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Radical Generosity

Guest Blogger:  Josh Shank, Lead Pastor, Youngtown Metro Church

 

Pastor Josh Shank was on staff at the Summit and left in 2004 to plant a church in his hometown of Youngstown, Ohio.  Summit, this is a great reminder of how God can use us as a church to bless one another and our community, especially in light of the upcoming Christmas Missions Offering, 100% of which goes outside of the Summit to bless RDU and plant churches and bless cities around the world.

 

I recently had a conversation with a vocal advocate of a worldview that is diametrically opposed to Jesus and the gospel.  Since I knew this person had a background in philosophy, I began to probe into his belief system with all the apologetic tools in my tool belt.  To be honest, I thought I was winning the argument.  I was pulling out all kinds of phrases that were making me sound rather intelligent.  Nevertheless, as our discussion continued I became very frustrated at the way he could easily write off my well crafted logic.  I was getting hammered, but not because he was actually answering my arguments. 

 

After a couple of hours of talking, I began to give up and change the subject.  We began discussing life.  Soon the discussion landed on our church plant (Youngstown Metro Church) and our location in the city.  A major part of our story is how we purchased a multi-million dollar cathedral in the city for $52,500.  As the story goes, the owners of the building agreed to the amount above which made us overcome with joy.  We were quickly brought down to earth when we realized that no one would loan the money outright to our fledgling church plant.  After talking to several banks, we felt completely discouraged.  They told us that they would approve a loan on one condition.  We had to raise half the money in cash or pledges before we could proceed. 

 

This seemed quite crazy at the time because we only had three weeks to raise the money.  To be honest, I questioned whether or not we could make it.  For the next two weeks we talked with our people about the special offering and collected it on the third week.  We took the offering at the beginning of the gathering and at the end the offering counters gave me the paper with the final number.  I was completely shocked to see how generously and sacrificially our people gave.  The total given was $107,000 and a little over $70,000 was cash.  It was an amazing night. 

 

After hearing this story, the guy I was speaking with said he was blown away by the generosity of our people and that he wanted to come by and check us out.  He easily blew off all of my well crafted reasoning, but he couldn’t blow off the generosity of the church. That conversation woke me up to the fact that, though well-crafted arguments have their place, a greater testimony to the gospel is the generosity of the church.  Give generously.  Give sacrificially. Be a light for the gospel. 

The Paradox of Obedience

Pastor J.D. has asked me to write a “guest blog” for him. So first off, my apologies to everyone who navigated their way here in hopes of a recent revelation from Pastor J.D. I know when I check out J.D.’s blog and find a “guest writer” I’m always a little disappointed at first. So let me assure you, dear reader, I understand. All the same, since you’re here, why not stay a while? I’ll be brief, I promise.

(Summit (J.D. here), this is a great reminder of how we can be a part of this process of sacrifice. I am challenging you to give, extravagantly, to our Christmas Mission Offering. 100% of this offering goes to take the Gospel to places it is not and to alleviate poverty.)

My name is James,* and I am a missionary in Central Asia. Don’t be ashamed if you don’t know where that is; a couple of years ago I didn’t know either. Basically it’s all of the ‘stan’ countries: Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Stan-the-man-istan. Okay, I made that last one up, but you get the picture. I have a job, teaching English, but my main task is to spread the name of Jesus and to see churches planted.

As I thought of what I should say to bridge the gap between you (average JD’s-blog-reading citizen) and me (bizarre lives-on-the-other-side-of-the world wacko), my first instinct was to tell you how different and difficult my life is. And coming from America, mine is certainly a demanding life. Every day I’m speaking somebody else’s language, eating truckloads of rice, and relieving myself in a hole outside. As I walk through the local bazaar, even though I wear the appropriate local attire, I stick out like a sore thumb, so I attract gaping-mouthed stares. In the summer I try hard to keep cool, and in the winter I try hard to keep warm, but neither attempt is very successful. And since bathing is such a chore, usually I’m pretty dirty.

