Week 6 World Religions and Mission Strategies

Some of this week's teaching / thoughts:

"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me." Mt 16:24

This verse has always made me cringe. I mean, taking up your cross definitely implies sacrifice and suffering, and those aren't really fun topics. The path of the master is the path of the disciples. And Jesus' path was the cross. You don't have to read into this much. Our path is clear.

Thankfully, we have the benefit of knowing that this path is a path of VICTORY! We can take joy in our suffering, in our path, in each little sacrifice, because we know that while we are still battling, the victory has been won! We can see our reward.

God is on a mission to restore His kingdom. His persistent plan is to:
1) Destroy the works of the enemy.
2) Seek and save the lost from all nations.

The problem of the Great Commission is not one of fruit but of workers. We are the workers now. Are we being responsible to college the harvest? It belongs to Jesus, not to us!

The gospel transcends culture. The essence of the message is transmitted through cultural forms. Our goal is to bring others to Christ and not to our particular concept of Christianity. For an excellent illustration of this, please read Bruchko, the story of Bruce Olson's call to the Motilones of Colombia.

By far, the greatest amount of resources allotted to missions around the world is allocated in places that have the MOST access to the gospel. And the fewest resources are alloted to places that have the LEAST access to the gospel. Our teacher really emphasized this point. Seems a lot backwards, doesn't it?

Something else that has been impacting me lately is the practice of responding in the opposite spirit. Jesus came as a lamb. He taught us to turn the other cheek. He gave himself up for us. Accounts of generosity and responding in the opposite spirit (in addition to prayer) continue to impress me. I feel they are a strong witness, as they really point to Christ, and I want to choose to respond in this way! An example around here was a struggle with disunity / division in the group. We had prayed and prayed about it, but we finally began to fight it with acts of unity. Thank you God, for your wisdom and your power to transform!

Apologies for the impersonal nature of these last couple posts -- I really want to share out the heart of what we're learning but I'm quickly running out of battery power on the laptop and we can only charge it from 11am - 2pm each day (remember: solar campus!). Would love to hear from people! Please comment or email!!