Meeting People Geographically

Jesus went to Samaria to meet the woman at the well. He didn't wait for her to come to Jerusalem or Galilee. He met her where she was geographically.

On the first day after His resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples who were huddled together in the Upper Room. His first command to them was to "Go"! They were to go and preach the Gospel to all the world. What would be the first step they would need to take to obey this command? They would need to take a step outside of their Upper Room.

For you and I to meet people where they are today we must first meet them geographically. We must take a step outside of our Upper Room. For American Christians today, our Upper Room is our Church Buildings. That is where we feel safe. But how can we reach our community, let alone our world, if we spend all of our time in our steeple-topped Upper Rooms?

There are 19,000 people that live in Otsego County up here in Northern Michigan who do not go to churdh anywhere. If all of our evangelistic efforts occur inside the Gaylord E-Free Church, how many of those 19,000 do you think we will reach? If we wait for those 19,000 people to come inside of our facility, how many do you think will hear the Good News of Jesus? A few might - but not many.

But what if every ministry in our church found a way to meet some of those 19,000 people right where they were at - geographically? How many could we reach then? A whole lot more than if all we do is try to get them inside of our facility. That is the direction we need to go. We need to take a few steps outside of our Upper Room.

That's why in May we are looking to have a CIA (Church in Action) Day in which we see several hundred from our church serve out in our community. That is why we are in the initial planning stage right now for a big "Courageous Event" to be held this June down under the pavilion in downtown Gaylord! If we are going to be serious about reaching our community and our world we must be willing to meet people right where they at geographically.

Won't that take a lot more effort? YES!

Won't that cost a lot more money? YES!

Won't that require a lot more volunteers? YES!

But those 19,000 people are worth it!

Don't miss this Sunday at Gaylord E-Free as we look at what it means to meet people where they are geographically!