(from now on, every blog post will have a picture of an Effective Structure)I'm chuffed. This is deeply, satisfyingly wonderful.
One of the privileges of being involved in NCD, and particularly NCD at Toronto, is getting a first-hand, front-seat view of God at work. (Now don't tell anyone else... they will think we are big-noting ourselves, because Toronto seems to be one of God's favourite places, He turns up every time we get together, He seems to love Toronto folk)
On Monday night, at Cameron Johnston's Stress Seminar I saw Toronto church members in action. It wasn't until tonight that I realised what was happening.
Remember that our mission statement is...to represent Christ to all members of our community. And remember my questions from several weeks ago...
- What does "represent Christ" mean?
- What do we have to DO to "represent Christ"?
- What do we have to BE to "represent Christ"?
- And lastly, how successful are we at representing Christ right now?
One of the jobs I set for myself on Monday night was to talk to every attendee from "our community". It turned out that four women came from our community. During the break I tried to chat with them, but some member beat me to every single one. Then after the program the same thing happened. So I didn't even talk to one visitor!
So to answer those questions:
We represent Christ when we are friendly to people from our community.
I believe that you already "represent Christ". That's what I saw on Monday night and at all the other functions at Toronto... people being friendly. It seems almost natural, but there are lots of places where this isn't so. God has made His people at Toronto supernaturally friendly. It is part of our luncheons, in our Sabbath School, at Project G... all over the place.
So to answer that last question: I believe that you are already successful at representing Christ right now... Surprisingly effective actually. Well maybe I shouldn't be surprised, after all God has been at work here, with just as much power and grace as He is in overseas missions, big evangelistic campaigns, radical church plants and ADRA projects.
Jesus lives at Toronto because you are here... and I'm chuffed.
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