Category Archives: Church Mission

Church Reproof: We must reach the city

Posted by Matthew on July 5, 2008 None comments |

We must reach the city.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Matthew 22:39

But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

Jeremiah 29:7

There have always been cities—big, condensed, pliable containers of culture, neighbors, power, faith, and war. They harbor, they send out, they fortify, they spread out, they rise up, and they fall. They splurge, they protect, they seek, they isolate, and they multiply. Cities are the people. And the people are the cities. E Pluribus Unum as the American coin says, or “From many, one”. Cities are the indelible examples of how people unite, or don’t unite, and what happens in the course thereafter.

Cities have been around since the beginning. The ruins of many of the old cities of the past remain to remind the future inhabitants that a city once existed here. They remind them that a force of many minds pooled together once drastically altered life and land long before they were even born. They were our fathers and mothers, and we came from them. We identify with them as people: we have culture because they had culture; we have customs because they had customs; we have intelligence because they had it first; and sadly, we have war because they had war. We are not separate from them nor are we different from them, but we were brought forth by them—we are of them. Sons of Man. Daughters of Man. In reality, there is no “tabula rasa”.

In this vast “tree of life”, as it were, no one could measure its sheer size having grown from its roots of but one single family over the course of thousands of years. Yet it is relatively young. From the time of Noah there have only passed around 57 full 70-year generations (Since 3-4 generations can be ‘overlapping’ at the same time, there have probably been at least a couple hundred generations total). It is spectacular to realize the exponential growth from a couple parents to almost 7 billion children today in so few generations.

When the numbers grow the cities grow, and when the cities grow they become powerful. In the story of the Tower of Babel we find an example of the capability of not only those people at that time, but of any people anywhere united in mass numbers together to do something ‘great’ for themselves. Cities today are nothing new, and the ambition to grow and be great, powerful, and wealthy, is nothing new either.

In the wisdom of the Proverbs we are given some guidelines for the differences between a blessed city and a cursed city. They are lessons to teach us not only how physical cities can benefit, but also how we, as citizens of the set-apart “City on a Hill”, the Heavenly City of Jerusalem (Hebrew 12:22), can be blessed. Conversely, it shows us how we can end up as ‘ancient ruins’. But it all depends on that ‘blessing’ upon which the truth of Proverbs 11:11 hinges. Therefore we pray for and seek the welfare of the city.

By the blessing of the upright a city is exalted, but by the mouth of the wicked it is overthrown. Proverbs 11:11

From out of the city the dying groan, and the soul of the wounded cries for help… Job 24:12

‘A wise man scales the city of the mighty and brings down the stronghold in which they trust. Proverbs 21:22

We need to be in the cities. More importantly, we need to be wise in the cities. In our age, money has become the church’s evangelistic tool of choice. However, it has proved very little. Too much money has been thrown scandalously into hasty and foolish ideas that have not been wrought in prayer or in waiting upon the Lord. The response to such church-foolery is city mockery. The kind of witness that Jesus had on a city was starkly different—he would simply love his neighbor, and find suddenly that “the whole city was gathered together at the door.” (Mark 1:29-34)

What is the ultimate evangelistic tool? Here’s what the LORD says:

When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.

You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another. You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.

You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning. You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.

You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the blood of your neighbor: I am the Lord.

You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. (Leviticus 19:9-18)

We are not to be partial to the poor, nor defer to the great. Instead God wants his people to be wise and to minister in love to those who fit the description of “neighbor”. There is nothing very flashy or glamorous about this kind of witness, but it does show forth the great “I Am”.

Taking the City

Posted by Matthew on August 14, 2007 None comments |

By the blessing of the upright a city is exalted, but by the mouth of the wicked it is overthrown.
Proverbs 11:11

When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices, and when the wicked perish there are shouts of gladness. Proverbs 11: 10

There have always been cities. Big, condensed, pliable containers of culture, pride, wealth, faith, and war.
They harbor, send, fortify, spread out, rise up, and fall. They splurge, protect, seek, isolate, and multiply. Cities are the people. And the people are the cities.
E Pluribus Unum as the American coin says, or “From many, one”. Cities are the indelible examples of how people unite, or don’t unite, and what happens thereafter.

