“Two days after Christmas, my family and I moved into an apartment complex in the most crime infested area in Atlanta,” says Rustin Sweeney, Good News Atlanta Community Life Coordinator. Sweeney and his wife, Stacy, intend to plant a church at their new home. It is estimated that around 95 percent of people who live in apartment complexes don’t attend church.

 “After visiting over 60 apartment communities, we felt that God led us to the one He wanted (and the one my wife felt most safe in). After only six days in our new apartment, our Jeep and other items were stolen, but God turned it into a blessing.” Here is Sweeney’s follow up email:

“Just wanted to praise God…Our Jeep was found and we were able to get it from impound tonight. I had asked God to somehow show my wife that, despite the things going on, He was in charge and protecting us. The $40 in quarters for laundry and the new stereo was still in the car.... and we are closer to Christ now then at the beginning of the day! … When we got home tonight a bunch of guys were sitting in the gazebo so my son and I went over and invited them all to dinner Friday night (and hopefully an encounter with Father!)”

“A disturbing set of figures shows that over 450 new people move into Atlanta every single day, 365 days a year,” says Bill Levin, Director of Good News Atlanta, Church Planting, Global Missions, Georgia-Cumberland Conference. “Last year, Georgia-Cumberland Conference baptized 1,171 precious souls. While I praise God for these people who have given their hearts to Christ, I had to come to terms with this other figure. In any given three day period, more people move into the Atlanta metropolitan area than all the people who were baptized in all of Georgia-Cumberland Conference during 2007. Frightening!”

Good News Atlanta was founded in 2005 by churches from both the South Atlantic and Georgia-Cumberland Conferences joining forces to reach the more than five million people living in the Atlanta metro area. With only 12.4 percent of this population attending church, the harvest is ripe but the laborers are few (Matthew 9:37). Good News Atlanta has around 15 staff/volunteers dedicated to sharing their love of Jesus. One recent event that brought 285 church members together was the building of a Habitat for Humanity home in Atlanta.

“We have already experienced many blessings as I have worked with leaders and members from both conferences; such as working side by side on the Habitat house with complete unity to show God's love,” says Chris Donovan, Global Evangelism and Church Planting assistant, Good News Atlanta. “For me Good News Atlanta means participating in a ‘new’ evangelistic work that incorporates and models revolutionary steps which will help our church return to the soul winning results we had when we began. The biggest challenge I think we face is limiting God; by allowing our fears to paralyze us so we become unwilling to risk everything for the sake of a lost world.”

Rhoda Lapp, Post Modern coordinator for Good News Atlanta says Post Modern ministry helps Seventh-day Adventists build relationships with people of today’s generation by sharing key elements in lifestyle, philosophy and approach to the Post Modern mind. Post Modern ministry is also very attractive to our young people who are interested in exploring alternative ways of connecting people to church life. 

“Weekly prayer walking in downtown Atlanta, Fusion goes out in search for lost souls on the streets. For the past eight months, this group has grown as a ‘Search and Rescue’ endeavor,” says Chris Bullock, pastor of the new church plant, Fusion. “Relationships have been formed with street, business and residential dwellers. Drug addicts, the homeless and prostitutes are valued as children of God. Homes have been entered. Worship takes place on street corners. Fusion believers know they are the church, not a building. They take church to where life happens.”

“As the Adventist Muslim Relations person for The Quiet Hour, and one of the main educators for the North American Division Adventist Muslim Relations center, yet living close to Atlanta, I am excited to share a picture of God's love that includes Adventists being loving and lovable people and actually befriending Muslims,” says Bryan Gallant, Assistant for Muslim Relations, Good News Atlanta. “Within the scope of the Good News Atlanta team, my work is trying to help local Adventists learn how to share that picture of God in the most effective way so that individual Muslims can hear it and be blessed by it.”

A cornerstone of Good News Atlanta is the little community of Crystal Cove, along Lake Lanier. Good News Atlanta assistant Jan Levin says, “Several years ago, Bill and I were compelled to put the ‘Greenhouse’ principles to the test. Using its simple principles, we prayed for God’s leading and entered a community. Crystal Cove is approximately 35 miles north of Atlanta, where we did not know anyone, or have any connections. We have since been meeting every Friday evening with more than 30 people from this troubled community. We currently have 5 older teenagers attending a baptism class every Monday night, and several Life Transformation Groups going. God is working, doors have been opened, and life transformation is taking place.”

In 2010 the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists will meet in Atlanta. Contact us at www.goodnewsatlanta.net if you sense God calling you to reach out to the people of Atlanta.

by Tamara Wolcott Fisher

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Georgia-Cumberland Conference Mission for Kingdom Growth:
Share the everlasting gospel through personal and public evangelism, church planting, small group fellowship, community involvement, and healing the broken by applying media, technology, and talent to reach all in our territory.