Acts 1:8 – But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

A few years ago, I was asked to do an article based on the section in Living Faith on "Mission: The Church Reaches Out", for the Presbyterian Record. The whole series was to be a learning experience for the Church on what our confession meant to us. Few know how I struggled with that article. What is an adequate approach to mission that might do justice to the topic? Well, what I finally did was speak of people, ordinary, everyday people who go about the task of being Christian in that most extra-ordinary way of "following the way of Jesus Christ." I talked about the people of St. Andrew's, Pictou, in that article. I talked about our faithful session members, our nursing home visitors, our youth group, our AMS, and I named names, and pointed out people. If I were to write it again this week, I'd use different people doing different things, but every one of them would be ordinary, everyday people doing ordinary everyday things in the way of Jesus Christ and in the name of Jesus.

Prayer: Gracious God, who from the day of Pentecost has called to one hope all peoples everywhere through the embodiment of the gospel in diverse cultures: grant us, we pray, a vision of your love in Jesus Christ that embraces within its transforming power the rich plurality of the human race. Amen. (prayer for the WCC's Conference on Mission and Evangelism)

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About the author:

Kenn Stright <kennethstright@yahoo.ca>
West Petpeswick, Nova Scotia, Canada
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