They have been around since the beginning: http://www.shunya.net/Pictures/Highlights/LostCities.htm
The remnants of many of the carcasses of old cities of the past remain to speak to and remind the future inhabitants that a city once existed here. That a force of many minds pooled together once drastically altered life and land long before they were even born. They were our fathers and mothers, and we came from them. We identify with them as people: we have culture because they had culture; we have customs because they had customs; we have intelligence and wisdom because they had it first; and sadly, we have war because they had war. We are not separate from them nor are we different from them, but we were brought forth by them—we are of them. Sons of Man. Daughters of Man.

In this vast “tree of life”, as it were, no one could measure it’s sheer overall size having grown from its roots of but one single family over the course of thousands of years. Yet it is relatively young: from the time of Noah there have only passed around 57 full 70-year generations. (Since 3-4 generations can be ‘overlapping’ at the same time, there have probably been at least a couple hundred generations total.) It is spectacular to realize the exponential growth from a couple parents to almost 7 billion children today in so few generations.
When the numbers grow, the cities grow, and they become powerful. The Tower of Babel story of our ancient fathers and mothers was an example of the capability of not only those people at that time, but of any people anywhere united in mass numbers together to do something ‘great’ for themselves.

Cities today are nothing new, and the ambition to grow, be great, powerful, and wealthy, is nothing new either.

In the wisdom of the Proverbs we are given some guidelines for the differences between a blessed city and a cursed city. They are lessons to teach us not only how physical cities can benefit, but also how we, as citizens of the set-apart “City on a Hill”, the Heavenly City of Jerusalem, can be blessed. Conversely, it shows us how we can end up as ‘ancient ruins’. But it all depends on that ‘blessing’ upon which Proverbs 11:11 hinges. Therefore we pray for and seek the welfare of the city.

From out of the city the dying groan, and the soul of the wounded cries for help;
Job 24:12

A wise man scales the city of the mighty and brings down the stronghold in which they trust.
Proverbs 21:22

Comfort with the Comfort – 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Posted by Matthew on July 14, 2007 None comments |

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

It is definitely a comfortable world we live in here in the west. Yet we also experience affliction daily. There is death and bereavement, crime and victimization, despair and destruction right outside our own front door. Nonetheless we are afforded a great deal more comfort than the rest of the world in the midst of our afflictions.

Afflictions in themselves are nothing compared to what is to come. Just listen to what Paul said:

For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison… 2 Corinthians 4:17

Some go through harder afflictions than others. For them they have much more to rejoice and be thankful about than others through the redemption of Christ.

One of the major hand-slappings to the Christian church is that because of all our comfort, we have become complacent, stagnant, dead. Amen. But what do you do? Become a hermit? Intentionally subject yourself to suffering? Asceticism? Nay. If we in the West have anything to be ashamed about, it is not our comfort. It is rather our deadness of not spreading that comfort to others.
We are to be vessels, instruments of God, channeling his mercy to those who could really use the comfort. As a corporate American body we ought to be putting all this mercy and comfort to WORK. But instead we sit on it, and become no better than the man who went and hid his talents in the ground. (Matthew 25:24-26) Something that angers God!

Let us be thankful, and merciful as we have received mercy and not be dead ends for God’s grace because the Holy Spirit is looking for vessels! It’s no wonder that so many today don’t experience the real Spirit of God–he doesn’t go down dead ends!

Cultural Isolation and the Church – Galatians 3:28

Posted by Matthew on June 3, 2007 None comments |

America was never a cultural ‘melting pot’–that has been established. What is interesting is the the lack of mixing among Christians. It’s actually harder to be a congregation of diverse cultures than it is to be a congregation of just one culture.

It doesn’t mean that the different cultures are unable to get along. But then what does it mean? Is not every Christian’s identity found in one heavenly nation and royal kingdom?

But pick almost any city in America. The Koreans have their own church, the Chinese have their own church, the Africans have their own church, the Russians, the Arabs, the Messianic Jews, and so on. What does it mean? Why are they not all found intermingled?

