Missions|until all have heard…

In a sermon titled “The Wailing of Risca,” Charles Spurgeon made the following statement:

“Oh, my brothers and sisters in Christ, if sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies; and if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay, and not madly to destroy themselves.  If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.”

What a statement!  I can’t help but examine myself and ask myself if I am d0ing all I can to make it hard for the non-believers around me to go hell or if I am making it easy for them.  We must examine ourselves!

We must ask God to break our hearts like Jesus’ in Luke 19:41.  We must have a heart and a passion for reaching the lost.  What is stopping us?

To use an American Football analogy: are we blocking and tackling the non-believer that is on their way to hell?  Do we have our arms wrapped around their knees pleading the Gospel of Christ with them?

How much do we pray for the lost around us?  How much do we pray for God to open our eyes to the lostness around us and to break our heart for the lost?  Do we then obey Him by following His leading to go and share?

Oh how I pray that all Christians will listen to the words of Spurgeon and will invest in the lives of the lost people around us. 

Heavenly Father, please burden our hearts for the lost!  Please send us forth to those you place in our areas of influence.  Bless us to be a blessing to those around us.  In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

There has been much discussion around the Southern Baptist churches as to how much a church should support the SBC Cooperative Program.  During 2007 and so far through 2008 many churches are also feeling the effects of the economic downturn.  Many churches have seen lower than normal offerings each week during this period and many believe it may be due to the downward turn of the economy.

When a church’s income is decreased we look to our expenditures to find areas where we need to cut back.  One of the most popular areas to cut back is the Cooperative Program money.  After all, what is the Cooperative Program?  To many church staff and members it may look like this big sum of money that goes to one place and no one really knows what happens to it.  Why not cut it back?

When church staff and members really understand the significance of the Cooperative Program I believe they would choose for it to be one of the last things in their budget that they cut.  I will not go into exact details of how every penny is spent through the Cooperative Program but I will try to wet your appetite for a future posting that will go more into the details of the Cooperative Program distribution.

A percentage of every dollar sent from a church to the Coopertive Program stays in the state in which the church is located.  This percentage that stays in the state may be 50%, 65%, or even higher some times.  Each state is different.  The state uses this money to in many ways.  They use this money to help church planters start new churches.  They use this money to help with disaster relief.  Just as a side note, ask any government representative in a disaster area what role the Southern Baptists play during the recovery efforts after a disaster.  Hands-down they will all agree that the Southern Baptists provide better support than any other secular or Christian agency.  And, we are there with a Gospel witness.  There are also many other ways they use this money and I will share more of that in the future.

The remaining money that leaves the state and goes to the convention is split up into different areas.  72.79% is sent to missions (50% for international missions - IMB, 22.79% for home missions - NAMB).  22.16% goes to our Seminaries and other Theological Education Ministries.  1.65% is spent on Christian Ethics & Religious Liberty Ministries.  The remaining 3.4% is for SBC & facilitating ministries.

Without the Cooperative Program many of our pastors and staff would not be seminary trained or would have had to pay a tremendous price for their seminary training at a non-Southern Baptist Seminary.  Without the Cooperative Program our seminarys would not be able to exist.

Without the Cooperative Program our Southern Baptist foriegn and domestic missionaries and their respective agencies would not exist so we would not have these great agencies with which we can work to reach the lost of the world. 

How many pastors or staff members do you know that received education from a Southern Baptist Seminary?  How many Southern Baptist missionaries do you know?  Have you ever used any of the above mentioned Southern Baptist ministries to accomplish something such as a short term mission trip or educating your members on up-coming decisions before our Congress (information from the Ethics & Religious Liberties ministry).

Absolutely, the Cooperative Program is a worthwhile program and we must reach deeper in our pockets in the future to further these ministries.

One great website for further information:  http://www.cpmissions.net/2003/

Recently I received a copy of a missionary’s email.  The missionary wrote the following that really touched my heart.

Thoughts from the Month (On Making Plans):

In the Middle East plans are constantly changing.  Friends don’t show up for meetings, job descriptions take on new forms, moving from one home to another with just one week’s notice becomes normal, and schedules routinely change.  Most recently, the summer plans for a group of volunteers I am responsible for were dropped completely, and my teammate and I had about two weeks to do a semester’s worth of planning in order to ensure their trip was worth the time and money they were sacrificing.  Such circumstances draw me to the story of the parting of the Red Sea.  Before God led the Israelites out of Egypt, He could very easily have warned them that their journey would bring them to a place where they would be stuck between enemy forces and an impassable body of water.  However, if God had revealed his plans, the Israelites surely would not have fled until provisions were made and back up plans were created.  Perhaps they would have come up with their own way to cross the Sea, but that was not the point.  It is clear that God did not want His people seeking “the plan”, but rather He wanted them seeking His face.  Then, step by step, by simply following the cloud by day and fire by night the Israelites arrived right where the Father wanted them, and at the perfect time to see His glory revealed in a way they never could have imagined or planned alone. 

