HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. — The Rev. Dr. Jeffrey J. Jeremiah, stated clerk of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, addressed the assembly on the morning of June 21. “The EPC is comprised of 462 churches as of today. This increase of 280 churches, with 20 exceptions, can be attributed to transfers. While we celebrate and welcome them all, we know that transfer growth is not what we are ultimately about. God has something much, much greater for us and we all know it.”
He challenged those present to consider what similar growth might look like in the context of the local church. “We have grown by a factor of 2.5 in recent years. Imagine with me this future … think for a moment of the number of members in your church today. In the next three years, what would it be like if that number increased by a factor of 2.5? From 80 members to 200; from 150 to 425; from 1,000 to 2,500. If that were future, it could not be explained by transfer growth — that could only be explained by transformation.”
Jeremiah asked, “Transformation, isn’t that what we are really about as believers in Jesus Christ?” Continuing with as much a prophet’s as a preacher’s voice, he said, “by the power of the Holy Spirit we have been born again, transformed by death to life and having been transformed we want to see others transformed in the same way.”
Jeremiah said, “For years I’ve heard that the American church has a lot to learn from the global church. I had a learning experience recently from a Nazarene leader from Mozambique. He shared that churches in his region have grown from 20 to 120 in one year. That was not transfer growth.” Jeremiah then said that he and other American’s present in the conversation immediately wanted to know “how did you do it?”
The answer offered from our brother from half a world away was “We stopped relying on ourselves. We stopped relying on others. We started relying on God and we prayed and God showed up.” Jeremiah added affirmed that “the Church of Jesus Christ is exploding in Mozambique because God showed up in power.”
Pleading, Jeremiah asked, “There are certainly notable exceptions, but could it be that one problem the American church faces today is that it’s powerless? Powerless because it relies on itself — its own resources — instead of real power — the power of God?”
He then offered his fellow EPC leaders a word of hope and encouragement, saying, “I am excited about our future but, if we are going to take full advantage of what the Lord has for us we must move on from transfer to transformation in all of our churches. That will only happen if we rely on Christ and Christ alone to show up with the power for mission that He has for us as He pours out His power on us.”
Closing with words of his personal commitment to serve them as stated clerk and praying over them from Ephesians that God would do immeasurably more in and through them, Jeremiah concluded by saying, “Thank you for the opportunity to serve you as the Stated Clerk of the EPC. God Bless you.”