February 2025 Carolina's 10,000 P5

Embracing Carolina with the Compassionate Call of Christ

The 10,000 President’s Prayer Partners is a fast-growing group of Carolina Conference constituents who take matters such as these to their knees. We invite you to join us and make this monthly list a matter of prayer. Together we seek the Lord for His answers and provisions to every need we bring before Him.

Pray the Gifts of the Holy Spirit – The Greatest of These – The Gift of LOVE

Pentecost 2025 is the launching of a bold plan of the North American Division to experience 3000 proclamation events across the expanse of this great division of God’s remnant church. It is a plan that will only be successful through prayer and the intervention of the Holy Spirit. In Carolina, we have added a prayer-plea tagline to the Lord –

“Let it Rain!”

Beginning with our July (2024) issue of P5 and continuing through 2025 We invite our President’s Prayer Partners to continue coming together in an earnest and heartfelt appeal for the power and presence of the Holy Spirit as we near the soon return of our Savior.

Galatians 5: 22-23 provide us with a listing of the fruit of the Holy Spirit as: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-control.

Over the next nine months, I would like us to pray specifically for the outpouring and the infilling of the Holy Spirit in each of our lives as we seek to manifest each of these “fruits” or evidences of the Spirit of God working through our lives to reach the hearts of every life we touch for Christ.

We associate February with Valentine’s Day and the month of love. As I write this, my heart is saddened with one church entity out of 182 churches and companies and 40 mission groups that has consumed so much of my time and emotional energy over the past few days. I feel drained tonight. I’ve just been in a silent mode of talking to God as my Counselor and Guide to please give me strength, wisdom and encouragement. Then I realized that love is the missing component to mend the wounds that have created such discord in this church entity between their leadership and their pastor.

In the 1960’s, Jackie DeShannon, an American singer-songwriter composed and sang a string of hit songs that spoke to the hurting hearts of that time. She’s well known for these two hit songs of those turbulent times “What the World Needs Now Is Love” and “Put a Little Love in Your Heart.” Some of you may recall the words of that folk song…

What the world needs now is love, sweet love

It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of

What the world needs now is love, sweet love

No, not just for some, but for everyone

Look, we don’t need another mountain

There are oceans and rivers enough to cross,

Enough to last until the end of time

What the world needs now is love, sweet love

It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of

What the world needs now is love, sweet love

No, not just for some, but for everyone.

We often refer to the term “Bucket List” to refer to a list of things we’d like to do before our life on earth ends. A few years ago, a Stanford University survey found that 91 percent of their respondents had a bucket list of things they wanted to do before they died.

Last month I began my 14th year as your servant leader for the churches of the Carolina Conference. As I reflect on all the blessings I have experienced over these years, I’m more than content with the bucket list of joys God has given my life. As I continue and draw closer to the finish line of my employed service for the church, the primary thing on my bucket list is found in this Bible passage of (Ephesians 3:17-19):

So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

We can have hobbies, personal or professional goals and whatever we wish for our bucket list. But the supreme directive for every Christian is to experience God’s love and radiate that love to all around us. Nothing is more important.

That’s why Jesus gave us what I often refer to as the eleventh commandment. Consider the words of Jesus — recorded by John —

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

John 13:34-35 NKJV

What can we place on our bucket list to make our lives a living example of the love that Christ wants us to experience and share with the lives we touch today and every day of our lives?

Genuine, selfless love is the essence and heart of the Gospel. God loves us so much and is calling us to love Him and love each other. Accepting His love and following His commandments will bring us a joy beyond measure in this life and the life to come.

God’s special messenger to His end-time church penned these words not just for our reflection, but so we will adopt and embrace it as the very fabric of our being. The message is simple and powerful.

“The strongest argument in favor of the gospel is a loving and lovable Christian.” Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing, Page 470.

This month let’s pray for the gift of Christ’s love to fill us and overflow in our lives, in our churches, and in our communities.

