Eddie Cox, Prayer Director-IMB

This post is submitted by Eddie Cox, the Director of Prayer for the International Mission Board. Eddie and I entered the mission field together in 1983. Visit the Prayer Director’s Blog.

The old adage, “Be careful of what you pray for, because you just might get it” took on a whole new level of meaning for me one night in southeastern Ethiopia.

My team of 9 men had been traveling in two limping pickups all day long.  The earthen road was like driving on an old fashioned washboard.  By the end of the day, our voices were raspy from our loud, staccato conversation; our faces looked like red raccoons from the road dust blowing through the windows; and our bodies were sore from being tossed to and fro in the truck.  I remember having longed all day for the evening hours when I would be able to “stretch out” under the stars in my miniature mosquito pup-tent.

That evening, as I popped my tent rods into place, I gazed on one of nature’s spectacular electric light shows dancing on the northern horizon.  Since we would be sleeping out in the open with only a net to protect us from the rain, I quickly lifted up a prayer in hopes that God would spare us from the storm.  The following morning, I awakened rested, a bit stiff, but thankfully dry.  I whispered my heartfelt appreciation to the Lord for keeping the rain at bay.

As was our practice in each village we visited during our journey, we met with the village elders, asking them to describe their greatest needs.  Even though the priority might change from village to village, the content was identical: water, health, agriculture and education.  In one particular village, following a visit to an abandoned clinic, the village leader rode with us about a mile outside of town to their water source, a dried up riverbed.  From my vantage point on the elevated banks, I noticed several clumps of women, girls and boys kneeling in the sand.  A closer look revealed that the villagers were digging holes in the riverbed where dirty water could collect.  As soon as the murky water was a couple of inches deep, they would dip it out with tin cans.  Each can of water then would be poured into 1 gallon jugs for transport by foot back to town.

I was especially touched by one group of children, which was managed by an older brother.  As soon as his little sister had filled their gallon jug, he hung it on her back with a well-worn strip of fabric and marched her off to town, just as one would coax a burro to market.  I gasped at that moment as the Holy Spirit reminded me of my thoughtless prayer of the previous evening.  Tears of contrition immediately ran down my dusty cheeks, and I fell before the Lord to beg for His forgiveness.  It was a hard lesson learned, but one I hope to never, ever forget.

Approximately, 2.2 million people die each year due to unsafe drinking water.  That’s 6,000 deaths per day, 90% of which are children under the age of 5.  How would God want you to respond to this tragic need?  Ask Him.  Then, follow His direction.

This post is a continuation of Acts 1:8 Now, a Bible study for missional living.

“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.”    Acts 1:8

Lesson One: First Things First
Jesus’ words found in Acts 1:8 constitute one of the most profound utterances of our Savior. These final words of Jesus shaped the DNA of the first church like few other statements.  If we think the words were important 2000 years ago, those same words should be no less powerful today.

Unfortunately, the status quo teaching and preaching regarding Acts 1:8 reflects an exegesis that neglects truth for the sake of convenient hyperbole.

Second only to Matthew 28:19-20, Acts 1:8 is one of the most widely used “mission sermon” texts.

When you read this passage, what are the first words that jump off the page at you? __________  ____________ ______________  _____________ ______________

Describe below the first thought that comes to mind when you hear the following three Acts 1:8 expressions. (There are no wrong answers.)

Jerusalem –

Ends of the Earth –

As a rule, we describe these three or four locations in terms of proximity to me.

Jerusalem –  My hometown or closest family and friends (near me).

Judea & Samaria – Beyond my hometown (outside my home town).
Ends of the Earth – Far away from my hometown (outside of my nation).

There’s a basic factual-geographic issue that turns this analogy on its head.

Jesus, who spoke these words, would never have considered Jerusalem his hometown. Witnessing in your hometown is the right thing to do, however, that was not Jesus’ point in Acts 1:8.

Looking through the same old lens
Since we are trying to look at this passage through a new lens, we need to remind ourselves of the previous manner in which we have viewed this scripture.