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28

From this scripture we can get a sense of the unity that not only binds every believer in the body of Christ, but which also supplants our identities and associations. In this sense it might be understood that there should be no problem to have multi-cultural congregations, and indeed there are some in existence. Yet there remains a very definite division in the body of Christ along the lines of cultural heritage. This very well may be due to a lack of conforming to the image of Christ who is all, and in all, and through all. However the scripture also mentions “slave nor free” and “male nor female”, and this clearly shows that there would remain distinctions according to the flesh, but whose identity is still supplanted by the “new creation” (2Cor 5:17). The old has passed and the new has come. Therefore this verse is understood spiritually: we are bound together by a common spiritual identity. The rest of our carnal nature, whether it is a slave or freeman, Russian or American, male or female, is still with us and so still defines us. This is probably stating the obvious.

Nevertheless, it should make sense that the body of Christ should be able to come together cross-culturally just as it comes together cross-sexually, and cross-generationally while maintaining the distinct differences. The distinct differences are also a part of the purposes and glories of God. For just as God in the beginning created us “male and female” (Gen 1:27) for his glory, so he created us American and Asian, Japanese and Arab, and so much more, all for his glory.

Therefore we need to shine these diverse glories in Christ together in the Church, the redeemer of ethnicity and the redeemer of man and woman, but in whom we are spiritually neither male nor female, American nor Asian, slave nor free but equals as brothers and sisters.

The Half Dead Man – Luke 10:30-37

Posted by Matthew on February 12, 2007 None comments |

Street kid passed out from glue intoxication at one our outreaches.

“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.” Luke 10:30-37

When I think of Africa, I think of a neighbor. I think of an opportunity. In the global arena, we have here a neighbor who has fallen half dead and needs help.

The population of the earth continues to increase and such a place as Africa can seem a daunting, if not impossible task to any Christian. How can so many millions of people be helped?

Africa has continually experienced an increase in wars in the last century which could be said to correspond to the increase of nationalism, but also might be due in part, to the fact that poverty has also increased immensely at the same time. Either way its not going to stop. As a result of the wars, millions are displaced and forced into even deeper deprivation and hardship. I remember dedicating much prayer to Africa when I was there a couple years ago, asking God about its current situations. He showed me that the problems would continue to increase, and things will continue to get more and more difficult. When I asked about how we solve the problem, he said to me something along the lines of, “It’s not a problem for you to fix, but for you do endure.” When I think of that statement, I think of Jesus saying, “He who endures to the end…” If we are so bent on the outcome and end to our means of helping, we are missing the point of the parable of the Good Samaritan. That Samaritan gave of his own goods and lavished help on the half-dead man lying in the road, he then let him at the inn and went on his way. His concern was with his help and not a particular outcome. I believe we must not relent in showing mercy until the day of salvation regardless of how bad things become because the teaching of the parable is about how our hearts should be, rather than problems in the world and how to solve them.

Today, politicians rub their heads over the epidemics, the genocidal fighting, the tribalism, and ever increasing poverty. There is a saying in the geo-political arena that Africa is like a hole in which you can throw money and it disappears. The international banks and funds have poured vast amounts of money into Africa’s economy in the form of loans, effectively binding Africa under their control. The money, unfortunately dissipates rapidly out of dishonest political leader’s pockets, and Africa remains….worse than it was before. But it’s not about blame, or pointing fingers.

A man lies half-dead in the road.
In Jesus’ parable 2 out of 3 people walked by the half dead man. The majority, it seems, just don’t care. Yet, inspite of the odds of getting help being against the half dead man, there was one who had mercy to give. 1 out of 3 people might be a bad statistic, but to the half dead man, he didn’t care. All it took was one.

