Turn Outward in our Outreach

My TIE Value: Commit your way to the Lord

     During my years at Talbot School of Theology the ping pong table was a gathering point for competition, study and conversation. Yes, we did parse our Greek declensions to the rhythms of ping pong. Me and a good friend were waiting our turn at the table on this particular day. We were studying as we waited. However, our study of what I am sure was an important aspect of theology came to a halt when the conversation of the players in front of us caught our attention. 

     One student said, “Hey your youth group got a sweet new ride, what did you do with your old van that was always breaking down?” The other student responded, “We gave that old van to a missionary in Mexico. They are thankful for anything that we can’t use anymore. I am so glad we can help the missionaries.”

   Me and my friend turned to each other and quietly said, “Whaaaat?” Then we eavesdropped on the rest of the conversation to hear more about how the youth group could go to skiing, camping, and more fun activities in comfort because of their new ride. I felt embarrassed as I heard this conversation unfold. There seemed to be good intentions shrouded in gross ignorance about the perceived needs of local church ministries and the needs of missions.    Don’t get me wrong. I am sure that all the youth activities extended God’s kingdom through growth in fellowship, deepened conversations, and faith enhancing experiences. I am sure teens came to know Christ through this new van. However, there was an opportunity missed in blessing the Mexican missionary who serves the impoverished in his community with a reliable ride that would also bring people to know God.  What does this “give the leftovers to our missionaries” attitude say about our heart for missions?

               

My TIE Moment:

     Then I had a more concerning thought that has haunted me ever since this experience more than twenty years ago. “At least these guys thought about the needs of this missionary to do something for his ministry.”

     Unfortunately, I have sat in on too many conversations about church budgets that are more focused on their buildings and programs than growing God’s kingdom in places where encouragement from His people are desperately needed. Even worse, I have heard too many conversations about church missions more focused on getting people on to Short Term Missions (STM) than investigating how the church can best help those who are doing the mission on a daily basis. 

How do we change our attitude?

We need to Turn Outward and Do Something

     It all begins which way we face. Like the advice for reaching new heights from my drill sergeant on the tower of faith, “Turn outward” (on Blog #7).  Our perspective changes dramatically when we turn outward. We begin to see our world with a greater vision for God’s mercy on those tramped by their sin. We begin to see the purpose of our church programming is to be equipped for the greater Kingdom of God rather than the kingdom of our church. We begin to see how God has placed us in the perfect position to impact a segment of our world with His glory.

     However, seeing is not enough. We must take action to do something because of God’s love.  The familiar verse John 3:16 will help us to initiate an outward movement in our outreach. “For God so loves the world that He gave His only unique Son…”  God’s heart is a continual outward movement of His love for people. God gave his best in Jesus Christ for the benefit of people to be spared from His judgment because of their sin. We often forget that verses 17-21 is a revelation of God’s urgency in saving people from being condemned because of their evil deeds. Verses 20-21 also shows the disposition of people who live in darkness will hate God’s light. Therefore, there needs to be a turning and movement towards God’s light.  The outward focus of our church’s purpose, budgets, programs, and missions is essential in order to align our eyes and action with God’s revelation found in John 3:16-21.

We need to Question our Motivations for Ministry through the Light of God’s Truth

Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.  - John 3:20-21 (NIV)

     We need to be serious about “whoever lives by the truth comes into the light…” in the first part of John 3:21 when we are planning our church programs as they relate our ministries and our missions. If we want the Gospel to change our church then we need to live according to this light. If we want people to change from their darkness to God’s light, then we need to be living witnesses who are committed and take delight in God’s truth. I believe our world needs more churches to be in position for people to get caught up in God’s revelation of John 3:16-21 so they can be exposed to the goodness of God’s love.

     Here are some questions that God has been putting on my heart about focusing our best resources outward:

(1) Are we showing our love to people who have less in common with our own preferences?

(2) Are we spending more of our resources in equipping people for God’s outward mission?

(3) Are we exposing our motivations for serving our church and world through God’s light rather than our own spiritualized lens?

(4) Are we giving our best resources to extend God’s Kingdom through our existing missions partnerships?

Climbing our Tower of Trust

My TIE Value: Trust

     I was attending Chaplain’s assistant school in the summer of 1990. We were taken to a military obstacle course after an intensive round of examinations for fab four team competitions. The best team would win an extra overnight pass off the base. The team that I was on was comprised of a lady bus driver from Philadelphia, a former NBA player who played with the Chicago Bulls for a season, and my bunk mate who was great at martial arts. We were the best team at every obstacle. We worked together as one unit. No other team came close. So with each win we believed in each other more and more. We also grew more and more arrogant with each win.  However, this day would be forever seared in my memory of what happened at the “Tower of Faith.”

     This tower stood approximately 50 feet high with five levels. Each level was progressively further distance from previous level. This would test the limits of trust in each team member. The first level was about 5 feet off the ground. Everyone could easily hop up. The second level was about 7 feet higher.  Everyone could climb up with some help from their team. Then at the third level was somewhere around 9 feet from the second level. This is where faith or I would say trust in your team began to become a factor. Already over 20 feet from the ground, each team had to decide who would go in which order. The first of two climbers could be push up to the next level while the third member had one person pushing then two people pulling them up. And the fourth member had to trust all of their team members to pull them up to the next level. All of the other teams did not attempt to climb the fourth level but our team would successfully reach the fourth level for the win.

     As we began the third level on the Tower of Faith, we learned that all four of us were profoundly afraid of heights. For myself, I once clung to a trash can on top of the tower at a Six Flags amusement park. And on another occasion, I crawled on the floor on top of the Tower of Americas in San Antonio. Yet, I was elected to go fourth because the others were more afraid of heights than me. And so I reached up and the others hung over the edge and hoisted me to the third level where we are now 30+ feet in the air.

