April 2022 | Share
This month we are celebrating our biggest event of the year, Easter. Creating this event in many ways is similar to writing a book, in that it has many chapters. There’s a chapter on event preparation and coordination. There’s a chapter on setup and breakdown. There’s a chapter on children’s games and events. There’s a chapter on youth events. There’s a chapter on what we want adults to experience. There’s a chapter on preparing and handling food. There’s a chapter on hosting, from parking dozens of vehicles to serving dozens of people. There’s a chapter on safety. There’s a chapter on cleanup during and after services and I can go on and on. But at the end of the day, all of these chapters are supposed to come together to accomplish one singular goal, to share the Gospel of salvation.
As leaders, we should never forget our personal responsibility to evangelize. That in spite of our many duties and tasks, our ultimate goal is to tell others that, “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.” Oftentimes the word “evangelize” can be intimidating, but it basically means to preach about something or someone. In our modern-day culture, we call it sharing. Sharing a message is something we all do. If you go to a good restaurant you share or preach to others about how good the food was. Or, if you see a good movie you preach to others about how good it was. Evangelizing is the same thing, it’s sharing with others about the great news of salvation. But if I’m going to be honest, sharing about Jesus in today’s culture is not an easy task. First, we live in an ever-growing secular society that sees the message of Jesus as something offensive. And second, we can get so busy doing ministry that we forget our personal responsibility to share with others the Gospel of Jesus.
As CDA leaders we should always::
I. Take on the opportunities that present themselves.
Many times, the opportunity to share the Gospel lives next door to us or sits in the desk next to us. Or even better, it shows up at church on any given Sunday. And we can become so busy being a good Christian or doing ministry that we never share with them the Good News of salvation. Never let an opportunity pass you by, the worst thing that can happen is that they reject the message. But the best thing that can happen is that you change somebody’s eternal destiny.
II. Look for opportunities.
You are likely to almost never find something that you’re not looking for. We should pray every morning for God to give us an opportunity to share the Gospel. That’s a prayer that God will always answer. Sometimes the opportunity will be right in front of you, other times you’ll have to look for it. But don’t worry, these opportunities will not be difficult to find, because there are many hurting people in the world who need to hear the Good News of salvation
III. Create opportunities.
Sometimes you just need to create your own opportunities. Invite someone over for dinner, share a cup of coffee with a neighbor, co-worker or friend, start a conversation or gently force your way into one. If you don’t have an opportunity in front of you create one. As CDA Leaders but more importantly as Christians we should always be ready to take advantage of every opportunity, we should always be on the lookout for new opportunities and when we can’t find an opportunity we should always be ready to create one.