It is counterintuitive but Covid may be a blessing for the spread of the Gospel

 

I have a firm conviction that nothing happens in our world, good or bad, which does not first pass by the hands of God and which He does not use to build His church. History is full of examples of adversity that become accelerators to the advancement of the gospel. In fact, it is often in the face of difficult challenges that the church shows itself to be the most resilient.

The age of Covid has been difficult and presented many unwelcome challenges. But, there may be some hidden blessings for both the church and the spread of the gospel. Ironically, as infectious as Covid is, the gospel is even more infectious and both are impacting our world, one for sorrow and the other for joy.

First, Covid has disrupted almost all of ministry. In doing so it has also caused Christian leaders to rethink what is truly important and how they can adapt and focus on what God has called the church to do and to be. There is no disruption that does not create opportunity to rethink, recalibrate and refocus.

For too long we have focused on church size and programs more perhaps than on discipleship and the involvement of each one in ministry according to their God given gifting. We have assumed that church attendance equaled spiritual maturity. 

One thing we can be certain of. The church will never go back to where it was pre-Covid. It just won't. Many have decided they don't need church for their spiritual lives. Others will simply do church on-line. This creates an opportunity for us to rethink what we are doing and why. That is a gift although perhaps an unwelcome one.

Second, digital ministry has the potential to be one of the most potent forces for the gospel in the years to come. The church was forced into digital formats by Covid. Many churches have come to the conclusion that the digital format is not simply a way to reach their own people but to reach beyond their four walls and reach a world that does not know Jesus. Rather than fighting the change, many churches are embracing this change and see it as a significant opportunity to share the gospel with those who don't know.

In fact, when we talk about the gospel being preached to all people before the return of Christ, this is exactly what is happening. Recently I had opportunity to interact with the founder and leader of CCF (Christ's Commission Fellowship) in the Philippines a huge ministry of house churches and mall based congregations. They are now reaching people at an unprecedented level via digital content across the globe and incorporating many into digital fellowships for discipleship. They have embraced this opportunity with enthusiasm and it will be a part of their strategic vision ongoing.

One of the realities in our world is that fewer and fewer people are coming to church out of spiritual curiosity. But almost all are online so is it possible that in God's sovereign plan, the church was forced to go online in an unprecedented way allowing the Good News to multiply in exponential ways? I fully believe this to be the case. It is also the case that in many cases, those who experience an online service will find their way into a local congregation as is happening with the church I attend, Forest City Church in Rockford and Elgin, IL. Look up Tiny Church on You Tube. 

We didn't ask for or desire Covid. But  nothing happens in our world, good or bad, which does not first pass by the hands of God and which He does not use to build His church. He is doing that today - as He always has. 

The gift of connecting people to God's redemptive story

God's redemptive story from the beginning of creation to the New Creation is one of bringing redemption to sinful people that results in new life in Christ and the impact of the gospel in all of our relationships, workplaces, neighborhoods and places of influence. In other words every Christ follower becomes part of that redemptive story. The problem is that many Christians do not have a vision for how God wants to use them or the part He wants them to play in that story.

In many ways salvation has become a way to heaven (which it is) but not a grand vision of life where we are now players in God's redemptive plan (which we are) for the sake of bringing His truth and righteousness to our corner of the world (which He desires). That is sad and it diminishes the joy we can experience when we join Him in His work and story. It is the lack of that connection between our redemption and God's story that often leaves the church with little impact beyond the parking lot of our churches.

One of the greatest gifts we can give others is to help them see the amazing part God want's them to play in His story. Ordinary people who can have an extraordinary impact on those around us in often small but significant ways.

This is the message of Ephesians 2:10: "For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." God uniquely created and wired us for "good works," whatever that may be so that we could join Him in His work on this needy planet. When God's people catch a vision for what that means in their day to day lives their purpose moves from merely existing to becoming active players in God's eternal drama and plan.

Why do people not connect their lives with that grand vision more often? Perhaps we do not emphasize enough the purpose for which we are saved. Perhaps we overemphasize ministry in the church to the exclusion of living out our faith in the majority of our lives. Perhaps we don't encourage people to discover what God made them for? I don't know all the reasons but I do know there is a deficit of understanding how we all fit into God's bigger plan.

I love the genealogies in Scripture. They chronicle how people famous and infamous, ordinary and otherwise were part of God's eternal story. We are in that chain of significance. Every one of us. Let's help all believers understand that. 

All of T.J. Addington's books are available from the author for the lowest prices and a $2.00 discount on orders of ten or more.

What is your personal gospel initiative?

Everyone should have one: A personal gospel initiative - an intentional strategy for meeting and relating to unbelievers for the sake of relationship and opportunities to share the gospel. 

For many of us this will include neighbors where relationships are a natural. One of my gospel initiatives is a restaurant where I often work and meet for business lunches or breakfasts. Because I am there often (I have my own table - number 40) I also know all the staff and have developed good relationships with them. They know my name and I know theirs. We talk, I have shared some of my books with them and we are friends. Friendships lead to conversations which lead to opportunities to share the gospel.

