EDITOR’S LETTER


Column by Carol Pipes


Reflections of a radical love F


or God so loved the world that He gave His only son. This is the ultimate defi nition of radical love. It’s because of God’s love for mankind that He sent His son to die for us, to redeem mankind. It was out of love that Jesus gave His life to pay the price for our sins. Jesus died for the church out of love. What if the church refl ected this kind of love? What if we so demonstrated Christ’s love that people were drawn to Him through our actions? When local churches meet the needs of their communities, cities and the world, they act as a conduit through which the love of Christ enters lives. In every issue of On Mission, we strive to feature missionaries and on mission Christians who refl ect the love of Christ to those living in North America. In this issue, you’ll fi nd examples of churches that are transforming their communities by reaching outside the walls of the church and meeting the needs of the people around them. Big or small, every church has the opportunity to become a change-agent in their Jerusalem and even to the ends of the earth. We hope to feature more on mission churches in future issues of On Mission. So, if you know of a church that is radically refl ecting the love of Christ, let us know. I recently visited a church in Coeburn, Virginia, that recognized the need to provide lunches to children during the summer months. The majority of the children in their commu- nity benefi ted from a school lunch program, but when school wasn’t in session there was a tre- mendous need. So Friendship Baptist Church has fi lled the gap by providing close to 10,000 sack lunches to kids throughout their community. That’s the kind of radical love that impacts a single life but has the power to reverberate thoughout the entire community. Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom in exchange for our freedom that is found only in Him. He created and died for the body of Christ so that by living out our faith and by being the church, men and women might come to a personal relationship with God.


Carol Pipes, editor cpipes@namb.net


4 Fall 2010 • onmission.com


JOHN SWAIN


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