Intentionality

I don't even know if it is a word. I am beginning to think that the modern "church" in America has become something Jesus never intended it to be. A shocking statement, I know. Hang in there with me for a moment and see if you think I might be on to something.

Jesus' last words to us are recorded in what we call The Great Commission. Every Gospel has some form of commission in it, but the two most well known are Matthew 28:18-20 and Acts 1:7-8.

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." -- Matthew 29:18-20

He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." -- Acts 1:7-8

What I want us to see is that Jesus did not say we are to build big, beautiful buildings where Christians gather. He did not say we were to offer every new program we can find in order to build up (or edify) Christians. Now, there is a place for both in the church that calls Jesus Lord. We are to spend time together in worship and fellowship. We are to work to learn more about our Lord through His Word. But the purpose of all of those is to get us ready to be engaged with a world that is lost and dying with no hope of eternal life. If one more program in the church would equip us to win even one more person to Christ, then I am all for it. But if the program only exists to attract believers from other churches, what's the point? In the above two passages, Jesus did not call us to glean from the fields of other churches. He called us to harvest from the fields of the lost.

How do we do that? I am so glad you asked. Every Christian needs to make a deliberate effort to be engaged with lost people. Get to know them. Get to love them. Get to the point where you call them friend. Then, tell them about the most important person in your life, Jesus. If they reject Him, then continue to be their friend. If they accept Him, then get them plugged in to a Bible-believing, Bible-teaching church where they can grow and be a witness themselves.

Think about this for just a moment. It has been said that the average person hears a Gospel presentation 10 times before they decide to act on it. And you never know which time the person you are sharing with is hearing. In other words, you may be only on the first time they have heard the message, or maybe the fifth, or maybe the tenth. You don't know, share anyway. What would happen if we committed to pouring our lives into just one person this year with the express purpose of sharing the Gospel with them? If every member of Bethany did that, and the general statistics for evangelism held true, we would see 3 new believers within 1 year. That's only a 10% growth! Now, what if God really blessed us and we saw 20% kingdom growth? We would see 6 new believers in that same period. But notice what happens very quickly. In the next year, if we saw the same growth rate (20%) we would expect 8 new believers. Then, the year after that, we could expect 10 new believers. In three years, we would have increased the Kingdom by 66%! And it wouldn't take long at all before we would need to start thinking of new church starts to keep people reaching and growing.

Seeing God's revival fires sweep through our area requires 2 things. God's people repenting of their own sin and sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ with the lost all around us. Make some deliberate connections with lost people today. Don't wait any longer. Let's see what God can do through people that genuinely care about people going to hell for eternity. Let's start caring enough to share.