What’s better that dinner & a movie? Dinner and sharing the the Gospel, of course! This past Friday night, we met at our house for dinner and then several of us (including my oldest son Miles) went to a nearby mall to hand out tracts and share the Gospel.

I had the chance to have several good conversations. The common thread through each of these conversations was that nearly everyone believes themselves to be a good person. Ours is a culture with no sense of holiness or sinfulness. Without a glimpse of God’s holy perfection, why wouldn’t we see ourselves as “good” people? After all, we can always find someone “worse” than we are. With no proper measure, we become the standard. Nearly everyone admitted to lying but denied having ever stolen anything. “Yes, but you’ve already admitted to being a liar,” elicited a chuckle but no conviction.

Even after admitting to breaking many of the Ten Commandments and admitting that, if God were to judge them on the these same commandments they would go to hell, there was no sense of remorse, repentance or conviction. If anyone doubts that “relativism” has indeed permeated our young (none of the people I spoke with that night was over 20 years of age), go to your local mall and talk about right and wrong.

The second observation was just how open to discussing matters of religion these young people were. With the exception of a group of three girls who just turned their backs and walked away, everyone was receptive and willing to talk. Though I did find one smart aleck girl who claimed to be atheist but couldn’t even define atheism, everyone else was willing to talk. This is much different than even a few years ago, when people would try to talk about the disparity between religion and science.

The third observation was just how little young people actually know about Jesus. When asked who Jesus is, one girl responded: “He’s the one who was born in the cow thingy, right?” When I told her that Jesus is God, I received a blank stare you wouldn’t believe! Others couldn’t tell me the basics of why Jesus came to earth at all, that He was killed and more than one didn’t know that He rose from the dead!

My heart was broken afresh for our culture. I am convinced all the more that “missions” is not just “over there,” but begins at our doorsteps. When we send a missionary to a foreign country, we take great pains to understand to understand the culture, the customs and the way of thinking. In other words, we “enculturate” the Gospel. We do not modify its contents, but we take great pains to communicate it accurately and effectively to that particular culture. Should we not the same pains in our own neighborhoods?

Please pray that we will be faithful stewards of the Gospel entrusted to us in and about Christ in the culture to which He has called us.

• Read the article “What Is A Missional Church” by Scott Thomas for Acts 29
• Read Planting Missional Churches by Ed Stetzer
• Read Simple Church: Returning to God’s Process For Making Disciples by Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger
• Read Planting Growing Churches for the 21st Century by Aubrey Malphurs
• Read 44 Questions for Church Planters by Lyle E. Schaller

One won’t wade very far into church planting waters without being bombarded with the importance of being “missional.” Writing for Acts 29, Scott Thomas says:

A church that is not missional is not really a church. A church exists by mission as the sun exists by burning. When the sun loses its burn it ceases to be the sun. When a church loses its mission, it ceases to be a church.

The problem is that the word seems to have become sort of a junk drawer. You know, I’m willing to get that you have a drawer in your house into which you just throw things you have nowhere else to put. The term “missional” has come to mean different things to different people. So it becomes possible to have a conversation in which you come to realize at some point that you’re using the same words but in very different ways (hopefully you realize this if its happening!).

Part of the problem in even trying to define a term like this is that you’ll likely gravitate towards those with whom you already agree, at least to some extent. That having been said, one of the resources I’ve found to be quite helpful in thinking through many of these issues is Ed Stetzer’s Planting Missional Churches (formerly Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age). Stetzer begins his book by noting that:

Establishing a missional church means that you plant a church that’s part of the culture you’re seeking to reach.

Stetzer states what should be the obvious but often seems to be lost in such discussions: “The goal of church planting is to reach people.” Right away this will be a major paradigm shift to some. Some feel the desire to plant a church because they simply feel they’ve got their theological ducks in a straighter row than others. This does not seem to be a biblical reason for planting a church. Yes, doctrine is important and cannot be divorced from church-life, but it doesn’t seem to be the biblical thrust behind the impetus to plant new churches. While the church is certainly commanded to protect doctrine, this seems to be under the more broad command to make disciples. One cannot properly make disciples without engaging in every step of this process, beginning with bringing the Gospel to the lost.

