Mission and Missions

I believe Bosch's definition of mission is right. Mission encompasses every aspect of the Christian life from evangelizing to one's mother to contextualizing an African tribe's culture. The definition of mission is broad because the kingdom of God is broad and reaches out through every witness, service, healing, preaching, and etc. in light of his unfolding work of redemption in the world.
Missions is incorporated in mission. Like evangelism and discipleship it is a part of God's overall mission to inaugurate his kingdom. Missions is the act of witnessing to a culture other than one's own culture.

Evangelical Method: Acts and the Resurrection

Though the Apostolic gospel messages in Acts did not mention the cross it was still considered first importance to them (1 Cor. 15:3) just not in their evangelical technique. They found that the resurrection of Christ fit better as the display of glory to God, power of the Spirit, and grace for mankind than did the cross. Plus it gave hope in that like Jesus, Christians too would one day be raised up, which is where baptism come in to symbolize our death to the old self and the raising of the new self and the hope in us. The Apostles used a different technique of evangelism than we use today. It is not that our emphasis on the cross is of any less importance, but instead like their emphasis in the resurrection our evangelical method of the cross is also based on the glory, grace, and love of God. But we still must emphasize the resurrection because it is extremely important because of all of the things the cross doesn't fully point to such as the power of the Spirit, and baptism.

A Missional Church Reaches to the World

My church's goal of mission is represented by the old model of building a larger church by getting more and more members and expanding the building rather than expanding the missio dei, and the Church members are seen only as Church people rather than Kingdom people. My church sends money to help missionaries and a church in the Philippines, but there is no drive and no desire or passion to live missionally outside the church itself. There are minor events that try to reach the community, but it is predominately concerned with inviting people in rather than going out to the community and much less the world. The members of my church have not been taught or trained to be evangelical witnesses, and have no training in missions. They think missions is for a few while sitting in their pews believing that they are a church that is impacting the world. When I interned with the youth at my church I started with an emphasis on reaching the community and took any amount of youth that wanted to go out each Thursday afternoon during the summer to evangelize to the community, which is something the youth had never really experienced before unless they were on a mission trip. This is small but it is still a start in the right direction.

Leaning Culture

After watching “Reading an Image in the Other Context: A Visual Essay by Paul Jenkins" I have learned that I don't know much of anything about other cultures. Initially looking at the picture I would have thought of it as just an old picture of a black family, but after hearing and learning about the context of the picture I was stunned because I would have never known many of the things that the picture represented. I have learned that it is necessary to understand someones background and culture to be a better witness to them. For example, if a missionary didn't do his/her research and freely ate bacon in the town they went to and that town turned out to be predominately Muslim then their witness would more than likely be disregarded so knowing the context of where one lives or goes to do ministry is crucial to their witness and for building relationships. 

There Will Always Be A Global Impact In God's Ministry

It's difficult for me to answer this question because I have no idea what I'm going to do, but whatever I do I hope to engage the nations with it. I don't believe there is any reason why my potential ministry couldn't adopt a nation. Whatever I do in my life, I will always be involved both globally and locally, and will take frequent trips to a different country to serve.

Missionary in Everyday Life

I have thought about being a missionary before, and I know that I will be a missionary. Like Roberts said about those in his church who said they believed that God called them to be missionaries, he believed that they really were called, and that God was at work in making a new missions force and equipping the people of his church to accomplish what God had called them to do. In the same way, I know that God is working in my life, equipping me for missionary service to wherever he calls me, whether it be overseas or in Texas, whether it be preaching or coaching, and whether it be in a "church" building or out on the street. I don't know yet what is in store, but I do know that my dreams of being a missionary will continue to be accomplished throughout my life.

