Engaging Culture as a Faithful Missionary

Imagine for a moment that you had perfect understanding of the Bible.  Not only that, but imagine that you had the ability to perfectly interpret God’s word.  Being a passionate follower of Christ, you form a plan to move to the other side of the world in order to share God’s word with others.  In God’s providence, you’re able find a few churches that are willing to work together to send you to the
mission field.

So here’s where you’re at:  You have a perfect understanding of
God’s word and the ability to explain what God meant with 100 % accuracy, and you have a network of churches working together with absolute unity. 

Then you arrive at your final destination. You begin your ministry by faithfully unfolding the truths of God’s word.  You continue to do this daily.  As time goes on, people begin to contact you from back home, and you fill them in on your faithful teaching ministry. But you also express a slight degree of disappointment due to a lack of response—people are not growing and changing. Ultimately, you determine that this is just a difficult mission field, and you simply need to persevere. Years pass by and still you continue ministering faithfully. In fact, you end up spending the rest of your life perfectly explaining the word of God to these people.

This sounds like a wonderful scenario. It seems like the perfect use of a talent that has clearly been given to you by God. But let me introduce a slight twist. You have been carefully teaching the word of God in English. But the people you spent your life ministering to don’t speak English. You have been completely faithful and entirely accurate in your teaching, but you have been speaking in a language that the people simply cannot understand.

With that extra bit of information, we would all agree that this potentially perfect scenario turns out to be disastrous. Rather than an example of a faithful ministry, it becomes an example of a wasted life and a misuse of God’s gift. We would all be quick to say that this example is ludicrous.

But here’s the point: you may not be dealing with people who live overseas. You may even be ministering to people who speak English. But are you really speaking the same language? Don’t be too quick to say yes. Have you invested any time in learning the “language” of the culture in which you live? How much time do you spend listening to the people around you? How do they view the world around them? What are their hopes and fears? What do they believe about God and life and death?

Only when we understand the language and worldview of the people living around us can we effectively speak truth into their lives. Only then can we be faithful missionaries to the mission field in which God has placed us.

“I Will Build My Church”

Over the last few months I have been gripped with Jesus’ statement in Matthew 16:18, “I will build my church and the power of death will not overpower it.” I haven’t been able to get away from this proclamation and it has echoed in my mind day after day. Jesus was in essence saying, “My church is an unstoppable force!” (and no, I have never read McManus’ book) This undeserving group of people who were graced by the Father to understand that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the Living God” (v. 16), would be assembled in such a way that nothing (very bold word) would stop them from fulfilling the purposes of God. Nothing!

The first night I began to think through this, my wife had gone to a movie with some friends and I had put the kids to bed, and I was left silent with this thought. I stared out my window overwhelmed with awe at being included into this movement. Todd Nighswonger, one of a few billion people to walk this planet since the dawn of time, was given the grace to understand the greatest message since the Fall and the pleasure to be involved in an unavoidable finale that God has been orchestrating since eternity past.

As I sat captivated in my thoughts, a really obvious question snuck into my mind: “If this God ordained body is so ‘unstoppable,’ then why does the church seem so ‘stoppable’ in the U.S.?”

After floating in the clouds of my euphoria, this thought brought me quickly back to earth (with a thud!). What would happen if you removed all of the money, programs, air conditioned/heated buildings, extravagant children’s and youth ministries, tight worship bands, expensive sound systems, worship “expressions” (I still haven’t figured out that one), Christian books, blogs, podcasts, cheesy lingo…? What if all we had were a few Bibles and some people?

A couple of years ago, I took a Roman Catholic friend of mine out for coffee to discuss the ills of the Roman Catholic faith. We talked about various Church Fathers, creeds, councils, etc., but in the end he was convinced that the Roman Catholic Church was the “one true church.” As a parting shot I left him with this statement, “Do you honestly believe that as Jesus Christ was hanging on the cross, everything the Roman Catholic Church has become is what Jesus envisioned? St. Peter’s Basilica? Vatican City? The Roman Catholic liturgy? All of that is what he died for?”

I sat back in my chair smug, thinking I had the last shot to part on. Little did I know that he was going to respond in like manner: “You think Jesus had in mind what the Conservative Evangelical Church has become? Come on!”

Tonight I sat quietly in my chair thinking to myself those same words…“Come on!”

As I write this, I don’t remember if it was frustration or disappointment, but that night I picked-up my Bible and read those words out of Matthew again and again: “I will build my church…” After about four or five deep breaths, I was reminded that in spite of the mess we have created, it was so good to know that God will build his church.

by: Pastor Todd Nighswonger

Rejoice in the Lord Always

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. (Phillipians4:4)

Try to remember back to when you first put your trust in Jesus as your Lord and Savior. What was that feeling like? Was it freeing? Did you feel like nothing else really mattered?

Oh the day that we first believed. The truth of the Gospel washed us clean of all our iniquities. We were freed from the bondage of sin. We are “new creations” (2 Corinthians 5:17) and are called to live in such a way that demonstrates our faith in this truth. We are called to be “the salt and light” in a world where darkness is so prevalent (Matthew 5:13). We are tasked with living in the world but not of the world.

As Christians we need to be aware that we are living amongst a watching world. This should not be the reason that we rejoice but it should be a catalyst. We need to rejoice because of the grace and mercy that our Lord showed to us. We need to remember that when we do rejoice it will cause the watching world to wonder. They will wonder how we can rejoice when there are so many uncertainties
in the world.

We rejoice because we know how our story ends. We can rejoice because we are Heaven focused. We rejoice because the God of this universe loved us so much that He sent His Son to die on a cross. We rejoice because His Son, Jesus, rose again. We rejoice because those of us who are saved will spend an eternity with Him. We rejoice because if God is for us who can be against us?
(Romans 8:31)

by: Pastor Steve Doucette

Being Unproductively Available in Your Neighborhood

To be more available in our neighborhoods sometimes it means making choices that seem unproductive. It’s amazing how busy our lives are. Especially when we are a part of a large church where there are always opportunities to get together with people or participate in activities. Not to mention all of our day-to-day responsibilities. These things are not bad in and of themselves but over the last few months I have noticed that busyness makes us less available in our neighborhood.

My wife and I are learning to make adjustments to our schedule to be available to our neighbors. The other day we were getting ready to go grocery shopping. As we opened the garage we noticed our neighbors outside playing with their children. This was a great opportunity for us to connect with them so we chose to postpone our trip to the grocery store.

On the surface this might not be a big deal but it was a difficult decision because it forced us to change our schedule. It was inconvenient and seemed insignificant at that time to ‘hang out’ with my neighbor. In some ways we were unproductive because we didn’t get the grocery shopping done. My wife and I were challenged to sacrifice our schedule and preference in order to be available to
our neighbors.

Being purposefully available in our neighborhood is not easy because it means we are making conscious choices to put ourselves in places where we are available even when it is inconvenient for us. Even when it seems like nothing gets “accomplished”.

Every neighborhood is different and has unique challenges. What are some decisions we can all make in our neighborhoods to be more accessible to those God has called us to love?

by: Pastor Matt Swaney

We Are His Workmanship

We have a unique design. We have been created for special purpose.

We have been prepared by God for a divine task. There is nothing shocking about these truths. All of us have heard these statements dozens of times in books and sermons. The problem is that we typically think of these statements in relationship to us as individuals. The focus of these statements and the passage in Ephesians is on ‘we’ not ‘me’. Together we are God’s workmanship, not simply me individually.

When you visit an art exhibit or tour a museum you will never find someone walking up to a painting and praising the painting itself. It would be ludicrous to see someone saying to a piece of art “You are so amazing” or “Your colors are so vibrant and your brush strokes are so smooth”. Instead, those that marvel at a piece of art want to know the name of the artist. Those who are moved by a poem want to know the name of the poet. Likewise, when people look at us as a community they should be inspired to know our God.

Keep in mind that you, individually, are simply a color on the tapestry and only a word from a line from a stanza of a poem. A color out of context from its painting does not marvel an onlooker. A word out of context from a poem does not inspire a listener. But God is the artist of His people who brushes our unique colors together into an awe-inspiring masterpiece. He is the poet who insightfully connects our individual words together into a noteworthy poem.

This is your design. You fit best in community with other believers. As a community you are designed to be this piece of art and this poem. As we live together in community with other believers from our neighborhood unbelievers will be compelled to marvel at our God who skillfully knit us together. God has determined the boundaries in which you live in your neighborhood (Acts 17:26) and he has a preplanned agenda for you to pursue with other believers in community (Eph. 2:10).The work that God has planned for you is to be accomplished with others in community! In other words, God’s purpose for your life right now is interconnected with other believers. Stop living an isolated life and begin to partner together with other believers to pursue God’s purposes.

by: Pastor Matt Moore