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God has always been on a mission.  His pursuit of the lost started in the Garden of Eden, and does not simply end in salvation.  God continues to pursue our hearts.   As He draws us deeper in worship and adoration and understanding of His heart, He propels us out toward those He loves and for whom He died.   As with Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3, we've been blessed in order to bless others.  When God's propulsion sends us beyond the reach of the local church, when it sends us to those who have little or no access to the gospel, we call that missions.  Perhaps "pioneer missions" is a better term to separate it from the common and broad usage now.  Either way, bringing the gospel to the least reached is the passion which drives SEND.  

What's in a word?  The driving force of God's pursuit.  That Jesus came to "seek and to save what was lost" (Luke 19:10) compels us to do no less.]]> Tue, 4 May 2010 11:17:29 EST
Mary and Mary Magdalene were afraid.  They couldn’t make sense out of what they were seeing.  The stone was rolled away.  There was a person whose “appearance was like lightening” by the tomb.  What was going on?  The angel spoke to their bewilderment and said “Do not be afraid…Come and see….go quickly and tell…” (Matthew 28:5-7).

Later Jesus Himself appears to them and says “Greetings (come and see)…Do not be afraid…Go and tell…”(Matthew 28:9-10).    These encounters reflect a pattern for Christ followers:  fearlessly coming to Him, fearlessly going to others. 

Jesus invites us to come to Him, to taste and see that He is good. Taste and see His grace as He transforms lives.  Taste and see His compassion as He restores the broken-hearted.  Taste and see His goodness despite the sickness, the rejections and disappointments that we all face.  Jesus invites us to come fearlessly to Him with all of our needs, all our questions…with all of “life.”

Then Jesus commands us to go and tell.  We are sharing His story in some of the hardest places in the world.  We have the scars to prove it.  Yet the command remains in place and with it the promise, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).  Fearlessly coming to Him with all that life throws our way, fearlessly going to others with His message of love and forgiveness.]]> Tue, 4 May 2010 11:18:04 EST
Can you imagine the dilemma those Magi faced 2000 years ago?  What do you give someone whose birth has been announced by the stars?  Think about it for a moment – what were the Magi hoping to communicate with their gifts?  Some have suggested the gifts proclaim the identity of the child: gold for the King of Kings, frankincense for the Son of God, and myrrh for the sacrifice Jesus was to make.  But was there something else going on here?  The Magi traveled a long way for this moment.  Was there something more behind their gifts?

Matthew 2:10 gives us a glimpse.  The Magi were “overjoyed” (NIV) when the star led them to the place where Jesus was staying.  They “rejoiced exceedingly with great joy” (ESV). Overjoyed...exceedingly...great joy.  We get the message, they were amped up.  I think the gifts were more than just a royal care package, more than just identity markers for God's Son.  The gifts were deep expressions of their overwhelming joy.  The gifts were a declaration that Jesus was their real treasure.  The gifts were a statement, perhaps a commitment, that these wise men wanted to value Christ more than anything else.

As we enter into 2010, I want to present that same kind of gift to my King.  I want to value Him more than anything else.  And I crave that the nations might also discover Him as their boundless treasure, their unsurpassed joy.  My heart beats with Psalm 96:3-4, “Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous deeds among all peoples.  For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; He is to be feared above all gods” (NIV).

So here is the question.  How am I going to give my time, my talent and my treasure to Jesus in 2010?  Taking that one step further, how can I be involved in bringing His message of hope and a future to the nations?  Especially to those who are without a compelling, culturally relevant witness in their village, town or city?]]> Tue, 4 May 2010 11:18:44 EST
1.1 Hope of the World

Anyone you know of in need of some hope? I can hope for warmer weather, better grades, or that one day I’ll get a Mac. What is the difference between a “wish” and a “certainty” when you are talking about hope?

1 Peter 1:3 says that through the resurrection of Jesus, we have been given a “living hope,” something that is sure, secure, definite. In Jesus, we have proof of someone who has tasted death and survived. It’s kind of like going out for fugu, a poisonous delicacy in Japan. The expert chef prepares the meat of the puffer fish so that the diner’s tongue and lips go numb, but not their throat. Imagine being served a plate of fugu and watching your friend eat some pieces without any adverse effects. You’ve been given a living hope that the chef has done his job well!

