The growing business
Welcome to this new monthly column. Several years ago, I spotted a garden centre delivery van, which ran the strap-line, ‘Our business is growing’. It seemed a slogan that could readily be adopted by any individual Christian, or church, or ministry.
The double meaning is both clever and important. We want to see the gospel growing, in our land and locality, as well as around the world, as God adds new members to his church. But we also have a responsibility to be growing ourselves, as followers of Jesus, in many dimensions and all sorts of areas of our lives and personalities. That’s our business as believers.
Contemporary issues
So, the aim of this column will be to explore contemporary issues of discipleship, in a culture that has lost its moorings along with its Christian heritage. It’s a culture where apathy is still the predominant response to evangelism, but where hostility is coming up not far behind. Yet we live still in a context of massive opportunity and we still enjoy great freedoms to be the salt of the earth, the light of Christ in the darkness, a city set on a hill that cannot be hidden (Matthew 5.13-14).