Missional then, in the sense that Stetzer puts forward, is a powerful reminder that, as he puts it: “It’s possible to be a missionary without ever leaving your zip code.” I would add that not only is it possible, it is expected. But we need to be careful and make a distinction between “Mission(s)-Minded” churches and “Missional” churches. Stetzer clarifies between the two terms (italics his):

The first refers more to an attitude of caring about missions, particularly overseas. Missional means actually doing mission right where you are. Missional means adopting the posture of a missionary, learning and adapting to the culture around you while remaining biblically sound. Think of it this way: missional means being a missionary without ever leaving your zip code. You can see how a particular congregation or denomination can be mission-minded without being missional.

Practically, of course, this means that it is possible to have a church that does a lot overseas but nothing at home, as odd as that might initially sound. Stetzer argues that this arises, at least in part from a false dichotomy between “missions” and “evangelism.” Missions is for out there somewhere while evangelism is for here. He argues that “There is no basis, biblically or theologically, for the territorial distinction of missions and evangelism.”

This thinking seems to contribute to what I believe to be a faulty question in the life of many churches: “Is our primary duty to feed the sheep or win the lost?” I have become convinced that this is the wrong question because our “primary” duty is to make disciples of Jesus Christ. This includes every step of the process, beginning with missions/evangelism. It is a continual process rather than an either/or question.

Furthering the discussion, Stetzer throws one other term into the mix: “on mission,” saying that:

on mission means being intentional and deliberate about reaching others.

Seems simple enough, right? And yet, many churches fully support abroad what they run from at home. We equip foreign missionaries to carefully study the cultural context, encouraging them to “contextualize” (without sacrificing content) the Gospel in such as way as it is most effective to that given cultural context. Yet, churches seem scared to death of the idea of “American” culture, either isolating from it or drowning in it. Or, we simply see a church that seems to be succeeding and we decide to import, lock, stock and barrel, what they are doing, regardless of any cultural differences that might exist between where they’re at from where we find ourselves.

We expect our missionaries to analyze and adapt to surrounding cultures yet we become doubtful of churches doing this, labeling them “liberal” or “emergent” or both. Why? Is it because we fear change? I would like to think that it’s because we’re so protective of the Gospel, but research demonstrates that most Americans who claim to be Christians don’t live anything like biblical Christians, so that doesn’t seem to be it either. Could it simply but profoundly that we don’t think of ourselves as missionaries, especially while singing “God Bless America” under flag-draped crosses?

If anything wrestling with terms like these ought to encourage us to rethink and reapply our approach to how the local church lives in the culture it finds itself.

• Read the article “What Is A Missional Church” by Scott Thomas for Acts 29
• Read Planting Missional Churches by Ed Stetzer
• Read Simple Church: Returning to God’s Process For Making Disciples by Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger
• Read Planting Growing Churches for the 21st Century by Aubrey Malphurs
• Read 44 Questions for Church Planters by Lyle E. Schaller

I just returned yesterday from Tamazunchale, S.L.P. where I participated in the second annual pastor’s conference, working with For the Fame of His Name ministries. Everything went very well. We spent Friday afternoon, all-day Saturday and Sunday morning with the pastors of several local churches and their spouses and spent several good days talking about Christ-centered leadership.

Please pray for the area, please pray for the pastors and that Christ’s glory would be spread throughout the Huasteca Region of Mexico. I hope to write more about several things later.

As you know, I recently returned from Tamazunchale in the Huasteca Region of Mexico. I typically don’t recycle posts, but I was just thinking about short-term missions and wanted to return to some thoughts about short-term missions that I posted in 2005 after returning from Morogoro, Tanzania. These thoughts center around concepts presented in John Piper’s book Let the Nations Be Glad. The basic premise of that book is that worship is the fuel for our obedience, including missions. We do not obey out of a spirit of drudgery, but out of the overflow of our joy in God’s glory.But many people separate short-term and long-term missions. While few would argue the worth of long-term missionaries, there is much debate surrounding the concept of short-term missions trips. I’d like to briefly discuss and defend the idea as not only valid but important for all believers (for our purposes, we will classify short-term missions as any trip with a clear objective from one week to five months).

Missions-work of any breadth personalizes God’s heart for the nations (Genesis 22:17-18, Psalm 22:27, Psalm 67, Revelation 5:9, etc.). We often feel led to pray for “the nations” and “every tribe, tongue and people.” This is entirely appropriate and within God’s will for both our hearts and prayers. However, we must admit that our prayers are often more fervent the closer they hit to home. Short-term missions accomplishes just that. We leave praying for “nations” and “tribes” and we return praying for individuals with names and lives just like ours. Short-term missions puts names and faces to the nations, adding fervor to our prayers.