While Jesus is our living hope, His Church is to express this hope to the world. The Church is the body of Christ gifted and sent by the Holy Spirit to display and advance the kingdom of God in the world. SEND passionately pursues the establishment of healthy churches among the unreached. We want them to be salt and light in their own communities and then reach beyond their communities to others who have not heard. Everything we do is because of the hope that is in Jesus. Our lives and our work all point to that hope. We strive to live and work in a culturally relevant, compelling expression of love resulting in local communities of faith. That is the kind of impact we want to make in this world.

It’s a very tall order! What does it look like? How do we actually make that kind of an impact? I’d like to spend the next few months looking at the multiple instructions of Jesus to his followers regarding the building His church in the world. Won’t you join me?

We are the “called out” ones, belonging to the LORD and bringing hope to the world.]]> Tue, 4 May 2010 11:19:43 EST
Jesus impacted our world by coming and living among us. God didn’t simply send a PowerPoint, a DVD or a cool screen play. God sent His Son to become one of us, to “set up His tent among us.” When Jesus describes the Kingdom (Mt. 5-7), it is all about God meeting us in our brokenness. It is God blessing us by being right here with us, by being for us. Christ’s impact does not end with His resurrection and return to heaven. In fact He uses the very strategy which God used: He sends us. Jesus declares, “YOU are the salt of the earth…YOU are the light of the world” (Mt. 5:13, 14 emphasis mine). This is not a statement of guilt, “you should be like this but you’re not.” It is an empowering declaration of who we are right now. Right now we are salt and light. Right now the world is in need of both. Right now, for this generation, we are the way He is choosing to reach the lost and powerless, the devastated and distressed. This is about YOU becoming a living expression of Jesus’ love and grace and hope. This is about YOU being sent. “Come and follow me,” Jesus said, “and I WILL MAKE YOU fishers of men” (Mt. 4:19 emphasis mine). We follow, He enables. We are sent, He empowers. We are salt and light, He is the source.

As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. How are His grace and glory and love going to impact our world? Through you. You, the sent one. You, setting up your tent wherever He places you. You, under His enablement, living out the grace and peace of our LORD.

Note: for a detailed study of the progressive and incremental expressions of the Great Commission, see Marv Newell’s new book, Commissioned: What Jesus Wants You to Know as You Go.]]> Tue, 4 May 2010 11:30:50 EST
Did He just use “all” twice in one sentence? I can understand “all” when it’s something I can see or touch, like “you mean you ate it all?” But this kind of “all” is a lot trickier to wrap my mind around. Jesus is talking about “all the world” and “all creation,” describing the scope of His follower’s mission with two encompassing descriptions. “All the world” makes it a global command. It’s a macro statement, capturing the more than 16,000 people groups spread throughout the earth. “All creation,” on the other hand, is a micro statement. It has in view every person. While the goal is that every person has a compelling invitation to follow Jesus, there is a hint of the broader impact. As more people encounter Christ and worship Him, more people will take up the stewardship of creation. Salvation is a social event in that its fruit radiates beyond the individual to others and to creation itself.

Sent….into all the world…to preach the good news…to everyone. Is Jesus serious? Does He have any idea how many people that is? The most conservative estimate I could find of how many people are yet without a compelling invitation to follow Jesus is 1.9 billion people. That’s a lot of people!

Perhaps this will help you understand how really big that number is. A new iPhone 3G has 32 GB of memory and can load 6000 songs (assuming that the average song is about 4 minutes long). That means an iPhone can play your favorite songs for 2 weeks without repeats or pauses. Consider this: if each song represents one person that is without a culturally appropriate, compelling invitation to follow Jesus, your iPhone 3G will play non-stop for over 12,000 years before it has played one song for each of the lost people in the world. That is 6 times the number of years it has been since Jesus walked on this earth.

Sent….into all the world…to preach the good news…to everyone. Is Jesus serious? Yes, He is! As He continues to unravel this great commission to His followers, He lets us know how it will be accomplished.

