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AMENDMENT!

Those interested in North American CHURCH PLANTING should be sure to attend our strategy/next steps meeting on 9 a.m. on Saturday morning at Brier Creek (this is part of the Global Vision Conference).

Attention Potential Summit Church Planters, College Students/Recent Graduates who give a rip about the world, and other Great Commission Christians

Global Vision Conference. This weekend is for those of you who...

• Think you may want to be a part of a North American church plant going out from this church.
• Think you may want to be a part of a church planting team going out from this church in one of our regions overseas. These teams are incredible. I pity the fool that misses out on them...
• Want to go on a short term trip in the coming years to one of these regions.
• Don't know what the heck regions we keep referring to overseas and your curiosity is about to kill you.
• Have this strange attraction to the beauty of other cultures. We'll show you how God wanted to demonstate His beauty in a multi-color, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural church.
• Are proficient in some skill--be it business, entrepeneurship, construction, homemaking, i.t., art, music, etc., and wonder how that could be used by God around the world.
• Are college students who have not yet heard definitely from God that you're not supposed to spend the first two years after you graduate being a part of what God is doing among unreached peoples around the world.
• Are college students who want an incredibly exciting adventure for Jesus in some of the most exotic places in the world.
• Are approaching retirement age and wondering what exciting new chapter God is about to write in your life because neither the idea of rotting in your rocking chair on your porch waiting on the next Andy Griffith episode to come on, nor the idea of selfishly blowing all your best years and money playing golf and collecting seashells, is appealing... (I put this in big print for ease of reading :))
  
• Who have never been past Roxboro or Hillsborough.
• Who have a heart to see us alleviate poverty in RDU and bless her in Jesus' name.
• Who love to pray efficiently for the most exciting things happening in God's kingdom
• Who think that conferences involving missionaries involve weird outfits, strange smells, and socially-awkward people. We can take social awkwardness to a new level.

It's going to be great. Don't miss it.

Full Schedule here. My summary:

• Thursday night: dinner... SORRY... you waited too long on this one. Dinner reservations are completely full!
• Friday night: worship and prayer and college/young professional coffee shop...
• Saturday: seminars for: businessmen and world missions; retirement age missions opportunities; East Asia adventures in 2008; Hope for RDU (community ministry); and POTENTIAL CHURCH PLANTER STRATEGY MEETING (9 A.M.)...

"I am a pansy and can only come to one of the events. Which one should I come to?" Friday night. You Pansy.

Here's some of our staff in their Halloween outfits. I can't believe they came to the office dressed like this. Here's Jonathan Welch as a German yodeler and Chris as Mr. Rogers errr... he dresses like that every day...) :

I'm Back... and with a Vengeance pt 3

Here's a quote from Hudson Taylor, the first missionary to China, summarizing what I was trying to say yesterday on the primary responsiblity of the believer being to "believe." It comes from the EXCELLENT little book Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret which I would heartily commend to you all:

We have to do with One who is Lord of all power and might, whose arm is not shortened that it cannot save, nor His ear heavy that it cannot hear; with One whose unchanging Word directs us to ask and receive that our joy may be full, to open our mouths wide, that He may fill them. And we do well to remember that this gracious God, who has condescended to place His almighty power at the command of believing prayer looks not lightly on the bloodguiltiness of those who neglect to avail themselves of it for the benefit of the perishing. ...

In the study of that divine Word, I learned that to obtain successful workers, not elaborate appeals for help, but first earnest prayer to God to thrust forth laborers… I had no doubt but that if I prayed for fellow-workers, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, they would be given. I had no doubt but that, in answer to such prayer, the means for our going forth would be provided, and that doors would be opened before us in unreached parts of the Empire… The sense of bloodguiltiness became more and more intense. Simply because I refused to ask for them, the laborers did not come forward, did not go out to China: and every day tens of thousands in that land were passing into Christless graves!