The following are three common ways in which we have approached Acts 1:8.

Stay in Jerusalem unless God specifically tells you to go.  Acts 1:8 is more about verse 4 than about verse 8. The point is to wait.  Simply wait and do nothing else until God tells you what to do. Only those with an extraordinary call have a responsibility for ministry beyond my friends, family and my hometown.

Prioritize my hometown – God cares more about my hometown than the ends of the earth. Acts 1:8 means we are to first complete the work in my hometown; second we are to consider working beyond my hometown but within my nation. Finally at some later point in time we are to hire professional missionaries, send them and pray for them as they go internationally.

Number one (above) focuses upon staying and waiting. The focus of number two (above) is on the sequence and priority for geographical distribution of the gospel – first witness to my city, then witness to my state and my nation, and when you have reached your city and your state and your nation, only then consider getting involved in witnessing internationally.  Both of the above interpretations focus on geography – the location of service.

God commands His followers to go as His witnesses near, far, and farther. Acts 1:8 commands all of God’s people to mission work in the following three locations:

in my hometown,

within my nation,

and throughout the world.

Each of these understandings in isolation falls short of the primary teaching of Acts 1:8.

What then is the main point of Acts 1:8?
Is it primarily about the geographic location of Christian missions activity?

Is Acts 1:8 a command or is the verb tense a foretelling of what God will do through His people? Since Jerusalem was NOT Jesus’ home town, why do we assume that Jesus’ reference to Jerusalem is a command for us to be a witness in “my home town?” These are just a few of the questions that must be asked. Examine this passage from a First Century perspective –THEN- in order to understand how it relates to us NOW.

More about Acts 1:8: Then and Now  on the next post…

Today marks the first of several posts which essentially make available to you portions of the Missional Discipleship Guide written by Mark Morris called Acts 1:8 Now. The intent is to provide fresh eyes and application for a local church, a small group, or an individual establishing a personal World Christian plan for missional living. The entire study will be available later for download on this site.

Acts 1:8 Now

Preface: Acts 1:8 Now

“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.” Acts 1:8

There are at least six reasons that Christendom needs to take a fresh look at what has become a status quo, self-serving utilization of this familiar mission passage. Theologians and preachers work diligently to rightly divide the Word of Truth. Interestingly, we have a bad habit of taking this familiar passage and simply riding the wave of rhetoric, accepting a less than thorough examination of its meaning. Without praying over, studying, and exploring these well-used passages, missionaries, preachers, and writers alike have merely co-opted their predecessors’ conclusions. If the same level of scrutiny, prayer, and study were applied to Acts 1:8 as we apply to other less familiar passages, then Acts 1:8 Now would be unnecessary. Six reasons follow.

Acts 1:8 is commonly interpreted with an incorrect verb tense. (Was Jesus commanding His disciples to go and be His witness or was he prophetically stating an eternal reality? Is Jesus saying “GO!” or is He stating, “You will go.” What’s so important about the verb tense?)

Acts 1:8 is most often used to articulate a mission strategy of proximity which ignores historical and factual data. (Jesus’ home town was not Jerusalem, yet we apply this passage by advocating a strategy based on Jerusalem as my “hometown” mission field. We extrapolate from this passage that Jesus is commanding us to witness to “my Jerusalem” or my hometown and my family and friends. If that was Jesus’ message, why didn’t he say, “you will be my witness in Nazareth?”)

Acts 1:4 has been used to mandate a strategy of inaction. (Just wait. If God doesn’t call you to go, then you are only responsible for ministry in your hometown.)

The places of Acts 1:8 –Jerusalem, Judea & Samaria, and the ends of the earth– have been used almost exclusively to advocate a strategy of proximity without any thought to the more significant theological underpinnings. (What is the theological significance of the places of Acts 1:8? What is the theological significance of Jerusalem as a center of Truth and a hub of the dissemination of spiritual Truth? How does a theological view of Jerusalem affect the way we apply Acts 1:8 in contemporary missions?)

