Day 3 – Purpose of Engage! at LMPC - Matthew
28:18-19 - A Reflection by Tracie
Stewart
Most people do not know that I was
actually ordained as an evangelist. In 1995 the week before Thanksgiving my
husband and I were given a lovely gift by a friend from seminary. We had no
church as we had been called as church planters. So our friend and his
wonderful church treated us to a lovely Thanksgiving meal complete with these
elegant centerpieces that stood several feet tall. We had just moved ten hours
from home and knew few people. Yet the church and the presbytery turned out in
droves and that act of opulent hospitality and kindness will forever shape my
ministry. As hands were laid upon us and the prayers for ordination pronounced,
I had received a powerful gift of the love of God’s people and a lesson on
evangelism.
Years later I still have an
evangelist’s heart. God has blessed me so bountifully I cannot imagine not
having the comfort, joy, and peace that Jesus offers. That fall night in West
Tennessee with both words and deeds, the Presbytery of Memphis and the First
Presbyterian Church of Brownsville showed how to spread the Good News of Christ
and commissioned Brian and me to do the same. I think that it one of the
reasons I feel so at home at LMPC and enjoy my ministry here.
You too have the hearts of
evangelists. In a world where churches are closing each day and a denomination
that is losing members, you are growing – both in numbers and discipleship. You
have a heart to serve others and that shows in your history. In only forty
years you have grown in a relatively rural setting to be a congregation of over
1200. Think of all the babies we have
baptized in just the past few years! Many churches are struggling and we just
completed a new Children’s Ministry Building and have filled it with those
little ones that Jesus loves so much.
It seems to me in this 40th
Anniversary year of LMPC that it is so appropriate that it is our Year of
Service and Witness – because this is who you are as a people of God. And I am
excited as we move into the next 40 years for this Engage! program to help us
bear even more faithful witness to Jesus Christ! Jesus Himself instructed us in His last words
on this earth to “go and make disciples.” And best of all He promised us He
would always be with us both in this task and always. Let us Engage! in carrying out His Great
Commission ever more faithfully and effectively.
“18 Then
Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in
heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore
go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and
teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you
always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-19
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