The Name Change

Marching forward from "Morning Star" to "Every Nation"

November 2004
by Pastor Larry Matsuwaki
Senior Pastor
Every Nation Church (Singapore)

Since Morning Star International (MSI) was formed in 1994, our heart has always been "To honour God and advance His kingdom through campus ministry, church planting and world missions."

In 2000, Pastor Rice Broocks challenged every Morning Star Church to plant another church every 3 yrs. The MSI Apostolic Team then came up with the 2010 Initiative: To reach Every Nation in Our Generation".

Since then, the challenge has been sent out that we think globally - to reach every nation we are not currently in. The name "Every Nation" is a continual reminder of our vision to reach the world.

Another challenge was given to pray and be apostolic centers, reaching every nation and believing for every nation to be represented within the Church. It will be a picture of a heaven on earth as in Revelations 7:9 which states, "After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language…" What a great joy and privilege for brethren to dwell together in unity from every nation, tribe and language within a church!

The name change has allowed our ministry to own the name "Every Nation". There were other ministries in the past known as Morning Star and, even in Singapore, there were some establishments known as Morning Star Travel, etc. In Singapore, we have decided to change our name to identify with our global ministry and therefore, we will be called "Every Nation Church (Singapore)" or ENCS.

We are excited about this change, for as in the Word, every time there was a name change it brought greater growth! There is a sense of a Jacob to Israel change!

God is calling us in Singapore to stop focusing on ourselves or our local movement and start reaching the world and taking ownership of the goal of reaching "Every Nation in Our Generation". Since the 2010 Initiative challenge was made, we have sent out church planters to India (in 2002) and Turkey (in 2004). We believe God will use us to send out others to reach the nations of Madagascar and, possibly, East Timor by 2010.