outreach

22
Sep
2025

Summer evangelism series (conclusion)

Seeing that today is the autumnal equinox (when astronomers start calling it fall), I suppose I’m late on wrapping up the evangeism series I started this summer. But, since school is in session, a lesson on outreach is a good thing to post now too.

Jesus’ own method for evangelism

by David Sellnow

Jesus himself provided a model for how to share spiritual thoughts and gospel hope with others. It was when he met a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well in Sychar.  [See the Bible record of this in John 4:3-26.]

There are several things to notice about what Jesus did in witnessing to that woman.

He did not let barriers get in his way (John 4:4-8).

The people of Judea and Galilee despised the people in the territory of Samaria that lay between them. They would travel miles out of their way to go the long way around and not travel through Samaria. Jesus didn’t do that. He went straight through Samaria, traveling in a direct line, willing to meet anyone where they might be in life.

We can do the same—we can step outside our usual comfort zones, break the ice with neighbors and acquaintances, even be a little intrusive (but in a nice way)—like Jesus asking the woman if she would draw a drink from the well also for him. (That was huge, because of the cultural tensions between Jews and Samaritans, and even common rules for interactions between men and women in those days.)

Don’t be afraid to speak of spiritual things (John 4:9-14).

Jesus and that woman spent some time talking about the cultural taboos he was breaking. She asked him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” Jesus answered in a way that moved toward water as a picture of something bigger, eventually saying he could offer living water that leads to eternal life. Honestly, it may have been a segue that confused her, but it piqued her interest.

Our own conversations with others may end up somewhat awkward sometimes too, and that’s okay. If it’s clear our intentions are heartfelt and meaningful, we’ll build better bridges with people than if we have some tightly scripted formula we follow and try to make them listen to our speeches. It’s better to have conversations, to listen and respond.

Be bold enough to speak of sin and struggles (John 4:15-18).

Jesus took the conversation in a direction that got at the reason why this woman had come to the well at a time when no one else was there. She was an outcast in town because her marital/relationship situation was, shall we say, complicated. Jesus had more than powers of perception, of course. As God come down from heaven, he knew the woman’s life situation before she had said anything about it.

We don’t have divine powers to know in advance what people are dealing with or struggling through. But we can be perceptive. We can ask people how they’re doing. We can be open and non-judgmental. We can be  good listeners. We can take time for people to trust us, so that we can talk together about difficult things.

Don’t major on minor issues  (John 4:19-24).

As soon as the woman realized Jesus had some sort of ability to see things, that he was some sort of prophet, she started debating religious differences. She said, “Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain [in Samaria], but you [Jews] say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus didn’t dwell on that peripheral topic. He emphasized that worship goes beyond places and spaces, saying the time had come when “true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth,” for “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 

We needn’t feel ready to delve into any and every topic of religious practices with people. We want to focus on the more basic message—knowing Jesus, and worshiping God in spirit and truth.

Ultimately, point to Jesus (John 4:25-26).

The woman was spiritually-minded enough to say then to Jesus, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.”  Jesus responded point blank by telling her, “I am he—the one who is speaking to you.” He is the one who teaches us the things we need, the one who provides answers to our  hearts’ yearnings.

Our message with others is just as straightforward. Point to Jesus. He is the Messiah. He is the one who teaches us all we need to have life in our souls, the one who gave himself up to save our bodies and souls.

Prayer: 

  • Jesus, you are our life and strength and hope. Embolden us by your Spirit. Give us the courage and compassion to speak in your name and share your good news with others—naturally, freely, as part of our daily lives. Amen.

See previous posts in this series:

Posted by David Sellnow, 0 comments
02
Aug
2025

Summer evangelism series (continued)

Earlier this summer, I shared some thoughts on “Sharing our Light with the World.” I’ll offer some additional thoughts here on the topic of evangelism.

What does it mean to be a witness for faith?

On Palm Sunday afternoon, I almost ran over a church lady (a kingdom hall lady, from the Jehovah’s Witnesses). My wife and I got in our car, opened the garage door with the remote, were about to back out of the garage, and suddenly there she was, standing immediately behind us in the driveway. I stopped, got out, and talked to her. She was ever so urgent about inviting us to the Memorial of Jesus’ Death that they were observing that week. I was rather impatient with her, I’ll admit. I advised her that what she had done was not safe. She went on her way to the next house. She was well-meaning in her efforts, but probably not particularly successful.