Short-term missions also gives us a different perspective. For example, a Scripture such as, Psalm 84:5a: “Blessed are those whose strength is in You” takes on new life after a short-term trip. Such a text is devotional and uplifting, reminding us that the same God who saves will deliver. Yet, after meeting men and women who live in not only humble, but seemingly dire conditions, we are forced to consider that, especially for Americans, our strength is often placed everywhere but God. We look to our country, our school, our church, our doctrine, our friends, etc. But when faced with believers who truly have nowhere else to place their strength than in God, we are reminded again of God’s perspective on issues.

While in Mexico, I had the opportunity to meet pastors who strive and struggle every day to serve God, edify His people and spread the Gospel of His Kingdom. These men knows what it means to place their strength in God in ways that we might never experience. Short-term missions opens our eyes to God’s perspective and fills us with God’s heart. We must makes Christ’s last command our first concern:

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Matthew 28:18-20

• Read Operation World
• Read Let the Nations Be Glad by John Piper
• Read the original 2005 post

I’m going to Mexico today for about a week. I’ll be back in the country on next Tuesday, so that most likely means no posts at least until that Wednesday, maybe even Thursday. Kristi’s Mom and Step-Dad are spending some time with Kristi and the boys, which Miles, Owen and Carson are very excited about! I’ll be traveling as part of a new ministry called For the Fame of His Name (website coming).

For the Fame of His Name specializes in church planting and support in the Hueateca Region of Mexico. I’ll be going to Tamazunchale to speak at a pastor’s conference. Our church has adopted a pastor in Jalpa, Mexico and I’m looking forward to being able to meet him in order to be able to better pray for him, his family and ministry. I will be preaching twice, once on “Leadership Held to a Biblical Standard,” focusing primarily on 1 Timothy 4:16, but drawing heavily on the entire book of 1 Timothy and “The Beautiful Servant Leader,” drawing primarily from Mark 10:41-45 and Philippians 2:1-10.

Please pray that I would be faithful to God’s Word, clear in my thought and speech, that the pastor’s would be edified and that, above all else, God would be glorified.

Go with God.

As you know, last week was our annual Vacation Bible School (here, here and here) at Grace Community Church, Glen Rose where I pastor. As you also know, we did not implement a formal “altar call” method of evangelism. This, however, does not mean that we neglected teh Gospel, it just means that while we are zealous for boys and girls to come to know God, we don’t believe that convincing children to walk down an aisle is the best means to that end.

Two of the resources that we used come from the Way of the Master ministries: the $1,000,000 bill and the Ten Commandment coins. These resources use the easy-to-remember method of evangelism utilizing the Ten Commandments as an immediate method of demonstrating our need for a savior. Depending on the age-level of the audience, you ask as few as two or three questions: Have you ever told a lie, have you ever thought anything else was more important than God, have you ever hated someone? At only three questions, guilt before a holy, just judge has been demonstrated.

This method, of course, must be combined with an effective presentation of the person and work of Christ, but it is an effective, quick and for some reason, non-offensive method of demonstrating our guilt and need of a savior.

• Visit the Way of the Master website

As I noted late yesterday, we are in the midst of our annual Vacation Bible School and we are using Desiring God’s Things Hidden: A Study for Children on Kingdom Parables curriculum.

For those of you familiar with this curriculum, you know that there is no specific “altar call” or “sinner’s prayer” or “prayer of asking Jesus into your heart as your personal savior.” Those of you unfamiliar with this curriculum might think that’s a bit odd for a curriculum specifically designed for Vacation Bible School outreaches. After all, isn’t that when we get all those kids to make “commitments?” If you’re not leading children down the aisle, then what are you doing? In reflecting on this, I’d like to quote from the introduction to the curriculum, written by Sally Michael:

The goal of this curriculum is not to lead a child to “accept Jesus” or to pray a conversion prayer. It is relatively easy to lead children to make such a step but in many cases, the child really doesn’t understand what he is doing and does not experience true conversion. This is not to say that childhood conversions are not valid. many are in fact valid, lasting, true conversions. But after only five lessons, it is very possible for children to respond to the teacher’s desire that the child “accept Jesus” only to please the teacher, because it looks like fun, because someone else is doing so, or for any number of insignificant reasons. Is this true conversion or just a response to persuasion?