I'm Back... and with a Vengeance pt 2

My primary purpose visiting our team over here has been to encourage them to believe. The primary "work" which we are to do as Christians and ambassadors of Christ is to believe God. We tend to think about what we can go “do” for God, and usually talk in terms of actions.

But "believing" is to be our work. God can in one word bring light from darkness, creation from chaos, and death from life. It is believing Him that releases His power in the world. Think of how many times this shows up in the Gospels... The shakiest faith in Jesus still releases a torrent of power. Think of the woman who just brushes the hymn of Jesus’ garment and was healed. Think of the woman who bet that Jesus had enough grace overflowing off of His table that there would be enough for even a "dog" like her. God’s compassion for people and passion for His name is such a mighty stream is so strong that even the slightest belief in it unleashes God.

There is simply no shortage of power and compassion to save in God. It is our faith that releases Him. I believe I was called here for these 8 days just to walk around and BELIEVE.. even more than to "pray", because the power of God is not released through prayer, but through faith (which can and should be expressed in prayer, of course)! Thus, the primary role of an intercessor is not to fill up God’s ears with words (as if God hears us for our much speaking), but to believe on behalf of another!
So, I choose to believe what the cross of Jesus demonstrates about how much God loves the people of this region; I beleive that the resurrection measures the power He is willing to pour out on their behalf. Our primary role as Jesus' ambassadors is simply to walk around and believe God on behalf of others, thereby releasing His power into their lives!

As I was sitting on the beach one day, I was thinking about how easily God could have sent a wave of salvation into this land, rather than a wave of destruction. I asked God, "Why? Why send a wave of destruction when you could have sent a wave of salvation?" But God's word assures me that He will send a wave of righteousness, so that His praise covers the land "as the water covers the sea." Believe this with me, and release God's power!

I realize all this kind of makes me sound like a swinging from the chandeliers, "word of faith," "name it-claim it", "Jesus is your personal pinata and faith is the whacking stick" preacher... but my problem with those preachers is not that they put confidence in how Jesus responds to faith, just that what they usually want from God are things that have little to do with God's glory and the spread of His name over the earth and more to do with their own health and wealth. God invites us to believe Him for His desire to glorify His name and spread His salvation... as He said, He is glorified when we bear much fruit, so we should ask and receive! (John 15:5-9).

I'm Back... and with a Vengeance pt 1

After almost 2 weeks of not blogging (special thanks to Bruce, Clayton and Brad who put some excellent posts in my absence), I am glad to be back. The plane ride back only took 42 hours... mostly thanks to Delta's commitment to only fly the most friendly skies and only when it's convenient for them. All the Asian connections were fine, it was the JFK Delta connection in NYC who was all screwed up.

And I was stomach sick for a significant portion of the flight. Again, it was NOT from Asia that I got the stomach sickness, but from the airlines. The flight attendants on Singapore Air were great, however, while I had the sickness. I was being given ALL KINDS of Chinese therapy for my stomach—bitter black teas, firm admonitions not to drink a mix of hot and cold water, stinky oils to rub on my head (seriously)... I was waiting on someone to pull out the acupuncture needles or give me a puff of that magical Chinese wacky tobaccy.

I have been visiting one our church plants for the past two weeks. At this particular place in Asia, we have 8 people from our fellowship living--one family of 4 with 2 teenagers (whom I'll call 'the Christmases') and 4 young professionals. How awesome to be with the Summit Church all the way on the other side of the world!

The area in which we are working was destroyed by the tsunami. I stood at the sight of several mass graves--graves with more than 10,000 people just dumped into them. I had always thought of this place as one of the most beautiful in the world. It still is. But now it also seems to me one of the saddest.

Our team has overseen the building of over 100 houses and 100 small factories and businesses. They have trained nationals in education development and crisis counseling. They didn't just go in and "dole away" our money, but used it to train, empower and release these people into their own businesses.

In addition to that, they have trained and recruited some national believers who are now leading the way in the church planting efforts. This is the "end game" and the goal for our team--empowering local believers and passing the baton to them. You should be so encouraged by what your members are doing over there.