On Memorial Day weekend, I traveled to Oregon. As our daughter got us from the airport and drove us into Portland, I was struck by some confrontational billboards along the roadways. In big, bold letters, one said, “Real Christians OBEY Jesus’ teachings.” Another, in stark white lettering on a black background, said, “Are you preparing to meet Jesus?” I did not call the number on the billboards for more information. It seemed the main thing they wanted you to know about Jesus is that he’s going to judge you (which is not, in fact, the main thing to know about Jesus).  Portland is the least religiously-affiliated city in the United States.* The traditionalist religious organization putting up those billboards** was not likely to win anyone over that way.

When I was a young man studying for ministry, I was trained by a traditionalist religious organization. We were taught not to spend much time on small talk when doing outreach. We were to get to the big question to ask: “If you were to die tonight, where would you be?” There was a planned outline for talking about where people thought they’d be spending eternity and why. I will say, the template they gave us for such conversations did emphasize Jesus as our Savior (not as someone eager to judge you for your failures). Still, though, it was a formula, a contrived conversation. They wanted us to stick close to the script to gain converts and bring them into the church.

In my early years working in ministry, I soon abandoned that formula and the idea that the goal was to gain converts for our church. More and more, ministry seemed to be about listening to people, understanding their hopes, their hurts, their needs, their questions, and responding with grace and concern in Christ. The Lord does not send us out into the world to build our own fiefdoms; he sends us as ambassadors of his kingdom. I started talking with people in more open-ended ways, not trying to force an outcome. The goal wasn’t about me succeeding in outreach, or about our local congregation gaining more members, or about hurrying people to some moment of conversion. 

When Jesus tells us, “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14) and “let your light shine before others” (Matthew 5:16), that does not mean we are to blind others by confronting them as if we’re shining a high-beam flashlight in their face. Yes, I know Paul was blinded along the Damascus Road by Jesus himself, and Elijah called down fire from heaven over against the prophets of Baal. But in those instances, someone was so vehemently going against the will of God that something drastic had to be done. More generally, in our day-to-day lives with neighbors in our communities, we are not called to be confrontational—to put up billboards or ask someone sitting next to you on an airplane, “If you were to die today, where would you be?” (In my schooldays, that was the scenario used in the evangelism training video: a conversation with a stranger on an airplane. That’s perhaps the worst place and time to ask someone such a question!) 

What we are called to do as gospel witnesses is to glow warmly with the love of Christ, to be a beacon of hope—showing others the way to the safety and confidence that we’ve found in Jesus. 

Our lives as witnesses are like what Jesus told a man he had just healed, who had been possessed by many demons. Ever so grateful for the miracle Jesus had performed in his life, the man wanted nothing more than to follow Jesus and be with Jesus 24/7. But Jesus said to him: “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you” (Luke 8:39). His mission in life was to share with those around him his joy in Jesus, what God has done and can do. This is our mission in life, too.

We may yearn just to sit in Jesus’ presence and bask in his teaching, whereas talking with others about Jesus seems too much of a challenge for us. We’re content sitting in our church pews, listening. We may be uncomfortable sitting across a kitchen table or coffee shop table, talking spiritual realities with others. When I came to a congregation I once served, I learned that the evangelism committee had been meeting regularly, but had not ventured out beyond their meetings. They kept training and training on how to do evangelism, but hesitated to go out and have spiritual conversations. They never felt ready, never felt like they knew enough. I think they were too stuck on that formula or template approach that I had been taught (and they were being taught). The formula seemed simple, but also made them feel they needed a pre-scripted answer for every question or objection that might come up in a conversation.  

Jesus obviously doesn’t think we need to be experts before we speak in his name to others. The man Jesus had cleansed of demons had, up until then, been deeply distressed. “For a long time he had not worn any clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs” (Luke 8:27). Yet immediately after restoring that man to health and wholeness, Jesus told him to talk in his hometown about how much God had done for him. That’s a good model for each of us. Being a witness for the faith is personal and relational. It’s us talking with others about our hurts, our needs, and the help we have in Jesus—and their hurts, their needs, and the help they may find in Jesus. As we approach conversations with others, we can admit that we are broken people, that we’ve had our own demons and problems. We’re not going to be perfect. We’re not going to have some foolproof strategy or guaranteed results. We’re not marketers trying to sell Jesus or the church. We’re just people; we just need to be real and genuine and human and hurting and be WITH one another as we share the love we have found in Jesus. The apostle Paul said, “If those who are nothing think they are something, they deceive themselves” (Galatians 6:2), urging us, in our frailty, in our shared humanity, to “bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:1).

