City of Angels Prayer Goals for 2014

“Jesus said, ‘Is it not written: My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations?’” Mark 11:17

A House Of Prayer For All Nations is the title of the 2014 City of Angels International Christian Church (CAICC) Winter Workshop! Therefore, our congregational theme for the coming year will be The Year Of Prayer. However, before we venture into 2014, let us take a moment to gratefully recount some of the miracles and highlights of 2013!

Unquestionably, 2013 was our best year… yet! At our Bring Your Neighbor Day in January, we set an attendance record of 1,377! Perhaps even more amazingly we are now averaging 1,100 at every Sunday Service! These “new heights” have been attained because the Lord has graciously added to our number 459 souls: 346 baptisms, 62 restorations, and 51 place memberships – many of whom came to us directly from our former fellowship seeking revival!

Highlights of the year included: Our 2013 Winter Workshop – Great Among The Nations, our Women’s Day – PRICELESS, the inauguration of the CAICC Basketball League, the send-off of the Las Vegas Mission Team, our Parenting Workshop, the Labor Day Picnic And Fun Day, our Fall Retreats, and our Annual Christmas Service that included the sending-out of the sixth Crown of Thorns Mission Team – Sydney, Australia!

Another remarkable highlight was in August at our Global Leadership Conference (GLC) – Prophets And Kings – where the Spirit gathered almost 2,000 on Sunday morning to witness the First Commencement Ceremony of the International College of Christian Ministries! 90 received Bachelor’s Degrees, three Master’s Degrees were granted, and one Doctorate Degree was awarded! The service ended gloriously with the entire auditorium falling to their knees in prayer before God to send-out the Denver Mission Team! Miraculously, in the SoldOut Movement’s short seven-year history, God has spread His new movement to build 51 churches in 21 nations on all six populated continents of the world!

So encouraging as well was the Second Annual IGNITE Program! This nine day event gathered 28 of our strongest teens from around the world for a special time of bonding through spiritual strengthening, community service and fun activities. Special thanks to Ricky & Coleen Challinor for overseeing this momentous event! In the summer of 2014, IGNITE will be held in Orlando, Florida!

As we close our thoughts on 2013, the Congregational Shepherding Couples – the Bordieris, the Kirchners, and the Untalans, the Regional Leader Couples, and Elena & I want to commend the City of Angels Church for your tremendous weekly sacrifice of $31,000, as well as an almost unbelievable $735,000 collected from our two Missions Contributions! This sacrifice not only gave us the “seed money” for the four plantings of Las Vegas, Denver, Gainesville and Sydney, but your incredible sacrifice also served to sustain the Lord’s work in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America!

With this year’s theme – The Year Of Prayer, the City of Angels Church Leadership has set before the Lord the following Prayer Goals for 2014:

“One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.’” (Luke 11:1) With the daunting challenge to reach all nations in this generation, comes the realization that we will only be able to accomplish this “seemingly impossible feat” if we too learn to pray as Jesus’ disciples learned from Him. After all, it’s been 2,000years since the world was last evangelized in a generation –and this was only accomplished by the Spirit working through the Apostles’ prayers! Therefore, our first goal is to call every disciple to refocus on their personal relationship with God.

“Brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you.” (2 Thessalonians 3:1) During the 2013 year and this firstweek of 2014, the City of Angels Church has been privileged to send out 86 of our most well-trained disciples to plant and to strengthen the churches around the world! Given this phenomenal sacrifice, our goal to once again have over daily additions will necessitate all of us walking closer to God than ever before. It is also our prayer to have a record attendance at our January 26th Bring Your Neighbor Day!

Another specific prayer goal for “the message of the Lord [to] spread rapidly” is to plant the Santa Barbara Church today– led by Richie & Elizabeth McDonnell; to plant the Toronto, Canada Church in March – led by Tim & Lianne Kernan; to plant the Dallas-Ft. Worth Church in August – led by Tyler &Shay Sears; and to plant Moscow, Russia in December – led by Oleg & Aliona Sirotkin. Also, as of today, the Spirit is sending10 disciples from the IE Region to plant a new sector in the six Desert Cities! Argo & Anu Arneson call this effort, “Operation: Desert Storm!” Of special note, the Antelope Valley Sector –because of their tremendous growth and distant geography– will now be known as the 11th region of the City of Angels Church: the Antelope Valley Region!

