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Tag: missions

Quote Of The Week

Published by Jeff Kennon on June 3, 2016

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We too readily think of mission as extraordinary. Perhaps that’s because we find it awkward to talk about Jesus outside a church gathering. Perhaps it’s because we think God moves through the spectacular rather than the witness of people like us. Perhaps it’s because we want to outsource mission to the professionals, so we invite people to guest services where an “expert” can do mission for us. But most people live in the ordinary, and most people will be reached by ordinary people.

(taken from A Meal With Jesus by Tim Chester, p. 91)

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The Church Is Growing!

Published by Jeff Kennon on April 7, 2015

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The International Bulletin for Missionary Research has once again produced its global report on religious statistics. Krish Kandiah has noticed five trends of this year’s report that are quite interesting.

1. The Church is growing slowest in Europe and North America

The Church is still growing in Europe and North America, but the increase is small.

2. The Church is growing dramatically in the rest of the world.

Explosive growth has been seen in Asia, Africa, and South America. The growth of the African Church is particularly significant. In 1990 there were fewer than 9 million Christians in Africa. Now there are more than 541 million.

3. Christianity is easily the world’s largest religion.

There are more than 2.4 billion Christians worldwide which is just over a third of the world’s total population.

4. Christianity is ridiculously divided.

There are more than 45,000 different Christian denominations in the world today. In 1900 there were 1600 denominations.

5. How many atheists?

There are 136.4 million atheists in the world, which is about 1.8 percent of the population. Though info on atheists is hard to determine, atheists are the only grouping to see a downturn, though very small.

I encourage you to read the entire article. 

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Knowing The Culture Around Us

Published by Jeff Kennon on May 27, 2014

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Do we know the culture around us? Do we know our neighborhood, it’s people, and their stories, values, and worldview?

Tim Chester believes we should be asking ourselves the kind of questions missionaries ask when they enter a new culture. In doing so, we are better able to understand those around us and thus meet their needs with the gospel.

Here are the questions he poses…

Where?
  • Where are the places and activities we can meet people?
  • Where do people experience community?
  • Are there existing social networks with which we engage, or do we need to find ways of creating community within a neighborhood?
  • Where should we be to have missional opportunities?
When?
  • What are the patterns and timescales of our neighborhood
  • When are the times we can connect with people?
  • How do people organize their time?
  • What cultural experiences and celebrations do people value? How might these be used as bridges to the gospel?
  • When should we be available to have missional opportunities?
What?
  • What are people’s fears, hopes, and hurts?
  • What gospel stories are told in the neighborhood? What gives people identity (creation)? How do they account for wrong in the world (fall)? What is their solution (redemption)? What are their hopes (consummation)?
  • What are the barrier beliefs or assumptions that cause people to dismiss the gospel?
  • What sins will the gospel first confront and heal?
  • In what ways are people self-righteous?
  • What is the good news for people in this neighborhood?
  • What will the church look like for people in this neighborhood?

(from Everyday Church by Tim Chester, 42-43)

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7 Ways To Advance The Gospel In Everyday Life

Published by Jeff Kennon on May 5, 2014

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Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

  -Colossians 4:2-6

In these verses, Paul encouraged those in the church of Colossae to live in ways that served to advance the gospel to those around them. They are…

1. Pray for opportunities.

We must be disciplined in prayer. Prayer is not something we fall back upon when all else has failed. It must permeate our lives as believers. And one thing we need to continually pray for in our lives is opportunities to converse about the gospel. Are you praying for opportunities each day?

2. Live lives that reveal the credibility of the gospel.

It’s not that perfection is required, but if we claim to follow Christ, our lives should be a reflection of His grace. We must be careful not to unsay with our lives what we espouse with our lips.

3. Pay attention to who is around you.

We must take note of those around us who are not-yet-believers. In the book Right Here, Right Now, authors Alan Hirsch and Lance Ford point out that “we don’t need to add ‘spiritual activities’ to our life as much as we need to make our actual, everyday life spiritual.” We must realize that the normal routines of life can present themselves with tremendous opportunities for spiritual conversations.

4. Develop a sense of urgency.

To develop a sense of urgency is about being intentional. A sense of urgency is not about you rushing around living a hurried life trying to save the world, but neither is it just sitting back waiting for someone to knock on your door asking you how to be saved. It has been said that “if men are to be won to Christ before he comes to judgment it must be done now.”

5. Be gracious.

Do we seek the good of others? When we talk with those around us are we really interested in them? When we share the gospel with those around us, are we seeking to just get our point across or do we really listen to them? A major ingredient of graciousness in conversations is us giving up our need for it to be all about us. No one-up-man-ship allowed! Our talk should be for the good of others.

6. Be lively.

I like what David Garland wrote in his commentary on Colossians. He wrote, “Many believe that obedience to God is ‘tedious, boring, dull’; and many believers ‘do their part to confirm this attitude by being tedious, boring and dull, seasoned with nothing. Godliness is not to be equated with stodginess.”

