Mascot Jesus

People like to mold Jesus to fit their needs, their morality, their opinions, their goals, et cetera.  You are probably familiar with some of these different types of “Jesus” from which to choose:

• There is the Reclaim America Jesus on the right and the Liberation Jesus on the left.  And the Politically Correct Jesus hanging in mid-air.
• There is the Revivalistic Experience Jesus who makes you feel good now; and later if you need Him to.  And the Therapeutic Jesus who will heal you and make you feel good some day in the future.
• There is the Spiritual Example Jesus for the morally-minded and the Tolerant Jesus for the immorally-inclined.  And the Historically Bound Jesus for those who just don’t want Him to mess with their lives.
• There is the Spirit-of-Jesus Jesus for the extra spiritual and the Quotable Jesus for the spiritually quaint.  And the Managerial Jesus who gives us tips to run His Church like our business.

There are many more, of course, as the list goes on and on; it never seems to end.  Jesus makes a good mascot for the team to bring in God’s blessings.  Jesus gets co-opted for many a cause, appointed without His consent.

Often we are too quick to offer our opinion on what Jesus would say or do, because we want Him to say and do the things we would like said and done.  But Jesus Christ is the Lord, the one who wields authority over us, and is not submissive to us.  This is the Jesus we are confronted with in the Scriptures, the real Jesus, the one we must listen to and obey.  

During Jesus’ final week in Jerusalem before His crucifixion He was teaching the people daily, making His final Gospel appeal to them.  The religious leaders and many others were raising all sorts of controversies to shut Him down and eventually shut Him up.

Luke 19:47–48 ESV “And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.” 

Luke describes that “all the people were hanging upon His words.”  They were spellbound because this was the powerful teaching of God they were hearing, from the Son of God Himself!

Most of these people were still clueless and misguided, but interested nonetheless.  It is still the same today.  People sense the divine power of Jesus’ teaching, along with its truth, and its authority.  He is God’s teacher for all the world.  He would captivate millions around the world in the history to come! 

How often it is the case that people hang upon Jesus’ teachings and those of His Apostles, while others try to dissuade and distract with controversies.  Don’t let others move you away from Jesus’ teaching and its clarity and power, if you are being drawn to Him.  And don’t let it happen to others, either.

Be aware of this so you can be active in countering with Scripture and can help those interested in the truth.  Read the New Testament carefully so you can present the Real Jesus to counteract all the distracting things people will keep on making up about Jesus.  Simply re-speak and promote the powerful words of Jesus and let them hang on His words.  

Church Mission Conference Boredom No More

When we announced the first month-long mission conference, we heard groans and skepticism.  Sometimes people dread mission conferences because they are not interested, or the conference itself is not interesting, possibly lacking in creativity and direction.  I assured people that this would actually be the highlight of the year, and so it became every year to come.  

Our annual Mission Conference at Lancaster EFC lasted a full month of Sundays every October.  Many activities comprise a mission month.  But we saw this much more than simply informing our congregation about our missionaries, involving them in activities, and exposing them to the Mission of God.  Although we certainly did do these things.

We would devote a whole session to detailed updates and times of prayer for each of our missionaries, as well as put together a print booklet with photos, mission goals, prayer requests and contact information.  This would be used at home and weekly in our World Christian Prayer Meetings (previous blog post).

First and foremost, we used this month as a vision month, and for strategic planning as a leadership team and as a church.  As a church that saw itself as a mission team, we saw our purpose for existing as being fully involved in the Mission of God (see previous blog post of Every Church A Mission Team).  We selected a theme that fit our goals each year. 

The preaching series was focused upon different aspects of the History of Redemption and how the larger story of God’s Mission in Christ can be found anywhere and everywhere in the Bible.  We would concentrate on areas where we needed to grow in our understanding, or where we believed our passions needed to be strengthened.

As a church, we were constantly working on church planting both in Asia and in our community.  We wanted to know how to plan the next mission trip in order to move forward in reaching the unreached people we had engaged with the Gospel.  We wanted to know more about church planting here at home, as well.

So, we would select the speakers and consultants we needed to help us take it to the next level.  What did we need to think through, or re-think?  With whom did we need to meet?  What more did we need to learn, or what practice did we need to improve?  Special coffees were held for our leadership (and those interested) to discuss such questions with our speakers and consultants.

These annual conferences were times for us as a congregation to refocus on our core purposes of worship and mission.  We wanted to know what were the next steps for us as a church in moving forward in His Mission.  At the end of each conference we would praise God in amazement on how He would met us every year through the preaching, speakers and consultants and led us in the next steps.

