Witnessing to the nonchurched
From Mercy Medical Teams providing essential medical care around the globe to serving people in urban and rural settings to comforting victims of disasters here at home, mercy is at the heart of everything we do.
Are we ready for a serious go at journeying through Lent? If so, perhaps we should stop giving up things for Lent and use this sacred time to take up things instead.
Rev. Mark Wood, director of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod’s Witness and Outreach Ministry, presented a webinar titled “Overcoming Bad Experiences” on Oct. 15, 2015.
It's interesting that when we want our pastors to make themselves publically recognizable we ask them to “put on their collars.” Isn’t that what we need every day in our communities? Doesn’t the declining spiritual condition of America today call for pastors to stand up by, among other ways, standing out?
Jesus never stopped at forming a “missional community.” His mission to “seek and to save the lost” required Him to speak God’s Word to the people with whom He connected. When He did, some remained in fellowship with Him. But many did not.
Are the fields of America white with harvest or do we live and labor in a different season?
Every time a rainbow appears in the sky we are reminded of God’s mercy and grace. Shouldn’t we be able to use the rainbows appearing elsewhere for other purposes to speak God’s Word to those who are perishing in their sins?
A comfort dog may ease one’s tensions and bring a sense of relief, but a comfort dog can’t bring peace to a person’s soul. For that, God has called upon you to speak the Gospel.
In strength or weakness, when we have plenty or when we are in want, as a powerful church or as a remnant church, we sow for this promised future.
Membership, financial resources, and influence are in decline, even steep decline, in many congregations. Now fewer people with fewer resources and less influence remain to do what the larger, more prosperous, and more favored church failed to do ...
The purpose of the Remnant Church is to bear witness of Jesus in our world so that others would come to faith just as we have. God's purpose in doing this through a remnant is that we would give Him the honor, praise, and glory that is due Him.
Being the Remnant Church is a call to the Cross ... Our Savior's urgent plea for His Remnant Church -- for our sake as well as for the sake of those who are perishing around us -- is "Don't go to Egypt."
Demographically speaking, the future is bleak for the LCMS. And that is the future that the devil would have us believe.
The church can be the church she is called to be without being liked, appreciated, or favored by the culture in which she exists. Indeed, we may even find that we can more readily be a faithful church when we are not liked, appreciated, or favored.
