 The theme of the 2014 NACC, which you led as president this past summer, was “Re:Mission”—encouraging the church to get back to its mission of reaching the world for Jesus. Of course, that synergy with this year’s ECC theme is one of many reasons we’re so glad to have you speaking for us in November. What’s one thing you yourself have learned about evangelism recently?
Today, actually, I got an email from a guy at Mountain Christian Church who is reading Life on Mission. He said, “Right now I’m halfway through and I’m thinking to myself, ‘I do this, right? It’s what God’s calling me to do.’ Then it hits me, yes, I invite people to church. I even offer to meet them, sit with them. But what I don’t do is meet them somewhere else. I always want it to be on my terms. I say, ‘This is where I will be at 11 am.’ I’m realizing my time needs to be stretched also. I have to be willing to give of my time and maybe have that meal or coffee and just have a conversation about life. I was getting so overwhelmed about witnessing and what should I say. And all I really need to do is be a witness.”
That’s what I’m learning, that almost everyone wants to be on mission, but they don’t realize they have to “go” to be on mission. It won’t just fall in your lap. Don’t be afraid of figuring out how to make the sale–just go be a friend, like Jesus did.
What’s one great story you can share that came from the NACC?
I heard many stories from people who were feeling like throwing in the towel, and were re-inspired and re-energized by Re:Mission. There are pros and cons to having the convention in the summer but one of the positives is it’s usually summer when I start looking into selling insurance. I can’t tell you how many times I came to the NACC with my head down and my heart empty and left with a reason to sign up for another tour of duty. I don’t believe that is the result of excellent programming or anything our executive committee did. I believe it is the result of the Holy Spirit’s presence. I felt the Spirit of God there all week, but it was confirmed for me when Lee Strobel got up on the last day and said he’d scrapped his sermon and had a new one on a napkin. If you know Lee, you know that doesn’t happen. He’s always very prepared. I really believe God wanted us to call his church back to mission, and he made sure we got the point.
What’s one thing God’s doing at your church that you’re really excited about or challenged by?
Believe it or not, it has to do with a richer understanding of discipleship in relationship to mission. For decades now we’ve been trying to separate evangelism and discipleship. Parkview has fallen into it as well. Interestingly, it’s been my trips to Africa that have helped me bring this back home. We are taking on the country of Malawi for Rick Warren and the PEACE Plan. That means we are going to try to bring Christians together to help bring Jesus and the Kingdom to that country. What I’ve realized is that a lot of us have been “enabling” the continent of Africa for a long time by creating a dependency on foreign aid. Even though we all know we can’t just “give them a fish,” as we’ve been “teaching them to fish” we’ve only done it in a model that depends on us doing the teaching. What excites me is that I’m realizing that “mission” only works in a sustainable model of multiplication, something along the lines of teaching them to fish so they can teach OTHERS–not for everyone to have to come to me. It’s a small change, but it has huge ramifications. 2 Timothy 2:2 says, “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people.” That’s a common model of mission and discipleship. But the last part of the verse is what’s really waking me up: it says “entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.” This is not about me going to Africa and training people. It’s about me going to Africa to train people to train people. It sounds simple, but it hasn’t been happening.
And the kicker is that as I’m waking up to that reality in world missions, I’m realizing that I can’t take to Africa what I’m not doing here at home. So we’re going through the “Life on Mission” curriculum as a church, and one of the key points is that Jesus told us to make disciples. And that verse isn’t just for church leaders. It’s for everyone. So it’s making me re-think how we do things in Chicago, as well. Are we discipling people so they can disciple people? I think our people and the African people are all ready to go. Church leaders just sometimes limit discipleship by taking it away from the disciples.
We’re excited to hear Tim speak Friday evening and Saturday morning as well as learning from him in our preconference on Friday. And congrats to Tim as he became a first-time grandpa on Sunday! |
