I had a great conversation with Danny Foote this evening, Assistant Pastor of Calvary Chapel Kaharlyk. Great in the sense of "As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend." - Proverbs 27:17. I'll admit, Danny did most of the sharpening. I have a heart for missions, and I'm a Senior Pastor of a church in Arizona. Danny is a Pastor as well, but he's also living the life of an overseas missionary. (I won't get into the "everyone's a missionary" discussion as both Danny and I also had the talk on what word's mean to people, suffice it to say that Danny and Liese Foote are missionaries in a country they were not born too.)
We were discussing a statement made by a prominent Calvary Chapel Missions guy that sounded like a great slogan, but lacked factual and scriptural backing. Both of us love him, and his teaching, and he's an incredibly smart guy, yet the statement could lead to much light and not enough heat.
Here's the deal; Go into all the world, Preach the Gospel, make Disciples of all Nations. But when you are doing that, at least do some research into where people are coming from. This gives you the opportunity to be salt and light in a town, village, etc. and show what they are repenting from. Perhaps it's from worldliness, perhaps it's from a different 'spiritual' heritage, but regardless it gives us an even greater opportunity to share the Good News of Jesus!
Don't get me wrong, we don't sacrifice the Gospel. We don't give the people easy religion/works to follow in order to feel better about themselves. Instead we give them Jesus through a scriptural and local worldview. We must not compromise the Word of God in order to just simply get a 'convert notch' on your Bible. We need to love them and be the light God has called us to. We also need to recognize the priority we must place on ministry. But if they like personal one-on-one time, then we continue through discipleship and the local church.
So all that to say, "Thanks Danny!
It was good to sit down and discuss church planting and missions!!
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