“Then all the army officers… and all the people…approached Jeremiah and said to him, ‘Please… pray to the Lord your God for this entire remnant. For as you now see, though we were once many, now only a few are left. Pray that the Lord your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do.’” (Jeremiah 42:1-In 2013, so many remnant (veteran) disciples joined God’s new movement! Of special note were: Renato & Maria Jose Tria and 16 othersfrom the sector they led in what’s left of the Sao Paulo ICOC; Chris Bryant of LA’s Southland Region; Mike & Dena Sanicola of Denver; Ronnie Gonzalez of Manila; Nimrod & Vis Malnegro of Davao; Slava & Yelena Kapskiy of Minsk; the Zoutendijks and Vermaats of Amsterdam; and of course Alex Turgeau of Port-au-Prince, Haiti! Four new Remnant Churches have formed in Haiti alone! Other new Remnant Groups include: Amsterdam, Caracas, Davao, Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia and San Antonio! Let us pray that even more remnant disciples join us in 2014!

“We… will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the Word.” (Acts 6:4) A significant proportion of the fulltime persons’ ministry is devoted to prayerfully selecting and raising-up new Evangelists and Women’s Ministry Leaders.Therefore, we are praying that from LA and around the movement at least five Evangelists and five Women’s Ministry Leaders will be appointed in 2014.

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.’” (Matthew 9:37-38) With the sending-out of so many mature and fruitful disciples over the past few years, it is no surprise that 65% of the CAICC membership of nearly 800disciples is composed of new Christians, restorations or place memberships from 2012 and 2013. Consequently, we have a tremendous opportunity to bring all of them to maturity in Christ, which includes being “fruitful.” (Luke 8:14-15) We will continue to work on the retention of these precious new disciples through the accountability of Follow-up Studies, New Christian Orientations, D-groups at Midweek Services, Spiritual Strengthening Groups, “upping the profile” of our CR Ministry, as well as raising-up at least one Shepherding Couple and one Deacon Couple in each of our 10 regions by the end of 2015.

“I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer,

believe you have received it, and it will be yours.” (Mark11:23-24) For many young disciples being consistent with their weekly pledge as well as “coming through” with their Missions Contribution can pose a “mountain of problems.” Yet Jesus promises if we believe – in fact if we pray as if we’ve already received what we need for God’s purposes – God will give it to us! Our financial goals this year are to increase our pledges to $35,000/week and to give a 20X Missions Contribution on May 18th. Of course, if unforseen needs arise as they have in some past years, there will be a small Thanksgiving Missions Contribution in November to assure that “there [are] no needy persons among [us].” (Acts 4:34)

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but he beat his breast and said, ‘God, have MERCY on me, a sinner.’” (Luke 18:13) As the benevolent arm of the SoldOut Movement, the impact of MERCYworldwide now extends to all six populated continents of the world! This year, the City of Angels Church will again participate in our movements’ global events of the Day of MERCY in June and the MERCY Christmas Toy Drive in December! Last year, the New York City and Los Angeles Churches partnered with the Red Cross for a blood drive. The Red Cross was so thrilled with this venture with the MERCY Ambassadors that they have agreed to hold a National MERCY/Red Cross Blood Drive on Saturday, September20th!

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“And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to serve Him… and to worship Him, these will I bring to my holy mountain and give them joy… in my house of prayer for all nations.” (Isaiah 56:6-7) Last year to “radicalize” the ICCM students, each of them were called to either attend November’s European Missions Conference (EMC) in London or this coming February’s Central and South American Missions Conference (CSAMC) in Santiago. So encouraging to all at the EMC was the attendance of 26 of us from Los Angeles which included 10 ICCM students. Our prayer goal is not only to get every one of the now 56 Bachelor Degree Candidates to either one of these conferences or to visit an international church planting, but also to motivate as many as possible from the rest of the congregation to participate in these conferences thus sharing in “the joy in [God’s] house of prayer for all nations.”

“Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church… forever and ever! Amen!” (Ephesians 3:20-21) Our last challenge is for every CAICC member to have at least one personal prayer goal that is “immeasurably more than [anything] we imagine.” This may include being on a mission team, being selected for the ICCM, becoming a Bible Talk Leader, being selected as a Shepherding or Deacon Couple, or even the conversion or restoration of someone close to you.

In all cultures, the beginning of a new year brings hope and resolutions. Yet the world lacks the Spirit’s power to transform, so many “new year’s resolutions” quickly fade. When kneeling and tearful disciples pray, this incense prompts our Father in Heaven to unleash His Spirit and His angels to even “move mountains!” Let us all embrace The Year Of Prayer.

And to God be all the glory!