A pastor was recently involved in a conversation, a conversation in which he was grieving over the state of the congregation.  The congregation was nice enough; no internal divisions were tearing things apart.  He wasn't concerned about the finances; they were well off.  None of those concerned him, but one thing did, and it was his major concern.

He said that if you asked the members, "If you should die tonight, where would you go?"  He said that most, if not all, answer, "I hope I'd go to heaven; I haven't murdered anybody."

There were many things about that answer that were bothering him.  The first thing was, as he said, "You could go out on the street and ask the first fifty people who've never been in church the same question, and you'd get the same basic answer."  It was incomprehensible to him that people could be "Sitting in church for fifty years and not know whether they were going to heaven or not."

Christ told us that we're to go into the world and preach the gospel, make disciples, we've heard it a million twice million times.  But if a church is filled with people who are unsure about their own destiny, that church never gets out of the starting blocks.

In the winter of 1980, I asked people who'd been sitting in church all their lives to write the plan of salvation.  The results were disappointing to the point of grief.  Their pastor had been preaching for years and years and they had been sitting in the pews of that church for years and years listening.  Their responses were a mass of confusion and confusing to the reader.  As the author of Hebrews wrote, "You should be teachers, but instead, you need someone to teach you."

I found, that, in spite of sitting in church for many decades, few could articulate the gospel or their faith.  To be blunt, they didn't know what they were talking about.  And that's a shame.

I received a letter from an organization called the "Clear Gospel Crusade."  They sent me one of their publications.  That's a good way to put it, "clear gospel crusade," that's what CLC is all about, presenting the clear gospel of faith alone in Christ alone.

It's wonderful to be a part of CLC in that regard.  When a person walks through the door, whether it's a Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, or a Thursday, there's something different about the environment.  Whether it's for Sunday school, church, a seminary class, our youth meetings, the women's fellowship, or karate, he doesn't know it, but we've got him surrounded with clarity and, chances are, he's about to hear the greatest news he's never heard (or heard clearly) before-faith alone saves.

Whatever he reads from CLC, our newsletter or a tract from the foyer table, he's surrounded with clarity about the gospel.  Straight-forward, no nonsense, to the point, faith alone in Christ alone saves.

Someone here at CLC mentioned something that I can't stop thinking about.  He said that from his experience, most churches are immature.  Their music is immature, their sermons are immature, their SS classes are immature, and their fellowships are immature.  Sad, but he has a point.

The leadership of CLC is dedicated to insuring a clear and mature ministry from Sunday to Thursday.   I'm grateful that the leadership of CLC brings to the church a clear and mature ministry across the board.

To that end, we're dedicated to making sure that if you want to be able to articulate your faith and to articulate the gospel clearly, you're in the right place.  It would be such a sad, sad thing to realize that after 50 years of church attendance, a person can only respond with an "I hope so."  What a waste.

Dr. Mike Halsey, Pastor