Adventist education offers a very bold

faith. Without this pillar, Faith, Adventist

education falls out of balance. If there is

one thing I know from my international travel, it’s that people everywhere are searching for meaning. As author and Christian apologist Nancey Pearcey says, Christianity explains human nature without “internal division or contradiction.” Young people crave good, logical,

academic reasons for their faith. They want a faith that engages the intellect and holds up under examination.

Is it possible that Adventist education is now even more significant and relevant than ever? I believe so. For several decades now, modern society has been described as VUCA. This is a world characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. Coming at a cost to individuals in society (especially young people),

VUCA finds its expression in rising tides of anxiety and depression. It results in confusion, uncertainty, and a growing distrust within and between communities. Unpredictability and competition affect every aspect of our lives, which can result in vagueness of purpose and direction for individuals and institutions.

Let’s protect our spiritual foundations and influence others with our culture instead of allowing competing cultures and ideologies to influence us. While we might find new and exciting ways of interpreting the vision, let’s be confident in applying the heart of what has sustained us for over 150 years. True Adventist education

offers unique value – the gift of faith -- for our children and youth as they face complex and uncertain times.

Join me as we continue to uplift these treasured teachers in their service to Christ and His children in the Carolinas’ schools.

With each issue of our President’s Prayer Partners (P5), we continue to focus specifically on one of our goals and share some of the developments that are helping us in our journey toward accomplishing that goal.

As we opened 2025 with our January issue, we reflected on the wonderful things that are happening to continue growing Mount Pisgah Academy’s ministry.

This month, we return to our first goal of developing measurable goals for discipleship. Discipleship is the process of becoming like Jesus by spending time with Him. This ongoing and sustained personal relationship between a follower of Christ and Jesus as our master Teacher is the heart of discipleship.

Evangelism and discipleship go hand in hand. Elder Glen Altermatt shares his reflection on what has transpired in this endeavor since we began this year, specifically focusing on Pentecost 2025.

With the full press in preparation for Pentecost 2025 with the churches, Elder Altermatt plans to emphasize discipleship as an integrated piece rather than something separate. We started that approach last year by emphasizing the Grow model of:

Prepare
Sow the Seed
Cultivate
Harvest
Preserve

Emphazizing “Preserving” being the discipleship aspect as we incorporate the new members into the Body of Christ. We continued that model this year at Evangelism Impact, with each presentation focusing on one of those aspects.

Even though it was a last-minute substitution for Richie Halversen, Elder Haskell Williams and Elder Altermatt each took one aspect, and Elder Altermatt followed that up with our pastor from University City Church, Sergio Quevedo, stressing a holistic approach that ties it all together.

In our evening Prayer Meetings at my home Church, the Charlotte Sharon Church, we’ve been reading a wonderful book entitled Experiencing God, authored by Henry, Richard Blackaby, and Claude King.

I want to share something that impacted me from this book. As a general rule, we are industrious people. We all want to feel like we have accomplished something. None of us wants to do anything that is outside of God’s will. You’ve probably heard someone make this statement: Don’t just stand there; do something.

Sometimes, we -- even within the Adventist Church -- are so busy carrying out plans that we think will help achieve God’s purposes that we don’t bother to take the time to find out what God really wants. We often wear ourselves out and accomplish little for the kingdom of God.

Blackaby invites us to consider a new twist to that statement. Rather than “Don’t just stand there, do something,” he suggests that maybe God is crying out to us, “Don’t just do something. Stand there!”

In other words. “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10). Get to know me and adjust your life to Me. Let me love you and teach you about Myself as I work through you. A time will come when action is required, but we must avoid the pitfall of short-circuiting that love relationship.

David the great Psalmist penned these words for our reflection in Psalm 37:7 – “Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him.” The emphasis in the reversal of that statement -- “Don’t just do something; stand there” is that YOUR relationship with God must come first out of your walk with God and He will accomplish his plans for our world.

