Thursday, February 24, 2005

Contrarian View From the Pew: Start with what's clear

Clearly, an important aspect of Christianity is for Christians to spread Christianity throughout the world. Jesus taught God’s principles and modeled Christian behavior for his disciples. Before ascending into heaven, he told them to do likewise. Even if Jesus hadn’t been specific about spreading his message, we could not just sit on our knowledge of eternity anymore than we could watch a child drown; our changed hearts compel us to serve others. A part of that service is the offering or sharing of all that we have with others including a clear understanding of the Gospel message.

Individually, we need to let our light shine. If we believe we are a new person as a result of a belief in our Savior, we won’t sit under a basket and keep it to ourselves. Even on our worst days we will have something to offer towards the kingdom of God.

It’s also quite clear from the Bible that individually we do not all have the same role. Jesus used a farm worker illustration when he said, “one for sowing and one for reaping.” Paul used an illustration of the Church as the body of Christ where different body parts are incapable of achieving their intended purpose without every other part contributing to the purpose and without all of the parts working together. Paul also said we are gifted by the Spirit for different roles; evangelism being one of the listed and specific spiritual gifts.

In future posts, I will examine the Churches methods, effects, and results of evangelism as well as suggestions for improvement.

1 comment:

The Faith Expedition said...

While some of us may be more 'gifted' than others at evangelism, do you agree that we are all called to share the gospel of Christ not matter our giftings or lack thereof? I believe all of the gifts are ours to use but that God has given certain areas where we 'shine'.