Why “Receiving Jesus Meeting”?

There aren’t too many things that I disagreed with Pastor Chai about in doing ministry, but one of the things that I believed differently about was “Receiving Jesus Meeting.” I didn’t want just the pastors to share the gospel with unbelievers, helping them to become God’s children by receiving Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. I wanted every member of New Life to be able to do this and experience the joy of leading someone to Christ. My reasoning sounded very noble and ideal but the track record revealed that it was not all that effective in saving souls and making them disciples of Christ.

When someone receives Christ, the Bible tells us that he is born again. This means he is a spiritual infant needing to be fed, nurtured and taken care of in order to grow and mature. And this obviously needs to happen in God’s family, the church. Moreover, when someone becomes a Christ follower, he becomes a part of the body of Christ, which is the church. Therefore, it is God’s will that every person who gets saved becomes a member of a local church – learning, growing and serving to be all that God wants him to be and to do all that God wants him to do.

Unfortunately, many who heard the gospel presented to them through New Life members and received Christ in the past are not with us or with any other local church. This means that they are at best saved but became orphans without a church family. This certainly is not what God wants to see happen.

This is the main reason why I have decided to offer “Receiving Jesus Meeting.” We have done it twice already and there are several people who received Christ through the meeting as I shared the gospel. It is not me who is doing all the work of sharing the gospel. In fact, I am just doing the last and shortest part of helping someone become God’s child. The bulk of the work has been done already by all the house church members and shepherds who have poured in their sacrificial love for people to come to the meeting and hear the gospel presentation. All of us are doing God’s work as partners and God is pleased with that. In fact, this is a biblical approach.

“What joy awaits the sower and the reaper, both together! For it is true that one sows and someone else reaps.” (John 4: 36-37 LB)

I should have listened to Pastor Chai long ago. Wisdom is listening and obeying the one who is older and wiser than you are! ☺

Your pastor,

Eric