Teacher's-Lesson 5-Excuses to Avoid Mission

Sabbath Afternoon
Read for This Week’s Study: Jonah 1–4; Nahum 1:1; 2 Kings
17:5, 6; Ps. 24:1; James 1:27; Isa. 6:1–8.
Memory Text: “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: ‘Whom
shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I! Send
me’ ” (Isaiah 6:8, NKJV).
Not everyone called to mission was as compliant as Abraham.
Jonah is an example (read Jonah 1–4). God called Jonah to
cry out against Nineveh, capital of Assyria. This city, located
in modern-day Iraq, was 560 miles from Jerusalem, a good month’s
journey. Jonah not only refused to go—he ran in the opposite direction.
Arriving at Joppa, he purchased passage to Tarshish, now southern
Spain. Sailing the 2,000-mile trip would have taken at least a month,
depending on the weather. Not wanting to confront the king of Assyria,
Jonah uses the month it would have taken him to get to Nineveh to get
away from it. Why would he, a man of God, have done that?
The Ninevites were notoriously wicked, a people known for their evil
and cruelty and who had attacked Israel and Judah. Nevertheless, God
called Jonah to go to Nineveh and to cry out against its great wickedness (Jon. 1:2). The wording here is very similar to the wording God
used with Abraham regarding Sodom and Gomorrah, in Genesis 18:20,
21. As we will see, however, Jonah was no Abraham.
What can we learn from Jonah’s attitude about the excuses that we
can make in order not to do mission?
* Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, November 4.
Lesson *October 28–November 3
58
(page 39 of Standard Edition)
October 29
Our Excuses: Fear
Read Nahum 1:1; Nahum 3:1–4; and 2 Kings 17:5, 6; 2 Kings 19:32–
37. What do these verses reveal about Nineveh and the relationship
between Assyria and Israel? How might this relationship have
impacted Jonah’s decision to go to Tarshish instead?
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
One of the reasons Jonah may have been unwilling to go to Nineveh
was fear. The Assyrians were a formidable foe, and Nineveh served as
the capital of the kingdom.
“Among the cities of the ancient world in the days of divided Israel one
of the greatest was Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian realm. . . . In the
time of its temporal prosperity Nineveh was a center of crime and wickedness. Inspiration has characterized it as ‘the bloody city, . . . full of lies
and robbery.’ In figurative language the prophet Nahum compared the
Ninevites to a cruel, ravenous lion. ‘Upon whom,’ he inquired, ‘hath not
thy wickedness passed continually?’ Nahum 3:1, 19.”—Ellen G. White,
Prophets and Kings, p. 265.
Nineveh was a magnificent city. Historians tell us that Sennacherib
greatly expanded the city, including building the huge southwestern
palace that alone measured 1,650 feet by 794 feet. (503 by 242 meters)
and contained at least 80 rooms. He also built 18 canals to bring water
to the city from as far away as 40 miles (65 kilometers). Its size alone
would have been intimidating.
But the Assyrians were also ruthless. In his account of the conquest of
Babylon, Sennacherib boasted that he filled the streets with the corpses
of its inhabitants, young and old, and relief carvings found during excavations depict scenes of soldiers impaling victims. These were not people you
wanted to cross; they were not averse to using violence, and gratuitously
cruelly, too, against those they didn’t like. Indeed, at the thought of walking
among the masses of people in Nineveh, Jonah must have quaked with fear.
In spite of all of this, we often read Jonah’s story with disapproval for
letting fear get in the way of carrying out God’s instructions. What we
fail to realize is that we can do the same thing (i.e., allow ourselves to
be controlled by our fears rather than by God).
Think back to a time when you felt strongly that God was directing you to do something that you, out of fear, really didn’t want to
do. What lessons have you learned from that experience?
____________________________________________________
Sunday
(page 40 of Standard Edition)
59
October 30
Our Excuses: False Views
When the storm came, Jonah blamed himself (Jon. 1:1–12). His attitude
does reveal something about the kind of worldview and understanding of
God or “gods” that many had back then. While various gods, they believed,
ruled in their various lands, the sea was deemed the chaotic realm of
demons. In the worldview of the mariners, sacrifice was needed to appease
their wrath. Although Jonah was a Hebrew, he quite possibly had a worldview that was influenced by the traditional beliefs of his times.
