ENGAGE

I’ve really enjoyed studying Exodus with you, but the time has come to think ahead. We’ll wrap up the Exodus series at the end of this month. What to do next?

Starting July 6, I invite you to be a part of ENGAGE. Sunday mornings at 8:30 and 11:00.

ENGAGE promises to be a 5-week inspection of our call to radical disciple-making.

How do we determine whether or not First Baptist Paducah is on the right track? Is real “success” based on Sunday morning attendance? An ever-enlarging budget? Lots of programs and activities?

There really is only one answer to the success question, but it starts with another question: What has Jesus called us to do?

Jesus promised Peter and Andrew that they would become fishers of men (Matthew 4:19). And Christ’s church has been about the business of disciple-making ever since. Matthew 28:19 is our commission to make disciples to the ends of the earth. That starts here and now. Within our local culture. And crossing every cultural barrier and boundary from here.

Beloved church family, are you and I making disciples? Really making disciples? Disciples for the long haul? (There really are no other disciples.)

Here are the national stats. After high school, I’m sad to report that half of our young people are walking away from the church. The American church is not growing, and in fact barely hanging on against the hostile onslaught of an increasingly secularized culture. The evangelical church spends money on entertainment, but generates few disciples who also see themselves as disciple-makers.

Though I pour much of my time and energy into preparing sermons, Sunday mornings are only a small part of our disciple-making enterprise. Genuine discipleship is much, much more than preaching. It is the forming of intentional relationships where spiritual passion and insight can be transferred from one person to another. From one generation to the next. It is the equipping of every believer to see himself or herself as a person “on mission for Christ” 24/7.

In this series I’ll try to help us, as a congregation, answer a very basic question: If we know that we’re to be disciple-makers, why aren’t we? We’ll talk about dying for Christ, pressing on for Christ, serving for Christ, and standing for Christ. Living for Christ!

What did Peter and Andrew have to do in order to become those fishers of men as Jesus promised? All they had to do was to follow Christ. So must we.

Ready to follow?