Hello Reader! Two weeks ago, I boarded my plane and set out to the mission field! I met my team in Germany, where we are staying for two weeks before we head to our main country. The first few days I was here, my team hosted a Christian arts conference. The goal of the conference was to encourage and train Christian artists in Europe to use their art for evangelism. The conference included art workshops and several different speakers.
I wanted to share just a few thoughts from the speakers that really struck me. One of the speakers was a lady named Sandra. She talked about Matthew 5:13-16: 13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that[a] they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (ESV).
Today, salt is used to bring out the flavor of something, to make it taste better. As Christians, Jesus has called us to be the salt of the earth. We are not meant to keep our beliefs to our self, but we are meant to be the flavor of this earth, to be different from those around us. Salt left on the table is of no use. Salt is meant to be applied. The church needs to be “applied” to the earth, yet too often as Christians we stay in our Christian bubble and do not go out into the world. Another speaker pointed out that very few nonbelievers will ever want to step into a church building…we must find a way to take the Gospel to them!
But what do you do with salt if it stops working? You throw it away. What use is a light under a lamp stand? You might as well turn it off. God has designed us to share our faith. He commanded us to be the salt and light of the earth. How can you GO OUT into your community and be the salt and light today?
The second speaker was a man named Eno. He talked a lot about the multiplication principle illustrated by the picture below.
The basic principle is that if you lead one person to the Lord every year, truly discipling them and training them to also make disciples, and they then go and make one disciple every year, etc. then that in the long run is more effective than one missionary running around trying to lead one person to Christ a day. We ALL should go into the mission of making disciples, not just missionaries on the field. Another speaker made a similar statement. He said if every Christian invested their lives in 3 people, we would have revival.
Eno made another point that was encouraging to me. He showed the following picture of his son:
His son, only a few steps ahead of his friend, was reaching back to help him. We often think that to share the Gospel or disciple someone, we have to be WAY ahead of them or to have reached the finish line. But it is often easier to accept help, to learn from, a person who is only a few steps ahead of you. Don’t wait until you have reached the finish line to turn back to help. This was encouraging to me because I have struggled with feeling unworthy and ill-qualified to be a missionary because I am far from “perfect” or mature. But if I wait until I am “perfect”, I will be waiting forever. If I wait until I am more mature, I will miss so many opportunities God has for me.
The overall message of the conference for me was Evangelism + Discipleship. We need people who are bold enough to go the streets, to their workplaces, to their communities, and just BOLDLY share the Gospel with people. If the Gospel is never proclaimed, than people will never hear and believe. We ALSO need people who are willing to disciple new believers so they in turn can become evangelists and disciple others.
Later in the week someone on my team made the comment that there is a difference between a church member and a disciple, a difference between someone who simply goes to church every Sunday and someone who actively seeks to share their faith and disciple others as Jesus did… so my challenge, dear reader, is this….are you a disciple or a church member?
Today, a member of the team was describing a picture that God had given him. It was a beach, with many groups of people sitting and chatting under umbrellas, having a wonderful time. Out on the ocean there were many shipwrecks, and desperate people beginning to drown. The people under the umbrellas were completely ignoring what was happening on the ocean. There were a few people in life boats helping the drowning people, and a few people on the beach trying to call others to action, but many of the people ignored the call and continued to sit, chatting with others, content in their comfort zone. God told him that the people under the umbrellas was the church, and the people in lifeboats were the few Christians brave enough to share the Gospel and step out of their comfort zones. Right after he described this, another member of our team showed a picture they had found that portrayed that exact scenario! Here is the picture, also included at the top of this blog:
The writing (in Ukrainian) says, “Where are you in this picture?”. So again, dear reader, are you a disciple or a church member? Are you willing to leave your comfort zone to rescue the drowning people in your community and the world, or will you remain deaf to the call of God and continue to sit in your church pew doing nothing? Are YOU willing to evangelize and disciple others to ture faith in Christ?