Today is the third of our days of prayer and fasting - focusing on God's vision for CBC and reflecting on Jesus' words at the end of Matthew's gospel we see that Jesus calls us to go and make disciples.
In Matthew 28 - we see that being a disciple involves making disciples.
Last week we were thinking about being sent out into the world, about existing for the benefit of those who are not a part of the church. Jesus calls us to be people who are characterised by love -people who see a need and who will want to respond, to help - in practical ways.
One of the biggest mistakes we can make in our lives as disciples of Jesus is to separate out the ‘spiritual’ from the ‘practical’ - because this distinction leads us down lots of roads that ultimately prove to be dead-ends. We don’t meet a homeless person’s need for a warm drink in order to earn the right to try and convert them. We love them and therefore meet their need - needs which go deeper than what we can see on the outside.
Human beings are complex - the physical, the spiritual, the mental, the emotional…it’s all tied up together. And our needs are often complex too.
I wonder how often we see a need - let’s keep with the homeless person - and thought “if only I had £100, a £1,000 … if I won the lottery and had £1,000,000 - just think how much I could do”. But what do we have?
We can introduce people to Jesus. Surely one of the things that we believe is that until a person encounters and follows Jesus their ultimate needs are never going to be met. Therefore whatever else we may be able to offer - nothing comes close to a relationship with Jesus.
And that means bringing a person to a place of decision. In terms of the Discipleship Scale it’s about moving from B to C.
And so whatever else we may be doing as a church - where and how are we providing people with that challenge and opportunity to make this step?
