A New Church

One of the advantages of reading this blog on a regular basis is that sometimes you can be one of the first to know about new things that are happening in and around the church. This morning I shared with the elders an exciting development that is taking place in Hibbing that I believe the Lord wants us to play a significant role.

Tim Maki, a frequent speaker here and a friend of many, has announced that he is going to step down from his position in the disctrict as Director of Church Planting. That's bad news for the district. Tim has done a great job and we have seen numerous churches started around the state under his leadership. He will be hard to replace, but God has something else in mind for Tim.

Tim is going to be starting a new Alliance Church in Hibbing! Tentatively called North Star Church, the church will be designed to reach the unchurched and will have as part of its foundational vision the starting of other churches around the Iron Range.

I believe that Nashwauk Alliance is called to be a part of this effort. Prayer, finances and people will all be needed to make this new church a reality. We will be having Tim come to share his vision after the first of the year, but you are now "in the know" and can begin laying the foundation in prayer.

You may be asking, "Why a new church?" Here are some facts to consider:

• According to recent studies 85% of the people in St. Louis county are unchurched. (Itasca county is at 80%).
• 40% of the workforce at the mines will be retiring soon. This will bring new families to the area as these businesses seek to replace retiring workers.
• MSI's impact will be felt throughout the western range bringing 2000+ jobs.
• Church planting is one of the most effective ways to do evangelism.

There is plenty of room for another church targeting the unreached!

I don't want to steal any of Tim's thunder, but I am excited about what God is doing and challenge all of us to be in prayer so that the foundation of this new church will be well-laid.

Against All Odds...from Nashwauk, Minnesota

Several years ago I was asked to speak at a small Bible college in southern Minnesota. The professor, a friend of mine, wanted me to talk about being a pastor in a small town. He sent along a list of questions from the class to help in the preparation of my lecture. I used one of the questions to open my talk. The student had asked, "How do you view the potential of your church in a small and perhaps declining community?" I could almost picture the student...a young, upper middle class suburban kid who dreaded the thought of being "banished" to a small town.

I remember saying to the class, "Someone wanted to know how I view the potential of my church. I suppose the person wonders what kind of impact a church could have in a town so small it doesn't have a stoplight. Let me tell you the potential of my church: Every people...every nation. That's the potential of my church. And I mean that. I believe that God has called us to reach the nations. The promise of Acts 1:8 wasn't just for the first century. I believe that it is for today and applies to the church I pastor. Don't tell me there is no potential in a small and perhaps declining community...God has said otherwise."

I really believe that.

In fact, during the missions conference this year God really reaffirmed that truth in my life. I believe that God has called us to reach our friends and family members. But if that's all that happens, I think we will have missed the majority of what God wants to do through us. I long to see a time when our missions conference(s) will feature speakers from our own church each waiting to report what God is doing in the far corners of the world.

I came to realize the potential of our church colors my thinking about church life. The kids that are coming to our programs are potential missionaries. The teachers are learning skills that they could use on the mission field. The Bible studies we attend teach us the the truths we need to apply to be in the middle of God's will...and they are truths that we can pass on to believers. As we struggle to discern creative ways to reach out to the people around us we are doing "missions thinking" that will serve us well in other places. As we stretch our collective faith in our building project, we are exercising "faith muscles" that will be in demand if we are to reach the nations.

Do I know exactly how God wants to do this through us? No. I just know that he wants us to walk closely with him and he will use us. I suspect that the hows and the whens will take care of themselves as we follow him. I do know that the ride he wants to take us on is beyond our imaginations. He wants to reach the world.

Against All Odds...Missions Conference

The missions conference is around the corner. I am always excited about the missions conference because I think that it helps people connect with the purpose of God for their life. Simply put, as Christians we are called to make disciples of all nations. That means that we are called to reach out to others with the love of Christ. Sure, that begins by reaching out to our neighors, but it goes beyond that to reaching out to those who have no opportunity to hear about the love of Christ.

I think that one of the reasons that I think that the missions conference is particularly healthy for us in our little corner of the world is that we don't have a lot of opportunity to rub sholders with people from other cultures. Nashwauk is monocultural to the max! Don't think that's true? I know of one neighborhood in Chicago that covers the same area as Nashwauk where over 50 different languages are spoken at home!

It's good for us to be reminded that there is a whole world out there that needs to hear the gospel message. I'm looking forward to seeing what God is going to do in us over the next few days. It is my prayer that over the coming years we will see people sent out from out little church to the far corners of the world. Wouldn't that be cool?!