In the midst of his ministry, when Jesus sent 72 of his disciples in pairs to go ahead of him to towns where he was planning to go (Luke 10:1), the instructions he gave them were not complicated. The mission focused on creating relationships. He told his teams, “Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’  And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person …. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; …cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you’” (Luke 10:1-9). I suppose when we read something like that, we get hung up on the idea of “curing the sick.” We think, “Doing outreach must have been easy if Jesus gave them the ability to do miracles to cure the sick!”  But did that actually make things easier? Was Jesus’ own ministry easier because he could exorcise demons and heal diseases? In the region of the Gerasenes, where Jesus had cast a legion of demons out of that one man, the people of the region asked Jesus to leave because they were afraid of him (Luke 8:37). In other places, Jesus was met with suspicion and hostility by religious authorities on account of his teaching and the miracles he did. Ultimately, they crucified him.

We may not have powers to provide miracle cures for people’s illnesses, but we do always have something powerful in Jesus. We have comfort in Jesus’ cross, knowing what he suffered for us, and in his resurrection, securing our hope. We cling to one another and to Christ when we face sicknesses and death and all sorts of troubles. As Dr. Andrew Root of Luther Seminary has said, evangelism is not about some sort of strategy, it is an “embodied way of participating with people where Jesus Christ is present. It is a way God moves concretely in our lives and is a companion during the joys and sorrows in human life”—particularly in times of sorrow.*** Being an evangelist is simply being a person believing in Jesus, anchored in faith, who is willing to be with others in their struggles and search with others in their questions, and call on the Lord together in prayer with others when they desire hope and healing.

* See The Oregonian, March 12, 2025.
** See Forward, May 15, 2023.
*** “Reframing Evangelism: Following Jesus into Sorrow,” Pivot Podcast, 2025.

Scripture quotations, except where otherwise indicated, are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Posted by David Sellnow
29
Jun
2025

Sharing our light with the world

“Do the work of an evangelist” (2 Timothy 4:5).

  • The topic of evangelism is on my mind this summer. (I’m involved with the outreach committee at church.) I rediscovered an article I wrote for publication a number of years ago. I’ll share a version of it here as June’s blog post.

Sharing our light with the world

I sat among the spectators at a high school track and field invitational. Behind me sat students from a Christian high school, intermingled and interacting with peers from public schools. These teens were abuzz with conversation—but not about the jumps or hurdles or races taking place. They talked about body parts and bodily functions. They made coarse jokes. They engaged in crude flirtation.It seemed the church kids were doing their best to show they weren’t too religious. They were fitting in.

I’m sure those young Christians have had better days as witnesses of their faith. I know I’ve had days when I’ve done much worse. As salt of the earth and light to the world, all of us could be much more flavorful and lots brighter. We don’t need to be oddballs or prudes in relating to those around us. We do want to leave a positive impression.

Jesus commissioned us: “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15). Did he mean that to apply in the bleachers at hometown sports events, in the aisles at the grocery store, on the assembly line in the factory? Respectfully, we don’t force faith conversations in public places. At the same time, we don’t want our faith to be hidden from view in our day-to-day lives. People don’t “light a lamp and put it under a basket.” Jesus said, “Let your light shine” (Matthew 5:15,16). Often we think of evangelism and outreach as activities of the church, done with planned and programmed methods. But God urges us to see gospel-proclaiming as an everyday believer’s way of life. 

Peter counseled people of faith: “Always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15). Our witnessing is not limited to special, occasional, institutional efforts. Each of us has opportunities to “proclaim the LORD’s salvation from day to day” (Psalm 96:2). 

I once was secretary for a floor committee of a national church convention. Our committee recommended a resolution encouraging faith sharing by members of local congregations. We proposed it as a simple idea: If we are not mission-minded in our own neighborhoods and towns, we are not likely to be zealous about missions on the other side of the world either. 

The resolution was passed. Coming out of the convention, the national church organization then began promoting a “North American Outreach” publicity campaign. (Not exactly what the original committee had in mind.) There were press releases and video vignettes and magazine articles.There were district conventions that followed up on the theme. At the district convention I attended, 449 pages of print were put into our hands. There was a book of reports, and there were reports on the reports.. 

