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Volume 1
WHY THESE LETTERS?
I have spent much of my adult life thinking about how we have decided to build the church in America. It has seemed to me that our model of church, and our ideas of what we are supposed to be about, have led us to a point where we define church success primarily in terms of how well we have marketed our particular church to other "church people." It is my goal with these letters to challenge those who are currently in leadership or "staff" positions in churches to examine their preconceptions about the roles they are called to play in the body of Christ, and about how they present the message of Jesus to the world.
We live in a world with a current population of around 6.5 billion people. Most of them live every day in hopeless futility without Jesus. The Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board has stated that "at most, only 1 in 10 are born again Christians." And this is an optimistic estimate by far. In America, there are currently around15 million people who even identify themselves by beliefs that would characterize them as "evangelical" Christians. (The Barna Update, August 23, 2005). For those 15 million even to reach 6 billion people with the message of Christ is impossible for man under any circumstance, and is possible with God only on His terms.
The reality is that neither pastors, church staff, nor appointed missionaries can fulfill the task. It will take every one of those 15 million American Christians living committed lives of ministry to fulfill our calling. And for that to happen, because we are in positions of spiritual influence in the churches in which we work, we have to change our personal value sets, and with them, the values of our churches, to make this happen.
Many people say that the end times are here, and that it is inevitable that people will reject Christ and the church will grow cold. I do not believe this. In 2 Peter, it is written that "God is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentence." There is a pattern in scripture of repentence leading to the deferral of God's judgement. (See Jonah and Ninevah for example). We are responsible for sharing the message of Christ with our generation, and that this generation of people, as all have before, has an opportunity to repent and turn to God through Jesus Christ. As the people of Ninevah said when they repented and turned to God "Who can tell? Perhaps even yet God will have pity on us and hold back His fierce anger from destroying us." Although the end times spoken of in Revelation are certain to come, no one can say when, and we are responsible to preach until they do.
If you feel these letters are worthwhile, please forward them to your friends in ministry.
Yours in Christ,
Jeremy B. Lowrey
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