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.The meeting that came out of that email was wonderful. We gathered, and I shared a brief look at Acts 13, Kevin Houk led us in a time of prayer and we spent a good chunk of time just crying out to the Lord for his grace to hear him, and then the faith to obey what He showed us that He wanted us to do. We set our hearts on fasting and seeking the Lord for the purpose of knowing what He was after in terms of outreach. We decided after the meeting that we would take several weeks to pray and fast and then come back together again.
I asked Kevin Houk if he would take leadership over this ‘project’ (or whatever you want to call it). He heartily agreed. If you don’t know it, you certainly should - Kevin and Angela are full of fire for reaching lost people - its a wonderful burden that burns in their hearts. I really admire them for their commitment to be missional in every area of their lives. Anyway, after quite a bit of juggling schedules Kevin finally managed to get us back together again for a meeting, one which occurred a few weeks ago. This meeting was different than the first, at least in part because I think we didn’t really know quite what to do. When you try and sincerely operate by asking the Holy Spirit what He wants to do, you really have to wait and see what He says. We are still in the process of figuring that out. But I want to share what came out of that second (and certainly not the last) ‘domestic missions’ meeting.
One of the things I suggested was that we think about where we saw the grace of God already at work, and then ask the question ‘what would God have us do in regards to what is right in front of our faces?’ A bunch of wonderful things came out of that question, and only one of them resembled an ‘idea’ (I’m kidding, but what I mean is that all of the things we mentioned were actually already happening, and only one was a new ‘idea’). First, there is a group of kids from the neighborhood where the Houks, Scott Blauch and Jason Robinson and the Pursley’s live in East Orange that have been regularly coming to the Houk’s home. Over 20+ different kids have been in the backyard or around the house interacting with the Houks. There have been many different things Kevin and Angela have done just to open their hearts to the kids that come around. It dawned on us as we were together taking about ‘domestic mission’ and listening to the Holy Spirit that we needed to respond to this obvious example of a place where grace was already flowing. At this point we are asking the Spirit - what would you have us do along side what is already taking place? Please contact Angela at her email (lambofgod.ahouk@gmail.com) if you are interested in knowing how you can be involved
Next, we listened to Jeff Demarco talk about what God has been doing through the Thursday night Bible Study that he has been running at his home. It has become a gathering place for all kinds of young people. It has also been a place where those seeking to know more about Jesus can come and hang out. Once again - it seemed obvious to us that God was already working here, already pouring out grace and that we needed to simply ask the question - What is the Spirit saying that we should be doing along side of Jeff and Amie regarding this work? Several things emerged - one, being the willingness to help them in preparing for this gathering on Thursdays (cooking, helping Amie to clean and prepare for the numbers who show up to eat and fellowship) as well as Friday morning helping Amie with the clean-up following the meeting on Thursdays. There are other things as well, and Jeff has lots of suggestions in this regard. Feel free to call or email (refinedautorefinishing@gmail.com)him.
Next Jeff mentioned a growing set of relationships with kids and cars in the area and the emergence of a ministry aimed at getting kids from his neighborhood together to work on their cars and to reach out to them for the sake of Jesus. We even thought of asking Uncle Vinnie (Dahmen) to bring his giant brain full of car knowledge to bear on something like this (as well as his giant heart for the gospel). Once more - ‘what is the Spirit saying to us?’
Rebecca Houk shared her heart for a nursing home in her area, and the burden she felt the Lord had placed on her to go their and begin to reach out to the old folks. She had already been once and had experience a blessing as she simply got involved with the residents. Once again - ‘what is the Holy Spirit calling us to do’ The grace of God is already flowing in Rebecca’s zeal and willingness to step out - what is He saying to others? Email (rkhdancer@yahoo.com) her if you want to be involved.
Then there was the burden that both Ben and I have been experiencing regarding the food pantry at Lamb. We know that 3 Wednesday’s a month people line up outside the church to get food. We also know that there is no effort to do anything more than hand out food. It occurred to us that we could open up the back door of the church, offer coffee and donuts and prayer for anyone who came who wanted to stop in. Sometime in the next few weeks Ben and I are going to start do this on Wednesday mornings. (Contact Ben if your are interested in participating at benstamper@hotmail.com)
Since having that meeting we also heard that Seton Beckwith, Marie Teresa, and several others are going to the women’s jail in Newark to minister to incarcerated women. Wow! That is so cool. God is answering out prayers (the ones we have been praying for the past 3 years). We haven’t seen revival yet, but we are seeing the Spirit stirring and churring the hearts of his people to fulfill the missio dei, the mission of God.
In less than two months we will send a team of 5 LOG guys off to the Amazon. In July we will send out a group of our kids to Belfast to minister among the youth of Belfast. These are things over which we can rejoice and be exceedingly glad.