Our church and Christianity in our country are facing a crisis. The situation is critical!
The need is urgent! The time to act is now! “As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent [us]. Night is coming when no one can work.” (John 9:4) The importance of this mission of our Lord Jesus Christ requires something from all of us!
Given the decline of Christianity in our country and the broadening culture gap between the church and society, the opportunities for mission fulfillment focus upon the individual as key in mission outreach and strategy. It is in fact, the individual Christians who are best positioned to reach across the cultural gap toward the people in their lives who do not know Jesus as Lord and Savior. If we, as the LCMS are to impact the world for the kingdom of God, a necessary component will be the individual LCMS Christians whose hearts and lives are conditioned for witnessing mightily and boldly about the Lord Jesus Christ, whose hearts are on fire for Christ, and who take a witness of Jesus into the workplaces and marketplaces of our country.
While certainly the Word and Sacrament ministry of local congregations remains central in Christ’s salvation mission, the witness of the individual Christian is crucial in the process. In fact, there is a “Critical Event” that must occur for the LCMS to attack the declining trends in Christianity that have been prominent in our church and country for the past 30 years, as well as for increasing the number of people in the kingdom of God. This “Critical Event” is “When one Lutheran Christian gives witness about Jesus of the hope that is within him or her to another person so that person can encounter Christ.”
The witness will employ any, and all, of the evangelism styles of serving, inviting, personal caring, giving testimony, providing intellectual proof, or confronting with the Word of God that results in, or can be measured by:
a life of faith and good works in that individual, and
Adult baptism and/or Confirmation
Unless you and I, as individuals for whom Christ died, are willing to bring people across the culture gap to the cross of our lord Jesus Christ, where the life-giving message of forgiveness is imparted, it is very likely that Christianity and our church will remain on a path of decline during a time in God’s history when the Gospel is needed desperately by so many.
Now is no time for complacency in our own lives, or in the lives of our congregations, for the outreach mission of Jesus. If one has never witnessed about the Christian faith, then it is time to witness. If one doesn’t know how to witness, then it is time to ask someone for help and time to learn. If a congregation is growing, then it needs to reach out for even more people who need Jesus. If a congregation is declining then, with renewed passion for Christ, it needs to commit to reversing the trend. If a congregation has become stagnant, then it needs to look at a dying world around and ask, “Why?”
In our country there is a great standoff. Unchurched people are open to listening and hearing about the faith of the people of the church. But, churched people are not talking about their faith and church. People need to hear the message, but we are not telling them the message. THIS THE BIGGEST CRISIS WE HAVE IN OUR CHURCH!
Our focus in The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod need to be directed at multiplying the “Critical Event” over and over again millions of times! Accomplishing “The Critical Event” is key in meeting the goal set by LCMS World Mission for the worldwide movement known as “ABLAZE,” which has a target of sharing the Gospel 100 million times by the year 2017, the 500th anniversary of the reformation.
(From IGNITING THE MISSION: A CALL TO ACTION, Rev. Dr. Gerald B. Kieschnick, President LCMS)
