Archives For Mission and Vision

‘Seeing’ the world

March 1, 2013 — Leave a comment

see the worldOn the eve of our church’s world mission weekend called “World Fest,” I want to weigh in on a question often raised in today’s Christian Mission discussions. Are short mission trips really worth the expenditure of money and energy?  Some cynically assert that they can even do more harm than good.

Last month, our staff attended our Evangelical Covenant pastors’ conference. Mark Labberton was teaching one morning from Psalm 8. He unwrapped a simple but profound summary of the Story of God’s plan we see throughout Scripture:

1. God pays attention to us! (“What is man that you are mindful of him…” v. 4) Are our eyes open to the astonishing fact that the God of the universe sees, attends, pays persistent attention to our lives as his image bearers!

2. We are called to pay attention to God: to open our eyes to see the Lord – in his Word and in his world.

3. Then God says, ”Pay attention to the people of the world in My name!”  (“You have given him dominion – skilled mastery – over the created order…” v. 6)

God wants us to see the people that are invisible, people who need attention, people who we ignore and forget, who need the hope Jesus brings.  We are called to see the world as God sees – to let him give us NEW VISION!

I had an epiphany (a light went on!) about why we need to be sending Mission Teams from our churches. We know It’s not about what WE can do. We do not bring God to people; we go and join God in what he’s already doing! Rather, when we send our people – we are sending “SEERS” (or is it See-ers!) When they SEE more of their fellow image-bearers from all nations, their eyes begin to open. They come back and help more of the church community here to see and engage; to love and take action!

So Mission Trips are really VISION trips, to mobilize our church to fulfill our calling – to attend to the world God Loves, in his name!

Will we open our eyes and pay attention?
Will we volunteer to be See-ers; Visionaries in the Mission of God?

 

In Evangelical Covenant Church, Gospel, Mission and Vision, The Missional Church
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Poetry Monday – Preserving our experience

January 29, 2013 — 1 Comment

Poetry is the intensity of our experience;
a way of recognizing and preserving our experience.

Christian Wyman

I agree intently! I thought I would share one of the first poems I wrote that “intensified my experience”- in this case, a Mission Trip. I was in Czechoslovakia with an international assembly of Navigator teams helping to visit believers in then closed countries of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.  We could not take pictures or exchange addresses for security reasons. After 5 incredible weeks we re-assembled in Vienna and I desperately wanted a way to remember. I turned to simple poetry. Every time I read it, I am immediately  brought back to the events that these simple words helped preserve. Others who have been on trips such as this echo the feelings expressed.

Slavic Tears

The last day together;
bowed heads around a humble table;
hearts brimming with varied emotions;
sweet recollection, sad resignation.

Those first few days never allowed for this moment.
So hard to say the words:
“I may never see you on earth again!”

We prayed for one another
and our homelands;
understanding the language of every other prayer.
We needed no translation -

and I wept in Slavic tears.

[Czechoslovakia, 1980]

In Mission and Vision, Poetry
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Are you ‘Plugged in?’

September 19, 2012 — Leave a comment

Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches…apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) We were created and redeemed to be connected to God, to God’s people, and to be fruitful in God’s mission in the world.

Jesus promised the gift of the Holy Spirit who would through his new community the Church, do “greater things!”

The beginning church in Jerusalem was not a set structure to be imitated, but it is a model of values and vision that continues to inspire the church of all times and places! It inspires us here and now.

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers….And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.     (Acts 2:42,47, ESV)

In a recent teaching, linked at our website, I summarized the inspiring vision of the Church in this way.

We want to be a LEARNING Community
We want to be a SHARING (‘Koinonia’) Community
We want to be a WORSHIPING Community
We want to be an OUTREACHING Community

It means being taught the authoritative Word of God and being life-long learners;
It means knowing and being known, loving and being loved, serving and being served;
It means coming together for prayers and worship publicly and in our homes;
It means being a contagious people who live and speak the hope of Good News into our world.

It means being committed and connected – PLUGGED IN to Christ and his community.