He is serious. Are we?]]> Tue, 4 May 2010 11:32:09 EST
That visa carries authority. ??About two weeks after his resurrection, Jesus gathers the disciples for a retreat at a mountain in Galilee (Mt. 28:16). There in the undistracted quiet of a scenic getaway He gives them the third and most extensive installment of instructions.

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt. 28:18-20).??“All authority…has been given to me.” Jesus establishes His reach into the world! There is nothing that can stop Him. Nothing that overrides Him. He gives a visa that trumps all other commands. The principle of submission to any lawfully constituted authority -- see Paul’s words in Ephesians 6 -- is only suspended when that authority demands that we compromise our commitment to Christ and disobey His commands (cf. Acts 4:19,20; 5:29).

Governments may say we have no right to engage their people with the gospel, but Jesus gives us absolute authority to “make disciples of all nations.” “All authority” provides the context for the focus of mission. Digging a well, building a school, offering hope to the marginalized – it is all to be done with a desire to “make disciples.” All our giving and going and praying, all our teaching and building and baptizing, is to focus on making disciples of all nations. ??Jesus doesn’t just give us a task and send us out. Like bookends, His authority and His presence support His great commission. His authority determines our direction and purpose. His presence provides the power and encouragement to carry out that task. Christ’s presence is not a cheerleader beside us or behind us, shouting encouragement as we face perplexing languages and unfamiliar cultures. Jesus is right out in front clearing the way, arranging the encounters, orchestrating the circumstances, empowering the message. ??Under His authority, and with His continuous presence, we are to make disciples -- disciples of ALL nations. We’ve been handed a visa to go, to teach, to baptize. The outcome we seek is fully devoted followers of Jesus who worship at the throne of grace. This was the challenge He put before the disciples at that retreat.

• This is the challenge each generation must rise up and take. You’ve got the visa. Where are you going with it?]]> Tue, 4 May 2010 11:33:20 EST
During the 40 days between Jesus’ resurrection and His return to heaven, Jesus gave specific instructions on five different occasions to the disciples (and all His followers). These final instructions were not random. They were not scattered thoughts on a variety of topics. They were focused, built on one another, and set the direction for generations of Christ followers.

Jesus began in John 20:21 by explaining that just as the Father had sent Him, now He was SENDING US. Then in Mark 16:15 He made it clear that everyone, ALL OF CREATION, needs to hear of who He is and what He’s done. Matthew 28:18-20 states that our lives should focus on DISCIPLE-MAKING. Now in Luke 24:44-49, Jesus emphasizes the content of that disciple-making; “REPENTANCE AND FORGIVENES OF SINS will be preached in His name to all nations….”]]> Tue, 4 May 2010 11:34:25 EST
    •    If your chute opens and you begin spinning, your lines are tangled and you’re in trouble.
    •    Immediately pull the chord to cut free your main chute.
    •    Pull the rip cord to open your secondary chute.
    •    Float safely to the ground.

There was order, there was progression. Many people view Jesus’ final instructions to His disciples in Acts 1:8 with that same order and progression. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” First our home town, then the neighboring areas, and finally overseas. A progressive expansion.??

But this logic doesn’t fit for several reasons. First, Jerusalem was not the disciples’ home town—they were from Galilee (1:11), easily spotted by locals as not from the city (2:7). This was not an order to “start with your hometown.” In fact, Jesus told them to stay in Jerusalem (and thus not return home) until the Spirit had come upon them (1:4).??

Second, the “ands” do not mean “then” or “next.” The sentence is not set up in a progressive expansion. It indicates parallel activity. Here AND there AND over there. When we look at the needs of our world, we need tri-focal vision: we need to respond to the needs right around us, near to us, and far from us. The commission to His followers was both/and, here and there.

More importantly, Jesus’ final instructions pointed to His disciples’ source of power. Human power cannot bring spiritual results. Only spiritual power brings spiritual results. And Jesus promises that power through the Holy Spirit. Throughout the book of Acts, the Spirit’s power advanced the mission of the church.

