MEANINGFUL PERSONAL WITNESSING

Last week at our elders meeting we were reading through a few pages of Elders’ Handbook and one phrase caught my attention “The pain stops here!”  That is the ideal description of what our church should be, a place where pain stops.

What a blessing if our church could honestly place such a sign above the door, visible from the street “The pain stops here.”  People would come swarming to a place that stops their spiritual pain.  One of metaphors for the church is that of a hospital.  People in pain go to a hospital, where their pain is promised to stop.  No matter how expensive hospital is, people keep right on going, to stop their pain.

We were considering with our spiritual leadership team the former and inactive members.  Could it be that instead of categorizing them as quitters, undependable, worldly, we should consider them as people whose pain we failed to stop?  Maybe it’s time for us to take a responsibility.  Maybe, at times, instead of stopping peoples’ pain we inflict more on them.  It has to stop.  What if those who still attend go away with their pain not attended to, or ignored?

Ask yourself honestly today – am I better off when I leave this place, am I better off after attending this spiritual hospital we call church?  Because if you are not, we’ve got to make changes, we’ve got to change ourselves.

Meaningful personal witnessing is about one beggar telling another where to find bread; it is about one healed person telling others where to find healing.  That’s what evangelism and church growth is all about, people discovering liberty, healing and nourishment in the Presence of Loving God, through Christ.  We are the Body of Christ, and authentic Christ in us would offer everyone we come in contact with the healing, nourishment, peace, and liberty.  This is how the Gospel Message was first preached, proclaiming the nearness of the Kingdom of God, where sick were healed, oppressed were set free, sorrowful rejoiced, a place where pain stopped!

This month of April, the month of personal witness, I invite you to make your personal contact with people meaningful, by stopping pain, emotional, spiritual, physical, relational all around you.  People will be attracted to Christ in you, when your presence would emanate God’s presence, stopping pain...