Adopting an Unreached People Group

As a follow up to yesterday's post I thought I'd include some steps that our church, or any church, can take as they move toward adopting an unreached people group.  This list is taken from the International Mission Board's website - http://www.imb.org/ - and a link to a more extensive PDF version of this list can be found on their site (click here to be taken to the PDF version).

1. Pray for God’s guidance

2. Discover your church’s natural affinity (DNA)

3. Determine the church’s expectations for adoption

4. Work with church leaders and identify a mission “champion”

5. Investigate opportunities

6. When God directs you to a specific unreached people group, pray and celebrate God’s direction.

7. Communicate, follow through and keep your commitments.
 
Please pray with me as we seek to honor our Lord and win the lost.
 
~Ryan

The Brushes of God's Painting

I have begun dreaming, hoping and praying that our church, Grace Baptist, would move to "adopt" an unreached people group (UPG) in the 10/40 Window (Revelation 5:9) - specifically joining our missionary brothers and sisters in the Pacific Rim.  I would love to see us labor and give by God's grace and not give up until we see a reproducing church planted in each UPG.  Although I have some ideas as to how to go about this, I readily admit that I don't have all that many answers.  Sankie and I met with Jim and Chris last week and talked about this vision and we are all praying that it will come to bear fruit.

The glory of God is the supreme value in all the universe (Isaiah 40:12-31) and we have been created for His glory (Isaiah 43:6-7; 1 Corinthians 10:31).  What a joy and privilege we have to join this amazing God as He saves a people "to the praise of His glorious grace" (Ephesians 1:6).  Take a moment to consider this quote from pastor John Piper which he stated in a message entitled "The Unfathomable Riches of Christ, for All Peoples, Above All Powers, Through the Church."

Picture in your mind a great, wise painter, painting on a huge canvas with many brushes, most of them very ordinary and messy. The painter is God, so you can't picture him. He's invisible. But he intends for his painting to be the visible display of his wisdom. He knows people can't see him, but he wants his wisdom to be seen and admired. His canvas is huge. It's the size of the created universe. I know you can't really imagine looking at that canvas because you are in it. But do your best.

And God is painting with thousands and thousands of colors and shades and textures—a picture as big as the universe and as old as creation and as lasting as eternity—a picture we call history, with the central drama being the preparation, salvation, and formation of the church of Jesus Christ. And he is using thousands of different brushes, most of them very ordinary and very small because every minute detail is crucial in this painting, to display the wisdom of the Painter. These brushes are God's missionaries.

I would add that these brushes also include God's faithful children who stand behind those missionaries through their prayers, financial support, and encouragement.  Please pray with me and Sankie as we seek to move, by God's grace, in this direction.

For His fame,

~Ryan

Church Victorious?

What is your church like?  Much of the modern church has been described as being 1,000 miles wide and an inch deep.  But what about you and your church?  This does not necessarily mean that your church has "great doctrine" or that you can quote the Westminster Shorter Catechism.  Rather, are you striving after Christ's Kingdom?  Is your church seeking to accomplish God's calling by relying on God's means in His power?

Take a few moments and consider this quote from Patrick Johnstone.  I think he may be on to something.

“We are being compelled to return to a much more biblical and radical position – that of being a minority in the world but not of it… The church deprived of political power is free from the burden of trying to use human power to dominate and influence the world… Our reference point is not territorial or church growth aggrandizement, but building a kingdom that is not of this world, yet which will fill the earth as a contrasting alternative society. We need to return to the concept of a pilgrim church, the church will be hated, rejected, despised, persecuted, yet be an incisive, decisive, victorious minority which one day soon, will be ready for its heavenly Bridegroom as the perfected Bride.”*

Wow - "hated, rejected, despised, persecuted" - these are difficult terms for us Americans to grapple with.  But again, take a moment to think on this.  Is this not what we see in the New Testament?  Were not the disciples building an "alternative society" that was often quite unpopular.  Maybe we need to spend a bit more time getting ready to meet our Bridegroom rather than building programs, and buildings, and lives that will not last.

When I was a teenager in rebellion my dad wrote something in the front of a Bible that he gave me that has continued to call me forward.  He said that it was written in the front of the chapel where he went to boarding school.  He wrote,

Only one life, twill soon be past;
Only what's done for Christ will last.

There is a lot of truth in that little rhyme.  Oh that our Lord would burn it deeply on my heart and mind.  He is returning.  He will reign supreme.  Don't waste your life on superficial pursuits.  "All nations whom you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord; and shall glorify your name" (Psalm 86:9).

Christian, don't fight it.  God will be glorified.  Joyfully, willingly engage in what really matters and what will last.

With you in the fight,

~Ryan


*Patrick Johnstone, The Church is Bigger than You Think, 263.

Why is God's God-Centeredness Good News?

Many of us have little problem believing that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.  But what about God's chief end?  What is God all about?  What would you say if I said that God's chief end was to glorify God and enjoy himself forever?  Is this true?  Is this good news?  I think it is.

"God's first love is rooted in the value of his holy name, not the value of a sinful people.  And because it is, there is hope for the sinful people - since they are not the ground of their salvation, God's name is."*

Psalm 106:7-8 Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works; they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea.  Yet he saved them for his name's sake, that he might make known his mighty power.


1 John 2:12 I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake.


1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Rejoice and be glad that the foundation of your salvation rests in the name of God and not in yourself.  In Him there is great hope for me and you.

-Ryan


*Taken from The Pleasures of God by John Piper