The very reason why our church exists is the reason why we evaluate. We believe that the Seventh-day Adventist Church has been raised up at this particular time in earth’s history as part of God’s plan to take the gospel to the world. In other words, we exist to win souls for the kingdom.

Read Revelation 14:6-7. How do we understand these verses in relationship to our identity as Seventh-day Adventists? 

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Evaluating how we are doing is a method of keeping true to the task in the most effective way possible. Any evaluation of what the church does should be an assessment of how the evangelism and witnessing strategies are affecting church growth. How is that in which we are involved helping us reach the goal?

Read Matthew 6:33, 10:7, 24:14, and Luke 4:43. What are these texts talking about? How should their meaning impact both us as a church and our work of witnessing and evangelism?  

The record of Jesus’ ministry on earth contains numerous references to preaching as a way of winning souls to the kingdom of God. Jesus preached that the kingdom of God was at hand. He chastised the religious leaders for shutting up the kingdom of God and making it difficult for people to enter. He sent His disciples out to preach the kingdom of God. Clearly, the overriding goal of Jesus, the apostles, and the church, was the winning of people for the kingdom.

The reports of the numbers of people who were added to the church at various times and the reports of churches being established among the Gentiles are evidence that evaluation was being carried out in regard to how the church was reaching the goal of kingdom growth.

Jesus made a very powerful and blunt statement that if you are not with Him, you are against Him (Matt. 12:30), that if you didn’t gather with Him you were scattering. Put aside your profession of faith or your name on a church book. Are you gathering or scattering? How do you justify your answer?

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