I don’t think this means that to share the gospel with others that we must be entertaining, but nonetheless, it should be something more than a formula we recite. Should we not as believers be most alive and enjoy more than anyone the life that God has given us? Shouldn’t such joy come through in our speech?

7. Be prepared.

No doubt, there are difficult questions that will come our way concerning our belief in Christ. As we live lives that reflect God’s grace and speak in graciousness and kindness the good news of who Christ is, there will be questions.

Responding to questions of the faith is more than just giving some type of “Sunday school” answer. And not all questions are the “hard questions” of the faith. However, for those hard questions that do come your way, be gracious in answering and be gracious and humble in admitting you don’t know the answer if such is the case.

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Mission Was Not Made For The Church

Published by Jeff Kennon on May 2, 2014

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“It is not so much the case that God has a mission for his church in the world,” writes Christopher Wright, “as that God has a church for his mission in the world.” In other words, “mission was not made for the church; the church was made for mission–God’s mission” (The Mission of God by Wright).

The church therefore, God’s people, have purpose. And that purpose is wrapped up in what God is doing in the world. So what is God doing? What is God’s mission?

Andreas Kostenberger, in his book Salvation to the Ends of the Earth: A Biblical Theology of Mission, has a fairly good summary of the mission of God. He writes,

The Lord himself is the missionary who gathers and rescues, not simply the dispersed of Israel, but also people from “all nations,” in order that they may see his glory. The goal of mission is the glory of God, that he may be known and honored for who he really is.  

I think it’s imperative we understand that this mission of rescue, redemption and salvation is God’s. It is for His glory. It is not something we created for ourselves, but was given to us as part of His plan.

Wright’s God-centered definition of mission is helpful at this point. He writes, “Mission means our committed participation as God’s people, at God’s invitation and command, in God’s own mission within the history of God’s world for the redemption of God’s creation” (see The Mission of God).

Though mission is wrapped up in who God is and his plan for brining back His people unto himself, this does not mean that we as the church do nothing. Did you notice how Wright mentions that we as God’s people join God in what He is doing? We, as the church, participate in this mission. It’s why we exist.

Jesus was fairly clear to his disciples as to what they were to be and do in this world. It’s why they were left behind (see John 17:15-19). Jesus said, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you (Matthew 28:19-20).

It is this Great Commission of Jesus that has formed for many, and rightly so, the heart of what it means to join God on mission. Kevin DeYoung in his book What Is The Mission of The Church? writes,

The mission of the church is to go into the world and make disciples by declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of the Spirit and gathering these disciples into churches, that they might worship the Lord and obey his commands now and in eternity to the glory of God the Father.

“Christianity is in its very essence,” writes Michael Horton in his book The Gospel Commission, “a mission to the world.” The bottom line is that “if it is not reaching, teaching, baptizing, and multiplying disciples, it is not Christianity.”

The mission of the church is clear. And for many of us, this is not new information. What we must continue to ask ourselves however, is are we as the church living out why we were created? For me personally, mission is not a knowledge problem, but an obedience problem.

May God, therefore, grant us grace today to allow us to see his heart for the world around us. And may such a glimpse of his heart and his grace toward us for our own salvation push us to join Him in where he is working. For it is in participation with God in his mission to the world for which the church exists in this world and by which true joy springs to life.

 

 

 

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Do More Than Wear Green on St. Patrick’s Day

Published by Jeff Kennon on March 17, 2014

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I think there’s quite a bit of confusion on exactly who St. Patrick was? And why does he get his own day? When I was growing up, St. Patrick’s day meant “wear something green or get pinched.” I owned only one green piece of clothing in my whole closet and never remembered to wear it. Oh how I loved March 17 in elementary school.

I’m not going to post a long biography here of Patrick, but instead, want to refer you to Kevin DeYoung’s recent article on Who Was St. Patrick? It’s a short piece that will give you a bit of background on St. Patrick and his embrace of God’s missionary mandate.

DeYoung writes: In his Confessio Patrick writes movingly about his burden to evangelize the Irish. He explicitly links his vocation to the commands of Scripture. Biblical allusions like “the nations will come to you from the ends of the earth” and “I have put you as a light among the nations” and “I shall make you fishers of men” flow from his pen. Seeing his life’s work through the lens of Matthew 28 and Acts 1, Patrick prayed that God would “never allow me to be separated from His people whom He has won in the end of the earth.” For Patrick, the ends of the earth was Ireland.

So maybe this St. Patrick’s day, in light of who St. Patrick was, we should do more than wear green. Maybe we should embrace the mission of God and develop a few conversations about the gospel. Maybe we should, as Patrick was, become “soaked in the Bible” and grasp the glorious power of the gospel and become one who is not ashamed of it (Romans 1:16).

Jesus told us that all authority and power had been given to him. He then continued to tell us to “go and make disciple of all nations”  (Matthew 28:18-19).  I pray that much like St. Patrick, these truths grab our hearts and minds today and as a result,  push us to develop a burden for those without Christ.

So go and celebrate St. Patrick’s day today by yearning to have his heart for the world. And then “go and make disciples!”

Sidenote: If you have elementary children, please put some green on them! Just say’in!

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