Being Led Into Missional Living.

How can I live the life that I have been called to live?      How can I live like a missionary?

Simple Evangelism in the Church

Found at the Gospel Coalition

Guest Blogger: Jason Helopoulos

Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). Loving one another in the body of Christ has many benefits. Two that regularly come to mind are the glory it gives to God and the way it affects the church. However, one of the primary benefits of loving one another is what it declares before a watching world. One of our most potent instruments we have for effective evangelism is Christians loving each other well.  I am “living” proof.

As a freshman college student and self-declared atheist, I attended a campus Christian fellowship to fulfill a promise to a Christian friend. I only had the intention to go once. It was merely duty and upholding my word, nothing more. I went begrudgingly, but I went. My life was never the same.

I walked into a room full of Christians and was struck by what I observed. Here was a diverse group. They were from every walk of life. I remember scanning the room and labeling people in my mind, “There is a jock, over there is a geek, and walking in the door is a boy scout.” But what struck me was that they were together. They weren’t just together in the same room, they were together in every sense of the word. They were actually talking with each other and genuinely seemed happy to be together. There didn’t seem to be division. Even in my atheist mind, I knew what I was seeing: they loved one another.

I had no categories for this, so I kept returning to find out why they had love like this for one another. Over the course of a few months I found the answer, or more accurately stated, the answer found me.

One of the best evangelism programs you can start at your church is to pursue loving one another well. At some point they will have to hear the gospel proclaimed from your lips or the pulpit, but that “strange love” will set the table before them. People will know that you are His disciples, because it is a shocking love. It has a gravitational attraction, because it is a love that is foreign to this world. A love that the inquirer, if seeking an answer, will find comes from heaven.

The Desire Of The Nations Missions Conference

DESIRE of the NATIONS

Missions Conference

Hamilton High School Auditorium

January 31 6:00 – 9 pm

and

February 1  9 am- 8 pm

Featured Speaker: Don Richardson

FRIDAY NIGHT SCHEDULE

6:00

Introduction  

               

6:20

Speaker – Dace Clifton FBC Hico

7:15

Stretch/Break – 15

7:30

Speaker – Tony Matta- Heritage Baptist Georgetown

SATURDAY SCHEDULE

9:00 a.m.

Introduction  

Worship  

9:20

Speaker – Andrew Sobities- Calvary Baptist Church Hamilton

10:15

Transition/Break

10:30

Breakout Sessions -  Voice of the Martyrs    Gospel 4 Asia    TOAG       Missions Guy  WMU  Short Term Trips    

11:15

-LUNCH BREAK until 12:45 p.m.

12:45 p.m.

Worship

1:00

Speaker – Perry Garrett- Grace Bible Church Gatesville

1:55

Transition/Break

2:10

Breakout Sessions - Voice of the Martyrs    Gospel 4 Asia    TOAG    HumanTrafficking   S. F. Mission Trip   Short Term Trips  WMU   Gideons 

2:50

Transition/Break

3:05

Worship  

3:20

Speaker – Craig Scoville- Cottonwood Baptist Dublin

4:15

Transition/Break

4:25

Breakout Sessions  -  Voice of the Martyrs    Gospel 4 Asia    TOAG    HumanTrafficking   Cal Farley   Short Term Trips    Gideons

5:10

-DINNER BREAK UNTIL 6:30

6:30

Worship

6:55

Speaker – Dr. Don Richardson

7:40

Q/A Session

Is Your Church Missions-Minded?

The following excerpt is from Ken Sorrell's article found at SBCImpact 

"Early 19th century missionary Henry Martyn stated, “The spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions. The nearer we get to Christ, the more missionary we become.” A missions mind-set can easily be described as another expression of obedience flowing out of an intimate relationship with our Lord. Both individual believers and churches that desire to have the mind of Christ will also have a heart for the nations.

A missions-minded church is a church whose ultimate joy is found in God and Him alone. Out of the overflow of their love for Him a vision for mankind comes into view. (Luke 10:27)*

A missions-minded church is a church whose heartbeat is missions, whose thinking is missions, and whose doing is missions. From the Genesis to Revelation, the message is clear; salvation for all the nations of the earth. (Psalm 67)

A missions-minded church is a church where missions is so intertwined into all aspects of church life that church members assume that involvement in missions is normative for Christians. From their home and around the world, we are to be witnesses. Acts 1:8

A missions-minded church never goes somewhere else to do missions, but wherever they go they are on mission. Matthew 28:19

A missions-minded church is a church whose use resources reveal their true heart’s passion for missions. It has often been stated, “follow the money”. In a missions-minded church, “follow the heart and you will also find the money”. Matthew 6:21

A missions-minded church is a sender of missionaries to the nations. Acts 13:1-3

Without question there is a need for a greater number of missions-minded churches if we are to change the face of eternity by impacting lost lives around the world. But rather than a moniker to display, may we in humble recognition acknowledge that it is His mission and His mandate. Our privilege and joy to join with Him."

