Every church seeking change has to have a sense of who it is at the moment. What are our ministries? What do we do well? What do we do not so well? How do we incorporate new ministries in our present structure, or will we need to change? While the first two questions are very important in getting a "snapshot" of where any church is, it's the third question that gets at the heart of the matter: Do we change for change sake, or do we change in order to expand the ministries of the church? If the answer is not the latter, then why not just stay where one is?
Basically, the church organizes around three ministry areas: Witness, outreach, and nurture. Today we'll discuss witness. We'll cover the other two areas in later columns. Let's begin with witness. What exactly does "witness" mean? Formally, the word comes from the Greek word "marturia." You sense a word that comes from this Greek root: martyr. In the early church, to witness might mean giving up one's life for the sake of Christ and Christ's mission in the world.
While today we have little fear of being called to this extreme - even though it happens around the world as Christians are being killed by Islamic fundamentalists, to "witness" means each of us, without exception, are called to proclaim the good news (taken from the Greek word, euangelion, from which comes the word "evangelism") of what God in Jesus Christ is doing in the world today. And the most authentic witness is what God has done in our own life.
Witness is done both in word and in deed. For the latter, it blends into what is called "outreach" (I'll talk about that more in another column). Of course, the two, word and deed, can blend together. Think of telling a person how to do something, and then showing them how to do it. Better yet, engaging them in the work. The purpose of this is that the other might see Christ in us. There's a saying that exemplifies this: "You may be the only Bible another ever sees." Obviously, then, what we do and say is of profound importance, and if our witness is neither sincere nor authentic, then those to whom our witness is directed will find it a sham or even worse, dishonest.
In the almost 2000 years of the Christian church, witness has been the foundation upon which the church has been built. It will always be this way. A church without witness is no more than a social club. And certainly we don't want our church to be like that, do we? In John chapter 4, the woman at the well says to others, 'Come and see.' That is the primary invitation of witness/evangelism. Come and see what God in Christ can do in your life. See you on this journey of discovery and witness.
Grace and peace,
Mike
May 17, 2015