Pastor’s Rod & Staff:

 Some like St. Francis of Assisi’s saying “Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary, use words.” Encouragement to live our lives consistently with our faith is proper and right. As much as is humanly possible, our lives should always demonstrate the truth of our words; our actions should underscore and reinforce our convictions. But dismissing the importance of proclaiming the gospel message—as though our lives are the message—is not right. The gospel message of our salvation begins with God becoming incarnate, flesh and blood, truly human. Why? Not to be relevant. Not to “earn the right” to be heard. Jesus’ incarnation was a radical intrusion into our human race. He came uninvited; not to be voted “Man of the Year”, but to die. A part of being real in our faithfulness in proclaiming the Gospel must be to realize that we are intruders, too, into peoples lives. And we must be prepared for where this intrusion will lead us—to endure the rejection of those who do not welcome Jesus—to be “crucified” with Christ. We must remember that the truth and effectiveness of the Gospel does not depend on us or our good works, but solely on the power of the Holy Spirit working through the Word. The Gospel, by its very nature, is a “stumbling block” and, to be sure, takes us out of conformity with the world. And the world always stands ready to punish those who don’t conform. Without realizing it, we may try to avoid such rejection by withdrawing from the world and fashion our lives into some form of ‘greater holiness’. Rather, Christians need to encourage each other to do the right thing—to tell who Jesus is and what it means to follow Him. When people resist, it is assumed we are doing something wrong. But the reality of evangelism is that many, even most people to whom we speak are “gospel resistant.” We invite the many, but it is the few who are drawn, and each rejection brings us one person closer to the one who will receive it.