*I felt the need to add this one.

Blessing Missionaries

JUSTIN TAYLOR|4:19 PM CT

15 Ways to Bless Your Missionaries This Christmas without Paying Postage

Here are 15 post-office-free ideas to get you started, most of which you could do right now from your desk, written by an anonymous 30-year-old missionary:

1. Pray specific Scripture for them and their ministry, and then email it to them.
2. Call or email their parents—Christmas might be just as lonely for the ones at home as the ones away.
3. Purchase credits on Skype so they can stay in touch with family and friends.
4. Donate frequent flier miles to them.
5. Ask them if you can host an evening of prayer of them and the local people who work with them.
6. Purchase an iTunes gift card for them. You can send these through email or if you buy a physical card simply email them the code on the back.
7. Commit to pray for them on a specific day of the week for a year.
8. Write a song or poem or story for them. Email them the text and a recording of you reading or singing it.
9. Get friends and family together to create a holiday video greeting for them on YouTube or Vimeo. Include lots of people you know they miss. (If people are working in sensitive locations you may want to make this a “private video.”)
10. Make a year-end gift through their missions board or agency.
11. Paypal—the fastest and easiest way to send money.
12. Call their local florist (not everyone is in the jungle these days) and have flowers delivered, or their local Pizza Hut and have pizza delivered—with corn and shrimp as toppings!
13. Send them a gift card for a Bible Study platform like OliveTree or Logos.
14. Donate to a charity that means a lot to them.
15. Make a monthly commitment to support them financially.

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Don Richardson - Never the Same

Never the Same (Trailer)

Don Richardson will be the main speaker at the upcoming Desire of the Nations Missions Conference. In case you are not familiar with Don Richardson, he is the author of the book Peace Child, Eternity in Their Hearts and several others.

The conference will be held on January 31st and February 1st, 2014 at the Hamilton High School Auditorium. 

If you have questions please contact Michael J. Lee at holidayatthesea@yahoo.com or by phone 254-386-6504.

“I will shake all nations, and the Desire of all nations shall come" Haggai 2:7

Written by  - Dr. Ray Pritchard, president of Keep Believing Ministries 

“I will shake all nations, and the Desire of all nations shall come" (Haggai 2:7).

This fascinating verse apparently has a double meaning. It applies first to the rebuilding of the temple by Zerubbabel. In that sense God promises that the wealth of the nations will flow into the temple in Jerusalem. The rest of the verse promises that God will fill the rebuilt temple with his glory. 

Christians have traditionally seen in this verse a foreshadowing of the coming of Christ because Jesus in John 2:20-21 referred to his body as “this temple,” meaning that in his life, death and resurrection, he would fulfill what the temple pictured through its design, its priesthood, its furniture, and its sacrifices. Jesus is the ultimate “Desire of All Nations” and the radiance of God’s glory. What the temple pictured, Christ fulfilled.

But that’s not all. 

When the writer of Hebrews contemplated the coming end of the age, he quoted Haggai 2:6 and applied it to the coming of Christ:

At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain (Hebrews 12:26-27).

That’s what God is doing in our day. He’s shaking the nations–literally!–so that the world will be ready for the coming of Christ. As Christ’s first advent happened “when the time had fully come” (Galatians 4:4), even so his return to the earth will occur when God has prepared everything just as he promised. 

Jesus is the only one who can fulfill the deepest desires of the human heart. As Pascal said, there is a God-shaped vacuum inside every person. If we do not fill the vacuum with God, we are bound to fill it with the the spiritual junk food of this world, but in that case we will never be satisfied. 

The people of the world desire Christ even though they do not know it for he alone can meet their deepest needs. One of the verses of Charles Wesley’s Hark! the Herald Angels Sing contains a verse that mentions this name of Christ (and several others as well). Though rarely sung, it contains deep biblical truth:

Come, desire of nations, come,
Fix in us thy humble home;
Rise, the woman’s conquering seed,
Bruise in us the serpent’s head. 

Adam’s likeness now efface,
Stamp thy image in its place.
Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in thy love.

The nations will never live in peace until they know Jesus. Can we be at peace while they live without him?