Contemporary Christians tend to view biblical place-references (Judea & Samaria) from a Western view of geo-political entities, i.e. nations. However, the biblical worldview is much more influenced by people-group thinking than by geography. (Dividing up mission organizations and mission strategies into local and global, near, far, and farther is organizationally helpful. Perhaps we should not focus as much on the places, rather on the peoples of Acts 1:8: their worldview, their ideology, and the status of their spiritual health.)

Theologically sound exegesis has been ignored for the sake of convenient rhetoric. We mean well, but familiarity with this passage has bred a casual approach to Acts 1:8. We are so ready to jump to Acts 1:8b that we pay no attention to Acts 1:8a. (How does the application change if we view the places mentioned in Acts 1:8 not as my places of mission activity, but as God’s arena of mission action?)

May God open our eyes, our ears, and our hearts and may He kindle fresh insights into local and global ministry. It is time to evaluate church missions activity, organizational missions priorities, and personal missions values through a new lens.

(More from Acts 1:8 Now in the next post)
© mission leader, inc.

www.missionleader.com

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated are taken from the Holy Bible, NIV.

“Age doesn’t matter… God doesn’t need us to do His work.  He can do that Himself, yet He allows us and demands of us the opportunity to do His will for the betterment of His kingdom, His glory, His power and our relationship with Him that we have through the Cross.  God can use anyone of any age,” said Will Chavez.

Will just returned from a short-term mission trip to Roatan, Honduras.  A 21-year-old college student attending Florida State College at Jacksonville, he traveled with a team of high schoolers from Chets Creek Church in Jacksonville, Florida.  “I feel like I should go back,” he said, “Something about that place has captured me and I want to go back.”

The purpose of the Roatan team was to help build piping to houses in a poor mountain community, giving them access to running water.  Chets Creek Church has partnered with an organization called Living Water 4 Roatan and this team was working on an ongoing project to bring clean water to the village.  Additionally, the team from Chets Creek put on a Vacation Bible School (VBS) for the children and passed out things like toothbrushes and shoes to various houses.

Will didn’t plan to go on this mission trip, he said, but God opened all the doors.  As college students understand well, money is always tight.  “For this mission trip, I didn’t have to pay to go, save for my passport… God made it so available for me to go,” said Will.  An anonymous donor from Will’s church gave the full amount to send one person on the mission trip.  Will heard that they needed someone to lead worship and handle music for VBS and he jumped on the idea.

“I have a calling to lead worship,” said Will.  “His desires are made my desires through Him… If you had told me four years ago that I would actually be singing and leading worship, I would’ve thought you were crazy.”  Will never saw himself where He is today but said, “God had other plans for me.  So my calling, desire and mission is to lead worship.”

“If you are called to go (on a mission trip) then it is more than worth all the time, money and hassle needed to go,” said Will.  “…We are called to go and tell, and to love God and love people.”

Will (center, green shirt) leading children's music in Honduras.

Something new is coming in October.  We need your help – write your last letter in 400 words or less.

It’s actually an ancient tradition of soldiers and missionaries who as they board a ship, write their family and friends a letter that they think might be their final communication!  The resurrection of this ancient tradition is to inspire a new generation to think and pray through the reason for their life – and possibly the sacrifice of their life for a cause greater than themselves.

Last letter is a call for a revolutionary lifestyle inspired by individuals willing to offer every breath to fulfill the passionate call of Christ.

The vision is for a movement of believers taking up their crosses daily and following Jesus… into the slums of India, into HIV hospices of Africa, into the child labor underworld in the far East, into waterless villages, into garbage-dump cities, into lands ruled by extremist regimes, into the least reached villages, and into the most crime-ridden neighborhoods in our cities.  It is about bringing awareness and justice.

The pillars of this movement are found in four words:

Sacrifice…Action…Justice…Jesus.

