River's Edge Community Church

Today our focus is growing in being relevant and engaging our culture. Here is how we describe this virtue:

• We have attempted to engage our culture skillfully at some point.
• We are having more spiritual conversations that are winsome, gentle, gracious and engaging with people who are lost.
• Unchurched people see us as loving people; and they speak highly of our character, integrity and compassionate lifestyle.
• We are growing in our awareness of the needs of others (both here and around the world) and how we can make a difference in their lives.
• We feel we are removing (and not creating) barriers to faith in the lives of people so that the only barrier left is the clear offense of the cross.

Tuesday is a day of reading for prayer, a day where we take God’s Words to us and pray them back to God and allow his thoughts, priorities and values to shape our prayers.

My prayer goal for this week is ________________________________________.
Our goal for last week was ___________________________________________.


Let’s pray:
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us, not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.


Read the following passage from 1 Corinthians 2:1-10
     And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.
     We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”-- he things God has prepared for those who love him—these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.


Pray Around The Text. . . .
Today, we want to pray that we would engage our culture with wisdom, grace, courage and skill. We want to be warm and winsome while we communicate God’s truth lovingly.

As you read this passage, you may find yourself at odds with some of what the text is saying or with what it is calling you to do. Be honest with your struggles before God and wrestle with them in prayer.

Today, you may take a few moments to pray around, through, and with our text, allowing the text to shape, mold and structure your requests as we have in the past. Allow the Spirit to guide your thoughts as you grapple with the implications of this passage on your life.


To Consider As We Pray
“Evangelism is not a professional job for a few trained men, but is instead the unrelenting responsibility of every person who belongs to the company of Jesus.”  (Elton Trueblood)

“How shall I feel at the judgment, if multitudes of missed opportunities pass before me in full review, and all my excuses prove to be disguises of my cowardice and pride.”  (Dr. W. E. Sangster)

"Evangelism is the bridge we build between our love for God and our love for other people.”  (George Barna)


One Thing to Do Today
What does it mean to engage our culture by being relevant and winsome, informed and interesting? Our God is a missionary God, and he calls us to go into his world with his message in a way that moves people to think about the claims of Christ. Of course, the Holy Spirit does the real work, but God calls us to speak powerfully into the lives of the people he puts in our path. Our strategy is not to retreat and play it safe, but to pray and engage.

One way we engage our culture is through the removal of spiritual barriers, and one way we do that is by having a compassionate lifestyle. Open your eyes and hearts to others today and make a difference in your world. Serve those in need and demonstrate the love of Christ wherever you go.


Closing Prayer:
Abba Father, pour out your love upon us so that we may love you and love our neighbors as ourselves. Our hearts are also small. Enlarge them with your glory so they are fit for you. Open our eyes to your love so that we will always walk in your ways. Fill us with your Spirit that we may be your people. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.