Archive - February, 2008

A Tragic Fact and A Workable Solution

February 28, 2008 in Missions with 0 Comments

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I thought I’d take a little break from the “Traits” series to share some of this article I found by Steve Shadrach of the USCWM.  He quotes Ralph Winter saying,

“Here is a tragic fact: Only about one out of a hundred ‘missionary decisions’ results in actual career mission service. Why? Mainly because parents, friends, even pastors rarely encourage anyone to follow through on that kind of a decision. But what if that number could double to two out of a hundred? The effect would be explosive!” then goes on to say,

Each year, no less than 200,000 sincere, dedicated people contact one of the hundreds of excellent mission agencies in this country asking for information about possible service with that ministry. But the heartbreaking news is that less than 1,000 of those will ever make it to the field. Why? There is no one to nurture and guide and equip them to complete the process. In other words, the workers are plentiful, but the mobilizers are few!

*Read the Rest of This Eye Opening Article Here.

May God raise up more mobilizers and encouragers in our generation with the resources to put more motivated laborers into the harvest!

Here are a few other quotes that come to mind when I think of this issue:

*The mark of a great church is not its seating capacity but it’s sending capacity. ” Mark Stachura

*With a grate many of us, it’s not a missionary call we are looking for, but a shove.” Robert Speer

What about you?  Do you have a vision to go or send? If your vision is to go, what practical steps have you taken to make the dream a reality?  If you in a position to mobilize and send, what challenges have you faced in getting those called to their place in the world? 

Missionary Traits: Ability to Get Along Well With Others

February 27, 2008 in Missions with 3 Comments

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Missionaries can be some of the strongest personalities out there.  It’s the nature of their calling.  They may be a little strong willed, intense, and opinionated.  But these are the very things that helped them overcome many obstacles and get to the place where they are now.  Thankfully, these traits can be balanced out God’s grace and some good relational skills.

A good friend of mine frequently says, “Life is relationships, the rest is details.”  And also, “Relationships are the only thing we can take to Heaven with us.”  So, If those statements are both true, we can ALL stand to learn how to better get along with people!  For the missionary, good relational skills are must for effective and long lasting work.

Here are a few things that have helped me:

1.  Be willing to hear other people’s opinions and understand them even if you don’t agree. 

2.  Consider others better than yourself and honor them when you have opportunity.

3.  Be an active listener and don’t interrupt people while they are speaking.

4.  When working in a team, avoid either extreme of being “needy” and “needing no one.”

5.  Don’t get so easily offended and hold grudges.  Forgive and release quickly.

I have in no way “arrived” on these things, but they are some of the things that I’m working on in my own life. 

Whether you are a missionary or not, what are some thing that you have learned that have helped you grow in your ability to get along better with people? 

Have you ever met someone whose personality just grinded against yours?  Were you able to eventually learn to get along with them?  How did you do it?

February 22, 2008 in Uncategorized with 1 Comment

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Click to Enlarge.  This is a great picture taken during the night of the recent lunar eclipse.  It was taken here in uptown Charlotte, NC with the top of the Bank of America building showing.  Pretty cool.    

Missionary Traits: Zeal For The Gospel

February 22, 2008 in Missions with 1 Comment

Many people say that faith is something that is deeply personal.  I would agree to a point, but if your faith is real, you will want to share it.  One person said rightly, “Most people don’t share their faith because they don’t have a faith worth sharing.” Notice I said “share” not “shove.”

To me, sharing the ”Good News“ is a normal part of conversation because everyone talks about what interests them or whats important to them.  Some people love sports and if you are in a conversation with them, they will eventually swing it to sports.  Some people love music, so they are always talking about it.  Some people love shopping and fashion.  Some love their pets.  You see what I’m saying? 

People naturally talk about the things they love or the things that are important to them.  You don’t have to coerce them, you don’t have to bribe them; their excitement spills over into life.  Are we excited about God and the freedom he bring us through Jesus Christ?  If so, it will flow from us to everyone around us.

That being said, there is a zeal for sharing the Gospel that enters the heart of one called to be a missionary that goes beyond this.  They have been set apart for this purpose.   This zeal is available to everyone who desires to serve God willingly, but for the missionary, it is a requirement for carrying out the work of God in the nations. 

You can give away stuff to the poor, build buildings, minister to people’s health needs, etc, but it profits nothing eternally until the Word of God is spoken and people are called to respond.  It would be like fixing someone’s house up when eventually you know it will all be torn down.  We may do the above mentioned things to show God’s love in a “practical way”, but the Word of God will still eventually need to be spoken and responded to before salvation can come. We should do the former and never neglect the latter.

