GNW WrapUp!
Posted on 19. Jan, 2010 by Michael Plaege in Blog
What a great week we had on GNW this year! Thanks to God’s grace and kindness, we shared the good news of Jesus with our community and had a lot of fun along the way! Thank you to everyone who committed their time and resources and used their gifts to make it happen. It takes a lot of people making a big effort to pull it off. Personally, I find it a great privilege and pleasure to lead a team of such dedicated and capable leaders and team members.
GNW is an important part of our overall goal to reach the coast for Christ on a number of fronts. Firstly, GNW is about getting out into our community and inviting people to hear the gospel. In the lead up to GNW, 15,000 GNW invitations were given out, including invitations to hundreds of school kids across 13 local public schools. During the week of GNW, our Living On Site Team (LOST) with the help of some of our church members doorknocked hundreds of people each afternoon. Over 300 different kids attended GNW, and about 200 different adults visited the Adults tent during the week. Our ‘teens’ program had record numbers. In most sections our numbers continue to grow each year, and overall we have reached a plateau in the last 2 years. We now have to do the hard work of praying for and following up those who have expressed an interest in finding our more about Jesus. Some will be invited to Simply Christianity commencing on Tues 16th Feb, others to different ministries within our church e.g SALT, WOW, Recovery etc. Please pray for this vital follow up work and that God might continue to build his church by the proclamation of his word and the power of his Spirit.
Secondly, GNW is a great opportunity for us to strengthen our fellowship as we stand shoulder to shoulder and proclaim Christ. There is great comraderie we work together towards a common cause and share the joys and difficulties in reaching our community for Jesus. GNW has been great for this.
Thirdly, GNW gives us opportunity to connect with those who are new to us or on the fringe of church life. Many friendships have been strengthened in the Adults tent as people have spent time together discussing the bigger issues of life over a cup of coffee.
GNW is over for another year but our work us only just begin!
With the year ahead of us, we want to commit ourselves to follow up and continue the momentum of stretching ourselves beyond our comfort zones to share Jesus with our community. We also need to look for ways we could improve GNW for next year. I’ve been challenged to raise the profile of GNW at our church and seek a bigger involvement from our church members. God has certainly given us some gifted people and many resources. The challenge is see these effectively employed at GNW. We need training in evangelism and a wider commitment to use the GNW platform to see people come to Christ. Still, I look forward to another year and your valuable input into the great enterprise we’re involed in together, to see the gospel proclaimed to each and every person on the coast. Praise God!