Being with this team reminded me of two things I want to press upon your heart:

• The absolute necessity of FAMILIES to live on the field.  There are not many families out on the field, especially ones with teenagers... but the effect of a loving, Christian family on the community is incredible... as they observe how the husband serves the wife, how the wife respects the husband, how the kids love and respect the parents and the parents love the kids. It was awesome. (On a related note, there is also a real need for older, mature couples. There is a dynamic that an older couple can provide that is impossible to replicate with younger people. These teams we are putting together have a spot for, and a real need for, some families and some older, mature couples.)
• The incredible opportunity our college students and young professionals have to serve on one of these teams. I am totally serious about this "Mormonization of our church" thing--getting our students to live for at least 2 years overseas exercising their skill as part of a church planting strategy. We are putting together teams all the time to go to some of the world's most exciting places. You can go with a great group of people, learn a ton, and really see God use you to make a difference in the world. Unless God has spoken to you otherwise, I implore you to consider spending 2 years after graduation serving in one of these areas for church planting.

If any of this intrigues you, MAKE SURE to come to our church planting "Global Vision" conference next weekend. More to come...

Guest Blog: Our Global Vision Pt. 2

Brad O'Brien is the Community and Church Planting Pastor at the Summit Church.

We aren’t just excited about what God is doing in Durham through Hope For Durham or in regards to our North American church plants. We are also really excited about the vision we have to equip and mobilize international church planting teams.

This vision is young, but it has a lot of us excited about the potential of reaching some of the world’s most influential cities and unreached people groups via Summit sponsored church planting teams. We believe that planting churches is the best way to reach people and in 2008 we will be deploying our first two church planting teams.

The first team is made up of 3 couples with 2 little baby girls and a recent college graduate. This team will be going into Central Asia to work in a city of about 2 million people. We have visited this city a couple of times and we were astonished to only find one church of about 40 people. This city, that we will call ‘Olympus’, is a beautiful place, but unfortunately millions of people in this city haven’t had the opportunity to hear about Jesus Christ. They will be using their skills to give them a platform to minister from. They are great examples of taking what they do over here and learning how to do it globally. We will be visiting them at least twice in 2008 so keep your ears open for more information. Both of our church planting teams have been meeting together for several months now preparing themselves to be salt and light in a brand new country.

The second team is made up of 3 couples one with 2 little girls and at least 5 young professionals. We have had a businessman living in this country for a while now and he has used his entrepreneurial skills to start a small business that is thriving. This has given us a platform to visit the country 4 times in the past year. As people follow God’s call to go and see what He is doing their hearts are captured with a new found love for the people living in the valley that we are adopting. Unlike the first team, this team will be going into a very rural setting where they will be living without many of the luxuries that we take for granted. This team is the team we are seeking to bless financially through our ‘Dine for Development’ event on Thursday night, November 1st. This team will be going into an area where Christ has never been preached before. They aren’t just called to preach Christ, but they are also called to care for the needs of their new neighbors. By making a reservation to attend the ‘Dine for Development’ dinner you will be contributing to their community development budget. The Summit will be matching the total gifts up to $2,000. They will be able to use this budget to fund ideas that they have for ways to bless the people around them.

‘Dine for Development’ is just the first part of our Global Vision Conference coming up November 1-4. After being on staff for almost five years now I believe that one reason God continues to bless us is because we seek to find new ways to bless others. This weekend conference will be filled with information and opportunities to build new relationships with a few of our church planters, but it will also be an opportunity for you to hear from God. Have you ever asked yourself if you would be willing to do what you do here in RDU on a global setting? Would you be willing to be a part of one of our international church plants? We need college students, young professionals, young couples, families, and senior adults. We can help you find a perfect fit, but first you have to ask yourself if you are willing to go.

Where will you go? What will you do? These are two questions that you will be faced with over the next couple of weeks at the Summit. Please begin to pray now for God to show you how He wants you to be involved in what He is already doing around the world!

