If you've been in church the last several weeks, you've heard a lot of talk about the Great Northern FallFest. This weekend event, September 7-9, is designed to help people reach their friends and family members with the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's going to be an event filled with concerts, skateboard demonstrations, the Power Team as well as messages by Steve Wingfield. In addition, courses designed to help believers share their faith are being held in churches around the area with the goal of training 1000 Christians in the principles of evangelism.
Why go to all the effort? In the words of the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:14, "the love of Christ compels us." The reality is that people's eternal destiny lies in the balance. Each person we meet is on the road to one of two places: heaven or hell. And the difference is their response to the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's why 50 churches in the greater Grand Rapids area are cooperating together to do what we can to present the gospel to the people around us. Lost people matter and we are compelled by the love of Christ to reach them. It is important. In fact, it would be easy to argue that reaching others is the only reason we are here rather than in heaven.
At the same time, I want you to think about the fact that 50 churches have banded together to put on this weekend crusade in order to reach the 45,000 people of Itasca county with the gospel. The need is there, but what about the 7,086,000 Kahars in India or the 12,000,000 Hui of China? These millions have no (or almost no) Christians. They have no crusades and no churches to drive past or Christian bookstores to visit. Does not the love of Christ compel us to reach them as well? Don't they have the same right to hear the gospel?
That's why I'm excited that we will be hosting our fall missions conference on the heels of the Great Northern FallFest. We want to band together to plant churches "where the odds are stacked against us." We want to be personally involved with reaching the least reach. Perhaps it will be going ourselves. Maybe it will be supporting someone who is going. Maybe it will be through prayer. However we are called, reaching others with the gospel is something that must be on the top of our list of things to do. It's important. It is the reason we are here.
To remind myself (and hopefully you as well), I have placed a feed from the Joshua Project on my blog which will show the details of a different "least reached" people group every day. Let us learn about these people, pray for these people and commit ourselves to reaching them. After all, the love of Christ compels us.
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1 comment:
hey just had a chance to check the blogs. I love it hope to read more often keep up the great work. I hope training went well tonight. I was very excited with the different faces in church. God Bless your blog....
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