To The Ends of the Earth
by Paul A. Bertolino, Southeast Area Representative
… you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere — in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8 NLT)
I am a retired minister from New England who now calls Florida home. You can experience many things here in Florida. Visit Orlando for a family vacation and end up taking pictures of the kids with Mickey or Minnie. Chalk it up as a winner! Or you and your spouse can come down from the North during a severely cold winter and enjoy a beautiful vacation on one of our sugar-like, sandy beaches and have fresh seafood until you think you’ll sprout fins. Another winner! Of course, things can go in the other direction. On occasion we have a hurricane or two — even a tornado or flooding. And don’t come in December to find a white Christmas, or order a lobster plate and expect what you enjoy in Maine. They don’t make whole lobsters here. Another challenge is pronouncing the towns correctly. Can you say, “Kissimmee”? Last year friends invited Barbara and me to go tubing on the spring-fed Itchnatucknee River. It was difficult telling people where we had been. All in all, the experiences of the Southeast are as pleasant as anywhere else in our country, with one exception… don’t plan on visiting a CCCC church when you are here. There are none!
As a Conference, we have committed ourselves to reach out and develop church plants. Looking ahead to our Annual Family Conference in July, the Lord Jesus is challenging us to further faithfulness and fruitfulness. Our theme is “Being Changed.” To me personally, being changed is the launching pad for becoming a “change agent.” Don’t you love that title? It was true of the early disciples and it should be relevant for us today. Jesus is our model when it comes to radical, “outside the bun,” thinking. Here I sit in the multi-state Southeast without one CCCC church. We’re talking about the Bible Belt, folks. Where are we according to your current location? Jerusalem? The ends of the earth? Maybe somewhere in between? Will you join me in prayer that somewhere in this broad territory from the hills of Tennessee to the Florida Keys, the Holy Spirit will set His divine approval for a church plant?
I remember very clearly being called to pastor our first church. It was in the inner city surrounded by slumlords. The talk was “merge,” or at worst, just close it down. I was bi-vocational and determined not to give up my day job. That is, until the Lord began a revival that made it impossible for everyone to worship at the same time. With a staff that grew to seven, we began to look at several options to accommodate the growth. A plan was adopted to call a church planter and send several families just north of us to one of the fastest growing areas in the country.
Several years later, the Hispanic community in town was using our inner city church for worship and reaching folks right in their Jerusalem. Eventually they bought the building. Then the original church had enough capital to build a new facility near one of the city’s busiest interstate highways. It was a win-win situation!!
The scripture reminds us that in the last days, “your old men will dream dreams.” I qualify. Almost every year in the Christian Retirement Village (www.acvillage.net) where we live, a volunteer group known as, Recreational Vehicles in Christ’s Service (RVICS), come for an extended period of time to build and repair, thus improving our campus.
What if 25 retired couples or individuals from different CCCC congregations around the country could descend upon a town somewhere in the Southeast for a couple of years to plant a church? Maybe it wouldn’t be the ends of the earth, but it could be a Macedonian call. Is the Lord calling you?