God is far more interested in a love relationship with you and me than He is in what you can do for Him. His desire is for you to love Him as He walks alongside you, and He will guide you into specific activities, but even as you do those things, He will be the one working through you to accomplish his purposes. Jesus is all you need. Christ in you is your way. He is your map. When you follow His leadership one day at a time, you and I will always be right in the middle of God’s will.

Let’s make it our first priority to enter into a love relationship with Christ before praying for the outpouring of the Latter Rain. Jesus is speaking to you and me today: “Get to know me and adjust your life in me before you proclaim my gospel message of good news.” Let’s spend time alone with God today and every day of 2025 and enjoy fellowship with Him without focusing on what we may need to do next. He will show you, for Jesus never fails.

01 Protection from Satan Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8	02 Protection from Our Sinful Heart But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. James 1:14-15	03 Deep Spiritual Encouragement For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. Romans 1:11-12
04 Wisdom If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. James 1:5	05 Doctrinal Faithfulness By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. 2 Timothy 1:14	06 A Healthy Body But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified. 1 Corinthians 9:27	07 A Strong Marriage & Family He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church. 1 Timothy 3:2-6

We are on our third cycle of remembering these departmental leaders and their ministries. Our purpose is not intended to report all that these departments have been or are accomplishing, but rather to simply uplift all our leadership team and their faithful service in the respective ministries that they oversee in our prayers.

We continue in this New Year and new issue by focusing on the Outreach Ministries of the Carolina Conference. They include the following departmental branches:

• ASI

• Carolina Evangelism

• Church Planting

• Community Services

• Disaster Response

• Health Ministries

• Missions

• Publishing

• Prison Ministries

• Adult Sabbath School

This month, I invite you to pray for Carolina Evangelism (which includes the ministry of Discipleship) as a departmental branch of the outreach ministries of the Carolina Conference.

This department is led by our passionate director, Elder Glen Altermatt, our dynamic conference Evangelist, Elder Steve Vail, and the greatly valued secretary of the entire ministerial department, Lorraine Gonzalez.

One of the goals of the Carolina Conference is to make evangelism a way of life for our churches, pastors, conference evangelists and especially the church members themselves. There are over 27,000 members of the Carolina Conference, so we should have 27,000 evangelists working to share the good news of Christ’s salvation and soon return with the 16+ million people in the Carolinas. This department works to equip all members through initiatives such as ShareHim boot camp, lay bible-worker training and seminars. God has tremendously blessed as the work of soul-winning and evangelism has been carried on throughout the conference. As our Evangelism & Discipleship Ministries Department focuses on praying for the outpouring and infilling of the Holy Spirit and as they lead out in the Pentecost 2025 initiative to witness God’s abundant blessings over 2,000 baptisms this year across the Carolinas, let’s uplift this vital department of ministry that is laser-focused on reaching every heart we can for Heaven and our eternal home.

As a President’s Prayer Partner, we invite

you once again to be truly a people of the

Word. As Seventh-day Adventists, we adhere to

28 Fundamental Beliefs that are based solely on

the Bible. We began our third cycle of focusing on

these vital beliefs, which are centered in Christ as

both our Savior and Lord, in December of 2021.

Let’s continue to thoughtfully place His Word

in our hearts every day this month. I personally

carry a set of these passages in my car and recite

them aloud as I drive from one place to another.

My aim is to say one verse prayerfully at least

five times a day for a week, thus internalizing the

promise of God’s Word: “Thy word have I hid in

mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”

(Psalm 119:11)

I encourage you to repeat these passages until they become a part of your very being. Of course, you’re always free to do more. Please consider, in a prayerful manner, how you can saturate your soul with His Word and make it a part of your heart every day.

Isaiah 14:12-14 (NKJV) “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart, ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.”
Ezekiel 28:14-15 (NKJV) “You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you.”
Romans 1:20 (NKJV) “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what had been made, so that people
Revelation 1:7-9 (KJV) “And there was war in heaven; Michael and His angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him.”

Be part of God’s praying church across North America by uplifting these leaders of our church who guide God’s work in these territories of God’s vineyard: