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SERVE International is a non-profit corporation authorized by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501c3 to receive tax deductible contributions. It is a member in good standing of the Evangelical Council of Financial Accountability and maintains the highest standards of ethics and financial accountability.
SERVE began in 1982 as a ministry of prayer and evangelism. Its founder, Dr. Archie Parrish, wrote the original Evangelism Explosion materials for Dr. D. James Kennedy. "EE" is a well-known tool for training disciples to share the Gospel of Christ. SERVE was established to address the need for innovative tools for lay ministry and discipleship. The Friendly Witness Building Process was conceptualized to reach the paganized, the secularized, and the immunized! Friendly Witnesses deliberately seek to conversationally communicate the Gospel in the normal situations of life to family, friends, neighbors, work associates and friends of Christian friends. The technique is currently being used by lay evangelists worldwide.
The overriding focus of the ministry began to change in the early 90’s as Dr. Parrish and SERVE’s Board of Directors became increasingly burdened by the direction of the Church and our nation. The Church is failing to impact our culture, and increasingly our culture is impacting the Church. Less than 20% of churches in America have more than 200 members, and less than 20% of church members are workers. Most workers concentrate internally on edifying present members; very few focus externally on serving and evangelizing non-members. Burnout is common.
Coupled with this, Dr. Parrish’s work as Church Vitality Coordinator of the PCA’s (Presbyterian Church in America) Mission to North America revealed that about half of all PCA churches have had no conversion growth for the last decade. Currently, numerical growth in eight out of ten new church plants stall within five years and in seven years decline to around 100 members where they stay indefinitely.
Today SERVE is aimed at reformation and revival with a vision for 120 people in each of 120 churches in each of 120 metropolitan areas praying one hour a day for revival! If this goal is accomplished by the year 2005, 1,728,000 people will be using the ordinary means of grace … prayer and the Word … to prepare for God’s extraordinary reviving grace. Should God choose not to send revival, the impact on the Church and our culture of this much prayer will alone be tremendous!
SERVE is working today to prepare God’s people for revival through:
 | conferences on church revitalization for pastors and church leaders, |
| schools of prayer for congregations, and |
| publication of helpful materials. |
The work is being led by PCA churches but is being extended to all evangelical denominations.
SERVE continues to be international in impact through audio tapes and publications. Dr. Parrish occasionally travels abroad to minister to pastors and contacts made through earlier evangelism trips throughout Asia and Europe.
SERVE is based in Atlanta, Georgia and staffed by a team of just a few professionals, assisted by pastors and leaders who have been helped by its ministry. It is a faith-based ministry.
SERVE International Statement of Faith
1. The Bible is the inspired and only infallible, authoritative Word of God.
2. There is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
3. Our Lord Jesus Christ is God and man in one person. He was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, performed miracles, vicariously atoned for sin through His shed blood and death. He was bodily resurrected from the dead. He ascended to the right hand of God the Father, and will personally return in power and glory.
4. Regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential for the salvation of lost and sinful men.
5. Eternal life is received by faith, that is, trusting in Jesus Christ alone for salvation.
6. The Holy Spirit indwells all true believers and enables them to live a godly life.
7. Both the saved and the lost will be resurrected from the dead; they that are saved unto the resurrection of life and they that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation.
8. There is spiritual unity of all true believers in our Lord Jesus Christ.