Dear Readers,
Coming to the end of 2012 fills my heart with gratitude to the Lord for His many blessings in the past — personally and in the life of the Church. I think, for example, of our revised Strategic Mission Plan which has been updated for Europe since our reorganisation on January 1, our many advisories and seminars that have equipped and encouraged departmental directors in many countries, the outstanding European Pastors’ Conference that focussed on Making God Known in Europe, the numerous evangelistic meetings across the Division leading many to Christ.
But we are now entering a new phase. God has a future for us in our ministry! We have launched the Great Hope Project with an unusually rich selection of resources that we hope will reach secular and postmodern people next year. At the same time we rally around Mission to the Cities, joining the world church in a global outreach to the big cities, starting work in New York and London. Our Strategic Plan will be implemented emphasising Reach Up (Worship), Reach Across (Nurture) and Reach Out (Evangelism). We are as concerned about church health as we are about church growth. We will continue to use media as a major tool to reach our image-driven society with creative productions of short video clips with a message for today and we will use “social media” through the LIFEconnect ministry where we have already reached hundreds of thousands of people. A major event in 2013 will be the European Youth Congress in Novi Sad. We expect to see the work in Cyprus gain speed under new and stronger leadership than before. The list is longer, so these events simply represent the enormous activity being envisioned in the TED next year. We pray for new believers, for new churches and for a revival among our children and youth, and we believe that Newbold College of Higher Education will play an important part in these plans.
By God’s grace we see progress and growth in the Church when we seek Him first. May the conclusion of this year and the beginning of the new bring us closer to God and in the fellowship of family and friends. My thoughts go especially to all those who are alone and who suffer pain and hopelessness, and I pray that God will again be the great Comforter and bring healing and hope. A blessed new year from the Lord to all!
Dr Bertil Wiklander, President
Trans-European Division