As churches and church organizations, we have convocations and publications and programs to emphasize outreach, but how much do we genuinely engage in outreach? Personally, individually, are we having spiritual conversations, talking about matters of faith? We don’t want merely to be “playing church,” discussing amongst ourselves the importance of preaching the gospel. We want to be speaking good news in Christ to one another and to the persons around us. 

In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis imagined a demon’s glee at getting a Christian focused on church fervor rather than spiritual substance: “Provided that meetings, pamphlets, policies, movements, causes, and crusades matter more to him than prayers and sacraments and charity, he is ours—and the more ‘religious’ (on those terms), the more securely ours.” 

It is a far-reaching undertaking that Jesus has assigned to us, to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). It cannot happen if we are selfish. Are we sometimes selfish with the gospel? Do we seek to insulate ourselves from the world more than prepare to bring testimony to the world? If you counted up all the dollars and hours we expend as congregations and area associations and as a church bodies, it would be interesting to see how much of our attention is given to edifying ourselves and how much is truly devoted to reaching and serving our neighbors and our communities.

Please don’t misunderstand—we are to be faithful in proclaiming God’s name in the assembly of believers and to teach our children the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord. I am not suggesting that we do less inreach to our own members. But if we spend 90 percent or more of our time and efforts on those who are in the church, are we giving a proper balance of our attention to the many others who have “no hope and are without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12)? 

Sometimes the lost come looking. Some persons wander into your sanctuary on Sunday morning seeking… something… exactly what they have no way of knowing. How do we react when there are guests in our midst? Is the world welcome within our walls? If we are ready to go with good news to all, we will be ready also to receive all who arrive on our doorstep. We will realize that we are united by Christ, not by common ethnicity or customs. We will be willing to incorporate and accept all creation into our congregations. We won’t cluster in a corner exchanging German potato salad recipes when newcomers might have entirely different interests and tastes. 

In our lives as Christ’s witnesses, everything we say and do sends a message to those around us about what Christ means in our lives. That is true on the sidelines at a track meet, in the gathering spaces within church buildings, and anywhere that we interact with others in our daily lives.

Scripture references are from the World English Bible Update (WEBU)

Posted by David Sellnow
07
Aug
2023

Earthly needs, heavenly priorities

While we live amid everyday concerns, we yearn for eternity.  While we live in this world, we yearn for a better world to come. Having a focus on spiritual realities will guide how we live our lives and use our resources in the present, material world.

Earthly Needs, Heavenly Priorities

by David Sellnow

Sometimes comedians are the best truth-tellers.  They can look us in the eye and tell it like it is, because they make us laugh at ourselves and our fallibilities. In the 1980s, which scholars called “The Decade of Greed” or “The Decade of Excess,” sharp-tongued comedian George Carlin said it best. He got at all of us, not just the Wall Street traders and business tycoons. Carlin’s stand-up bit was called “A Place for My Stuff.” He said, “That’s the whole meaning of life, isn’t it? Trying to find a place for your stuff. That’s all your house is. Your house is just a place for your stuff. If you didn’t have so much stuff, you wouldn’t need a house. You could just walk around all the time! Your house is just a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get more stuff. And sometimes you gotta get a bigger house. Why? Too much stuff! Now you gotta move all your stuff, and maybe put some of your stuff in storage. Imagine that: there’s a whole industry based on keeping an eye on your extra stuff.”

It’s not the 1980s anymore, but Carlin’s diagnosis still rings true. We earthbound persons struggle to live spiritual lives because we have too much affinity for the earthly things –for lands and lawns, for houses and vehicles, for stuff and stuff and more stuff. We easily get attached to our stuff, and our lives tend to revolve around our stuff. That can get in the way of deeper things, of spiritual meaning, of soulful relationships with one another and with God.

Life in this world is a constant tension between that which is healthy and enriching for us as spiritual persons and that which appeals to our material needs and wants. Jesus described the field of this world as a mixture of weeds and wheat growing together, side by side (Matthew 13:38).  He also described how God’s life-giving word is spread across the world everywhere, but for many, it’s like seed sown among thorns. “The cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing” (Matthew 13:22). In each of our hearts there’s always a struggle between weeds and wheat, between invasive concerns of this life and productive fruit of a godly life. We are caught up in the daily struggles of a created world that has been “subjected to futility” and is “in bondage to decay” (Romans 8:20,21), while at the same time we are inspired by hopes that we have inwardly, longing for the redemption of our bodies in the resurrection, looking for eternal realities that we don’t yet see in the visible realm (cf. Romans 8:23-25).