But even though I could illustrate the thousand differences between America—which, in my mind, is a promised land of freedom and beauty, where dollar bills grow on trees and everyone smiles all the time—and my current living situation, I don’t think that would really help bridge the gap. There’s already an odd sentiment abroad in several churches that missionaries are some kind of heroes, super-Christians that are able to endure more than the average Joe. I don’t want to perpetuate that idea.

Instead, I want you to realize that sacrificing great things in obedience to God is a joyful experience (there's your paradox!). Yes, my life is often uncomfortable—who in their right mind prefers pooping in a hole to a nice, porcelain throne?—but in following God here I’ve experienced the joy of obedience. I live in a city of tens of thousands, yet among all these people, I and my small team of expats are the only people that know Jesus. Not only that, we are the only people for a hundred miles that have even /heard/ the gospel of Jesus. Day in and day out, I have the privilege of bringing the love of Christ to people who have for centuries known nothing of it. And that’s exciting work. Exciting, meaningful, and often exasperating, but always joyful.

I would encourage all of you to seriously examine your lives. It may be that the lack of joy you are experiencing can’t be fixed by an economic upturn or a change in your relationship status. It just may be that you need to let go of all the good things in your life in order to grasp the better thing—obedience to God. I don’t know what this means for you. For me it meant leaving the comforts of a country I love for a foreign one, leaving friends that love me for suspicious neighbors, and leaving a job at which I was quite competent in order to speak another language like a two-year-old.

So what does this mean for you? Perhaps there is something in your life standing in the way of your obedience to God. Whatever that is, I can assure you that following God fully is more joyful than clinging to your comforts. I might not have believed it myself until I experienced that I can be filthy, tired, far from home, AND absolutely content.

/James and his wife, Elizabeth* would love to hear from you—questions, comments, rambling rants, whatever. Drop them a line at friendsincentralasia at gmail.com. 

//*Names changed for security purposes

Unreached vs Unevangelized: An Important Distinction

(From http://theologica.blogspot.com/2009/09/unreached-vs-unevangelized.html)

Alex Chediak interviews David Sitton, President of To Every Tribe. An excerpt:

There’s an important difference between unevangelized and unreached peoples.

Unevangelized people are unconverted individuals in places where there are established churches. Unreached peoples are those that live in regions where there are no churches and no access to the evangelical gospel in their culture.

And to answer your question about the present trend; 96% of the missionary work force is still laboring in unevangelized, but not truly unreached regions. Here it is again – 9 out of 10 Christian missionaries that go cross-cultural are still going to reached places!

Here’s still another way to say it – Something like 90% of all “ministers” worldwide are concentrating on only 2% of the world’s population! We are massively overly evangelizing places where the gospel is already well planted! I believe that we need a substantial strategic redeployment of the missionary workforce to the areas where there is still no access to the evangelical gospel.

Read the whole thing.

Why We Plant Churches Overseas When There is Plenty to Do Here

(Correction from yesterday... Summit, you gave $80K, not $60K, to our "Christmas in August" special offering for overseas church planting and mercy work. Don't want to sell you short!)

From a great book I've been in recently by Randy Alcorn, called Money, Possessions and Eternity.

"We must realize that God is interested in more than the total number of souls in heaven. He also cares about where they come from! The four living creatures will join the heavenly hosts in singing praise to the Lamb: "With your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth" (Reveleation 5:9-10). John was overwhelmed when he saw "a great mutlitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb" (Revelation 7:9).

Christ is glorified not simply by the total number who worship him, but also by the fact that this number includes representatives from every tribe, language, people, and nation. Therefore, we must be making concerted efforts to see that missionaries, whether from our country or another, reach the "hidden" people who have not yet heard the gospel.

Shortly before he and his four friends were killed by the Auca Indians in their attempts to bring them the gospel, missionary Nate Saint wrote:

As we weigh the future and seek the will of God, does it seem right that we should hazard our lives for just a few savages? As we ask ourselves this question, we realize it is the simple intimation of the prophetic Word that there shall be some from every tribe in His presence in the last day, and in our hearts we feel that it is pleasing to Him that we should interest ourselves in making an opening into the Auca prison for Christ.

