Leaning into something new with God can be uncomfortable. There is an element of unsureness that we can encounter because even though we know He is faithful and has never let us down (hallelujah), we can still be uncomfortable when walking into the unknown. If we...
Last week on social media, I shared a Twitter thread from well-known Christian author and speaker, Beth Moore. In the wake of the Will Smith Oscar breakdown and the news of yet another high-profile minister who was losing his ministry to impropriety, she passionately...
Let me tell you what the Gospel is not. The Gospel is not, “I am a Sinner; I work hard to improve myself and God approves me because of my effort.” That is not the Gospel. This is the Gospel: “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Some of us may wonder, “What kind of influence can I have for God if I’m not working in the Church?” And the answer is, “quite a significant one.” B4T and the Great Command B4T is a unique approach to spreading the Gospel to the ends of the earth, as the Lord...
Some of us may wonder, “What kind of influence can I have for God if I’m not working in the Church?” And the answer is, “quite a significant one.” BAM and the Great Command BAM is a unique approach to spreading the Gospel to the ends of the earth, as the Lord...
You know when I was a pastor, my passion was the Gospel; the proclamation of Jesus Christ and the discipleship of people through the local church. That was my job. So, my job was pastor, my passion was the Gospel. But now for the last decade or so, I have been back in the marketplace. And you know what? My passion is still the Gospel. I sit at a different seat now. I’m in a marketplace seat. I’m involved in managing apartments and developing apartments and Realestate but my passion as a believer is still the same. My job is different but my vocation (my vocation or “vocare” from the Latin word “calling”) is still the same; the Gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ. I just do that now from a marketplace seat. So, I want to encourage all of you, whether you work in a church, whether you work in a marketplace, whether you’re on the mission field, the vocation and calling of every believer ultimately is the same. It is to embody the kingdom and to proclaim and glorify the name of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth. That’s your job, that’s your vocation.
I’m on vacation this week with my whole family — Mandy and all three of our kids, my mom and dad, my brother and sister-in-law and their two little ones, and even some dear friends we’ve known for 25 years. So I thought it would be a good week to share an excerpt from...
Something that I have been reflecting on more recently is the increasingly apparent move of God that is now, and will be, coming through the marketplace rather than only in the church. While this does not take away from the vital nature of the church, it does increase...
And at The Stone Table, we define BAM this way: Business as mission is the intentional integration of business and ministry to create a sustainable, missional presence of the kingdom of God in a particular community. Across the globe, all kinds of marketplace work is being embraced as a Great Commission opportunity to take the Gospel to every ethnos. We have missionary entrepreneurs that are starting sustainable farms, tourism companies, CrossFit gyms, and coffee shops in areas devoid of Gospel witness. We have gig economy workers like graphic designers and book editors that are moving their base of operations to strategic missions’ outposts. We have take-a-job missionaries that are partnering with local church planting teams and are embedding in local corporations that are moving them to unreached parts of the world. We have business owners that are franchising their models to missionary teams that could take the Gospel into places that traditional missionaries cannot go. And missionary investors are underwriting the risky startup costs of these strategic BAM projects through grant and investment dollars. And they’re embracing this multiple bottom-line definition of success and Great Commission returns.
Workism: Faith in Work As I’ve been piecing together Paul’s theology in the epistle to the Colossians, I’ve found that there is something interesting he addresses when it comes to spiritual powers. While there is some debate about the verse in specific, there is a...
So, what is the Great Commission? Do you know? The Great Commission is Jesus’ last instructions to his disciples as he ascended into heaven. These instructions weren’t just for professional pastors and missionaries. Jesus’ words were aimed at all of us who call him “Lord,” including those of us with marketplace jobs. Look at Matthew 28:19. It says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” It says “go,” to move out, to train up followers of all nations. And the Greek word here is actually ethnos. It’s ethnos or a people joined by similar customs or culture. We can better translate this word, not as geo-political nation states, but as people groups. And Jesus said to go make disciples of all of them. But the Joshua Project estimates there as many as 7,400 unreached people groups in the world today. These 7,400 people groups total 3.1 billion people or 42% of the global population. And for many of these people, were not just talking about a general disinterest in Christianity, we’re talking no access to the Gospel. If you are born into this 42%, there is a good chance that you will live and die without ever as much as meeting a Christian let alone hearing the life-giving message of Jesus. And this should disturb all of us. See, if you belong to Jesus, the Great Commission belongs to you.
That’s why two recent Barna surveys on global missions and evangelism really shocked and troubled me. Maybe you saw these. According to Barna, over half of all churchgoers, 51%, are completely unfamiliar with the concept of the Great Commission. But I think even more disturbing, they found almost half of practicing Christian millennials believe that evangelism is wrong. And perhaps these responses reflect a rejection of some historical missions’ missteps that were rooted more in western colonialism than the gospels full redemptive work. Perhaps, but I fear something worse. I fear God’s people may actually be losing God’s heart for the nations. I fear we’ve turned the Great Commission into more of a great suggestion. If we really love people, won’t we move heaven and earth to tell them how their sins can be forgiven, how they can find union with their heavenly father, and how they can function in the fullness of the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. The answer is yes, and we passionately believe that mobilizing entrepreneurship, business, and the marketplace is a vital part of that Great Commission calling.
You know when we talk about the gospel, we often think about something kind of ethereal and in over here. It deals with our spiritual life and so, when we go to work every day, when we engage in the realities of our everyday life, it’s like we know those two things go together but kind of you know the gospel is more spiritual. It’s over in this realm and you know then I gotta deal with my business, I gotta deal with my work and strategy and marketing and finance and all of those different kinds of things. And we don’t really connect to those things, but I was reading in Romans one this morning. In Romans one there’s this famous verse says, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. For it is the power of God.” The gospel is the power of God. I just got to thinking about that within the context of our everyday lives, including our everyday work. You know the gospel is not just some other good moral philosophy, it’s not just another interesting religious story. The gospel is literally power. The gospel is power. The gospel actually does something in us and around us and through us. The gospel is intended to be fuel for everyday living, our faith, our work, our home lives, our finances. The gospel is power; the gospel is not just another interesting moral philosophy. The gospel is power. So, I just want to encourage you with that this week, to think about how you can tap into the gospel. The power of God. It is there as a gift for you, it is not just some spiritual aspect of your life to be relegated to the spiritual or ethereal realm. It is the power of God for real everyday living. You can tap into it; your work can tap into it. It is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes.