Doing research for her book Unbinding the Gospel, Martha Grace Reese repeatedly heard leaders of effective congregations say something like, "You can't share what you don't have." The issue under consideration was evangelism, faith-sharing. Those who want to improve in the area of evangelism and outreach have to start at the beginning, namely, their own relationship with God through Christ.
Seems obvious enough, but the reality is that frequently we in the churches don't take our own spiritual temperature as regularly as we should. We can get so preoccupied with church activities (on top of the many other responsibilities we have in life) that we tend to take our own spiritual life for granted. Our personal relationship with Christ is the source of the witness we give. If we are negligent in personal prayer, listening to Scripture, offering heart-based worship, then we soon realize we don't have much to share with others. But when our daily experience of discipleship is a powerful inspiration to us, making a difference in our lives as we realize over and over the grace of God, then our faith-sharing is really just the overflow of being filled with the presence of the Lord.
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