Tuesday, July 11, 2023
Since the winter of 1994, the mission of CedarCreek Church has been to introduce people to Jesus and the life-changing adventure of following him. From the very beginning, Founding Pastor Lee Powell emphasized that our new church was not about us!
We spent some of what little money we had to bring in a guy who had a great evangelism program to train us how to begin conversations about Jesus. But our primary emphasis was always invitational—invite someone to church and we’ll make sure they hear the gospel loud and clear. To this day, we encourage our attendees to pray for five people that Jesus puts on your mind and find opportunities to invite them to church.
Our church wants us to make the most of our lives—to join God’s mission! Will it be easy? Ask last weekend’s guest speaker, Pastor Josh! Jesus’ disciples would also likely agree it would be challenging.
Luke 10:1-4
1 The Lord now chose seventy-two other disciples and sent them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places he planned to visit. 2 These were his instructions to them: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields. 3 Now go, and remember that I am sending you out as lambs among wolves. 4 Don’t take any money with you, nor a traveler’s bag, nor an extra pair of sandals. And don’t stop to greet anyone on the road.”
It was probably pretty cool to be chosen, even though the instructions were a bit obscure. As a relatively new Christian, I thought it was pretty cool to be asked to be part of the CedarCreek Church plant. There were many people in my world who didn’t know Jesus. At times, I was a lamb among wolves—a cop surrounded by people who you may not want to have over for dinner, but they were certainly people who needed to hear the gospel!
I knew that helping to build a new church would require sacrifice, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to introduce people to Jesus in a fresh, new way. The location alone was a sacrifice for me. My Oregon home was NOT close to the new Perrysburg location. And our new church never had much money! We truly felt that our leaders had been called to this purpose, and so we trusted God to provide. Prayerfully, we ventured out, accepting God’s mission for our lives.
Looking back, I would bet that none of us regret the decision we made to follow Jesus on this adventure! I sure don’t!
What about you, are you ready for an adventure? It’s time to join God’s mission.
Questions:
What is God calling you to do? Are you willing to sacrifice to make it happen? Who will you invite to church?
Next Steps:
Learn how to share the gospel. Try the Romans Road to Salvation. Practice sharing it with a friend. Pray for opportunities to share it with people who don’t know Jesus—and invite them to church!
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, how grateful I am for the call you place on my life! I pray that I will answer the call with all my heart! Give me courage and strength. Give me an unquenchable desire to reach the world with the Good News of your gospel. Then help me do it! In your strong name I pray, amen.
Series Theme Verse:
Ecclesiastes 9:17
Better to hear the quiet words of a wise person than the shouts of a foolish king.