December 2008 Newsletter


“Looking to Gain in 2009”

By: Craig Rippy


A
ll Christians should desire gain. Gaining ground for Christ and His Kingdom is the mindset of every Disciple of our Lord. Our every endeavor is to gain spiritually for His sake.

The mission of every Christian is to win souls from death to life. This job has its narrow mindedness, but must, by necessity, be wide-open to opportunity.

Our mission is to complete in our time, in our community, the mission Jesus was sent to begin. Jesus said, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." (Luke 4:18-19 - NIV)

Our marching orders are found easily and have been read much to the congregation. We are to Go, preach the gospel, call people to believe - repent - be baptized, and teach those who have faithfully obeyed all Jesus has taught about Christian living and mission.

All congregations of God’s people are to have transformed minds, making the Great Commission a priority. For our congregation to be Christ- minded in this each of us must begin thinking with the Commission in mind.

Becky and I have made some changes that have affected more than our family. One change will be how we do Sunday lunch. We have decided to use three of the four monthly Sundays to invite new families or to invite specific church families to share lunch with us. We hope this will give us the opportunity to be winning for Jesus. So, if you have been used to going to the Rippy’s on Sunday, the plan has changed. The third and fifth Sundays are reserved for those familiar gatherings.

As the Rippy family makes the Commission a part of life, I’m sure you are making changes to do the same. I know one family who is working on the weekends to provide warm meals for those in need. They are working with other people to accomplish this. Their agenda is to show the love of Christ to people and open doors of relationship so they can share His loving message with people who haven’t yet heard of God’s grace.

With Christmas granting so many opportunities of benevolence, you may have many ideas of how to help others. With your loving help, you may gain an ear to listen to you. You can share your reasons for being a Christian, and how Jesus has helped you be the person you have become and are continuing to become.

Not to toot your horn, but I would enjoy hearing how you have made changes to show and tell of God’s love. I would enjoy hearing how you have made changes to accomplish the mission of winning the lost, helping Christians to grow, and doing it all in love.

As you involve yourself in the mission, your church has resources to help you. First, whatever you do in love and benevolence should come from your own pocket as much as possible. If you find a need that surpasses your abilities please talk to Gene Scantlin. Gene is an Elder with Solid Rock and leads the Benevolence Ministry. Or, if you need resources for winning people to Christ, talk to me. I am the ministry leader for Outreach Ministries. If you need material to help others to grow in Christ, talk to Brian Buehrlen (our Minister of Education). He leads the Education Ministry.

I suppose the numbers do tell the story of how healthy a congregation is. We have hovered around 140 in attendance. Some weeks we are lower and others are higher. Yet, that number will increase as we individually become mission -minded. To check on how you and the rest of our congregation are doing, look at the attendance record. People are won by the Gospel, but it must be communicated. Much of that communication must occur outside the walls of the church building, if we are going to be successful. As we share the message, we will see more attending the services of the church.

We don’t invite people to church just to have greater attendance, but we do involve ourselves with people to win them to Christ. We also enjoy relationships with other Christians to gain mutual spiritual growth.

Let’s be mission- minded and Christ will gain for His Kingdom and Solid Rock will be blessed with more mission- minded people in 2009.