Keeping Watch

The Challenge of Mission The reality is when Adam ate the fruit (Gen 3:6), he disobeyed God's will, and ushered in this evil age of sin.  The one who tempted Eve was the serpent (Gen 3:1-5), Eve obeyed his suggestion, and Adam followed suit and thus man changed allegiance from God to obeying "that old serpent" who the Bible also refers to as "the great dragon" ... a.k.a. "the Devil, and Satan, which  deceiveth  the whole world" (Rev. 12:9 KJV) Thus our nature has changed and we are incapable of conforming to God's nature in our present state. The reason why it is so hard for people to make a decision for God, is because mankind is under the rule, dominion and deception of Satan.  Jesus Himself declared, "Ye are of  your father the devil , and  the lusts of your father ye will do . He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own:  for he is ...

Reason #1 : I don't know how many people I have messed up because of how messy I may or may not have been in sharing the gospel.  I believe the gospel is too precious to be handled in a callous or cavalier way.  I study missiology because I want to understand how to help people, who are different from me, who think differently from me, whose worldview or perspective on life is so alien to mine that everything about me is entirely and totally unfamiliar to them, and use their God-given power to choose God.  God has entrusted me with one job, and I must be careful how I handle it.  I don't want to mishandle or break God's message, and I don't want to abuse God's children and break their desire to turn to God because I didn't understand how to point them to the Creator.  I need to know how best to communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ so that it is meaningful to someone entirely different from me.  I know it is the Holy Spirit that brings conviction, but Go...

"Mission is messy" Last week I pointed out a few technical definitions of the term "missiology" it may or may not be apparent right now, but I hope if you continue on this journey with me, I will make it more apparent as we go along.  I have a friend who loves to say, "mission is messy."  This is because mission involves man.  According to the Bible, man is finite, wayward, and sinful (Deut 29:29, 1 Co 2:11, Isa 53:6, Rom 3:23).  We are really messed up! A couple of weeks ago I bought some brand new plates.  At that time, my son and I had just moved into our rental unit, and I decided to teach him to do some chores to call him to be a little more helpful.  I showed him how to wash plates just to get him started.  He's 9, so I didn't think it was too big a job for him, but not long after giving him that job, I heard a soft cracking sound in the dishwater as I turned to walk away from him.  Guess what? He broke one of our brand new plates. ...

I really thought I was done with studying, but it seems it is an inescapable reality when you are a Pastor.  Since I am currently enrolled in a Doctoral program in Intercultural Studies (or Missiology) with Andrews University, I figured it made sense to explain why I chose to study missiology. J. Edgar Elliston sums it up best, in my estimation, when he writes,  "Missiology is the study of the Missio Dei [literally, God's mission]. It involves all God has done, is doing, and intends to accomplish His purpose. The specific focus in missiology is to cross barriers for the communication of the good news of what God has done to reconcile humankind to Himself."      Elliston, Edgar J.. Introduction to Missiological Research Design (Kindle Locations 471-473). William Carey Library. Kindle Edition. (XXIV) One of my professors, Boubakar Sanou, wrote in his dissertation,  "Missiology is concerned with overcoming barriers to the full reception of the g...