Funny Looks From People Walking By

What I do for my quiet time is go to my truck. My truck is like my own personal closet, and the best place for me to focus and meditate on my reading, prayer, thoughts, and worship. I begin by turning on some music, whatever I'm in the mood for, sometimes Chris Tomlin, sometimes Rend Collective Experiment, or Needtobreathe, and sometimes even some Christian rock. Then I normally follow with prayers of praise, also praying about lists that I had made throughout the week, and what is on my heart at the moment. Then I open my Bible to the book and chapter I'm reading, which today was Luke 6, and then I slowly read and re-read and then I read a chapter in another book which I read on the side of my school work, which right now is Be Last, and I finish up in worship while taking notes all throughout the entire process of my quiet time. I love doing my quiet time in the morning, but many times because of my schedule keeping me up late I am too tired to do it in the morning and end up doing it in the afternoon, if at all some days. Like Roberts my quiet time sometimes lacks passion and sincerity.

Mind on the Mission

So far this semester I have studied Luke, Acts, and Jeremiah in depth and it has been mind-blowing! I have been on many mission trips while in youth, but I never had a heart for the poor like described in Luke and Act. However, after studying and reading over and over again how much the disciples and the church poured themselves out as servants to those in need, I have began to develop a passion and desire to do the same. This year I have had more meaningful conversations with people on campus than ever before, I have experienced my eyes and heart being open to peoples needs, and I have been able to serve and talk to the people I see walking down the street while I give them a ride to where they need to go. And this summer I get to serve at Tacoma, Washington where I will be working alongside a church plant to reach the community, to go out to meet the needs of the people, and to live life with them while I'm there. Even after I graduate next Fall I plan on taking my Spring semester off to go serve in Kenya before coming back to school for my masters.

A Process of Awakening

Conversion now-a-days is the changing of ones beliefs, someone can walk down the isle and be converted, and change what the beliefs they once had, but does that mean that they are now saved? Transformation on the other hand is the changing of ones lifestyle, as Roberts puts it, and I would have to agree, transformation begins from the inside and goes out, it isn't just the changing of ones belief but a brand new way of living. Transformation is a process of awakening and understanding that follows the commands of the Lord, not just conversion of belief. A transformed disciple will take the information they have learned and live it out, a converted person will begin to take in information, but will never change their actions.

The Church as a Missionary

Each individual believer as well as the Church as a whole is called to be a missionary to the world. This is kingdom living, following the Great Commission, following Matthew 25 to take care of the "the least of these," and becoming a Church in context with the mission of God. Therefore, I believe that doing missions sounds more temporary than living the kingdom of God. Doing missions is something we say here in our Western cultured church meaning to go for a period of time into the "mission field." But living the kingdom of God is really living a missional lifestyle, not for a period of time, but ever since we become part of the Church, and begin to multiply reaching the world everywhere we go. I have learned that a church was never meant to just fit into a local community, but that the local community is just the beginning point to reaching the world.

A New Century and a New Understanding of Mission

Today, we have different challenges to deal with in mission, due to our western culture we have to deal with an exceeding increase of narcissism due to the advances in technology, science, and industrialization. People have become more self-focused and seek interpersonal relationships that benefit themselves rather than others. The views of Christianity in the eyes of these people does not look appealing in any way, and sadly this narcissistic mind set has seeped into our church. We must understand the need to address these situations in how we do missions, and adapt new ways of doing mission while keeping and expressing the foundational truths of what we believe. Technology is on a continual advance and in the last decade we have new obstacles to adapt to, such as the iPhone, video games, and etc, but we also have new tools such as web pages, facebook, and etc. at our disposal to spread the knowledge of God's mission, which is a new look into a method of doing missions.

Zinzendorf

http://youtu.be/8Rq2Uw9nkJI

Mission on the Hill

I believe in Mission here on the ETBU campus. This is where my mission is here and now. As an RA, my ministry is to live with and love on the residents that I'm around every day. Fry Hall is a mission field all on it's own, full of both believers and non-believers, and as I said before of all different kinds of people. It is an amazing opportunity, and the Holy Spirit is at work! He is at work in my roommates hearts, and in many other people I've been blessed to talk to and share my testimony with. He is leading the way here in Fry, I've not only experienced this for myself, but have also been told similar accounts by other believers in our hall. You don't have to go thousands or even hundreds miles away to do missions, in fact some of the best opportunity for missions is exactly where you live, and with the people you interact with day in and day out.

