Economists talk about the problem of the commons. Every no one in particular is responsible for something, it often turns out that no one at all is responsible for it. We see this sort of thing on the macro-scale, with socialist experiments, and we see it on a small scale, as when none of the roommates are responsible for the kitchen. The result is a mess.
It is not enough to be in favor of something in the abstract. Everybody wants a clean kitchen, but it is not going to happen unless someone takes responsibility. In a similar way, we don’t want to be the kind of church that approves of evangelism in the abstract. We want to be the kind of congregation where we take the responsibility to urge you to take responsibility to pray for and reach out to non-believers that you know. But we also want to give you clear opportunities—otherwise, we are just trying to guilt people to do things that God did not equip them to do.
So here are several opportunities, as the Lord leads you. First, this evening our Threshold service will be a Christmas-themed service, one which many unbelievers would likely be willing to attend. Pick up a card on the back tables.
Second, the church has obtained many copies of the DVD for Notes-From-the-Tilt-a-Whirl, and we are making these available to you for giveaway. If you have seen it already, please pick up as many copies as you can successfully give to friends or acquaintances—professors, classmates, co-workers, family members. If you have not seen it, we would just ask you to watch it before you pass it on. We have received numerous reports back about this, and we can tell you it packs quite a punch.
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