On Mission with God...

 Evangelism.  What comes to your mind when you hear this word?  The simplest definition is sharing the gospel.  So what is the gospel?  The gospel is the freeing reality of Jesus in my place.  It is the idea Jesus not only paid our pardon for sin, but by his perfection credited us with his righteousness, freeing us to follow his example.  As a church family, we are in the middle of a five week study in evangelism or to put it another way living a life on mission with God.

As we began the study we looked at the history of the Summit Church and I want to share it briefly with you.  “Homestead Heights had dropped in attendance to 200 and lost some key members of its staff and leadership.  New leadership was hired and that came with a new name and new challenge: let’s get 1,000 people in attendance for Easter a few months down the road.  God moved greater than anyone’s expectation, and the attendance that Easter was three times what it was when the challenge was issued.”  That was 10 years ago, since that time God has done an incredible work in RDU seeing over 6,000 people in worship at the Summit Church on a given weekend.   By God’s grace we are also sending out church planters all over, from Greensboro to South Asia.

Hearing this testimony of God’s faithfulness I can’t help but being grateful to be a part of what God is continuing to do at Summit.  I also cannot help but ask the question of how?  Practically speaking how did we get here…the obvious answer is God, but the reality is that He has used ordinary people to get us to this place.  The question then arises how do we join God and reach our world with the gospel.  This is one that by no means do I have it all figured out and why this study has been so challenging for me, but I believe it starts first with a deep love for Jesus and the gospel.  For me evangelism training in the past has often honed in on a guilt tactic to produce results.  You have to do this or do that.  Through this ongoing discussion in this study in our small group it hasn’t been about guilt at all…its about recognizing what Christ has done for us and falling in love with the gospel.  As we press into the gospel the natural overflow is to share it.   The truth us that we are natural evangelists for the things that we love! 

Practically speaking I think we must look no further than the example set for us in Jesus.  He lived each day with an acute awareness of why he was here.  He lived every day on purpose.  As believers, no matter what our vocation is, our purpose is to worship God and make other worshipers.   All too often the church today has reduced evangelism to a program or something that we must do one night a week, but sharing the gospel is a way of life.  It requires us planting our life in a particular place for the sake of the gospel.  Many believers have treated evangelism in one of two ways, either totally rejecting it saying that is not for me or we’ve compartmentalized it instead of making it a part of our everyday life. 

In Acts 1:8 we find a familiar challenge for the church to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.  Interestingly enough as Jesus says these last words on earth and ascends into heaven the disciples are now just standing in awe gazing at heaven and who can blame them.  Notice then what the angels said to them, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?  This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”  In other words, you heard him; you have a huge task and limited time.  Quit standing around, go and make the most of it! 

Just a few closing thoughts that God reminded me of through JD’s sermon a few weeks ago.  The first is this, salvation belongs to the Lord!  It is not up to us to produce results; it is up to us to be obedient.  The second is to pray like crazy.  What are you praying boldly for?  Who is it that you are begging God to save?  Let me put it another way, if God decided to answer every prayer you prayed this week how many people would be added to the Kingdom?  Andrew Murray once said,  “The man who mobilizes the Christian church to pray will make the greatest contribution to world evangelization in history.”  Our part in seeing people come to know Christ begins with us standing in the gap for them as intercessors on their behalf.