One of the best parts of my job is to hear the stories of
people God brings into our church. Most recently I heard the story of someone
who's attended only the last couple months. The story has powerful revelations
and applications for our lives as a church. I was inspired as the story was
told I hope you will be too. There are at
least four distinct parts to this story and I hope you will take in all of them.
I believe God is speaking to us and we need to hear his call to wisdom and action.
The person I listened to told me how for the first 30 years
of their life they never had a Bible or was invited to church. No youth group,
no VBS, nothing. You may think they must have grown up in some foreign country our
big city somewhere far away. They didn't. They grew up in Wooster.
They had unbelieving
parents that taught there was no God, drank heavily and worked hard. This
person grew well into adulthood with no Christian witness or invitation. I
found this shocking and downright disappointing. Here's why: there is no doubt
in my mind at one point at school or at work this person rubbed shoulders with
Christians who either didn't know or worse didn't care about the lost state of
their soul.
There is the possibility that invitations may have been made
but they had been forgotten as they had no impact. The story will later inform
this challenge even more but for now I would give you this as a test: who are
the lost people around you that God may want you to reach? If you don’t
know-would you ask God to show you?
Is there someone you have a burden for and are you praying
for them? But then are you ready to invite them to our worship in the morning
or the evening? Maybe to another activity of the church or even into your home?
We often forget the mission field God has called us to is right here, right now.
We should never assume that someone else will reach them. Someone
else whose church is bigger, cooler or better equipped to bring in lost people
will do it. If you call yourself a Christian and are following Jesus his charge
to you is to go and make disciples. Seeing people be saved by the love of Jesus
through the physical activity of his body the church.
There is no plan B and no substitutes. This has been the
well worn path for 2,000 years. Saved people build relationships with lost
people and love them into the church. Thankfully for the person telling the
story had a bunch of people do that, and now this person is doing it too and
it's beautiful to behold. My hope is that you will do it as well. The next
story will illustrate exactly how it can be done.
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