http://www.commissionstories.com/stories/283

Where would Jesus live?

Nancy, a friend from house church, suggested starting a new family tradition for Thanksgiving this year. We made a turkey out of a pine cone and constuction paper. Last night everyone in our family took a turkey feather and wrote what they were thankful for on it and then put the feather back in the bird. It worked. We were all thankful. Another successful Thanksgiving in the books.

For those of you who are students at this years conference...if you are interested in doing a medical rotation at Christ Community Health Services this year, please feel free to contact me at nathan@ministri.es. We combine clinical experience with discipleship and community engagement. I look forward to hearing from you.

As one who occasionally suffers with boughts of depression, I can say with experience that my greatest comfort has come from prayerfully reflecting on the word of God and from others, particularly my wife, encouraging me and exhorting me with the word of God. It seems that in my particular case, depression arises when I focus on the circumstances surrounding my life, my environment, or my job, and when I take my eyes off of the sovereignty of God. 

One passage of scripture that has been helpful for me to meditate on in times of depression and "forgetfulness" is Isaiah 6. Isaiah sees a majestic vision of the holiness and sovereignty of God. Isaiah's vision of God brings conviction of his own sinfulness. God mercifully reaches out to Isaiah, cleansing him of his sin.

Isaiah rightfully views God as his sovereign king, who has the right to do with his life whatever God desires. He lays his life before God, volunteering to serve God in whatever capacity God sees fit. Isaiah responds to God before being given a "job description." Isaiah is given a very difficult calling, to preach a message of repentance to his kinsmen knowing that God is going to deafen their ears and harden their hearts. In response to God's calling, Isaiah cries out with more than a hint of discouragement in his voice, "How long oh Lord?" God responds essentially saying until I have brought total destruction upon your people. The rest of the book of Isaiah demonstrates that the prophet was faithful to carry out the difficult task put before him.

I often ask myself, "How was Isaiah able to persevere in preaching to a people that he knew would not respond to his message of repentance." I imagine that Isaiah repeatedly returned to the vision that God had given him of his sovereignty, majesty, beauty and holiness. Isaiah preached, knowing that he was pleasing his sovereign despite the apparent "fruitlessness" of his ministry. This picture of God's sovereignty provides a good corrective to our pragmatic culture that values successful outcomes over perseverance and faithfulness, and a great personal reminder that God has called me to minister to him faithfully despite what I see with my eyes or feel in my heart.

According to Timmis and Chester, the local church provides the context for discipleship, while baptism and teaching provide its content. I would add that in order to make authentic disciples of Jesus in this age of information, we need to stress the importance of obedience to Jesus’ teachings and model obedience through the way that we live our lives.

Baptism is an act of initiation into a new way of life and a rite of passage into a new community. Within the context of this new community, the disciple has the opportunity to live out a new found faith. Obedience to the teachings of Jesus are worked out through authentic relationships with one another, where sin is exposed and disciples are given the opportunity to extend grace and forgiveness, encouragement and exhortation, love and submission to one another. The authors make the point that this type of discipleship training occurs best in small communities that challenge us to live according to Jesus’ teachings, rather than in large communities where we can choose companions that we like and that are like us. Living with others who are different than us, force us to live out the values of our faith. When we choose our own companions we tend to live according to our preferences and personal desires.

Two years ago, our house churches started to incorporate Burundi refugees into our fellowships. The diversity of worship that they bring has enriched our times of gathering. We have learned from their hospitality, their gentleness, and their service. We have been challenged by their dependence upon God and by their life of prayer. We have also been challenged by cultural differences, and language barriers. We have had to learn to teach and preach with translators. Our gatherings can feel belabored at times. The Americans in our group often feel that they are not digging deep into the word, and that discussions remain on the surface. We are learning that in order to be in an authentic relationship with one another we need to be vulnerable with one another and to share these “hardships.” The Americans are learning that they should not always be the “givers” and the Burundis the “receivers.” We are beginning to learn how to share in God’s grace by receiving from one another. We are learning how to be a family.

1. God's mission in the world is to redeem a people for himself among all nations. Therefore the mission of the church should include (a) proclaiming the good news to all people, that God has established his son, Jesus the messiah, as Lord of the nations, and (b) to establish local churches among all people groups that will continue to evangelize their surrounding regions through proclaiming gospel word and living as the gospel community.

2. Paul participated in the mission of God by establishing local churches in strategic cities that could carryout the task of evangelism within the surrounding region. In his letter to Thessalonica he encourages the church by commending them for their exemplary faithfulness, "And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere..." (I Thessalonians 1:6-8).

3. The local churches that Paul established contributed resources to his missionary task by sending money, prayer, and co-workers to join his missionary band and by offering hospitality to Paul and his co-workers as their traveled from region to region.

4. The authors conclude that small, flexible, and highly autonomous teams (supported by networks of local churches) could provide a more effective approach to pioneer church planting than large, structured, and visible organizations.

What do you think? Could such a strategy work? Do you have experience employing such a strategy?

http://media.asburyseminary.edu/audio/chapels/kentucky/2009fall/07012009.mp3

     There tends to be two extremes when it comes to social involvement. One is very heavy social involvement and very light gospel. The other is very heavy gospel proclamation (in word) and very light social involvement.  In this chapter on social involvement I think Chester and Timmis do a great job at showing how the Gospel and community are put into practice by bringing a balance to the two extremes above. 

  I am not going to elaborate  more on this with my own words and just give you two quotes from this chapter that I think best summarize this realty of evangelism and social action being inserparable.

We must reflect God's grace to us in the way we treat the marginalized (73).

So in any Christian ministry, including ministry among the poor, proclaiming and teaching the word of God must be central (78).