MIssion
I wanted to put some thoughts down whilst they were milling around my head. I wanted to sow some ideas which will challenge many of us even myself.
When talking about evangelism I know that word scares people off so lets call it loving people into the kingdom. I hear preaches all the time about reaching out to those people around us and of course I agree those people who are directly around us need to hear the gospel and about Jesus if they dont already know him. There are definitely people in our direct influence who we can reach out to who we work with in our family possibly even our neighbours.
But lets face it many of us if were honest live in or choose to live in nice areas, and if we dont now if we had the money we would choose to. For some of us that are married and have kids we would argue that we want to give our children the best start in life and it matters which primary school they go to etc. You wouldn't want them getting in with the wrong crowd. These are all genuine reasons for not wanting to live on a rough estate. So what's the problem I hear you say.
Well as I read the bible I have become more and more convinced that we are called to reach out and serve the poor. If we have nice jobs, nice cars, live in nice areas and have nice friends and to all intents and purposes are more like middle class people in the way we act and think I think it is highly unlikely that we are going to be coming into contact with poor people or those who are living in deprivation and poverty.This is where the idea of only telling people about Jesus who are our friends falls short. Now of course rich or richer people still need to hear about Jesus and I am in no way belittling that fact. However there is a whole world of people on our doorstep who we will never come into contact with if we don't
When talking about evangelism I know that word scares people off so lets call it loving people into the kingdom. I hear preaches all the time about reaching out to those people around us and of course I agree those people who are directly around us need to hear the gospel and about Jesus if they dont already know him. There are definitely people in our direct influence who we can reach out to who we work with in our family possibly even our neighbours.
But lets face it many of us if were honest live in or choose to live in nice areas, and if we dont now if we had the money we would choose to. For some of us that are married and have kids we would argue that we want to give our children the best start in life and it matters which primary school they go to etc. You wouldn't want them getting in with the wrong crowd. These are all genuine reasons for not wanting to live on a rough estate. So what's the problem I hear you say.
Well as I read the bible I have become more and more convinced that we are called to reach out and serve the poor. If we have nice jobs, nice cars, live in nice areas and have nice friends and to all intents and purposes are more like middle class people in the way we act and think I think it is highly unlikely that we are going to be coming into contact with poor people or those who are living in deprivation and poverty.This is where the idea of only telling people about Jesus who are our friends falls short. Now of course rich or richer people still need to hear about Jesus and I am in no way belittling that fact. However there is a whole world of people on our doorstep who we will never come into contact with if we don't
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