JDGreear.com

The Great Commission and What I 'Expect' out of Ministry

It's Friday the 13th. I'm spending the day at the beach with my smokin' hot wife.

Here's something pretty astounding I read from William Carey's Enquiry. Wow, this is convicting for me. What do I "expect" out of ministry?

“A Christian minister is a person who is “not his own” (1Cor. 6:19); he is the servant of God, and therefore ought to be wholly devoted to him. By entering on that sacred office he solemnly undertakes to be always engaged as much as possible in the Lord’s work, and not to choose his own pleasure or employment, or pursue the ministry as something that is to subserve his own ends or interest, or as a kind of sideline. He engages to go where God pleases, and to do or endure what he sees fit to command or call him to in the exercise of his function. He virtually bids farewell to friends, pleasures, and comforts, and stands in readiness to endure the greatest sufferings in the work of the Lord, his Master. It is inconsistent for ministers to please themselves with thoughts of numerous congregations, cordial friends, a civilized country, legal protection, affluence, splendour, or even an income that is sufficient. The slights and hatred of men, and even pretended friends, gloomy prisons, and tortures, the society of barbarians of uncouth speech, miserable accommodations in wretched wildernesses, hunger and thirst, nakedness, weariness, and diligence, hard work, and but little worldly encouragement, should rather be the objects of their expectation…. I question whether all are justified in staying here, while so many are perishing without means of grace in other lands…. On the contrary the commission is a sufficient call to them to venture all, and, like the primitive Christians, go everywhere preaching the gospel.”

Reversing the Guidelines of the IMB?

I have chosen to place my name as one of the original signatories of a letter calling on the International Mission Board to reverse its "new policies." The letter, and the issues surrounding it, you can read here. The statements on this website reflect sufficiently my own reasons for supporting such a call.

To note, I have received some question because my name appeared on the original signatory list, then disappeared, and is now back on... the story is this: One of the authors, Allan Blume, had shared with me the intent of the letter in a face-to-face conversation and I had expressed my full agreement with it. He told me he would send me a copy of the letter for me to review and did so but somehow I didn't get it. He took my silence as my consent. When the website went live yesterday, however, I had not seen the letter so I asked Allen to pull my name until I had a chance to review the letter myself. Allen graciously agreed and I took last night to look through it. This morning I re-added my name.

Our church has chosen to work with the IMB in helping us to plant churches overseas. They are a wonderfully effective organization, and we are grateful for the expertise they bring to our efforts. They do a great job strategizing, training, leading, supporting and caring for our teams overseas. They make us MUCH more effective in obeying our call to plant churches among the nations.

I do not object to the IMB trustees doing their job of determining what "kinds" of missionaries best represent churches like ours. It seems to me, however, that they have elevated some issues of personal preference to matters of primary importance. I hope they will listen to the voice of those of us who say that their new policies are not at all reflective of our wishes.

I have many strong, personal opinions on matters of great importance to me that I choose not to make "defining issues" that determine whom I will support and work with in missional endeavors. These include many secondary doctrines, political opinions, and favorite college basketball teams. The Baptist Faith and Message, 2000 is a document sufficiently clear, in my opinion, to establish the parameters of the kinds of missionaries we want to support. I love the BFM2K because it is sufficiently specific to ensure general agreement on the main things and vague enough to allow for difference in style and opinion on more secondary matters.

If the IMB trustees believe that these two issues (only baptisms in churches that hold a certain stance on selected doctrinal issues are valid and the use of a private prayer language) are of primary importance, I would encourage them to bring them to the floor of the Convention to have them officially added to the BFM2K. Let's let the churches decide which issues are of primary and which are of secondary importance.

We recently had one of our staff pastors who was going to serve in our Central Asian church plant who was told he could not go with the IMB because he had been baptized in a Pentecostal church whose position on eternal security could not be verified. Being a very humble guy, he graciously submitted to be rebaptized, but I just felt kind of silly about the whole thing. It didn't seem to have the same glorious feel of the famed Grebel/Blaurock mutual re-baptism of 1525. (There's a throwback for you Baptist history nerds).

I realize that it is difficult to establish what are "primary" matters in Christianity and which are "secondary." I do not envy the position of the Trustees on this, and pray that God will give them wisdom in the days to come.

