New Starts -- New Believers
By Dan Gilbert
New churches and new Christians have many things in common.
Probably the most significant thing they share is the fact that both of them
are completely formed and brought into existence by God, the Holy Spirit through
his Word and Sacraments - specifically through the Good News that Jesus is the
Savior of the world and the Lord of the nations. God does it all.
And yet he chooses to involve us in the process. God could
simply "zap" people and turn them into believers, but instead he chose to use
us as the delivery persons of his Word. There is a tension here: God does it all, and he chooses to involve us.
But hey, he's God, so he gets to call it as he sees fit. And the way he sees it
is always right.
So, since we are involved in God's mission by his good
choice, what do we do? We do a lot of things, always coming down to the basic
of taking the Good News to people and inviting people to come and hear the Good
News. And because of God's love for us that sent his Son to the cross, we want this
to be a part of everything we do.
We also want to be smart about this - or to use more
biblical language, we want to be good stewards, using the resources God
entrusts to us in the most productive ways. As we look at the Book of Acts, at
Paul's letters, and at the entire history of the church, there is one place
where we consistently find large numbers of new believers, and that's in new mission
starts.
I have the wonderful blessing of getting to work with 233
churches in the northern one-third of Illinois.
Our district leadership team has prayerfully determined to use the resources
entrusted to us by God to work for new mission starts and new believers -
always acknowledging that it is God who does this and he has called us to be
part of his work. A new mission start can be a brand new congregation. But it
can be a lot of other things as well. Here are some examples of new starts that
the Lord is doing through existing congregations in our part of the world.
- Seven congregations are working together to start a brand new church in our south suburban area, and another group has a new congregation on the drawing board in
the west suburbs.
- Three congregations in fairly affluent areas have expressed commitment to partnerwith struggling congregations in the city of Chicago to restart or turn around.
- A congregation in an ethnically changed area has agreed to shut down and let others restart on their property in order to reach the ethnic group of the
neighborhood.
- Six congregations so far this year have surveyed their neighborhood and offered a new worship service at a time and in a style that their neighbors have
indicated they'd like to check out.
- An inner city congregation in a very poor area has quit receiving "district
subsidy" but has also decided not to die. Instead they are seeking God's direction to turn their congregation around. So far, it's working - in spite of what some people said.
- A new suburban worship service in Farsi and Arabic is attracting middle-eastern immigrants who are both Christian and Muslim.
- Over 400 small groups in nearly 100 congregations are inviting people who are not interested in "going to church" to come and hear what God has to say in his Word. So far this year these groups count twenty new believers by the power of the Holy Spirit - and those are just from the groups who have reported.
It is not human beings who start new churches or new
venues, and it is certainly not human beings who convert unbelievers into
believers. But God certainly works through His children to proclaim his saving
message to people and to invite people to hear it. God will save whom he will
save and we have the incredible privilege of being used by him. Because of his
love for us, we always want to respond with "Here am I, Lord; send me!" And
then we get to be part of it as he makes new starts and new believers.
Rev. Dan Gilbert is
the President of the Northern Illinois District for The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod
