Dan Reports Fom Venezuela

42 Young Adults from Venezuela, Chile, and El Salvador

This week the Seminary has been the host site for a History Makers Conference with 42 young adult Christian leaders.  They have been focusing on 8 core issues related to Christian leadership, with a strong immersion in Biblical foundations.  The eight core issues include Passion for the Harvest, Multiplication, Vision, and Leadership.  In addition to teaching times, the participants have benefited from worship experiences, focused prayer time, and intentional periods of silence to help them listen to God's voice.  The students have been deeply impacted through their participation in this conference.  They have spoken of renewed vision, strong encouragement, fresh insight, increased capacity to lead ministry teams, and closer relationships with Jesus and with one another. 

An exciting facet of this Conference from our perspective is that the leadership of the Venezuelan organizational team is made up entirely of pastors who are either currently attending the Wesleyan Seminary of Venezuela, or have already graduated.  This is a testament to the commitment and effectiveness and the pastors who participate in the Seminary training, and we are thankful that the Seminary has played a part in developing these strong leaders.  Thank you for your prayer support and your financial support of the work in Venezuela.  This week, YOU have made a difference in Venezuela, in Chile, and in El Salvador. (The pictures: Leadership Training, History Makers, Leaders of the Event, Skit Portraying Giving a New Heart Through Jesus Christ).

What Do We Believe at Seminario Wesleyano de Venezuela?

Statement of Faith

We Believe:

God

In the one God, Creator and Sustainer of all things, infinite in love, perfect in judgments and unchanging in mercy.  God exists eternally in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit;

Scripture

In the divine inspiration, truthfulness and authority of both the Old and New Testaments, the only written Word of God.  The Scriptures are the only infallible and sufficient rule of both faith and practice.  The Holy Spirit enlivens the truth of God’s Word to all people of every age;

Humankind

That human beings were created in the image of God.  This image was marred in every part through the disobedience of our first parents, and fellowship with God was broken by sin.  God, through prevenient grace, restores moral sensibility to all humankind and enable all to respond to His redemptive love and accept his saving grace, if they will;

Jesus Christ

That Jesus Christ is God’s incarnate Son, born of the virgin Mary, conceived by the Holy Spirit.  He died for the sins of all, taking on Himself God’s judgment upon sin.  He died and three days later bodily rose from  the grave and ascended Heaven where He intercedes for us;

Holy Spirit

That the Holy Spirit is God present and active in the world.  The Holy Spirit was given to believers in the Church in His fullness at Pentecost.  By the Spirit, Christ lives in His church, the Gospel is proclaimed and the Kingdom of God is manifested in the world;

Justification

That God graciously justifies and regenerates all who trust in Jesus Christ.  Saved by grace through faith children of God begin to live in holiness through the power of the Holy Spirit;

Entire Sanctification

That God calls all believers to entire sanctification through full surrender and faith. Through sanctifying grace believers overcome sin and live in perfect love for God and neighbor;

Assurance of Believers

That believers are assured that they are children of God through the inward witness of the Holy Spirit with their spirit, receive the gracious promises of the Word to believers and are enabled to bear the fruit of the Spirit;

Witness of Believers 

That Christians are called to live in daily witness to the grace of God in Christ through both faith and action, word and deed.  Believers witness to the will of God for justice, righteousness and mercy in all structures and relationships of human society; 

The Church

That the church is the people of God redeemed by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord sharing corporately in the proclamation of the Word and celebrating the Sacraments of Baptism and The Lord’s Supper.  The church is the Body of Christ visible and present in the world. Its primary mission is to make disciples of all the peoples of the world;

The Second Coming of Christ

In the personal return of Jesus Christ, in the bodily resurrection of all persons, in final judgment and in eternal reward and punishment, the reign of Christ in the ultimate victory over Satan and all evil.

Spiritual Warfare

"You armed me with strength for the battle (Ps 18:39)." We have learned in our work of ministry
for nearly 40 years the enemy will attack when we start to "tear down
the strongholds of the devil." Sometimes the attack is subtle, sometimes
vicious. But the "battle belongs to the Lord."
Many Christians do not get this.  Why?  Because we have ceased to engage in spiritual warfare by so compromising the gospel that it has no power to transform or by simply failing to take on the bastions of evil in culture or individuals or even our own lives. So we wander blissfully from Sunday to Sunday unmolested by the devil.  Why does he not fight against us?  Because we have already surrendered.  This is one of the reasons church fights are usually about insignificant things.  I have seen so called Cristian church leaders almost come to blows over the color of the carpet, the placement of the pulpit, the change in the bulletin, the mural on the wall of the nursery, the setting for the thermostat, the layout of the parking lot, the contract for the insurance, and the list is interinable. This is not spiritual warefare. This is just bickering in the family. War is war!  Bunker Buster Booms dropped into the middle of our lives and ministries make it clear this is not just a family squabble.  An enemy has attacked and seeks to destroy us, our lives, our marriages, our children, or effectiveness, our witness and our ministries. The Bible speaks of this as the "shipwreck of faith."  See more of this at www.MinistryTransformers.blogspot.com. www.MinistryTransformers.blogspot.com