Your part in the net?

When Jesus ascended back to Heaven, He gave us a collective mission to share His Gospel message. That sounds simple enough.

What makes this command able to reach us and then for us to reach others is our individual participation with the church.

One way to imagine this is like a fishing net.

There was a day when Jesus found some men mending their nets by the shore--they understood this principle well! If the net has holes, it will not work correctly to catch fish. Jesus took the next step to invite these fishing-net-menders to follow Him, and He would make them fishers-of-men. (Way before "World Wide Web" was coined as a technology term, Christ utilized the idea in a practical and spiritual way. ) This reminds us that each of us is needed, and you need the rest of us to do God's work well.

What is your part in the "net,"the net that Christ is using to "catch" and reach people with the Gospel through the church?

Our part is stewarding the resources of life that God has entrusted to our care while partnering with other parts of the net. We use these resources (His time, talent, treasure, and truth) as a way to invest and lay up treasures in Heaven for His glory!

I hope you will prayerfully consider the place God calls you to serve Him as we cast the net to reach others and help them.

To help us "continue in the faith" this year, Ron Taylor and his family will be with us on Sunday. We support the Taylors and their church planting ministry in New York City. We sent a missions team to serve with them in 2016 just before they came and were the first people to show up and start helping us recover from the flood. You'll enjoy hearing how God has been changing lives as they seek to plant churches in each of NYC's five boroughs.

Our teen to adult Sunday school classes will meet together at 9:30am in the auditorium, and we will worship together at 10:30am. At 6pm, our church family will meet together for dinner as we commit to be faithful in the ways that God speaks to each one of us.

Submit a commitment form, and help us to connect, encourage, and pray for you as a part of the "net" God is mending, building, and strengthening at Open Door.

I am really excited about the work God is doing and will continue to do! Welcome to the "net." Let's catch some more for Christ, our wonderful and loving Friend and Savior!

In Christ,
Pastor Dennis Schaffer