This has been an important week for this project. I have received the go ahead from the church session to take on these projects. I am now more anxious than ever to get started on the church website and Facebook page. But, with hands poised over the keyboard to get started, I am challenged by the thought “that my focus has been on the wrong goal.” Reluctantly I have to admit that I am guilty of trying to fill the pews instead of working towards heart filled with the Holy Spirit. In Wilkins’ 'Reach: A Team Approach to Evangelism' Scott explains that “this attitude reveals a harvest mentality without any thought of proper cultivation”. With this understanding we need to think of evangelism not as a onetime project, but rather as a continuous process.

In Matthew 28 Jesus instructs us to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” The Frieberg Lexicon translates maqhteusateas to “make a disciple of someone, instruct, cause someone to become a follower”. Thayer’s Greek Lexicon points maqhteusate“to make a disciple; to teach, instruct”.

There was nothing about “build a fine church building and entice the people to gather there by designing fancy web pages”. This remembered mandate redefines my focus, to first the taking of the Good News to the people. And second, to offer further instruction leading those who are searching to the revelation that God is good and that grace is offered through the blood of God the Son.

The result of realizing Christ’s grace is a desire to worship, praise and glorify God. It would be at this time in the journey of the new believer that our congregation may be of interest to them.