This indeed is a different approach to much children evangelism and this is much of the reason why we use this curriculum. Conversion of the soul is up to God. Our job is to get children to think spiritually and awaken spiritual interest in children, feeding spiritual hunger by exposing them to truth. We continually proclaim the Gospel throughout the week, inviting children to speak with an adult if God is indeed drawing them, but we do not have a “mass altar call,” because, as Sally Michael has pointed out, it’s easy enough to get children to walk down an aisle and even say a prayer or sign a card, but true conversion is the work of the Lord, not man.

Please continue to pray that God would glorify Himself and add to His kingdom during this time and I praise Him that He has not left the most important job in the world up to man. we are to faithfully proclaim, we are to obediently disciple, but far be it for us to raise the dead (Ephesians 2:1-10, etc.).

• Visit our church website
• Visit the Children Desiring God website for great, God-centered children’s resources

Last week I mentioned the recent Christianity Today article focusing on Calvinism’s rise in popular collective consciousness. The second post focused primarily on the red herring argument given primarily by NOBTS provost Steve Lemke that Calvinists don’t evangelize. I hate to beat a dead horse and cover ground we’ve already tread, but I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the specifics of his quote and the implications of it for evangelism. For clarity’s sake, here is the quote in question, again taken from the recent issue of Christianity Today:

�the Calvinist churches of the SBC�s Founders Ministries lack commitment to evangelism. For many people, if they�re convinved that God has already elected those who will be elect . . . I don�t see how humanly speaking that can�t temper your passion because you know you�re not that crucial to the process.�

There are many things in this quote which we might focus on. For example, has Lemke considered that if there are fewer baptisms in “Calvinsist SBC” churches, it is not because they “lack commitment to evangelism,” but because they actually take baptism and church membership quite seriously and as something more important than meeting an arbitrary quota? In a denomination with more missing than present, it might seem prudent to focus on the pragmatic focus on numbers.

However, that’s not what I want to focus on in Lemke’s quote. Instead, for the past week, I have been fascinated by the focus of Lemke’s comments rather than their actual content, primarily because my perception (and I think the perception of Scripture as well) is so contrary to Lemke’s that I am continually taken back each time I read this quote.

If pressed, we can develop this point further, but for the meantime, I will boldly say that the first part of Lemke’s quote “…Calvinist Churches of the SBC’s Founders Ministries lack commitment to evangelism” is simply false. Not only is it not true, it’s poor scholarship to even make such a claim. However, it’s the second half of the quote that I think is crucial:

“For many people, if they�re convinved that God has already elected those who will be elect . . . I don�t see how humanly speaking that can�t temper your passion because you know you�re not that crucial to the process.�

Compare Lemke’s sentiment with that of Charles Spurgeon who is here quoted as saying:

“A controversialist once said, �If I thought God had a chosen people, I should not preach.� That is the very reason why I do preach. What would make him inactive is the mainspring of my earnestness. If the Lord had not a people to be saved, I should have little to cheer me in the ministry.”

It seems as though Lemke and Spurgeon are saying completely opposite things, doesn’t it? How could two men have such differing perspectives on the same issue? Granted, I am biased in this discussion, but I would assert that these two men have such differing perspectives because these two men have an entirely different focus. One is man-centered while the other is God-centered.

One can almost hear the underlying “but what about me” sentiment in Lemke’s quote. Lemke comes from a perspective in which it is up to us to be zealous, to be passionate, to talk people into accepting the Gospel and it is man’s centrality in that process that pushes Lemke. Spurgeon and those like him, however cannot be charged with lacking zealousness. In fact, listen as Spurgeon is again quoted:

I believe that God will save his own elect, and I also believe that, if I do not preach the gospel, the blood of men will be laid at my door.

For reasons hidden in God’s good counsel, He has chosen to gather His sons and daughters from the north and the south and everywhere in between (Isaiah 43:6) through the preaching of His Word and He has chosen to use men and women, boys and girls to carry this life-giving, soul-winning message to the ends of the earth. Consider Romans 10:14-17:

But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Lemke’s assertion that adopting an understanding of God’s sovereignty in salvation somehow means that we are not “crucial to that process” is entirely short-sighted. In one sense, no we’re not. God saves, we do not. Yet on the other hand, God has chosen to use the preaching of His Gospel through His children as His means of calling His children to Himself. Have Calvinist churches often lagged in evangelism? Yes, but I would venture that Calvinists no more lag in evangelism than do many so-called free-will churches. Most American believers simply do not engage in sharing their faith the way we ought. We must acknowledge that, but we cannot build theological straw men in the process.

