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Connection 2018 in Seattle

Seattle and its surrounding metropolitan areas are home to some significant Fortune 500 companies and more: Amazon, Starbucks, Boeing, Microsoft, Costco, Nordstrom, Expedia and Alaska Airlines are just a few.

These are not just big companies; their businesses have brought corporate revolution and transformed their industries. Each one is a case study of how innovative ideas radically changed the way people looked at the same business.

For centuries, the Old Testament Law was the way people related to God. It was centered on the Ten Commandments and a strict code of adherence. It was the primary way that people understood and related to God, and it also became a taskmaster in the hands of a few who wielded authority and power.

Then along came grace. It transformed the religious landscape. Every person, not just a few, had a direct pipeline to God. Every believer was afforded the privilege of priesthood. Forgiveness, mercy, humility and love flowed where judgement, rules and arrogance had once dominated. This new religion, Christianity, revolutionized the community of faith. Same God, same people, but radically different results.

The transformation from law to grace was not completely fulfilled until the Holy Spirit visited a group of 120 unified, spiritually hungry and thirsty devoted followers after 10 days of prayer and seeking the Lord faithfully in an upper room in Jerusalem. This prophetic event empowered men and women, young and old, rich and poor, educated and uneducated, Jew and Gentile: “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8, NKJV).

Things would never be the same. This fresh wave of God’s power and presence gave way to the expansion of this small community of faith. It grew from a fledgling, small group of ardent Christ-followers to a worldwide movement that altered the landscape of religion.

My challenge to us, the church, is to be willing to think radically different about how we minister in this last season of God’s plan. We need innovative and courageous people, and we need revolutionary ideas.


The Foursquare Church was birthed out of a 20th-century revival that had its roots in Pentecost. Our founder, Aimee Semple McPherson, embraced the promises and experiences from the book of Acts, and she contended for a modern fulfillment of them. She believed in exercising every possible means available, from music, to art, to drama, to radio, to social justice and beyond to get the message of the cross to every man, woman and child in the shortest amount of time available. This Foursquare global movement was birthed from a megachurch before there were megachurches. Its innovative beginning seeded something in its DNA.

Our theme for Foursquare Connection this year is “Transformed by Jesus,” and the place we are gathering, Seattle, uniquely integrates this theme. Just as we gather in a city known for changing the global landscape of business, The Foursquare Church gathers with representatives from all over the world, contending together to be a part of God’s transforming plan to help finish the task of the Great Commission. We are praying that God will once again seed His innovative and transformative touch into our worship, our speakers and our times of prayer and ministry.

We know that the world needs a radically different church to finish its work. According to The Traveling Team statistics, 3.1 billion people have never heard the gospel, out of 7.5 billion people on Earth. Among Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists, 81 percent do not personally know a Christian. Furthermore, only 3 percent of missionary workers go to unreached people, and $1 in $100,000 of Christian charitable giving goes to ministry to the unreached peoples. Yet we as the church have 3,000 times the financial resources and 9,000 times the manpower resources that are needed to finish the Great Commission

“Imagine, or reimagine if you will, God giving us a fresh revelation of how we mobilize, who we mobilize, where we mobilize and who we mobilize with,” shares Carolyn Clark, president of Commission International. My challenge to us, the church, is to be willing to think radically different about how we minister in this last season of God’s plan. We need innovative and courageous people, and we need revolutionary ideas.

We are contending for a fresh, transformative touch by the Holy Spirit in our gathering. We are contending for a fresh wave of innovation and new wine to be poured out by God Himself. Join with us in Seattle, May 28-31, as we pray together, counsel together and contend together for God to once again anoint The Foursquare Church to partner with others in finishing the Great Commission.

We will be focusing the entire week on workshops, stories, worship and prayer that will revive our hearts. Early registrations have already surpassed our normal opening numbers. God is making us hungry and thirsty for more of Him. I am praying that we are transformed as we gather so that we can see transformation happen everywhere we go in the power and anointing of Jesus.

To see more from Connection 2018, click here.

served as the president of The Foursquare Church from 2009-2020.
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