As we have a high old time this Christmas, may we who know Christ hear the cry of the damned as they hurtle headlong into the Christless night without ever a chance. May we be moved with compassion as our Lord was. May we shed tears of repentance for these we have failed to bring out of darkness. Beyond the smiling scenes of Bethlehem may we see the crushing agony of Golgotha. May God give us a new vision of His will concerning the lost and our responsibility.

The Upstream Collective and Ed Stetzer

My friend Ed Stetzer is doing some really innovative mission work in Taiwan this week... Ed and a great group led by another friend, Larry Mccrary, called "The Upstream Collective," are connecting new and innovative churches to some really exciting front line work.

Ed's post today has a number of great insights about contextualization, involvement and some videos worth watching...

Where... is Matt?

Watch this and think about it in relation to world missions...(I'm terribly sorry about the profanity in the title... there's none in the actual video. I tried to get it out of the title script but couldn't figure out how... if one of you techies wants to fix that, that would be great...)

The Mormonization of our Church?

From time to time I get a question about the statement, "We tell college students that unless they've heard from God otherwise, they should plan on spend 2 years somewhere overseas after they graduate."

So, let me clear that up. First, it is slightly tongue and cheek... we know we can't tell people what God wants for their lives ("God loves you, and I have a wonderful plan for your life!)... which is why we say "unless you've heard from God otherwise." I know many people are walking in the will of God, and that will does not include 2 years overseas.

Why "2 years?" Because the organization we send people through, the IMB, has some good, funded programs for us doing that, but the minimum you must go to be eligible for funding is 2 years. The word "mormonization" is an analogy, one I first heard missions mobilizer Dr. Lloyd Mann use (Dr. Mann is now a member of our church).

Furthermore, the statement does not mean that God's will is for everyone to go overseas, or even that that is what the super-spiritual people who really love Jesus will do. We fully believe, and teach often here, that God's calling is not limited to professional ministry. The word "vocation" literally means "calling"--God gives his people skills (like dentistry, art, law, and architecture) that benefit others and glorify Him and to do those things for His glory and to serve His kingdom is as much a calling as the guy who plants churches overseas.

However, the idea that world-evangelization is the burden of only a select few and not the church as the whole misses the whole point and trajectory of the new testament. Jesus gave his church His "what I want to do and what you should be doing" instructions in Acts 1:8--from Jerusalem to the farthest parts of the world."

For all their glory and impressive response to the Gospel, the early church really flubbed that part up. In Acts 8 they were all still in Jerusalem! So the Holy Spirit takes matters into His own hands (Acts 8:1) and sends persecution... and that persecution was for the purpose, evidently, of getting them into the world. In other words, Acts 8:1 shows you that if we aren't going to do it of our own initiative, then God will get it done other ways. From there, in Acts 8-10 the Holy Spirit sends dreams, performs a StarTrek style teleportation, and even calls a new, special Apostle to get the job done. Taking the Gospel to the nations is the whole trajectory of the New Testament and all 22 of the New Testament epistles. Many of the letters of the NT open, "to those that are scattered" (Acts 8:1). When a church has been established for a while, as it had been in Jerusalem and as it is here in English-speaking America, we must be about "the uttermost parts of the earth" still yet to hear.

When we suggest to students that they take 2 years after graduation and serve overseas, we mean that more as a practical suggestion, not a careful exegesis of the doctrine of vocation...

Why not take a couple of years and use your skill overseas? If you are dentist, why not be one in an unreached people group in India... just so you know what is going on in the world... why NOT take your skill to the neediest, most unreached parts of the world?

With 4.7 billion people in the world having virtually no real access to the Gospel, and with 100,000 kids a week dying in those places from preventable, hunger related diseases, and with LESS THAN 10% OF THE CHURCH'S RESOURCES going to that part of the world, wouldn't this be a worthy thing for each student to CONSIDER doing? If God has a clear plan for you otherwise, get on with it. But if not, why not take this once-in-a-lifetime stage in your life where you are an adult but unencumbered with a job, debt, or family obligations and see what God is doing around the world.

