We’re living in a day, when the unbelievers are not walking through the church doors like they were forty years ago. A day when our young people do not know about the choices of good or evil; choices of right and wrong. Choices of God and Satan, they have only seen one side in our urban communities. Drugs, killing, robbings, cursing, sexual immorality, unwanted by fathers, unloved by mothers, this is what they see on a daily basis. This is why the Church must realize our work is outside the gates.
Just as Peter and John were responsive to the lame man laid at the gates of the temple, we must be responsive to the lame men, and women that we pass everyday on our way to the temple. Lame in spirit, lame in mind, lame in soul, lame in health, etc. We as believers have become so caught up in our next conference; we’ve become unconcerned about the lame. Yet the real work is outside the gates.
I truly thank God for what he has placed in my spirit and in our ministry at Fellowship Tabernacle Church of God in Christ. You may ask what is it? One word Evangelism. The definition of Evangelism is taking the gospel to the unbelievers. Our ministry started from a choir going into the prisons, drug rehabs, and streets, letting dying lame men and women know they can have life and that more abundantly with Jesus Christ. Now don’t get me wrong conferences has its place in the church, but if it’s not preparing us to be fruitful in witnessing (which we are commanded by Christ to do) (“Go into the highways and hedges compelling them to come”) to the unbeliever. Well then conferences just are not helping. Every conference should encourage us to the realization that the work is outside the gates.
Here at Fellowship we are preparing for out annual crusade “Taking it to the Streets” where we’ll be having a three night crusade on Gunhill Road August 24-26. We believe God for lame souls to be saved, lame backsliders reclaimed, lame drug users delivered. Then we can be like Peter and John, letting the lame know, that we may not have what you want, but we have what you need, J-E-S-U-S. Rise up and walk, then just as Peter, John and the lame man praised God together in the temple. We too can praise God with the lame men and women inside the temple.
So let us, as the church also rise up, and realize that the work is outside the gates.
Superintendent Jay A. Gooding Sr., Pastor
Fellowship Tabernacle Church of God in Christ
1234 E. Gunhill Road
Bronx, New York 10469
(718) 652-7620
