REVELATION 7:9 TASK FORCE

The Revelation 7:9 Task Force report to the 43rd General Assembly of its work during 2022-2023, plus recommendations for consideration by the Assembly.

Use these quicklinks to navigate to a specific section of this report:

Summary of Work
Summary of Recommendations
Work of the Committee
Recommendations (Detailed)
Committee Members
Meeting Dates

Andrew Smith

Co-Chairman
TE, Presbytery of the East

Rufus Smith

Co-Chairman
TE, Presbytery of the Central South

SUMMARY OF WORK

1. The committee met in Orlando this winter for fervent fellowship and robust deliberation.

2. We have launched a website that contains contact and other essential information: www.epc.org/revelation79.

3. We have described ten (10) expressions of a local church aspiring to imitate Revelation 7:9 in our broken world. See www.epc.org/revelation7:9 or our printed brochure at the OGA table. It is a misnomer that every church should become multi-ethnic to fulfill the ideal of Revelation 7:9.

4. Since our inception five years ago, two of our Task Force members (Tim Russell and Phyllis LePeau) are deceased and now live in the presence of our Savior. Two others have relocated from the EPC and two more have retired. In response to these losses, we have recruited 6 new members to the Task Force.

5. We have recommended a modification of the outreach philosophy of a local church aspiring to imitate Revelation 7:9. See www.epc.org/revelation7:9 or our printed brochure at the OGA table for detailed explanation.

6. We have established a threefold process for interested churches that aspire to imitate a Revelation 7:9 expression as much as possible in a broken world.

7. Dr. Mark Harden from Denver Seminary has refined the assessment tool that helps churches self-identify their readiness to embrace a Revelation 7:9 expression. It was created by The Gospel Initiative at Denver Seminary.

8. We have established a coaching model consisting of four (4) teams deploying multiple Revelation 7:9 Task Force members designated for each region of the country. For example, we have a team covering the presbyteries of the Alleghenies and the East that consists of Marc de Jeu, Bonnie Gatchell, Joe Kim, Andrew Smith, and Rodger Woodworth. These coaches walk with a congregation to self-identify and analyze their local demographics, help them assess their readiness, and assist them in developing a strategy for execution.

9. We now have representatives on the Task Force from 14 of the EPC’s 16 presbyteries.

10. 8% of the EPC’s churches have indicated interest or are already pursuing some element of a Revelation 7:9 expression.

11. We are working in conjunction with the Interim Committee on Pastoral Letter of Racial Lament and Hope.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

The Revelation 7:9 Task Force has no recommendations for the 43rd General Assembly. However, we want all 16 EPC presbyteries to be represented on the Task Force. So we are seeking individuals from the Coastal Mid-Atlantic and New River to join us. Please contact us if you or someone you know seems suited for this work and we will interview them. Ruling Elders or Teaching Elders are preferred, but not required if the person is a faithful member of an EPC congregation.

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WORK OF THE COMMITTEE

OUR PURPOSE

The purpose of the Revelation 7:9 Task Force is to improve the delivery of the Great Commission and the Great Commandment within a local church’s 1-3-5-mile radius.

OUR PREMISE

As America is more ethnically and age diverse (78 million millennials is the largest birth number in American history, surpassing baby-boomers who numbered 76 million), as well as more averse to the gospel of Jesus Christ. If the EPC is to thrive in future generations, it must evolve to reflect these ethnic and age changes without compromising the infallible Word of God.

THE WORLD’S PERCEPTION

“Perception is reality,” so goes the well-known adage. Late last year a major television news outlet in Memphis Tennessee, interviewed Task Force Co-Chairman Rufus Smith and asked the following question: “Why don’t more black, white, Latino, or Asian churches work more closely together to arrest some of the city’s social, educational, and economic ills?” Although some ethnically diverse churches work together, sadly our disunity is the world’s perception. And truthfully there are not enough churches that contradict this perception by leveraging our collective influence. One expression of a Revelation 7:9 is for ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ who agree on the essentials to unify by joining or forming ethnically and denominationally diverse fellowships. Such an alliance could visibly captivate the world, cultivate empathic relationships, create a viable gospel response that infuses spiritual hopefulness and instills Imago Dei to a fallen humanity and redress some of our rural towns’ and cities’ social ills.

OUR PERSPECTIVE

Many of our churches invest heavily in the global component of the Great Commission/Great Commandment of impacting the uttermost parts of the world. However, they invest to a lesser degree in impacting new neighbors in their local neighborhoods of Judea and Samaria. The Revelation 7:9 Task Force believes that if we proactively pursue our local 1-3-5 radius, more churches will reflect their entire community as well as the descriptive church in John’s Revelation, which is illustrative of the coming Kingdom of God on earth.

We have observed two essentials to begin evaluating interested churches aspiring to pursue a Revelation 7:9 expression:

1. First, the Senior Pastor must be a champion (and if not leading the charge, deputize a key delegate).
2. Second, churches that succeed organize a local Revelation 7:9 Task Force or futurist team setting near-term/mid-term/long-term research and goals.

Note 1: We define the term “under-served community” as understood by the EPC Church Planting Network, which differs from an under-resourced community. An under-served ZIP Code is defined as a local church plant designed to evangelize a demographic dominated by “Nones” or “Dones”—the religiously unaffiliated (formerly called “unchurched” or “dechurched”)—in their 1-3-5-mile radius.

Note 2: Even though all churches should be missional, we are not as missional as this broken world demands. To use a technological term, a church aspiring to imitate Revelation 7:9 is simply “rebooting” its evangelistic ecosystem. We also know that the work of Revelation 7:9 can coincide with revitalization by executing with more fervor the Great Commission and the Great Commandment. If a church chooses another path of revitalization, the Kingdom still wins!

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RECOMMENDATIONS (DETAILED)

The Revelation 7:9 Task Force has no recommendations for the 43rd General Assembly. However, we want all 16 EPC presbyteries to be represented on the Task Force. So we are seeking individuals from the Coastal Mid-Atlantic and New River to join us. Please contact us if you or someone you know seems suited for this work and we will interview them. Ruling Elders or Teaching Elders are preferred, but not required if the person is a faithful member of an EPC congregation.

An Invitation to Interested EPC Churches
As you execute your church’s mission, we understand that not every church is interested on embarking on this pathway. But if you think a Revelation 7:9 strategy can enhance your arsenal or revitalize your congregation and community, please contact us. Yes, it will be eye-opening. Yes, you will make mistakes. No, we do not have all the answers nor know where it will all lead. But we do know that this pursuit will lead us closer to the heart of the Lord for all people. “Your kingdom come; Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” And we know that a Revelation 7:9 path will glorify God the Father as well as make us better practitioners of the Great Commission and the Great Commandment in our local churches and a broken world.

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