Read Jonah 2:1–3, 7–10. What do these verses reveal about how Jonah
started to understand God’s providence?
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
Although Jonah was running from the territory where the people
claimed Jehovah as their God, he learned (the hard way) that even when
he was traveling into foreign cultures, Jehovah was still sovereign. The
wind and waves belonged to God. The fish, too. “The earth is the Lord’s,
and all its fullness” (Ps. 24:1, NKJV). Jonah’s heart was turned to the
Sovereign of earth and sea, and so he confessed and was saved.
We, too, can have misunderstandings about God and what He expects
of us. One common misunderstanding is that God’s desire for us is to
focus on our own salvation and to remove ourselves from the wickedness of the world around us. Though we are instructed to keep ourselves
“unspotted from the world” (James 1:27, NKJV), our focus should be
on how we can bring God’s blessings and hope to those in need.
Another misunderstanding that stops us from accepting God’s call
into mission is believing that success depends on ourselves. We can
no more save a soul than Jonah could save Nineveh. We can have a
“savior” mentality about mission. Our call is not to do the saving but
to cooperate with God in His saving work. We give testimony praising
God for specific ways He is changing us, but only God can draw people
to Himself. We can plant seeds of truth, but only God can convert the
heart. We often confuse our role with God’s, which is enough to make
anyone find an excuse not to witness. Yes, God used Jonah, but only
God, not Jonah, turned Nineveh around.
Winning souls is hard, too hard for humans to do on their own.
How can we learn, instead, to let God win souls, but through us
and our life and witness?
____________________________________________________
Monday
60
(page 41 of Standard Edition)
October 31
Our Excuses: Inconvenience
Jonah’s experience in the belly of the fish (see Jonah 2) was a dramatic show of God’s love and mercy, and Jonah’s prayer reveals that
he didn’t miss God’s message of love. But just because he had had an
incredible encounter with God didn’t mean that his old thought habits
or attitudes would easily change, even though he went to Nineveh
anyway.
Read Jonah 3. How did the people respond to what Jonah had preached?
What lessons are here for us about witnessing?
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
Whatever Jonah’s personal feelings about the Ninevites, he preached
what God told him to, and the results were astonishing. The Ninevites
were moved to repentance! Yes, Jonah had to go through a lot, to do
what he didn’t want to do, but when he did it, God was glorified.
Thus, God’s mission is carried forward on the shoulders of those who
are willing to sacrifice, even if reluctantly. Our values must give way to
God’s priority for the lost. Like Jonah, we sometimes harbor prejudices
that keep us from reaching out to a person or group.
Having to face our prejudices requires humility. Mission also
requires time and emotional energy. Investing in others’ lives and truly
caring for them can be taxing. In an age when we are stressed keeping
up with our own lives and problems, providing emotional support can
seem just too exhausting.
And finally, being involved in mission often requires that we change
how we feel about and use our money. Whether related to providing
care for people, purchasing literature and outreach materials, or paying
for services or conveniences to free up time for mission work, there are
expenses related to mission. Whatever form it may take, mission work
requires sacrifice.
The good news is that in spite of Jonah’s inadequacies, God worked
powerfully in bringing the Ninevites to repentance. Sadly, Jonah did not
share in the blessing of heaven’s joy.
What sacrifice is God asking you to make—or be ready to
make—for the sake of sharing His love with someone else? How
completely do you trust that He will fulfill His promise to enrich
your life through sacrifice?
____________________________________________________
Tuesday
(page 42 of Standard Edition)
61
November 1
Our Excuses: Uncomfortable Confrontations
“Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country?
Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness,
One who relents from doing harm” (Jonah 4:2, NKJV). What a beautiful prayer on the part of Jonah. Or was it?
Read Jonah 4. What was wrong with this man?
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
Jonah had such a deep hatred for the people God sent him to that
he felt it was better that he die than to lose face when the failure of
his doomsday preaching against Nineveh was revealed. Jonah wanted
Nineveh to be the next Sodom and Gomorrah. He was hoping for God’s
judgment on these hated people. When it didn’t happen, his worldview
was being shaken to the core, and Jonah would rather die than allow his
world to be turned upside down.
For the second time in the story of Jonah, God confronts him, not
with a sermon or a saying but with an experience. Worldviews are not
formed on demand. Nor do they change because we hear something
new or different. Worldviews are often formed and changed based on
life experiences and how they are interpreted or explained.
