Real Lasting Life
About this blog
Ray Jones is the Coordinator for Evangelism for the Presbyterian Church (USA). He has served the church as a pastor for twenty-five years. He has a heart for helping people grow in the love of God in Jesus Christ. This growth always includes our words and deeds. He is married and has two grown daughters. He has experienced training and education at Furman University, Columbia Theological Seminary, the church, and through living in the world.
Recent posts
- The Engine of the Church
- My Witnesses
- Witnessing Communities
- The Ministry of Making Disciples
- A New Creation
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The Ministry of Making Disciples
We are called to make disciples. Seems like a simple thing. It's the ministry of the church. But we end up in countless meetings, planning programs, and struggling over denominational decline. We want to start new churches and transform our existing churches. And there is no easy plan for this ministry. But I'm becoming more convinced that if we are about making disciples, our churches will be transformed and we will start new communities of faith.
One of the things we must get right is that we must be the church for the world. We must be Jesus for others. There has to be something different about us. We cannot be as mean, fussy, and rude as the world and expect that people would be drawn to our communities and beliefs.
So, what if we were the church in such a way that people outside the church could belong with us first. They do not have to change or get cleaned up. They could join us in our service to the city or town and become part of our fellowship, meals, and worship. In this belonging they would taste of and experience our life together. They would see a very different way of life. They would experience love and obedience, sacrifice and denial. In other words, they would experience another way of putting life together. They would experience Christian hehavior and begin to see the connection between this way of life and God's loving and forgiving grace that sets us free. It is in the context of belonging and these life giving behaviors that people begin to engage the beliefs of our faith that are the foundation for our life together and mission in the world.
The old way of doing evangelism was all about making a compelling case for our beliefs. Once a person accepted these beliefs, then they lived into the distinctive behaviors, which finally led to a sense of belonging. Today, it seems that our life together needs to be the compelling piece.
Ed Stetzer writes, "If Jesus' resurrection power does not pound in our hearts, we cannot possibly live in such a way that honors God and makes known God's glory." How do we help one another follow Jesus into this glorious and life changing power? That's our mission...
- Posted at 3:39 p.m.
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