What would happen if every member of our congregations had a personal gospel initiative? People they are praying for and intentionally relating to with the goal of loving them and sharing Jesus with them? It would vastly outdo all of our programmatic evangelistic efforts (good as they may be). It might even become a lifestyle which is always the goal. 

What is your congregation's spiritual Klout score?

Those who are tech savvy know about Klout. It is designed to rate your online clout by measuring your influence on things like Facebook  blogger, twitter and such. It is an interesting concept although I suspect that many with very high Klout scores may spend a bit much time on line.

But it got me to thinking about the spiritual Klout of congregations in their communities. How does a congregation deepen its influence for the Gospel and its influence with unbelievers? It is worth thinking about and perhaps reminding our people because the church exists in large part for those who are not yet in it as God's chosen instrument to reach our world.

What gives a congregation spiritual influence? First, the number of authentic relationships its people have with those not yet in God's family. Almost all conversions begin with authentic relationships so those congregations who place a significant priority on relationships with unbelievers find they have higher numbers of conversions.

Second, the commitment to prayer for our unsaved friends, relatives, neighbors and co-workers. It is the Holy Spirit that causes hearts to turn toward God and the commitment of our people to pray regularly for their unbelieving friends is deeply significant.

Third, the desire of our people to live out the Gospel in the venues where they live, work, play and relate. Small acts of kindness, concern for others, authentic conversations - just being like Jesus with those around us in an intentional way.

Fourth: Finding ways to bless our communities with acts of service for which we receive nothing in return. Serving the needy and praying for and working to bless the communities in which we live. This includes programming that speaks to the needs of families, those in recovery and other felt needs.

Spiritual influence (Klout) does not happen by mistake. It is an intentional commitment to influence those around us with the magnetic, compelling, healing love of Jesus. It is a discussion worth having in your congregation for the advancement of God's Kingdom in your community.

An amazing video about God's love for us

Take five minutes and watch this video. And then pass it on. It will encourage you and is an amazing evangelistic piece: Creative and powerful.

Falling Plates 

Don't be selfish with your faith

As a believer, I have been given an amazing trust - as have you. I often wander the crowded streets of our world and ask the question, "what if I had been born here - without the opportunity to hear the gospel?" 

That question confronts me with the gift that I have in knowing Jesus, experiencing His grace, being given a life purpose and looking forward to eternity with Him. It is a gift, it is undeserved, but more importantly it is a trust.

The question is what do I do with that trust? Do I live selfishly keeping it to myself or do I live selflessly and give it away? I want to live selflessly.

For me that means being intentional about sharing the gift of my faith. It means supporting others who are in the ministry of doing this full time. It means using my financial resources to do all I can to expand His kingdom. 

There is no greater gift than Jesus. How selfishly or selflessly are we living out our faith? How are we stewarding that Gift? In a world that for the most part does not understand Jesus and His gift, those of us who know Him have an amazing gift. Let's not squander it.

Redefining outreach in the church

Outreach programs are normal for local churches. In fact, they are so normal that they often have the effect of training our people that outreach is a program when in fact, Jesus meant it to be the lifestyle of every believer.

If outreach is a program, I am free to leave outreach efforts to the church and allow it to be their responsibility. If outreach is the responsibility of every Christ follower through incarnational living and intentional development of relationships with unbelievers then I must take responsibility. 

But here is something to think about. We get what we teach and model in the church. If we model programming as the means of outreach, that is what we will get. If we teach and model that reaching our workplaces, neighborhoods and friends is each of our responsibilities, that is what we will get. Which is more powerful? Which will reach more people?

I am all for church wide opportunities for people to bring their friends in venues that are favorable to them hearing the gospel. But, that presupposes that there are unbelieving friends to bring and that we have enough capital with them to even be able to invite them.

The real challenge in evangelicalism is to convince every believer that they, not a program of the church, are responsible for developing meaningful relationships with unbelievers that can result in opportunities to share God's love, being the example of Jesus to them and speaking candidly about one's relationship with Christ. Until that happens, we will never have the impact in our world and community that the early church did and that Jesus desires us to have.

How do we do that? First we model it ourselves. Second we tell stories of others who model it. Third, we set an expectation that every Christ follower has an intentional strategy to share the love of Jesus with those they have relationships and contact with. Fourth, we pray together for those divine appointments that God can use and finally we celebrate whenever a breakthrough comes and another individual becomes a son or daughter of the king.

God loves when people seek him so He will answer the prayers of people and congregations who ask Him for these divine opportunities. I had several last week. I thank Him for every one. And I long for the day when we all expect it to happen as He allows us to be His representatives.

Go with a program and you will reach a few. Go with everyone and you will reach more than you can ever imagine.

