discovering missions - Southern Nazarene University

More documents

Recommendations

Info

$Balloon animals -- instructions from Pioneer National Latex (sold$

245187 Disc Missions ins 9/6/07 1:04 PM Page 202 202 Future Church Hungry for the Gospel China is hungry for the gospel. We discovered that immediately upon our arrival in Beijing. On Easter Sunday morning we told our guide, “We must go to church. It’s Easter Sunday. We are Christians, and we must go to church.” However, we had a difficult time finding a church. The taxi driver in that atheistic country was not really familiar with taking people to church services. But finally, going down an alley and through a gate in a thick wall, we arrived at a church. And what a church it was! It was standing room only with over 2,000 people crowded into that building for an Easter Sunday morning service. With people standing in the back, in the vestibule, and everywhere else imaginable, we sang a joyous song about the Resurrection. The atmosphere was electrifying. Then, in that Communist land where they had just enacted a law threatening immediate imprisonment for Christian witnessing, a soloist sang about Christian hope in this life. We felt bathed in the glory of God from that great group of Chinese believers who had been turned “from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God” (Acts 26:18). Fifty people were baptized that Easter morning. While all this was going on, our guide became hungrier and hungrier for the Good News. She began to ask me questions, and before the day was over, she prayed to receive Jesus Christ as her Savior. We had a week of Bible studies with her before we left. Because of the new law, I was not allowed to officially witness to her. But we found a way. The next day, we went to the Temple of Heaven (I thought that would be a good place to talk about religion), and we found a secluded place on the grounds where there was a bench. Doris, my wife, was the lookout, and we had our first Bible study. Another day, the three of us rented a paddleboat and went out into the middle of the lake at Beihai Park for prayer and Bible study. After a week, we got on a plane to Russia. We were happy because we were leaving behind a brand-new Christian in China. On the plane, God placed a Chinese gentleman, Professor Wu (not his real name), next to me. We talked about his field of study for a while, and then our discussion turned to spiritual things. He had not realized that God wanted to be our Friend and that we could talk to Him. I sensed a deep spiritual hunger in Professor Wu. After we talked awhile he said, “I would like to pray.” “Would you like to pray right now?” I responded. “Yes!” he said. I then led him in a prayer of repentance and salvation. Right there in midair, over frozen Siberia, the Chinese gentleman gave his life to the Lord and was born again. His burden rolled away! The professor grabbed my hand in gratefulness, squeezed it, and said, “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” He squeezed my hand so hard it seemed ready to break. 24 —Charles Gailey
245187 Disc Missions ins 9/6/07 1:04 PM Page 203 Future Church 203 The stories in the sidebar “Hungry for the Gospel” are typical of the receptivity to the gospel in China (see plate 14.4). While such openness to God has not come without a price, leaders of the church in China know that God is “not wanting anyone to perish” (2 Peter 3:9). Energized by seeing humanity as God sees it, these Chinese believers are determined to do something about the world’s lostness and brokenness. Even though they know it may be dangerous, they are looking to expend themselves to reach others with the gospel. Consider the vision of “Joe,” a young leader of the church in China. Recently, Joe told a Western Christian, “We will evangelize every person in China. Then, we will line up on the western border of China and, in the power of the Holy Spirit, we will march to, through, and beyond Jerusalem planting the Church!” Is it any wonder the church in China is growing so rapidly? Because of the vision and zeal of Christians like Joe, millions in China are finding God. What a great example the Chinese church is for churches everywhere else in the world. Churches elsewhere in the world need to look to the church in China as a model because of how clearly it understands that to be Christian is to be missionary. Mission-Centered Church Like holiness, global mission is birthed in the very nature and character of God himself who both seeks and sends. Since Yahweh is a missionary God, the church that truly submits to His sovereign Lordship must be infused with a passion for global mission. When believers start becoming like Him whose name they profess, they, too, will become senders and seekers. Missionary Doug Perkins summed up the challenge facing the Church: The greatest threat to the Church in the third millennium is not the post-modern age of moral relativism, nor is it a generational problem. It’s not a music problem nor is it a problem of baby boomers and their values. The greatest threat to the Church is that we are not drawing near to Christ and not going out in His name to make a difference in our world. 25 What Perkins said echoed the sentiments of South African Andrew Murray who wrote a hundred years ago in The Key to the Missionary Problem that lack of love for Jesus Christ was why the Church was failing to fulfill the Great Commission. The Church of Jesus Christ must respond to the challenges before it. Missiologists dream about the Church being able to send a team of missionaries to each unreached people group within a decade (see plate 14.5). That is not an impossible dream. The Church could likely do that if three things were to happen: • 100,000 additional missionaries could be mobilized • a great avalanche of prayer could be initiated • current global <strong>missions</strong> giving could be doubled The Church of Jesus Christ is standing on what could be the brink of a
Page 1 and 2:
245187 Disc Missions ins 9/6/07 1:0
Page 3 and 4:
Page 5 and 6:
Page 7 and 8:
Page 9 and 10:
Page 11 and 12:
Page 13 and 14:
Page 15 and 16:
Page 17 and 18:
Page 19 and 20:
Page 21 and 22:
Page 23 and 24:
Page 25 and 26:
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
Page 31 and 32:
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35 and 36:
Page 37 and 38:
Page 39 and 40:
Page 41 and 42:
Page 43 and 44:
Page 45 and 46:
Page 47 and 48:
Page 49 and 50:
Page 51 and 52:
Page 53 and 54:
Page 55 and 56:
Page 57 and 58:
Page 59 and 60:
Page 61 and 62:
Page 63 and 64:
Page 65 and 66:
Page 67 and 68:
Page 69 and 70:
Page 71 and 72:
Page 73 and 74:
Page 75 and 76:
Page 77 and 78:
Page 79 and 80:
Page 81 and 82:
Page 83 and 84:
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
Page 91 and 92:
Page 93 and 94:
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130:
Page 131 and 132:
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135 and 136:
Page 137 and 138:
Page 139 and 140:
Page 141 and 142:
Page 143 and 144:
Page 145 and 146:
Page 147 and 148:
Page 149 and 150:
Page 151 and 152: 245187 Disc Missions ins 9/6/07 1:0
Page 201: 245187 Disc Missions ins 9/6/07 1:0
show all

discovering missions - Southern Nazarene University

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?