Are you plugged in?
If not, what’s the one next step the Lord wants you to take?

In Church, Disciplines, Evangelism, Holy Spirit, Mission and Vision, Uncategorized
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Take care of the horse!

February 19, 2012 — Leave a comment

Robert Murray McCheyne, after graduating from Edinburgh University at age fourteen in 1827 and leading a Presbyterian congregation of over a thousand at age twenty-three, worked so hard that his health finally broke. Before dying at age twenty-nine he wrote, “God gave me a message to deliver and a horse to ride. Alas, I have killed the horse and now I cannot deliver the message.” An illustration of the recent sermon on having a Game Plan for our BODIES!

We have been exploring how to create a “Rule of Life” – an intentional “Game Plan” for our discipleship.  Another resource you may find helpful is from SSJE (Soc. of St. John the Evangelist). They have written a booklet you can download called Living Intentionally: A Workbook for Creating a Personal Rule of Life. It will walk you through the process with similar kinds of questions. As a monastic community they have a detailed formal Rule of Life that for the most part contains wonderful principles for any Christ-follower.

In Aging, Disciplines, Mission and Vision, Rule of Life/'Game Plan'
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Right Motivations for Ministry

October 7, 2011 — Leave a comment

If you serve Christ in any kind of ministry, let me urge you to print this text and post it where you will see it often. Or better yet – memorize it! (Listen here to the sermon on this text from 10-2-11)

For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, 4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. 5 For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed— God is witness. 6 Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. 7 But we were gentleamong you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.8 So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.

 9 For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. 10 You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. 11 For you know how, like a father with his children,12 we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

 13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you receivedthe word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.  (1 Thessalonians 2:3-13, ESV)

There are so many ways that we can dishonor God by insecure, false, or selfish motives.  We need to do Christ’s work in Christ-like ways.  It means starting with the authority of God’s Word, seeking only His glory, not serving ourselves or making up for deficits in our own lives.  It means having a ‘spiritual parent’ and being a spiritual parent for others in ways that honor God in everything.  It’s a high calling.  It’s the only way to truly ‘make disciples’ modeled for us in Scripture!

In Make Disciples, Mission and Vision, Uncategorized
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Small, Hidden, and Unstoppable

July 16, 2011 — Leave a comment

In our summer series on Matthew’s parables, I borrowed a title from the early ’80′s book by Tom Sine called The Mustard Seed Conspiracy.  Jesus’ Good News of the Kingdom means that what he was launching was, in seed form, all that God had promised.  The future is in the present!  We are part of the sometimes hidden and seemingly small work of God.  The parables of the mustard seed and leaven remind us that God’s promises and plans are unstoppable!  The audio teaching is here.  And we also made a video of one of our resident chef instructors explaining how leaven works.  Take a look!

In Church, Gospel, Matthew, Mission and Vision
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What is God Calling You to Do?

November 2, 2010 — Leave a comment

Related to a recent teaching on “The Call To Discipleship” from Matthew 4.

Frederick Buechner

The kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work (a) that you need most to do and (b) that the world most needs to have done.…

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

Frederick Buechner (Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC)

More related Buechner quotes: Check out this site, called Goodreads)

 

In Christ and Culture, Matthew, Mission and Vision
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The Leadership Challenge Clarified

September 8, 2010 — Leave a comment

In the leadership literature, there are no more trusted names than Kouzes and Posner.  Their book The Leadership Challenge is a classic.  I was introduced in my Hospice Management days when we used their 360 degree performance evaluation tool in the organization I was a part of.  They have written for the Christian community too and we have often incorporated the principles in church leadership.

Their website is here.

