Dear Church Family,
This past Sunday you filled out your “Circles of Relationships,” listing out names of family members, neighbors, coworkers, and friends/acquaintances that are lost or out of fellowship with a local church. If you were absent Sunday, you can pick up a booklet in the church office and begin filling out your circles. I can’t stress enough how important this is going to be for our outreach efforts at Calvary.
As your leadership prayed about the best way for us to reach people in our community for Christ, we were convinced that starting a “program” (e.g., a Tuesday night visitation) was not the way to go. Instead of creating a program for outreach, we desire to create a culture of outreach within our church family. We want to become a family of believers who always have people on the forefront of our minds that need to be connected to Jesus and his church. We want this to become a central part of our weekly conversation, prayer times, talk from the pulpit, etc.
This being said, I want to encourage you to begin the three step process for connecting your “circles” to Jesus and his church that we mentioned Sunday: Pray, Connect, Invite. Begin praying by name for the people listed in your circles. Pray that God would create opportunities for you to connect with them, have conversations with them, and form a deeper relationship with them. As God does create opportunities like this (and he will!), connect with those people and invite them to church and to Christ. Remember, 82% of the people in your circles would be willing to come to church with you if you invited them. I’ve already heard stories of God opening up opportunities for members of our church to connect with people they’ve been praying for, and I can’t wait to hear many more stories like this. It’s going to happen.
Also, let me remind you to bring your booklet with your circles to church with you. For the next four Sunday mornings we’re going to have a special prayer time in the worship service for the people in our circles. And every Sunday morning during Sunday school for the entire year we’ll have a special time to report on and pray for what God is doing as we seek to connect these people to Jesus and his church.
I’m excited to see what God does in 2013!
Pastor Grant
Calvary Baptist Church 