So with the end of summer marked by the Labor Day weekend, and a return to the rhythm of the working world, do you ever think about the work place
- whether you’re paid or working as a volunteer - as a mission field?
LifeWayResearch.com reports: “A study including more than 15,000 adults revealed that about two-thirds
are willing to receive information about a local church from a family member
and over half from a friend or neighbor. The message is clear that the
unchurched are open to conversations about church.”
The Bible has a story about one of the first Christian
Church builders named Paul as he stands before a crowd eager to listen as he
talks about the God they didn’t know (Acts
17:16-25). Paul uses their openness to religion to talk about his faith
in the one true God known in Jesus Christ. Important to note is that he’s
respectful of their views yet shares the truth as he had come to know it.
Paul’s story is a guide for us today; recognizing that we
live in this same kind of a cultural relativism where lots of people are
chasing after something to center their lives in and the culture determines
what their beliefs are.
What fuels this chase is
a spiritual hunger.
We can use this hunger as our invitation to enter the world
of those around us and share our Christian life-stories respectfully and
effectively and honestly. And that honesty includes our own questions and
thin-spots.
Paul didn’t get bogged down in high minded big thinking
theological debates, he simply talked about the good news he knew about Jesus
Christ.
That Lifeway
Research piece wraps up with this:
“Much to the
surprise of the ‘Chicken Little' crowd, people
are still going to church. And more people would attend if given one simple
thing—an invitation.”
God’s invitation to us to be God’s people comes with the
expectation that we will extend this invitation. We are God’s walking and
talking invitations to a sinful and broken and spiritually hungry world.
We don’t have to have all the answers – we just have to ask
the question to the people around us: “what are you doing Sunday?”
So, what are you doing Sunday? I think you’d like our
church. We meet at 10AM.
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