Important Announcement from Ps Alun Davies

Click here to watch Ps Alun Davies address the State of Victoria via YouTube

CHANGING SEASONS

“To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven.”

- Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NKJV)

I am very much aware that I have come to a time of changing seasons for my life and ministry.

After much discussion, thought and prayer, I believe that many things need to change in my life and ministry. As a result of these reflections, I will not submit my name for re-election this year as President of ACC Victoria. The past 12 years as State President have been both a blessing and a challenge. I thank each of you from the bottom of my heart for the honour it has been to serve you and the fellowship generally in my capacity as State President, but I feel that it is indeed a season of change in my both my life and the life of the State. My time as President has come to an end – but my love for you and the fellowship has not finished nor has it diminished. I will continue to serve the fellowship here in Victoria and in our nation, and I will always support this great fellowship and be involved in any way I possibly can to see us continue to grow, develop, and become stronger.

CHURCH PLANTING—I believe that one of the ways I have been able to contribute to our fellowship is through the area of church planting. I have always felt that church planting was central to my purpose during my time in leadership and I have sought wholeheartedly to promote and encourage church planting in our State. Though we grew from 120 (1998) to 264 (2010) churches in my time, I would have loved to have seen us breakthrough to 300 churches – a goal I believe we can reach very soon. I still have a vision for thousands of churches and churches of thousands in our State and I believe it will become a reality! The season for church planting never ends – we have multitudes to reach. My prayer is that our emphasis will not change and our passion for church planting will never diminish.

CHURCH GROWTH—During the last 12 years we have seen the number of churches in our State whose congregation is greater than one thousand members grow from 3 to 8. The size of our churches is increasing and we have stronger and larger churches. I still believe we can have many churches of thousands. I know that the Lord wants to strengthen and enlarge your church. I also believe He wants our churches to be strong, healthy and fruitful. I will continue to work for greater and stronger churches in our State. This being said, just about half of our churches are less than 100 in attendance and this is an area that we need to focus on to help our pastors and churches breakthrough into greater growth and health.

MINISTERS—We have seen an increase of 233 (almost double) in the number of ministers in the last 12 years with 285 OMC & PMC holders in 1998 to an awesome 518 as of this month. Today we have over 500 credentialed ministers, but we need to see more give themselves to fulltime ministry. We need to see young people respond to the call of God – I believe He is calling but we need to work with the Holy Spirit in challenging, training, encouraging, releasing and developing more ministers. The lack of ministers is a hindrance to our growth. We have churches that cannot get pastors. We have cities where we could plant churches if we had the ministers who would go. We need more labourers for the harvest! I will continue to do all I can to see an army of new ministers developed and realised into the harvest of our State.

You will face a very important decision this conference. Who is God’s choice as our next State President? Please pray about this carefully and choose the right person – one who will plant churches, develop leaders, have a strong vision for our State and lead us with strength and ability. I believe God has the right person prepared for us – we just need to discover that person for ourselves, make our decision, and then commit to supporting the new leader.

Thank you for the honour of serving with you. Joan and I have considered it an amazing privilege to lead this great State for the past 12 years. Thank you for your support and confidence. I continue to believe with you for thousands of churches and churches of thousands.