According to the Gospel of Matthew, the last thing Jesus said to us before he left this earth and ascended into heaven was “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20, ESV) This is well known to many of us as the Great Commission.
Notice that in the first part of the great commission, there are four action words there: go, make, baptize, and teach. As Anglicans, we are called by the Great Commissions to two things: evangelism and discipleship. This is the reason that our vision for St. Michael’s is “Reaching the Lost. Growing the Found.” Reaching the lost is evangelism. Growing the found is discipleship.
I have found that discipleship comes much easier to Anglicans than evangelism does. In fact, many of us Anglicans who grew up in the Episcopal Church were subtly taught that evangelism was a dirty word. Other denominations did that, not us. Ironically, those “other denominations” were growing, while we were shrinking. The sad thing about it is that we were slowly taking the life out of the church, and robbing ourselves of the joy of seeing amazing miracles of God – those miracles that take place when another person comes to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.
I want our church to reclaim that joy. While we will continue in outreach and mission to other parts of the world, I want us to become uniquely focused on sharing our faith in the Ridgecrest community. Having been at St. Michael’s for six months now, it is very clear to me that we have some amazing disciples worshipping in this place – people with amazing stories to tell and a deep commitment to Jesus Christ – and I want us to be able to share those stories with others. When that happens, others will want that amazing joy as well, and a new disciple will be born.
Starting on the first Wednesday in April (and continuing through the end of May), I will begin a teaching series called “Reaching the Lost” that will take place on Wednesday nights starting at 6:30 p.m. as part of our Wednesday Night at the Well program (with dinner starting at 5:30 as usual). Both the men and the women will be combined for this teaching series. We will be focusing specifically on reaching the lost souls of our community. The course will have several components. We will begin with an overview of what scripture calls us to do regarding evangelism. After that, we will focus on two aspects of sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ: What do we say? And how do we identify who to say it to? We will then close by looking at aspects of our culture that make evangelism challenging.
Sharing our faith really and truly can be a fun and exciting adventure – and I want it to be just that! Join us on Wednesday nights as we learn how to effectively reach the lost. Learn how we can truly live into who God is calling us to be, disciples of Jesus Christ who are actively living into their faith and sharing it with others.
