Around this time last year, I sat in front of a notepad planning out our themes for each quarter in 2019. The first three came quickly:

• “Initiate” – all about getting the Gospel into new places
• “Accelerate” – increasing the momentum of ministries already operating in the field
• “Replicate” – reproducing healthy churches to blanket entire nations

But what about the last quarter’s theme?

For weeks, I struggled to come up with an idea. It needed to be a single word that paired well with the others and represented their logical conclusion. What does one do after initiating, accelerating and replicating the Good News all over the world? And then, out of the blue, it dawned on me:

Celebrate. We would take the last three months of 2019 to celebrate all that God had allowed us to accomplish. I produced several communications around that theme, then forgot about it as I moved on to the next project.

I had no idea how relevant it would become.

Last week, on November 7, a local pastor came to speak at our Thursday morning devotional time. The title of his message? The Importance of Celebrating. He told us how people can get so caught up in anticipating the Next Big Thing that they forget all about the great things God has already done in their lives. But God Himself wants us to remember. He wants us to celebrate. That’s why He set aside feast days for the Israelites. When we forget what God has done, we forget His power and mercy. It was a wonderful message.

I was nearly back to my desk that morning before I realized: “Hey. ‘Celebrate’ is our theme for this quarter! How about that?”

And then, on November 12, ICM’s founder Dois Rosser passed away. Can you guess what we’ve been doing this week? Celebrating his legacy.

I have to believe this is more than just coincidence.

ICM is gearing up for some exciting changes in 2020. There will be new strategies for sharing the Gospel. There will be new people on staff. There will be new ways of talking about ICM’s work in the field. Anticipation is building as we move toward the New Year. But God is also calling us to remember our history…and celebrate. So that’s what we’re doing. We’re celebrating 8,700+ churches around the world. We’re celebrating God’s Word getting into 123 countries. We’re celebrating the life of the man who placed his wealth into God’s hands and said, “Use me for your purposes.” And we’re celebrating YOU: the wonderful people who have made this ministry possible for more than 30 years. We wouldn’t have made it here without you.

Today, we invite you to celebrate with us. Want to celebrate with a Christmas gift to spread the Good News in least-reached places? See our Christmas catalog at icm.org/christmas.

We pray you will take this time to celebrate what God has done in your life as well.

Thank you for celebrating with us.