Being Bright Lights

Excerpt from Steve Viars post:  Biblical Counseling as a Community Bridge

One of the great aspects of Christianity is that Jesus Christ has given His church clear marching orders.  While we all articulate our mission statements in slightly different ways, the thrust is to glorify God by winning people to Jesus Christ and equipping them to be more faithful disciples.

Jesus said it like this in the Sermon on the Mount; “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

The apostle Paul told the Philippians; “…prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain” (Philippians 2:15-16).

God has called us to identify bridges where we connect what we believe with men and women in need of the gospel.


Most church leaders that I know spend significant amounts of time contemplating the best ways to accomplish our God-given mission in the culture in which we live.  Pastors literally around the world have asked me the same question; How can we reach our communities for Christ?

It is one thing to know the verses quoted above and the many others we could add to the list.  But knowing what this looks like it practical terms in the average church today is an entirely different issue.  How many of us are really satisfied that we are being the bright lights in our community that the Scripture envisions?


There are many ways to answer the question I’m posing.  High on the list would be the importance of churches equipping our members to spiritual growth in the practical areas of everyday life.  One of the strongest tools in the witnessing bag is a changed and changing life.  This kind of emphasis on progressive sanctification within the walls of the church will lead to all sorts of redemptive conversations throughout the week (1 Peter 3:15).

Another strong answer is churches choosing to make biblical counseling services available to people in your community.  At Faith, we have been doing so now for over thirty years and have found it to be a marvelous source of evangelistic contacts.  Each Monday, twenty-five of our staff members and key lay-persons come together and provide 60-100 hours of biblical counseling services free of charge to people in our community.  We have never advertised our services and we still always have a waiting list.  In a real sense people in our town are standing in line in order to sit down with someone who will talk with them about their problems with the Word of God.

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