Personal Evangelism Development

Teaching people about evangelism is a huge waste of time and resources.  

As a pastor, I dreaded all the seminars, workshops, books and video series intended to motivate and make successful evangelists of our congregation.  Why?  Because they didn’t work.

It is astounding how much training people have received, but with so little results!   And I have found that this is frustrating and very discouraging to them.  More and more of this training is not going to change anything.

Most of the creative ideas and approaches articulated in those dozens of new resources published every year were, and continue to be, wonderful.  But, because evangelism is an activity, the only training approach that will actually work is going out and doing it.  

Learning By Doing 

There is no better way to learn evangelism than by doing it.  And it doesn’t take very long to learn to share the Gospel.  Simply ask people to observe you sharing the first few times, then have them join you in the next few conversations, even taking the lead as they feel ready, and finally you can observe them and set them loose to be training others.

Sharing the Gospel regularly develops confidence, joy and new skills.  Once people are actually involved in the activity of telling others about Jesus Christ for a while, the content from those evangelism resources becomes valuable to them, and then they can meaningfully reflect on their practice.

Wait Until People Are Serious

A few years ago I decided to focus on mentoring those who truly desired to do evangelism and develop in this area.  I put together a personal evangelism development form that was filled out quarterly.  This gave us a starting point in our initial discussion, and served as a guide in our coaching meetings and prayer times.

Here are the categories of questions included:

1. List the people with whom you have shared the Gospel fully and clearly. And include a brief statement on each person’s present status and notes for prayer.
2. This past year, how many unchurched people have you invited to worship, or an evangelistic event, or any type of church event at all? How many came? Who and what were the results?
3. Which evangelistic training events have you attended over the years? What have you found most helpful in your personal outreach? Are you currently working through any particular material?
4. Have you participated in short-term mission trips? Did you actually do evangelism on the mission trips? In which upcoming trips are you interested?
5. Have you been a part of any community service projects, either through the church or outside of the church this year? What do you do in the community? 
6. In what non-Christian relational networks are you active? For what upcoming special relationship building activities would you like prayer?
7. In which evangelistic, church planting or mission prayer groups have you regularly participated, or led? Do you regularly prayer walk your neighborhood, or join others in doing so in their neighborhoods?
8. Who are the top ten people on your evangelistic prayer list? Are you focusing your prayers and conversations on those upon whom you have seen God moving in their lives and their thinking?

The Effective Growth

That year I had three people take me up on this personal evangelism development plan.  We all grew during those individual meetings, and encouraged one another to be more intentional in our evangelism.  And we witnessed God's power working upon those many dear people with whom we shared the love of God.

We all came to a deeper experiential understanding of our Apostle Paul's words in Philemon 1:6 ESV “I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.”

Scrambling To Fill The Banquet Hall

God is serving up salvation blessings that will delight many many souls for all eternity!  One Gospel writer, Luke, doesn’t want people to miss the Kingdom Banquet (see Luke 14:15-24).  A banquet is a wonderful picture of the Kingdom, of salvation, and of the richness of God’s blessings.  

Jesus Christ has brought the Kingdom and the initial blessings of salvation promised.  He will return again to bring in the fullness of the Kingdom and all its blessings.  We should look upon our experience of salvation and living in it as enjoying a spiritual banquet.

According to Luke, the Banquet has already begun, with its opening courses.  But being such an enormous feast with elaborate courses, the varied delicacies are just too numerous to count!  Salvation in Jesus far surpasses our expectations; and what we have in this present age is just the first course.  It will take all of eternity to get through the meal!

Invitations and Lame Excuses

Like the banquet host in the parable, God the Father has sent His “servant,” meaning His Eternal Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ to tell the people previously invited, “The Kingdom is here.  Enter with me and enjoy!”

But amazingly, some consider that real estate investments are better than the Kingdom Jesus offers.  Others find the potential for business prosperity more enticing than the Kingdom Jesus offers.  And still others place their family happiness before the Kingdom Jesus offers.  

Luke makes it clear that wrong priorities and wrong expectations can cause one to miss the Kingdom of God.  Have you heard such excuses, one lame excuse after another, before?  And certainly this is not a complete list of excuses.  Sometimes we wonder if they have really read over the Banquet invitation carefully enough.

And so we try to kindly go over it in detail with them and share about our joy.  But at some point, we simply need to leave them alone, but keep praying, and go urge others:  those who currently do not know about the Banquet and haven’t yet been invited.