It’s not that earthly things are bad. It’s a matter of keeping our perspectives in order. We can get so concerned about dollars and diamonds and dividends–things that seem to make this life secure–that we forget how insecure eternity can be if we don’t have God in our hearts. Having a piece of what seem rock-solid earthly investments won’t mean much when the earth gives way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea (Psalm 46:2). God has declared, “I am the first and I am the last… There is no other rock” (Isaiah 44:6,8). Even if a person could gain the whole world, what good is it if it costs him his very self, his life, his soul (Luke 9:25)? No earthly gain of any kind can ever compensate a person for the loss of life and soul, for the lack of a relationship with our Creator, our Lord.

The good Lord does know that we have daily needs. He is concerned about the well-being of our bodies as well as our souls. For example, consider a time when Jesus was personally in mourning, after he’d heard the news of how John the Baptist was murdered. Jesus went to a deserted place by himself to be alone, but the crowds of people did not leave him alone (Matthew 14:12-13). They followed on foot by the thousands, looking to him as their helper. Though he himself was in the midst of anguish caused by this world, Jesus could not look away from the troubles of the people who came to him. “He had compassion for them and cured their sick” (Matthew 14:14). Then, because they were in a deserted place and almost no one had brought food along, Jesus did a miracle to feed them all a meal. He multiplied five loaves of bread and two fish into enough food to feed “five thousand men, besides women and children” (Matthew 14:21)–so much of a miracle that they even had twelve baskets full of leftovers after everyone had eaten (Matthew 14:20).

There was a sad aftermath to that event, however. The crowds that experienced that miracle wanted to take Jesus by force to make him their king. They wanted a political icon, an economic savior here on this earth. Jesus had to pull away from them and go elsewhere. When the crowds chased him down and found him again the next day, Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you” (John 6:26,27). The people who clamored after Jesus needed him not just as their bread king, to make their bellies full and their lives comfortable. They needed him as their main source of sustenance, the true Bread of Life. Even if you get manna from heaven as a gift from God, that daily bread isn’t enough to sustain you. Jesus told those crowds, ”Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven” (John 6:49-51).  When Jesus said that, that claim was too much for most people. At that point, many of them turned away and stopped following Jesus, stopped listening to him (John 6:66). They wanted earthly ease and comfort from him. They weren’t in the mood for challenging spiritual realities.

It can be a delicate balance in our lives and in our ministries to maintain–between giving attention to day-to-day concerns and staying focused on our eternal calling.  We pray to the Lord for daily bread, that God would lead us to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving. At the same time, we pray, “Thy kingdom come,” asking God to give us his Holy Spirit, so that by his grace we believe his Word and lead godly lives (cf. Luther’s Small Catechism). Daily bread (meeting our bodily, earthly needs) is essential, but the higher calling of Christ’s kingdom puts all our daily affairs into perspective. His spiritual truths give depth and meaning to the day-to-day aspects of our lives.

People who are called to follow the Lord too easily get sidetracked from spiritual priorities. We can forget what’s important, can become self-important and self-indulgent. It’s hard to stay growing in healthy directions. It’s easy to become entangled, overgrown, unproductive. Weeds are always trying to creep into our own hearts. All churches in this world also will be both weeds and wheat, intermingled. Don’t be too eager to root out what you think is an unwanted plant or unwanted growth. Sometimes it’s hard to tell. Even people who seem the most godly may have deep struggles of soul, and some who appear roughest around the edges may, in their hearts, be the closest to God. Don’t be too eager to push aside those you think have rejected the gospel or are unwilling to listen.  After Saul, the self-righteous Pharisee, was turned around to see God more fully, more truly, he did not turn his back on the people from whom he had come. As the apostle Paul, he deeply desired to bring others of his own people, steeped in the heritage of Judaism and the Hebrew scriptures, to see the life and beauty that is in Jesus, to know Jesus as the Messiah the scriptures had prophesied (cf. Romans 9:1-5). Paul toiled and struggled, with all the energy that God inspired in him, to reach out to both Jews and Gentiles, to both slaves and rulers, to everyone and anyone, to make the word of God fully known and reveal the mystery of Christ given for us and living in us (cf. Colossians 1:25-29). 