What I wish my supporters understood about my work as a missionary

As I write this blog I am in Berlin, Germany, one of the most secular, diverse, post Christian, cities of the world - and the cultural capital of Europe. If you want to share the Gospel in places like this literally none of what we are used to in the United States applies. Church is irrelevant and foreign, programs are ignored and evangelistic events for the most part mean nothing. What does mean something is relationship - deep, personal friendships that give one the ability to share the Gospel and that means adopting the very methods of Jesus who spent a great deal of time with people we would not in places we would not.

I asked our staff recently what they wish their supporters understood about their work. This reply was particularly insightful and it illustrates the challenge of ministry in a totally secular context where the concept of God is not even understood. You will find the response fascinating, challenging and a perhaps uncomfortable - as did the disciples and pharisees with some of Jesus' relationships. 

"I would love to see supporters have a more thorough understanding of what it means to relate to non-Christians in meaningful ways. Most of my supporters would probably say they understand evangelism and how much time it requires in building relationships and exposing people to the gospel. They have a heart to see non-Christians reached with the gospel. But they are used to a programatic model, evangelistic events, and using a church building as a central point of ministry. They have very little understanding of what it means to step into a community without the remnants of Evangelicalism and be immersed in the lives of non-Christians. Although they may understand that a culture needs Jesus, they have not thought through what that means for social interactions, evangelism, and developing relationships with non-believers.

"My supporters understand I am reaching out to non-Christians, but they don´t understand the implications it has on my life. It is my job to get into the world of non-Christians and pursue them, to understand them and to relate to them on their turf.  It would be arrogant to wait for them to come to me--and that means I am in bars, cafes, nightclubs, street parties. It means I am regularly exposed to alcohol, tobacco, drugs, pornography. It means I am around men and women who not only adhere to the gay lifestyle but demonstrate it openly.  It means I am rubbing shoulders with people that are not upstanding, people who are literally doing the wrong thing...and people who would never attend an official evangelistic event (let alone go in a church building!). 

"As I think about communicating with my supporters, I am often concerned that what I share will jeophardize my support rather than build confidence in my effectiveness. I would love to share more about how valuable and worthwhile it is to work through the issues that come up as I hang out with my gay friend or stay out until 5am because that is when my friends are available. I do think it is important to communicate what the lostness of a culture looks like--how it plays out in everyday life--but it is difficult to be open with the messiness of it when my lifestyle choices would be labeled as ¨sin¨ by some supporters!  This sentiment may be felt more acutely in European, post-Christian contexts, but I know that there were times in Latin America where many Christian workers felt the same. 

"I would love for supporters to understand that reaching out to non-Christians is uncomfortable, risky, and messy. I am committed to living a Godly life, but that doesn´t mean I can avoid the parts of culture that make Christians in the US uneasy. Part of my job is figuring out how the Holy Spirit is leading me to interact with non-Christians considering the opportunities that exist. And that is much easier said in a missions committee meeting than done."

Insightful words. Now remember why the Pharisees were so shocked at who Jesus spent time with and where. And even the disciples. Incarnational ministry takes Jesus to where people are, develops true friendships and is willing to step into their lives in order to share the good news of Jesus. What might the implications be for our evangelism strategies in the United States or elsewhere?

I want to be radically normal and radically abnormal

This is who Jesus was and this is who I want to be. Jesus was radically normal. A carpenter, a man of the people, working class, and someone who everyone around him seemed able to relate to. 


He was at home relationally with fishermen, tax collectors, prostitutes, the wealthy, the poor, the disadvantaged, the sick. Coming from Nazareth he was even more normal. He was obviously approachable as so many engaged conversation with him and he with others.


But He was also radically abnormal in this: when engaged in conversation he was always upfront about His Father. He went to the heart of things which is the heart in non-offensive but clear ways. He simply shared the good news which was the heart of who He was. 


I am no different than the people around me. I have challenges, a marriage with its complexities, relationships that are good and sometimes problematic, worry on occasion about finances, am overweight and trying to lose. I am radically normal.


But I also want to be radically abnormal - because I have something  that many I bump into don't have: Jesus. I want to be radically abnormal because I am willing to be upfront with those around me about the change Jesus has made in my life. 


If I am radically normal but never share Jesus, I am living in a cocoon of my faith. If I connect my normality with radical abnormality because I share my deeply held faith - then I am living like Jesus. And join Jesus in His Kingdom work.

Shallow CliffsNotes Christianity

As I survey the contemporary evangelical church today in the west I would often characterize it as shallow, lacking in substance, Christianity light and easy grace. In some cases, there is not much difference between a self help seminar (think Tony Robins) and what is shared in the name of God’s word from the pulpit – as if the Scriptures are primarily a self help manual that if followed will bring us prosperity and health. Certainly it should not get too personal or interfere with our lives.

Some will think this too critical and I don’t desire to be an angry modern day prophet who throws stones. And, I am sure based on past history that I will lose some Twitter followers over this blog. That being said, here are some of the things we don’t see among many western evangelicals that lead me to my conclusion.