Fry Hall

Fry is a community in and of itself. It is full of people of different backgrounds, cultures, and ethnicities, but who are united within the same hall as brothers. A great representation of how the church is supposed to be, not all perfect, but living life together and among one another whether they like it or not.

Pietists Missional Approach

I believe that of the anabaptists, puritans, or pietists views of missions, the pietists practice of missions is the most theologically sound. They believed a lot of what the anabaptists believed, just without all the persecution of the views of the other churches. The pietists took what the church taught and went out by faith to simply tell people about the gospel. They saw that the Lutheran and Calvinist churches weren't doing it, and that the anabaptists form of "missions" was yelling at how the other churches were doing everything wrong, and that the Catholic system of power influence wasn't reaching the individual  in discipleship as it should, so they took the initiative to do missions in a way that was faithful in following the great commission. This would be the best approach for the church to follow today.

Somali People of Kenya

In the summer of 2014 I am going to Southeastern Africa to the country of Kenya for one month to spread the gospel to the indigenous Somali people. Of the 2.8 million Somali people in Kenya, only a small 8% are christian. The main religion of the Somali is Islam, which 92% of the 2.8 million people profess as their religion. Because of the great number of Muslim influence, and most importantly the heritage and unity of the people, it is very difficult to reach and persuade the Somali to believe in Christ, but it is not impossible. There is a great need for missionaries to this people group, but not people are willing to take the risk. Please be in prayer for me that I can reach these people effectively and share with them the good news that changed my life. I will be living life with these people every day for a month, and I trust that the Spirit is already at work in the hearts of those whom I will encounter this summer.

Living Life With Others

The monks focus of mission was not bent on power but on the model of spreading the gospel through their radical lifestyles of living life with others through the long haul. They would go in and build up a city with roads and bridges and carpentry to show the people of that city that they cared about them, and they would even build a city from nothing and invite people in to live with them. They inspired the poor because they were poor themselves and they would stay that way for their whole lives because of the opportunity to live life with those that didn't know Christ. Christians today in America have a difficult time letting go of everything. Almost every Christian in America wouldn't even think about giving up all their possessions to go live life with other people, especially the poor. I have seen what happens when people actually take advantage of the model that the monks lived out, and it was amazing! I was blessed with the opportunity of serving with a ministry that actually lived with the poor, providing a house for mothers and children that would normally be out on the streets of Atlanta, Georgia with no home, and provided them with them opportunity to live their for six months, learning the Bible, how to manage their money, and other practical ways that would help them in life. They also went out under the bridges to the homeless and every day met their physical needs by providing them food, as well as living life with them. The people that worked with the ministry knew almost everyone we saw by name and would hug them and everything. It was one of the coolest things I've ever been able to help with, and how I think ministry should be.

Eastern Orthodox Paradigm: Courageous Yet Power Minded

I believe that their example of sharing and spreading of the gospel is one of the best examples for us today. Although they put emphasis on teaching certain parts of the Bible, as well as defending the faith through apologetics, many in that day had the courage to speak out even at the cost of them having to lay down their lives either by martyrdom or becoming a monk. So I compliment them on their willingness and obedience of being a church that was united in going out and both sharing the Gospel in a radical form by truly giving their lives for the sake of Christ and the church, and living life with the people around them. My greatest criticism to the Eastern Orthodox church paradigm is its unification of church and state. Making Christianity a political religion was a great mistake, especially for missions because it made the church selfish in a way, and the church's focus became power instead of mission.