Jesus’ personal sacrifice transformed judgment into mercy.
Jesus’ revolutionary action disrupted history and unlocked eternity.
Jesus’ death and rising brought the hope of justice for all.
In Jesus, God became flesh. He died for you and me.

The movement has the gall to ask the question –What are you willing to die for?

The Purpose is to fuel a revolution of Christians who are passionately offended by hopelessness and poverty. Where there is hunger, we will feed, where there is no water, we will dig, where there is disease, we will bring medication.  And why? Because Jesus asked all of us — every believer — to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and heal the sick, in His name.  Through His example of sacrifice and death, we die to ourselves that He might live in and through us in this world.

The Narrative of Last Letter comes from an epoch long forgotten, when obedient Christians packed up their worldly belongings into a pine casket and sailed the oceans to a distant land.  Before it’s ultimate use, the constantly visible casket served as a daily seal of the missionaries’ commitment to take up Jesus’ cross among the poor and the lost.

Before their ships would sail, these Christian servants would scribble with tears and ink their last letters.  These letters were penned in Bibles and on weathered parchment in a desperate attempt to explain their divine compulsion to give up everything and everyone to serve the lost and the hurting. At her final farewell, surrounded by parents and siblings, a twenty-year-old single lady would hand her father her last letter, she would tearfully embrace, board the ship and sail off never to return.

Karen Watson was a young missionary, recently murdered in Iraq because of her bold service to the Lord.  At her funeral, Karen’s last letter was read by her pastor.
Dear Pastor,
You should only be opening this letter in the event of my death.When God calls there are no regrets. I tried to share my heart with you as much as possible, my heart for the nations. I wasn’t called to a place; I was called to Him. To obey was my objective, to suffer was expected, His glory my reward, His glory my reward…

The missionary heart:
Cares more than some think is wise
Risks more than some think is safe
Dreams more than some think is practical
Expects more than some think is possible

I was called not to comfort or to success but to obedience…
There is no Joy outside of knowing Jesus and serving Him. I love you and my church family.
In His care,
Salaam, Karen

The Passion of Last Letter is to recapture the dedication of those who have sacrificed everything to bring justice in Jesus’ name.

The Last Letter Journey is a faith revolution.  It’s a call to action. Our intent is that we seek Jesus, and contemplate His love for the desperate, the lost and the least reached.

“Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat—I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you?” – Jesus

Send us your last letter today.

Here’s a local church sending question – one that is only important if you are dealing with it.

The question – What if my church wants to send our own missionaries without the aid of a mission sending agency?

Many churches come from a tradition that believes this is the best way to send and support missionaries.  No question – missions is the responsibility of the Local Church.  No question – when a small or large church takes complete responsibility for the sending, the financial supporting, the field mentoring, the financial oversight, the transportation and housing needs, the ministry guidance and the spiritual support of a missionary family thousands of miles from the US, there are issues to address.

I’ve been in a setting in which missionaries felt called to go, they were qualified, but for some reason were not able to join one of the existing mission agencies.  That fact alone is worthy of asking some serious questions.  Why wouldn’t this  individual go with one of multiple excellent sending agencies? Why aren’t they qualified to go with an agency?

There are clearly situations in which a particular project really merits the local church sending their own team.  That decision is wrought with potential land-mines.  That decision can also be a tremendous means to involve the church in a great way than ever before.  With everything riding on the church’s effectiveness to send, support, pray and engage the missionaries and their ministry – opportunities abound for the entire church to get involved.

My own experience with local-church sending outside of a partnership with an existing sending/supporting agency/partner is this –  only experienced, mature, cross-cultural workers should endeavor such an effort.

Why?  Here’s two reasons that I recommend when sending as a local church, to make sure you partner your chruch’s missionaries with great field partners.