The Banquet Hall Must Be Filled

So, how would you feel if you got those lame excuses from people?  Exactly Jesus’ point!  The Lord Jesus, the “servant,” reports the situation to God Father, “the master,” through His times of prayer.  Eventually, the anger of God would cause the invitation to be withdrawn and He would pursue others.

Luke 14:21–23 ESV “So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.”

The “servant,” now Jesus and His Apostles, is told to go out and search in the streets and back alleys of the city.  They did so; they got many coming, but there was still a lot of room at the table.  And since there was still room, they would eventually be inviting even more people.

Then, in v.23, the “servant,” now including Jesus, His Apostles and His Church, is told to invite strangers beyond city, even very far away.  This is most likely a reference to all the nations of the earth, that is all the other races of mankind (13:29).

To Compel Compellingly

God the Father desires a full Banquet in the coming Kingdom of the Messiah to show off the extravagance of His generosity to a large multitude from every people.  But, notice that now the “servant” needs to “compel” people.  These people will need even more urging because they are ignorant of the Host’s identity, and His wealth and His generosity!  

We will have to elaborate in detail and with exuberance--in order to be “compelling.”  So, it would be good to think about:  What excites you about the Kingdom?  About living as a Christ-follower?  About being in the Church of our Great and Awesome God?!  

There are still openings, and so we must go and invite others!  Our task from this passage should be obvious, that we as the new “servants” are to go out far and wide, find people and “compel them to come in” to the Banquet Hall of salvation and the Kingdom of God.

Old Men Are Grumpy Around The World

We finished up our work in the village.  There was nothing more to do that day but we had more time on our hands.  So, we took a trail that led us through the fields to another smaller village.

Four Men Watching

We happened upon a construction project on a certain family’s house.  The cement pouring was in progress.  The young men were busily at work.  A bunch of children were at play.  I didn’t see any women, but they were likely very busy, just out of sight.  And then there were the four old men watching it all.  

Our national partners tried to engage the older men in conversation.  However, they were not able to get a hearing for some reason.  It was decided that I should talk to the men since I was closer to their age.  This was not really true, as they were easily 20-30 years older than me, but I never argue with national partners.  They would pray for me and play with the children, while I evangelized this time.

So I started talking with them about the events of their day and their village.  We had a pleasant, even enjoyable conversation.  They were farmers, so we talked about the crops, the weather, the harvest and their plans and challenges this year.  I don’t know much about farming, but I can ask good questions and listen well.

The more we talked the more I felt like I fit in with them and their concerns for their community and the next generation.  And the fun part about hanging out with older men is hearing the sarcasm and grumpiness come out after a while.  It reminded me yet again that people are still people wherever you go in the world, even in this isolated Asian village.

How Do The Crops Grow?

When it seemed the right time, I decided to start into a deeper topic.  I asked them how the crops grew.  Of course, they thought it was a really dumb questions, so they gave me a really dumb answer--something about soil, rain and sun.  Then I clarified that I was speaking about the mystery of life and growth.

Now we were off and running.  They told me that the whole idea of God was ridiculous and that religion was a superstition for old women and young children.  We had such a rapport at this point that I bluntly (old man style) told them that my answer of God was much less ridiculous than their non-answer.  A little cheeky, I know, but sometimes it is interesting to push people and see what happens, or rather what God can bring about.

My gamble with being impudent worked this time.  We talked about God’s benevolence to all and all of them, providing what they have and need, even people’s happiness and families.  I even went so far as to tell them that God might not like their ingratitude and using His gifts without thanking Him, let alone acknowledging His existence.  

Obviously, they had never heard such things.  More thoughtful conversation followed.  We discussed various arguments for the existence of God, such as the order of creation, but moreso the universal moral code, and then my favorite--the existence of human personality.

The Gospel Can Fit Into Any Conversation

Eventually, I shared with them my own religious upbringing (which they also had) and my journey into atheism, and finally my experience with the grace and mercy of God and putting my faith in the true God of all and His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.  This was a fascinating time of storytelling and even a little Q & A.

Presuming they actually do know God exists, because God places such knowledge within everyone (Ecclesiastes 3:11; Romans 1:18-23), I continued to talk further about Jesus Christ and His person and mission.  I told them Jesus’ parable on crops growing from Mark 4:26-28, which linked back into our earlier conversation.  And of course, I went on to talk about the true meaning of His words regarding spiritual growth and Kingdom growth.  

