It has been a matra of mine for a number of years now. Each time I return from a mission trip, I become more and more convinced of the truth held within the statement. I've seen the lives of team members get turned upside-down as they serve in developing nations…and come back to the states with a greater passion to not only serve abroad, but locally. I've seen hearts break not only for the poorest of the poor in places like Ethiopia, but for people back here in the comfortable United States.
Hearts break, hands engage, pocket-books open up, local outreach happens.
I am fully convinced of this:
GLOBAL MISSIONS IS A CATALYST FOR LOCAL MISSIONS.
This is a very counterintuitive statement, and I believe, one that causes some leaders and pastors to break into a cold sweat. It is counterintuitive because it flies in the face of what appears to be logical. It often disregards the constraints of budget and perceived volunteers limitations. When first considered, it messes with set schedules, risks the shaking-up of calendared campaigns, and challenges vision.
Though they will not say it in such a way, I believe many church leaders are afraid of global missions largely because it costs money and resources that, quite frankly, they are already in short measure of in their church community. It is understandable.
In our culture, often in long-established churches, we are bent toward the comfortable. Leaders knowing and/or unknowingly hold tightly onto the status quo. Slip into maintenance mode. Keep what and who they have. People in churches are not lovingly challenged to step out of the comfortable bubble in which they've lived for years.
God-sized vision shrinks into what is "viable" from man's perspective. Risk gets tamed into talking about what is "reasonable". Church growth and impact flat-lines. Yawn...
Don't get me wrong. I am aware there are many well established church communities that have amazing legacies of global missions…both in sending and supporting missionaries. There are countless souls that will enter eternity with Jesus because of these many faithful, global-minded churches. Thank God for his grace and mercy in these faithful communities!
Additionally, I am grateful to be part of a church movement…a new generation of church start-ups, that have in their DNA, hearts for local AND global missions. We've also partnered with, and are learning from some of these more established churches around the country that have been faithful to the global call for decades.
I've seen first hand how generosity (of time, talent and money) begets generosity. God designed His people to give. To sacrifice for others. To pour ourselves out for others in the same extravagant way Jesus did for us. Whether we realize it or not, the desire to give of ourselves is in our spiritual DNA. People who dare to taste a bit of what they were designed for become contagiously alive!
Now, without making excuses for them, I want to be sensitive to the fact that there are usually many factors that lead a church to land in a field of comfort and complacency. Caring for, and training up a church community is no easy task and comes with a set of it's own unique challenges and heartaches. But, I am also convinced that a well thought out global "push" can play a vital part (read, "PART") in breathing life into a church that has caved-in to comfort and survival mode.
Unfortunately, according to statistics, the majority of the American Church has landed in park. Stalled-out and declining not only in attendance, but in impact and influence, they settle into maintenance mode. The Church begins to falter in it's call…in her mandate to serve "the least of these", both globally AND locally. Often, she appears to have forgotten, or is ignoring Jesus' final words before he ascended back to heaven. The Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20 is left to collect dust.
Sadly, instead of reaching out to the lost and training up new disciples - sending them out to serve locally and globally, many(dare I say, most), of our churches in the US appear to be in the business of maintaining and coddling the few regulars that "show and throw". They faithfully show up regularly and throw a few bucks in the plate on Sunday morning.
Often times this pool of faithful, steadfast folks are, without even knowing it themselves, waiting…ready for a spark of renewed purpose and vision!
Leaders say it is easier to give birth than to resurrect the dead. (Now, I'm not sure if mothers would agree). The idea is that trying to breathe life into a "lifeless" church is really, REALLY tough, and one might be better off starting a new work…planting a church…or starting a new ministry elsewhere…or simply hitting oneself over the head with a large hammer over and over.
A church in "park" mode surely has a myriad of issues to deal with, and must move forward with much wise counsel and gracious, patient leadership. But, since church planting is not every pastor's call, what does one do?
I'd like to propose just ONE missing element in a church on life support may be this:
Disciple making - Jesus style.
NOTE: I said ONE part. This one part will most likely be way down the list of other more crucial issues that must be addressed. I believe, this aspect of discipleship, if initiated prayerfully…with wisdom…at the right time…could be a game changer.
Note: Though I am addressing the church that is in need of some new life-giving vision, the church that is already alive and vibrant will only increase in impact as it engages in Global Missions.
Discipleship Jesus style is not simply teaching someone the ways of Christ, but it is inextricably tied to missions. Jesus WENT. Jesus SENT (locally and globally). Jesus and his disciples sat amongst the "least of these". The poor. The sick. The hungry. Those who were cast aside by the religious and the comfortable. His disciples left what they considered comfortable in order to serve others and share the gospel. They not only challenged the religious leaders and well-to-do, but they served and lived amongst the poor and destitute.
Serving the poor and hungry is not a spiritual gift.
Nor is it a calling for only certain Christians. It is a mandate given by Jesus. More than that, it is (or ought to be) an outpouring of who we are as Christ-followers.
Jesus had, and still has much to say to His Church about caring for the "least of these", but no scripture is more in-your-face than Matthew 25:31-46. It is too long to write here, so look it up.
In short Jesus makes it clear that if we are not taking care of the poor, we do not have the heart of God…and do not have a place in eternity with him. Ouch. I didn't say it…Jesus did.
This is not "works based" theology. Jesus is simply saying that a heart truly connected to His, will break for the same things that break His. Again, it has nothing to do with calling or spiritual giftedness. The apostles all had different strengths and gifts, but in addition to ministering to peers, the well-to-do, influential and "clean", they ALL served with Jesus amongst the poor, the sick, the oppressed and those society labeled as worthless.
