Sent: The Missional God

God sent because we needed him to. The God expressed most fully and finally in Jesus of Nazareth is not the god of deism who sits back and watches as we live our lives, uninvolved. He is not the god of Graeco-Roman mythology, waiting to punish us if we mess up in life, which we do everyday, which is not to say He has no wrath or anger, He does, which would be expected if He were real - with the injustice and perversion of a world like ours, where, for instance children are raped, kidnapped and sold into a sex-trade which is more pervasive than any of us wants to admit. Where genocide still flourishes, where poverty still kills millions, where wealth is so unequally distributed. God is angry about all of this be sure.

But instead of just dealing out death and judgment to each of us who is guilty and deserving of it, this God, the one true God, full of grace and truth (John 1.14), does something else: He satisfies his wrath and anger by sending his Son - Why did he send him? To die in our place; because of us, for us and instead of us, so that if we come under that sacrifice by faith the just condemnation no longer gets applied to us, meted out on us, precisely because it was applied to him. This is why 'it pleased the Lord to crush him' (Isa. 53)l not because God oves to punish and hurt his Son, but because He knew what that punishment was actually accomplishing. Salvation for the world. 'God has sent his only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through him...this is love: that God loved us and sent his Son, and whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him' (1 John 4.9-15).

God rescued us, we did not rescue ourselves, no matter what the 'myth of progress' preaches at us everyday from internet, TV, and film-screen. God is the ultimate missionary, the first mover, the Father running out to embrace the prodigal. We live because he died and rose again in our place. Al of this because He sent. He got involved. he became part of this mess. Death by love.

The missionary/sending nature of God is central in to his character.

This is seen amazingly in the Gospel of John. The Fourth Gospel begins with the incarnation, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1.14), in John 3:16-17 the Father sends the Son, and the book ends with Jesus sending his disciples in John 20:21. Beyond these three passages Jesus sees himself as one “sent by the Father” astonishingly more than twenty-five times:

John 3:16
"For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son, so that whomever should believe in him shall not perish but have everlasting life."

John 3:34
“For he whom God has sent utters the words of God.”

John 5:23
“He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.”

John 5:24
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life.”

John 5:30
“I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.”

John 5:36-38
“These very words which I am doing, bear witness that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness to me.”

John 6:38
“For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.”

John 6:44
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.”

John 7:28-29
“But I have not come of my own accord; he who sent me is true, and him you do not know. I know him, for I came from him, and he sent me.”

John 7:33
“I shall be with you a little longer, and then I go to him who sent me.”

John 8:18
“I bear witness to myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness to me.”

John 8:26
“He who sent me is true.”

John 8:29
“And he who sent me is with me.”

John 8:42
“I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.”

John 9:4
“We must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day.”

John 12:44-45
“He who believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And he who sees me sees him who sent me.”

John 12:49
“The Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment what to say and what to speak.”

John 13:20
“He who receives me receives him who sent me.”

John 14:24
“The word which you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.”

John 14:26
“The Counselor will teach you everything and will cause you to remember all that I told you. This Counselor is the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name.”

John 16:7
“If I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”

John 17:3
“And they have believed that you have sent me.”

John 17:18
“As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.”

John 17:25
“They know that you have sent me.”

John 20.21
"As the Father sent me, now I send you"

So, we must listen, and embrace the Son that God sent for us, by faith in his finished work on our behalf, and then embrace our own sent-ness - our own missional calling, sent by God to love, care for and minster to people from a gospel-centered life. This is a sending that is not for super-disciples, not only for those traditionally called "missionaries", but for every follower of Jesus. Send to love and proclaim in our work-place, our schools, our relationships, our families. Sent to and for the ones you live and move beside.

If you are a follower of Jesus, one who has believed and confesses him as the Son of God who died for the sins of the world, you've been sent.

If this is you the question is: 'Am i embracing my sent-ness' ? Am I acting sent?'

Up: An Adventure for the History Books

Every once in a while a movie comes along, that is so good that it is hard to explain it to people. Up is one of those movies. People ask me about it, and I find it hard to contain my excitement. It is just brilliant on every level. It looks great (colorful, bright, graphically stunning), but more than that, the story is great. It reminds us that nothing can trump a good story. 