Guest Blog: What have Linkin Park, Quantum Physics, Hillary Clinton, and Harvard University to do with the Christian Life?

Bruce Riley Ashford is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Intercultural Studies, Director of the Center for Great Commission Studies, and Fellow for the Center for Faith and Culture at Southeastern  Baptist Theological Seminary.

JD and Bruce went to college together at Campbell University and have been friends since that time. In addition to allowing JD to be his friend, he also agreed to mentor JD for all four of those years, tutoring him not only in abstract mathematics class but also in general life issues, such as how to not be such a nerd. JD owes everything he has to Bruce.

What have Linkin Park, Quantum Physics, Hillary Clinton, and Harvard University to do with the Christian life? The answer is: a heck of a lot; they have everything to do with faithful Christian living. And I’m going to spend the next few paragraphs trying to flesh this out.

Another way to ask the same question that I just raised is, “What does it mean to glorify God in all that I do?” More to the point, what does it mean for a college student or a professional to glorify God in all that he does? For most of my life, I thought that the answer to this was limited to the private and church-centered: I needed to feel more love in my heart for God, stop doing earthly things, and be involved with more things inside of the church building.

But there’s a lot more to glorifying God than the private and churchly. God’s existence doesn’t matter merely for evangelism, preaching, and moralizing. His existence and His Word are equally significant for the public and world-centered, for the arts, the sciences, business and economics, education, and all of public life. It is He who created the universe out of which such public life flourishes, and He who gives us the abilities to participate in such things. In other words, His existence matters for every square inch of our lives, and in every fiber of the universe that He Himself created.

But what has Linkin Park to do with the Christian life? Of what significance is art, music, theater, and architecture? The answer begins like this: If God has gifted a person in the arts, that is a good thing. God Himself is the first artist, and it is He who created us in His image, giving us the ability to be creative like Him. Art can be a powerful instrument for God’s glory. Not only is it able to depict the beauty of this world, it is also able to transcend the fallenness of the world in which we live, pointing us to the new heavens and new earth that is to come.

What has quantum physics to do with the Christian life? Of what significance is biology, chemistry, physics, psychology, and sociology? The answer begins like this: If God has put a person in a position to be a scientist, that is a good thing. Indeed, it is God who gave us the universe that scientists now study, and He who gave us the ability to study it. Science can be a powerful instrument for God’s glory. Christians who are scientists should allow their love for God to form in them a love for His handiwork. A Christian should have more than sufficient motivation to do his work with excellence—it should be done to the glory of God.

What has Hillary Clinton to do with the Christian life? Of what significance are socio-political issues, law, philosophy, journalism, and other public matters? The answer begins like this: If God has put a person in public life, that is a good thing. It is He who created us in His image, as social and relational beings, and it is out of those qualities that our socio-political life arises. Christians should be salt and light in the socio-political, cultural, and moral arenas. We should flesh out the implications of Christian theology for these arenas.

What has Harvard University to do with the Christian life? Of what use are the four years of a college student’s life? The answer is that they are of great significance. Your four years of college are not merely a bridge to your “real life.” Your four years of college are a gift from God, possibly the four most fruitful years of your life.

On a college campus, you have the opportunity to learn to glorify God rationally (e.g. the sciences), creatively (e.g. the arts), relationally (e.g. the public square), morally, and spiritually. You have the opportunity to interact with some of the best minds, and some of the most interesting people, in the world. The fact is: your college years matter; your degree matters; your classes matter; the people with whom you interact matter. How you glorify God in your public and intellectual life is every bit as important as how you do so in your private and moral life.

If you’re an evangelical, especially from the Baptist or charismatic traditions, you might think I’m a fruitcake for saying this. And the reason you do is that many years ago, at the beginning of the 20th century, many in the evangelical church quit caring about intellectual and public matters. They recognized that there were many antagonistic unbelievers in universities, especially in the arts and sciences, and they retreated. They retreated and formed little Christian colleges (there is nothing wrong with a Christian college. But there is something wrong with retreating), wore Christian t-shirts that said “I’m Cross-Eyed”, bolstered their Christian bumper sticker collection, and sucked on Test-a-Mints®.

