Gilson Family News

We’re all back home again! Jonathan returned yesterday afternoon from 50 days on a mission trip to Orlando, where he was part of a Creative Arts ministry team sharing Christ at tourist attractions, in churches, and at Give Kids the World. Sara, Tom, and Lisa were in Colorado for a nine-day conference with all the U.S. staff of Campus Crusade for Christ.

Jonathan came home very much in need of sleep, so we haven’t heard a lot of his story first-hand yet. It was a great time for him, anyway; we know that much already. He made some great friends, and God used him personally to lead at least one person to Christ, in addition to what was accomplished through the team working together.

The three of us who went to Colorado would all say it was our best conference there in many years (we have this conference every other year). Campus Crusade is adjusting its methodology to the 21st century, adding social networking (blogs, Facebook, Twitter) to our means of connecting with lost people and anyone we may be working with. Although I (Tom) am a blogger, it’s taking me a while to get used to the other methods, but I’m learning.

This does not replace face-to-face ministry, though; in fact, through pastor Timothy Keller and some of our own staff we were strongly reminded of the need to express love through tangible acts of service wherever we minister. This is both an expression of God’s character and an evangelistic strategy. In fact, we’re finding that non-believers are often eager and willing to join us on humanitarian trips, and there they see Christ at work in Christians’ hearts. It even works the other way around: some of our ministries have joined with secular-sponsored humanitarian efforts and shared Christ with their fellow-workers.

Is there a danger in this, that we’ll focus on giving immediate aid and let it substitute for sharing the message of Jesus Christ? The answer is yes: we’re seeing that tendency especially among college students we’re working with. Part of our purpose at this conference was training and discussion on how to keep the Gospel message central to our outreach.

Jesus Christ left us with both the Great Commission (to make disciples of all nations) and the Great Commandments (to love God and our neighbor). They are inseparable.

Finally on the conference, both Sara and I did considerable networking among the many staff and ministries of Campus Crusade for Christ. Our ministry has long been focused primarily on “ministering to the ministers,” as we have put it, and the connections we made will open relational and organizational doors to help keep us busy and fruitful for quite a while to come.

I had to get this blog entry posted early today, because later today the first sentence won’t be true. Lisa will be taking off for a Youth Evangelism Conference later this morning, an overnight trip to Richmond, along with other members of our church’s youth group. Sometime tomorrow afternoon, we’ll really be all back home again.