ReJesus :: Penetrating Conversations - Missions

This post is in response to a group learning activity that we had during out Neighborhood Gathering on April 26. I said I would post responses to the penetrating questions we used here so you could know what I think. There are five questions and I will create a new post for each question.

Why are we so concerned about people in Ethiopia and Mexico when there are lots of people with needs right here in America?

First of all I will address the question and then I will address the real reason I think people ask it. As followers of Christ we, don’t get to pick and choose who we will serve and who we will not serve. We are “humanity's slave” which is actually our next mini-series in the ReJesus series. We are servants of everyone, everywhere. There is a blindness in the church planting / new church movement AND IT IS THE LACK OF FOREIGN MISSION ENGAGEMENT. Lord willing, we will never fall into this blindness. Most of the focus and money that comes into a new church is spent on the ministries of that church itself. This is especially true if that church is focusing on purchasing land and building buildings. The lead team at UCF is wrestling with what it looks like to love people around us as much as we love ourselves when it comes to finances at UCF. Currently we probably give/spend about $100,000 per year on our missional projects in Ethiopia and Mexico. The majority of this is outside our regular operating budget. We also provide one full time salary for a ministry leader in Ethiopia for every full time staff position we have at UCF through our regular operating budget.

In my history of leading ministries, I have seen a lot of models of engaging the world around us. I think Matthew 28:19-20 among many other verses in the Bible, lays out a strategy that involves local AND global engagement. Our strategy of investing in a few global areas over a long period of time has come about through much seeking, much experience and much prayer. Currently these areas are Ethiopia and Mexico. I realize there are needs everywhere around us in this country, but the scale of NEED reaches entirely different levels when you travel out of our country into places where people live on $1-3 a day, have no access to clean drinking water and little or no opportunity to hear the message of Jesus Christ. The bible continually urges us to serve those in need and we cannot confine that to just those “in our country.” And still the large majority of our focus is spent on reaching out to people right hear in our own city and our own neighborhood. We serve a weekly meal to our homeless friends and have for the last five years. We throw a neighborhood party for families called Movies in the Park and we have a staff that serves – children, middle school students, high school students and college students. When you think of it like this we do more for our own country than we do for other countries.

The majority of the times I have heard this question, it comes mostly from a person who isn’t very engaged in serving people around the world or in this country. And honestly, the question comes off pretty empty to me. Conviction comes when we present needs and many people try to deflect this conviction by pointing out other needs that we aren’t doing something about. They present this as if to say, “If we were serving people in say Texas, THEN I would jump in and help!” The problem is when we do go to Texas (like we did this month) they don’t seem to jump in there either. If you have a passion for serving people we currently don’t serve and are willing to lead us to engage in new places, we are ready to listen and help you plan. Like I said, we are “humanity’s slave” and the more people we can serve the better. It takes a lot of persistence and tenacity to forge new works that consistently serve people around us but we are better when everyone is engaged. Jesus said something like, "the harvest is huge but the workers are few, so pray to God who controls the harvest to send more workers." Pray and then join the work.

Some people at UCF are currently working on a new idea to serve people all over the United States called U.S. I-27. Ask me about it.

The Compassion Ripple

This Sunday was one of those days that we had a great plan and everything worked. I know that God is always present (when people say “God showed up” it is always odd to me) but there are sometimes when we are more aware or in tune with his presence than others. Today was one of those days for me. I knew that God wanted me to turn the focus of The Compassion Ripple on the ripple that is closest to us relationally. I look forward to hear the stories of life change as you move with compassionate love toward your spouse, your kids, your neighbors and co-workers. I know that many of you are at the end of yourselves and ready to all God to bring life beyond your wildest dreams into your life. One person who talked to me after the service simply said, “I am so there!” He meant that he is at the point of the end of himself and the beginning of God.

The video of how compassionate UCF is to the world around was incredible. The shots of houses being built in Mexico, homeless being fed in Charlotte and Omaha, houses being built for cancer patients in Hickory and a small party being thrown for 12,000 of our closet friends in Harrisburg… it was incredible. To think all of this took place in the last 20 days is even more amazing. The way that this community moves out into the world with compassionate love absolutely blows me away. That is why I didn’t have to spend much time today challenging UCF to serve the world more… all I had to do was celebrate it. This church is incredible.

We had 37 people at our “New to UCF” lunch. It was a great time of sharing who we are in a creative way that is distinctly UCF. I look forward to seeing how God uses each new person in our community.

A day at Ridge Church. Most of the staff went to Ridge Church on Sunday night. They are a new church (6 months young) that meets in Matthews. I was very excited about how much I knew we would learn from simply being in their environments and seeing how they create an amazing experience for people. We showed up at 2 pm to help them load in and set up for their service at 6 pm. Seeing a group of people who have planned and prayed for a few years to begin a church in itself is an awesome sight. The feelings of 20-30 volunteers doing something that significant with their time is incredible to be around. We are already making notes on what we learned and what it means for UCF. More to come.