I am also grateful for how the Convention we work with is set up, in that all of our agencies are accountable to the churches and not visa versa. In many denominations, what the hierarchical leaders say goes, as they are in authority over the churches. The SBC is organized on the principle of local church autonomy, meaning we recognize no authority over a local church except for Jesus Himself, and that all of our missional agencies utlimately answer to the church congregations they serve.

But there are lost people in America...

I had a fantastic night last night with our high school students as we commissioned a ton of them to go out this summer on short term trips. They are going literally all over the world--including NYC, the Pacific Rim, and some here to RDU.

The summer is a time where we send out a huge number of trips--made up mostly of "normal" church members who are using some of their vacation time to proclaim and demonstrate the Gospel. Most are going to places in the world which we have adopted to plant churches.

From time to time I hear people say, "Why would you send people all over the world? Aren't there 'lost' and 'needy' people here at home?" I've even been accused of arrogance in attempting to 'help' other places in the world when our own "backyard" has so many needs. I've heard some pastors say that doing stuff overseas is a way to coverup what we're 'not' doing at home.

I can understand, in part, some of these objections. We are VERY committed to blessing our city first with the Gospel and its benefits. However, we believe that, from the beginning, each church is to be involved not only with its local area, but with the world. It is what Jesus told His disciples in Acts 1:8--start in their hometown of Jerusalem, but go on to the ends of the earth. As Acts demonstrates for us, these places were not to be 'subsequent' assignments--they were not to wait till Jerusalem was won entirely, but to, from the beginning, go to the nations of the earth.

I was reading recently in William Carey's (first "modern" missionary and father of the evangelical mission movement) famous Enquiry and noted how that objection was raised to him back in in the late 1700's when he left England to go to India.

He said, "That there are thousands in our own land as far from God as possible, I readily grant, and that this ought to excite us tenfold in our work among them... is a certain fact; but that it ought to supercede all attempts to spread the Gospel in foreign parts is (a non-sequitir). Our own countrymen have the means of grace, and may attend on the word preached if they choose to. They have the means of knowing the truth, and faithful ministers are placed in almost every part of the land, whose spheres of action might be extended if their own congregations were more zealous in the cause. But with the foreign nations the case is wholly different, who have no Bible, no written language (which many of them have not), no ministers... many have not good civil governments (which allow them freedom to hear.)... Pity then, humanity, and much more Christianity, call loudly for every possible exertion to introduce the Gospel amongst them."

We believe each New Testament Christian will have, as a part of his DNA, ministry to the nations. While he labors in the field God has given him (perhaps a local one), he will be involved in some way with the nations. Each of our Summit Life Groups is encouraged to have a missionary from our church that they adopt and support and pray for and that they plan to go and see on a short term trip. We encourage each member, immediately when they join, to get their passport, so that they are ready to go.

As I once heard Tony Campolo say, "Here we are needed. Over there we are irreplacable."

A Christian without a view of the world and God's glory going to the nations is not a New Testament disciple. As my friend Ed Stetzer says, "God is a sending God, and those who see Him live as those who are sent."

William Carey's 11 Resolutions

(I hope you are having a fantastic Memorial Day. I hope that you will stop and take a minute to thank God for the soldiers who are laying their lives on the line in the service of the safety our country. I hope you'll pray not only for their safety, but that God will give our commanders the wisdom and conscience to wage only just wars and to do so from a heart in tune with love and justice. Also pray that God will bring many of our military people to Jesus.)

I found this recently in an excellent little biography I am reading, Faithful Witness (a biography of William Carey, the first "modern" Protestant missionary--18th century, to India) by Timothy George. These are the 11 resolutions that Carey's "missional community" in India made:

1. To set an infinite value on men's souls
2. To acquaint ourselves with the snares which hold the minds of the people
3. To abstain from whatever deepens India's prejudice against the Gospel
4. To watch for every chance of doing the people good
5. To preach "Christ crucified" as the grand means of conversion
6. To esteem and treat Indians always as our equals
7. To guard and build up "the hosts that they may be gathered"
8. To cultivate their spiritual gifts, ever pressing upon them from their missionary obligation, since Indians only can win India for Christ
9. To labor unceasingly in biblical translation
10. To be instant in the nurture of personal religion
11. To give ourselves without reserve to the Cause, "not counting even the clothes we wear our own"

Our Christmas Gift...

