Harvest Commission 2024: A 7-point vision…
Church of God General Overseer Tim Hill has announced a seven-point vision for the next two years entitled, Harvest Commission 2024.
Hill unveiled the strategy this week during a Leadership Summit held in Cleveland for state administrative bishops, youth and discipleship directors, and International Offices leaders. The summit, which began on September 18 with an intensive orientation session for new administrative bishops, concluded yesterday with a commissioning service for all state leaders and their spouses.
In explaining his vision for the 2022-2024 General Assembly period, Hill said, “While serving the Church of God as Director of World Missions from 2012 to 2016, God impressed upon my heart that our movement ‘must be a leading participant in finishing the Great Commission.’ During this period, we launched the FINISH Challenge, acknowledging that with the power of the Holy Spirit, we could realize the completion of the Great Commission.”
Hill went on to say that when he came to the office of general overseer in 2016, he introduced the FINISH Commitment with the now familiar acronym, FINISH, which stands for Find, Intercede, Network, Invest, Send, and Harvest.
During the Leadership Summit, with the theme, “Great Commission Kingdom Synergy,” Hill outlined the seven objectives under three headings of Harvest Commission ’24, “laborers together for Great Commission completion:”
ADVANCE the Coverage of the Gospel
1. Renew the focus of the Church of God on being “A Spirit-Empowered Church fulfilling the Great Commission” while releasing every leadership dimension “to go” and actively engage the Harvest with the prayer and goal of “Covering the Earth with the Gospel” by 2030—a Bible, a believer and a local church body in every nation.
2. Enlarge the national and global Harvest footprint of the Church of God in cities, counties, and countries with 1,000 new churches throughout the world. We will embrace a renewed call to the priority of Evangelism through intentional and organic church planting by initiating state/regional and district church planting initiatives.
ACTIVATE the Calling of a Generation
3. Engage, prepare and credential another generation of 5,000 ministers ages 17-25 throughout the world with a goal of 1,000 in North America.
4. Invest in leadership development at all levels of the church through more accessible paths of learning opportunity and ministry preparation.
5. Encourage Church of God laity and ministers to prepare and actively participate in every level of church functions, including participation in the 79th General Assembly in Indianapolis, Indiana.
ACHIEVE the Continuity of Significant Growth
6. Mobilize the fiduciary responsibilities of the International Offices by retiring debt on existing facilities that has been a twenty-year process; and further accelerate the fulfillment of other obligations, thereby releasing resources to help fund the Harvest perpetually.
7. Launch regional renewal through the attained and combined objectives of community evangelism and benevolence, personal discipleship, World Missions participation, student engagement, and spiritual renewal birthed by a return to daily Bible reading, consistent prayer, and a lifestyle of Christian witness.
Basing the strategy on Matthew 9:37-38, Hill said, “a synergistic, commissioned church is a compelling body of Pentecostal believers united cohesively together to engage the fulfillment of the Great Commission. We have acknowledged the challenge, accepted the commitment, and now we must commission a missional force to advance the Kingdom of God and witness the completion of the Great Commission HARVEST!”
State Leaders Embrace Debt Reduction Challenge
Cleveland, TN—Church of God General Overseer Tim Hill issued a challenge to state and regional leaders last week during their biennial Leadership conference. The administrative bishops, youth directors, and members of the International Offices Administrative Ministries Council surpassed an initial goal of ten percent toward retirement of remaining debt on the International Offices campus.
Hill has prioritized retirement of $1.8 million remaining of long-term debt on the International Offices from a major expansion more than 20 years ago. The goal is one of seven objectives unveiled by Hill as part of his Harvest Commission 2024 initiative for the 2022-2024 period, culminating at the 79th International General Assembly set for July 8-12, 2024 in Indianapolis.
Under “ACHIEVE the Continuity of Significant Growth,” the priority states to, “Mobilize the fiduciary responsibilities of the International Offices by retiring debt on existing facilities that has been a twenty-year process; and further accelerate the fulfillment of other obligations, thereby releasing resources to help fund the Harvest perpetually.”
Hill shared that the monthly obligation toward the debt retirement is over $62,000.
“This has become a spiritual priority for me,” Hill stated. “Imagine the ministry we could disseminate from these offices if we had these funds to distribute toward planting 1,000 new churches, mobilizing a new generation of young ministers, and providing educational resources for them, all priorities of Harvest Commission 2024.”
In his closing remarks at the leadership conference, Hill shared his heart concerning the critical priority of freeing up funds earmarked each month for debt reduction and loan payments. He then issued a challenge for those in attendance to “tithe” the first ten percent ($180,000) toward the overall goal. In the subsequent offering and receipt of pledges, the church leaders gave more than twenty percent of the debt, with a total of $376,503.00.
“This offering helped to strengthen the future of our movement as we strive to FINISH the Great Commission with the most resources God can place in our hands. To Him be the glory!”
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