February 1, 2005
Dear GGWO Leadership Conference Participants:
We would like to welcome you to the Greater Grace World Outreach Leadership Conference. We are very excited to be able to come together in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to hear from Him and to grow together in the work of Christ being done through GGWO. What a blessed experience and presence of God we have all shared over the last 40 years. God has blessed our participation in His great plan, and we have seen many souls saved, many churches raised, and many lives changed. Praise Him! As with all growth and maturing, we have experienced trials and tribulations; testings by which we have been trained up in the wonderful grace of our Lord Jesus Christ as we proclaim His Finished Work. As with any work of God, the enemy has also been busy, both from within (our own old sin natures) and from without. But God has always been faithful and longsuffering with us. He has consistently given us the grace to endure and the provisions to succeed in Him. AMEN.
We believe this conference offers us an opportunity to review where GGWO has been, where we are, and where we might go together. There appear to be many questions that need to be addressed and much can be gleaned from retrospective examination; much can be prevented with prospective planning. Our goal during the time is not to right any wrongs, to solve past problems, but to examine in as objective method as possible what we might learn from our past, what we might learn about our behavior, what we might learn about the application of the Word of God. And most importantly, what our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ’s thoughts are toward us.
Philippians 1:3 – 3:15.
“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ,..Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ…contending as one man for the faith of the gospel…by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others…
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed…continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose. Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault…press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of (us) me…Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, (we) I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called (us) me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained…being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
We want to encourage all participants, including ourselves, to prepare ourselves to participate in this conference, with humble and contrite hearts. God isn’t interested in what any of us think, He is only interest that we know what He thinks. With all of you, we echo Paul’s prayer to the Philippians and look forward with expectation to what Christ has for us all during this Conference. Thank you for your sacrifice and willingness to attend.
Your friends and servants in Christ Jesus,
P. Tom Powell
P. Jim Cornwell
P. Ken Dietrich
