & AMS (Arts, Music & Spoken Word) Ministries, and the historical National Mall Service in DC with an attendance of 508! To God be all the Glory!
ANOTHER REMARKABLE HIGHLIGHT was in August at our Global Leadership Conference (GLC) – Prophets and Kings – where the Spirit gathered almost 2000 on Sunday morning to witness the First Commencement Ceremony of the International College of Christian Ministries! NYC had a record attendance of 60 disciples who traveled 3000 miles for such a historic event! Northeast Evangelists and Women’s Ministry Leaders where eight of the 90 recipients of Bachelor Degrees in Ministry! In addition, three Master’s Degrees were granted, and one Doctorate Degree was awarded! The service ended powerfully as the entire auditorium fell to their knees in prayer to send out the Denver Mission Team! Incredibly, in the SoldOut Movement’s short seven-year history, God has spread His new movement to build 51 churches in 21 nations on all six populated continents of the world!

OUR COMMITMENT to developing a powerful teen ministry was evident in 2013 as we celebrated our Second Annual IGNITE program! This nine day event gathered 28 of our strongest teens from around the world for a special time of bonding through spiritual strengthening, community service and fun activities. Four of the 28 teens selected from around the world came from our Northeast churches! In the summer of 2014, IGNITE will be held in Orlando, Florida! Let’s beg God for powerful teen ministries to develop in all of our Northeast churches!
ON BEHALF of the Northeast Leadership, Patrique and I want to commend the Northeast churches for your incredible sacrifice of $451,654 collected from our two Missions Contributions! This sacrifice served to support the four plantings of Las Vegas, Denver, Gainesville and Sydney, as well as sustain the faithful work in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America. The DC church was an example of faithful generosity as 48% of all their monies collected throughout the year went to world missions! Let’s continue to have joyful hope and faithful prayer as we look forward to our Crown of Thorns planting to Johannesburg, South Africa planting in 2015 and the financial support to hire ministry leaders for the remnant group in Philadelphia very soon!
WITH THIS YEAR’S THEME – The Year of Prayer, the Northeast Leadership has set before the Lord the following Prayer Goals for 2014:
1) “One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.’” (Luke 11:1) As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are the hope of the world as we lay out the gospel of Jesus Christ! We must recommit ourselves to restore the biblical focus on prayer more than ever before in order to accomplish Jesus’ dream of evangelizing the nations in this generation! As a result, our first goal is to call every disciple to refocus on their personal relationship with God.
2) “Brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you.” (2 Thessalonians 3:1) During 2013, the Northeast churches were privileged to send over 40 trained disciples to plant and strengthen the churches around the world! Please pray for Jake & Megan Studer from the New York City church, who have been selected to join the Toronto, Canada Church planting in March! Given this sacrifice, our goal is to continue to have continued forceful advancement throughout our ministries! It is our second prayer to have a record attendance at our January 26th Bring Your Neighbor Day!
3) “Then all the army officers…and all the people…approached Jeremiah and said to him, ‘Please…pray to the Lord your God for this entire remnant. For as you now see, though we were once many, now only a few are left. Pray that the Lord your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do.’” (Jeremiah 42:1-3) In 2013, several remnant (veteran) disciples joined God’s new movement! Internationally of note, 18 joined from the Sao Paulo ICOC and four new remnant churches have formed in Haiti alone! Other new Remnant Groups include: Amsterdam, Caracas, Davao, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and the host city of our Winter Workshops, Philadelphia! Our third prayer goal is that even more remnant disciples join in 2014!

4) “We…will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the Word.” (Acts 6:4) It was encouraging to witness Kwaku Sarkodie and Miriam Rojas to chosen as the new Ministry Interns for New York City and Syracuse respectively! Since the prayerful raising-up and selection of new ministry staff is an important aspect of church growth and development, our fourth prayer goal is that at least five Northeast ministry interns will be selected in 2014!
5) “Then Jesus 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 9:37-38) With increase of new disciples in our ministries, we must continue to bring them all to maturity in Christ, which includes being “fruitful.” (Luke 8:14-15) We will continue to work on the retention of these valuable new disciples through the accountability of Follow-up Studies, New Christian Orientations, D-groups at Midweek Services, Spiritual Strengthening Groups, and our CR (Chemical Recovery) Ministry. In order to accomplish these goals, our fifth prayer goal is to raise-up at least one Shepherding Couple and two Deacon Couples in all our churches by the end of 2015.
6) “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe you have received it, and it will be yours.” (Mark 11:23-24) Our yearly Missions Contributions must be a joy and not a burden as we save and fundraise to bring salvation to the ends of the earth! We must keep our hope in Jesus’ promise that if we believe that we have already received what we need, God will give it to us! Our sixth prayer goal is to increase our pledges to meet our financial budget and give a 20X Missions Contribution and if needed, a Thanksgiving Missions Contribution to ensure “there [are] no needy persons among [us].” (Acts 4:34)
7) “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to Heaven, but he beat his breast and said, ‘God, have MERCY on me, a sinner.’” (Luke 18:13) As the benevolent arm of the SoldOut Movement, the impact of MERCYworldwide now extends to all six populated continents of the world! Last year, the New York City and Los Angeles Churches partnered with the Red Cross for a blood drive. The Red Cross was so thrilled with this partnership with our MERCY Ambassadors that they have agreed to hold a National MERCY/Red Cross Blood Drive on Saturday, September 20th! Our seventh prayer goal is that all the Northeast Churches will again participate in our Movement’s global events of the Day of MERCY in June and the MERCY Christmas Toy Drive in December as well as the Red Cross Blood Drive!
8) “And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to serve Him…and to worship Him, these will I bring to my holy mountain and give them joy…in my house of prayer for all nations.” (Isaiah 56:6-7) In order to give vision to world missions, all our Northeast churches are committed to send representatives to November’s European Missions Conference (EMC) in London or this coming February’s Central and South American Missions Conference (CSAMC) in Santiago. Our eighth prayer goal is to motivate as many as possible from our Northeast congregations to participate in these conferences thus sharing in “the joy in [God’s] house of prayer for all nations.”
9) “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church…forever and ever! Amen!” (Ephesians 3:20-21). In order to be the hope of all nations, we must imitate the heart of Jesus to serve in any capacity necessary in our churches so we can glorify our God! This may include being on a mission team, becoming a Bible Talk Leader, being selected as a Shepherding or Deacon Couple, or even the conversion or restoration of someone close to you. Our final prayer goal is for every Northeast disciple to have at least one prayer goal that is “immeasurably more than [anything] we imagine.”
THE 16TH CENTURY theologian Martin Luther once stated, “Everything done in the world in the world is done by hope.” As we enter 2014, let us all keep our faith, hope and love in God as we pray for “even greater” miracles and highlights in the future! Let us all embrace The Year of Prayer and challenge ourselves to pray daily through these goals! And to God be all the Glory!
Andrew Smellie
-Missions Evangelist, NYCICC
(portions taken from Kip McKean’s “A House of Prayer for All Nations” – Prayer Goals for 2014)