Transforming lives in a changing world is not just our motto, it is what really is happening. We see this in our various ministries all the time. Often people tell me what a difference their LIFE Group has made in their lives. Others come up and tell me how much their children are getting out of Sunday School. Recently, a father was praying at one of our meetings and he was thanking God for the difference the youth ministry has made in his son’s life. Hearing these stories always encourages me.
However, nothing gets me more excited than seeing people discover the joy of being in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. One of the best ways for a church to measure whether or not it is being used to bring people to Christ is by looking at how people are joining the church. Some people join UPC by transfer of letter. This means that they were already Christians before coming to UPC and members of another church. Others join by reaffirmation of faith. At some time in the past, they were members of another church, but their membership has lapsed. Many who join by reaffirmation of faith are people who grew up in the church, but did not have a personal relationship with Christ before now.
A third category of people who join are those who join by Profession of Faith. These are people who have never been a member of any church. They have never publicly professed their faith in Christ as an adult member. In some cases, they have never been baptized. I believe this category is the best statistic to examine if you want to know if a church really is being used to bring people to Christ.
I was at a conference a month ago and I was surprised to learn that out of 1,300 churches, UPC is in the top 20 of PCA (Presbyterian Church in America) churches in the number of people who join by Profession of Faith. What that tells me is that UPC people are excited enough about their relationship with Jesus Christ that they gladly talk to others about Jesus and invite them to church.
Already this year, we have had quite a number of people join by Profession of faith. In addition, we have baptized five adults in 2006, including Yung-Hsun Wu and Yi-Hsin Lin this past Sunday (May 28). These five adults have never been a member of a church nor were they baptized as a child.
God is using you and the other people of UPC to help the people discover His amazing grace. Let’s keep up the good work. The message of God’s grace is a message our world is dying to hear. So, let’s continue to invite our friends to come hear about Jesus’ love and continue to pursue our vision of transforming lives in a changing world.