1. Cross-cultural learning requires guidance, accountability, and repeated encouragement from someone who has experienced the value of going deep into the language and culture.  Even the best North American mission leader, committee, or pastor doesn’t have the time and touch to constantly monitor and encourage an inexperienced missionary to make steady progress in appropriate cross-cultural learning.  As an experienced missionary who can speak a second and third language fluently, I was never able to insure that the missionaries our church sent separate from a partnering agency ever learned the language.  Even today they continue to use a translator and thus will never be able to communicate deep spiritual truths in the heart language of their audience.  This, in my view is one of the greatest tragedies and greatest risks to the spread of the gospel through a means that indigenous communities can understood.  It’s a fallacy to think that getting the gospel out there is enough. The message must be communicate not only through intelligible words, by means of messengers that understand the subtle non-verbal communication that often carries more weight than words.

2. Isolation, personal spiritual crisis, and marriage and family issues are nearly impossible to monitor and support without lots of opportunities for presence and touch.  I’ve had the unfortunate responsibility as mission pastor to travel from North America to Asia to meet with a family whose marriage fell apart on the mission field.  The warning signs were apparent to many, but there was no one on the field who was responsible for sharing those concerns with their sending church. In fact, there were two sending churches and both of us assumed the other was doing their part.  We failed and the children and marriage suffered the loss.  Avoidable, personal tragedy is too easy without hands-on care.  Add to that the fact that the right agency might have better screened the couple and rejected them, encouraging them to stay and work on their marriage.  In our case, the couple was connected to people of influence in the church, which made it nearly impossible to not send them.

Not every story ends in tragedy so that my message is not “Don’t Do This.”  Rather, my advice is when a local church sends, do it right. Don’t send novice missionaries on your own.  Don’t send any missionaries without some kind of prearranged field support system.

This subject was raised by a pastor who recently wrote a group of us and asked for policies and procedures related to local church sending absent from an agency.

Gary Coombs is the Mission Pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon, CA.  Gary’s church is diligently seeking to be an effective sending church.  He sent a copy of his church’s sendingagencypolicy for local-church-sent and supported missionaries.  Thanks Gary for allowing us to make your guidelines available.  If any of you have similar documents to share – please jump in and pass them on so the rest of us can benefit from your experience.  That’s code for “we want to steal your ideas.”  It’s for the kingdom!

Take advantage of more from mission leaders by checking out the resources and links on missionleader.com.  If you have a resource you would like to share with others and you are willing to give them away on this site, please send them my way and I’ll post them for others to “borrow.”

Mark Morris

A friend sent me this letter from a Muslim background follower of Christ.  The letter gives a different perspective on the role of mothers in his land.  Remember your mother this week.

Mark

Excerpt of a Letter Below —

As most of you know I grew up in a Muslim Family, and brought up with a combination of Muslim and Central Asian cultural values.  Some very good values, while some not so impressive. One of the teachings of Islam is about honoring your parents especially mother. Mohammad said: “Paradise is under the feet of mothers.” So in order for a person to go to paradise his/her mother has to approve of his/her good behavior and ask God to send her child to paradise. While she herself is not sure where will she end, to paradise or to hell or to a place in between called Barzakh.

On the other hand even for the most righteous Muslim to go to paradise is that they have to cross a bridge called SERRAT. Which, according to Mohamad and the Mullah of our neighborhood Mosque the serat bridge is thinner than a string of hair and sharper than Sword.

And the legend in our neighborhood says that one day when a famous drug addict and gang member of our area was in the mosque for Friday prayer. There he heard Mullah say that all Muslims have to cross the Serat Bridge to get to paradise otherwise they would fall down in everlasting Fire of hell; he got up, shook his prayer mat and leaving the mosque he said to Mullah: “if that is the way to paradise not even you can cross it, so why should I waste my time here” and he left.

I am reading you this so that you know how hopeless I was as a Muslim. But today I thank and Praise God, because now I don’t have to cross the Serat Bridge. I don’t have to go to bed with fear that if I die I will fall from Serat Bridge in to the flames of hill that Allah has prepared for me.  Today I have a promise and that promise with Confidence says: “my child, if you leave this world today, you will be with me in Paradise”

We thank God and Jesus the living son of God for his sacrifice on the cross, and for this GREAT ASSURANCE and Promise. That whoever who believe in Him shall not parish but have eternal life. And where will that eternal life would be? IN PARADISE WITH JESUS.