The new experience God gave was to help Jonah recognize his own
distorted worldview. God made a plant miraculously grow large enough
in one day to offer sufficient shade to protect Jonah from the blazing
sun. Jonah was grateful, not for God, who performed the miracle, but for
the plant. Rather than seeing this as an unmerited miracle, he saw it as
an appropriate and well-deserved blessing that followed his good works.
When the plant died, it was a misfortune that caused Jonah to grow angry
and insecure in his self-worth, and his thoughts grew suicidal.
The experience is followed by God’s voice of gentle correction, helping Jonah see how foolish it was for him to value a plant more than the
many thousands of men, women, and children in Nineveh, as well as
their animals.
The story doesn’t resolve with an ending of Jonah’s repentance.
Rather, the unfinished story pivots to us. What will we do about
God’s concern for the wicked, for the bullies, for the unreached
across the globe?
____________________________________________________
Wednesday
62
(page 43 of Standard Edition)
Here Am I, Send Me
Jonah’s story is more than amazing. The fact that God could save the
Ninevites in spite of the poor witness of Jonah is a stark reminder that
our role is merely to be a conduit for God, who alone can convict and
convert hearts. It is a reminder that God seeks only willing and humble
messengers who will follow His direction.
Read Isaiah 6:1–8. What is the central idea expressed in this passage?
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
The call is there. God is looking for willing volunteers. We are to
answer that call by submitting to His leadership, listening to hear His
voice, and then choosing to obey whatever He tells us.
The story of Jonah also reveals God’s love for people who live where
His love is not felt and His voice not heard. Just as God had pity on
Nineveh, He has pity on the millions populating the cities today, where
buildings replace trees and flowers, and constant noise makes it difficult to be still and listen. Of Nineveh God said, they “do not know their
right hand from their left” (see Jon. 4:11, ESV). God needs messengers
who are willing to take His message of hope to those overwhelmed with
the busyness and ugliness of life.
Isaiah heard a voice saying, “Who will go?” What will your response
be?
Challenge: On a blank sheet of paper or in your prayer journal, make a list of ten people you know are not believers. We
will call them your “disciples.” List them by name if possible.
Keep this list close by, and for the rest of the quarter, pray
daily for each of your ten disciples. Pray that God will help
you become casual friends with those who are acquaintances.
Pray that you can develop deeper, closer, trusting friendships
with your casual friends. As you deepen your relationships,
carefully watch and listen so you can identify their specific
needs, hurts, and pain. Then pray that God will meet them in
that area of need.
Challenge Up: Choose a city near you as well as a city in another
part of the world. Begin praying for the people who live and work
in each. Ask that God will raise up a strong Adventist presence
that can share the truth as we know it—the truth about the soon
coming of Jesus.
Thursday November 2
(page 44 of Standard Edition)
63
November 3
Further Thought: Ellen G. White has a strong warning for those who
are struggling to follow the call of Jesus to witness to those around them.
“The excuses of those who fail to do this work do not relieve them of
the responsibility, and if they choose not to do this work, they neglect
the souls for whom Christ died, neglect their God-given responsibility,
and are registered in the books of heaven as unfaithful servants. Does
the minister work as did the Master, to be a strength and a blessing
to others, when he shuts himself away from those who need his help?
Those who neglect personal intercourse with the people, become selfcentered, and need this very experience of placing themselves in communication with their brethren, that they may understand their spiritual
condition, and know how to feed the flock of God, giving to each his
portion of meat in due season. Those who neglect this work make it
manifest that they need moral renovation, and then they will see they
have not carried the burden of the work.”—Ellen G. White, Advent
Review and Sabbath Herald, August 30, 1892.
While these are very strong words highlighting the importance God
places on mission, we are not left without hope. “In the charge given
him, Jonah had been entrusted with a heavy responsibility; yet He who
had bidden him go was able to sustain His servant and grant him success.
Had the prophet obeyed unquestioningly, he would have been spared
many bitter experiences, and would have been blessed abundantly. Yet in
the hour of Jonah’s despair the Lord did not desert him. Through a series
of trials and strange providences, the prophet’s confidence in God and in
His infinite power to save was to be revived.”—Ellen G. White, Prophets
and Kings, p. 266.
Just like Jonah, we may find it easier to make excuses for not participating in mission. Our motivation for these excuses could be one of
many. However, our call to mission is no less specific than was Jonah’s
call. The question is, How will you choose to answer?
