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A report from the field
Posted by
Bill
,
29 October 2012
·
1040 views
Recently I had the privilege of visiting several international workers that are engaged in foundational work of breaking ground for the Gospel so that the church of Jesus Christ can begin building or rebuilding. Few of the churches will look familiar to those of us in the west, who, equate a certain type of physical building with church. In fact, many of these churches may not have a building at all because of constraints imposed by the needs of future members.
The first part of my trip took me to several mosques that had been constructed as churches in another era. The two imams we spoke to were very complementary of how the buildings had been built with such solid construction. The problem of course is that they are not used for the church of Christ any longer. The international worker in this land though is hard at work, in the yoke with his Lord, to lay a new foundation for the church. Living and working among people who will be future members of God’s body, these workers are following the Biblical blueprint.
The last part of my trip brought me to a global city that in past days exported it’s flavor of Christian religion through in part through colonization. The core of that great institution has been rotting for years by adding tradition, power and relativity. Our international workers are there to help rebuild the church by focusing on foundational truths of love, redemption, salivation in Jesus only and new birth. It is a local movement of missional communities. These communities bind believers and the religiously disillusioned together in a journey for truth that begins and at the cross.
Our international workers understand that it is not within their power to dictate a time line nor the size of the church they are helping construct. Only Jesus knows. They are simply working for the master, in this season, in a place where God has promised to redeem their efforts for his glory. It is their obedience to this call that will build the church.
The first part of my trip took me to several mosques that had been constructed as churches in another era. The two imams we spoke to were very complementary of how the buildings had been built with such solid construction. The problem of course is that they are not used for the church of Christ any longer. The international worker in this land though is hard at work, in the yoke with his Lord, to lay a new foundation for the church. Living and working among people who will be future members of God’s body, these workers are following the Biblical blueprint.
The last part of my trip brought me to a global city that in past days exported it’s flavor of Christian religion through in part through colonization. The core of that great institution has been rotting for years by adding tradition, power and relativity. Our international workers are there to help rebuild the church by focusing on foundational truths of love, redemption, salivation in Jesus only and new birth. It is a local movement of missional communities. These communities bind believers and the religiously disillusioned together in a journey for truth that begins and at the cross.
Our international workers understand that it is not within their power to dictate a time line nor the size of the church they are helping construct. Only Jesus knows. They are simply working for the master, in this season, in a place where God has promised to redeem their efforts for his glory. It is their obedience to this call that will build the church.
- Chris Baker likes this