Incredible video demonstrating why we want to be so committed to Global Church Planting here...

A Time to Sacrifice

Summit Church and other likeminded pastors,

The below is from one of our church planters, regarding some recent cutbacks at the International Mission Board due to the economic recession. The bottom line is that all of us have less now, so we are able to give less. That said, I do think that the global progress of the Gospel should be the LAST thing to suffer. I think we should consider making radical changes to our lifestyles before we see missionaries have to come home.

The elders at the Summit Church are considering a special offering to help address what our church planter below said. I hope that next week, at the Southern Baptist Convention, there will be a public call to address this:

The 2008 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering goal was $170 million.  As you may already know, the total receipts fell approximately $29 million short of that goal… the single biggest drop from one year to the next in the history of the offering.  When just looking at those numbers it’s pretty overwhelming. However, it all comes into perspective when you realize that entire shortfall could be made up by each SB giving only about $2. That’s giving up one cup of coffee, one hamburger, one Route 44 from Sonic, one tots and cheese… for those of you that know what I’m talking about!  Our missionary-force is having to be reduced by almost 700 personnel.  That is a pretty sobering figure.  

Our denomination was born out of a passion for the nations to hear the Gospel. Sometimes it is a good thing to step back and remember where you came from.  We realize that these are difficult economic times for everyone, and we certainly want to show gratitude and appreciation of the funding we have received.  However, God has not called us (SB’s) out to wait on the sidelines until the economy recovers.   

During the company's meetings last week, we were informed that one of the most disappointing things about this situation is not the amount of LMCO shortfall, but the fact that there has been little, if any, real outrage from SB’s that our ISC program has been suspended.  The ISC program is the program that allows married couples or singles who are outside of their 20's to go overseas for 2 or 3 years.  

If the financial crunch had hit before the team I'm on left, we would have 1 career couple here, and the other 5 adults on the team, including me, would be gone.  When October of next year hits, we will all be gone, and chances are the one remaining career unit here will not be able to stay in our city.  Generally we try not to have anyone alone in a city, and I assume this would be the case with us.  Please pray for them in this time, and please do anything you can to help out during this hard time.

11,626 people groups worldwide

6,510 unreached 

3,431 unengaged unreached

2,650 with no known evangelical witness

345 unengaged unreached in CA

4 out of every 10,000 persons in CA is a follower of Christ

I know this is kind a sobering, but so was the email that said we were going to have to bring missionaries home early.  Thanks SO MUCH for your support, prayer and otherwise.

Profile of an "average" church planter

But first, Carolina's new logo:

That's funny. I don't care who you are. ****Also... you could really help me. I've made it to the second round of the Blog March Madness. I am this year's Davidson, and with your help I could totally be the Cinderella story... yes, this is a shameless plug, entirely self-interested, and a little silly... but still...  Vote here. (Just one click, no forms to fill out)

Guest Blog: Mike McDaniel

A couple of our campus pastors directed me to a great article in the Wall Street Journal that I wanted to share with you. In it Fred Barnes, a political contributor and former White House correspondent, shares the story of how he became involved in a recent church plant. It’s a great example of how your average person (albeit famous in this case) can be a part of planting a church.

We often fall into the mistake of thinking that church planting and missions is just for pastors or the “super-spiritual.” The truth is that it’s for “normal” people, too. In fact, there are many ways that your average person can play a crucial role in planting a church. I work for a church. That places me in a pretty small niche. You have all kinds of skills and talents that I don’t have, and you can use those skills and talents for God’s kingdom in ways that I never could. You have access to people and relationships that I’ll never have access to. And building relationships through which the Gospel can be shared is really the foundation of planting a church.

Here’s the article. If you’re interested in learning more about church planting, I would encourage you to check out our monthly SendRDU Forums.