One: suffering seems to be a lost subject and we are surprised when it surfaces in our lives. When it does it often causes Western believers to question the goodness of God and leads many to bitterness and doubt. Yet, Jesus made it abundantly clear that the way of the cross is the way of suffering. What does it mean when He says, “Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me (Luke 9:23).” A cross is, by definition the metaphor for suffering and Jesus says it is a daily occurrence for those who follow Him. The Apostle Paul talked with emotion about sharing in the fellowship of His sufferings.

Two: Western believers as a group are, (how do I say it?), stingy with God. The average evangelical gives something like two percent of their income back to Him. Now, in case you think I have gone legalistic here, bear with me a moment. It is not about legalism but about value. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16).

I believe that we have so cheaply sold what God did on our behalf, even though He gave His only son – to become sin for us so that we could know Him who knew no sin – and be justified through His righteousness and death on our behalf that our gratitude is shallow and our response is cheap. Second Corinthians 8 and 9 speak of giving as a direct response to His grace. If that is so our giving does not reflect much value toward His amazing grace but is often pocket change tossed into His hat on occasion. We simply don’t value His gift to us very much as evidenced by our response.

Three: American evangelicalism has very little to say about sin. OK, I don’t like the subject much either but Scripture has a lot to say about it in relation to a Holy God. The Scriptures talk about sin on 1365 occasions. But mostly this gets lost in the CliffsNotes version of Evangelicalism. After all you have to cut somewhere and this is most convenient place to do it.

Except, that without an understanding of my depravity I cannot understand God’s grace. Why did the woman in John 12:3 use all of her saving to pour pure nard on the feet of Jesus and then wipe them clean with her hair? She understood her sin and therefore the amazing grace that Jesus had blessed her with. Her desire to follow was directly connected with the grace she had been given and her acute awareness of her fallen condition. A sinless Christianity is a cheap parody of the true human condition – even those who know and follow Jesus. Paul described himself as the chief of sinners and that was toward the end of his life. It is what drove him to live in God’s grace on a daily basis.

Four: We are far more consumed with our, lives, careers, pleasures and interests than we are with joining God in His work in our world. Some of the blame here can be laid at the door of the church that has defined ministry as what happens inside its four walls with its programs. Thus, I minister when I bow to the church’s agenda and fill needed spots in their programs. But what ever happened to ministry being with the people I work with and live with or who hang out at the local tavern? Where was Jesus found most of the time?

That being said, in general, we are so consumed with our agendas that we lose sight of God’s agenda – which requires that we read His book, another lost art (I am heartened by the Eat This Book challenge that has thousands of believers reading through the Bible this year). When our life agenda takes precedence over God’s agenda we have reimaged God after our own image.

Five: American Evangelicals don’t truly believe that lost people are lost for eternity apart from a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We are more likely to share our latest weight loss plan than we are Jesus. Losing weight has its place, and I am vigorously pursuing that, but the Gospel is good news for time and eternity. If we do believe that lost people are truly lost apart from Jesus, we assume that it is the church’s responsibility to share the news not us.

When I tell my wife I love her but don’t demonstrate that love she knows my words are shallow and lack sincerity. When we tell God we love Him but don’t walk the walk of our talk we are guilty of shallow Christianity. What do you think when you consider the Western version of evangelicalism? There are wonderful exceptions of course but I fear that our version of Christianity is often far more cultural than it is Biblical.

Having written this, I am of course obliged to consider each of these five areas in light of my own life and practice: irritating but instructive. Come to think of it, maybe I’ll unsubscribe me from Twitter as well. I don’t like being uncomfortable any more than others.

Moving from fear to friendships with Muslims

Westerners have a caricature of Muslims that is largely based on media hype around radical Islamists,  9/11, the politics of Iran, Bin Laden, our wars in Iraq and the threat of Iran - all of which tend to breed fear, a desire to keep our distance and frankly a dislike and even disdain for Muslims.

Here is the problem. First, when it comes to the majority of Muslims, none of our caricature is remotely true. Second, Jesus loves Muslims with the same degree of which He loves non-Muslims which leads me to three: we are called to love and minister to those Jesus loves and who (like us) were made in His image.

Stereotypes are almost always the result of a lack of relationship with those we marginalize and stereotype. So the antidote to the caricature we have of Muslims is to actually engage with them in friendship. If every American evangelical had one Muslim friend the attitudes of the same would be vastly different.

I have met many Muslims and interacted with them on numerous ocasssions in the United States and internationally. Somali Muslim kids wave to me from across the street every morning and their basement is furnished with furniture that we outsourced. My taxi drivers and airport workers in Minneapolis are largely Muslim. I have had lengthy conversations with Muslims in my travels. 

While Muslims have a different mindset than we do they have the same dreams, aspirations, struggles, family issues and so on that we do. They are ordinary people who want to live their lives in peace, make a living wage, and negotiate life as well as they can. And most of them welcome a friendship with an American and separate American politics from friendship with American individuals. And because of the hospitality culture they come from once you are a friend, they will be intensely loyal.

As in all cases, friendships are the key to killing stereotypes and opening doors for the Gospel. As it relates to Muslims, the church in the United States must move from fear to friendship with their Muslim neighbors. In doing so our stereotypes will die, real friendships will emerge, the door will be opened to the Gospel and bridges built. Ironically you have more in common with Muslims as an individual than you have that separates you from them. But one does not know that without a friendship.

In fact, the premier curriculum for helping evangelicals understand Muslims and share the Gospel with Muslims is called Bridges and is available from the Crescent Project.

Certainly there are radical Muslims I don't want to associate with and Bin Laden when he was alive never invited me for a cup of tea and had he done so it might have ended badly. But truth be told there are people who call themselves Christians that I don't want to associate with as well (Westboro Baptist Church for instance). As any Baptist would point out, they don't represent Baptists but their own radical agenda.  Radicals of any persuasion are not my cup of tea (including in the evangelical sphere) but they also don't represent most others. 

My challenge for Christ followers is to develop at least one friendship with a Muslim and see how God uses that to change your heart and perhaps their heart. It will also help us move past our fear to something even more important: friendship - where the Gospel usually starts.

How do we help people grasp the fact that lost people are lost and face an eternity without Jesus?

It is not politically correct to state this. We don't like to hear this. Many evangelicals in their bones do not believe this. Lost people (those who don't know Jesus) are lost and without a relationship with Him they are destined for an eternity in hell. In the words of Jesus, "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41).'"

Many American believers like to believe that "all roads somehow lead to God and to heaven." We like to believe that because it fits our politically correct culture and Satan has convinced many Christians that a loving God would not allow "good" people to go to hell. It is like hoping that we will somehow not die one day. It defies the laws of human existence, just as hoping our lost friends, family and colleagues defies the laws of God's clearly stated truth.

If we cannot trust the Scriptures that those who are lost for eternity will not be in heaven how can we trust the Scriptures that those who know Jesus will be in heaven. Scriptures are either truthful or not and on eternal destinies there is wonderful news and terrible news.

How do I know that many Christ followers don't believe in the reality of eternal hell for all those who don't know Jesus? Surveys tell us that! But more importantly, lifestyles tell us that. If we really believed in an eternity without God would we not be more motivated to pray for our unsaved friends, spend time with them, share the Good news with them and do all that we could to see them introduced to Jesus? It would also motivate us to generously resource the global missions of the church to reach those who have never had a chance to hear the Gospel.

We are more motivated today to talk to others about the diet we found that is working for us than we are Jesus who changed our lives forever - and can change theirs. Why? We possess the most amazing gift anyone could ever have and we are too shy or fearful to share that news with others. 

The fact that those who don't know Jesus are destined for eternity without God needs to be a conversation we have with ourselves, with others and for those of us in Christian ministry with our constituents. It is not evangelism motivated by guilt but motivated by deep love, compassion and concern. How many people do we come into contact with daily who are the living lost and one day will be the eternally lost?

If you struggle with sharing the good news of Jesus, it starts by developing relationships with unbelievers. Those conversations inevitably lead to talk about our lives and struggles which gives us open doors to talk about faith and Christ. It is very simple. We underestimate the power of the Gospel's simple message to penetrate hearts. Not because we were convincing but because the Holy Spirit takes that message gives it understanding in those who are seeking. All we need to do is to share.

A theology of life

Think of the amazing gift we have been given in being made in God's image, in being “image bearers” of the Lord of the universe:

·       We were created for eternity with an eternal soul

·       We were made for a relationship with our creator

·       We were given the gift of relationships with one another

·       We were granted the gift of moral freedom

·       We were given the amazing capacity to create

·       We were given the ability to love deeply

The apostle Paul puts all this in perspective in Ephesians 2:10. “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” The word “workmanship” means a unique work of art, a one of a kind. As unique works of God we were created for a personal relationship with him in Christ Jesus, in order to join him in His work in this world (good works) which God prepared for each of us “in advance.”

In endowing us with His image, He gave something of Himself to mankind. Our very ability to know and love him and one another is part of that gift. I can adore and love my spouse and my children and have meaningful relationships with others because He chose to make me in His image. I can know Him, serve Him, join Him in His work in this world because he made me in His image. I can use all my creativity in loving and caring and serving and living because He made me in His image.

I remember meeting my son Jon for the first time knowing that this was my flesh, my offspring. The day I met my first grandson, Gavrel, was even more profound, Again, here was a precious child with my DNA, flesh of my flesh of my flesh entering the world. In making us in His Image, God deliberately planted something of Himelf in His created. Just as I look at my grandson with a love too deep to describe, so He looks at us with a love that is able to see beyond all of our brokenness for He sees His image in us, however flawed by the entrance of sin into our world – deliberately planted in us by Him.

Our news is full of stories of the brokenness of our world. It is easy to become numb to the human needs and issues we become aware of. But stop for a moment and put on the lens of God. Your neighbor who is hurting is made in God’s image. The thousands of children who needlessly suffer from malaria every year for lack of mosquito netting are made in His image.

The disabled who are so easily treated as throw away people in much of the world are made in His image. Those who suffer from chronic dysentery for lack of clean water are made in His image. Those young slaves of the sex trade internationally are image bearers of God. The millions who are aborted annually are stamped with His imprint. The elderly who are shuffled off to a lonely existence are made in His image.

Seen in that light, we cannot ignore the spiritual and human needs around us or of our world and be like Jesus. Life is precious. People are precious. Even the most broken individual is a potential son or daughter of the king because all were stamped with His image. 

No other part of God’s creation was endowed with an eternal soul or an eternal destiny. To care for people and their situations is to see people as Jesus sees them and to love them as He loves them. To live selfishly, immune from the suffering of others is to reject the nobility God placed within man, even though sin has made much so ignoble.

Every time we uphold the dignity of human life, uphold biblical sexuality, treat our spouses well, care for those that society throws away: widows, orphans, AIDS victims, those with unwanted pregnancies, the disabled, the sick, those in dire poverty, the elderly, we join Jesus in bringing value to life made in His image. We join Jesus in His prayer, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” How is it done in heaven? Perfectly! 

When we join Him in meeting the physical and spiritual needs of our world we start bringing little bits of heaven and His values to a world that is lost and dehumanizing to those He created. We join Him in His quest to reimage an image made wrong by sin and bring out the beauty of what God originally intended.

We cannot meet all the needs of our broken world but we can make a difference for someone who is an image bearer of God. Every act of compassion that meets physical and spiritual needs is an act of obedience to our Father who cares so deeply for every human being. He hurts when they hurt, and wants every image bearer to find Him and be ReImaged into His likeness. 

Every time we go out of our way to bring life to a situation, we make the heart of God glad. Each word that encourages, touch that shows love, help that brings hope or Good News that speaks to the soul mirrors the heart of God toward those He created. None are beyond His grace, none are too broken for his healing or beyond His divine touch. 

Do you see people through human eyes or Jesus' eyes? 

Holistic Missions: Cautions and Opportunities

Let me say up front, I don't like the word holistic much when it comes to ministry. As if holistic ministry were an option or a special kind of ministry. No! Holistic ministry is really Jesus ministry that ministers to the whole person: body, mind and soul.  All ministry to Jesus was holistic. He always cared about the whole person. So I simply prefer Jesus ministry.


I am delighted that there is a new emphasis on ministry to the needs of people today and much of the focus from the West to the Majority (poor) world focuses on those needs. This includes medical ministry, micro enterprise, clean water, orphan ministries, poverty alleviation and the list could go on. It is refreshing to see the church minister to the needs of people rather than simply doing evangelism.


However, and this is where the caution lies: If in the past we neglected the needs of the whole person for the needs of the heart, today we run the risk of neglecting the needs of the heart for the physical needs alone. This is not Jesus ministry. He never ministered to physical needs without caring for the needs of the heart. It was always both, never one or the other. If I give people clean water without the living water of Jesus I have solved a physical problem but neglected the greater eternal problem.


In a poor world there are many opportunities to minister to the physical and spiritual needs of people. Let's not relive the mistakes of the past where we neglected the physical needs for the spiritual by neglecting the spiritual needs for the physical. Jesus simply ministered to the whole person and so should we.


If your church is involved in meeting physical needs among the poor, ask the question whether you are also meeting the spiritual needs of the heart. Is the balance right? What will you answer the one who says on the brink of eternity that you gave them clean water but never told them about living water?  


Clean water is the number one way we can directly impact a majority of those living in poverty globally. Living water is the number one way we can impact them for eternity. The greatest need for every man, woman and child on our planet is a spiritual need so as we minister to physical needs, lets be sure that we are also meeting spiritual needs. Lets take our cues from Jesus where ministry was always about the whole person.

Bride over Brand

This week I had a remarkable set of meetings with 20 movement leaders in Africa. All of them represented different denominations and countries and all of them were together for a week to discuss how they could work synergistically together to send missionaries, see church planters trained and to reach those parts of Africa where the gospel has not penetrated.

What is remarkable is that they were placing the Bride (the church of Jesus) over their particular brand (denomination). 

Bride over Brand is a mindset that should pervade all of our efforts to spread the Gospel. This does not mean that we must give up the distinctives of our brand. It does mean that we are willing to actively cooperate with others for a higher goal of seeing the Bride expand, knowing that our brand is one small expression of the Bride that Jesus died for.

This takes a mindset that "we will cooperate rather than compete." It is a humble posture that knows that no one of us can do this by ourselves and that we have a lot to learn from others. It is a kingdom rather than a provincial mindset that places the Bride in its proper perspective. It is a Jesus mindset above all that values what He values - that all men might come to believe. 

I long for the day when this kind of mindset prevails across Christianity. When it does, we will see the Gospel spread in ways that we cannot imagine. Until it does, we will continue to do our own thing, not realizing that we are better together than separate. 

What is your mindset? What are you doing about it?

Do we really comprehend and live out God's grace in our lives?

It is not by accident that the hymn, Amazing Grace is a favorite for so many. It captures so well the essence of what attracted us to Jesus,  redeemed us and it will indeed be something that we will spend eternity trying to comprehend. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9)."


I am convinced that we will never fully understand the full scope of God's grace this side of eternity but that it must be something that we push into daily. The more we understand His grace in our lives, the more content we are in Jesus, the more grace we show others and the more we look like Jesus. He is the essence of grace and it was what made Him the magnet for people that He was.


Understanding grace is a life changer for us and for how we relate to others. Too often we are recipients of God's grace but are not students of what it means to extend that same grace to others. The legalism, conditional acceptance, interpersonal conflict and lack of love even in the church is evidence of the great need for God's people to grow in grace. Knowing truth is not enough for Christ followers. Living out truth with the grace of Christ is what will attract others to us and then to Jesus. Jesus came full of "grace and truth." Do we?


For instance, when I truly understand and live out grace:


-I no longer try to earn God's favor but understand that there is nothing I can do to make Him love me more and there is nothing I can do to make Him love me less. Therefore I can be joyful and content in my daily walk with Him.


-I do not feel the need to play the role of the Holy Spirit in the lives of others but rather extend to them the grace God extends to me, pray for them and be patient with their faults as God is with mine. I am slow to judge, quick to think the best and remember how patient and gracious God is with me in my personal growth as I extend that same attitude toward others.


-I am able to forgive myself for my own shortcomings, knowing that God has already done that. My motivation to grown in my obedience is no longer about earning His favor but rather wanting to please Him out of gratitude for His amazing love.


-I forgive others quickly knowing that Jesus extends that gift to me daily. I cannot withhold from others what Jesus has so graciously extended to me. I don't give people what they deserve but what they don't deserve, just as Jesus did not give us what we deserve.


-I no longer look at people the way the world does but know that every individual I encounter has eternal value in His eyes and therefore must in my eyes as well. I go out of my way to love those that others don't love and to give value to those that others forget. 


-I don't display conditional love just as Jesus does not give  me conditional love. Unconditional love is the love of grace and it is an act of our will based on God's unconditional love for me.


-I love to surprise people with grace when they least expect or even deserve it. Just like Jesus with tax collectors, prostitutes, adulterers, lepers, and all those that were considered undeserving and worthy only of judgement. After all, God surprised us with grace when we did not deserve or expect it.


-I am not hard or harsh even when I need to bring correction to a brother or sister. Rather, my motivation is always love that comes out of God's gracious love in my own life. I display toward other the same graciousness that God gives to me daily.


-I love to encourage those who have messed up big time that God is not finished with them yet and that He can redeem their sin and give them hope and a purpose. After all, that is what God did for us. He is the hope for the broken, the guilty, and the hopeless. There is no person and no situation that God cannot redeem so we become evangelists of His hope.


There are many other characteristics of living out a life of grace. One of the most valuable things we can do is to regularly think about all of our relationships, attitudes, words and actions from a filter of God's grace to us. Reading the gospels regularly helps us to capture the secrets of Jesus' grace to inform us of what it means to live a grace filled life.

Creating dissonance for Jesus

Recently I went to the cardiologist for an annual checkup. I had just had an echo cardiogram on my heart which showed it to be completely normal. It was a normal visit until he started looking back over my chart on the computer to events in 2007 and 2008 where my mitral valve had failed when I was deathly ill.

He asked me when I had undergone surgery to fix it and we told him that I had not but that God had healed it when many people from around the world had been praying. He sat there stunned as he read what had happened and compared that to the normal heart in front of him on the echo. He could not reconcile a normal heart with the echo's he saw from my past hospitalization and that without surgery to fix it.

This created dissonance for him. It did not fit his categories. And, it gave us an opportunity to share how God had worked in our lives. 

God loves to create dissonance in the thinking of people and he loves it when we do the same in our actions, attitudes or responses to others. That dissonance between what people expect in the normal course of events and what they experience when it is present causes them to sit up and think! When God intervenes and shows up unexpectedly it creates spiritual dissonance for people and I regularly invite Him to do so. The Holy Spirit has amazing ways of getting peoples attention when He intervenes in the normal course of life. 

We also create dissonance when we as believers simply act like Jesus would. Forgiving when people would expect us to hang on to an offense. Helping when people would expect us to go our own way. Loving those who are usually overlooked. Being generous with those who have a need. Just as Jesus was the expert at doing the unexpected, so we can and should be. It creates dissonance which then leads to questions which leads to the opportunity to share Jesus. 