Missionaries are compelled to preach the Gospel.  They know that it’s the power of God to save people.  They are compelled because they have been convinced.  The reason that many are not compelled is because they are not yet been fully convinced.  They are what some have called “practical atheists”.   

Missionaries aren’t the only ones called to carry a zeal to share the Gospel, but they remind us that our faith is called to advance, even to the “uttermost places of the Earth.” 

With thousands of unreached peoples totalling billions of people on the face of the Earth, that apostolic zeal is needed more now than ever.

Do you feel like your faith is worth sharing?  Do you think the Gospel is the hope of the world?  If someone had a problem they were facing, would you find yourself going to God’s Word first or to some other solution? I would love to hear your thoughts…

Missionary Traits: Perserverance

February 20, 2008 in Missions with 0 Comments

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Once you are at your place of service, there will most likely be a million and one reasons to give up.  Getting anything done is going to take more time, energy, and effort; especially when you’re in a country that isn’t time sensitive like the West.  The people may not be a nice and as appreciative as you though they would be.  Spiritual forces are not happy to see you smiling face, and the list goes on and on.

Perserverance comes when you are willing to be uncomfortable and even to suffer in order to see something through.  It comes when you have been tested by time and circumstance and have kept moving toward your goals.   You may have thought about giving up a million times, but you didn’t give in.  If you fall, you get back up and keep moving forward.

As humans, we will all get tired and weak at some point if whatever we are doing is taxing us.   So, how do we keep pressing forward and perservering?  I will mention just a couple of things that I think are important.

1.  Waiting on the Lord-When we look to God as the source of our strength, we will have the supernatural ability to perservere.  We will “run and not grow weary”, we will “walk and not faint” (see here).  We also need to take time to rest and enjoy some down time every once in awhile.  (here)

2.  Expectation of Eventual Victory/Reward-The Scriptures tells us to not grow weary in well doing (see here and here).  The temptation is always there to get tired to doing the right thing over and over again, but we have the promise that, eventually, we will reap if we don’t give up.  What will we reap?  The rewards of our labor.

We must remain diligent in whatever we are called to do, but we must also remember that missionary life is a marathon and not a sprint.  We are called to overcome until the very end.  We should not sacrifice everything for short term gain only to give out before we make it all the way through. 

We need the encouragement, prayer, and practical support of other people who believe in us, realistic and country specific time lines for accomplishing our goals, faith that God will cause us to overcome and reap a harvest, and every once in awhile, a spur in our back side when we are tempted to lie down and quit.

Have you ever been tempted to quit something?  How did you hang on and see it through?  What have you found that has kept you going?

Missionary Traits: Adaptability

February 18, 2008 in Missions with 2 Comments

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Missionaries must be adaptable.  They must be able to adapt to a multitude of things such as new cultures, customs, paces of life, harsh weather conditions, strange foods, and difficult languages; just to name a few.  All of these things are put right on top of the normal every day pressures that come with raising a family and ministering.

If a missionary doesn’t learn very quickly to adapt, they will most probably be miserable or ineffective.  Every little inconvenience will seem like “suffering for the Gospel.”  If a pity party ensues, it will most probably lead to an early departure from the country.

Speaking on the need for adaptability, Thomas Hale puts it plainly, “The field doesn’t adapt to you; you adapt to the field.”  This reality may be hard for us as Americans who are used to being able to being able to easily get in and out of situations we find uncomfortable.  The little comforts we run to when we feel stressed and irritated may not be readily available to us.  It’s during these moments we most need the internal fortitude to “adapt and overcome.“ 

One of the assistants of our local church tells me that she loves working with me because I am flexible.  The “missions guy” should be known as the most flexible, the most adaptable!  He should have a “no problem” attitudethat trusts in the sovereignty of God over his life’s circumstances. 

Now, I know that I will be stretched much further in another culture.  This is when the real test will begin….starting with the language! In what ways have you learned to adapt to hard or uncomfortable circumstances?

Missionary Traits: Insight

February 14, 2008 in Missions with 0 Comments

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In Missions work, there are “good things” and there are “God things.”  Since good is the enemy of best, and there are many good things that a cross cultural worker can be involved in, every missionary needs insight. 

Insight is the ability to look into; to penetrate beyond the veneer, to see what is going on at the heart of something.  If we don’t take care of the root of of an issue, we won’t affect the fruit.  Missionaries must go for the root.

