September 2019
SEPTEMBER'S QUICK LINKS
New "bits from bob...." Articles
Video Index
YouTube: Mission Report
In Case You Missed These -- New in July and August
WBS Student in Malawi Wants to Share Gospel with Others!
Examining Your Mission Paradigm
Gathering vs. Going: Rethinking What It Means to Be Church
Refining Our Philosophy of Missions
July 2019 Mission Report [Vol. 14, No. 3]
September 2019 Mission Report [Vol. 14, No. 4]
Upcoming Mission and Ministry Schedule
September 26-30: Colombia mission trip, evangelism, team-building workshop, Friends' Day, city-wide Confraternidad (Bogotá)
October 10-12: Global Mission Conference speaker, Austin, Texas
October 26-27: Seminar, Teach/Preach, Installation of Elders/Deacons, Arrington iglesia de Cristo, Nashville, TN
November 10: Mission Report, teach/preach, Northside church of Christ, Mena, AR
I hope that you can attend an event when I am in your area (and perhaps we can share a cup of coffee together). Contact me for specific details or to schedule an event. I am currently scheduling 2020 and 2021 (although with a more limited travel schedule).
RETHINKING CHURCH -- GATHERING OR GOING?
Rob Campbell caught my attention with his article entitled, "Scatter." Time to rethink and re-envision God's plan for blessing his creation. Considering God's desire to bless, God is in essence says, "Take my blessings and propagate them everywhere." God sent them Adam and Eve from Eden to scatter his blessings into the world. God sendt Noah and his family into a fresh renewed world to scatter God's blessings. When people chose to gather rather than scatter (at the Tower of Babel), God again scattered the human race. God next promised his blessings to the entire world through Abraham. Israel was to take God's glory and blessings to the nations.
Can we learn from history? God sends his people into his world to share his re-creation blessing. God's people turn from God's plan and focus on their own desires. The people God has chosen to spread his blessings to the world have chosen gathering rather than going. In the New Testament, God wants his people to go forth to share his blessings everywhere. "Go and make disciples of all nations…." (Matt. 28:19-20). Jesus sent forth his followers into the world to propagate God's blessings!
Leonard Sweet wrote, "The church is trying to get out of what God is trying to get into -- the world. We have churches full of people who love Jesus, but who don't love what Jesus loves." The church is focused on gathering while Jesus' final instructions are focused on going. The church talks about loving one another and struggles to love the world that Jesus loved; the church has largely failed to share God's blessing in Christ. The church defines itself and determines who is faithful based on gathering rather than going. Where is the church that keeps track of going - the number of spiritual conversations during a week, the number of evangelistic Bible studies set up or taught, the number of unbelievers contacted or invited? Where is the church that is measuring going as much as gathering?
The church has not been called to gather but to go. The church is a gathering from which God's people go forth into the world with renewed hope and power. The power than energizes "gospel going" is God himself; we go forth as those upon whom his Spirit rests - the people of God, to share God's salvation blessing into all the world.
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The essay above is an abridged version of the article. The original article is available at: Rethinking Church -- Gathering or Going?
