Have you noticed? \u201cDoing good\u201d is in style.<\/p>\n
It may be called \u201cpaying it forward\u201d or community service. Clubs do it to help their community. Universities or businesses may encourage students or employees to do it. Fundraisers, marathons and events support worthy causes. Corporations often donate chunks of cash to charities. Volunteering may even enhance college entry or job resumes. People like those who \u201cgive back.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGood deeds\u201d may be trending, but doing good in Jesus\u2019 name is ongoing. For Christians, there\u2019s nothing \u201crandom\u201d about acts of kindness.<\/p>\n
Christians are called to do good with a purpose: to point others to Jesus and ultimately to share Him with those who don\u2019t know Him. The goal of our community project, ministry group or mission trip is not to enhance our own reputation; it\u2019s much bigger and more eternal than that.<\/p>\n
So you give food to the hungry or help neighbors during disaster in Jesus\u2019 name. You intentionally share Jesus with someone at the gym while you lift weights. You help plant a church so more people can know Him. You personally represent Jesus through your community involvement. Instead of observing what a great person you are, people notice what a great God you serve.<\/p>\n
The church is the only organization in the world with a specific charge to be evangelistic in everything we do. \u201c[W]e are Christ\u2019s ambassadors,\u201d Scripture tells us. \u201cGod is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, \u2018Come back to God!\u2019\u201d (2 Corinthians 5:20 NLT).<\/p>\n
Summertime is a great time for your church or small group to get missional with the intention of sharing Jesus. Try some of these fresh ideas:
\n \u2022 Add monthly, quarterly or ongoing mission projects to your small group or Sunday School class. Our class \u201cadopted\u201d a low-income nursing home to send pen pal notes and do occasional hands-on projects.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Add hands-on ministry to your women\u2019s group meetings. We added an hour to the weekday classes and mission groups for ministry teams to serve our community. Attendance mushroomed.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Plan a summer outreach project. For example, Olive Baptist in Pensacola, Florida, has a plan to knock on every door within a few blocks of the church to personally invite neighbors to worship. The Florida Baptist Convention challenged churches to have beach baptisms. Hundreds were baptized publicly, and many onlookers were pointed to Jesus.
\nSo our \u201cpay it forward\u201d becomes \u201cpay it upward\u201d and our \u201crandom acts of kindness\u201d are never random. They\u2019re purposeful. A lost world outside our church doors needs to see and hear God\u2019s plan for their lives. We must continually keep Christ as our goal in missions — for all people to know Him and call Him Lord.
\n \u201cAnd whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father\u201d (Colossians 3:17 NLT).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Have you noticed? \u201cDoing good\u201d is in style. It may be called \u201cpaying it forward\u201d or community service. Clubs do it to help their community. Universities or businesses may encourage students or employees to do it. Fundraisers, marathons and events support worthy causes. Corporations often donate chunks of cash to charities. Volunteering may even enhance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3552,3330,5476],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7590"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7590\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}