Most everyone is familiar with the story of Jonah in the Bible. He even has his own book in the Old Testament named after him. He was made famous for running away from God, getting swallowed by a big fish, then spewed out, so he could be obedient to God and go preach to Nineveh. Jonah sometimes gets the bad rap because he didn’t really want to do what God asked, was disobedient, and had a bad attitude. We, Sunday School teachers, shake our fingers at him, and say, ‘tsk tsk. See what happens when you don’t do what God has called you to do?’ Yet, how many times does God ask us to do much smaller, easier, insignificant things, and we turn away as if we didn’t hear Him ask?
Thirty yeas ago this June while attending summer church camp as young teen, I sat in the open-air tabernacle listening to the evening evangelist give a dynamic and passionate sermon about Jesus’ 2nd coming. The words he spoke, the Scripture verses he read aloud, the entire tone of his message struck a chord in my inner being. In fact his sermons each previous night of the week-long camp were just as good and weighed heavily in my mind progressively. But this final sermon of the week - on the final night of camp, seemed like God Himself was speaking through this man to give that particular sermon to ME. At the alter call at the end of that service this minister asked if anyone else there in attendance wanted to accept Christ as their Lord & Savior (many had the previous nights & were also baptized). A warmness overtook me and though at first my feet felt like they were nailed to the ground, the moment I decided I had to walk towards the front of the tabernacle, I could have sworn I floated like a feather down the aisle and up the front. With tears in my eyes I knelt and confessed with my words and every emotional fiber within me, that I believed in and accepted Jesus of Nazareth as my Savior. The next day before camp broke up, I was baptized in the same stream that my own grandmother had been baptized in some 50 years before.
Yesterday, at school we were discussing the work of William Carey who wrote a persuasive piece designed to inspire his fellow Baptists to send out and support missionaries in 1792 called An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens. His unrelenting desire to save the lost drove him to study languages incessantly. He was a shoemaker by trade who taught himself Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Dutch, and French. Eventually he moved to India with his family and some others to spread the gospel there. He translated the Bible into Bengali and Sanskrit and distributed it among the people. Below is a quotation that I found challenging. Part of his treatise included a series of tables listing the population of each known country in the world along with religious affiliation. He estimated that out of the 731 million people in the world 420 million were still in “pagan darkness.” Looking at statistics today, there are roughly two billion Christians out of 6.5 billion people. Are Carey’s words any less relevant today than when he penned them more than two centuries ago?
In New England, we battle the hard hearts of skeptics while enjoy the open-mindedness of those searching. Engaging our neighbors and communities is important - and there is a way to do it right. Forget the marketing strategies or membership drives, get into conversations with the people you’re around. I think that the challenge facing New England in regards to evangelism and outreach is not in the people who need the gospel, its found in the people who supposedly don’t.
Best line of the article - “That means outreach must be deliberate and personal.” And those reaching out need to move out of the comfort of our church building’s four walls and away from the safety have having our pastors teach those who don’t know the gospel.
Watch this amazing video featuring Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan from 1930:
Anne Sullivan must have been quite a woman of love, compassion & patience. How long must it have taken to teach and work with Helen Keller, a woman born blind and deaf?! Yet Anne Sullivan did not see someone disposable, but rather someone who had value and was worth spending her time and life with to teach and care for. Amazing!
Watching this video again brought to mind some things I have been thinking about recently. Discipleship takes time. Have you ever been working with someone to bring them along in their faith? This isn’t a one-time momentary thing is it? If you are the mature believer in a relationship with someone coming along in their walk with the Lord you have to be ready to committ your time and love to this person. Teaching someone to observe all the Jesus commanded (Matthew 28:19-20) doesn’t just happen on Sundays either.
I have seen recently two billboards in my area which show John 14:6 next to a picture of a cross. I thought it was cool that people had taken the time and money to rent the billboard with these ads rather than the usual. Seeing this billboard now got me thinking. I wonder if John 14:6 is the best verse to put up there - if you only had a few lines and a few seconds - what would you put up on your billboard for one month? John 14:6? A different phrase? Something else altogether?
the following post was written by Joshua from Taiwan:
Recently, while encountering Buddhists and Mormons, I’ve concluded that I must know something about their religious beliefs in order to be effective (in my opinion). Both are heavy on the “afterlife” (an unscriptural term) and both stress works for increased positions.
What is a good way of sharing the good news of Christ and His Kingdom with people of other religions?
Should we spend time reading their “sacred” books?
Is reading their “sacred” books prohibited for us Christians?
(NOTE: When dealing with Mormons, I found the Book of Mormon works well in showcasing the deception of the Mormon religion. [reference: Solomon Spalding; Manuscript Found])
Does discussing and arguing points just make them more against Christianity?
I thought this article was excellent. My thoughts to follow:
I’ve heard the quote once too often. It’s time to set the record straight—about the quote, and about the gospel.
Francis of Assisi is said to have said, “Preach the gospel at all times; when necessary, use words.”
This saying is carted out whenever someone wants to suggest that Christians talk about the gospel too much, and live the gospel too little. Fair enough—that can be a problem. Much of the rhetorical power of the quotation comes from the assumption that Francis not only said it but lived it.
The problem is that he did not say it. Nor did he live it. And those two contra-facts tell us something about the spirit of our age.
Yesterday, at school we were discussing the work of William Carey who wrote a persuasive piece designed to inspire his fellow Baptists to send out and support missionaries in 1792 called 
I thought it was cool that people had taken the time and money to rent the billboard with these ads rather than the usual. Seeing this billboard now got me thinking. I wonder if John 14:6 is the best verse to put up there - if you only had a few lines and a few seconds - what would you put up on your billboard for one month? John 14:6? A different phrase? Something else altogether?
Recently, while encountering Buddhists and Mormons, I’ve concluded that I must know something about their religious beliefs in order to be effective (in my opinion). Both are heavy on the “afterlife” (an unscriptural term) and both stress works for increased positions.