Kingdom Come!

A new article in Christianity Today’s Leadership Journal says what we know, but now we’ll believe it because it’s been researched!  And we dig research!  And by CT!  (And I suppose it’s about North American Christians…)

Most Christians (60%) worship in congregations of less than 300… and struggle for resources
Faith is relevant, but Church is not…
The local church is no longer considered the only outlet for spiritual growth…
Churches must develop relational and community-oriented outreach…
Lay people have to be better equipped to be God’s ambassadors…
A growing element of the Christian population is disappointed with or frustrated by the local church…

And the 5 groups:

Active Christians 19%
Believe salvation comes through Jesus Christ
Committed churchgoers
Bible readers
Accept leadership positions
Invest in personal faith development through the church
Feel obligated to share faith; 79% do so.

Professing Christians 20%
Believe salvation comes through Jesus Christ
Focus on personal relationship with God and Jesus
Similar beliefs to Active Christians, different actions
Less involved in church, both attending and serving
Less commitment to Bible reading or sharing faith

Liturgical Christians 16%
Predominantly Catholic and Lutheran
Regular churchgoers
High level of spiritual activity, mostly expressed by serving in church and/or community
Recognize authority of the church

Private Christians 24%
Largest and youngest segment
Believe in God and doing good things
Own a Bible, but don’t read it
Spiritual interest, but not within church context
Only about a third attend church at all
Almost none are church leaders

Cultural Christians 21%
Little outward religious behavior or attitudes
God aware, but little personal involvement with God
Do not view Jesus as essential to salvation
Affirm many ways to God
Favor universality theology 

Time to “move back into the neighborhood,” become real ambassadors for Jesus and identify with people… their pain, their hopes, their dreams!  Of course this is time intensive and requires us to actually get to know people…

And of course, many folks who read this article/survey will just get mad, talk about how we in America are going to hell in a handbasket, and long for the ‘good ole days’ when we were the majority culture and we didn’t have to take this ‘back-sliding’ seriously!  We didn’t have to think about being missionaries or being missional.  We could just relax…  Oh, for the ‘good ole days!’

Well, Zach leaves today.  Back to his busy life in the resturant business and the revitalization of downtown Valdosta, Georgia.

We’ve had a great visit!  We didn’t even leav the house yesterday except for a neighborhood walk as a family: Phyllis, Zach, Bailey (the wonder dog, who had also come for a visit!) and me.  We sat on the back porch and chatted and read and enjoyed the cool weather.  Wonderful!

Then we watched God Grew Tired of Us a great movie about the Lost Boys of Sudan.  It’s a sad, funny cross-cultural flick.  Since Zach grew up in Kenya (12-18) we watched with mixed feelings.

My friend Mike Straylow called me on Monday and we had a long chat about the word “metanoia,” the Greek word most often translated ”repentence.”  We talked a long time about what it meant in the context of the NT when Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” (MAR 1:15) In the conversation, Mike said something very profound…  “It’s like Jesus said to us, ’swim,’ and we keep telling people, ‘don’t drown.’”  Such a fundamental difference and amazing way we twist the Good News of Jesus!

I began this post over the Atlantic Ocean in the back of a Delta 747.  It was not full so – praise the Lord! – I was in a row all by myself and able to stretch out a little.  Big man, little seats: always a problem.  I’m just returning from a week in Hamminkeln, Germany at the Globe Europe Training Center .

I left the Center for the airport in Dusseldorf about 6:30 AM local time.  (That’s about 12:30 midnight in Atlanta .)   It was chilly and foggy, like it gets in a German autumn. The amazing thing is that I should be home by about 6 PM the same day.  The same day!  That’s one of the amazing things about the 21^st Century: You can begin in one continent and end up in another!  The same day!

Rapid travel makes the world small and the Gospel is big!

At the Globe Europe Center, in an almost 24/7 environment, I taught about the phenomena of 21^st Century Missions and Developing a Harvest Mentality.  As a guy from South Georgia - USA, I was with a group of missionary candidates from Belgium, Germany, America, Bulgaria and Holland .  They will soon be working (some of them already are) in China, India, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Nicaragua, Romania and Peru . I taught in English and it was simultaneously translated into German and the minority who could not understand English, listened through wireless headphones. 

Technology makes the world small and the Gospel is big!

While I was in Germany, I was in communication with Phyllis back in Valdosta by both email and telephone.  On Tuesday morning, I had a doctor’s appointment in Wesel, Germany for an echo-cardiogram.  It’s a non-invasive test to determine the strength of my heart.  I’d not had one since last year in Cyprus , when I got such a bad report about my heart.  Because it cost about 10% of what it would cost in America , I’d gotten the folks at Globe Europe to schedule an appointment to have it done there.  When I got a good report (and it was: 65% function as opposed to 34% last year!  Praise the Lord!), I called Phyllis and woke her up to tell her the news!  Woke her up!  And groggily, she rejoiced with me over a cell phone. 

Instant communication makes the world small and the Gospel is big!

I’m finishing this letter in Lillian, Alabama about fifteen minutes over Perdido Bay from the Globe International office.  We rent a small house here that basically is our “mission home,” our ministry home.  And it’s beginning to feel like autumn here too.  But not so much as Germany .  And the haze of jet-lag and reflection has me up early.  As is my habit, I make coffee and go out on the porch over-looking the woods in the back of our house to sit and rock and meditate.  Up on the roll-up shade, is a small brown sparrow roosting and asleep.  So rather than sit and contemplate with my coffee before the sun rises, I come back inside.  I don’t want to disturb the sleeping sparrow.  My Heavenly Father’s eye is on this sparrow.  This little nameless bird is important to my Heavenly Father.  And so am I.  And so are you.  And so are the wonderful people in Germany who dream of impacting Nations.  And so are those myriad peoples and Nations who wait for the Good News of Jesus Christ to impact their lives and change their world. 

His eye is on the sparrow and that’s what makes the Gospel big!