“If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it?” – Luke 15:4 (NLT)

The religious people in Jesus’ day got upset with him for hanging out with sinners. Jesus responded by telling a parable about a lost sheep. He asked them this question: “If you had 100 sheep and one of them got lost, won’t you leave the 99 others to go and search for the one that is lost?” Jesus goes on to describe the joyful celebration that happens in heaven when one lost child of God comes home.

Research shows that more than 135,000 people in our surrounding community are not connected to a church. In January of 2021, the Pastors and Elders began to wrestle with the growing conviction that we can do more as a church family to reach the people around us who don’t know Jesus. We started by personally praying for God to show us at least one person in our lives who needs to know the love of Jesus. We then committed to praying for that person and investing in that person’s life as a friend.

After six months of this commitment, our leaders began to feel challenged and convicted that we had not been nearly as intentional as we should be in sharing the incredible gift of Jesus with those around us who need Him. It has been humbling and exciting to see how God opened doors in response to our small steps of obedience. There are lost and hurting people all around us – in our neighborhoods, our kids’ extracurricular events, our schools, and our places of work. We believe God is calling us all – our entire church family – to have a greater burden for those who don’t know Jesus. If God’s heart is for the one, shouldn’t our hearts be as well?

To reach those who do not know Jesus, we have made some big goals for the coming years. We will all need to sacrifice, like so many who have come before us, if we want to see Maple City Chapel have an even greater impact on our communities for Jesus. We will need to commit to reaching those around us by giving of ourselves and giving of our resources. I’m asking that you begin by praying and asking God to show what part he wants you to play in this initiative.