From Good To Great in 2009!

Kyle and Evan welcome their Mom, Cindy into God’s Kingdom!!!
Congrats to the Bartholomew Ohana!!!!

As a new year comes and the old year passes, most people will take a moment to reflect on the time that has passed this past year. We try to identify things we did well and things we could have done better. We use reflection because it has proved to be a useful tool when desiring to improve ourselves, yet so many of us are too busy to use it. We are constantly bombarded with things that occupy our thoughts from television to the radio. Even Solomon mentions that, “man seldom reflects on the days of his life” (Ecclesiastes 5). I wanted to make sure to not to let 2008 pass without taking the time to reflect. We will reflect on some highlights as well as look forward to some prayer goals for the New Year, 2009.

This past year has been a good year for the Honolulu International Christian Church. There are many things that I could write about in how God has abundantly blessed our fellowship, yet for the sake of time I will highlight just a few:

Jody Tyrell gets restored (Feb, 2008)
Clayton Marquez gets restored (March, 2008)
Tili Tyrell gets baptized (April, 2008)
Honolulu Mission Team arrives (June, 2008)
Inaugural Service - 68 in attendance and $24,000 collected in Special Missions Contribution (June, 2008).
Joy Axelson hired as our first intern
18 disciples added through baptism, restoration, or placed membership in the first 19 weeks after Inaugural Service.
God multiplies our weekly contribution from $500/week in January 1, 2008 to $1450/week in (January 1, 2009).
God multiplied our congregation from 12 disciples January 1, 2008 to almost 40 disciples January 1, 2009.
Two Children born: Mana’olangi Santos (3/08), Kenji Beck (11/24)
My mother, Cindy Bartholomew, was baptized into Christ on 12/27/08 in the Hilo International Christian Church! Wow!As I reflect upon these highlights, I feel a sense of gratefulness as to what God has done. Yet I

As I reflect upon these highlights, I feel a sense of gratefulness as to what God has done. Yet I know that as good as God allowed us to do as a church in 2008, I don’t want to have another good year. I want 2009 to be a GREAT year! I don’t expect 2009 to be great because we are great; rather I expect it to be a great year because we serve a GREAT God!

In our desire to see God do great things, it would be foolish for us not to consider Jesus’ words in John 14:12, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father”. Jesus’ statement is remarkable. He tells the first century disciples that they were capable of doing “even greater things than him.” This was not because they were greater than Jesus, but because his time was cut short, he had to return to the father. They saw even greater things than Jesus because of the principle of multiplication. In fact, in just a matter of days, the 120 disciples in Jerusalem- those who were still faithful upon Jesus’ ascension to heaven- quickly multiplied to over 3,000 disciples by the second chapter of the book of Acts. This of course was just the beginning, Paul confidently proclaimed in about 67 AD, just 30 years later, “This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant” (Colossians 1:23b). Paul, along with the other disciples who were still alive, were able to see the world evangelized in their lifetime. They were truly able to say that they had done even greater things then Jesus! Yet I believe that this statement of Jesus was not just to our first century brothers and sisters, but also to us today- to anyone who’d dare follow Jesus!

The catch, of course, is the statement Jesus makes right before this promise: “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing.” How does the multiplication of disciples come about? Well it’s actually quite simple; we have to do what Jesus had been doing. This is simple in concept, but hard in application. Yet Jesus states that it is only those who have faith who will live like this. What is the implication? Those who do not do what he had been doing, simply do not have genuine faith. This would contradict so many teachers today who insist that intellectual belief is faith. James the brother of Jesus similarly states, “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (James 2:17). Sadly, many who call themselves true disciples have a dead faith. This dead faith creates a dead church, and all because of their refusal to share the gospel!

In desiring to avoid this trap and to see great things happen in the Honolulu International Christian Church, we have set the following prayer goals before the Lord.
• 52 people added to our fellowship in the next year by baptism, restoration, or placed membership.
• An increase in our weekly contribution from $1450 a week (Jan. 09) to $2450 a week (Jan. 2010).
• Doubling our current number of Bible Talks from 6 to 12. This will include starting Bible Talks in new geographical locations such as Kailua and Hawaii Kai.
• Hire 3 more interns.

Honolulu Church let us pray fervently for these goals to come to fruition, never forgetting that every soul added is a soul saved. Let us never be short of zeal, at a loss of heart, or lacking the faith that God can do great things among us, as we aim to evangelize our part of the world in this generation!

Aloha,

Kyles Sig

Kyle Bartholomew