April 2004

by Rick Ives

Pastor Grant Edwards and I just returned from a week in St. Petersburg, Russia where we led a Discipling Another to Love Jesus conference. Our conference was hosted by Pastor Igor Sokolov and his Harvest church and was attended by 200 pastors and church leaders from as near as St. Petersburg and as far away as the Ural Mountain region of Russia (several days by train.) Pastors and leaders were there from Baptist, Methodist, Independent, Charismatic, Church of Christ, Pentecostal, and other denominations. This is the great thing about the Great Commission – it cuts across all denominational barriers and unites us as one in Christ!

Why did we take this conference to Russia? Simple; God is moving in great ways today to see to it that the church fulfills the Great Commission which was given as Jesus’ last will and testament 2000 years ago – to go and make DISCIPLES of all people.

Allow me to illustrate the importance of the Great Commission. When you go fishing, you of course hope to catch some fish. Good fishermen catch fish and then keep the big ones to eat and release the small ones so they can grow. Only a cruel person catches fish and leaves them on the ground to die – but that is unfortunately what the church in America often does. Many people get saved each year and come to our churches, and most of them (50–60%) end up falling away from faithfulness to the Lord very quickly. This is often in part because most churches don’t know what to do to help new believers. Russians Reaching Russians, partnering with the Discipling Another To Love Jesus ministry, empowered by the Holy Spirit and fueled by prayers and financial help, is moving to change that scenario into one where most new believers will be discipled and built up to become faithful and effective servants of the Lord. This is what the DA2LJ conference does – equip pastors and churches to not only catch the fish, but to preserve the harvest and grow healthy followers for the Lord!

The leaders we trained are very excited to start one-on-one discipleship ministries in their churches now. This will mean that many who get saved will now grow and stay faithful to the Lord, and we will move closer to fulfilling the Great Commission together. Please pray for this movement of the Lord to restore discipleship to His church as we await the great end-times revival.