Go and Tell....and Do!

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

May 5, 2013

Lord’s Supper

Go and Tell…And Do!

Acts 16:9-15

Go and tell –

Go and tell the good news of Jesus Christ.

That sounds suspiciously like evangelism,

and that’s just not something we do around here,

is it?

Evangelize?

That’s what other Christians do.                                                                    

They knock on doors;

they hand out tracts;

they go up to strangers asking,

“Are you saved?”

a look of urgency in their eyes.  

                 

Say the word “evangelize” in a Presbyterian Church

and it’s as though an Arctic wind

has suddenly blown through the place.

But, as we have done with so much of the Bible,

so many of Christ’s words and teachings,

we’ve badly bent the word “evangelize” out of shape,

distorting it over the centuries,

so it’s come to mean something quite different from

what the word originally meant.

The word evangelize comes from a Greek word that means,

very simply, “good news”.

To evangelize is simply to share good news.

It isn’t to push our theology,

our interpretation of the Bible,

our beliefs,

our ways of doing things.

It isn’t to confront,

to persuade,

to convince.

It isn’t to convert;

That’s the Holy Spirit’s job.

Our job is to share the good news of God’s love,

God’s grace,

God’s mercy,

God’s goodness,

God’s compassion,

God’s forgiveness,

all given us in Jesus Christ.

Who doesn’t enjoy sharing good news?

News of the daughter who made the honor roll;

the son who just became engaged;

the spouse who just received a promotion;

the parents who are about to celebrate

their 50^th wedding anniversary.

We hear good news and our first response tends to be,

“I can’t wait to share my good news!”

We all have the good news of the love and grace

given us in the living Christ.

Why wouldn’t we want to share it?

Didn’t the boys and girls of our children’s choir

teach us to do just that two weeks ago?

Go and tell!

That’s what Paul was doing

as he traveled around the Mediterranean.

Our lesson makes that clear:

“we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia,

being convinced that God had called us to proclaim

the good news to them.”

“Proclaim the good news.”

That’s it.

Nothing about conversions,

altar calls,

“bringing people to Christ.”

It is as simple as that: “proclaim the good news.”

Our lesson makes clear that God is the one who determines

whether the person we are talking to

will respond to the Good News:

“The Lord opened [Lydia’s] heart to listen eagerly

to what was said by Paul.”                                                      

We proclaim;

God converts and convicts through the Holy Spirit.

The easiest way to begin proclaiming the good news

is to share what’s happening here at MPC.

Don’t we have good news to share?

Aren’t we a vibrant congregation

with a rich, 146-year history of serving

in the name of Jesus Christ?.

Last week we welcomed 7 new members

into our church family.

That’s good news!

We will welcome five more into our congregation

and one more into the universal church of Christ

before the end of the month.

There’s more good news!

Our Session has been hearing from different Ministry Teams

this spring – Teams that want to expand on their ministries,

Teams that for as much as they do, want to do more.

That’s good news!

In March we heard from our Mission Team.

If you look at our budget,

you’ll see that we set aside 8.5%

of our offerings each year for Mission giving,

more than $40,000.

Now if you immediately wonder why 8.5% and not 10%,

the biblical tithe,

it’s because our Mission dollar giving is only the beginning

of how we do Mission work.

We also have our separate special offerings,

the offerings we collect over the course of the year:

The Doris Topping Fund for SERVE;

One Great Hour of Sharing;

The Pentecost Offering;

Habit for Humanity;

Peacemaking;

Blanket Sunday;

Christmas Joy.

Those and other special offerings

disburse an additional $20,000 per year

to Mission giving.

But wait, there’s still more!

We also have our unbudgeted offerings:

Things like the SERVE Food Cart;

the Book drive for SERVE we just concluded;

The supply drive for SERVE we are about to begin;

Fruit offerings for SERVE we collect at Easter and Christmas;

The coat and winter clothing drive for the jail;

UnTrim-A-Tree gifts for children at Christmas;

Souper Bowl Subs;

And fund-raising for Mission trips

for our young people.

You’ve been hearing about a new project

our Middle Schoolers have taken on,

taken on all on their own: Stop Hunger Now.

They are trying to raise $2500 to provide 10,000 meals

for the Stop Hunger Now effort.

This was something they did last year

on their Mission trip to Massanetta Springs,

and it had such a profound impact on them

that they wanted to do it here within our church.

This is Mission work initiated and led

by our Middle Schoolers!

The fourth and final area where we provide Mission support

is through providing our building to outside groups

for classes, meetings, and support groups.

The English as a Second Language program

run by BEACON is probably the largest and best-known:

Come here on Tuesdays and Thursdays,

and you’ll find almost every room filled with students

and their volunteer teachers.

We don’t charge Beacon or any other group

for the use of the building;

we absorb the additional heating, air-conditioning

electricity, water and other costs

as part of our Mission ministry outreach.

8.5%?

Our Mission giving is more than twice that

when everything is added up.

And that’s good news.

Not something to brag about,

for there is always more we can do,

but surely it is good news worth sharing.

What about the vibrancy of our Christian Education program?

Our CE team would like to increase Melissa’s hours;

for all that she does, there is more we’d like her to do,

more we’d like to do with CE across the board:

for our children, our young people, and our adults.

But if we are going to ask Melissa to work 10 more hours a week,

up from her present 20 hours a week,

we’re going to have to pay her.

That’s a wonderful challenge and opportunity!

Isn’t that good news to share?

We are strong church in a tough environment:

you’ve probably seen some of the articles or heard reports

that almost a third of men and women under the age of 30

in this country are turning away from religion entirely –

walking away from churches of every kind and size;

no longer switching from one church to another,

but simply saying, “not interested”.

But don’t we have good news to share even with younger folks:

that here they will find a warm welcome,

genuine friendship,

acceptance, caring, interest?

Don’t we have good news to share

that ours is a congregation that tries to live

by Christ’s teaching that it is by our love for one another

that we are known as his disciples?

                          

Don’t we have good news to share

that while we have a rich history,

we are not stuck wistfully trying to regain our past,

like the person in a rowboat

who may be pulling the boat forward on the oars,

but is faced firmly backward.

Don’t we have good news worth sharing

that we live fully in the ever-changing present

even as we confidently follow our Lord Jesus into the future?

"For, in fact, the Kingdom of God is among you,"

says our Lord,

(Luke 17:21)

Don’t we have good news to share

that a bit of that glorious Kingdom can be found here

on Ashton Road between Wal-Mart and Costco?

Go.

Tell.

Share the good news

Do it: you’ll be surprised how much joy you’ll find in it.

Yes, do it:

Go evangelize!

AMEN