Sunday afternoon’s service at the 12th General Conference of The Wesleyan Church focused on the importance and role of the Church’s higher education institutions.
Serving as the keynote speaker was Dr. Kevin Myers, pastor of 12Stone Church in Lawrenceville, GA, and Indiana Wesleyan University alum. 12Stone is composed of four campuses in the Atlanta suburbs. It serves 14,000 and has been named the fastest growing church in America.
Previous to Dr. Myers’ message that focused on both the present and the future, students from all five Wesleyan higher institutions composed the afternoon’s choir.
Dr. Myers focused on 2 Chronicles 14, the story of King Asa who served as King of Judah. At the beginning of his reign, King Asa sought the Lord with courage, expecting the supernatural to invade the natural. But years into his reign, he became more interested in security than being risky and ruthless in his pursuit of God’s mission.
While Dr. Myers encouraged the Church to not be afraid to change, he also encouraged those in attendance that the denomination is doing at least three things “right”: Christ is the first priority, character and integrity are intact, and change is welcome. Myers encouraged church leaders, ministers, and guests to continue to be ruthless in believing God to move in supernatural avenues—and reminded the crowd of the importance in continuing to inspire those within the local church.
“If we want future pastors to lead the local church, we need to inspire future leaders within the local church,” said Dr. Myers. He also stressed the important of prayer and the need to develop leaders within the context of the current church and not the church of the past.
“We need to raise up strong, aggressive, entrepreneurial pastors and church leaders,” said Myers.
“Keep praying,” he said. “King Asa quit praying at one point. We need to educate the Church of the present, not the church of the past.”
View the Sunday afternoon session here.