When we get caught up in the concerns of this world, we can forget that our mission is to everyone and anyone. In our personal lives, we can become more concerned about maintaining our own earthly comforts and neglect the others’ needs. In our church lives, we can become more concerned about preserving our own institutions and traditions than about the spiritual needs of others. We can unthinkingly place ourselves in a position of importance and crowd others out, making them feel unwelcome. Maybe we say all are welcome, but then if they come to us, we try to force them to be like us, think, like us, act like us. We fail to appreciate that God calls all kinds of people, with all kinds of perspectives, into the wide boundaries of his kingdom.

We also can make a mistake if we become so otherworldly that we ignore the everyday needs of those whom we would seek to serve in Christ. Remember that even though Jesus was drawing people to higher, spiritual priorities–and even though many of those following him seemed to want only mundane, earthly blessings from him–he still did not ignore their basic human needs. He healed the sick. He fed the hungry. He lent a hand to those who needed help to stand up, even while he was lifting souls up higher still to a heavenly hope and calling.

I’ve known some church organizations that were inconsistent in their approach to such things. Their stateside congregations very much avoided providing assistance programs to people in their communities. They said (with disapproval) that was “social gospel,” trying to fix and improve our present earthly society. They said the church’s concern should be with eternal things only. As a result, the communities in which these churches operated saw them as aloof, unresponsive, uncaring. Their ministries were stifled by their unwillingness to do what Jesus did, attending to the blind, the lame, the deaf, the sick, the poor (cf. Matthew 11:2-6), and caring “for orphans and widows in their distress” (James 1:27). They cared for their own, within their own congregations’ membership, but did not do so in wider outreach toward others outside, in their communities.

Yet, in foreign fields of work in developing nations, they attended to both the physical and spiritual needs of the people in the villages. They built wells for clean water. They established medical missions to provide healthcare. These things were in addition to and in conjunction with the churches they established and worship they held. That was the better model. When Christians and churches do such things because they truly are concerned about people’s whole lives, this is a sign of love moved by the gospel. Like Jesus’ miracles of love, these things will help people see what the gospel is and does within our hearts.

On the other hand, I’ve also sometimes seen congregations and church organizations offering things to the community just to hook people’s attention, while their real goal is building up their own church numbers. I’ve been at church meetings where it seemed the motivation for outreach was a desire to get more members in the building so they could balance their budget, pay the bills, keep their organization afloat. The same thing that can be said of us as individuals can be said of us as churches: Whoever wants to save their life–to preserve what they have in this world–will lose it, (Luke 9:24). If we are reaching out to others only for the sake of preserving our own institutions, we are losing our soul as a church. We dare not expect the blessing of God on such efforts. When we are willing to lose our lives for Christ and for the sake of the gospel, then we find blessing.

May God give to each of us and preserve in all of us a proper focus for our lives and for ministry. As Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6). Our primary hunger, our greatest need, is the hunger of the soul to have a satisfying relationship with the creator, to have the righteousness that comes from God. At the same time, we won’t neglect the needs of those who are hungry, those who are hurting, those who are homeless, those who are friendless. We will befriend our neighbors and community members in everyday ways, in unassuming ways, with ordinary blessings–genuinely aiming to help others, not promote ourselves. 

Hopefully we can become a little less attached to all our stuff and stuff and more stuff. Our lives do not consist of the abundance of our possessions (Luke 12:15).  We don’t live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4).  So, let’s do what we can to share our bread, share our stuff … and share the words of Jesus and the love of Jesus and the spirit of Jesus with everyone we can. God help us to maintain both heavenly priorities of faith and earthly priorities toward our neighbors, in Jesus’ name.  

Scripture quotations, except where otherwise indicated, are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Posted by David Sellnow
16
May
2022

Love for all, good news for all

A message for the 5th Sunday of Easter

“Love for All, Good News for All”

Readings to consider:  Acts 11:1-18, John 13:31-35


All along, God had made his mission clear. While God had chosen the nation of Israel to carry his promise until the promised Messiah came, his promise always was for everyone.  All people were to be told his good news and welcomed into God’s family through faith, hope, and love.  God described, through the prophet Isaiah, that it was too small a thing for the Messiah to be just for tribes of Jacob, the people of Israel. Rather, the Savior would be given as “a light to the nations,” for God’s salvation to “reach to the end of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6).  God’s people in Christ never have been defined on the basis of the blood running through their veins, but rather on faith in the promises of Christ that lives in their hearts. 