I don’t know Lemke and I don’t question his heart for one second. In fact, I appreciate his zeal for the expansion of the Kingdom of Heaven. Yet I challenge him and those like him to re-examine their focus and place it once again squarely upon our God who will not share His glory with another, even those claiming to serve Him (Isaiah 48:9-11).

Southwestern Seminary has just gone online with a great website for their upcoming apologetics conference “Do You Apologize.” Among others, the conference will feature Kirk Cameron talking about the “Way of the Master” approach to evangelism.

• Browse the “Do You Apologize” website.

I finally had a chance to download and process Eric Simmons‘ sermon from the recent New Attitude conference. Entitled “The Mission: Reaching the World Next Door,’ Eric’s message drew heavily from Paul’s letter to the Colossians and focused on the concept that has come to be known as “missional living.”

One of the difficulties with this term is that it often means so many things to so many people. Many of the “emergents” have tried to co-opt it for their own use. Some have tried to combine it/morph it with the word “Reformation” to get at still other ideas. Some argue that it is an entirely wrong concept because it over-simplifies the concept of missions and others say that it is what is needed to get the church back on focus.

Eric did a great job at cutting through much of the confusion that surrounds the terminology in order to examine and apply the heart of the issue. He drew from a slogan often used by environmentalists: “Think globally, act locally.” Eric reminded the listeners that salvation is not a regional concern, it is not for a specific group of people, it is not to be isolated, but spread “through the ends of the earth.” Drawing from Mark 16:15, Matthew 28:18-20 and Colossians, Eric showed that this is indeed the heart of the Gospel; that it is to be taken globally.

Closely related to the command to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth is the fact that we are dealing with “kingdom-expansion,” that “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14) and that the eternal kingdom of Christ has broken into the temporal. Instead of becoming sidetracked on arguments relating to the kingdom, Eric admonished:

What a king we serve and what a kingdom we get to serve in! This Gospel cannot be thwarted and this kingdom cannot be stopped! Every day that people are being converted, the kingdom of God is being further revealed on this earth. That global vision should inspire you to play your part. All are called to be a vital part of God�s mission.

The first key to “missional living” is understanding and adopting this global vision, that we are charged to participate and we are equipped to obey. We are saved as individuals, but salvation is bigger than any single person, it is a kingdom and it is expanding and we are called to participate in that expansion.

This leads directly into the second aspect. Though we must understand this global vision of salvation, we all must learn to act within our immediate spheres of influence. For some this might mean going abroad as a full-time foreign missionary, but for most of us, it means adopting a missionary mindset here and now, within our immediate immediate spheres of influence. Here, Eric noted:

Sometimes I wonder if the most unreached people in this world are the ones next door because we grow so familiar and we make so many assumptions: that they live in America, they live here next door, they must know who God is, they must know what the Gospel is, they must go to church, but that is not a reality.

Complacency is one of the greatest enemies to American Christianity and we must overcome it at our own doorsteps. We all operate within spheres in which we interact with myriads of people everyday. The key is to translate this “global” vision to home and to begin to see these people with whom we interact everyday as just as much in need of the Gospel as those overseas. We must be moved to action here and now.

At this point, drawing from Colossians 4:2-6, Eric sought to answer the question: “How do we become effective missionaries?” Eric suggested that the text teaches us that 1) we pray, 2) we live, 3) we talk. Seems simple enough, doesn’t it? Then why don’t more of us actively share our faith?

Overall, Eric did a great job at side-stepping (but not running from) many of the pitfalls that easily sidetrack these discussions (what is “missional,” arguments about the kingdom, etc.) to show and admonish every believer that sharing our faith is not optional, it is to be a way of life and we ought to hurt over the lost, continually being intentional with our lives, arms reaching out and the Gospel ever on our lips.

This message fit in well with the overall theme of a “Humble Orthodoxy.” It’s often the argument and sadly, often the case that once people become convicted of theological orthodoxy, they become insulated, building theological walls to keep people out rather than taking the Gospel to the masses. The conference and Eric’s message succeeded in reminding us that we not only can be but we must be both theologically astute and compassionate.

• Download the message for yourself.