While finishing grad school in Cincinnati in 1989, I saw the Bengals go to the Super Bowl. Moving here at the beginning of 1992, the first Lions game I watched was in the playoffs and they won! I thought, “We’re living in a city with another great football team!” Well, they’ve never made it to the playoffs since. A few years ago, I finally gave up watching Lions’ games. I figured I’d be happier taking a nap on Sunday afternoons than being frustrated & let down once again watching the Lions. Nobody feels good being part of a losing team. (By the way, I will be watching & rooting for the Bengals this Sunday).
Sometimes in our culture it can feel like the Church is on the losing side. But we know how “the game” ends. We’ll be victorious! So don’t give in discouragement or give up due to lack of progress. Don’t resign yourself to doing other things on Sunday mornings. Don’t be a fair-weather fan who’s easily frustrated by lesser things during church services. Be a Jesus fanatic who’s sold out to the higher purpose of the Church–to make disciples! We’re actually on the winning team–and the more people involved, the more effective we’ll be in Winning Downriver to Christ!
But we’re not just focused on Downriver-Jesus told us to go into ALL the world. So this month we continue to focus on the missions we support, concluding with a “Celebration of Generosity” offering (Feb. 21-27) to fund them. This Sunday the message is “Adapt to the Audience” to help us be more effective in sharing the message of Christ. Everybody’s different, so a “canned” Gospel presentation will not always work. We have to be sensitive & speak to people where they are in their spiritual journey. We need to listen to their story before we can know how to lead them from where they are to where they need to be. We can’t assume they know anything about the Bible & theological terms or speak “Christianese.” We patiently & persistently try to persuade. Be yourself but put yourself in their shoes. We’re gracious as we point them to the truth of Jesus!
Right after church last Sunday, my daughter-in-law, Danielle, texted me this:
“We were watching Mark preach this morning [online] about evangelism and how you just gotta do it; it doesn’t matter if you mess up or they say no… and I kept feeling like I should invite my medical school friend over again. I was thinking, ‘Man, I don’t want to because I say stupid stuff when I’m nervous and I’m not good enough blah blah blah,’ but I just went ahead and texted her anyway, and SHE TEXTED ME AT THE SAME EXACT TIME to see if I wanted to hang out…like okay Lord, you have my attention!!”
Let that be an encouragement to you to just go ahead & do it. You never know what kind of response you may get!