Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:9,10, NIV)
Jesus came to seek and save the lost.
The church exists to continue the work of Jesus. How are we doing?
The big advantage business has over non-profit organizations such as churches is that it is impossible to deny failure in a business. You lose money. You go out of business. You lose money. You know something is wrong. You lose money. You change or die.
A church, on the contrary, can limp on for a very long time without any bottom-line success.
Is there any local congregation in the United States that does not have people around it who we could call “lost”? Even in the smallest town or most thinly populated rural county, isn’t it true that there are people Jesus came to save?
The answer has to be “yes,” doesn’t it?
Why don’t we reach them?
At the small church I serve, the answers are not all clear to me, but I know as the appointed pastor the question is one I must answer. Answering it calls for creativity, risk-taking, and overcoming fear of failure. But how can we do less? How can I?
It all starts with a clear-eyed question that is answered honestly: How are we doing?
I am a part-time local pastor serving 
The doctrine of original sin is surely more humbling to man than the opposite: And I know not what honour we can pay to God, if we think man came out of His hands in the condition wherein he is now.
