Church and community ministry needs intimacy and incarnation as those involved in it strive to reach out to the world around them, said David Thew, pastor of Sojourn Church, Huntsville, a watchcare member of Madison Baptist Association.
Intimacy means drawing near to God, while incarnation means being the hands and feet of Christ, Thew said while speaking to the annual meeting of the Alabama Network of Christian Community Ministers (CCM) Nov. 14 at Whitesburg Baptist Church, Huntsville, in Madison Association.
“It is dangerous to be hands and feet of Christ without drawing near to God,” he said.
These concepts are essential to community ministry in present-day America because the word “Christian” has lost the meaning it used to have, Thew said.
This means Christians must find ways to communicate with the world that are real and relevant.
And church and community ministers are doing that, he said. “(You) are the ones saying, ‘We’ve got to carry the torch forward; we’ve got to be the hands and feet of Christ.’”
Thew shared five concepts of the missional life — the life of a disciple — that he drew from studying the way Jesus reached out to people.
• Christians are called to engage the culture.
• Christians are called to engage “pre-disciples” — those who don’t know Jesus.
• Christians are called to invite them into their lives.
• Christians are called to invite them into their communities.
• Christians do all this with the conviction that Jesus will invite them into His life.
This approach to witnessing calls for building relationships and taking time to get to know people, which is the missions side of witnessing, Thew said.
This goes hand in hand with the gospel message. Witnessing needs both the message and the mission, he said.
“Being a good neighbor can be incredibly incarnational,” Thew said. “‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ can actually mean your neighbor and it should start there.”
Richard Alford, CCM liaison with the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM), and associate in the SBOM office of associational missions and church planting, thanked those gathered for the work they are doing.
“What you do has great meaning,” Alford said. “The ministry leaders in this state are the people on the forefront of carrying God’s work forward.”
In other business, the group elected officers for 2006:
President — Rob Peavy, church and community development director for Madison Association; first vice president — Virginia Alexander, church and community ministries director for Morgan Baptist Association; second vice president — Linda Pair, church and community ministries director with Birmingham Baptist Association; and secretary/treasurer — Tina Qualls, assistant director of the Etowah Baptist Missions Center in Etowah Baptist Association.
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