Well, that was enough transparency for that afternoon, for all of us.  We all had things to do.  It was time for us to leave, as our ride would be arriving back in the other village shortly.  They asked me if the real reason I came was to tell them about God.  The answer was simple, “yes.”  

We left information about having a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, both in print and video format.  And I further explained that these friends of mine (national partners) who had been translating and playing with the children, are the ones they could talk to at a later time.  

It Pays To Talk To Everyone

The following week our partners would make a follow up visit and see if the Holy Spirit had done any further work in the village, or with these four men.  The information spread as you can imagine--sometimes unbelievers turn out to be great evangelists!  But, there was no fruit, at least not yet anyway.  

It is amazing to me how often God brings these men to my mind to be praying for them and their village.  And the main lesson I learned that day was that there is almost always a way to engage even the most difficult people.

You Too Can Interpret Dreams

A whack to the back of the knees and I am on my way!

The ski lift carries me and a newly made Asian friend on a long trip down the mountain after visiting a particular Buddhist shrine together.  Such trips often provide wonderful opportunities to talk about the nature of goodness, beauty and truth--and eventually about God and the ultimate meaning of life.  So, I take many of them.

On The Spot, On The Ski Lift

We find a lot to talk about during that almost hour long ride down hill.  Mainly we talk about a dream she had recently that had been bothering her.  I don’t recall the details now after a few years, but it seemed to me nothing that out of the ordinary.  But, then she asked me if I could tell her what it means.  She was looking for more than ideas, but really an interpretation that would make sense and provide meaning for her life.

I had never been asked about dreams so seriously, almost desperately, before.  Not knowing what to say, I prayed silently and very fast for wisdom.  I was honest with her and said that I couldn’t really interpret dreams, but if she told me more about it, I would do my best to help her find any meaning that I might surmise.

To my surprise, as she was telling me her dream, it reminded me of a biblical story in the Old Testament.  I really wish I could remember, but it was just one of the more ordinary ones.  So, I simply told her the Bible story it seemed to parallel and asked if she had heard the story before.  She said no, but then wanted to more about the Bible story.  So, I told it again in more detail.

She then asked the best question, “how does this relate to my life?”  This was a perfect opportunity to explain how this story fit into God’s larger story of redemption in Jesus Christ.  I talked further about how Jesus Christ has given my own life greater meaning, really its ultimate meaning.  

Then I asked her what she thought, and if she thought this might be a good explanation of her dream.  She thought so, definitely.  However, she wanted to do some more thinking about whether she could or should entrust her life to Jesus Christ.  At about that moment we landed at the bottom of the mountain.  And we and some other friends would talk more later.

First Training In Dream Interpretation

A few others from our mission team were asked similar questions on the ski lift.  This was the first day of a week of many dream interpretation questions.  Dreams meant a lot to these people we were meeting.  

It seemed that God was stirring their hearts about eternal concerns and bringing them to us.  Regardless, they were so eager to talk, that if we didn’t talk through their dreams with them, they would find others who would, and likely they would be led astray.  

So, we decided to train our team with a crash course in dream interpretation.  This sounds ludicrous, and it really did seem so to us, as well.  The joke was that my name was Daniel after all and it was time to live up to my name!  Of course, his situation was entirely different, much more serious, and of far greater importance.  What we were doing was nothing of the sort.

We simply taught our team to not be fearful but prayerful; and to ask good questions and listen well, and above all to be compassionate toward our new trusting friends.  We instructed our team to be honest and not claim to really know how to interpret dreams.  

However, we also taught them to be bold in talking about the Scriptures and the God wrote wrote them for us, for our salvation and our lives.  So, they should listen for similar stories in the Bible they could tell, and then talk easily about their fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ.  They should wrap up the conversation by turning the dream back over to their friend to ponder in light of the biblical message they heard.

A lot happened that week.  God opened up many more opportunities for His Gospel that we could never have planned.  We were able to share with hundreds of people.  And all together we witnessed 25 professions of faith and the beginnings of two new churches.

Be Prepared, You Might Be Asked Next

You too can interpret dreams.  No, its clearly not the same type of work as the biblical Daniel.  But, that is not what these dear people were asking for anyway, or many others who might approach you.  So don’t freak out, just pray and then talk about the meaning of life from the Bible and from your experience with God.  

Most often people simply want to hear about the meaning of life from someone who to them seems to have greater insight.  Since you know God then you are the one who knows the meaning of life.