At the beginning of the year 2024 the leadership of the Central States Conference, which includes the administration and departmental directors, met together, deliberated and prayed about what should be the primary message to share with our workers and members this year. And we believe the Lord directed us to the theme, “Committed: Reignited By His Spirit.”
It was birthed from the reality that in the last days of earth’s history there’s a church in Revelation described as Laodicea, who has a reputation of not being cold or hot. And to be very honest we recognized that even within our great conference, there were some lukewarm and non-committal elements that should be addressed. Introspection is a good thing. But the great news is that there is no issue or element that is too hard for our God to handle.
The word commitment means “the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause, activity, etc.” Thus, this message of commitment is at the heart of everything we are and should be as followers of Christ. Firstly, we need to be individually committed to Jesus, who is the Rock upon which our church is built. Following Him, loving Him and serving Him is our first work as disciples. And secondly, because we are His disciples, disciples disciple. That means our calling is not simply to be good workers and faithful members, but it means that everything we do should be about spreading the love of Jesus and His power to save to everyone within our sphere of influence.
What we also recognized from the Bible was that unless a person, or a group, is reignited by the power of the Holy Spirit, it would be very difficult to remain committed to Christ and the work He has for us to do in the heartland of America. There’s a reason why Jesus told His disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit before running off to teach and preach the gospel in Jerusalem, Samaria, Judea, and the uttermost parts of the world. Had His followers simply taken the gospel commission of Matthew 28 and tried to implement it without being Spirit-filled, there would be chaos, confusion, disunity and no power to stay committed to the tasks at hand.
The six areas of emphasis and commitment that our president, Roger Bernard, has laid out before the Central States Conference family this year are as follows: 1. We are committed to telling people about Jesus. 2. We are committed to healthy and whole pastoral families. 3. We are committed to the spiritual and physical growth and health of our members. 4. We are committed to preparing our youth for leadership. 5. We are committed to quality thriving Christian education. And 6. We are committed to debt elimination.
Even though we are only halfway through the year, God has already shown us increased levels of commitment from various members, pastors, teachers, departmental leaders and office staff. We believe that when Jesus said the Father is more willing to send the Holy Spirit to reignite us than we are willing to give good gifts to our children, He was speaking the absolutely truth. We are experiencing a glimpse of being reignited in the present. However, we can’t wait to see how much more God will do through our conference in the future. May we all stay committed, and continually be reignited and filled with the Holy Spirit.
