Report: Aug 3, 2006

Praise the Lord! There were over 30 people who gathered together for the first meeting of the South Charleston, Ohio Gospel Outreach effort. Saints supported the meeting from Washington Court House, Ohio, Possum Road Church of God, Springfield, Ohio and Buxton Avenue Church of God, Springfield. Other saints were in attendance from various places as well. We appreciate everyone who came out to support the meeting. There were visitors from the local area who attended, including Bro Cory Mosley, pastor of the AME congregation from whom we rented the Chapel.  

Sister Wattleton brought a stirring message on the need to spread the gospel and not lose the primary focus that Jesus has commissioned us do. The mission of the church is to win souls to Christ. Her text was taken from Luke 4:18  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. She reminded us that we need to be filled with the Spirit of God to be effective witnesses. She pointed out that true salvation is manifested by a life lived free from sin, a neglected message that needs to be declared across our land today.  

She briefly shared some of her experiences as a pioneer minister and noted that the church must get out from among the walls of its buildings to properly get the message to those who need to hear the message of the Gospel. The devil has deceived many people today by getting them to believe that they can just faithfully attend services somewhere, and expect sinners to seek them out, when clearly; Jesus commissioned His people to go into the fields of labor and seek out the lost. She pointed out a personal  observation she made that in the 1950's there was a move within the Church of God reformation movement on erecting elaborate buildings to hold the people and when that occurred, the fields quickly became barren and field laborers became scarce. True community outreach meetings, such as the one presently being held, became far and few in between and the focus changed to filling up buildings. Such thinking is foreign to the New Testament church.

A literature package was handed out to each visitor and one person in attendance expressed particular interest in seeking salvation. Please pray that God will continue to touch the hearts of those who are honestly seeking Him. We are expecting God to move upon individuals who have been contacted in various ways. Your prayers for this outreach effort are greatly appreciated.

"It only takes a spark to get a fire going.... Let the fire fall on ME!"