The Holy Spirit empowers mission. Five times between Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, He clearly articulated His commission. We are sent, into all the world, to make disciples, with a message of repentance and forgiveness of sins, empowered by the Holy Spirit to accomplish spiritual work. This is His commission. These are His marching orders. May we be faithful as we accomplish them in our generation.]]> Tue, 4 May 2010 11:35:39 EST
When Dorothy and I were church planting in Japan, I vividly remember working hard on an outreach event and then finalizing it with prayer. “God please bless this effort, please come and be mighty in this place. Please bring people and open their hearts.” Sincere? Yes. Effective? Not as much as it could have been.

For years I had the perspective that God was a divine cheerleader, trying to psyche us up. We’d ask God to guide our planning and then bless what we had generated. We would do the work and ask God to add the power.

But that’s not what He meant when He said, “I will be with you.” In reality, God is way out front, preparing the way for us. We are to join His activity, what He is already doing. It’s not our work but His and we needed to discover His presence in it and try to help others see Him as well.

Now to the issue of order. The other day I received a concerning email, one of many about that particular situation. After considering it for awhile, I pounded out a response and then just before clicking “send,” I stopped to pray. That has been a fairly consistent pattern in my life—act and then pray. It’s a hard pattern to break.

I can quickly get caught up trying to influence a situation first through my character, my words, my actions, or my money. I often then add prayer to empower the action. But that is exactly opposite of what needs to take place. Prayer must go first. Prayer must pave the way. Prayer must shape my thoughts and actions to that of my LORD. Prayer must lead, and be followed by character, actions, words, money.

I need to stop adding prayer to my activity and instead add activity to my prayer. Only in this way can we hope to penetrate the unreached for the sake of the Kingdom.]]> Tue, 4 May 2010 11:36:36 EST
While we exhibit many characteristics of a “family,” our aspiration is to be much more.  At SEND we aim to be a covenant community on task.  Over the next few blog posts I would like to unpack what this means in our context, but let me briefly describe here what makes a covenant community on task different from a family.

In a family you are bound together for life.  You are born into it, and grow and develop under it.  A family accepts its members for what they are and even tolerates “weird Uncle Harry” because, well, he’s family!   A family doesn’t necessarily live close together or meet regularly.  Roles are determined naturally, without policies or elections.  Clear and regular communication is not necessarily aspired to or even desired. 

By contrast, in a covenant community on task, you apply to join and pass through thorough screening to make sure you are a good “fit” for the community and for the assignment.  Your commitment may be for short term, long term, or even career.  A covenant community has a clear purpose and specific direction.  It assigns roles based on skill and passion and the Spirit’s leading.

 A covenant community on task does not tolerate ongoing inappropriate behavior because it holds people accountable.  A covenant community deliberately seeks multi-directional communication and works for continuous improvement.  Most of all, a covenant community seeks to accomplish the task for which it has bound itself together – in our case SEND exists to establish reproducing churches among the unreached. 

At SEND we enjoy each other like a family but we are much more.  We are a covenant community on task!]]> Tue, 11 May 2010 08:14:29 EST
Now as an adult I am part of another club -- only now we call it a community. Dorothy and I made a commitment to a group of people who come from as far away as Hong Kong and Germany, the Philippines and Guatemala. We don’t have a handshake, but we do have a covenant. That covenant binds us to certain attitudes and actions as together we seek to mobilize God’s people and engage the unreached in order to establish reproducing churches.

The covenant, a solemn heart-to-heart commitment, calls us to unity. It asks us to share the burdens of our coworkers and work things out when relationships get strained. We won’t bail out as soon as the water gets rough.

The covenant calls us to perseverance. A spiritual battle rages as we seek to establish reproducing churches among the unreached. We will not relent from that goal, but under the guidance of the Holy Spirit we will adapt to the ever changing global conditions in order to be used by God for His glory.

The covenant also calls us to dependence.  God is adequate, we are not. We choose to lean hard into God and not into our own understanding. We regularly pray for the Holy Spirit to have the loudest voice in the room whenever we gather. We trust God to supply all that we need in order to accomplish what He is calling us to do.

