Dear Christ the Saviour family & friends,

A few years back there were a series of commercials promoting increased parental involvement in the lives of their teenagers. The commercials were strategically timed to air just as the late news began at 11pm and when most parents could reasonably expect their teenagers to be home and in bed. They began: “It's 11pm. Do you know where your children are?” I'm sure you remember them. They actually sparked quite a bit of discussion at the time.

I want to tweak the purpose of those commercials a bit to fit our purposes at Christ the Saviour Anglican Church. “It's Sunday morning. Have you shared Jesus and his love this week?” That question is not out of order as we seek to keep the “main thing” the main thing at XTS. And the “main thing” is presenting Jesus to those who may not yet know His saving love!

The “11pm” commercials was intended to jolt the parent who, for whatever reason, had become lax doing the very tough job of parenting a teenager. My question is intended for the same purpose: to jolt the Christian who, for whatever reason, has become lax doing “the main thing” … presenting Jesus. We have the great privilege of presenting Christ to the world. He has saved and redeemed us and commissioned us to be the bearers of that ecstatically Good News.

The Evangelism and Stewardship office of the Episcopal Church used to publish a monthly newsletter. For the life of me I cannot remember what it was called. But I do remember an item that appeared regularly – a cartoon entitled “The Lite Church”. No, that's not a misspelling. I think the E&S office was the only department in TEC that actually believed in keeping the church's mission focused on the “Main Thing” - presenting Jesus. So in “The Lite Church” they would take a good natured poke at the revisionists and pew sitters from time to time. One cartoon showed the front entrance to a church with folks departing and greeting the pastor after the service. The sermon title on the church sign next to the door read: “Doing Evangelism.” One parishioner, a woman dressed to the nines with furs and jewels is shown addressing the pastor: “Vicar,” she says, “everyone who needs to be an Episcopalian already is an Episcopalian.”

You see what our problem is? We were never properly taught that evangelism is the chief work of the church – presenting Jesus. Furthermore, we were never taught how to do it. We have a long way to go to re-program our anti-evangelistic attitudes and enthusiastically embrace the Great Commission. “Jesus came to [the disciples] and said, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go then, and make disciples of all the nations, giving them baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: Teaching them to keep all the rules which I have given you: and see, I am ever with you, even to the end of the world.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

We'll be talking more about evangelism and sharing the Good News as we move forward. It's one of our core values, you know? “We believe in New Beginnings. We believe we can a have Genuine Relationship with God.” What great news to share!

Blessing and peace in Christ Jesus our Saviour!

Fr Huey+