Confidence

From the church's that I'm familiar with I'd have to say that confidence is where we lack. So many people are so comfortable in their little pew seats that they have learned to just sit back and relax. It may be more of an abundance of selfishness rather than a lacking in confidence, but with this situation I believe they run together. Not only are we so selfish that we can only think about our own needs and desires, but we also lack the confidence to even begin to reach out to people. I've seen such a lack of confidence that people won't even pray out loud anymore, and we go for the silent prayer so we don't make people feel uncomfortable. How in the world do we plan to share our faith with strangers and people outside of our congregations if we don't have enough courage to pray out loud or share our testimony in our own bible study groups? So what can we do? Like anything, I believe training in such areas of our lives need to be improved. Practical, simple, just go out and do it. An even better idea would be for the church to start a training course in evangelism where the members learn how to evangelize and then go out into the community and share the gospel, and hopefully the constant practice will turn into a lifestyle where we seize each opportunity to act and speak as witnesses, gifted by the Spirit, to the life changing events of Christ's power and grace in our lives.

Two in One; Bearers of God's Mission, Bearers of the Spirit

The first instance where we see the Holy Spirit in action is when all the disciples begin to speak in tongues, and the significance of this is the inclusiveness of grace for all the peoples of every nation. The  gift of the Spirit to the church is Christ's fulfillment in the Great Commission to be with his people always, until the very end of the age. The Spirit came to the church to clear any boundaries between race, culture, and status and to make salvation available for all who call upon the name of Jesus and who act according to the grace they have received. The Holy Spirit is vital to God's Mission. The reason Jesus told the disciples to wait for the Spirit is not that they couldn't spread the news of Jesus and his resurrection without it, but once it descended on them they would show the world through their actions as well as their words that they have the same power and the same Spirit that Jesus had. With the Spirit the disciples become "bearers of God's mission."

Disciple Disciple Disciple

The Mission of God is the complete inauguration of his kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. How does this "Mission of God" reflect in the Great Commission? "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I commanded you, and surely I am with you until the end of the age"(Matthew 28:19-20). God uses his people to carry out missions, which is the call to make disciples of all nations out of an overflow of delight in the Lord, this is the overall Mission of God. His kingdom is inaugurated through the church, but how can his kingdom advance if there are not disciples of Christ that make disciples that make disciples? It can't be done! That is why the Great Commission is so important to the Mission of God!

A Dispute of Culture and Ethnicity

Barnabas was faced with a big challenge with the early church in Antioch and throughout the Near East, bringing together Jews and Gentiles. Today we face the same problem that Barnabas faced, we have multiple ethnicities, cultures, and beliefs in the world, and we are called to reach them all regardless of the disputes and differences between them. Barnabas encouraged the believers in Antioch, both Jew and Gentile, Greek and Hebrew to continue in the faith and to welcome all who joined them. So how would this be practical for us today in our separate communities, separate states, separate countries, and separate continents? First, like Barnabas, encourage a connection. I've noticed that Southern Baptist Christians have a problem with joining with groups that have different beliefs, cultures, and backgrounds than ourselves. Are we like Antioch? I believe so, we have caucasians, hispanics, african americans, etc. and in each of those we have people with different backgrounds and culture, and then different denominations in which we categorize ourselves with. It's sad! We don't even have to say it, our actions alone show that, "Oh, I'm a white baptist, so I'm going to hang out with other white baptists and won't give a second thought to partner with those Catholic's or presbyterian's, maybe I'll ask those methodist's and nondenominational's to come help with an event every once in a while though." Barnabas encouraged the Jewish converts to accept the Gentile converts, and even further than that, the Greek Christians to accept the Hebrew Christians. This is an encouragement to me to accept those who are different than me, a white southern baptist, and connect better with other believers that come from a different background and culture than myself, and even if they have slightly different views of Christianity than I do. As long as they know Christ they are still my brothers and sisters, and we are both obligated to take the good news of the Gospel of Christ Jesus to all nations as one body of believers.

Tell of His Wonderful Works

This psalm is an awesome example of worship and missions. It praises God for who he is, and exalts him for all that he has done, and then states what he has done for his people. This is what missions is supposed to be, an overjoy and overflow of praise and delight in God that produces an expression in words and actions through his children of what he has done in their lives.