Lord Jesus, while we wait for your return, help us to make you known in every nation. Amen.

You can reach the author at ray@keepbelieving.com. Click here to sign up for the free weekly email sermon.

Is Your Church A Messy Church Or Pretending Church?

Someone asked me how things were going recently. It’s not really a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ (‘good’ or ‘bad’) question. Life in our congregation is messy. People have a wide variety of problems and many of those problems are out on the table. Are things going well when one of your members has been hauled out of a pub in drunken state? When people admit problems in their marriage? When several people are struggling with depression? And I could go on. Actually I think the answer can be ‘Yes, things are going well’. A key verse for me in recent years has been the first beautitude which I paraphrase as: ‘Blessed are the broken people for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’ To working with broken people is to be where God’s blessing is found. I do not rejoice in people’s problems, but I do rejoice that I am working among... Continue reading.

Missionaries to the United States

What about missions over here... in the United States? What does it look like?

Are we doing this to our own people here in the states?

When Pastors and Churches Reject Mission

A man leaves a small village and started his journey to Quito, Ecuador.  He has to walk for 8 hours, catch a small plane for a two-hour flight, and then get on a bus for 10 hours.  He arrives at the big city and begins searching for someone to take up the work he’s been doing with a couple of Shuar Indian Tribes in the Jungle.  His name is José and he has high hopes that he will find someone with a heart for mission, someone with who’s willing to “go the extra mile” to bring the good news, and someone who can continue the work of making disciples.  He spends a few days in Quito visiting various churches and speaking with many Pastors, but finds no one who is even disposed to entertain the idea.
José leaves the big city of Quito having been rejected by every church and every pastor.  They send him to “The Camp.”  The Camp is the area where we work.  The camp is very rural, peppered with poverty, and often inconvenient for daily living... continue

The Mission-Minded Pastor

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The Missions-Minded Pastor

A Missionary’s Ideal Home Church / Supporting Church Pastor

Clearly one of the greatest blessings a missionary can have in his life and work is a spiritually strong home church/sending church, along with a network of strong supporting churches.  The strength or weakness of each local church’s missionary program, its missionary support, and its missionary outreach will depend, more than any other one element, on the mission-mindedness of its pastor.  In a church with a larger pastoral staff, the weight of this may fall on the shoulders of the “missions pastor.”  This pastor should possess the character traits or habits that follow.

Personal Godliness and an “Un-worldliness”The pastor must love God supremely and desire to see God use his consecrated life in a maximum way for the Lord’s glory.  The “un-worldliness” here is not to say that he is unwise as to the world’s needs, as we will examine a bit later, but is rather an un-worldliness as discussed in 1 John 2:15-17.  The pastor’s passion for godliness and personal holiness will be the prerequisite to any other quality listed.  The Holy Spirit will neither fill nor use a dirty vessel!  This, along with the next trait, will most ensure the blessing of God on the pastor’s ministry and the church’s impact—both locally and worldwide.

Strong and Faithful Preacher of the WordThis pastor will teach the whole counsel of the Word without apology—challenging the people to take consistent spiritual steps.  The congregation will come to expect change in their hearts and lives each time the Word is preached and any time they are exposed to it—having been taught to do so by the pastor’s content and personal example!  His faithful preaching will result in growth, both numeric (though this is not the best measure), and in depth and maturity.  A church that is not growing at home will be crippled in its efforts to support missions and missionaries.  The pastor will regularly preach on the great missionary texts (e.g. Isaiah 54:1-3; Acts 8:26-39; Acts 10; Acts 13; Acts 16:6-15; Acts 17; and many, many others), challenging the church to even greater missionary involvement.

A Missions Heart and a Missions HeadThis is developed in the pastor’s life through extensive study motivated by a keen and genuine interest.  Not only does he regularly read missionary biographies, but he will increasingly develop an understanding of geographic regions and countries of greatest fertility or need, along with their related challenges—for example, the 10/40 window.  He should probably be the first one to memorize what countries and missionaries are represented by the missionary flags hanging in the auditorium.  He will do all he can to keep the needs of the missionary WORLD before himself, and in front of the congregation, including the regular reading and posting of missionary letters, phone calls to fields as part of services (Skype very useful here), reading missionary agency publications, and consistent efforts to get the missionaries visiting the church into the members’ homes.  This “missionary awareness” can be significantly nurtured by regular trips to visit missionaries on their fields to encourage them and participate in their work.

