Sermon Echoes - The Great Commission

 

 The Great Commission

October 8th was such a full day of wonderful opportunities to be church. I am so blessed to serve the communities of Pilmoor Memorial UMC in Currituck and Mt. Hermon UMC outside Elizabeth City.  The morning began with a beautiful sunrise over the Currituck sound that always has this way of centering my spirit and reminding me how small I am in the scheme of things. God shows off every morning over here in Currituck and I love seeing the paintings in the sky and all of creation coming alive.

This week, I began a sermon series called "Everybody Tell Somebody" that will take us through the month and I am very excited to be sharing these messages, calls to discipleship, and weekly bible study. If you missed out on the message you can watch it here.

"What if we were to read the text this way, 'Go, therefore, and while you are going make disciples and baptize them into Trinity and the family of faith.' Doing so causes a shift in our understanding of evangelism from being a task we are commanded to complete, to instead, being asked to live our entire lives as a witness to the Gospel, meeting others and ourselves where we are along the way.”

There is a difference between “mission” and “evangelism” even though we often use them as interchangeable words and experiences.  So often in our churches, we do great mission work but struggle to find the opportunities for evangelism or to know the difference between mission and evangelism. 

Mission - apostolḗ  - ap-os-tol-ay'

sent or sending

Evangelism - euangelion - yoo-ang-ghel'-ee-on

to announce/tell good news 

As we journey through this series it is my fervent prayer that we will make a shift from "doing evangelism" to “being evangelism”.  That could look like (e.g., making conversation with a stranger in the checkout line or the server in the restaurant you frequent; listening when a stranger, friend, or neighbor is going through something; letting others go first in a line; helping a neighbor with a project; handing out food in a food pantry) allowing our lives become shaped by the call to "euangelion" (evangelize)

Step 1:acknowledging our doubts and fears about our ability to do or be evangelism does not prevent God from using us. God's perfection does not need ours, if we allow grace to work in us and through us God can and will use us for all sorts of good.

Step 2: take a relationship from stranger to neighbor, showing love and kindness to anyone we encounter. Showing them they matter enough for us to build a relationship with them.

Step 3: do not be afraid to say that the source of that light shining within you is Jesus.

What would it look like if we, as the body of Christ, were to see our call to evangelize not as one task among many but as an overall approach, structuring our days from morning to night? Imagine being that daily witness who baptizes others into a Christ-filled life.  Our evangelism or witness becomes an announcement, a telling, not just with words, but with our actions and behaviors too.

A culture shift like this for our church begins to generate the same kind of excitement as invitations to a big celebration, where it’s not just another thing we do. The Great Commission also becomes the Great Invitation - one that all of us can rally around and help share this amazing Good News. 

-May Trinity make it So-

REMEMBER! God Loves you and So do I!