I was reflecting on the “Journey of Grace” NDI event we held last Saturday. Dr. Scott Rainey, our global NDI President, ministered to us powerfully. The story of how his family came to faith in Christ gives us hope for seeing those who are far from God come to know him. If you couldn’t be with us, I’ll summarize by saying that Dr. Rainey’s parents were as far from God as anyone you know, but a local congregation—more specifically a couple of dedicated servants of God in that congregation, built a relationship with his parents and they came to faith. Dr. Rainey spoke to my heart when he said, “I want the church to be the kind of church that walks across the street.”
I have found myself saying something similar in recent church board conversations as we talk about the need for our churches to experience new life. “If we want renewal inside our churches, it will be largely dependent upon what we do outside our churches.” We need to walk across the street in Jesus’ name. When we love our neighbors and engage with them in meaningful and consistent ways, God blesses those encounters and subsequently blesses our churches. I’ve recently read three books that drive the point home. If you are interested the books are:
“The News is Good: Evangelism as a Way of Life” – Jeff Stark
“You Found Me: New Research on How Unchurched Nones, Millennials, and Irreligious are Surprisingly Open to Christian Faith.” – Rick Richardson, Ed Stetzer
“When Church Stops Working: A Future for Your Congregation Beyond More Money, Programs, and Innovation” – Andrew Root, Blair D. Bertrand
This emphasis will help us if only we will hear it, consider it, ask Jesus to help us, and change our approach to reaching our communities.
To help jump start this process for SCO, we will be taking part in The Big Serve, April 19-21, 2024. This emphasis is an expression of our USA/Canada emphasis on blessing our community.
My goal for SCO is to have 100% participation by having our local congregations find a way to serve their surrounding neighbors in Jesus’ name sometime that weekend. This is an MVNU Region-wide event. That means that all Nazarene churches in Ohio, West Virginia, and Eastern Kentucky will be participating. The potential is enormous! If every Nazarene accepted this challenge to serve it would mean that 50,000 Nazarenes would all be serving their communities on the same weekend. Pastor, would you begin right now to pray about how you can participate with your church? May God sanctify our imaginations and lead us to the places in our communities where he needs us. We have all the resources you will need to make this happen and we’ll be sharing them with you soon.
This is not only an historic opportunity (this has never been tried before), but also evidence that we are answering Jesus’ call to walk across the street and engage our communities with the tangible love of Jesus Christ!
Let’s do this! We can celebrate at our District Assembly this year!
Stay tuned for more information in the weeks ahead!
