Leadership Note May 8, 2019

May 8, 2019

Leadership Notes

If you are a devoted follower of Jesus Christ, you see things through the lens of faith. Through that lens, coincidences and serendipities are God-sightings. While I've heard it said, "There are no coincidences," I will leave room for that rare coincidental occurrence. But mostly, for people of faith, we see God weaving the tapestry of our lives in a way that ultimately makes sense to us.

As some of you have heard, per recommendation from our Vision Team, our leadership board has adopted evangelism training/awareness as a priority for the next 3-5 years. This is one of those things that's easier said than done. I believe it's one of those church things most of us struggle to define and embrace.

From an article by "For The Church," a training and consulting ministry:

There is only one imperative in the Great Commission {Matthew 28}: Jesus commands us to make disciples. This is the singular mission of the church. The disciple-making process begins with evangelism. Disciples are made through saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Saving faith comes in response to gospel witness…A disciple-making church is a soul-winning church. Sheep-stealing, saint-swapping, and membership-transfers do not accomplish the mission of the church. Jesus came to seek and save the lost {Luke 19:10}. As ambassadors of Christ {2 Corinthians 5:20-21}, we must get the gospel right and get the gospel out.

So, our Vision Team is nudging us to be intentionally evangelistic. That's a good thing. What it means for you is we will be providing you opportunities to grow in your understanding of and comfort with evangelism.

Here's where the God-moment comes in. I got a call today from Don Sunshine {yes, it is his real name} who does evangelism training. It wasn't quite a cold call. He did an event at the church where Matthew and Kristin Brady attend, and they suggested he give us a call. I talked to Michelle {Mathew's mom and our Office Manager} and she said Matthew and Kristin highly recommended him. The confluence of moments is too good to ignore. So Don Sunshine is in my directory. As we move forward in equipping ourselves for evangelism, he is first on our list of possibilities.

Always on the Bright Side,

Richard