Neighborhood Ministries

Our mission– Jesus appeared to His disciples in Galilee-Matt. 28: 16-20 After Jesus rose from the dead and showed Himself to His disciples, He gathered His disciples and told them to go and make disciples of all nations. The church should be clear on it’s mission. A disciple is a student who is training to follow his master. We are to seek the lost and lead them to the Lord. Once they receive Christ, we are to baptize them, symbolically illustrating their death and resurrection in Christ. Then we are to teach them to do all that Christ has commanded us. That involves active training, not the passive attendance which is common in many churches today. Every church board should open every meeting with the questions “What can we do to win souls?” and “What can we do to train our members to be better disciples?” Now is a good time to finalize plans for a summer campaign to reach those who do not know Christ.

(B)  Sunday before Pentecost- Dedicating Our Talents-The seventh Sunday of Eastertide is Ascension Sunday when we celebrate Christ’s return to heaven. When Christ finished giving His disciples their assignment, He ascended into heaven, leaving them to carry on the work until He returns (Acts1:7-11). In the parable of the talents (Math. 25:14-30) Jesus makes it clear that He was leaving His disciples and entrusting them to carry on His work. He indicates that He has given everyone talents to help build His kingdom. Some have many talents, some have very few. He indicated that one day He is coming back and those who are in Christ will stand before Him to give an account of how we used the talents He gave us. How we use those talents will determine our eventual reward. If we use those talents abundantly, He will reward us abundantly but if we squander them, we will receive little or no reward when He returns.  Eastertide should have been a time when members sought their talents and the church sought ways to use those talents. If so, Ascension Sunday should be a time when they commit themselves to the summer evangelistic work so that Pentecost can be a fruitful time of winning souls.

He is Alive Jesus appears on road to Emmaus-Luke 24:13-35 When Jesus met two of His disciples on the road to Emmaus, they were discouraged because Jesus had been crucified. They had seen all their hopes and dreams of Jesus being the Messiah destroyed when they saw Jesus die on the cross. As Jesus walked with them, He opened up the Scriptures and revealed God’s purpose for His death and resurrection, but they did not recognize Him. As He sat down to eat with them, He broke bread and instantly they recognized Him. In the same way, we recognize the Lord and are drawn together as we celebrate communion. We see the world closing in on us and feel powerless like the disciples did when they saw Christ crucified. We often look at the task before us and feel it is too big for us. However, we can draw hope from the fact that Christ is alive. He conquered death when He died on the Cross for our sins and arose again. There is no greater foe than death and if Jesus defeated death, there is nothing we can’t conquer with His help.