The Main Opportunity

Someone once said to me that 'the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.' It's one of those convoluted management speak ways of saying know your goal, target your goal and keep targetting your goal. So what is our goal in Castlemilk? Why do we do the things that we do in the way that we do them? Why, this week, have significant parts of our work been the testimony of one of our staff at our youth club, working on handwriting by copying stuff from the Bible and speaking words from God's Word to a dying man in his sleep?

Our main thing should always be the presentation of Jesus Christ (crucified for sinners and the salvation that comes by grace alone through faith alone in Him alone so that He alone gets the glory)in a clear way before a watching world. This extends to everything that we do from the preaching (Christ-centred, Bible-dependent teaching) to how we live our lives (living for Jesus by living like Jesus) to the programmes that we provide.

So why do the staff at Junction hang out with the young people on a Monday night? Not because it is a youth club but because it is an opportunity! Why do I court major embarrassment by Maths at Overtime, our homework club? Because it is an opportunity. Do I hope that these activities will help keep them out of trouble, make them feel they have a place to go? Do I hope that it will help to improve their prospects and give them a brighter future? To both of these questions I would say yes, but it is not the main thing.

Do I want them to be entranced with a view of Jesus that is irresistible to them? Yes. Do I want them to know salvation from their sins according to the grace and will of God? That is absolutely my prayer. Do I think that this is the main thing? It's so much the main thing that there is no other thing!