Last Wednesday, April 25, McCullers had the honor of hosting Linda Williams, founder and now Chief Encouragement Officer for With Love From Jesus Ministries (WLFJ). Linda graciously served as our Wednesday Evening Mission Emphasis speaker. WLFJ is a well-known evangelical outreach ministry to the needy community in Raleigh and surrounding areas.
Linda gave a powerful testimony about how God built and shaped this ministry over twenty-plus years of service. In the beginning, the ministry’s focus was meeting human needs, so the measure of success was how many grocery bags were distributed during a week. Over time, and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the ministry focus changed to evangelism. Now, the measure of success became how many people came to the saving knowledge of Jesus as Savior. It is exciting to look back and see the hand of God at work shaping this ministry.
But wait, God wasn’t through forming His ministry. God changed its focus once again. He laid out a vision that led WLFJ to become a platform displaying the UNITY of the Body of Christ. That concept is important because it’s found in the prayer of Jesus just before He went to the cross. Jesus prayed, “I in them and You in Me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them even as You loved Me” (John 17:23 ESV).
Linda says that after twenty-plus years of ministry, an important truth was learned. “If we do unity well (love each other, stand together, move in the same direction following Jesus, work through conflict), human need is met AND people come to know Jesus. The unity displayed is the greatest evangelism tool that we have. (Jesus said that our unity displayed declares that the Father sent the Son.”
McCullers Church has supplied WLFJ with prayer and financial support for several years, but after Linda’s presentation on Wednesday, we can see God working to shape our ministry partnership with WLFJ. We, as a congregation, recognize the need to display unity in our congregation’s work, and unity with our mission partners. We desire that Jesus’ prayer will be answered through the power of the Holy Spirit. Stay tuned and let’s see what God does next.