(sola)s hattiesburg

So I just finished reading Let the Nations Be Glad! The Supremacy of God in Missions, and in the book Piper raises a very interesting question concerning the focus of missionary efforts.  He writes, “Is it biblical to define the missionary task of the church as reaching all the unreached peoples  of the world?  Or is it sufficient to say that missions is simply the effort to reach as many individuals as possible in places different from our own?”  To rephrase his question, Piper is asking if the thrust of the New Testament’s command to “go and make disciples” is aimed at reaching out to as many individuals as possible, or if the aim is to go to all the peoples (or people groups) of the world?  Should we as the church be concerned simply with going to where we would potentially reach the most, or should we go to those groups who haven’t yet heard?  Please note that what Piper is NOT SAYING is that we should limit our missional efforts or that we should not seek to see every lost person come to know Christ – we should be a witness to whoever we meet or come across.  But what he is asking is if we should be strategic and place a priority on sending missionaries and going to people groups in the world that are absent of the gospel?  Is the goal people in general or peoples?  What are your thoughts?

         20/20 Collegiate Conference mp3

In the words of Bob Dylan, “Oh the times, they are a changin’.”  We live in a world and a culture that is rapidly evolving.  But despite its constant changes, culture continues to have the same problem of sin, manifested through perversions of all kinds.   As a result, the local church must consider how it is to respond and relate to an ever-changing, yet consistently sinful society.  There have been many approaches taken to this situation.  Some churches have said that we should isolate ourselves from the culture so as to not be influenced by it.  Others have said that we should be so much a part of culture that we end up looking just like it.  Neither of these approaches are helpful.  We cannot influence the culture with the gospel if we’re not in culture, nor can we influence culture if we’re no different from it.  Jesus took another approach. He was in the culture, but he lived counter-culturally.  Jesus was missional.  He hung around sinners (so much so that he was accused of being a drunkard and a glutton), but Jesus did not sin.  Jesus revealed to culture what true life looks like.  And this is the same approach the church must take in the 21st century.  We must demonstrate to society what true humanity looks like, what true culture is about.  The church must be a city within a city – the city of God amidst the city of man.  This is how culture will be impacted by the gospel.  Mark Driscoll recently spoke on this topic at Southeastern Seminary.  His talk is very helpful, you should check it out.

So we just finished an exhausting and fun weekend of Disciple Now + Student Life Conference here at Temple.  As a middle/high school student, these type of events had a major impact in my spiritual development.  I vividly remember going to my first Student Life Conference as a ninth grader.  Louie Giglio was the speaker and he talked about worship – about how all of life is worship of something.  Disciple Now’s were a means of God’s grace in my life as well.  I was pushed and challenged so much through these weekends by getting to spend time with an older, “cooler” guy and observing how he was walking with God and growing in the faith.

Now that I’m on the other side of things, acting as a leader, it’s heavy to think about the impact that I could potentially have on a student’s life.  God is obviously the one who works in the hearts of students, but he did so in my life many times through D-Now leaders.  I hope and pray that God spoke through me and the other leaders this past weekend.  

The theme of the weekend was Live Love, and to all of you who gave your weekend away hanging with students or helping with the conference you did just that.  You lived love.  Thank you.  You’ll never fully know how God chose to use you, despite your inadequacies, for His amazing plans and for His glory.