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
Categories
Archives
Making Disciples
The church is called to make disciples. Growing disciples of Jesus Christ share faith and serve others in ways that the Holy Spirit uses to rescue and reconcile a broken world. Discipleship begins with Jesus. "It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for" (Ephesians 1:11 The Message).
What if all our church activity started with Jesus? If our worship, time with Scripture, fellowship, and prayer took us more deeply into following Jesus, would we be more of a "sent" people? As long as we continue to try to fix and tweak our ministry, we will remain in a ministry that is focused on the people inside our walls and we will settle for what is humanly possible. But if we help one another pay attention to what God is doing in our lives, then we will find our way into the lives of people in our communities.
As we follow Jesus, we become a people who bring shalom into our communities. We bring God's beauty and wholeness to a world that is broken and confused. The gathered must be scattered for the world to be healed.
The Evangelism Office has two offerings designed to help the church be the church. The first gathering is a conference in St. Pete Beach, Florida on August 8-11. This conference will be a time to explore engaging a changing culture, people in our communities, the gospel, and what it means to be a disciple making church. Part of what this conference will do is help churches use a new evangelism resource, Engage. The second offering is our Evangelism Sunday resource. These resources are designed to help churches reach their communities.
One of the things we continue to discover is that there is nothing quite like action to change behavior. So, let us pray with one another about our communities, and begin to take steps into serving people around us. As we are in relationship with these people, God will give us our own unique words to share with them about the One who has changed our lives.
We all have spheres of influence we are called to serve. We can serve as a mentor in a local school. We can serve the children on our daughter's sports team. We can invite a neighbor for coffee. We can serve people in a nursing home. We can become involved with a ministry with the homeless. The list is endless. The thing is, when we are following Jesus, we will go to that place where our "deepest joy meets the world's greatest need" (Frederick Buechner).
- Posted at 11:33 a.m.
-
- Tweet