Daily Discussion Question: What is your church doing to minister contextually?
Jeremy Geerdes
the 72 to proclaim the good news to the towns and villages ahead of
him. In the passage, I found a number of things tremendously
encouraging, including the fact that roughly 60 of the 72 remain
unnamed. I mean, if some unnamed guy two thousand years ago can see
demons driven out, people healed, etc., why can't I?
Speaking of driving demons out, healing people, and such, as they were
preparing to set out on this task, Jesus gave these evangelists a
little pep talk and provided them with a handful of rather practical
tips for effective evangelism. And in verses eight and nine, Jesus
told them, "When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set
before you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, 'The kingdom of
God is near you.'" As I look at these two verses, I think that Jesus'
point was two-fold.
First, conform to the local culture as much as possible without
crossing the line into sin. Coming from the "eat what is set before
you" bit, this means that we are supposed to, as much as possible, put
ourselves in the shoes of the people we're trying to minister to.
And second, meet the needs of the people you meet there, like healing
the sick, providing for the unemployed, sponsoring local sports
programs, etc.
In other words, minister in the context of the area in which you find
yourself.
Unfortunately, I fear that too many Christians and churches have lost
site of this suggestion. Rather than putting ourselves in the shoes of
the community around us, we all know of believers and congregations
that essentially isolate themselves from the rest of the world. And
we've all seen people beaten over the head with a big, thick Bible
when what they really needed was healing.
So here's the question: What are you and your church doing to minister
contextually to the community where you are?
Jeremy R. Geerdes
Effective website design & development
Des Moines, IA
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http://jgeerdes.home.mchsi.com
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jgee...@mchsi.com
Unless otherwise noted, any price quotes contained within this
communication are given in US dollars.
If you're in the Des Moines, IA, area, check out Debra Heights
Wesleyan Church!
And check out my blog, Adventures in Web Development, at http://jgeerdes.blogspot.com
!