How To Reach The People

Like Paul and the early Church, we are involved in reaching new people. The great commission that Jesus gave is to go and reach new people. This should always be at the front of every pastor’s mind. But too often, our goal is simply to maintain, to avoid criticism by key leaders in the local church, to make sure our denominational leaders are happy with us and hope that our Church will do well enough to pay the bills and the local pastor.

This is not the goal of being a pastor of a local church! Our goal is to make disciples of Jesus Christ. It is time that we make evangelism our priority again. It’s time that we started evaluating our worship services, church activities, sermons and programs on the basis of whether or not we are reaching new people and making new disciples of Jesus Christ. I have found in our society that many of the techniques we have used in the past, such as simply inviting people to church, are not adequate to reach the secular community that we are a part of today. It is not the goal of American society to go to church on Sunday mornings. There are too many other options for what to do on a Sunday morning. We are no longer in the 1950's. Our world has become increasingly secular and the things that the Church is doing is often thought to be totally irrelevant by our secular society.

So, what are we called to do? The answer is simple. We are to follow the teachings of Jesus, and bring his love to people through helping and servicing their needs.  We are to teach people how to follow Jesus Christ, and deepen their spiritual work and understanding of his gospel. We are to be a Good Samaritan Church as Jesus taught in Luke 10. In this way, people can find success and a deep satisfaction in their lives.  It is time that we as pastors become enthusiastic about reaching new people for Christ!