When starting a church in an unfamiliar area, building a congregation is tough! It takes lots of prayer, patience, and guidance. We realize there are many ways to build a congregation, but we have consulted with other pastors, missionaries, and laymen who have experience with this. They have given advice on what has been successful, as well as, unsuccessful for them. But one thing is certain, we must take the advice of the parable our Lord speaks of in Luke 14 and "go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in."
At Canaan Land we have majored in the area of outreach. On Saturday, April 9th we were blessed with the opportunity to attend, and set up a booth at the Whistle Stop Festival in Waynesboro. This has by far been one of our better community outreaches. We had the opportunity to meet lots of new people. One thing, that many people we met, had in common was that they seemed to be looking for a place to worship that would welcome them. We were able to hand out well over 200 gospel tracts and church invitations and 40 new Bibles. As the pastor of a mission, I have found that these outreach efforts can be costly, monetarily, as well as, laborious. So, is the return worth the investment? Absolutely! Seeing the joy of our people when visitors join us in worship, knowing it is a direct return of the investment, is very humbling. It also reminds us that God is in complete control, and will continue to be faithful to us, as long as we are faithful to Him.
How long does it take to make a return on your investment? Timing is completely up to the Lord! In our case, we have been blessed with a visitor who has been completely willing and motivated to help since she arrived a month ago. She graciously helped us at the festival, and personally invited a couple to join us in services. The couple, Mr. and Mrs. Bolton, arrived Sunday, April 10! The couple was so gracious to have been able to attend our church services and expressed they were looking for a new church home. Thank you so much to everyone who supports our efforts at Canaan Land! Please continue to pray for us, as well as, the many seeds that we were able to plant with our outreach efforts. God is Good!
