Get Your Rear in Gear
You probably know this text well, but the whole GET YOUR REAR
IN GEAR
In the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, Paul wrote, "For from
you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and
Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread
abroad..." What an encouraging and uplifting thing to proclaim
about a church. I wonder what the Apostle Paul would say if he
were to write about our church? Would he be able to give such a
statement as this or would we be closer to the reprimands of the
church at Corinth? I think Paul would probably say something to
the effect that we need to get our rear in gear and start going
forward again. We have come to a place of complacency and even apathy concerning soul-winning and I wish the Apostle Paul could write to us and get us going again. I certainly don't seem to be able to get you to do so.
While we are doing great things to get missionaries and church planters on their fields of service around the world, our home mission work is not very strong at this present time. It has been a long time since we have seen someone come to faith in Christ and follow in believer's baptism. The only explanation for this is that we have seen those closest to us come to faith in recent years and we are satisfied with that. We must never stop sharing our faith and warning people of hell. We must get a strong burden for the rest of the lost in our community. If we are to be found faithful to the great commission of Christ, we must find a way to get out into Waynesboro and Augusta County with the Gospel. This is our mission field. To be quite honest, if the missionaries we send money to each month only did what we collectively as a church do (250 PEOPLE), we would pull their support and say they were failing!!!
We have been doing visitation in a very traditional way, one night per week scheduled, and we are not showing up. We are ineffective in reaching our community!!! I am proposing revitalization to our visitation/witnessing program. We will have a five week soul-winning class that focuses on sharing your faith with the lost in a variety of creative ways. It will be conducted Sunday afternoons from 4:30 - 6:00 p.m. We will be starting the 9th of November and concluding the 7th of December. I want to invite everyone to come to this training class and learn how to plant and water the Gospel seed. When we are finished with this training, we will divide into teams and each team will do soul-winning efforts at a time and place of their choosing. I will be giving more detailed information concerning the going part during and after the training.
If we do not start getting serious about the proclamation of the Gospel, may God raise up another church that will. I would rather it be Shenandoah Heights Baptist that be known as the church on a mission, but if we will not do what needs to be done, God will raise up someone else and we will begin to die!!! I cannot do this alone. The two or three that have been faithful in coming to visitation on Monday night cannot do it all by themselves. We need you to do what you have been saved to do!!! Study up, Pray up, and Show up. I will train you to go, but I cannot make you go. I will encourage you to go, but I cannot go for you. And I will see that you are equipped to go, but I cannot carry your load of the work to be done!!!
Pastor Paul
Last Updated: 10/31/2008