Each year around Christmas we challenge every person that calls the Summit Church home to consider how they should sacrifice to see the Gospel advance around the world. Our Christmas Missions Offering allows us to come together as followers of Christ and collectively give back a portion of what God has so generously lavished upon us. At the time of year where our culture overflows with materialism this is our chance to remind ourselves of the gift that Christ has given to us.

This year our goal is $200,000. You have already given over $130,000! We are so close to reaching our goal, but we still need your help. Please consider what you can do to help us reach our goal. Our goal this year is broken into three levels. Level #1 - the first $120,000 goes to supporting international church planting. Level #2 - $160,000 allows us to give $40,000 to build our 3rd home with Habitat for Humanity of Durham. Level #3 - $200,000 allows us to accomplish the first 2 levels plus support 4 new church planters in North America.

This is your chance to be a part of our Christmas gift from the Summit to the world! Please consider how you can be a part. You can give during the worship services until the end of 2007 or you can give online.

This is a note from one of our international church planters that we just received this morning:

"Dear family and friends,

Very warm (yes we mean that quite literally, y’all!) wishes to all of you for a very wonderful Christmas as you celebrate the greatest gift ever given to each of us.

We hope that you will forgive our having to send an “e-card” again this year. Even though we are on opposite ends of the world now, we wanted to personally say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you!

This also seems like a good time to thank YOU for the precious gifts of love, encouragement and support shown to us as we have continued this new life overseas. Thank you. We couldn’t have done this without you. We thank God for the privilege of living in this place, for His purpose, at this time.

As we near the end of the year and the celebration of the birth of our Savior, please also remember that it takes a lot to make this and all the work around the world happen. For those of you who contribute to the Christmas Missions Offering, that time is here. Remember that none of us in this work asks for or has to raise individual support. It is through Christmas Missions Offerings that our efforts are financed. Please ask for guidance as you decide how you will respond to the Christmas Missions Offering this year.

May God richly bless you and your families as you follow Him wherever He leads you."

John Patton and Annoying Friends

Here's a great little bit from the biography of John Patton, the missionary brought the New Hebrides islands to Christ. He recounts the opposition he went through when God called him to go:

“I was besieged with the strongest opposition on all sides.  One of my professors of divinity told me that I was leaving certainty for uncertainty.  I was leaving work in which God had made me greatly useful for work which I might fail to be useful and only throw my life away for the cannibals.  Amongst many who sought to deter me was one dear old Christian gentleman whose crowning argument always was, ‘The cannibals!  You will be eaten by cannibals!’”

I replied, “Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms. I confess to you that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by cannibals or by worms.  And in the great day, my resurrection body will arise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer.”

“Indeed the opposition was so strong from nearly all, and many of them warm Christian friends, that I was sorely tempted to question whether I was carrying out the divine will or only some headstrong wish of my own.  This caused me much anxiety and drove me close to God in prayer. But, again, every doubt would vanish when I clearly saw that all at home had free access to the Bible and the means of grace with gospel light shining all around them while the poor heathen were perishing without even the chance of knowing all God’s love and mercy to me.”

As a parent, I know that one of the hardest things you may ever have to watch is your son or daughter getting on a plane to go live overseas in a place you think is dangerous. But remember that a much greater Father watched His own Son come to earth to die. Because of that, we can be saved! Don't deprive some other people group of the chance to know the Jesus that gave His life for you.

Believing God, Staying in America, and Jim Elliot

What a great Sunday! So many of you who boldly stood up asking God to display Himself in some miraculous way through you... I know we will be hearing many of your stories in weeks to come.

I was also moved at how so many of you have responded to believe God's promise that He WILL make His name famous among the nations. As I mentioned on Sunday, our job as intercessors is not to go and "pray" on behalf of somebody else, as if God needed us to fill His ears with news about others He doesn't know. Our role is to go and BELIEVE on behalf of someone else. Intercessory believing connects someone in need to Jesus' overflowing compassion.

