Jose R. Alarcon – Aurora, Colorado … The Denver-Metro area Adventist churches of the Rocky Mountain Conference (RMC) gathered at the Aurora First Seventh-day Adventist Church both to enhance the spiritual and training components to fulfill the great commission, November 4-5.
Beginning with the Great Commission in Matthew 28: 18- 20, discipleship has been the modus operandi of God’s church. Throughout the gospels, we see Jesus inviting his followers to join his movement of making disciples. As part of Jesus’ calling, the empowerment of Jesus’ followers is an essential component.
The spiritual and training components of this endeavor had in mind to enhance some essential marks of a biblical disciple. Our conference needs church members that are connected and identified with Jesus that end up integrated and committed in the service, but also Seventh-day Adventists that reproduce numerically and spiritually.
Around 80 people gathered November 4 to hear the motivating encouragement brought to us by Mic Thurber, RMC president. The next day, around 80 members came to be enhanced by the training. The facilitators, a combination of RMC staff and local pastors, met with the attendees to supply the much-needed information about each ministry.
The training component was made up of three 55-minute sessions where participants had a chance to meet with ministry leaders. The training was followed by a prayer of consecration at the main sanctuary. Participants gathered around a circle as Mic Thurber dedicated each participant and church in the RMC.
Following the training sessions, participants partook in a delicious lunch prepared by the local church members. It was an enjoyable first experience, one which Aurora First Church looks forward to continuing in the next and following years.
The training and equipping of church members shows that there is a willingness to serve God in the conference and a desire to strive forward in completing our main responsibility as a church, which is to become disciples that make disciples.
Many attendees expressed their thankfulness for this kind of event and expressed their willingness to participate in next year’s event as well. One attendee stated, “This is my first experience with such an event, and I am thankful for the tools provided here to further spread the gospel in an appropriate context.”
Jose Alarcon, lead pastor at Aurora First Church, extends a special thank you to all the conference staff and local pastors that were involved in the event. Their participation was appreciated by the attendees at the event.
God’s Master Plan of saving us and others expressed in 2 Corinthians 5: 17-21 is twofold: first, to save us, and, secondly, to save others through us, which it is why God has shared with us the “ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5: 18, 19).
Pastor Alarcon closed with, “Therefore, it is my prayer that all of those that attended the training event would be able to be more effective in their respective ministries and that they may encourage those that didn’t attend this year to join us next year, as we continue to advance the Second Coming of Jesus Christ in our territory.”
—Jose R. Alarcon is the lead pastor at the Aurora First Seventh-day Adventist Church. Photos by Rajmund Dabrowski and Liz Kirkland.