Jesus values those people the world casts aside. The disciples didn't only watch him tear down the religious status quo of the movers and the shakers in His day, they witnessed him exhibit compassion and broken heartedness for the oppressed and poor…and they followed in the same manner.
Jesus did not simply tell His disciples to "Go". He didn't simply mention "the least of these" in conversations. Jesus WENT and got into the mess. Jesus' heart broke. Jesus wept. He did more than preach. He "did". His disciples followed…and in their wake, countless others learned to love and pour their lives out in the same way.
This one shift in how our faith is lived out could be a game changer in the life of a church.
GLOBAL MISSION IS A CATALYST FOR LOCAL MISSIONS.
It is true. Now, I am NOT saying that local missions can't be just as powerful of a way to breathe life back into a sleepy church body. There is MASSIVE need for effective, long-term local outreach.
What I am saying is in light of the relative comfort of American living, one of the most effective ways to augment, or jumpstart life into local outreach and gospel influence is to get people to see what life is like in a so-called third-world nation.
It serves as a wake up call.
IT SHAKES THE SETTLED SOUL.
Pastor Craig Groeschel, of Life Church says it very well in this 60 second clip: www.vimeo.com/77417947
Often what we need is to have our settled souls shaken up. Go and see, first-hand what life is like in a developing nation. Allow your heart to be disturbed by how joyful and satisfied people can be…when they have nothing.
Now don't get me wrong. I am very happy to have a toilet (and not a hole in the ground I share with 20 other people). I appreciate having running water (vs. contaminated water carried in 5 gallon jerry cans). I am grateful for a selection of food (vs. hoping to have one meal in a day). I am also eternally grateful that God opened my eyes not only to the needs of those in another culture, but through my experiences overseas, moved me to greater action in my own community. Having one's perspective changed can do wonders for the complacency which stems from comfort.
Go.
Go. Hold a child living in extreme poverty and filth. Visit the 10x12 dirt-floor shack that is home to a single mom who's husband abandoned her…leaving her with HIV and five children, ages 1 - 10. Listen to here story. Look into her eyes and see they strange mix of hopelessness and of joy. Hopelessness, that comes from knowing life will probably not get much better than it is right now. Joy, which comes from a hope she has because her and her children intimately know, and desperately need this Jesus so many back home in America take for granted.
Drink the coffee she makes you…the bread she bakes for you…probably costing her a week's worth of the pittance of a living she might scrape together. Sit in one of the couple chairs she borrowed as extras so she could serve guests in her home. Observe how she proudly serves you. She is truly honored and humbled to have you in her home. Notice how she keeps her few belonging organized. Her children treat you with great respect.
If you've sponsored one of her children through Compassion International, your child will bring out a shoe box or folder with every letter…every photo you have sent. Look on the wall or table and you'll see a picture of you…often with a prayer of thanks written next to it.
You begin to see the unexpected ripple effect sponsoring this child has had on the home and the community in which she lives.
Before you leave, the translator asks if you would like to pray for the mom, the sponsored child and siblings. You do. You can barely get the words out through the tears. As you pray, you hear the mom agreeing…saying, "amen" over and over again. You are sweating a bit…not necessarily from heat, but it's just kind of intense. Perhaps your soul is being touched in a new way…perhaps God is graciously breaking your heart. It breaks not only for this woman and her children…but, as your spirit is challenged by the how these people so desperately love and cling to Jesus, your heart breaks for your fellow Christians and the un-churched and de-churched back home who so often take the gospel for granted.
You say your farewells and hug mom and the kids. You give your sponsored child a hug and you feel as though they are going to squeeze tears out of you. Into the van, and you are off. As you drive away, you are amazed at the joy and peace you experiences in this impoverished home. You sensed a freedom to love Jesus for who He is…NOT for what He could give.
Read about my first face to face encounter with my sponsored child here: A Look Back at a Miraculous Meeting
Perspective change from a group of people in a church body just may be the spark that ignites a flame.
If your local church community is already lit up, global missions simply fans the flame. A handful of people influences another handful…and so on. They find they can no longer park themselves in the Sunday pews, but instead, desire to see others "wake up". They desire to experience the freedom of loose hands…letting go and trusting God as they step out to love on others.
The local Church is assigned by Jesus to be THE transformational and redemptive agent in a hurting, broken, self-focused world.
She is the Hope of the world. She ought to be…no...needs to be alive and vibrant. As it is with the individual Christ-follower, the Church becomes more alive as she dies to herself and serves others. It is what she was made for.
Make the decision to go. Go. GO! If you are a leader. GO!!! Go first...as leaders do. Bring others with you.
Try it. Experience it. Share it. CELEBRATE what God does.
Jesus did more than preach and teach. He went. He did.
God could use the experience of you and your team to spark new life into your faith community.
Go!
GLOBAL MISSION IS A CATALYST FOR LOCAL MISSIONS ! ! !
CLICK HERE to see a testimony of how "GOING" impacts both those who "go" and those who we visit.
NOTE: One of the best and most simple ways to begin this process of Global outreach is to host a Compassion Sunday via Compassion International (www.compassion.com).
Engaging in life-changing relationships with children living in extreme poverty can be one of the most transformational and life-giving experiences of your life…and the life of your church.
I can personally help you plan an event. It will be a catalytic experience for your church community.
contact me: marklewis777@gmail.com
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