Presidential Vision: Five Targets
By: Glenn Burris Jr., president of The Foursquare Church
World-renowned evangelist Dr. Billy Graham was confronted by a pastor after his 1963 crusade in Los Angeles. The pastor stated that, in his opinion, the crusade revival ministry had set the church back 100 years. Dr. Graham apologized, saying that he had intended to set the church back 2,000 years.
What occurred 2,000 years ago to turn a group of fragile disciples into spiritual warriors is an important study for us. The disciples risked everything, and they gave everything. Nothing stood in the way of their sharing what Jesus Christ had done for them.
The Foursquare Church has embarked on a journey to re-engage the book of Acts and its meaning for us today. We have issued a church-wide call to read through Acts, fast and pray for God’s divine direction, and contend for a renewed sense of His mandate for us to take the gospel to the ends of the earth (see Matt. 24:14).
To that end, I have outlined Five Targets that I believe will help us accelerate our mission. I shared these with the 2011 cabinet in Glendale, Calif., earlier this month. These targets will provide the framework of my focus as I help lead our movement during this season. We will unpack these in Columbus, Ohio, at Connection 2011. The five targets focus on the following: Leaders, Churches, Nations, People Groups and Resources.
Target 1: Leaders
We will not build a strong and sustainable ministry unless we have healthy, reproducing leaders. To that end, I’m asking that we begin a solid training model to mentor incoming leaders as well as existing leaders. The pre-service training will provide a foundation for equipping leaders to experience long-term ministry that is healthy and fruitful. The in-service training will borrow from the experience of our present practitioners and leverage their gifts to strengthen the work of our hands. We must have multiple delivery systems and multiple resourcing options. Let’s leave a legacy and a commitment to lifelong learning.
Target 2: Churches
Nothing is more important than the local church, and, at this time, we need a major renovation of our church planting efforts. Globally, we are seeing major advances in church multiplication. In the U.S., however, we are experiencing a disturbing pattern of decline. We must make addressing this issue a top priority. We want The Foursquare Church to resemble the early church, and we also want it to return to its own roots as a church planting movement. I’m contending for a 10 percent annual church growth rate in our districts, and I’m asking the board to resource our efforts with adequate finances.
Target 3: Nations
We must realize that it is no longer accurate to define a nation as a geo-political area; unreached people groups are everywhere, including in the U.S. With the partnership of other Foursquare national leaders, regional councils and the numerous global networks, I believe that we can plant a sustainable church in the 87 nations that have not yet been reached with the Foursquare Gospel. We believe that, from one church, an indigenous movement can develop that will reach that nation’s people groups and move beyond national boundaries. We cannot do this alone; we must partner with brothers and sisters around the world, both inside and outside of Foursquare. We will call a Global Missions Summit by the end of 2011 to begin building a strategy to accelerate the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth.
Target 4: People Groups
The opportunity to marshal our resources and efforts toward multigenerational and multicultural people groups brings an enormous sense of joy and anticipation. We must respond to this opportunity now—and we must not fail. We want to be able to say, as Peter did, that we wasted no time in our pursuit to present the gospel to the world. In the next couple of decades, 90 percent of the growth in the United States will occur among immigrant populations. We are also an aging denomination. It is imperative that we bridge the generations, using the older to mentor and coach, while challenging the younger to step up and become effective laborers alongside us. To that end, we are formalizing two committees of the board and asking for a comprehensive and well-resourced strategy to reach our target.
Target 5: Resources
Each year the U.S. Foursquare Church spends $9.2 million on administration. That represents around 32 percent of our tithe budget. Our target will be to build an economic engine to cover the administrative costs of the central office so that 100 percent of the tithe can be invested in mission. We need more resources at the local church level, more resources at the district and divisional levels, and more resources for global mission. Robert Speer, a leader in the 19th-century Student Volunteer Movement, stated: “There is nothing in the world or the church—except the church’s disobedience—to render the evangelization of the world in this generation an impossibility.” Obedience is not just saying yes to a leader’s vision; it is saying yes to the invitation of the Holy Spirit to link arms, lift up our heads and reap the harvest.
Learn More
Download: Presidential Presentation (PPT, 368 KB)
Download: Cabinet 2011 Presidential Address (PDF, 152 KB)
MP3 Download: A New Financial Model (Foursquare Financial Solutions) (MP3, 60.4 MB)
Download: Foursquare Financial Services FAQ (PDF, 2 MB)