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Reflection

The theme for our reflection is new members. Peter preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ and new members joined the believers of Christ. It will be noted that new members joined the church because Peter preached an evangelistic or Christ-centered sermon. “Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.” (Acts 2:37-41)

There is a proliferation of churches in every city and town of Africa except in the Islam dominated countries. Each of these churches is hungry for new members and therefore will go to any length to entice and devise means to attract new members. Some churches have resorted to placing more emphasis on material prosperity and possession. Others spend huge financial resources to build fanciful and gigantic auditoriums in the bid to attract new members. Dear friend in the Lord, a new member who joins a church without the transformational power of the Gospel of Christ, joins in vain. A new member cannot become a true believer without first listening to the Gospel of salvation. In other words, the first step of becoming a true believer and a new member of the body of Christ is to be transformed and inspired by the Gospel. Through the power of the Gospel, we acknowledge that we are lost and totally surrender our lives to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior through repentance, baptism and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

It is rather unfortunate to see people becoming new members of a church because of the personality of the pastor, the modern architecture of the chapel, the class of people in the church, the promise of support in kind and cash (welfare packages) and the colourfulness of the music. The question is, would a person continue to remain a member of a church if the material reason for which he or she joined the church is no longer present? Some people have become floating members of churches, changing church every now and then because of mundane considerations. If a person becomes a new member of a church through the power of the Gospel, the church building and other physical or material considerations are of little relevance to him or her, what is of utmost importance to him or her is that “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20). It is the Christ-centered message or consideration that made people become new members of the early church therefore the church began without a magnificent chapel building yet it had over three thousand souls. The early church started with the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, a gathering of believers and the preaching of the Gospel as its foundation. This must equally be the foundation of the church and believers in our current generation. The core mandate of the church is to preach Christ and disciple new members into spiritual maturity and fruitfulness.

PRAYER

Holy Spirit, revive us and lead us to preach Christ and to make disciples of all nations to the glory of God. Amen.