Not all the graphics in the world can trump good writing and stories that transcend and touch all people. As we will see later this summer when Transformers comes out (already breaking box office records with pre-sales) and is full non-stop, mind blowing visual effects, but is completely void of any story whatsoever (not surprisingly confirmed by Empire Magazine who has seen the film and wonders if it was shot by a 13 year old boy because of its gratuitous obsession with Megan Fox's torso (see here), among other problems.

Up though never looses itself in effects (even though it is Disney 3-D); they are a supporting role to the story. Classic Pixar. Characters we love, adventure and action, funny and above all applicable and touching. It is about the human experience; never getting to go and do the things you and your spouse always promised to do, and then it being too late because life has a way of just getting in the way. Finding love and caring in the most unlikely places. And living so as not to regret. Up is the direction ones heart soars while watching this movie, through the pain and sadness it opens with right on through the laughter to the humbling ending.

When I last checked the film was rated 88/100 on Metacritic, the highest rated mainstream film of the year, and it deserves it.

Why Plant Churches?

If you are interested in following the development of the church campus we are starting in South Surrey we have started a blog that I will update - the site is http://southsurreychurchcampus.blogspot.com/ 

It includes community news links, and church planting resources as well. Below is the latest article I have written, which comes from the strategic plan the Church Planting Development Team put together in early 2008.

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The following is a list of the 6 reasons[1] that SDBC’s leadership (Pastors, Directors and Elders) decided to make church planting a central part of The Mission of our church in January 2008.

It is Biblical: In the Great Commission Jesus lists several tasks relating to congregations: going, baptizing, and teaching. These are the ways, Jesus says, that the church is going to make disciples. The “earliest church believed they were fulfilling the Great Commission by planting new congregations. The Great Commission calls us to evangelize and to congregationalize.”[2] Also, the church in Antioch committed itself to sending leaders from their congregation to plant churches in other geographic areas (Acts 13-14). This is why church planting authority Ed Stetzer says “The New Testament points to the fact that new churches and church planting are direct and inevitable consequences of believer’s involvement in witnessing and proclamation.”

To reach the lost: Studies show that “The single most effective evangelistic methodology under heaven is planting new churches.”[3] It has been shown that established churches make greater progress in kingdom evangelism by initiating new daughter churches. “New churches are more effective than large churches, particularly in evangelism. On a per-capita basis, new churches win more people to Christ than established churches.”

Bruce McNichol explains the findings of his research in Interest Magazine:

-       Churches under three years of age win an average of ten people to Christ per year for every one hundred church members.

-       Churches three to fifteen years of age win an average of five people per year for every one hundred church members.

-       Church over fifteen years of age win an average of three people per year for every one hundred church members.[4] 

Tim Keller, lead pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, known all over North America as an inspiring model of a church that plants churches, says “no single church, no matter how large and active, can all by itself change an entire area. We must saturate areas with gospel-centered new churches. This is the only way to truly insure the transformation of our cities that we so much desire.”[5]

To develop new leaders: Like Jesus developed the twelve and like Paul developed Timothy, Titus and other Elders and Pastors, new churches have the opportunity to develop people who would not otherwise have stepped up to lead, serve or minister because those roles are already filled.[6] This helps SDBC to accomplish one of our other main goals which central to The Mission: to train and develop new leaders for the Church within Canada. Central to this is the idea that we train and send more and more people to plant churches in our immediate area and beyond, our “Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth” (Acts 1.8) – a paradigmatic text for both Acts and for the church in general. Our vision to be an Antioch church, which is not afraid to send our best (Paul and Barnabas).

 To grow the Kingdom of God:  Ed Stetzer says, “A maturing kingdom awareness is more important than a local church mentality…Leaders who are unwilling to make organizational sacrifices for the benefit of the kingdom become stunted in both growth and in understanding God’s larger purpose.” This kingdom mentality has always been central to SDBC, and is seen in our global mission focus; this will help us direct those efforts toward a local mission focus. This is why one of the visions of the book Discipling Our Nation: Equipping the Canadian Church for its Mission, published by Outreach Canada, is that each local church plants “at least two daughter churches: first to replace itself and second to extend the Kingdom.”[7] There is great wisdom is such vision for the local church.