Our neighbor, Africa, surely longs for help. The opportunity exists for the mercy of God. The Good Samaritan lavished the half dead man with expensive oils and wine, his own transportation, a whole day’s wages, and even promised to take care of future costs. Talk about mercy, eh? No probing questions, deals, fidgeting, or strings attached. Just 100% pure mercy. Compassionate mercy. The Samaritan didn’t think twice about whether there might be other neighbors who might also need help.
In light of the help that has been afforded Africa, I have heard many speak of the ‘helping’ as being something that could be, in many cases, unwise. It is thought that they will come to rely and expect more help. Such a thought, to me, serves to show the extent of our mercy compared to that of the Good Samaritan.
The international banks and financial institutions have poured vast amounts of money into Africa, and it can be said that this has caused far more problems than it has solved. I do not know the numbers, but I’m sure the no-strings-attached, Samaritan-quality money given by Christians is far overshadowed by the amount of money poured in by international institutions, and probably secular NGO’s as well. When there are strings attached, giving is no longer the Samaritan kind of compassionate mercy. Thats what Africa needs. And God has ordained Africa as an opportunity for the rest of us to show it. That is a test for us, and I would submit to all that the last thing we as Christians should think about is whether we should be careful with not helping them too much. If you were in their shoes…

The troubles of Africa are huge, but it is not for us to try to put an end to the problems. It is for us to show mercy. How can it be anything other than opportunity for the rest of the Christian world that lavishes itself in ‘oils’, ‘wine’, pimp rides, and salaries? I thank God for the work that does exist in these war-torn, famine-laden, poverty-stricken countries. For those souls that are being taken care of, they don’t care about the majority of people who are passing them by everyday.
I think it would be a good question to ask ourselves corporately, and individually, “Am I going and doing likewise?” (Luke 10:37)

Indeed it’s hard to really understand the need until you have seen it. Typically, the non-profit movements and organizations aimed at helping Africa have found their beginnings when different individuals visited the countries and experienced the trauma first hand. Most of what the average Joe and Jane know about the dire situations in Africa come from the media. But, alas, this a pitiable source of informations. But then how can we, as neighbors of Africa, be exposed to the reality of a real half dead man lying in the road? Well, thank God for websites, missions, and blogs. Many missions organizations provide good publications addressing such needs. Of course few people read them. I remember seeing such magazines sitting in the foyer of my old church collecting dust from Sunday to Sunday. I think exposure exists, but many have become desensitized or indifferent to it. It just becomes a magazine with pictures. And after all, all they seem to ask for is money anyway. Somehow we need to be awakened to the reality. The magazines and various organizations are doing a great and honorable effort, but often even that takes a back seat to just the basic operating costs. Very little gets done. Perhaps a coalition is in order. There may be power in a single group putting forth an effort to to show mercy to some, but its when people combine their efforts that the power becomes strong. It will take a body of Christ, I believe, to meet the challenge of the half dead man lying in the road that God has put before us.

“Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” Matthew 25:40

Biblical Perspective on Missions II

Posted by Matthew on November 19, 2006 None comments |

Continuing in the study of missions….

“For his invisible attributes…have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” Romans 1:20

“Yet he did not leave himself without a witness, for he did good…” Acts 14:17

“And he made from one man every nation(ethnos) of man to live on the face of the earth…that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is not far from each one of us.” Acts 17:26-27

“When you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, declares the Lord…” Jeremiah 29:13

From these verses we get a sense that the spread of the saving grace of Christ goes beyond the means of what man does or better, how man is used. No man has any excuse.
“Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God and there is no other.” Isaiah 45:22

The Hope has always been there for the taking. That Hope manifested in the person of Jesus who paid the price for all who have hoped, currently hope, and will hope in God. He is the consummation of this hope. And the only one. For one unique example one can see how for many years Christ has called Muslims to himself directly without the presence of Christians.

But this inevitably raises the question, “If a Christian does not have to be present for a man to be saved, why then bother going to the unreached?” In a statement preached by Paris Reidhead, when he served in Sudan as a missionary and yet felt as if the work was failing and complained to God, he said he had heard a rebuke from the Lord: “I did not send you there for them, I sent you there for ME!” We must always remember that God is the end of all things and all good. The gospel is not about man, but about God. We live to magnify Him in ourselves, and serving men is one of the prime, (if not the prime) means by which we do this, for the entire Law is summed up in “Love your neighbor.” This is the tip of the iceberg for this subject however, and there is a deep amount of knowledge to be found if you search this out and meditate on it.