Looking to ‘Share’

We teach our children that sharing is good, don’t we, but when it comes to sharing our faith we tend to feel embarrassed or want to hide! Yet as Christians we are God’s witnesses (Acts 1: 8). This does not mean that we should ‘Bible bash’ or pester people every hour of the day, but we do feel we should be pro-active in praying for people and looking for opportunities to share our faith. After all, nothing matters more than people responding to God’s love…

“Jesus is a person. Evangelism is bringing someone face to face with this person” (Michael Green)

There are a variety of ways we seek to share God’s love here as a Church – through opening the Church up for coffee, hosting teas for senior citizens, being in the Town Carnival, running the summer event called IMPACT with BBQ’s and a Family Fun Day, hosting supper nights, and putting on ‘Alpha’ courses where people can explore the Christian faith in an informal way. Good News should be shared.

The most powerful way to understand this area of Church life is to personalise it because this area, as in all five areas, can also be stated as a goal for every Christian. These goals express what God wants each of us to do with our lives. Try to personalise this goal below for yourself, then offer this prayerfully to God.

God wants me to be a MESSENGER of his love.
This is the Church’s purpose of evangelism or, as we often say, of outreach. Once we become a Christian, we become messengers of the Good News to others in the Community. It’s part of the job description for every believer. 2 Corinthians 5:19-20 says, "For God was in Christ, restoring the world to himself, no longer counting men's sins against them but blotting them out. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others. We are Christ's ambassadors. God is using us to speak to you: we beg you, as though Christ himself were here pleading with you, receive the love he offers you – be reconciled to God.” (LB)

We each have a mission on Earth and part of it includes sharing with others what we have in Jesus – both in word and in deed. Paul said, "Life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus – the work of telling others the Good News about God's mighty kindness and love." (Acts 20:24 LB)

While fulfilling these five areas of Church life are a responsibility of every Christian, they also provide spiritual, emotional, and relational benefits for us personally. The Church provides people with things they cannot find anywhere else in the world:

Worship  helps me focus on God;

Belonging  helps me face life’s problems;

Serving  helps me find my talents;

Growing  helps me fortify my faith; and

Sharing  helps me fulfill my mission.

No wonder Jesus said he came to give us “life in all its fullness “(John 10: 10)

Listen Again
"How can I share my faith?" from 25th Sept 2005 >>more

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