Growth and Health of SDBC: Studies show that Mother Churches often experience a surge of energy and excitement from the existing congregation when they plant a church because they see God’s people sacrificing and multiplying and because they are seeing the kingdom grow. Tim Keller points out that planting new churches is “perhaps the best way to renew and re-vitalize older churches and enhance all ministries.” He says, “The mother church usually experiences a surge of high-esteem and an influx of new enthusiastic leaders and members. There is usually an increase in numbers and confidence.”[8]

 Churches who have church planting as part of their DNA attract leaders. There is a church in Vancouver which began about 4 years ago with 20 or so people which always had church planting at its heart. It is now over 600 people, and there are multiple church planters who intern at the church to be sent out. This church also hosts a gathering of church planters once a month for teaching, equipping and prayer. 

 Part of that growth and health comes back to the priority of leaving a lasting legacy: Our lead Pastor (Paul Johnson) often says that planting new churches will “help our church have a legacy long after we are dead and gone. A hundred years from now there could be churches existing all over BC because of our efforts.” We can be a part of stamping Canada and reaching beyond the geographic boundaries of where our local churches exist.

To increase the number of evangelical, Gospel-centered churches: In an age of bad doctrine, and theological challenges to the historic Christian faith, our denomination (Fellowship Baptist), and our church specifically, need’s to extend its influence. We are responsible for what we do with who and what we have, and cannot assume that other churches are preaching the Gospel and doing Gospel-centered ministry.

 This is the aforementioned reasons The Fellowship now has church multiplication as a top priority. The director of the Fellowship, Dr. Jon Kaiser said in his 2007 address to the Fellowship: “What is the best contribution we can make? I believe each region should see it’s calling as growing and multiplying healthy churches. We should be involved in leadership development, community outreach, and church multiplication.” The more churches that carry the gospel into different areas the better. This is why it is necessary that “the local church DNA comes to believe that every church should plant churches.”[9] In this sense we can set the tone and inspire many other churches in The Fellowship to follow our lead as we follow the lead of Dr. Kaiser and others.

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[1] More reasons can be explored in Paul Beker and Mark Williams, The Dynamic Daughter Church Planting Handbook.

[2] Ed Stetzer, Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age, 33.

[3] C. Peter Wagner, Church Planting for Greater Harvest, 11. See also Tim Keller, Advancing the Gospel into the 21^st Century, 3: “New Churches are by far the best way to reach (1) new generations, (2) new residents, and (3) new people groups. Studies show that newer churches attract new groups about 6-10 times better and faster then older, established churches do.”

[4] Cited in Aubrey Malphrus, Planting Growing Churches for the 21^st Century, 44.

[5] Tim Keller, http://www.redeemer2.com/rupc/rupc/index.cfm.           

[6] See Ed Stetzer, Planting New Churches, 322; Tim Keller, Advancing the Gospel into the 21^st Century, 3.

[7] Murray Moerman, “Discipling Canada and the Nations” in Murray Moerman ed., Discipling Our Nation: Equipping the Canadian Church for its Mission, 7; see also Murray Moerman and Lorne Hunter, “Saturation Church Planting: Current Needs & Recent Progress,” 20: “Every church, in fact, must contribute to these emerging church planting movements by planting at least two new congregations while it is able” one to replace itself, because, like humans, no congregation lives forever, and a second to extend the Kingdom” (14). He goes on to point out that at the end of 2003 evangelical churches in Canada existed at the ration of 1 for every 3, 189 Canadians.

[8] Tim Keller, Advancing the Gospel into the 21^st Century, 3: “I know of a small congregation in our area who had filled 100 seats twice to max 4 years in a row. Finally they sent 50 people out to a new town to form a new church. Just two years later there were 350 people coming to the daughter church and the mother church had filled its seats back up in three weeks.

[9] Murray Moerman and Lorne Hunter, “Saturation Church Planting: Current Needs & Recent Progress,” 17.