Now that you know about the role of mothers in recommending God to take their children to Paradise I should also let you know that it gives some mothers a bit more power of persuasion . And the example of that would be my mother who lives in Central Asia.  When I told her that I am a Christian. She began weeping and saying “if I am your mother please come back and be a Muslim. Or I won’t forgive you” in other words: “you won’t go to paradise”. And crying she mentioned “I sent you to the Islamic school to learn Quran so that when I die you read Quran on my grave, and now you become an infidel. Now God not only punish you but God will punish me as well for your sin.”

So should I be afraid that because my mother is not happy with me I will end up in hell. No of course not. Because I love Jesus and he is enough for me. I am content with Jesus. Because I have Jesus and he takes my hand and take me with him to where he is. And I am sure wherever he is it is much nicer than (the writer’s home city) in winter.

One day Fatima the daughter of Mohammad asked her Father to make sure she goes to Paradise when she dies. Mohammad got angry and said: “I am not sure if I am going to paradise and you ask me to promise you that. Everyone is responsible for himself or herself.” Wow. Isn’t that a risky business to follow a leader who doesn’t know where he is leading you?  That was my situation 10 years ago.

We are so blessed to have Jesus Christ, the great leader, friend and savior who not only knows the way, but HE IS THE WAY, The truth and the life. Isn’t this a wonderful promise?! “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6) and he says this with authority and confidence. He doesn’t say if I go then you can come with me.
Jesus not only takes us straight to God but He also gives us the right to become children of God.  “To all who received him (Jesus Christ), to those who believed in his name he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).
And of course children are always allowed to stay in their father’s home. And guess where our Father’s home is? PARADISE.  Imagine a place where there is no war, everybody loves one another, no one cuts you off while driving, and we even don’t have to pay taxes any more, And we might never see any pothole again.

Just remember if Jesus says to a dying thief on the cross: today you will be with me in paradise. How much more does he want you and me to be with him in paradise?  And this promise is not only for the dying man on the cross but to all of us here who believes in him.
And we have this confidence in Jesus Christ. That one day we will be with him in Paradise. Because in Jesus we have eternal life, and we have the assurance that we will not be condemned, and we have the promise that we have crossed from death to life.

“Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed from death to life” (John 5:24).

P.S: you are free to share it with friends without mentioning my name and address.

A dear Afghan brother, Hussain Andaryas does a weekly, live call-in television broadcast into the Muslim world.  In today’s post-9-11 world, Americans tend to rule out any thought of Muslims coming to a genuine faith in Jesus Christ. We’re distrustful and simply do not believe it.  In fact we struggle with the question – “God, how could you love a Muslim?”

Take a look at some excerpts from recent telephone calls from Iran and Afghanistan as well as Saudi Arabia.

God is at work, even among Muslims.  Could it be that God loves All Peoples?  See excerpts from his recent newsletter.

Last night I enjoyed attending an Upstream Collective sponsored dinner at the Exponential conference in Orlando.  Great food and fellowship with about 80 people gathered to hear a dialogue between Ed Stetzer and Alan Hirsch, both popular authors in the Church Planting world.

The discussion was built around questions that had been sent in via twitter and email and there were some interesting questions.  But the one that seemed to generate the most heat was a question regarding the word “missional.”  Ed often refers back to the early use of the word – tracing it back to my former missions professor – Dr. Francis DuBose.  Actually, since 1982 I’ve been using the word “missional” because it was one of my professor’s favorite words.  The word, in context just made sense and since 1982 I’ve been using it, kind of surprised that it never spell checked correctly and surprised that people thought it was a new word.

It’s a great word and it was defined in several ways last night – some emphasizing more the incarnational dimension and others emphasizing more of the intentionality of missional living and intentional ministry. Absolutely imperative to the concept is that the missional nature grows out of the heart of God.

