Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
Most of your know that Joan and I attended the Billy
Graham School of Evangelism last month. I won't bore you with the details (which I'd be
glad to share at your request), but I did want to share with you two ideas which made a lasting impressions on me. A recent
re-reading some of the wisdom of St. Patrick only served to make those ideas more
pressing.
One of the speakers asserted that the church is always too willing to design and adopt programs. Programs to aid the poor, programs to grow the church, programs to "revitalize" congregations, etc. The point he made was that, unless we have a passion for the poor, a passion for the lost, a passion for the life of believers, all those programs were bound
to fail. He said that without passion, churches are simply on a theological treadmill-lots of effort and action, but no real progress.
This especially struck me with regard to evangelism. Much of what churches do in terms of evangelism is designed to increase membership. While that is certainly a worthy goal, it falls far short of what Jesus called us to do in the Great Commission. In his Confessions, St. Patrick says "We ought to fish well and with diligent care, as the Lord
commands us." Not, I would add, just to increase attendance, but to make disciples.
The speaker said if we are really serious about the charge to go and make disciples of all nations," we would ask God to break our hearts for the lost of this world-those who live without hope and without the knowledge
of Salvation through Jesus Christ.
The second thing which struck me was the notion of making a congregation a praying congregation. Sure, we say prayers at every service and some pray regularly for healing for the sick. But, he was speaking of more.
St. Patrick relates, "But after I was taken to Ireland (as a slave) - then every day I was forced to tend flocks of sheep in the pasture.
The love of God and the awe of him grew strong within me more and more, and my faith was strengthened also. And my soul was restless within me so that in a single day I would say as many as a hundred prayers, and almost as many at night . . . ."
It occurs to me that in the period of transition into which St. Thomas is entering, constant prayer on the part of all of us is what is needed. Prayer that God's will would be done; prayer that our individual egos would take a back seat to the vision God has for
St. Thomas. My prayer is that we would, each of us, be filled with a passion for the
lost and a passion to seek God's will for St. Thomas in prayer.
In the Love of Jesus,
Fr. Ed Posted on 05-05-08 at 02:51 pm
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