There are many effective ways to share the Gospel message. One of the most practical and powerful ways to start is by directly providing Scripture resources to congregations and ministries.
At the LCMS Youth Gathering this past July, more than 20,000 youth gathered to worship Jesus and study His Word. There were also daily opportunities to serve the Church in a variety of capacities. Concordia Gospel Outreach (CGO), a ministry of Concordia Publishing House, hosted a servant event on the exhibit floor where volunteers assembled boxes filled with a set of resources tailored to help churches and schools evangelize in their communities.
Wide–Reaching Impact
Hundreds of boxes were assembled to be shipped to churches, schools, chaplains, and Spanish ministry groups across the United States. Each box included resources such as children’s Bibles, children’s hymnals, youth devotions, pastoral resources, and Spanish–translation materials.
The set of books in each box was designed to answer the needs a Lutheran church, school, or ministry–outreach group has at any given time. With the help of dozens of volunteers each day at the Youth Gathering, more than 1,500 organizations and individuals were reached through this project.
Through this servant project, CGO worked to continue its mission of providing Bible-based materials and literature to those in missional outreach. The goal for each shipment was to help Christians all over the country encourage reading the Gospel and emphasize its importance for faith lives around the world.
While providing the basics may not seem like a lot, carrying out projects like this prove to be fruitful in spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As Christians, we are called to many different places and are responsible for loving others wherever we go. Equipping church families and missionaries to share His Word with their communities as well as their own members is one of the most important steps to take in this call.
Notes of Appreciation
After the boxes were shipped and safely delivered, several recipients sent notes of thanks and explained their plans on how the they will use resources inside their box.
I just received your wonderful box of Gospel Outreach resources. As the director and pastor for the Extra Mile Ministries K9 Crisis Dogs, we go to many people when they are faced with trauma, crisis or disaster. These resources will surely help bring hope to those in the community we do ministry with.
—Chaplain Ralph B.
Thank you! Recently on a Sunday morning, we had a Family Bible Baseball event. We were able to gift each family in attendance with a resource to take home to use for their family’s study of God’s Word. This was such as blessing as one of our initiatives in our Sunday School ministry has been to equip parents and families to teach the faith at home. These resources provided something for every family in whatever life stage they were in. My own family chose “One and All Rejoice” and have already used it for our bedtime singing. We will be using the booklets explaining Christianity in our Care Ministry and passing them out at our Food Pantry.
—Jennifer A.
I lead devotions each week for our summer camp. We have many community kids that attend our camp, and I'm excited for the privilege of sharing Jesus with them. Today was our last devotion for the summer, and I used the opportunity to invite the children to our Sunday morning Messiah Kids (Sunday School) program. Today's devotion was about the importance of the Bible, and how it's a love letter written from God to us. I told the kids that if they didn't have their own Bibles at home and they wanted one, they could come see me for a special gift. Thanks to your box of resources, I had three Growing in Faith Bible Storybooks sitting on my desk. Three children came up to ask me for Bibles, and I got to gift them with this special book!
-Hannah L.
Thank you so much for the box of books that was delivered to our church! The books in the box will be of great use to many families, as we recently started a free resource bookshelf for all ages this past spring. Our goal is to equip all households in our congregation with free and easy resources to use for devotion time and Bible study, and resources that cover all sorts of different topics related to our faith. Many of the books sent have already been taken and we look forward to gifting our second graders with the Faith Alive Bibles that were also included in the box.
—DCE Cassie B.
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