Formation Of A Gospel That Speaks To Those In Need Of Same.

Publicans and Sinners....  Publicans and Sinners....

...with the Son of God, the Son of Man, elbow-to-elbow, and from the Lord of the Sinners the Godhead rendered in sinless flesh--

--they(the publicans and sinners, skinflints robber barons and tax collectors) could break bread with Him without shame or guilt.

Are we only ministering to the saved?

Are we posting doctrine for people who already know doctrine back-to-front?

In a conversation with a study group, we put our heads together and came up with something.  Among us, we were addressing how come it seemed that none outside were coming to Christ.  It didn't take us very long to realize that we were part of a larger problem:

We were preaching "getting saved" to the already saved.

I had sat in a congregation, and even parsed fine points of scripture with them.  Some had simple but confounding questions, and sometimes there were deeper, more finite points of Theology.  And everyone in the building were "saved", maybe not baptized but saved nonetheless.  The leader would triumphantly plead with us to get saved, for the sake that someone new might sneak in the building during the sermon.

No one new snuck in the building during the calls for salvation.

We barnstormed keywords, and reasons people might look into the message of Christ.  Some people might be at their lowest, feeling sad or ashamed, lost and confused, without goals in life, maybe unloved.  Such a group of folks might outwardly scoff at the Gospel, but inwardly yearn to know more.

-Depression.

-Loss of loved ones.

-Drugs/Alcohol.

-Career Anxiety.

-"Mental Health Issues".

-Gender Confusion.

Dual tracks:

Biblical teachings for the saved believers, 

WHILE ALSO

Giving Jesus Christ to people who need it most.

A Few Ministry Pitfalls: 

Preaching to the Choir: Salvation for the already saved.

Not discerning when or if to brick-wall or shun a "wayward member".

It stands to reason in ministry that to spread Christ's Gospel, we will indeed need to associate with morally ambiguous or dubious people.  Yet there is scriptural support for the shunning of the sin-riddled lay people, in the writings of Paul.

Paul's point was simple.  We stop our outreach when and if such outreach threatens to damage our Faith Walk, when it calls us away from our own salvation.  

When we become susceptible to "sin" or Destruction in its various forms, and that because we thought to engage with non-believers who were still slaves to those destructive behaviors.

In other words, while we advertise Christ's Gospel, our audience might be attempting to sell us sin, in return.