Psalm 105

Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name;
    make known his deeds among the peoples!
² Sing to him, sing praises to him;
    tell of all his wondrous works!
³ Glory in his holy name;
    let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice!
⁴ Seek the Lord and his strength;
    seek his presence continually!
⁵ Remember the wondrous works that he has done,
    his miracles, and the judgments he uttered,
⁶ O offspring of Abraham, his servant,
    children of Jacob, his chosen ones!

⁷ He is the Lord our God;
    his judgments are in all the earth.
⁸ He remembers his covenant forever,
    the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations,
⁹ the covenant that he made with Abraham,
    his sworn promise to Isaac,
¹⁰ which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute,
    to Israel as an everlasting covenant,
¹¹ saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan
    as your portion for an inheritance.”

¹² When they were few in number,
    of little account, and sojourners in it,
¹³ wandering from nation to nation,
    from one kingdom to another people,
¹⁴ he allowed no one to oppress them;
    he rebuked kings on their account,
¹⁵ saying, “Touch not my anointed ones,
    do my prophets no harm!”

¹⁶ When he summoned a famine on the land
    and broke all supply^[a] of bread,
¹⁷ he had sent a man ahead of them,
    Joseph, who was sold as a slave.
¹⁸ His feet were hurt with fetters;
    his neck was put in a collar of iron;
¹⁹ until what he had said came to pass,
    the word of the Lord tested him.
²⁰ The king sent and released him;
    the ruler of the peoples set him free;
²¹ he made him lord of his house
    and ruler of all his possessions,
²² to bind^[b] his princes at his pleasure
    and to teach his elders wisdom.

²³ Then Israel came to Egypt;
    Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.
²⁴ And the Lord made his people very fruitful
    and made them stronger than their foes.
²⁵ He turned their hearts to hate his people,
    to deal craftily with his servants.

²⁶ He sent Moses, his servant,
    and Aaron, whom he had chosen.
²⁷ They performed his signs among them
    and miracles in the land of Ham.
²⁸ He sent darkness, and made the land dark;
    they did not rebel^[c] against his words.
²⁹ He turned their waters into blood
    and caused their fish to die.
³⁰ Their land swarmed with frogs,
    even in the chambers of their kings.
³¹ He spoke, and there came swarms of flies,
    and gnats throughout their country.
³² He gave them hail for rain,
    and fiery lightning bolts through their land.
³³ He struck down their vines and fig trees,
    and shattered the trees of their country.
³⁴ He spoke, and the locusts came,
    young locusts without number,
³⁵ which devoured all the vegetation in their land
    and ate up the fruit of their ground.
³⁶ He struck down all the firstborn in their land,
    the firstfruits of all their strength.

³⁷ Then he brought out Israel with silver and gold,
    and there was none among his tribes who stumbled.
³⁸ Egypt was glad when they departed,
    for dread of them had fallen upon it.

³⁹ He spread a cloud for a covering,
    and fire to give light by night.
⁴⁰ They asked, and he brought quail,
    and gave them bread from heaven in abundance.
⁴¹ He opened the rock, and water gushed out;
    it flowed through the desert like a river.
⁴² For he remembered his holy promise,
    and Abraham, his servant.

⁴³ So he brought his people out with joy,
    his chosen ones with singing.
⁴⁴ And he gave them the lands of the nations,
    and they took possession of the fruit of the peoples' toil,
⁴⁵ that they might keep his statutes
    and observe his laws.
Praise the Lord!

Caught Up in Working Rather Than Delighting

What I learned from "Let the Nations be Glad" is to simply delight in God, and the grace that we have through Christ. I always get caught up thinking that I have to be doing this and that for God when what he wants first and foremost is for me to delight in him, and then that delight in my heart for God prompts me to go and talk to others about him. A lot of times I would think I would be serving God, but now I understand that God cannot be served like other gods, but made himself a servant so that our only obligation is to delight in who he is! This blows my mind. It makes almost everything that I thought I was doing as a service to God look like a selfish actions, and really... it was, but now it is an action produced from passion, delight, and love for my God!