Who is Our Target?

Matthew 15:24 He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Galatians 2:7 On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised I once saw a Peanuts cartoon that describes the evangelistic strategy of many churches. Charlie Brown was practicing archery in his backyard. Instead of aiming at a target, he would shoot an arrow at his fence and then walk over and draw a target around wherever the arrow stuck. Lucy walked up and said, "Why are you doing this, Charlie Brown?" He replied without embarrassment, "This way I never miss!" Unfortunately the same logic is behind a lot of churches' evangelist outreach efforts. We shoot arrows of good news into our community and if they happen to hit anyone we say, "That was our target all along!" There is little planning or strategizing behind our efforts---we don't aim at any specific target. We just draw a bull's-eye around whomever we reach and settle for that.  This is an incredibly callous approach to evangelism. Bringing people to Christ is too important a task for us to have such a casual attitude toward it. ---Rick Warren The Purpose Driven Church