Proclaiming Christ Jesus In Your Fields of Opportunity
The above heading is the theme chosen for our 2009 IDE Convention. It is from Luke 24:46-47 where Jesus said after His resurrection: “And He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” The church is sent to proclaim in His name. The “fields of opportunity” comes from the welcome to Iowa signs which greet you when you enter our state.
God has uniquely positioned each of the 119 congregations of our District in their own “mission fields.” While the basic needs of people are the same wherever one goes, reaching them may happen in different ways. The Church is called to proclaim the message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified and risen for the justification of the world. That happens through the faithful preaching of the Gospel and the proper administration of the sacraments by our Pastors.
The fields of opportunity look different as one travels across the district. Some fields are declining numerically while others are stagnant and some actually are gaining people. Our congregations have opportunity to interact with the people who reside in these mission fields. What kind of posture do our churches adopt? It seems like there are two postures, one which says “come and see,” and another which says “go to where the people are.” Jesus was usually going to where the people were though there were some who came to Him “to see,” such as Zaccheus.
The message of Christ Jesus and Him crucified has been given to the Church. That message is entrusted to the Pastor to publicly proclaim to the congregation. But all God’s baptized, through their various vocations have been placed in their own “mission field.” It is as we live from our baptism that we have the opportunity to “tell others what Jesus has done for them,” or to invite people and bring them along with us to the Divine Service.
That is the way Christ’s mission has always been carried out. Someone carried us to the Baptismal font or they brought us into contact with the life-giving Gospel of Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus comes to us through His Word and His Sacraments. They do what they say they do: “they forgive us our sins!” That is the message the Church has been called to take to people who are still outside the Church. I John 5:13-15 sums it up very well: “And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you might know that you have eternal life.” God help us as He sends His Church out into His “fields of opportunity.”
