Missions|until all have heard…

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.