I'm wondering how God might be challenging you this conference? Is it to go on a short term trip? To prepare to serve long term somewhere? To dedicate yourself to prayer in a particular area? To give more radically? What is he doing in your life to reach the nations?

Let me know!

A Sobering Read

I receive a magazine called Mission Frontiers. I scan the articles when it arrives, but most of them deal with topics of interest to mission strategists rather than a northwoods pastor. The most recent issue brought something to my attention that broke my heart and became a matter of prayer.

Did you know that there are more slaves in the world today than there were at the height of the North Atlantic slave trade? According to many sources, there are close to 30 million people in slavery today. Some of these slaves are involved in forced prostitution, while others are forced to work for others for little or no pay under the threat of violence if they refuse.

The US State Department's 2005 Trafficking in Persons Report, the slave trade generates almost 10 billion dollars in revenue a year. Cases of forced labor have been documented in over 112 countries...including the United States. In some instances families sell their children into slavery in order to survive. Rich business owners make loans to people in poverty and require them to work to pay off the loan. This doesn't sound bad, until you understand that there is no way to possibly work enough to repay the loan and that there is severe physical punishment for failure to work long or hard enough each day. In other instances a foreign "savior" offers to take charge of a person and provide them with a good job in a different country. The impoverished person then finds herself in a strange land, unable to understand the language or their rights. They are forced to work for nothing and intimidated by threats against themselves or their family members back home if they fail to cooperate.

Certainly the church of Jesus Christ needs to put the issue of slavery on its radar screen. We need to make the issue one of prayer and ask God to raise up a new abolition movement around the world that would put an end to this diabolical practice.

Here are some web sources of information (some of these are faith-based and others are secular):

• The Amazing Change Campaign
• International Justice Mission
• American Anti-Slavery Group

Reynosa - Part 2

I had hoped to spend some time adding another post while in Reynosa, but the days were too full of ministry. We will be sharing some of the highlights of the trip on Sunday...it was an awesome time of learning, growing and sharing the gospel.

Perhaps one scene I will remember forever happened one hot and humid morning. We walked several blocks with a translator and another church member down a dusty road crowded with concrete block homes. We were delivering a bag of food to the friend of a church member. When we arrived, we found a thin and frail woman lying on a bed. I guessed that she was probably about 50 years old. She struggled to sit up as her friend explained that she was suffering from depression.

I asked her to share a little of her story. I was shocked to learn that she was only 24. She said that her husband had left to find work in the United States four years previously and had not returned. She has had no contact at all with him for six months. They had a four year old son who was at the moment attending a VBS being put on by another one of our ministry teams. When I asked her how long they had been married, she said that there had never been a ceremony. I wondered whether her "husband" had even seen the boy. Her heart ached from the abandonment and she worried about how she would raise her son when she had no job.

Her friend from the church explained that she wasn't a Christian, but was a very nominal Catholic (many in Mexico are Catholic in family background, but have no relationship with God or Christ). As we prayed for her, two phrases popped into my mind: "God the Protector" and "God the Provider". I shared these phrases with her and told her that God loved her so much that he had sent people from thousands of miles away to encourage her. We gave her a New Testament and urged her to read it. We explained that the Bible helps us understand who God is so that we can trust him more.

As we walked back to the van, I talked to her friend. I told her that I thought his relationship with her was very important in her eventually giving her life to Christ. The previous Sunday the pastor had shared a plan to use something like "The Daily Bread" in evangelism. The thought was that church members could meet with their friends or neighbors several times a week for a few minutes and share the Scriptures and a short meditation together. I told her friend that I thought that was a perfect idea for this woman. I did not think that she at the point of receiving salvation because she did not know enough about the character of God in order to trust him. The seed that had been planted needed watering. He agreed and left our conversation encouraged to keep ministering to the family.

I'm not sure what the end of the story will be, but I wanted to share it with you to illustrate the power of a short term missions trip. Think about some of the things that were going on:

• We were engaged in a ministry that was new to us. How many have hand delivered food to a needy family they don't know and sat down to pray with them? It is a routine ministry for the church we were partnering with. We learned a lot from the Reynosa Alliance Church.
  
• We were used to point someone to Christ. This woman has some really problems that will only solved through a relationship with Jesus. We were able to point her in the right direction. The fact that God had sent us from so far away was a tangible demonstration of his love for her. The Bible we provided will continue to water the seed that had been planted.
  