Finally, the covenant calls us to submission. We are trusting God to guide us in harmony with those leaders who are responsible for the direction of the work. We are not independent operators, but bound together in a community to accomplish that which God is calling this, His community, to accomplish.

There are days when I miss the handshake (not the spit part). Perhaps we need to come up with a similar greeting for our community -- a physical reminder of the commitment we have made.

Or maybe just a tattoo. (OK, kidding.)]]> Thu, 3 Jun 2010 10:27:44 EST
A mission statement is like a compass for an organization. It points to your destination. It orientates you in any season, any condition. It helps plot your course. It provides cohesion when storms threaten. It draws the line at what you will not do.

People choose to covenant together because they agree with and are passionate about the task to which an organization has dedicated itself—its mission. SEND has committed itself to MOBILIZE God’s people and ENGAGE the unreached in order to ESTABLISH reproducing churches. This is the task around which we rally. This is the focus of our activities and the outcome we seek.

I like to refer to SEND as a covenant community on task. We are a community that has a specific focus. We covenant together for a purpose, not simply to provide care and support while we each do our own thing. We fit prayer, people and resources together based on our role in the biblical mandate to seek and save the lost.

Ours is a high calling. It is a calling first and foremost to a relationship with our creator. As we nurture that relationship and are drawn in to God’s heart in worship, we are propelled out in ministry towards the people He loves and for whom His Son died. The term “task” may sound sterile until you place it in context of relationship. Our task flows out of our relationship. Our speaking and serving flow out of our listening.

We are a covenant community on task.]]> Mon, 28 Jun 2010 01:50:36 EST
We were sitting at a lunch table on a college visit this past spring with my son. While chatting with some faculty, this young senior had walked up, greeted the professor at our table, and introduced himself to us. When he heard that we were missionaries, he got inspired to share his vision for ministry. I engaged him with a question I took to be totally normal. “In what country are you going to open up a new camp?”

There was a long pause and his perplexed expression made me think I must have spoken in Japanese by mistake. “Uh, here in Michigan” he responded. Without questioning the credentials of his middle school geography teacher, I pressed on. “Let’s say I am a 12 year old boy in Michigan. I want to go to camp this summer. Let’s see…” and I held up my hands with my fingers spread wide, “…I have at least 10 choices.” (I actually looked this up later, and according to the Christian Camp and Conference Association, there are 54 registered Christian camps in Michigan!) I continued, “Now let’s pretend I’m a 12 year old in, say, Kosova.” I held up my hands, fists closed. “I’ve got no options. There are no Christian sports camps in Kosova. There is only one Christian camp, and it is just getting off the ground.” Then I peered right into his eyes. “Where do you think you should take this great education and passion for sports and camping?”

Isn’t any Christian service great service? Shouldn’t we be grateful that followers of Jesus are willing to do anything? I want you to think about that for a moment. Would we be satisfied if our church had 98 people willing to be ushers and only 2 people willing to run the children’s program? That is the situation we find ourselves in when looking at how many missionaries are engaging the unreached – those with little or no access to the gospel (according to Jason Mandrik, Operation World).

Is any service great service, when Jesus has clearly called us to be his witnesses to the ENDS of the earth (Acts 1:8)? Is it enough to just get involved where we are comfortable? What does it really mean to heed Christ’s command to go into ALL the world and preach the gospel to ALL creation (Mark 16:15)?

If God has sent us to the ends, why are so many of us huddled in the middle?]]> Thu, 8 Jul 2010 11:05:13 EST

I want you to see movement, a massive movement to the unreached! Our logo represents people and prayers and resources going to those beyond the reach of a local church (from the left side to the dot). But that’s not where it ends. Multiplication is in our organizational DNA – a desire to see believers and churches reproduced in that people group who then reach other people groups. The action doesn’t end with the dot. It expands beyond the dot to other peoples.

The underlying principle is this: if God has called people from every tribe and language and people and nation, if He has prepared people from everywhere to RECEIVE His gospel, He has also prepared them to TAKE His gospel to the very ends of the earth.