Discussion Questions:
Ê What excuses have you been tempted to use for not being
involved in mission? What is your Nineveh?
Ë Think about how precious the truth is that we as Seventh-day
Adventists have. Think about how blessed you are to have these
truths. What is holding you back from sharing with others what
we love so much?
Ì How can you learn by God’s grace to overcome any fears you
might have about witnessing and mission?
Friday
Provided by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission, which uses Sabbath School
mission offerings to spread the gospel worldwide. Read new stories daily at AdventistMission.org.
Story inside
64
Hope Amid Panic Attacks
By Andrew McChesney
As a girl, Grete had panic attacks. She woke up in the dark, scared, her
heart beating rapidly. Her fear was so intense that she wondered whether she
might explode. She didn’t know where to find help. She didn’t tell her parents. She thought her fears were bigger than people. The world scared her,
even such ordinary things as school and walking on the street. She didn’t
think anyone in Germany, where she lived, could help.
On those sleepless nights, Grete began thinking about Annika. The two
girls had grown up together, singing in a children’s choir. Then Annika had
been diagnosed with cancer. Still, she had been brave and put her trust in
God.
“Don’t be afraid,” Annika had told her parents. “I know where I am going.
Everything will be fine.” Annika had died but without pain or fear.
Annika’s faith amazed Grete. She was scared every night. Annika’s words
were the first time that Grete had heard about a loving God and eternal life.
She wondered if there was something bigger than her and the world. How
can I get to this place where Annika planned to go? she wondered.
Grete stopped having the nighttime panic attacks when she was 14, but
she still felt afraid and lonely. Then she met her future husband, Nico. He
didn’t go to church regularly, but he strongly believed in God. His parents
were Seventh-day Adventists, and they opened their home to Grete for the
Christmas holiday. Never had Grete spent time with such a kind family. It
was a new world. Overwhelmed, she ran upstairs to cry.
As Grete sensed God’s presence in the home, she realized that she could
receive help for her fears. She saw that God is great, powerful, and able to
save anyone. She felt safe for the first time. She wanted to feel safe forever.
Grete began taking Bible studies, and later, she and Nico joined the
Seventh-day Adventist church on Germany’s Rügen island. They didn’t
know it at the time, but the church had faced closure because of declining
membership. Their presence was an answer to the prayers of church members, including Nico’s father, Gunthardt, the head elder. Today, Grete and
Nico are active members of the thriving church, which recently constructed
a larger building to accommodate its growing membership.
“The most wonderful thing in my life is that I
got to know Jesus,” Grete said. “I know that this is
the best thing that I could have done. My life is so
happy.”
Thank you for your Sabbath School mission offerings that
help spread the gospel of hope in secular countries such as
Germany and elsewhere across the world.
Part I: Overview
The past several weeks have highlighted that mission is rooted in God’s
initiative and that God calls us to mission. This week, the focus is on the
reality that some who have experienced God avoid the call to mission and
the privilege to share the loving experience they have had.
At some point, all people who have had an experience with God will
face the temptation to avoid sharing this experience with others. It is
best to humbly admit to this reality rather than assume such a temptation happens only to others. Once we recognize that we are confronted
by this temptation at some point, it is easier to take intentional steps out
of this zone of avoidance and into the healthier space of sharing God’s
love with others.
Ultimately, excuses to avoid mission are temptations of the devil,
who does not want anyone to hear or experience the goodness of God.
Thus, avoiding mission is not simply a dereliction of duty; it is instead
a missed opportunity to draw others into a deeper and more meaningful
walk with God and toward a more abundant life. The following commentary section describes two potential ways in which excuses are used
to avoid mission. These excuses do not comprise the only ways that
avoidance can happen, but they are two of the more prominent ways. The
first example is demonstrated through the disciples’ story in the Garden
of Gethsemane. The second example will draw critical points from the
story of Jonah.
Part II: Commentary
Gethsemane
When Jesus was nearing His last hours of life on earth before His arrest,
trial, and death, He took the disciples into the Garden of Gethsemane to
pray. Jesus asked the three disciples who were closest to Him to pray with
Him and stay awake while He prayed because the weight of what was happening to Him was heavy. Jesus desperately needed the comfort of friends
at this time (Matt. 26:36–45).
