A Message from the General Secretary

A long time ago, a friend asked me, "How is it with your soul?" He wasn't asking that as one might ask a person on the sidewalk, "How are you?" while walking on without waiting for an answer. I tried to pass off an answer with "It's fine." My friend did not accept my initial answer. Instead, my friend waited for an answer through the sighing, hesitating, and obvious uncomfortable feelings that emerged as I pondered the question in the silence that settled before I gave a more serious response. My life has not been the same since.

When have you (or people from your church) asked that question and waited for an answer? When have you really wanted to know the state of one's relationship with God? When have you taken the time to hear about another's wrestling with the gospel message of Jesus' love, justice, and mercy? When have you bothered to share the power of God's work in your life? When have you invited others to offer their lives in response to God's call to obedience and faithfulness?

I don't ask these questions idly. Our task is to take these kinds of questions seriously. All of us are expected to offer Christ to others — not to hoard the gospel story or the message of God's saving love in our lives.

Historically, the church has embraced the evangelistic task of ministry. It has stated repeatedly that the story of the gospel is to be shared. It has declared again and again that the church's task is to go into the entire world to proclaim the gospel and to make disciples of Jesus Christ. Over time, that call of ministry has been relegated to a function of the church's ministry described as evangelism. That function has produced programs and products to help the church in its effort to tell the gospel story to those who have not yet heard it. While some of these efforts have helped the church to be in ministry, some of what we have done has had the effect of isolating the work of evangelism from the heart of the church's ministry. When the work of evangelism is given to a few who have the most affinity for inviting others to faith in Jesus Christ, on the face of it, the remainder of the church is released from its evangelistic responsibility. While that is obviously not true, the perception is present, and the perception must be challenged.

To challenge the perception is not to judge programs and resources that deal with evangelism or to take issue with evangelists. It is, rather, to ask a question about the state of our hearts and souls. Do we so passionately believe in the gospel that our whole beings overflow with the need, the desire, and the requirement to tell the faith stories and to invite others to a journey of faith in Jesus Christ? Or is our relationship with God so stagnated that we feel neither the desire to grow in faith nor the call to tell anyone else about it?

While I believe that some programs and resources that support the church's evangelistic task of ministry are useful and essential, I do not believe that they ultimately will bring church people around to sharing the gospel story with others. I believe that the primary source of strength and power to do that work comes from the state of our souls. Thus, the question from my friend is critically important. How is the state of your soul? Is it brimming over with love of God so that you are compelled by love to offer Christ to others? Or is your soul so parched, dry, and longing for a word from God that you hoard any offering that comes your way so as to replenish your own being? Can a thirsty person offer a drink of water to another? Maybe so, but one who is filled with the living water of Christ's love can hardly cease from sharing the Source of that love with another.

How is it with your soul?

Special Issue 2001