Bring it on!

In an earlier blog, I mentioned what I feel God's priorities are for our corps in 2005. They are Conviction, Covenant, Discipleship and Outreach. Today, I briefly mentioned these four in our service. While there's a whole lot more there to unpack, this is the gist:

It's all about Outreach. If we're not actively involved in bringing new people into the party of God, we're sadly misdirected. We don't need any more pew-warmers. So all the other items lead us to this final one.

But first, Conviction- Conviction that we need to be doing more (than we typically are) to reach the lost. If the Holy Spirit will speak to us and we do not sear our consciences (by ignoring his voice), but listen to his nudging, that Conviction should lead us to care about the lost- those who Jesus eagerly leaves the 99 to find. These lost are dying without God and Jesus is all about reaching them, so they won't have to spend eternity without him. These lost are our brothers and sisters. Do we really care? Not just in word, but in deed? Do we do anything about their predicament? O Holy Spirit, convict us. Teach us your heart for the lost.

Next comes Covenant. If we are soldiers of The Salvation Army, we have signed a covenant, in effect saying we will spend our lives reaching the lost. Are we doing it? A covenant is pretty binding. Does our word mean anything? We need to return to our first love- or at least our first promise.

Then we need to be actively involved in some kind of discipling activity. We should be discipling one or more who have been on the way less than us and we should be in a continual process of being discipled by at least one who has been on the way longer than us. This is what keeps us sharp and able to fight against The Enemy.

Finally, we come back to Outreach- the focal point of it all. O Lord! help me to care enough to do something about the lost! I don't exactly know what it is yet, but I'm willing to do it. Teach me. Convict me. Bring it on!