The Great Commission and the Great Commandment
The Great Commission is to take the Gospel to all the world and see people baptized and become followers of Christ. The Great Commandment is to love the Lord with all of yourself, and to love your neighbor as yourself.
These are two massive “greats.”
We spent some time in staff meeting on Monday going through the ministries, the calendar, and our lives asking, “Is this what we ought to be doing?” Maybe not in those words, exactly, but we constantly try to make sure we are not neglecting the best for the good.
For example, my family is in between seasons right now with our volleyball teams. We have decided to “adopt” the Winchester Rec. Center as our main hub of outreach, and in the past year we have made relationships with more families outside our church than we have ever before. But without a summer season right now, we are looking for other areas to meet strangers.
We loved the idea from Bro. Morris about the Saturday night neighborhood meals, and we see food as an effective way to spend time with people and turn strangers into friends. With a desire to love young couples in our church (Great Commandment) and a desire to love our literal neighbors (Great Commission), we are working on ways to create neighbor meals as just one idea for reaching souls.
I know some of you are in karate, school, or community clubs, and you are constantly talking to people about the Lord. I love hearing your stories of passing out Gospel tracts in the everyday course of life, kind of like that taxi driver did with all of her riders in Mexico. Glory to God!
Love the Lord. And let that love for Him overflow into an everyday love for your neighbor. If we love others like God calls us to, then obeying the Great Commission is easy!
–Pastor Ryan