God's power is beyond anything our world can comprehend and when His finger touched my broken heart it healed. The way of Jesus is beyond anything our world can comprehend and when we simply live like He did we create the same dissonance God does. That dissonance between what is expected and what is demonstrated is God's way of getting peoples attention. 

Invite God to create dissonance in those around you and join Him in doing it yourself by simply living out the life of Jesus.

Don't complicate the Gospel

The Gospel is Good News and it is also very simple.


Think of the simplicity of John 3:16-17. "For God so loved the world that he game his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."


It's simplicity is often what keeps people from receiving it. But its simplicity often gives us a need to complicate it. 


The Apostle Paul did not complicate the gospel but kept it simple for it is simple. He knew the power inherent in the gospel - "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed - a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: 'The righteous will live by faith' (Romans 1:16-17)."

• We have a problem with sin which has separated us from God.
• Jesus died for our sin so that we could be reconciled to Him.
• If we believe in Him, He gives us eternal life.
• And that changes everything in this life and in the life to come.

Don't be embarrassed with the simplicity of the gospel. And don't complicate its simplicity. The Holy Spirit is perfectly capable of bringing great understanding over time as to the ongoing implications of putting our faith in Jesus. The power of the gospel resides in the God behind the gospel, not in our ability to make it sound intellectually acceptable. It is so simple that the simplest man or woman or child can understand it. Our job is to share it. His job is to penetrate the hearts of those we share it with.


In fact, its very simplicity is the reason that many do not accept it according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 1. He writes, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate...For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength (1 Corinthians 1:18-25)."


The gospel is simple. It is so simple that many consider it foolish. But it is the power of God for those who believe. And it is the God behind the gospel who gives people the ability to understand and respond to it. Our job is to share it in all of its simplicity and let the Holy Spirit work in the hearts of those we share it with. Don't complicate the gospel.

It's about the Bride not the brand

I am a senior vice president of the EFCA - a brand of the church. Having said that, one of my core convictions is that while brands can be helpful in the spread of the Gospel, at the end of the day my concern should not be about the brand but about the Bride. Jesus died for the Bride, not my brand (hard as that is for some to believe, given our often parochial attitudes toward those of another brand). 

Most of us like the brand we worship in, which is why we are there. I like the broad evangelical parameters of the EFCA and the freedom I have as the leader of ReachGlobal, its international mission. But, my highest allegiance is always to the Bride of Christ, His church, of which mine is but one small expression.

When we value the Bride over the brand we become open to working with other churches to bring the Gospel in a relevant way to our communities, something none of us can do ourselves. Moving from competition to cooperation in the spread of the Gospel is an expression of mature leadership that places what is close to God's heart (that people respond to His good news) above our parochial interests.

There is nothing wrong with brands. But think of the power of the unity of the church when we choose to work with other like minded evangelical churches and denominations to reach our communities and the unreached globally. It is a visible expression of the unity that Jesus prays for in John 17, by which the world knows that we are in Him and He in us. There will be no Presbyterians or Baptists or Free Church folks in heaven (really!). Just worshipers of Jesus Christ. I suspect we will quickly realize that those things that once divided us were insignificant compared to what should have united us - the Gospel and person of Jesus Christ.

It is for this reason that ReachGlobal does not plant EFC churches internationally but works to plant healthy, reproducing, interdependent, indigenous and self supporting churches. As long as Jesus is at the center in a biblical way, we will work with a wide variety of movements to bring the Gospel to places where it has not yet penetrated. We then link the various movements we work with together so that they too are working alongside one another in cooperation rather than competition. There is enough division among denominations for us to further contribute to disunity rather than unity.

I am heartened by expressions of Bride over brand in this country when churches from across denominational lines band together to bring the gospel to their community. They are demonstrating Christ's heart and His interests over their own. 

Think about your ministry. Are you more about the brand or the Bride? For me, the Bride trumps the brand every time.

Take time to pray for evangelistic services taking place around our globe today

Today and tomorrow across all the time zones on our planet, outreach efforts will be taking place to share the message of Christmas and the incarnation. Because Christmas is a unique holiday there is a great deal of interest around it even among those who know little or nothing about Jesus or the gospel.


Just this week, at just one event in Shillong, India, 60 inmates of a local jail gave their lives to Jesus as the Christmas story was told. Multiply that across our globe and the harvest will be great.


Pray for indigenous workers everywhere who will be sharing the story of Christ, often with little or no resources but with hearts full of love for their people. Pray for receptive hearts among those whose lives need the hope of the Gospel and the light of a relationship with Christ. Pray for the persecuted church who are often targeted at Christmas since it is so important to Christians and they are gathered together. 


Isaiah writes "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned...For to us a child is born, to us a son is given and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end (Isaiah 9:2-7)."


Pray that once again, many walking in darkness will see a light, the light of the incarnation and that His kingdom would expand this Christmas eve and Christmas day.