What Is Ablaze!
There are many applications of the term ‘Ablaze” in Christendom and in the larger world today. A search on the word “ablaze” at Google produced over three million hits on 30 March 2008.
As I said in the Welcome Post for this blog, a more complete explanation of what the Ablaze movement in the LCMS is can be found on the LCMS Ablaze! web page, but simply stated it is an effort to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with 100 million people by the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017.
Here in the SED, our part of that goal is to reach 2,500,000 of the overall 100 million. You can find more complete information at the Ablaze section of the SED web site.
The numbers may seem large, but they actually work out to every confirmed LCMS Lutheran sharing the Gospel four times a year with someone who has either never heard it before or who is not personally committed to the Lord between 2004 and 2017. If you have not been sharing already there is still some time to catch up, and the yearly “quota” still (in 2010) works out to less than one a month.
The way we see it Ablaze is not a church growth movement although the Church will grow as a result. Ablaze is not about counting numbers, although to get to where we want to be counting is a good way to start.
Ablaze is all about the church rediscovering and every member participating in the Great Commission. Ablaze is all about Kingdom work, sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with a lost and dying world.
You can also check this video introduction:
