Greetings friends and partners! Happy Friday!
It has been another great week at The Joy Project. Today, in addition to sharing a few updates, I want to take a step back and look at what is happening with this movement through the lens of scripture…and through the lens of our current American church culture.
One of the most undertaught and underemphasized topics in American church pulpits is the need for (and the mandate for) sons and daughters of God to share the Gospel with those around them.
This is despite the fact that this topic was so important to Jesus that He made it a focal point of His “last words” to His disciples:
“And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation….So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.“- Mark 16:15,19
Which He gave them an even deeper mandate for in Matthew’s Gospel:
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” – Matthew 28:19-20
In order to see this topic rightly, it is helpful to remember that Jesus purchased every person’s salvation with His Body and His Blood:
And they *sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.”– Revelation 5:9
That He wants ALL people to be saved:
“The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”– 2 Peter 3:9
That He has created a system for salvation that REQUIRES us to plant the seed of the Gospel into someone in order for them to believe in Him and receive salvation:
“How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” – Romans 10:14
And that He gave us the Holy Spirit, in large part, to accomplish this fundamental goal of our Christianity:
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” – Acts 1:8
On top of that, how amazing is it that Jesus also gives us clear insight into how much it means to Him when one person gets saved…so that we can better understand how our obedience in this area pleases Him:
“I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”- Luke 15:7
Sadly though, here in America, we’ve seemed to move away from focusing on expanding Gods family and bringing this INTENSE joy to His heart, and we’ve instead become more focused on…other things.
This article is one of many like it. It shares some sad statistics on how few Christians actually share their faith and how many “unchurched people” have not had the gospel presented to them…despite being open to hearing it.
Christians Don’t Share Faith With Unchurched Friends – Lifeway Research
So, given that this is a massively important thing to Jesus, reiterated by His final message, and further reinforced by His plea for all of us to not only do it ourselves but to pray for others to do it also:
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore, beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”– Matthew 9:37-38
We at The Joy Project (which is a fitting name given Luke 15:7) are SOOO excited to share that by downloading our app today and clicking a few buttons, you can already find 15 unique outreaches, happening in 10 different locations across Sarasota/Bradenton. Not only that, but in ONE single month, our users also now have 39 different outreach event options that they can choose from.
How cool is that!?
We also have 6 unique options for prayer meetings (hosted by 5 different churches), as well as 2 different options for local evangelism training.
Also, this week, we had a very fruitful meeting with the founder and President of “Meet The Need”, which is one of the nation’s leading community service ministries. They are in 7 states, and they have thousands of people and needs in their database, with more being added all the time.
We are already discussing how we can allow these needs to be viewable on The Joy Project, so our users can see them.
So, hopefully in just a few more weeks, in addition to all the outreach opportunities we have, we will also have dozens of practical individual needs listed, so that our users can not only participate in a diverse array of soul winning events, but they can also step up and be the hands and feet of Jesus for an individual or a family in their area…and share the Gospel with them through that personal interaction.
I’m telling you, I can already feel the Joy starting to well up in God’s heart as He excitedly awaits the extra souls that will be won because of this simple app and mission.
So, given all this, please continue to pray for us to navigate this important assignment. And, please continue to share the good news of this app with others.
We love you and we thank you for being on the mission with us!
Chris, Chris and John- The Joy Project Team