President Herbold | February 2024 Update

Early bird registration opens March 1, sign up at https://allianceassembly.com

Download Pastor Dan Martin’s story 

Download President Herbold | February 2024 Update

Transcript: 

Rev. Darren Herbold:  

Hi, Alliance Canada. I want to start with three quick reminders and another story of God’s faithfulness. Number one: early bird registration for General Assembly is just a few weeks away. On March 1st, I already shared last month that I’m just continually getting more and more excited and my excitement only continues to grow. Would you please keep praying for our time together? This July is going to be an important time for us.  

Number two: the local church annual report is due in just a few days. I already shared how important this is. If you haven’t filled this out yet, you making this a priority is really important, and I’m excited to share some important updates from our collective ministry impact and also opportunity before us at this coming Assembly. 

Thirdly, our financial books are officially closed for 2023.  

Hi, future Darren here with a really quick update. A few last minute donations came in the mail right before the 2023 books closed. So I have more exciting news for you regarding our annual mission Focus, the Jaffray Offering. Thanks to our incredible generosity across our family of churches, we beat our goal of a half million dollars, and we’ve raised a total of $586,000 together. 

I’m so thrilled because this means that our South Asian partner will be able to train and support 195 new South Asian pastors who, if everything goes according to how the Lord has led in the past, this means they will plant over 975 new churches and reach over 29,000 more people. With the good news of Jesus over the next five years, I continue to be amazed by Alliance Churches’ generous and sacrificial giving. Thank you.  

We’re working on a report to get more information on the full impact of the Jaffray offering to you. So just stay tuned for that. But now back to the other video. Over the next few months. Continuing with this theme of faithfulness. I’m delighted to share some of your testimonies of God’s faithfulness in your life and in the ministry. 

He has called us to together a powerful testimony of God’s faithfulness from Dan Martin. He’s an associate pastor at Wellspring Church in Burlington, Ontario. And I would love for us to watch this together. 

Rev. Dan Martin: 

God, if you could show me the fruit of the impact that I’ve had, that would really be great. It’s not so much that I’m doing things for God, but rather that I’m simply participating in what God is doing in the lives of other people. So my name is Dan Martin. I’m associate pastor at Wellspring Church in Burlington. I think one moment where God was really at work in the ministry that I’ve been involved in is when I served in a community in northern Manitoba. 

It was during a season where I was feeling a little bit spiritually dry and just praying and asking God to just show me the fruit of the ministry impact that I had. And so we were actually coming home from the trip. We stopped in this little tiny restaurant in the middle of nowhere, and there was a family that entered into the restaurant and the missionaries started to talk to them and they referred to the one guy at the table as Cody. 

And I remember that ten years ago in that area, I actually had the privilege of leading this young seven year old boy to the Lord named Cody. And he really changed my life when he came to the Lord. He had such a joy in his eyes when he first discovered the love of Jesus that really challenged me on my own walk about. Why didn’t I not have half the joy that this kid had. And it was a turning point in my life. And so after the dinner was over, everybody left the room. And I was wondering, is this the same Cody that I, you know, ten years ago? And I thought, what do I have to lose? So I got up from my table. I walked over. I said, Excuse me. I don’t even know if you remember me or if you’re the same guy ten years ago and he stopped me as I was speaking and he said, Stop. I actually totally remember who you are. God, just use that moment in my life to show me that even ten years later that my impact was still changing people’s lives. And that was such an encouraging moment in my ministry.

I think long term faithfulness requires a long time in ministry. I think the longer you’re actually serving in a church in a context, it’s kind of an opportunity for you to actually practice faithfulness. Because the truth is, the longer you serve in a church, the more you become aware of some of the problems and challenges of ministry. 

So I think long term faithfulness chooses to actually not walk away, but to remain in and actually view challenges, not as problems to be solved, but people to be loved. And I’ve really appreciated that stance that, you know, God gives us the opportunity to get involved in people’s lives, to bless them, to encourage them, to support them, to help them to become more like Jesus. 

And I think faithfulness requires time to be able to to unpack that. I think another way that we can be faithful in the long term is by investing in networks that can support us in ministry. You know, in my former church. One of the things that I did was heavily invest in some network relationships, both within The Alliance but also within the city that I served. 

And I got to know so many leaders and pastors. And I have to say that over all those years, those are people who became good friends that I could call on the phone. In fact, I called one last week just to talk to, to pray with, to encourage each other, to celebrate joys. But also to support each other in the challenges of ministry. 

So I think for the long term faithfulness, it really does require kind of supporting encouraging networks of people who can kind of wrap around you help you root and be just kind of grounded in life and in ministry. 

Rev. Darren Herbold:  

I really love when Dan says that long term faithfulness chooses not to walk away, but to remain in. It views challenges not as problems to be solved, but people to be loved. When you’re in a ministry for a long time, at least for me, it can be easy to slip into the mindset of it being a task or a chore or problems to be solved. 

Not unlike the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son. But if we adopt the mindset of a father and choose to love people around us because of and through Christ, it changes absolutely everything. So I pray that Jesus, as we continue our journey with you, may your faithfulness be evident in our walk, in our ministries, in our families. 

Lord, would you remind us daily of your steadfast love that your mercies never come to an end and that great is your faithfulness. Lord, you are our portion. You are more than enough. Would you find us faithful as we obey your word and love one another.