During Advent in 2025, I suggested that each of us take the 30-day journey to Pray and Go by Thom Rainer. I only know of a few of you who read the chapter each day. That said, I’m going to encourage more of us to participate in Thom’s invitation to become Great Commission Christian by sharing the readings with you each week.
Thom’s goal, and the goal I would like each of us to have, is to become an instrument of outreach and ministry for God in new and powerful ways.
In the book’s introduction, Rainer says that God Does not intend for us to keep the Good News to ourselves. We are meant to share our faith, to tell others what God has done in our lives through Jesus Christ.
God also designed us for community—that is, to be connected to other believers through the local church. From Acts 2 to Revelation 3, the New Testament is all about the local church. I often hear complaints about our churches. Not enough people volunteer, our technology doesn’t work properly, people don’t dress appropriately, people are messy. The list goes on and on.
Well, Thom Rainer tells us that the New Testament scriptures mentioned above tell the story of messy and messed-up churches still being used by God. It is the story of sinners like you and me being saved by grace. To say what I said previously in different words, God designed us to be bearers of the truth about his son, Jesus. And he intends for us to carry out the Great Commission mostly in the context of the local church.
As a reminder to each of us, the Great Commission from Jesus reads from Matthew 28:19-20–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, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
There are six areas of church life: evangelism, discipleship, prayer, ministry, fellowship, and worship. When churches self-evaluate themselves, evangelism always receives the lowest score.
Evangelism means preaching, announcing, or otherwise communicating the gospel, our salvation. It’s delivering the message that Jesus Christ is not only the Son of God but also gave His life as a sacrifice for our sins. In doing so, He ensured eternal life for anyone who believes. As we are told in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” And again, as Jesus tells us in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Accepting that good news and then telling others about it, so they know too, is the definition of evangelism.
This statistic made me realize that this is the first area I need to teach about, encouraging each of us to grow in our evangelism skills and willingness to implement them.
I will follow-up that teaching with lessons on the other five. My prayer is that with my help, each of you will grow as a member of God’s local church.
Let’s begin 2026 by developing a outward focus, taking a serious look at our neighborhoods and getting to know and interact with those who live there.
“From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” – Ephesians 4:16
Pastor Nancy