The earliest group of New Testament believers—the church that had gathered around Jesus’ message in Judea and Galilee—was a Jewish church.  As they shared the message of Jesus–how he had fulfilled all the long-awaited promises—their natural tendency was to share the message with other Jews, people like themselves. But the Lord showed Peter, one of the key leaders of the early church, that they needed to expand their vision.  

Peter’s vision by Domenico Fetti (1619)

God gave Peter a profound experience in a vision, then brought Peter to the household of Cornelius, a Roman centurion, to see faith in action there. Peter said to Cornelius and those with him, “I truly understand that God shows no partiality,  but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. … All the prophets testify about [Christ] that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” (Acts 10:34,35.43). Peter witnessed a strong outpouring of God’s Spirit on the members of that Gentile household. They were people so different from Peter and his colleagues culturally, but they were united by faith as one in the name of Jesus.

If those early Jewish Christians, so deeply rooted in their unique customs and traditions, could begin reaching outside of their cultural community to people very much unlike themselves … what does that say to churches like ours today? We are people who have had the gospel for a long time, who have been blessed richly in our faith community.  But have we been a bit slow, a bit reluctant, a bit hesitant, about speaking of salvation outside of our comfort zone, outside of the rather narrow circles in which our paths usually run?  

Think about the vision God gave Peter–a vision of all kinds of animals for food that would be unthinkable for a Jewish person observing a kosher diet. The vision was about much more than cultural diet laws, though. Peter came to understand God’s essential point–“What God has made clean, you must not call profane” (Acts 11:9)–meant that we should not call any person profane or unclean (cf. Acts 10:28).  Do we tend to think of some persons as unclean, unsuitable, unwelcome alongside us in God’s family?  Do we look at people whose ways are different from ours, or whose background is different from ours, or whose lifestyle is different from ours, and completely overlook them as souls with whom to share God’s love and hope and truth?

God wants us to reach out more boldly, more widely with his good news—not just to people like ourselves, but also to people dramatically different from us.  Otherwise we are putting limits on the love of Jesus. When Jesus said, “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (John 13:34), he wasn’t telling us to love only those already inside our fellowship within the church. Jesus’ call to “have love for one another” (John 13:35) encompasses every other person around us, every fellow human being. Jesus emphasized, as one of the greatest commandments: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). And do you recall how a religious lawyer tried to wriggle away from that responsibility by saying, “And who is my neighbor” (Luke 10:29)?  Jesus responded with the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-35), referring to a people group that Jewish lawyer detested and would have gone out of his way to avoid.  Jesus made quite clear that someone who shows mercy to his fellow human beings–every fellow human being–is the one fulfilling the law of love as a true “neighbor” (cf. Luke 10:37, Romans 13:8-10).

Allow me to share a couple of examples that illustrate how we can be too inclined to limit ourselves and our outreach with the gospel.

A number of years ago, I did a ministry internship in one of America’s largest cities.  The congregations of the metro area were planning expansion, looking at locations for planting additional churches.  I was assigned to do demographic research, to find out which portions of the urban sprawl were projected for population expansion.  This would give cues about where future church work might be warranted.  I didn’t really know the city yet; to me, the research was simply a matter of maps and statistics.  The area I suggested deserved immediate attention, because of swelling numbers of residents, turned out to be a section of slums.  Others on the planning committee looked at me incredulously.  “Put a church where?”  Their pattern had been to put churches in the suburbs, in affluent neighborhoods, so that the ministry efforts could be paid for by offerings from the people who came. The mission planners asked, “How could we afford to start a ministry where the people had no money to support it?” That seemed to go against the spirit of what sharing God’s grace and goodness is meant to look like.* Yes, as we bring others to the gospel, we will urge them to become supporters of gospel ministry themselves. But when the apostle Paul was doing outreach and starting new churches, he made a point not to accept money from people. As he put it, he and his missionary colleagues did not want to put any “an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ” (1 Corinthians 9:12).  A policy of doing outreach only where it seemed the efforts could be financially self-supporting was a form of structural discrimination, neglecting poorer populations who needed gospel love as much as anyone. Such a policy risks Jesus saying to us, “Just as you did not help the least of these who are members of my family, you did not help me” (cf. Matthew 25:40,45). Rather than viewing prospective audiences for the gospel from a worldly point of view, we are called to be “ambassadors for Christ” (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:16-20), reaching out to all persons, without making distinctions. 

