Go into all the world, or at least our own back yard!
In Acts 13 a remarkable thing occurs - we get an inside look at how the early Christians launched ‘new ministry.’ (1)Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. (2)While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” (3)Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
In all my experience as a pastor I’ve only been involved with anything resembling this on a few occassions. I’ve been in tons of planning meetings, and idea sessions and various and sundry attempts at launching various ‘ministry’ things, but very few occassions of what took place here in Acts 13. One of the most powerful experiences of this occurred on my first or second trip to Brazil. In a meeting very similiar to the one described here in Acts 13 - a group of leaders did virtually the same thing in setting apart Rick Widner form ministry in Brazil.
A little over a month ago I had a similiar experience here at LOG. After taking time away to pray and seek the Lord it began to dawn on me that we needed to do a similar thing (as in Acts 13) here at Lamb. You may recall seeing an email which Kevin Houk sent out around that time for the purpose of gathering those who were interested in seeing what the Holy Spirit was up to in the area of domestic missions, i.e. what’s the Lord doing right here in our back yard in terms of reaching people for Christ. (more…)
Pray to the Lord of the harvest
I was blessed so much by Nigerian missionaries Benard and his wife Rawn sharing with us this past Sunday morning(4.8.07) for our service. They are simple, straightforward servants of Jesus who love the gospel and have dedicated their lives to preaching the good news. They have risked their comfort, safety and even their lives to go to the villages of Nigera to teach people about Jesus. They are actual heroes of the faith, and we are honored to have them in our midst. I would encourage anyone who is able to consider assisting them (although they were very low key in their request for help, they actually do have significant needs).
(Art by Cameron Grey)
Sunday (3.25.07) I will be preaching on the first few verses from Colossians Chapter 2.I have spent time thinking, praying and studying these few verses and I am so touched by what I find. First, the simplicity of what God is after. No matter how many times I come back to it, the beauty of love still, after many years grips me. Here in this passage Paul speaks of his struggle to impart to the Colossians a subtle, but plain truth: A great deal of our experience of Jesus is imparted to us through the quality of community we have as a local body of Christians. 
N.T. Wright’s message called: 
When Paul spoke of “becoming all things to all people” what does it mean for us? I know that Paul had in view Jewish people, and the cultural understanding which they brought to the table when thinking about things like God, salvation, life and death. I know that he also had in view the Pagan world and likewise their understanding of God. 
In Mark chapter 9 the disciples and Jesus have an encounter with a young person who is terribly afflicted by a demonic presence. The father of that boy described his agonizing situation like this: “
I am convinced that God is about to bring a new day of evangelism to Lamb of God, and to many of the churches we have been walking with in the Cry for Awakening. I have noticed within myself, and in our prayer meetings a new urgency and growing desire to see the Gospel be proclaimed. The prayers of the people are increasingly reflecting earnest petition for God to break the shackles of the fear of man from all of us. We have had a number of new converts to Christianity in the past few months (New believers not necessarily intergrated into the congregation, but I suspect will be soon). I am convinced in my heart that this is only the beginning. 
Tuesday and Thursday morning we have a prayer meeting. Both of these are devoted to praying for revival. I have come to love them dearly. This morning was really encouraging. Much of the prayer was devoted to evangelism. There were several elements to those prayers. First, there is the overall problem of the fear of man. I think everyone present understood that the US church pretty much cowers in the corner when it comes to evanglizing people. The idolatry of not wanting to be thought of as “extreme” or “fanatical” has done a through job of scaring most Christians right back into the closet, so to speak. There was much prayer about boldness, and breaking the hold which the “fear of man” has on American Christianity.