Part Two: A Clear Mission
“Helping people say ‘Yes’ to Jesus” is more than a sign on our wall that you walk past as you enter or exit our worship service. It is a core value of our church, and it describes an essential element of a healthy congregation. This blog is the second in our “Healthy Congregation Series.” A clear mission enables us to live our lives intentionally, individually and as a church family.
Notice that the above statement begins with “helping people.” People are where our mission begins. It can be tempting to avoid people we don’t know or try to control the ones that we do know, neither of those extremes is helpful.
Helping people means getting involved with their lives. It means understanding them, meeting them where they are at, and offering yourself to them. It means recognizing them, rather than walking by, and respecting them as someone whom God has made.
I recently talked to a person who helped someone change a flat tire. They could have driven by or called someone else to help them, but instead, they got dirty and invested a few minutes in a needy person’s life. That one act did not result in a commitment to Jesus, but the recipient did see a person living out their faith.
🙌 The Lord is the one who is responsible for opening people’s hearts, our job is to live what we believe.
Those that are close to us often see our offer of help as an instruction or a command. They are looking for someone to come alongside of them, but instead they hear criticism. We want them to act, live, and respond like we would. What if we would begin with just helping them? Maybe we could learn something from them at the same time as we share what we have to offer. Maybe helping them means just helping them.
As a church, we place a great emphasis on evangelism and missions. We have a mission of the month, we have commitment cards at VBS, we invite people to come to the altar for prayer every week. That clear mission is built into most of our congregational life. We also want that clear mission to be a part of our individual lives.
This year we will be adding two questions to our weekly list of Home Group questions; “Who did you share last week’s lesson with?” and “Who will you be sharing this week’s lesson with?” We will also be having two Oral Study Home Groups this year. Those groups will memorize the stories of the Bible, apply those stories to their lives, and share the stories with others. In this way, the stories of the Bible become a natural tool for sharing the Word of God with others.
The people who have participated in other oral classes have found that they were deeply affected as they considered the parallel between their own lives and the lives of those in scripture. They found that they were becoming spiritually healthy by looking at their own lives through the mirror of those in the Bible.
When we allow the Bible to be the reflection of our lives, we can live intentionally with a clear mission.
📖 1 Corinthians 9:26-27: “I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”
– Pastor Kevin Olson