A lifestyle or ministry or church that is intentionally, incarnational and deliberately redemptive and pervasively reconciliatory is a reflection of God – the old missio-dei concept that Ed pointed out has become associated with a tainted “liberal” movement.  So, some evangelicals are reluctant to use this excellent expression, missio-dei.

All that to say that the word missional may go down that same road.  The word is now used to communicate, “this is about everything that I don’t like about what the church used to be.”  Or it indicates, “I want everyone to know that our church and our ministry is hip!  That’s right we don’t do old, committee-led, tradition-driven, programatic, dead and dying church.  We are missional.”

So missional is going down the same road as missio-dei and unreached people. It’s over-used in meaningless contexts and the meaning is front-loaded with pork-belly-type add-ons which only benefit the one using the phraise.  Missional seems to take on new meaning with each utterance.

I remember when Unreached People Group actually meant something very specific. It referred to specific ethno-linguistic peoples around the world which had no scripture in their language, no Christian media available for communicating the Gospel in their language, zero missionaries at work among them, and in sum, almost no opportunity to see or hear an understandable expression of the Gospel.

Today, the term Unreached People can refer to any group of people who are lost or unsaved.  So the end result – I don’t even want to use the word Unreached because for some it has come to mean  – anybody who does NOT attend my kind of church.   Some of us started using the word unengaged taking on somewhat of a refined meaning.  At Saddleback as was the Pastor for Unengaged Peoples and people thought that was code for “Single Adult Minister.”  So that word isn’t great either.

And here we go with the word “missional,” one of my favorite words since 1982 when I took Dr. Dubose’s missions classes. Those courses took us from the classroom to a ministry center in Oakland that was part of  Dr. J. Alfred Smith’s church.  DuBose’s class was missional in that we did it, we didn’t just talk about it – we went to Haight Ashbury and hung out; we went to San Francisco for midnight ministry. It was, yes, missional.

So, last night I got the distinct impression that Ed Stetzer has not given up on the word – he’s passionate about it’s proper use.

As for me and the word missional?  Ok I’ll still use it because it’s so commonplace in the conversations I have every week.

But..I’m looking for a new favorite expression to describe the missional lifestyle that grows out of the heart of God.

Any suggestions?

Since December 14, 2008 Pastor Kelvin Bowen and myself have been working together as black and white pastors in a new church plant. Kelvin is the senior  pastor and I’m his associate.  Both of us came together having worked on two separate church starts, but after prayer and soul-searching, God showed us that we had the opportunity to do something unique together in the city where Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated.  God has drawn together a core group of about a half dozen white folk and about 2 dozen black folks. Each Sunday we will have from 40 to 60 in attendance and each week is a great blessing.

Since December 14, my visual, social, and spiritual perspective has undergone a transformation.  For example:

• I can’t figure out why there aren’t more white folks that are serious about doing church as one with African Americans.
• Congregations and even denominations have been divided over style – yet styles of music and worship, even style of preaching and style of church administration just doesn’t seem so important any more.
• Tradition is being redefined.  It’s hard to talk about traditional church since there are so many different definitions of ‘tradition.’ To think that people are church shopping to find their preferred tradition or style of preaching and music. So, we have each had to learn to adapt to styles of preaching, fellowship, worship, and polity that are a blend of each of our traditions.
• Fellowship is deep.  I’m too accustomed to lots of shallow relationships in church.  Amazingly people of different cultures are growing increasingly in unity.   The bond of love is strengthening each day.
• Vision is expanding. Surprisingly, our view of our city and the world changes when we worship and work and fellowship as a multicultural body.

Since December 14, I have grown shockingly aware of the fact that nearly all the Church Planting, or Church leadership, or Mission conferences that I frequent are dominated by one race or another. The speakers and the participants are 99% from one race with only a token representation from another culture.  It’s strange that I didn’t notice this church and conference segregation until the body of believers with whom I am one, has changed my daily perspective.

So what’s the solution?  I’m asking the Lord.  Lord what is the solution?

What’s God telling you? How can the body become one?