I am slowly learning to replace my attempts to plan out my days, months, and life with greater attempts to simply seek His face.  Though I have no idea what the Father has in store for my final month in this country, since my days will be spent in a town that I have never lived in, working with individuals I have never met, and seeking to share with people who have most likely never heard, I trust that all along He has planned to break down my agenda so that His fthfulness could be revealed, and He alone would be glrfied.  I pray that each day this month would be spent seeking His face first and foremost, and then trusting that the rest will simply fall into place. 

If one looks around and pays attention to the status of Christianity today, one will find numerous statistics and articles projecting the decline of the Christian church.  Studies show that many churches are closing their doors and others are on the decline in attendance.  The studies also show that the few churches who are actually growing in numbers are not growing at the same pace as the population increase around them.  Even the Southern Baptist Convention for many years has been able to boast an increase in membership and baptisms but recently the numbers are not looking so good.

How should we as Christians respond to such news?  There are many different facets to this opportunity that a lays before us.  Recently I had the opportunity to hear 3 well known Southern Baptist preachers preach on this topic.  They seemed to point to the same two things.  One was that we as a church no longer pray with the passion, brokenness, and expectancy with which was once prayed.  We need to sincerely fall on our knees before God with a humbleness and brokenness pleading for the lost souls to come to know Him.  When was the last time I, you, or the church saw the lost with such a brokenness that it was hard for us to pray for them without weeping?

The second theme I heard from the three preachers was the theme emphasizing more of a dependency on God and less on our abilities.  Take a look at most ministries of the church today.  How often do we sit down and plan everything out and make sure it is going to be a success before we agree to do it?  Or, how many times do we sacrifice trying something new because we are not sure of its possible success so we keep doing what we have always done?  I am not saying that we should not be prepared but I am saying that we need to step out faith and follow God’s leading in areas where we in the past ignored because we thought it was too risky.

Fear of our failure: that is the problem.  How much faith do we have?  As we live our Christian lives we need to step outside our comfort-zone and watch God do some amazing things.  After all, who gets the credit when we keep doing everything in our strength?  I believe we need to step out in faith and allow God to get all the Glory.

Besides these three preachers I also was encouraged along this same path last week when I was doing my daily devotionals and I was reading the story of Gideon.  God impressed upon me how Gideon started by asking the neighboring tribes to come help.  Gideon was led by God to decrease the army until it was at a level where if they did win it would be a miracle and only God could get the credit.  Wow!  God is so awesome.

What is it going to take?  I believe it is going to take our falling on our knees before God asking Him for brokenness and guidance to follow Him to do some things with which only He can be credited the success.

This year we started a new partnership with Cornerstone Baptist Church in the Albany, NY area.  Our heart is to come alongside this new church start and to find ways in which we can help them reach the lost of Upstate NY.  One way that God laid upon our hearts to help them was to send some of our youth this summer to do some door to door canvasing, concerts, and other similar outreach opportunities.

The trip leader called me this morning to say that as of last night, 2 and half days into trip, 13 people have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and personal Savior.  If only my excitement could be placed in words.

These results of how God has blessed this trip can only be credited to Him!  No youth choir or youth evangelism team could provide those results.  To God be the glory for these blessings.  13 more people will now spend eternity in Heaven because we were faithful to follow God’s leading and to go.

I want to personally say a big thank you to all who are on the trip for being willing to put the time into their trip preparation and for being willing to go.  We know of these 13 who are now Christians but only God knows the total impact or team is having on eternity.

I thank God so much for this wonderful opportunity to be able to use this blog to journal what God lays on my heart as the Minister of Missions and Evangelism here at FBC Jacksonville. I have found it hard to be able to share, with so many people, the many stories of how God has worked in and through FBC Jacksonville to reach the lost of Jacksonville and beyond. I pray that this blog will honor God in its attempt to communicate what He is doing in and through us.

The title “God is Faithful,” is what came to mind as I sat down to write. He has really impressed this upon me as I reflect back upon the last two days. This last weekend we sent some of our members in 5 different directions to reach the lost and disciple. We are following His guidance to reach the lost. One of the commments listed below will show how God has already shown Himself faithful and shown His blessing upon our obedience to go.

Our sixth graders are learning creative evangelism strategies within the city of Jacksonville.

Our seventh graders are working with a new church plant in the Tampa, FL area with which we have partnered with over the last two years. In 2007 this church baptized 1 person for every 3 church members. That is awesome!

Our eighth graders are working with a new church plant in downtown Atlanta. This also Read the rest of this entry »