Wisconsin—Many churches in the region around the Great Lakes are experiencing major challenges that hinder church growth. There has been an economic decline as a number of jobs have relocated off-shore or to the South and Southwest where population concentrations have shifted to warmer climates. Many churches are scattered throughout rural areas where there is little ethnic and cultural diversity. It is challenging to work in areas where an established Northern European culture is typically resistant to change in politics, philosophy and religion.

Recognizing these challenges, the constituents of the Wisconsin Conference have made evangelism a priority. It was at their 2006 Constituency Meeting that the constituents of the Wisconsin Conference set as their objective, 7,600 members by 2010.

At the beginning of 2007, the leadership team prayerfully sought to look past the discouraging circumstances to see the potential for growth from God's perspective. From a human point of view, they chose an impossible goal: to add 300 new members by baptism and profession of faith and to increase the total membership to 7,000 by the end of the year.

It would take a combined effort across the conference to commit time in prayer and service. Life could not continue as normal. Members worked together with pastors, teachers and evangelists to conduct more than 50 public evangelistic meetings, a number of which were conducted by lay evangelists. Many members opened their homes and visited the homes of their neighbors to share the good news by opening the pages of Scripture in Bible studies.

Rather than focusing on the goal of reaching specific numbers, people were concerned with whom they could reach for Jesus. In fact, it wasn't until all the church clerk's reports were tabulated for the year that they realized that as of Jan. 1, 2008, the total Wisconsin Conference membership was exactly 7,000! When Phyllis Corkum, Conference clerk, made the announcement, the staff gathered at center court of the Conference office for a time of prayer and praise for what they knew God had accomplished through His Spirit.

In response, each church in the Wisconsin Conference participated in a combined worship service of praise and thanksgiving on Feb. 23. The service for the day was introduced by Walter Wright, Lake Union president, and Don Corkum, Wisconsin president, via DVD, followed by a responsive reading expressing praise and thanksgiving for God's great power and grace, and inviting members to a new level of commitment to cooperating with Him in reaching out to their communities.

For the second year in a row the Conference has surpassed 300 baptisms. Encouraged by the Lord's blessing, they are looking ahead to 2009, and have increased their goal to 700 baptisms for the church-wide Year of Evangelism. God has blessed the Wisconsin Conference through a spirit of unity and cooperation as its constituents have embraced the notion that each one has a God-given purpose to introduce men and women, and boys and girls, to Jesus.

James Fox, communication director, Wisconsin Conference