Adventist Christian Fellowship Bible Study Training
Marc Lien
The words of Jesus still ring true. When Jesus said in John 12:32, "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He was clearly speaking about focusing on what He did at the cross.
As a new church plant in north central San Antonio, Adventist Christian Fellowship (ACF), has used the words of Jesus as fertilizer. Church members held their first Sabbath service in a hotel lobby after the 2015 evangelistic series by Mark Finley. As they continue to make the death and resurrection of Jesus their main priority, God has been faithful. In 2016, 40% of their baptisms came from small group Bible studies.
In an attempt to stay ahead of growth, they recently held a seminar to train others how to effectively lift up Jesus through small group Bible studies. God blessed in many ways. The new church plant had almost two dozen people seeking to sharpen their skills. Three people that asked to be trained, regularly attend a Sunday church in that area—one is their pastor and the other two are his leaders. (Now one of them is attending one of their ongoing small group studies to receive further training).
Time will tell what God will do as they focus on Jesus. As ACF moves forward, they will no longer do it as a new little church plant. The conference is voting them to become a church company. As most growing churches know, you must have Jesus at the center of your blueprint, you must be nice to people, and you must reach out.
ACF continues to follow the blueprint that Jesus and his disciples modeled (Acts 2:14-47), and people in the community are responding. Every week they have more people attending these Bible groups than church; over half are not ‘yet’ Seventh-day Adventist.
Now that ACF is in their own remodeled building [2419 Thousand Oaks Dr.], they are holding their first Daniel/Revelation prophecy seminar October 13 2017. They plan to once again lift up Jesus, so He can draw hurting people to Himself and heal them (Isaiah 53:4-6).