So, what is it that the missionary is having to “look into”?  I think first and foremost, it has to be “What is God’s plan and heart for this area and these people?  What is God wanting to do in this place?  What is hindering that plan?  What can help it? What’s my part?”

The Apostle Paul prayed that people would be given the “spirit of wisdom and revelation”…that the eyes of their understanding would be enlightened.  In essence, he was praying for them to have spiritual insight. (Eph 1:16-18)  The “Sons of Issachar“ in the Bible are a good example of insight because they “had understanding of the times…and what knew Israel must do.”  They had insight and knew what needed to be done.

Once we know what needs to be done, we must go to work in accomplishing it.  We must resist the disease of “analysis paralysis.”

This can be an issue for me.  I tend to overthink things, but I find that when I finally make a decision, I can stick with it.  When I speak about something, my personality is such that I want to be accurate.  But there comes a time when accuracy is not enough.  We are called to act.  How about you?  How has insight played a part in your life?

Traits of A Missionary

February 13, 2008 in Missions with 3 Comments

What does it take to be a cross cultural ambassador of Jesus Christ (ie, a missionary)?  Are there some common traits that a person must have who is compelled to cross land and sea for the sake of the Gospel?  Over the next few posts, I will expand on a few that Thomas Hale has mentioned in his book “On Being A Missionary.”  I will relate how God has been working in me in each of these areas throughout my preparation.

Here are the top 9 in no specific order:

1.  Insight

2.  Adaptability

3.  Perserverance

4.  Zeal for Sharing the Gospel

5.  Ability to Get Along With Others

6.  Emotional Stability

7.  Humility

8.  Spiritual Maturity

9.  A Spirit Filled Life

10. A Sense of Humor (my addition)

Is there any other trait that you feel might be important?  Which one stands out the most to you?  Why?

Turning 32

February 10, 2008 in Commentary with 5 Comments

Tomorrow I will be 32 years old.  As I was thinking about this today I remembered the fact that Jesus was 32 when he was right in the middle of his earthly ministry.  He started at age 30 and finished at age 33.  Three short years that changed the world we live in. 

I don’t know why, but I have this picture in my mind of Jesus being older than me when he walked the Earth.  Maybe it’s because I still see myself younger than I really am.  But Jesus was a thirty something man when we read of his ministry in the Gospels. 

This reality challenged me today.   It’s helping me evaluate my own life and where I am right now.  Am I growing more in the fruit of the Spirit than ever before?   To be sure, my life has changed dramatically since I first surrendered it to God.  But I have to be honest, sometimes I don’t feel that I’m anywhere close to where I need to be.  I am thankful for where I’ve come from, but I know I still have a long way to go.

When I look at the “fruit” or the production of my life, I want to see more evidence and quality in regards to  the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control that is spoken of in Ephesians 5:22-23.

I think this is a common thought for people who really know the character of Jesus.  The Apostle Paul, even as he grew in his ministry still though of himself as the “chief of sinners.”  Did this mean that he went out and deliberately lived a lifestyle of sin and rebellion against God?  No indeed not.  It means that as he grew closer to the Lord, he saw who he really was without him. 

Did this reality cause him to despair?  Nope.  He was always pressing on and reaching forward.  Read this.   

So, this is my hope and scripture for year number 32.  I hope for many “fruit-filled” years ahead.

If you are “wiser” in years than me, what was life like for you when you were my age?  What life lessons or wisdom do you have to offer?  If you are not yet past 32, where do you hope to be when you hit my age?

On A Mission?

February 3, 2008 in Missions with 2 Comments

Just started working on furthering my education recently through a great correspondence degree program at Global University.  Cool name for a college, huh?  While studying for one of my classes, I came across a great quote about “mission” that I wanted to share with you.

“What does it mean to be sent on a mission?  The word mission refers to someone being sent somewhere with a task to do.

How often have we seen a diplomat sent on a special mission to try to help two warring factions reach a peace settlement!  The Church has been given a similar assignment to a world at war with God.  It is called the Great Commission.  Just as an ambassador is expected to give the message authorized by his government, we must proclaim God’s message: “Be reconciled to God” (2 Cor 5:20). 

We are authorized to offer terms for peace (repentance, faith, and obedience to God) and to point to the path of rehabilitation: “The Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost” (Luke 19:10). 

Every believer is commissioned by the Lord to do his part in this task.”

WHERE we do it is up to Him.