Extend:
Are these just clever words: “Equip Believers, Exalt Christ, and Extend the Gospel?” Do we say that and print that but never act upon it? For me and the faithful staff that serve our church these words are much more than a saying. We pray and plan ministry and activity in such a way as to encourage you to be drawn into those three purposes.
We truly want you to be equipped for the work of ministry, becoming increasingly like Christ. We deeply care about your personal love of Christ and how you will serve Him with your whole life, so that your actions and words exalt Christ daily.
When it comes to extending the gospel, we tend to focus on three specific ways for us to engage in evangelism to the world: praying, giving, and going. We pray for mission efforts, missionaries, or under-reached people each Sunday, hoping you will be more mindful to pray for the lost nearest you.
What about giving and going? This month in particular we want to encourage you to consider how you should be giving to the spread of the gospel, and how you can be personally involved in evangelizing lost friends, families, neighbors, and yes, even the world.
Why would that be such an emphasis during December and the season of Christmas? Luke 19;10 says it as plainly as possible, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” The reason God purposed for the second-person of the Trinity to come to earth, put on flesh, and dwell among us, was to seek and save us – the lost and the alienated – everyone of us.
Then Jesus ended His earthly ministry and commanded His followers to keep doing what He came to do: “And He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation’.” (Mark 16:15) The gospel is the good news of God’s redeeming the lost.
We should not be able to think about the birth of Christ without meditating on the purpose of His birth. From beginning to end the story is a story of redemption. That should not just warm our hearts but burden our lives for those who have yet to hear about the hope of salvation.
As we consider our own giving for other missionaries and our going as a missionary, what is it about which we are talking. The words, “missions, missionary, and missional” are used with some great regularity in church circles, but do we have a good understanding of what kind of work is really missions?
A missionary is someone who has been sent. That is what it means. What are we sent to do, and what kind of missionaries and mission work should we support? These ought to be important questions we answer. Without going into a complete exegesis on Acts 14, I think we find in that passage three things that ought to be the focus of our mission work, and the kind of mission work we support:
- New believers (14:21)
- Strengthening existing Churches (14:22)
- Planting New Churches (14:23)
(for more on this please access this article at The Gospel Coalition: “The Goal of Missions and the Work of Missionaries”)
When we give to the Lottie Moon Christmas offering, or to the World Mission Offering, we are helping to support those three components of missions. In the last year all the numbers have been tabulated by the mission board (2022):
- 178,177 people (outside of the US) professed faith in Christ
- 146, 026 Indigenous church leaders were trained
- 21,231 new churches were planted (outside of the US)
Consider giving beyond your tithe this year to the Lottie Moon Christmas offering or to the World Mission Offering. And take up the responsibility of speaking to your lost family, your lost neighbors, and your lost co-workers about the need for forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Engage your life into our church so that it continues in health and strength. This is the work of the sent ones. And believer, you have been sent.
By His Grace, and For His Glory
Pastor Mark
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