It all began for me October 6, 1954 when Leroy Hux, pastor of a newly organized Southern Baptist Church, knocked on our door and told Mary and me about the Good News of Jesus Christ and the family of God in the church. My life changed forever. The church was meeting in a one room Seventh Day Adventist building with little attraction to the outside world. Oh, what fellowship, love, joy, peace, and excitement among that small congregation. I remember thinking, if only those outside could see what God has prepared for them and the price that was paid for their salvation, they would flock by the multitudes into His loving, caring arms.

         Our second church, with the same fellowship, love, joy, peace, and excitement, was a mission starting missions congregation in Huntington Beach, CA meeting in a smoke-stained Lagrange Hall, pastored by a very young Ted Lindwall, author of the letter below. I thank God for His marvelous works and the fact that after 56 years, Bro. Ted and I are continually working together in a labor of love to see a church starting movement that will cover the globe. What a glorious privilege to now have 2011 before us, with all of its open doors of opportunity of starting or strengthening and staffing churches throughout our world.

New Churches – Christ’s Gifts to the Nations

         Jesus Christ is God’s greatest Christmas gift to the world, bringing life and joy into so many millions of lives, including ours. To the dark corners of the world, in lonely villages and noisy Christless cities, the Lord Jesus is delivering His gifts of new gospel churches, local bodies of Christ. These new churches are teaching the children, evangelizing the adults, giving hope to the elderly. Most are small, as are all young plants, but they are vibrant, full of color in the midst of gray societies. Amazingly, though they are new-born themselves, they are producing and scattering the seeds of other new congregations. Missions starting missions is a glorious reality.

         We greet you who are a part of the Church Starts International fellowship, as partners, givers, missionaries, laborers, teachers, team members, pastors and prayer supporters. Your efforts together are bringing new life to many thousands of previously unreached people. You now are ministering Christ’s Great Commission strategy on  five different continents and in ten different languages and five more nations are targeted for 2011.

         Your efforts are of solid church starting based on the massive disciple-making of communities. Your goal is love-bound congregations and more and more laborers for a world that, everywhere, is “white unto harvest.”

         This year saw the beginnings of an amazing break-through for jail and prison ministries, in which we have learned to change a jail or prison into a missionary training center. We are learning to minister to the public schools in open nations, transforming multiplied thousands of young lives through weekly Bible teaching. We are seeing our workers and volunteers, at their own expense, moving into other countries, teaching Christians how to start new churches without money. We are seeing the fruit of our new missionary training institutes in a multiplication of new congregations. 

         While financial support is important, this movement is not driven by finances but by a small but growing Spirit-driven army of volunteers. It is the work of God, and we are all privileged to be a part of it. There will be gifts under our Christmas trees, but they are nothing compared to the gift of joyful and eternal life that God is giving to us and to those we serve. And we serve in ever-wider circles of missionary ministry. We want to give a live and spiritually powerful New Testament church to every darkened and spiritually dead village, town, and city in the world. Only the Lord can create such gifts. We pray that He will increasingly give them through us who are such a privileged spiritual family.  Let us rejoice together in the Lord in this beautiful Christmas season,

Bro. Bill Davis, President                       Dr. Ted Lindwall, Vice President

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