That “taking” of the gospel will look very different from typical Western ways. SEND has been challenged to examine what we deem as normal and essential and to look for ways to effectively join with mission movements from other nations. This is a very complex endeavor, but we have some serious backing for it.

Isaiah tells us, “Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.” He goes on to tell us why. Will we elect wise people into powerful positions? Will westerners rise up and pay for believers in Asia and South America to go for us? Not exactly. What God revealed to Isaiah is this: “The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this” (Isaiah 9:7).

Can you think of any stronger words to describe how passionate God is about this? Isaiah leaves no doubt about who will accomplish the expansion of His Church from everywhere to everywhere.

SEND is committed to seeing a massive movement of Christ’s ambassadors from many countries bringing the gospel of hope and love to those with little or no access to it.

What do you see when you look at the SEND logo?]]> Thu, 5 Aug 2010 04:50:42 EST
As I described my very cool job and what God is doing around the world, his interest was obvious. His relatives are "religious," but he has no room for their God. Yet he was very concerned about our world, injustice and those in need. I shared that the Bible tells us that Christ followers are sent together to heal and redeem. He really wants to be involved, and even brainstormed how his music could help. But he wants to skip the relationship with God part. He wants to help, but is not interested in his own need to be healed or be a part of a believing community.

It highlighted for me Christ's command in Matthew 28. We are not sent just to do good or to help others. We are sent to make disciples. Why? Because the Church is the hope of the world. Because the Church is God's plan A. Actually it is His ONLY plan for establishing His kingdom. God wants to transform individual lives and whole communities through the church. Whenever the New Testament writers speak about how we are supposed to live or what we are supposed to do (see James 1:26-27 for example) it is always in the context of the church.

That is why SEND is committed to establishing reproducing churches among the unreached. Yes we are concerned about the plight of the marginalized, the needs of the under-resourced, and the care of God's creation. We believe that God's design for dealing with these challenges is through the local church, through His gathered people. So we act as a global platform for local churches to join with His activity of seeking and saving the lost, gathering them together and then empowering them to make a difference in their own community and beyond.

You can go solo. Or you can follow God's design and go together to heal a lost and broken world through disciple-making and church planting. What will it be?]]> Thu, 26 Aug 2010 09:10:39 EST
Fill in the blank: “I feel called to _________.” For some that statement conveys a career commitment, a direction which would take them to the horizon of their working years. Some people frame their calling in big numbers like 20 or 30 or even 40 years of dedicated ministry. But is that true for everyone?

I have personally experienced the “progressive nature” of God’s call. God lead Dorothy and me into church planting in Japan. After eight years of focus there, we were asked to take on area leadership. Then five years later the call came to move to the US and take up international leadership within SEND. Each time we asked ourselves, “What happened to our original call?” “Why change now when our ministry is going so well?” These questions assume that God changed His mind or we got it wrong or that things are not supposed to change. Perhaps God had it right all along and has just now revealed part B or C or D. Perhaps there is more behind a call as God shapes our lives for the ongoing battle (or the size of the army as was the case for Gideon).

Then there is the growing understanding that “call” represents just a season of my life. “Calling” these days may be a period defined by months or a few years. There is the full expectation that something else may be on the horizon, and this is just the next step towards it.

Does this kind of understanding reduce the passion or commitment of the individual? No, but it does present some particular challenges for a cross-cultural ministry team. How do you become proficient in a language in a short time? How do you gain deep cultural understanding? In short, how do you “incarnate” and bring the gospel to the least-reached if your commitment is for a few years?

So what do you think—how long does a “call” need to be?]]> Wed, 22 Sep 2010 11:36:20 EST Nothing penetrates the body and soul like the African drum,” said a stranger standing beside me with an accent I couldn’t place. “Yes,” I agreed, “and it moves you.” We were on the second floor balcony overlooking an atrium in the Cape Town International Convention Center. A group of African drummers were in a circle banging out an incredible beat, with a throng of people from around the globe watching, feeling, and moving.

This image has become for me a metaphor of this gathering – the third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization. It captures the movement of the gospel in this generation. It reflects the conversations I had today with brothers and sisters from India, the Ivory Coast, Myanmar and Latvia.