Unfortunately, the disciples, who genuinely loved Jesus and considered
Him a dear Friend, could not fulfill the request and fell asleep. This negligence happened twice; the disciples grew complacent and allowed their
sleepiness to keep them from sharing the Lord’s burdens. Before they had
a chance to make it right, Jesus was arrested and taken from their midst
teachers comments
65
(Matt. 26:47–56). Thus, it became a missed opportunity for the disciples
to serve the One whom they loved so much.
The problem in this situation was not that the disciples had never
experienced Jesus’ love. By this point, they had plenty of evidence
demonstrating His love for them. It wasn’t even that they had drifted
far away from Jesus. After all, they were there with Him in the Garden.
Nonetheless, a sense of complacency settled in. The disciples could not
understand how critical staying awake and praying for Jesus was at that
crucial time. The disciples missed the opportunity to share the Father’s
love with the One who had taught them so much about love.
Sad to say, we are often guilty of the same complacency and negligence
today. We have beautiful experiences with Jesus. And we are openly followers of Jesus. But the reality, when we take a closer look, is that many of
us have grown complacent in our faith. This complacency often happens
subtly. When we reflect on our lives, we may realize that we do not love
others in tangible ways. Much like the disciples, we know Jesus is good
and that we want to be with Him, but we slide into a state of spiritual
sleepiness, missing multiple opportunities to share the love of God with
a desperate world. We need to remind each other, respectfully, to stay
awake and always be ready to share the love we have experienced with a
suffering world.
Jonah
The second excuse we make to avoid mission is embodied in the form
of missed opportunities in the narrative of Jonah. This form of excuse
differs from the negligence and complacency shown by the disciples
in Gethsemane. However, the second excuse, like the first, also is
prevalent. The story of Jonah exemplifies the second excuse in several instances. While the story is multifaceted, the book of Jonah, in
many ways, is, at its heart, as we have just asserted, a story of missed
opportunities.
Jonah knew God and prophesied on God’s behalf in Israel before getting the call to go to Nineveh (2 Kings 14:25). But his prior prophetic
work had always been among Israelites and involved encouraging things
on behalf of Israel. Jonah’s work did not include prophesying among
Israel’s enemies. When you read the whole book of Jonah, you notice that
Jonah struggled a great deal with loving people who came from a nonJewish background.
There are two significant missed opportunities found in the book of
Jonah. The first missed opportunity takes place on the ship that Jonah
boarded to run away from God. During the storm, Jonah was surrounded
by sailors who worshiped other deities. Yet, during the storm, the sailors
teachers comments
66
begged Jonah to pray to his God in the hope that his intercession would
make a difference (Jon. 1:6). Jonah never prayed. Jonah’s solution was to
commit assisted suicide (Jon. 1:12). At this stage in the story, Jonah did
not know a whale would save his life, and so he asked the sailors to cast
him overboard to his death.
The sailors, who had more compassionate hearts than did Jonah,
refused, at first, until they had no other options (Jon. 1:13).
(Remember the previous lesson about being open to receiving a blessing from those whom you meet.) The storm stopped when Jonah was
thrown overboard. As a result, the sailors had a newfound respect for
Jonah’s God. The problem was that Jonah missed the opportunity to
pray to God rather than proposing a human solution. This opportunity
would have given the sailors a more complete and better understanding
of who God is.
The second missed opportunity came after Jonah preached in Nineveh.
The people accepted Jonah’s message and repented. But Jonah was
nowhere to be found. Instead, he climbed a nearby hill, hoping to see the
destruction of Nineveh (Jon. 4:5). When that failed to take place, Jonah
got angry at God (Jon. 4:1). Jonah reveals the real reason for his excuses
to avoid God’s mission. Jonah says to God that he knew that God was
a loving and compassionate Being and, thus, would likely forgive the
Ninevites (Jon. 4:2). Recognizing this Bible truth, Jonah didn’t want to
go out in mission to people he didn’t like because he didn’t want them to
experience the goodness of God.
The book of Jonah is the only book in the Bible that ends with a question (Jon. 4:11). The question is straightforward. God asks Jonah, “Why
can’t you love people the way I do?” Because Jonah refused to love his
enemies, he was outside the city when he should have been inside, helping
the people of Nineveh take the next steps in their relationship with God.
Jonah’s refusal turned into a missed opportunity.