In other words, the evangelical church abdicated its responsibility to the world and fled to a Christian ghetto. And the result is that when an 18-year old goes to college at most public or private universities, his New Testament professor is most likely a militant atheist who wrote a dissertation with some freakish title like, “Buddhism, Tantric Sex, and the Falsity of the Gospels”. And that’s not to mention the philosophy, psychology, or biology professor. Why can’t it be the case that we refuse to retreat any longer, that we refuse to abdicate our responsibility to glorify God by being salt and light in every square inch of his universe?

Why can’t it be the case that many of you college students excel in your studies, and rise to the top of your professions, allowing yourself to bring great glory to God along the way? Why can’t some of you make it your goal to enter a Ph.D. program, embrace your studies, and use your minds to glorify God in the academy? Why can’t you be the person who teaches an 18 year old when they enter a course in philosophy or psychology or education or physics?

I say all of that to say this. God doesn’t just care about your quiet times or your Sundays. He cares about every facet of your life, including your time as a college student and then as a professional. So don’t do what many of us have done. Don’t waste your college years. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that the life of the mind doesn’t matter, that public life doesn’t matter. They do.

So back to the title. What have Linkin Park, Quantum Physics, Hillary Clinton, and Harvard University to do with the Christian life? They themselves are not the point of this blog; rather the spheres of human culture that they represent are the point of this blog. These spheres are important to God, and are important arenas in which Christians need to interact. So that is what I mean when I say that Linkin Park (the arts), Quantum Physics (the sciences), Hillary Clinton (the public square), and Harvard University (the university) have everything to do with the Christian life. Public and intellectual matters can never be disconnected from the life of a Christian who is committed to glorifying the Lord in everything he does.

Guest Blog: Our Global Vision

The following post is by Brad O'Brien.  Brad is the Community and Church Planting Pastor at the Summit Church.

A lot has changed over the past couple of months. We have moved out of Riverside High School and moved into our new Brier Creek Campus. We have become a multi-site church with the addition of our Cole Mill Road Campus. We have also changed our the times and number of worship services. All of this has happened in the past two months.

In the midst of all this change there are several things that have remained constant. One of those constants is our Global Vision.  Earlier this year I moved out of the College Ministry Pastor and into the new role of Community & Church Planting Pastor.  Our strategy for reaching the world with the Gospel comes from Acts 1:8. As followers of Christ we can’t just target one aspect local, national, or international and only focus on that; we believe we need to be involved in all three areas.

Locally we seek to minister to our community through our Hope For Durham ministry. This is a ministry that was created at the Summit Church a couple of years ago, but we have already expanded to include other congregations in Durham. Just a couple of weeks ago I met with a pastor from Raleigh and in 2008 we will be expanding to include congregations from Wake County. The vision has expanded from Hope For Durham to Hope For RDU. We live in a community that is in desperate need for Christ followers to live out their faith in ways that demonstrate Christ’s love for all people. Over the past two years we have had more than 2,000 volunteers give of themselves to be a blessing to our community. The impact has already been felt all over the city!

What about church planting? Church planting is something that we as a staff have recently learned the benefits of. Already we have two national church plants and five international church plants, but I can promise you that we’ve only just begun. We have a desire to see hundreds of healthy, reproducing church plants started in the next decade.

Our first national church plant was started in 2004. Josh Shank, a former staff member, knew that God had called him to return home to plant a church that would seek to reach a generation that was being overlooked. He and his wife left our staff and returned to Youngstown, OH to start Youngstown Metro Church. They have been doing extremely well and just this year they were able to purchase their first building in downtown Youngstown within walking distance of Youngstown State University.

