Ministries:
Adult | Teens | Children

Pastor's Pen's:
2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001

Sermon Series:
Following Jesus
Earthly Cross
His Name Is
Apostles Creed
Dealing with Feelings
Jonah
Get Real
Promised Land Living

Grace Church
257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105

(262) 763-3021

Email:
Pastor Scott Carson

Secretary Patti Hall

PASTOR'S PENS 2003

Grace Church of Burlington May 18, 2003 Bible expositor, Bonar Law, once said that love to man is truly love "only when it is rooted and governed by love to God. Piety without philanthropy is unreal; philanthropy without piety is either immoral or impotent." That's a powerful and thought-provoking statement. There are lots of humanitarians who are doing good things, but if they are doing them without any relationship to God, the ultimate result is failure.             How thankful I am for the many, many who have invested in our outreach at Chocolate Fest this weekend! While there is a "humanitarian" aspect in this in that we are supplying free water for people who are thirsty, our ultimate goal is to build bridges for the Gospel. Our central goal is to find thirsty souls. And how thrilled and encouraged I am at the many who volunteered their time to join in this important outreach!!             Someone discerningly said, "People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care." Our water booth is one of the many ways that we are seeking to communicate to our community that we care about them, but more importantly Jesus cares.             Most evangelism does not take place from the pulpit; instead most of our witnessing is likely to happen in passing moments of conversation – those occasions when we show, in relatively minor ways, who we are and to whom we belong. I read of a suburban woman who was playing tennis with her good but quite secular friends. In a conversation break between sets she began referring to something she had read that morning. It would have been easy to say, "I read something this morning." Instead, with no attempt at piousness, she simply introduced one word: "In my devotional reading this morning." It was not a major soul-winning engagement. It was, however, a true sowing of seed. By a word, she had opened the door for some further conversation.             Perhaps our greatest problem in becoming Christ’s fishermen is that we are not enough in earnest to grasp the opportunities that come to us; or we are so possessed of the idea that we must say something dramatic and profound that we fail to say the small, immediate and potentially significant thing. To put it in the vernacular of the New Testament, too many of us really don’t act as if we even have a call to "fish." We’re out in the waters of human need every day, but we don’t seem to know it.             It’s not an issue of becoming more aggressive about sharing our faith; instead it’s a matter of sensitivity. We must learn to be more sensitive to the needs of the world around us, and more sensitive to the subtle prodding of the Holy Spirit. These two sensitivities are wonderfully intertwined. To be sensitive to the Holy Spirit must mean that we will be more sensitive to people and their pain and needs; to be more sensitive to people ought to make us more open to God and His purposes. So who are you reaching out to for Christ? What lost person are you consistently praying for? Who are you seeking to build evangelistic bridges with?             Francis Asbury, an 18th century Methodist minister was once criticized by a woman for being unsophisticated in his method of evangelism. Asbury politely asked the lady how many she had led to Christ in her life. The lady answered that she had not personally led anyone to faith in Christ. Asbury's response was, "Ma'am, I like my way doing it better than your way of not doing it."             It may be just sharing a cup of cold water and looking for an opportunity to build a bridge.  It might be something as simple as sharing with a lost friend what you read in your devotions that morning.  Or, it might be just inviting them to come with you to church.  Friend, Just Do It!!