Skip to main content

Seven Days and Counting: The Delight of Missional Living

Our ministry team leaves for East Africa in seven days
Christian ministry and missional engagement evoke delight and great joy in the heart of the called. There is no greater joy than knowing you are partnering with God to accomplish something extra-ordinary and life changing for someone and to so many people.

To know that Christ can use your little hands and your little feet; to know that cosmic powers heed and follow your fickle command when it is given in the Name of Jesus Christ that they are compelled to loosen their stranglehold on humanity; to know that human beings and communities can be transformed for eternity as you follow and obey Jesus.

  Sunday 8/1 we joyfully dedicated Samuel Jr. to the Lord during services at Westwood. We also cellebrated his seven month birthday :)
In fact the disciples of Jesus Christ found it so delightful that Christ felt it necessary to caution them against overly celebrating the outcomes of their powerful ministry (Luke 10:17-22). His concern was not that they would develop a sense of pride or self-aggrandizement. Nor was Christ out to minimize the impact of their work.

Indeed He celebrates with them and gives a magnanimous vantage to what really happened: "I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning," He offers. "Behold I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you," He continues.

Jesus' real concern seemed to be that they maintain an eschatological vision. A vision of the Kingdom of God that extended beyond their current experience and power encounter and whose center is God Himself.

One of the highlights of these summer months was spending a week with members of my Global and Contextual Leadership doctoral cohort who come from all around the world at Bethel University, St. Paul for a time of intensive learning. 
Jesus' following exuberance is a perfect demonstration of this vision as He prioritizes revelation and relationship to God over power encounter and missional results; "I praise you O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight," He exudes in the Holy Spirit.

July 22-24th, Suzanne and I spent time with and ministered to about 170 international students from Africa from all around the United States at a retreat hosted by Mzizi Church Twin Cities at Camp Koronis in Payneville, MN.
This should additionally indicate to us that in fact the true measure of our missional success does not consist in our present computations, statistics, and perceptions. Rather, it is eschatologically assessed with God alone as the true judge of our impact.

The juxtaposition of the infants to the intelligent and their preference as custodians of divine revelation rather than the wise bespeaks of a different measuring stick and one which underpins the fact that God's business is always God's business. Ours as partners with Him is a privilege of amazing proportions.
---------------------------------------------------------------
With just seven days left to go before our SWIM team leaves for evangelistic work to Kenya, Rwanda, Malawi, and later to South Africa, we have spent the last few days in fasting, prayer, preparation and fundraising.  God continues to confirm to our hearts His intent to do great things through this outreach.  

Please pray with us and with the myriad churches we are working with in these multiple nations over the next 21/2 months that God's power will be clearly evident, transforming lives and establishing the order of the Kingdom in the lives of individuals and communities. 

Also pray for our funding.  We have raised so far 80% of our needed funds.  Seven days is a long time for God to provide for the remaining 20% ($ 10,200 difference.)  As you feel compelled to generously donate, visit our website http://www.swimministry.org/ or click the donate button on the right side panell of this blog page. 
     
Destination Butare, Rwanda August 20th-29th

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

OPEN FOR SPIRITUAL BUSINESS- Could COVID-19 open a window for Spiritual Awakening?

None of us wished for it. But COVID-19 delivers to our doorstep what is, perhaps, the greatest evangelistic opportunity of our lifetime. It is an unusual opportunity in the Twin Cities, North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and around the world. A scared world is open for spiritual business. The masks are off. People are open to hear that there is hope through Jesus Christ. For the church, the times we are in may have changed, due to COVID-19. But the mission we are on has not changed . The need to share the hope Jesus provides is now more urgent than ever.  Our nation is now the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. Severe cases and deaths are mounting from coast to coast. Doctors, general medical workers and other essential service providers continue to do all they can to stave off the pandemic. 3 million Americans have lost their jobs. Children across the nation and worldwide are out of schools. Our economy and other global economies remain on shaky ground. All profession...
1 comment
Read more

No Room in the Inn...21st Century Version

It is the Christmas season 2009.  Like Joseph and Mary 2000 years ago, a young couple are on the virge of the birth of their first baby boy.  Although they are doing everything to prepare for the big day, it still catches them by surprise.  Instead of the regular 40 weeks, the baby is arriving six weeks early. Because they are not expecting it this early, their bags are not packed nor is the nursery fully furnished.  Safe for an early morning warning in a dream to the father to prepare to be in a delivery room and with assurance (from the Lord) that it would be o.k, the day started off as any other day. At 6:00 AM, the couple prays together for about 40 minutes in their home in Victoria.  They take showers.  At about 7:30 AM, the husband goes to work briefly from his home office while the wife prepares something for their breakfast together. Within a couple hours they will have a routine prenat...
10 comments
Read more

The Mystery of the Number 9 in 2009

For most of us, nothing and no one describes the kick-off of this year 2009 more vividly than does Charles Dickens in his A Tale of two Cities. Dickens captured the contradictions of his time in these amazing words: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only." My comparison of our time to that of Dickens does not lie in the historical events. It is rather a paradoxical comparison. It lies in the juxtaposition of b...
2 comments
Read more