Our second church plant partnership started this past January. Aaron Coe and his wife Carmen have lived in NYC for almost five years now. They have sensed God calling them to plant a church for a while and their heart has grown for NYC and they just couldn’t leave. Aaron was my college pastor at Middle Tennessee State University and he is the man that led me to the Lord. Aaron and I have remained close over the years and that relationship was a natural reason to partner with The Gallery Church in NYC. The Gallery Church has recently added their third worship gathering and are now reaching about 200 people in the world’s most strategic city. The Gallery has an amazing ministry to men and women with HIV/AIDS and Aaron was recently featured in an article that you can read by clicking here. In the spring The Gallery will be working with St. Lukes Hospital to conduct one of their largest single day testing outreaches. To find out more go to www.cityuprising.com

Coming up on November 1st you will have an opportunity to be a part of what God is doing in one of our church plants in Central Asia. Next year we will be commissioning a team of about 10 people that will be going to plant a church in one of the least evangelized areas in the world. On Thursday night November 1st we are kicking off our annual Global Vision Conference with an event that we are calling “Dine for Development.” We aren’t just called to carry the Gospel to the people in the area of our church plant. We are also called to care for their needs. By making a reservation to attend “Dine for Development” you will be doing a small part to make that happen. Each ticket costs $25.00 and 50% of the proceeds will go towards development projects that our church plant will start in 2008. The night will be full of information about how you can become involved in the Summit’s Global Vision and you will also have an opportunity to meet Josh, Aaron, and one of our international church planters. To make your reservation to attend “Dine for Development” click here.

Guest Blog: Do the Numbers Really Matter?

Clayton King began a friendship with JD over a decade ago and frequently preaches at the Summit.   He has been married to Charie for over 8 years and has two boys, Jacob and Jojo.   He has written 3 books and began preaching 20 years ago.   He is an evangelist and has dedicated his life to preaching the gospel all over the world.   More information on his ministry, Crossroads Worldwide, is available at claytonking.com

I love to read.   All sorts of things.   Fiction and Theology.   Fantasy and Sports.   I really enjoy the newspaper, if for no other reason than to practice a mindless task that allows me a momentary escape from the pressures of my own world.   

I read an editorial recently that essentially said American culture was broken and beyond repair.  It cited our consumerist mentality, skyrocketing divorce rate, obsession with entertainment, and the willingness of many to camp out for days to buy a Playstation III, then turn around and sell it on Ebay for $10,000 to someone who could not wait til after Christmas to have one.  Part of our problem, according to this editorial, is our corporate, personal, and even religious obsession with the bottom line; numbers.

This perspective caused me to ask a very important question...do the numbers really matter?

Of course, the answer depends on the context of the question.  Are we talking about interest rates or the price of college tuition?  Are we talking about attendance at Sunday School or the statistics of our favorite quarterback? (Tony Romo followed by Brett Favre, in that order, in my opinion).

In one sense, when numbers become the bottom line something very valuable is lost.  If all a church ever does is count bodies in seats on Sundays, they will soon find those bodies disappearing for a lack of substance in the services.  If a corporation only cares about profit margins, they soon lose sight of issues like professional excellence, the quality of their product, or employee and customer relations.  So in one respect, I am forced to conclude that numbers, by themselves, do not really mean that much.

There is another side to the equation, though.  If the numbers only represent dollar signs then they become a success-o-meter by which, in business work or the church, we feel more profitable or holy than our competitors.  But if numbers represent things we value, like people and relationships, suffering and injustice, or those who have never heard the gospel, then I suggest they indeed matter greatly, not just to us, but to God as well.

Let me illustrate my point.  How many years have I been married?  Five?  Two?  Does it matter?  Of course it does.  I have been married eight years, and that number is important because it represents, in a diluted yet significant way, my relationship with Charie.   And anyone who forgets how long they have been married, or what day they celebrate their anniversary, will be quickly reminded how important those numbers are.

How many children do I have?  One?  Four? Actually, I have two (Jacob and Joseph) and I had better know that, because the number of offspring in my home means something.

How much is your monthly mortgage?  Your monthly health insurance?  Your weekly salary?

All of these things are represented by numbers.  Of course the actual numbers mean nothing,  but they symbolize the things in life we love (our family) and the things we need to survive (a home, income, etc).

So when I often hear people, especially Christians, comment on how we should not get "hung up" on numbers, I think I understand what they mean.  They probably mean that we should not make numbers the measure of success or the means to happiness or that people should never be lost in a spread sheet or an attendance report sent into a denominational office.  And yes, anyone can make the numbers talk a certain way or sing a certain tune by embellishing or stretching them to accomplish a selfish goal or to push a self-serving agenda.

Yet I sometimes feel a bit awkward when I return from a church or a conference where many people have made decisions to repent of their sins and confess their faith in Christ, not because I doubt their sincerity, but because I know the skepticism by which many Christians view "the numbers."  Figures  have been so abused by so many that even I am reluctant to believe some of the reports I hear about the unexplainable growth of the church in China or the numbers of people converting to Christianity right now in Africa.  Occasionally I will comment on how many people made a decision to be saved at an event, and I see smirks, sideways glances, or even chuckles.  Maybe the reason it is so hard for some Christians to believe that God is really active in our world and that people are still being saved by His grace is that we are embedded in a culture obsessed with figures, dollars, and impressive statistics.  We don't trust them anymore.  We are not impressed by them.

God is not impressed by them either, but the numbers do matter, because the numbers are a shadowy representation of people; people that God loves and people that Christ died to save.

Consider for just a moment some of the numbers that should matter to all of us.

Over 5 million Jews were murdered under Hitler's Germany.  Do they matter?

At least 200,000 people have been killed and another 500,000 have been displaced in Darfur, Sudan by the Janjaweed militia and a corrupt government run by Islamic fundamentalists.  Do they matter?

In the next 24 hours, over 30,000 human beings on this earth will die because they did not have sufficient food to eat or clean water to drink.  Do they matter?

A little boy in the slums of Detroit will watch his mama shoot heroin today that she bought with her son's lunch money.  Does she matter?

A 15 year old girl will walk into a doctors office scared to death and broke, wondering if she will be  able to care for the baby growing in her womb.  Does she matter?  Does the baby?

Often times, the same people who say the numbers don't mean anything when it comes to evangelism and missions are the same people who are quick to throw out the numbers of soldiers killed in battle, the number of children with AIDS in Uganda, or the number of families living in poverty.

Here is my point...THEY ALL MATTER.  ALL OF THEM.

There are nearly 2 billion people on this planet who  have never heard the gospel, and they matter.

Since June, our ministry has seen God save over 2,000 people, and they matter.

A church in SC pastored by a close friend just baptized over 500 new Christians and every last one of them matters.

Over the last 10 years, students at Crossroads camps have given over $400,000 to orphans in India, and every dollar given matters.

And every single person that sits in that pew at a little country church on Sunday matters, all 80 of them.  And every single person that sits in those plush theatre seats at your mega-church on Sunday matters, all 12,000 of them.

Please, let's stop saying that the numbers don't matter.  People that are made in the image of God, loved by Christ, and set free from sin and bondage by the Cross were so important to God that He took drastic measures to win their salvation.  If they matter to Him, they should mean something to us, too.

So as my 35th birthday approaches, does that number mean anything to me?  Sure it does.  My car insurance will likely go down.  My health insurance will likely go up.  My knees and shoulders hurt more frequently and a cheeseburger stays with me alot longer than it used to.  But what really matters is not the number, but the lovely bride that sits in the next room and those two precious boys upstairs taking their afternoon naps as I type.  Thanks be to our Almighty God for giving us the ability to live for the things that matter eternally.

For Christ,

Clayton King
Crossroads Worldwide
www.claytonking.com

Review of Osteen's New Book

Here's a review of Joel Osteen's new book. Fair and balanced. Not by Fox News, though.