On The Way Home

When bringing short-term evangelism and church planting teams back from the field I have them start their personal debrief on the plane on the way home.  I request them to think deeply, reflect, pray and journal on four questions.  It is important to do this while transitioning between contexts, and definitely before touching down at our local airport.  More follow up will be done later, but this is an important first step. 

What did God show you about Himself?  Missions is supremely about the glory of God being proclaimed, displayed and observed, so surely God has revealed more of Himself and His purposes to you.  Think back through the days and events, the struggles and the triumphs, the things you heard and saw, and how certain passages of Scripture took on fresh significance for you.  What more have you learned about your God?

What did God do in you?  You are a different person now, whether you realize it yet or not.  It is highly likely that He changed your perspective on the world and the great variety of peoples, especially because you made some new friendships with Christians from another culture.  And certainly after sharing the Gospel so many times and seeing so many different responses, your own response to the Gospel of Christ has grown, developed in new directions.  What are you thinking that you were not thinking before?

What did God do through you?  He did do amazing things!  You were talking about them all week long, remember?  Though you were somewhat prepared before you embarked on this mission, you really came in weakness, in fear and with much trembling.  You came with attitudes of humility, teachability and openness.  You simply had a desire to be used by God to share about His greatness and His glory.  So, what did He do through you?  What did He accomplish for His Mission?

This is not boasting in self, as you now know better, but simply telling stories about God:  Romans 15:17-18a (ESV), “In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God.  For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me . . .”

What might God have next for you in His Mission?  There is always a next.  He didn’t send you on this trip so you could put together a coffee table memory book and then stop.  Rather, this was part of His plan in training you for greater works.  Maybe you will return, return often, even return for a longer time of ministry.  Maybe you will go elsewhere, recruit others, even lead your own teams.  Maybe you will give more, pray more, and move your church more missional.  What is He stirring in your heart?  What ideas are swirling about in your mind?

Now, pray for a week . . . and then let’s talk.

The Most Blessed Being is Being Most Blessed

When traveling, I consider it a great blessing and honor to worship God as part of many different congregations, whether they are in America or somewhere else in the world. One aspect which is always worth concentration is learning to worship in many different ways, forms, and styles. It dawned on me the other Sunday how blessed our God must be to receive not only such a great amount of worship from so many people, but also to receive such a great variety, and to really be able to fully enjoy it all. What must this be like to enjoy it all?!

This thought was prompted by a meditation on 1 Chronicles 15-29 that records King David's restructuring of the worship experience of the People of God and he had the blessing of the Lord Himself on the project. We see the beginnings of this when the Ark returned to Jerusalem, “Then on that day David first appointed that thanksgiving be sung to the LORD by Asaph and his brothers.” (1Chr. 16:7 ESV)  David would reform worship so that it would be infused with a new joy. David was a great leader and great worshipper and was able to take the People of God into a future of better worship to be offered up to Yahweh.

Years ago I made a commitment, like many others have, to try to learn and enjoy worshipping the Lord regardless of the environment in which I find myself. I believe those who take this approach grow a lot because of this commitment. I know I have, especially throughout my years in pastoral ministry.  I have learned to worship deeper and have a larger vision of God. Congregational worship has always been the highlight of each week. 

At the same time, however, we can become frustrated over our own limited capacity for enjoyment during worship as a worshipper. This is because of our finitude and fallenness, even though we are redeemed; and this explains those times of discontentedness in worship we all must confess.

But, God has an infinite capacity to really enjoy the worship from all His people coming from so many cultures, in so many styles, with varying degrees of quality, all along a continuum of development, and even offered through varying degrees of purity! His delight at any given moment from His servants living in the world must be immense! And then, there is the worship of the redeemed in glory from the beginning of redemptive history as well as the worship of the angelic beings, and yes, even the forced worship of the accursed. He is and will be praised by all!

Our Triune God is the Most Blessed of Beings as the 18th century pastor-theologian Jonathan Edwards put it. He is most blessed in and of Himself, of course; and further, He is most blessed by the growing number of worshippers in the world and their seemingly endless variety of offerings of blessing made to Him. Our God, the one and only true God, is awesome in His capacity to receive worship!

May we see more of what an honor it is to worship Him, and to do so in Christ, by the Spirit, and with His People! Surely, this will grow with experience, time, and intentionality. And it will extend far beyond this life throughout all eternity as we comprehend more of who He is and serve Him forever.

Might We Be Moving Too Slowly For God?

It is common to hear Christians say “I don’t want to move ahead of God.” Why this bias for inaction? Why such a cautious, even a timid, approach to life and ministry?

Maybe it is because we are often too unsure about how to discern God’s leading when He leads naturally and gracefully rather than through stunning circumstances. We keep waiting and waiting.  But, one tragedy of this bias is that we can miss huge opportunities for godly glory and the Gospel’s advance.  

At times this waiting posture expresses a deep humility before the Lord; yet, at other times it can be a cover up for deep fear, cowardice, desire for comfort, even laziness. We tend to think it is more holy to be still, to wait, to do little if nothing, even hoping for a sign from heaven. Surely, there will be times, even seasons, of prayer and waiting. However, most certainly we can pray with our eyes open, our feet moving, our minds racing, and our mouths speaking!

When trying to figure out our next steps in life and ministry we sometimes reveal a bias for inaction and maybe make the comment “I don’t want to move ahead of God.” We might want to consider whether we are truly taking advantage of the obvious opportunities God is giving to us, even following His obvious leading. Too often we deliberate beyond the facts and past the point of usefulness when instead the right thing to do is make a move!

Sometimes we are held back by strong ideals or myths of what we think would be most pleasing to God but in reality they are nothing more than our opinions on our preferred lifestyle. We all need other trusted Christian friends to speak into our lives with the voice of clarity; and to push us forward in faith, courage and energy to make the move we know God wants us to make.  

The Gospel demands that we keep on making decisions and keep on moving forward, even more so when we are talking about ministry as a church. We will be in a much better position to discover God’s will when we are moving, not when we are standing still. The famous explorer and missionary, David Livingstone, said, “I don’t care which way we go, let’s just go forward!” 

We can trust the Holy Spirit of Jesus to lead the way, as the story of the Macedonian Call illustrates:

Acts 16:6–10 ESV “And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.”

The BIG timing question in knowing and doing God’s will requires sensitivity to the Spirit, as well as, true courage in our own spirits to act. 

We should at least be equally concerned not to move too slowly for God as we are not to move ahead of Him.  It should be more common to hear it said among ourselves, “I don’t want to move too slowly for God.”