The gospel penetrates both body and soul. I heard today of incredible needs among AIDS victims, among orphaned children, among the poor and marginalized. I heard of local movements bringing health and education, training and business opportunities to these people. I heard of partnerships to bring clean water to desperate communities. The gospel must penetrate the body!

But it also must penetrate the soul. This afternoon as I walked some streets in downtown Cape Town I saw teams of people reaching out with the gospel message of hope and reconciliation, talking about what Jesus has done and can do for anyone who believes. The gospel must penetrate both body and soul!

And the gospel must move us. I cannot simply be a spectator, standing on that balcony and watching. I cannot just participate vicariously by simply enjoying the beat. I must move. I must join in this great rhythm of God’s heartbeat for the nations. As I draw closer to God in worship and His word, I am propelled by His heartbeat towards those He loves and for whom He died. I must move towards the unreached.

The African drum, penetrating body and soul, moving us with rhythm. The gospel of Jesus likewise penetrating both body and soul, moving us towards those beyond the reach of a local church. The gospel is spreading out to the very ends of the earth. Do you feel its beat?]]> Mon, 18 Oct 2010 04:02:37 EST
Fast forward to this evening.  I’m relaxing before the final session of the night and a older gentlemen from Ghana sits down beside me.  We exchange names, countries and ministries, and then we pray for each other.  He grabs my hands.  Didn’t even ask this time.  Just held and squeezed and pleaded with God for mercy to flow through us and our ministries.

Both times Paul’s words in Ephesians 4 kept running through my head as we prayed.  “There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (4:4-6)

Over 4,000 delegates from 198 countries have gathered together in Cape Town to be strengthened, inspired and equipped  for the task of world evangelization and social engagement in our generation.  It is an amazing experience to see and hear how God is working around the world, and to be challenged to press on in the task which yet lies before us.

We all need to reach out and grab some, to pray, and to work.  Whose are you grabbing?

]]> Mon, 25 Oct 2010 05:52:37 EST
My heart was pierced by his words as he recounted the horrors of the genocide in Rwanda. Tribal rivalry gone wild. Near the end of this church leader’s testimony, he told of how missionaries had come earlier and engaged in evangelism, discipleship, and church planting. The missionaries focused on meeting needs, drawing people to Christ, and developing them. The gospel was preached, churches were formed and they grew.

What the missionaries did not do however was address the social issues boiling under the surface. They modeled evangelism and discipleship, but they did not model social engagement. According to this Rwandan it took the new believers a whole generation to figure out what social engagement needed to look like.

Later I debriefed this testimony with a friend who grew up as an Missionary Kid in Africa. He mentioned that recent surveys have shown that the biggest complaint of host culture Africans about foreign missionaries in his mission is that they don’t model good social engagement – they don’t provide a good pattern new believers can follow.

My heart was pricked as I remembered my own years as a church planter. We focused so hard on evangelism and discipleship, we had no time to engage the greater social issues all around us. Or did we? We felt like we lacked the cultural understanding to really try to do something about the social ills facing the Japanese. Or did we? We were only guests….

In his address at the Third Lausanne Congress on Global Evangelism, Pastor John Piper recognized this need to engage the social challenges we find wherever we go. “For Christ’s sake we Christians care about all suffering, especially eternal suffering. I don’t want you to choose between the two truths. Christ doesn’t want you to choose between pouring your life out for the alleviation of unjust human suffering now and the pouring out your life to rescue the perishing from everlasting suffering which is 10 million times worse than anything anybody will ever experience here. I don’t want you to choose between these two. Christ is calling us to pull these two together.”

Bringing the whole gospel to a particular people involves the honest struggle with new believers on how to address issues which are both prevalent and urgent in their local context. We cannot segment and ignore social issues, or simply “outsource” them to another generation. While we may not be able to do something about the social needs around us, at a minimum we need to model a Christ follower’s attitude towards these needs.

The whole gospel for the whole world. A compelling proclamation accompanied by responsible social engagement.]]> Thu, 4 Nov 2010 10:29:27 EST