Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Missional Bibles

All we do is missional. . . . at least it should be.

What does that mean? It means that God has brought us "in" by grace and He has sent us "out" with grace. It means we are to believe the Gospel, tell others about the Gospel and practice the Gospel. It means all that we do is outreach . . . .

Our vocational callings are missional callings. Our marriages and families are missional institutions. Our worship services should be missional. Even our pew Bibles are missional.

Our pew Bibles are not just for the church family to use, but we want to give them away to those who may be hungering for God's Word and need a Bible. We give Bibles away on an ongoing basis, on average about a dozen a month or so. It's working!

Recently, we received this kind and encouraging note . . .

Dear Grace Church,

My husband & I have come from Riverside to San Luis Obispo three times to attend the SLO Mozart Festival Winter Chamber Music concerts in your lovely church.

Each time I have enjoyed reading from your Bible. Yesterday I decided to accept your kind invitation to take the Bible home.

Please accept the enclosed check as a contribution to your future efforts.

Many thanks,
Venita Jorgensen
How cool is that? Here we see a convergence of community ministry through the liberal and missional use of our facilities and our philosophy of giving away pew Bibles. Maybe the beauty and design of Mozart's music created the environment that made Venita open and hungry for truth.

What is God going to do in Venita's life through her personal possession of God's Word? Let's pray right now that God gives her the gift of salvation and eternal life:

Lord, I pray for Veneta right now. I pray that you save her guilty soul. That you open her eyes to see her sin before you and the radiance of Christ in the Gospel. I pray that you show her that she is a great sinner and that Jesus is a Great Savior. Lead her to read that Bible and may her reading lead her to repentance and faith in Jesus.

Thanks for using a silly bookmark, a big room and beautiful music in how you work.

In the only name that saves. . . in Jesus' name. . . Amen! (Let it be!)
P.S. These folks are coming all the way from Riverside for a Mozart Festival event? Crazy. But I love it that we're hosting!

3 comments:

Jeannett said...

Brought tears to my eyes...how awesome. A "silly" bookmark...

Anonymous said...

We have been visiting another church down south when we visit our son. They hand out paperback Bibles weekly with the statement, "If you have a Bible at home please use this today, if you don't have your own, please take this as a gift." It is another set of folks in the aisles but it is a cool way to have the Word in people's hands before it is opened up. Our pew Bibles might look too nice to take since they are hardback. You know if the stats say they are being taken or not. Glad to know someone is....

Anonymous said...

May God recieve the worship due His name...Save Venita and her husband Lord. Lift Your great name up by using "silly" and "foolish" things, so that no man can boast - only in YOU. AMEN


Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”
1 Corinthians 1:26-31