Or another story.**  A church had just had summertime Vacation Bible School (VBS).  One young mother had brought her two boys to VBS.  She also babysat another boy who lived in the same apartment complex.  She had asked that boy’s mother if she could bring him to the VBS too, and so she did.

That little boy, who was 5 years old, enjoyed VBS so much that he went home and told his mother, “I want to go to school there all the time!”  [The church had a Lutheran elementary school, starting with kindergarten.]  So the boy’s mother asked about enrolling him for the fall.

The boy’s mother—we’ll call her Sally—was a working mom.  Her profession was the oldest one around, as they say.  She had made her living as a prostitute; had made enough, in fact, to buy the business from … well, we’ll call him the ‘previous owner.’   So now Sally was the proprietor or “madam” for a number of “working girls.”

The church had a policy that any parents who wished to enroll children in its school needed to enroll themselves in a Bible study course.  Sally agreed with that; she said she’d be glad to take the Bible course if they could work it around her schedule.  So, at the next meeting of the congregation’s board of education, the pastor and the ministry intern brought forward the recommendation for Sally’s son to be enrolled in the school … and told them what the woman did for a living.

The school board members panicked.  They erupted with questions:

  • “Pastor, do you really want us to enroll this child in our school?”
  • “Are you sure the mother actually will take the Bible classes?” 
  • “What effect will this child’s presence in our school have on the other children?”
  • “Won’t this cause worries for other parents?”
  • “How can we expect support at home with Bible homework or principles of Christian living when the mother’s life is so at odds with our church’s moral principles?”

The members of that church’s school board were faithful, believing Christians.  But their gut reaction was not from an attitude of new life in Christ.  The pastor reminded them of how Jesus’ own ministry reached out to prostitutes and other public sinners. Still, though, they struggled to get past their aversions.  Each of us typically has the same aversions.   Our thought process is something like, “Well, yes, I know prostitutes and drug addicts and alcoholics and ex-convicts all need to hear the gospel … but do they have to do it in our church?”

Eventually, the Christian love in the hearts of the members of that church committee rose to the occasion.  They talked about the spiritual welfare of the child and how it was unthinkable to turn him away from the gospel he so loved when he heard it at VBS.  They talked about a mother who, in spite of her personal history, was willing to listen to Bible teaching—and about trusting the dynamic power of the gospel’s teaching.  So Sally’s son was enrolled in school, and Sally was enrolled in a Bible information class.  Long story short, not only was Sally’s son nurtured in the good news of Jesus, but also Sally herself was brought to faith and made changes in her life. 

May our attitude as Christians be inspired by the goodness the Lord has shown to us. May we be big-hearted and open-armed and opportunistic when it comes to declaring the praises of him who has called us “out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).  May we not be content declaring God’s name only to persons with whom we feel a sort of safeness, people who look like us or act like us or come from the same sort of background as us.  May we be bold to extend our hands and express our beliefs also to those very different from ourselves—whether that means different racial or ethnic backgrounds, or different religious backgrounds, or different moral backgrounds.  Because, in the end, as human beings, we all came from the same background of needing God in our lives. We ought not think of ourselves as somehow better than others, somehow more deserving than others, somehow more inherently righteous than others. We all do well to say, in a paraphrase of St. Paul, “There, but for the grace of God, go I” (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:9-10). Or, to quote Paul directly from one of his epistles, “There is no distinction [between us], since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God [and] are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:22-24).

That is the message we seek to share, across every human barrier that exists. God’s love is for all. Christ’s good news is for all. We will share that love and good news with all. May God give us eagerness and energy to extend his grace and support the spread of his Word to everyone everywhere. 

Prayer:  “Lord speak to us, that we may speak in living echoes of your tone. As you have sought, so let us seek your straying children, lost and lone” (Evangelical Lutheran Worship 676:1).  Amen.

*This story was previously published in Faith Lives in Our Actions by David Sellnow, available on Amazon.com.

**A version of this story, expanded from the actual events, was included in the book, The Lord Cares for Me, by David Sellnow, available on Amazon.com.

Scripture quotations, except where otherwise indicated, are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Posted by David Sellnow