January 17, 2007

Purposeful relationships

This is a response from Dale's comment.

I believe purposeful relationships are ministry specific.  This does not have to be evangelism in a broad term.  Let me give an example of what is happening right now.  There are a few of us that have been independently praying about what we are going to do about worship and fellowship; a lot of us have been miffed about different aspects of "corporate" worship and having a hard time finding a fellowship to join.  God brought us together just a few days ago.  We will start having communion at each of our homes starting this Sunday.  I believe our purpose is twofold. The first is to restore our purposeful relationships (yes, I know it seems kind of circular but it is important). Second, we hope this fellowship can be for those who just can't seem to go to church for whatever reason.  Wendy and I already know of two such individuals.

In short, our ministry is building a community for right now, but this can't always be the case or we can just turn into a social gathering.  If you already have community, discuss with each other what your gifts are.  If you want to tutor poor struggling kids, do it. If you have the capacity to feed and clothe the poor, do it. If someone is rejected by society, accept them.  Some conservative churches here have a thing called "Monday night for the Master". Sounds cheesy, but it allows "ordinary" Christians to be involved in some way, sending hand written notes, organizing teams to visit and pray with the sick during the week, preparing food baskets, organizing clothing drives, etc.  All Christians need to experience self-sacrifice and can do this by participating in any humanitarian activity with a Christ-like heart.

I don't know if this expands enough on purposeful relationships, but Jesus left this wide open for us.

Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.'
(Mat 25:34-36 ESV)



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Posted by loudsalt at 1:51 AM | Comments (2)