The excuses of Jonah were wrapped up in what we today call ethnocentrism, prejudice, and racism. Jonah experienced the love of God in his
life and knew God was compassionate. But Jonah couldn’t get past his
feelings of national pride. Because he believed that he was better than
others, he was unwilling to go in mission the way that God desired. What
a sad story. Yet, we can continue to learn from it today.
The question at the end of the book of Jonah is one for us to ask
ourselves and our churches. Do we demonstrate a love for the communities around us, especially for its members who look different from us or
come from other parts of the world? All too often, I have heard conversations in church or in Sabbath School that reveal prejudices and harmful
teachers comments
67
ethnocentric attitudes. These attitudes are often accompanied by excuses for
why certain groups of people fall outside our mission. Such thinking is no
different from the mindset of Jonah.
Jonah failed to grasp that when God shows love and compassion to others, His divine manifestation of mercy should serve as a reminder that God
has done the same for us. When you go out in mission and share the love of
God and watch as it transforms people’s lives, such an experience also can
enhance your journey with God. This experience also can draw you into new
human relationships with people who may be very different from you but who
share a relationship with Jesus. Jonah could have made new friends on the
ship with whom to share his faith. The same goes for Nineveh. Unfortunately,
those opportunities were missed because Jonah opted for excuses rooted in
his selfish pride and ethnocentrism.
Part III: Life Application
We should all be thankful for the beautiful experiences we have with Jesus.
Over time, though, we often become complacent in our journey with God.
With this complacency often comes a tendency to make excuses for not
sharing the love of God with others. Complacency can happen subtly, and
before we know it, we are asleep when we should be awake. As individuals
and as churches, we need to take an honest look at our daily lives and hold
ourselves accountable. If we are not actively pursuing relationships with
people who are suffering or need help in bearing their burdens, we have
grown complacent. Accountability requires getting together with a small
group of trusted friends from your local church who are willing to be open
about their complacency and are ready to help each other come up with
ways to rekindle experiences with God by creatively sharing Him with the
broader world around us.
For others, the reality is grimmer; they have developed excuses to avoid
mission to specific groups of people, such as Muslims or Catholics, because
they feel that these people are unworthy of God’s love. Such excuses reveal
that an attitude of superiority and ethnocentrism is at work among them; in
which case, there is a need to ask God to help them love all people. We can
achieve this goal by asking ourselves what we think about certain people. If
we are afraid of certain groups or think they are not worth saving, then it is
a sign something is wrong with us, not the group in question. Honest assessment takes a level of self-scrutiny and truthfulness that is hard to achieve,
but a church willing to grapple with these realities is a church the Holy Spirit
can influence.
teachers comments
68
Notes
teachers comments
69
A major challenge in the Adult
Bible Study Guide for the week
of December 23-29, 2023, is to
invite someone to church.
That week’s mission story in the
youth and adult Mission quarterly
features Susana, a 22-year-old
student in Ghana who only gave
her heart to Jesus after being
invited to church.
Want to get more out of
this quarter’s Adult Bible Study
Guide on “God’s Mission – My
Mission”? Read it together with
the Mission quarterly.
The Bible lessons were
written by the directors of the
Global Mission study centers
(globalmissioncenters.org), which
are part of Adventist Mission, the
same General Conference entity
that produces the Mission quarterly.
Download the Mission quarterly
at: bit.ly/adultmission.
MORE MISSION!
@missionquarterlies
23-4-ABSG Ad2.indd 1 12/7/22 8:34 AM
© 2022 Pacific
Press® Publishing
Association
Please contact
your ABC for
pricing in Canada.
2255901056
For eBooks, go to:
Adventist-eBooks.com
Is He asking you to share your faith with others? But do you feel unprepared? Visit
ToolsforEvangelism.com to find a curated collection of all the resources you need
to become an effective soul winner. Learn how to give Bible studies, improve your
preaching skills, study with non-Christians, and much more!
Is God Tugging at Your Heart?
Evangelism is a process, not merely an event. Jesus illustrated this ongoing
evangelistic activity using the harvest cycle. The valuable GROW resources,
training videos, and guides can help your church achieve its ministry goals
and develop a culture of disciple-making with sustainable growth. Learn
more at grow.adventist.org/resources.
GROW YOUR CHURCH
The GROW Your Church series of
Personal Ministries resources are
part of the Total Member Involvement strategy developed by the
General Conference. These books
help local churches create active
disciple-making ministries.