Several months ago when Tom and I were discussing this day and how to bring

missions fast 1996 to a climax, it occurred to us that most of the people in this room are not, or were not here during the years when the driving convictions of missions here at Bethlehem were

being forged.

Let me just do a survey here.

Raise your hand if you have come to Bethlehem or if you were not here in 1983,

raise your hand, not here.

So 95% of you were not here. So 95% of you were not here when the battle cry for Christian hedonism was sounded in 1983.

A few more probably were here in 1984 with the first missions in the mance, a few more perhaps between 85 and 88

when 90 by 90 was conceived and achieved.

A few more perhaps when we adopted the Manica in 1990. Let's try another one. How many of you

have begun attending Bethlehem since 1990? raise your hand.

So there is need for a restatement, Tom and I concluded, of some of the driving convictions that are behind

the missionary movement at Bethlehem.

So I'm not going to preach from a text this morning. I'm going to

preach from a lot of texts and try to summarize some driving convictions that make this

church tick.

Now, missions is not new at Bethlehem.

A hundred years ago, O'Lahansen went out from us and planted the church among the

kitchen people.

And in the mid-1940s when the BGC was forming its own

missions agency Bethlehem a flagship church in those days was right at the thick of things here in the St Paul Twin Cities area and

Pastor Scholin was right in the center of it.

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