July 27, 2014

 

Dear MLEPC Members and Friends:

 

I recently reviewed a book written by George Barna entitled, The Habits of Highly Effective Churches. Barna lists nine habits which he believes to be most significant to build a strong congregation. Habit #5 reads, "Engage in strategic evangelism." Barna contends that effective churches "realize that they define success in evangelism as intelligently taking advantage of every reasonable opportunity to evangelize that God provides them" (p. 115). Habit #8 reads, "Serve the needy people in the community." Barna comments, "One of the most common responses [among people who do not attend church] was they would seek a church that was committed to helping people outside the church who need care and consideration" (p. 155).

 

As I read Barna's insights, I also picked up the Mission: Possible 7 Wrap-Up letter, written by our MP7 Coordinator, Noelle Conover. She writes: "How did we impact our world? What are the fruits of our mission? We can only begin to count the effect that Mission: Possible 7 had on our lives . . . our families' lives . . . our neighbor's lives . . . and the lives of strangers. This week we:

• Served breakfast and registered over 125 food pantry members at Brookline Presbyterian Church
• Performed beautiful music at senior care facilities, which included presentations of the Good News by Lay Pastor Linda and Pastor Tim
• Sewed over 100 pillowcase dresses for orphan girls in Haiti and Kenya
• Served over 125 cups of coffee and 10 cases of water per day, and received 400 prayer requests from commuters on Washington Road
• Conducted a sing-along and craft project with seniors at The Pines, Hillsdale Senior Center, and Gracious Living for over 100 people
• Rehabbed a house in Dormont and built relationships with the homeowner
• Created over 200 "cups of hope" with Scripture verses to take to the choir performances at the senior centers
• Prayed over hundreds and hundreds of individual prayer requests
• Taught over 100 missionaries (that's you!) each morning in devotions about evangelism
• Taught children each day in a VBS program at a Wilkinsburg Church
• Served over 1,500 meals to volunteers and homeowners
• Captured 800 images of our ministry to our neighbors and our fellowship with one another
• And so much more!

During Mission: Possible 7, we spent a week being a highly effective church in terms of evangelism and service to the community. I believe that we would have done George Barna's book proud, to the glory of God.

 

It's 51 more weeks until Mission: Possible 8. The call God places on our church and individual lives is to learn to be highly effective in Habit #5 and Habit #8 from now until then. Let's keep learning to live as God's agents of strategic evangelism and care for our community as the heartbeat and impulse of our Life Together.

 

Pastor Tim

 

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