On 1 November, volunteers from across our 3 clubs gathered to give thanks to God for his work in us and in our clubs in 2025. Lincoln, one of the founding members of Jesus Club (JC), gave us an exhortation from 2 Corinthians 4:1-6.

There, Paul addressed those who were losing heart because the gospel so often feels ineffective. Paul might as well have been speaking directly to us! We feel keenly the disappointment of seeing members reject the gospel despite years of coming to JC, or of seeing others repeatedly fall into the same patterns of sin. And we’re tempted to wonder: Does the gospel really work?

Because the gospel feels weak, powerless to save and bring about change, some in Paul’s day were tempted to resort to deception or distorting God’s Word to get results. At JC, we face the same temptations. We hear feedback like this from the ground:

“JC should focus on having more socials.”

“It’s enough for our members to experience God’s love in our meetings.”

“This passage is so difficult! Why struggle to teach it when we can just teach an easier passage?”

And we’re tempted to make our programme a little more exciting or to pick and choose what to teach from the Bible – highlighting attractive parts about God’s love and forgiveness, while deliberately hiding other “offensive” parts that call us to costly repentance and obedience.

Paul says to us, “Renounce such secret and shameful ways.” The powerful Creator God is powerfully at work to unveil the hearts and minds of unbelievers so that they see the glory of Christ. But God does this only as the truth is set forth plainly.

May we continue to keep God’s Word at the heart of all we do at JC, trusting the Spirit of God to wield his sword to do the work of God in the people of God.