• We were used to encourage the local believers. Our ministry to this woman's friend was also important. We were used to spur him on to continue ministering and I think we gave him some ideas about how he could go about doing that.
• We experienced something that caused us to ponder the truths of the gospel. When we are trying to communicate the gospel across a language and cultural barrier we are forced to think more deeply about the gospel message. While I believe I was led by the Holy Spirit to share what I shared that morning, there are some issues that I am still thinking about. For example, I don't know enough about the culture to know how to understand the fact that there had been no marriage ceremony. Certainly adultery is always sinful, but I wondered if there were cultural expectations about what a ceremony consisted of that made it "impossible" for her to be married. Or should I have pressed her about her sin and guilt that demanded both a Savior and repentance on her part? Or what is the best way to point someone to a relationship with Jesus rather than a "religion"? It is good to think about these things. It will help us grow in our understanding of the gospel and help us be better witnesses of the truth.
  

The power of a short term missions trip is incredible. It change both the person who goes as well as those they minister to. I challenge you to pray about going and experiencing this type of radical ministry firsthand.

Reynosa - Part One

We are having a tremendous time here in Reynosa with Harvest Ministries. After a long bus ride and some time to recuperate we had a Youth Service Saturday night with over 300 youth present. I was asked to give a challenge to the youth and was amazed by the response. I called them to commit themselves to the task of "finding a bride for Christ" as a lifetime goal and many made that commitment.

Our days begin with prayer at 5:00 am and then we head off to a variety of ministries. Yesterday we stopped and did street evangelism outside a local hospital. The poor people have no money for food so the Alliance church provides free meals each day. We talked to people through and interpreter, presented the gospel and prayed for their needs. Several prayed to recieve Christ. This morning we went to a youth jail. Our group played the guys in soccer. It was kind of like a Harlem Globetrotters game, the Mexican kids were good. I volunteered to be their goalie...which mostly consisted of standing in the hot sun with nothing to do. Following the game, I was able to tell a story illustrating the gospel and several of the boys appeared to genuinely give their hearts to the Lord.

We will be off doing more ministry in a few minutes, but I wanted to let you know that we feel your prayers here and are being really blessed. Continue to pray for us. Specifically pray for wisdom in conversations and strength in the heat.

I plan to try to update things on here at least once more before we return, and then do a more extensive post after we get back.

Thanks for praying!

Reaching Those Who Don't Know Jesus

If you've been in church the last several weeks, you've heard a lot of talk about the Great Northern FallFest. This weekend event, September 7-9, is designed to help people reach their friends and family members with the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's going to be an event filled with concerts, skateboard demonstrations, the Power Team as well as messages by Steve Wingfield. In addition, courses designed to help believers share their faith are being held in churches around the area with the goal of training 1000 Christians in the principles of evangelism.

Why go to all the effort? In the words of the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:14, "the love of Christ compels us." The reality is that people's eternal destiny lies in the balance. Each person we meet is on the road to one of two places: heaven or hell. And the difference is their response to the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's why 50 churches in the greater Grand Rapids area are cooperating together to do what we can to present the gospel to the people around us. Lost people matter and we are compelled by the love of Christ to reach them. It is important. In fact, it would be easy to argue that reaching others is the only reason we are here rather than in heaven.

At the same time, I want you to think about the fact that 50 churches have banded together to put on this weekend crusade in order to reach the 45,000 people of Itasca county with the gospel. The need is there, but what about the 7,086,000 Kahars in India or the 12,000,000 Hui of China? These millions have no (or almost no) Christians. They have no crusades and no churches to drive past or Christian bookstores to visit. Does not the love of Christ compel us to reach them as well? Don't they have the same right to hear the gospel?

That's why I'm excited that we will be hosting our fall missions conference on the heels of the Great Northern FallFest. We want to band together to plant churches "where the odds are stacked against us." We want to be personally involved with reaching the least reach. Perhaps it will be going ourselves. Maybe it will be supporting someone who is going. Maybe it will be through prayer. However we are called, reaching others with the gospel is something that must be on the top of our list of things to do. It's important. It is the reason we are here.

To remind myself (and hopefully you as well), I have placed a feed from the Joshua Project on my blog which will show the details of a different "least reached" people group every day. Let us learn about these people, pray for these people and commit ourselves to reaching them. After all, the love of Christ compels us.