Now they have written a smaller book called The Truth About Leadership.  Here is a glimpse of the fundamental ‘truths’ about leadership from their three decades of research and experience:

1. You make a difference. Leadership begins when you believe that!
2. Credibility is the foundation of leadership. You can’t follow someone you don’t believe in.
3. Values drive commitment. People want to know what you believe in.
4. Focusing on the future sets leaders apart.  It’ the capacity to imagine and articulate future possibilities.
5. You can’t do it alone.  Leaders engage others in the cause.
6. Trust Rules!  The level of trust others have in you determines the level of influence you have.
7. Challenge.  Exemplary leaders are always associated with challenging the status quo.
8. You either lead by example or you don’t lead at all!  That includes admitting and learning from mistakes.
9. The best leaders are the best learners.  Leaders are ‘constant improvement fanatics!’
10. Leadership is an affair of the Heart. ‘Love is the motivation that energizes leaders to give so much for others’ and to be gracious in showing encouragement and appreciation.

 

 

In Leadership, Mission and Vision
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Superman Video – [actually a report from the Covenant Annual Meeting!]

July 4, 2010 — Leave a comment

You may not know that the new President of the Evangelical Covenant Church – our denominational affiliation – looks like Clark Kent.  He’s a super guy and one of the most humble leaders you will ever meet.  I want to encourage you to listen to his Message at the opening worship service in St. Paul in June.  Mary and I had the privilege of representing our church at the Covenant Annual Meeting.  I believe it will give you a taste of the wonderful things happening in the growth of the Kingdom of God. See the video here.

For a written summary of Gary’s message, click here.

And just in – is a new highlights video of the whole event!  Watch it here.

Thirty leaders of the National Churches around the world were there and gave reports – some of them very sobering as they minister in some of the most needy and often volatile regions of the world (the Congo, Sudan, Thailand, etc.) Stories of great courage and suffering for the cause of Christ.

Mary Putera - Ordination Service

We also enjoyed the treat of being there for the beautiful service of ordination that include Mary Putera – friend and former staff person at Christ Church.  The Covenant does a wonderful job of honoring people and giving glory to God for their unique contributions.

In a country where most all denominations are in decline, the Covenant is seeing serious growth, not just in numbers of new churches but in the impact throughout the Body of Christ of its leaders and its strong emphasis of doing the whole mission of God. “Deeper in Christ – Further in Mission.”

It’s truly a privilege to be in this mission partnership with the Covenant. As Gary likes to say often, it’s great to be “in it together!”

Check out the Covchurch.org website for more info.

In Evangelical Covenant Church, Mission and Vision, The Missional Church
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The Apostle Paul on Unity in the Church

June 30, 2010 — Leave a comment

Apostle Paul, Andrei Rublev

The last section of Paul’s letter to the Romans (chapters 15 & 16) is intensely personal and strategic.  We dare not skip over Paul’s “Oh yes, a few last words…!” He’s driving home a Unity message. I was struck that unity doesn’t come from internal analysis or from trying harder to orchestrate it, but from being IN MISSION together!  Here are my conclusions from studying Paul’s example.

We need to Demonstrate Unity….
1. by welcoming one another as Christ has welcomed us (15:4-7)
2. by being people filled with His hope that overflows to the world (15:8-13)
3. by partnering together in the local and global mission of God. (15:14-29)  Paul was Mission-driven! He was deeply concerned about the unity of Jew and Gentile believers – that God’s righteousness would be proclaimed and the Gospel would keep going out.  Jesus is the Hope of the world – for all the nations.  He wanted the churches he started to be Missional communities, not ingrown communities.  The same goes for today!  Our churches need to be beach-heads for extending the Kingdom; Mission Stations that impact our communities and replicate themselves in new places where the Good News has not penetrated!

4. finally, by honoring and encouraging one another when we speak about one another. (16:1-20;  Hebrews 10:24-25) Don’t hold back those words of affirmation for what God is doing in and through your brother or sister!

The Roman church was undoubted like us in the fact that it needed to be ‘one church with many communities.’ Paul worked very hard to maintain and ‘preserve the unity’ that the Spirit created in that diverse setting. (Ephesians 4)  He strongly warns against anyone who would be responsible for fostering division or diverting the mission.

I believe that our unity over the years has come from being Mission – centered.  Let’s continue to Demonstrate Unity as we focus on going “Deeper in Christ…Further in Mission.”

Click here for the audio teaching from 6-20-10.

In Current Issues, I am the Church, Mission and Vision, Unity
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