In the past year over 1000 of you have gone out from this trip on some type of short term trip to believe God's promise on behalf of someone else. At least 24 Summit members have left our fellowship to serve in one of our church plants overseas, and 20 more actively preparing to go in the next year. Praise God.

But once again I remind you that taking the Gospel to the "nations" is not a "call" that only a few of us receive. It is a COMMAND to ALL of us. We can't say that certain parts of the Bible don't apply to us. We can't dodge Jesus' directs commands by coming up with some manmade doctrine of "calling": i.e. "I'm not called to obey Matthew 28:19 or Acts 1:8." Our roles in living out that command may be different, but ALL of us have to be obedient to the command: giving, praying, and going. So why not make plans to go on one of our short term trips next year? If your Summit Life group has not adopted an overseas church planter, do it immediately! Email Brad O'Brien and he'll make it happen!

I know some might be tempted to say, "Oh, but there's so much NEED in America, how can we focus so much on what's going on overseas?" I understand. We don't do work overseas to the exclusion of work in RDU. But we do believe that the light that shines the farthest will also shine the brightest at home. I have seen in the last 5 years that the more somebody lifts their eyes to the worldwide spread of the Gospel, the more active they become here.

I'll leave you with the words of two great missionaries... Jim Elliot and C.T. Studd:

Jim Elliot, who in his 20's was martyred by the Auca Indians he was trying to reach in Equador, said in his journals (Shadow of the Almighty): "Consider the call from the Throne above, Go ye, and from round about, Come over and help us, and even the call from the damned souls below, 'Send Lazarus to my brothers, that they come not to this place'. Impelled, then, by these voices, I dare not stay home while [the Quichia Indians] perish. So what if the well-fed church in the homeland needs stirring? They have the Scriptures, Moses, and the Prophets, and a whole lot more. Their condemnation is written on their bankbooks and in the dust on their Bible covers. American believers have sold their lives to the service of money."

And C.T. Studd, who at 50 answered God's call to go to Africa... He had no money and his doctor and church committee told him not to go... Studd responded, “Gentlemen, God has called me to go and I will go.  I will blaze the trail. though my grave may only become a stepping stone that other younger men may follow.”

So enough of the excuses! Let's get on with it! What part are YOU playing?

Why Muslims Follow Jesus

Here's a great and very intriguing article on why Muslims choose to follow Jesus. I'm a big fan of the author. Based on a survey of 750 Muslims from over 50 countries, his conclusions resonate perfectly with my own experience. In S.E. Asia it is said that the primary 3 reasons Muslims come to Christ is that they a) see the love in the Christian community; b) read the Bible; or c) experience a supernatural dream or vision of some type.

What I thought was of particular interest in this article was:

• How Muslims consistently describe the dreams and visions they have. There is an eerie commonality in the dreams they experience. At least 3 different Muslims in my life have reported a supernatural dream to me, 2 of which converted to Christ and 1 didn't. And I got the Tennessee chill bumps when Woodberry described the Muslim who saw thousands of his own people worshipping Jesus in the streets.
• How many Muslims say that what stood out to them when they read the Bible is how loving and accessible God is. In their words, the Qu'ran emphasizes the threat of God's punishment, the Bible God's everlasting love. Woodberry says "In the Qur'an, although God loves those who love him, his love is conditional. He does not love those who reject faith (3:31-32). There is nothing in the Qur'an like, "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 4:10), or, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8).
  
• How many Muslims pointed to the assurance of salvation that Jesus offered as being attractive to them. Woodberry says, "One Indonesian woman spoke of her fear, based on a tradition attributed to Muhammad, that the bridge over hell to paradise is as thin as a hair."
• That Christianity, contrary to popular folk lore, is growing faster than Islam is in the world, and it is mainly through conversion.
• The disasters in Asia, Muslim-on-Muslim conflict and the imposition of Shariah law have produced an unprecedent openness to the Gospel among Muslims in the last 30 years. MORE MUSLIMS HAVE BECOME CHRISTIANS IN THE LAST 30 YEARS THAN IN ALL THE YEARS FROM MUHAMMAD UNTIL NOW COMBINED. Praise God!

At any rate, for those of you with Muslim friends or thinking about going overseas to live among Muslims, it's a great read. And, on the eve of our Global Vision Conference, it's good stuff to pump us up!

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...) :