     Now, it was on to level four for the victory! We followed the same strategy as before. Each team member winced but continued to trust their team to support their climb. Then it was my turn. This is where we had to re-think our strategy because the increased distance was enough that all of my team mates could not simply pull me up as before. We could not figure it out. This is when our drill sergeant yelled up the following instructions.

1. Stand at the edge of the platform and face outward.

2. Reach up and let two team members pull me up to grab a hold of the support beam just under the next platform. 

3. As you swing your feet up to the next level release your grip from the beam and let your team catch your legs.

     With safety nets below, I did it for the win. It was terrifying. My team caught me without a struggle. As we sat catching our collective breath, our drill sergeant urged us to go all the way. He said, “It is exactly the same distance to reach the top!” And so after reaching our limit we stopped one level from the top. We could trust each other enough to do it once, but not twice. This softened the swagger of our fab four win.

MY TIE Moment: Trust will push us to our limits

     It is easy to say, “I trust God” and “I trust Jesus to save me,” but what about the diverse people who God so loves that He sent His only son for? (Jn. 3:16) In Matthew 5:43-48, Jesus illustrates that even pagans are able to love and care for their friends, but God’s children are to love even their enemies and pray for those who persecute them. This tells me that God wants to include His children in the expression of His unlimited love to the world. When expressing God’s love to this world we must include His enemies. After all God included us when we were His enemies (Rom. 5:6-12) Loving our enemies certainly includes personal, national and cultural enemies. More than loving our personal enemies, we are to love those who are still enemies with God. Therefore, we are called to be more than grateful servants forgiven of a great debt of sin. We are ultimately called to grow characteristics that show we have the DNA of our heavenly Father.

     The church should be a place that a believing community pushes each other to grow God’s heart in our world that even calls His enemies to salvation. Learning grow beyond our boundaries of love should be an active component in our churches. I believe that “trust” grows our love to new dimensions. In my reflections, I have provided a Biblical “Tower of Trust” that puts to test our levels of trust in our fellow Christians who are maturing in their walk with God.

Level 1: 

Do not show favoritism in our churches (James 2:1-13).

Level 2: 

Encourage one another to cling tightly to God’s hope and at the same time loosen the grip of sins as we meet together (Hebrews 10:23-30).

Level 3: 

Crave nourishment of spiritual milk from God and His Word so that everyone can grow to the fullness of salvation (1 Peter 2:1-3).

Level 4: 

Love our fellow believers sacrificially just as Christ did (1 John 3:15-16).

Level 5: 

Live according to God’s Vision for our times (2 Peter 3:1-10). 

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My TIE Value: Be Still

     This school year I watched the flag football tryouts at my local middle school. There were 60 students vying for 12-15 places on the roster. Then there was ONE faculty member who served as the coach. He had the task to evaluate the 60 middle schoolers who were jazzed to give their best efforts to make this team. The coach had his clipboard, whistle, and all the cones set up for the tryout. As a West Texan who knows football like a Canadian knows hockey, I was curious to see how this coach would evaluate middle school talent for the school’s flag football team. Especially when middle schoolers come in all interesting shapes and sizes as a result of being in different physical growth stages.

     The tryouts were broken down into three sections. First, there was the agility and ball carrying section. There were no two middle schoolers alike. No matter the size of the student, everyone got tangled with their legs at least one time with the ball in hand. I am sure in their minds they looked like pros. Second, there was the passing and defense section where the coach would show the quarterback and two receivers the play they would run against two defenders. While there were varying abilities, each middle schooler ran and defended with much determination. And third, there was the 40-yard dash where the students were divided in groups of 10 for an old fashioned sprinters race.

               

     As I was watching these tryouts unfold, I found myself watching the coach to see what leadership lessons I can observe. What I noticed is that in the agility drills he blew his whistle for each student to start the course but never once watched for standouts. During the passing and defense drill only kids who were tall had passes thrown to them. The set up was obvious when there were shorter kids running great patterns and getting separation from the defenders would get a look from the best quarterback but the pass would still go to the tall guy running a poor pattern in tight coverage. And then the 40 yard race the coach wrote on his clipboard for the first time to identify the winners of the race.   

     At the end of the tryouts coach’s methodology was obvious. The team of 12-15 was to be comprised of the 10 tall guys and the rest of the roster slots filled by the fastest guys. To be fair, I admire anyone who can come out with their sanity when doing anything with 60 middle school boys. However, he missed out on seeing the best football of the day because of his preferences. It was no surprise to me that they won very few games during the season.

Then I had a My TIE Moment.

     As a pastor trying to mobilize the church to get involved with ministry, I can be just as guilty in scouting out the prospects according to my personal preferences. The mental evaluation chart might include the preferred abilities, talents, passions, trustworthiness, friendship, life and spiritual maturity, integrity, etc, etc. This kind of humanistic evaluation tempts church leaders to assign a mental score in order to identify the best team before they try to persuade them to join a ministry.  However over the years I have found that the people with the highest scores not always turn out to be the ministry all-stars. There needs to be consultation with God well in advance of building a ministry team.

     Like middle schoolers are not finished growing into the person they will be as adults, so are the people in our church. God sees what they can become as they commit their ways to Him.  My desire is not to miss the best ministry because I only look for my own preferences. Therefore, church leaders need to pray to God to see the people in the church through His vision for organizing ministry that gives the best chance for people to serve out their God potential rather the church’s program potential. While Godly qualifications are essential when selecting our church leaders, I am reminded that when selecting ministry team members we need to allow Christ to grow our vision. This helps us to see the people He is growing. Therefore, over the years I have grown to pray through Colossians 3:12-17 before I ask anyone to consider essential life growing ministry in our church.

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience…Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:12;16-17 (NIV)