By Randal DickSuperintendent of missions
By Randal Dick
Superintendent of missions
If you read only one "Window" column this year, this should be the one.
It is never easy to start over--ask the Hersts, who are having to start over after having their home of 30 years firebombed during civil unrest in Northern Ireland.
As a fellowship, we are no different. We have suffered loss of focus and depression. Now it's time to refocus. We are in a new situation with new challenges and new opportunities. We've been given some new tools to meet these challenges. If you want to be part of the action, read on.
If we want Christ to use us to do a work in this postmodern world, we must also be willing to allow him to do it through us personally. That's the bottom line.
Media has value, but it is the Holy Spirit, flowing through you and me, who will convict the hearts of others.
People today do not ask so much whether Christianity is true. They first want to know, "does it work?" We didn't create that shift in society, but we must adapt to it, or become like old tools in the woodshed, gathering dust. The question is, how do I make a personal difference?
As Christians, our No. 1 job is to respond to the love of God by loving him in return. This causes us to place Christ's will above our own, which results in him ordering our lives around the issues of life eternal.
We haven't mentioned evangelism. That's because if the above is not the reality in our lives it does no good to go any further.
When Spirit-led individuals fully commit their lives to God for his use, the kingdom of God will advance in that place. The need to share the pearl of great price with others will always be clear and present in those who have Christ at the center of their lives.
It is essential that we respond to Christ both individually and collectively. Let's consider these co-essential responsibilities.
Christian Schwarz, in his historic analysis, made this observation about evangelism: "Our research disproves a thesis commonly held in evangelistically active groups: that `every Christian is an evangelist.' There is a kernel of (empirically demonstrable) truth in this saying. It is indeed the responsibility of every Christian to use his or her own specific gifts in fulfilling the Great Commission."
Brethren, this is crucial. World mission begins with a community of believers sending forth representatives. It comes full circle when a new indigenous community of believers, in turn, sends forth its representatives to others.
No argument can be made about which is more important, mission at home, or world mission. World mission depends wholly upon mission at home. There would have been no Paul or Barnabas, or books of Galatians and Ephesians, if there had not first been a united community of individuals called the Antioch church.
You can bet that before acting collectively by sending Paul and Barnabas, they were responding individually to Christ by loving those unbelievers who surrounded them.
You might say, where are these people I am to serve, and how do I get at them? Do I get involved in community service? Do I go sit in the train station and strike up conversations about Jesus?
Dr. Schwarz makes another crucial observation: "It is particularly interesting to note that Christians in both growing and declining churches have exactly the same number of contacts with non-Christians (an average of 8.5 contacts).
"Challenging Christians to build new friendships with non-Christians is most certainly not a growth principle. The point is rather to use already existing relationships as contacts for evangelism."
God has given each of us a place to start. We all have a personal community, often involving unbelievers.
We also have gifts, whether it be a desire to serve, a merciful spirit, an ability to encourage, an empathetic ear or the ability to put disarray into order. We are injecting agape into the life of an unbeliever when we use a gift God has given us to serve someone else.
When we are praying regularly for our unbelieving community, an invisible bond is developed. The Spirit, according to the will of the Father, will begin to act in a person's life. Sometimes he will draw a person (possibly kicking and screaming) toward Christ.
Now, instead of hiding behind the fortress walls of media products and professional ministers, we, sons and daughters of God, are there for others when they need us.
We sometimes are given the privilege of escorting others to Christ. If we did nothing more than participate individually in that dynamic and assist in the discipling of those who were drawn to Christ through others, we would be growing, increasing in health and strength.
I call this the priesthood model, because we are told in 1 Peter 2 that Christ is fashioning us into a community of royal priests, and that our job is to offer spiritual sacrifices. Bestowing agape love through laying down a bit our lives for someone who is lost and needs to be found is a profound spiritual sacrifice.
When we serve our High Priest by giving injections of agape to those already near us, we grow individually. This increased health often leads to the community increasing as well.
In fact, at a certain level of health, it is almost impossible to stop numerical growth. The Antioch effect sets in. Brethren stop asking God and each other how we are going to survive. We stop asking how we are going to achieve our goals. Instead we ask God, "What would you like to do with the people of our time and place, and how can we make a significant difference according to your plans?"
As this type of spiritual community extends outward like ripples on a pond, it gathers the strength, resources and desire to play a part in Christ's plans for unbelievers far removed and cut off from the gospel. Like in Antioch, the Holy Spirit puts it in the minds of the church to send forth people gifted to convey the gospel. We need to focus on several principles.
1) First, the church sent forth Paul and Barnabas. They did not go on their own authority or their own agenda, or their own resources.
They went as apostles--messengers sent with authority. The authority of Jesus Christ was conveyed through the spiritual structure of the church. They were supported. They were also accountable.
And so today, the community of individuals who comprise the church needs to support the mission efforts of the church. Paul supported himself when necessary, but this was not the norm.
2) The apostles went into unchurched territory and gathered people and resources from which to build the same type of community that had sent them.
When these communities began to mature, they were able to advance the kingdom just like their older siblings. But here is the key to the apostles' effectiveness then and now: The apostolic work concentrates on multiplying gifted converted leadership, not on raising, managing or growing congregations.
We are used to doing just the opposite. But where we see steady growth in the WCG, generally someone is behind the scenes operating in the principles of the apostolic model--multiplying effective leadership and mentoring that leadership to maturity.
This form of mission is the most effective, because membership is not simply added. When good leadership is multiplied, congregations multiply. We are not used to thinking in multiplication terms, only in addition terms.
3) The apostolic model is by far the most cost effective. It produces the most lifelong disciples at the lowest cost.
We don't need to send in a team of mission families, set up offices, buy cars or maintain an expensive infrastructure in each location. This is what we used to do, and this is how we eventually turned growth into paralysis in certain parts of the world.
The costs of apostolic mission are salary, travel expenses and sometimes small costs associated with providing the teaching environment.
The apostolic missionary can serve several places at the same time, spending several weeks at a time in an area engaging in intense mentoring situations. Then, the new leaders begin to put into practice what they have learned.
A time of evaluation and improvement takes place when the mentor returns, followed by a new time of teaching and mentoring. New leaders are selected and trained to begin multiplying leadership within their own sphere of operations. From the work of the first generation of indigenous leaders comes the multiplication of pastors and various ministries.
4) In our situation, we have an incredible dispersion of people. Most congregations are small, and many members are scattered. In some cases, they lack shepherds, and mature leadership.
Which should we provide? Should we send them a shepherd? Or, should we send them a person who can develop those among them with shepherding gifts?
Over the past few years, Christ has developed a number of effective apostolic-style mission workers. They in turn have been developing others who can do the same developmental work with others.
Next month I will discuss this new generation of leaders that our sending forth has brought about and demonstrate the effectiveness of the apostolic model.
I object to the term "scattered brethren." It carries with it a feeling of weakness. The fact that we are salted around the globe has left us with a nucleus for an indigenous church wherever these groups are located.
An effective team of apostolic-style missionaries, along with the encouragement and financial support of the established churches, will result in spiritually potent indigenous missions all over the world. These indigenous churches will then continue to grow and extend outward.
They will take their places one by one as full and mature parts of the fellowship of the WCG.
Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 1998