Fosters the development of Homegrown MissionariesA missions-minded pastor will develop a mindset of mentoring and discipleship— aimed at the consistent ministry involvement and spiritual growth of serving families.  He will consistently ask God to give the church the privilege of reproducing what is happening on the home front elsewhere!  As God answers this prayer and church objective, the pastor will actively steer prepared believers toward consideration of cross-cultural ministry.  The local church’s leadership will then make recommendations to mission agencies of couples and singles “fit” for missionary service, as has been demonstrated in their hearts and home, and manifested in their faithful and fruitful service in that local church!  Yes, this is clearly not the norm, but this is the way it should happen!  Some churches seem to “produce” missionaries more than most.  Why?  More than any other reason, this is because of the pastor’s heart and determination to do so!  Investment returns!

Leads the Church to be Reproductive Locally
It will not be enough for the missions-minded pastor for the church to simply support missionaries, but she must be reproducing herself at home as well.  The particle of addition “both” in Acts 1:8 means that emphasis must be on each of the geographic areas simultaneously – “Jerusalem . . . and Judea . . . and Samaria . . . and the uttermost part of the earth.”  The pastor understands that more churches being planted in the homeland (as Dr. David Cummins noted—a “re-seeding” of America) will result in a stronger and broader base of financial support of foreign ministries while reaching the lost in the United States.  This pastor will not be threatened by the joyof sending a nucleus of believers and even some of the leadership into a neighboring area to start a “daughter work,” when the personnel allows for such and the need demands it.

Provides for the Missionary’s AccountabilityHow desperately this is needed in a day of too many shattered lives in the ministry.  The ideal missions-minded pastor should maintain regular personal communication with the church’s missionaries, both on the field and during furloughs.  This does not need to be extensive, but it should be consistent and must be genuinely caring.  The “track record” for this is extremely poor.  Further, he should regularly check (directly and/or through the missionary agency) to ensure that the missionary is actively evangelizing and seeing folks saved (without an undue emphasis on numbers), that he has an organized plan (that is being faithfully executed) for discipleship, and that he has a program (either solo or with another missionary or agency) for the formal theological training of national pastor(s)—in short, that the missionary is involved in the planting of New Testament local churches.  The pastor will further maintain accountability with the missionary regarding the missionary’s personal life and spiritual growth, while possibly inviting the missionary to serve the pastor’s accountability need as well.

Continues to Pastor-Shepherd the Missionary FamilyThe pastor’s ministries of teaching, discipleship and encouragement should continue in the missionary family’s life.  He determines to know them by name (including the children J), love them personally, pray for them specifically in an informed manner, and shepherd their lives, seeing this ministry to be no less critical because of mere geographics.

The Church’s Role—Develop a Heart for Missions Based on Personal Knowledge

• Sign up for prayer letters/email updates/prayer cards, etc.
• Pray for missionaries regularly as a part of family devotions.
• Have missionaries in your home whenever possible.
• Talk about missions and missionaries with your kids!
• Read missionary biographies as a family.
• Foster strong relationships between your kids and the MKs.
• Consider a trip as a family to a mission field to learn and serve!
• Serve as a family, while asking God to use you in greater ways, including the possibility of actually becoming missionaries!!

This article written by Steve Anderson, Baptist World Mission field administrator.

How to Help Your Pastor in Missions

• Provide him with prayer resources.
• Pray for him regularly.
• Send him to the mission field.
• Arrange for missionaries to visit him.
• Pay his way to a conference or class such as ACMC, Urbana, Perspectives
• Enlist the pastor’s participation in the missions conference and committee.
• Provide helpful missions reading material such as:
     - clipped articles and illustrations
     - Eternity in Their Hearts   - Key to the Missionary Problem
     - Get Your Church Involved in Missions
     - Let the Nations Be Glad
• Handle the details of missions.
• Make sure your pastor is the "good guy."
• Be willing to suggest and implement your good ideas.
• Work with the pastor and board to define missions.
• Suggest new options for increasing missions giving.
• Encourage him to talk with other missions-minded pastors.
• Support and affirm his ideas for missions.

Tips...

• Don’t become a pest to be avoided.
• Demonstrate genuine interest and involvement in other church ministries.
• Be patient and go slowly.
• Don’t criticize.
• Seek and receive permission and endorsement of all missions activities.
• Ask the pastor to personally promote missions publicly.
• Do everything for missions in a quality manner.
• Don’t lose heart and try to work around the pastor.
• Affirm everything the pastor does for missions.

Source: "Equipping Your Pastor for Missions Leadership," an ACMC workshop by Woody Phillips

It’s more important to get on your pastor’s team than to get him on your team