On showing and sharing the love of Jesus.

Missiologist Ed Stetzer says that a danger is for the church right now during the coronavirus crisis is for churches to relax because finances haven't been as challenging as we thought they would be and to make our focus on how we're going to reopen.

He says the reason that's dangerous is because we're not really thinking about how our church 2 years from now will look different than our church did 2 years ago. 

We have an unprecedented opportunity to actually help our people become more incarnational and missionary than ever before as we think not only about the church gathered to worship but the church scattered on mission. We must take advantage of our present opportunity to be more agile and mobile as we do our missionary work. 

We Evangelicals, Charismatics, and Pentecostals have been conditioned because of the battles between liberalism and fundamentalism to be all about orthodoxy when it comes to Jesus; i.e., we want the soteriological benefits of being connected to Christ. And that’s a good thing. 

But we have not thought as much about orthopraxy when it comes to Jesus; i.e., we don’t understand and embrace the missiological responsibilities of actually engaging the world the way Jesus did. 

Over-emphasizing orthodoxy and de-emphasizing orthopraxy means that we don’t truly challenge ourselves and teach our people to actually walk in His ways and, therefore, we are not living according to His truth and we end up missing out on His life. 

Send Network Missiologist Brad Brisco says "Without an understanding of how the incarnation (and ways) of Jesus should shape/influence our understanding of mission, we will never really take responsibility of the places we live, work, and play. We will simply continue to live disconnected, excarnate, disintegrated lives separated from the world of people around us. The incarnation of Jesus shows us a very different way."

Cuyahoga Valley Church Missions Pastor Rick Eimers says, “It seems simple, but easily overlooked.  We can tell from the rooftops ‘I'm saved’ without ever conditioning and teaching our people how to be a neighbor... and educating and training hearts to know ‘who actually IS our neighbor.’”

We have to train our people to show AND share the love of Jesus. An incarnational way of life is foundational to an invitational way of life. We must equip our people to invest and invite – to both care and share. As Missiologist Jeff Christopherson says, “Both wings of the airplane have to be going. We have to be telling good news and we have to be living good lives. Our deeds verify the good news. Our words clarify the good news.” We do good deeds to create goodwill in order to share the good news. 

So, how can we activate ALL of God's people in both deed and word?

What are we doing to help our leaders and members actually mobilize to be on mission in their own neighborhoods, showing and sharing the love of Jesus?