Category: Book Reviews

Final post taken from Mission Drift: The Unspoken Crisis Facing Leaders, Charities, and Churches, Chapter 15 Pg 175.

            When working with World Relief and living in Rwanda, I (Peter) visited a rural church. Made of bricks, its structure was quite simple. But it was extraordinary because Rwandan villagers had built it with their own hands.

          World Relief had been serving in the community for several years, assisting with micro-enterprise development and child survival services. As the community grew stronger, the local members identified the need for a central place of worship. Pooling their savings from their increased business profits, they dedicated the money to rebuilding the church. Together, they laid its foundation. Together, they built its structure, brick by brick.

          When I met with community members, they said to me, “See what the Lord has accomplished through us.” And it wasn’t just a building; they were even prouder of the way they provided for widows and orphans.

          World Relief, born out of the church, was assisting in the birthing of this and many other churches around the world. And in the process, they throw another anchor overboard to grasp an even firmer hold of their mission.

MISSION TRUE and the CHURCH

          If you believe the church is a vital component of your mission, there are a few simple, yet effective ways to minimize confusion and work more effectively together. Mission True organizations:

1.  Invest relationally: Relationships are essential, but they take time. Investing in the local church leadership and building true friendships creates a foundation for collaboration.
2.  Over-communicate: It’s insufficient to have preliminary conversations and a memorandum of understanding. Regularly communicate progress and true metrics, and listen to the church’s feedback. One pastor in a rural part of Rwanda told me about my lackluster communication and stated, “We want to support you, but we need to know what you’re doing!”
3.  Are generous: They use their platforms and ministries to invite participants to attend local church events. If we’re truly all on the same team, we must actively promote others.
4.  Communicate with clarity: There is always the possibility of the “he said/she said” with partnerships of any sort. Especially cross-culturally, spending additional time clarifying roles, responsibilities, and commitments in writing grounds or anchors the partnership.
5. Worship and pray communally: Fellowship through worshiping and praying together strengthens connection and reminds us of our common position as men and women united in Christ.
6.  Are life-long learners: They seek unfiltered perspectives from global church partners and realize how much each group has to learn from the other.

As simple as these suggestions are, they create a more meaningful and impactful partnership.

CHURCH AS ANCHOR

          My brother and I used a cinder block as an anchor. Its mass served to steady our boat. Modern anchors often not only provide a mass to balance a boat; they also stabilize it by gripping the seafloor.

          When the anchor is first released, it bounces along the ocean floor before snagging the seabed. For a moment, the ship can sway – until the anchor grips the floor, stopping its drift. The church can help anchor us to our mission and identity. And it can help us stay Mission True!  

Bottom Line Confessions:

This Chapter 15 has been a learning experience for me on many levels. Humorously, you need to know I thought the Crouch that wrote the exquisite Forward that drew me into reading the book years ago, was the Andrae Crouch (1942-2015) referred to as the father of modern gospel music, that I associated with songs such as Through It All, Soon and Very Soon, The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power, My Tribute (To God Be the Glory.) Songwriter, arranger, record producer, even pastor, Andrae was noted for his talent of incorporating contemporary secular music styles into the gospel music he grew up with, paving the way for American contemporary Christian music to emerge during the ’60’s & ’70’s. Truly sad when Wiki has to educate me on so many topics!

However, the Andy Crouch that did write the Mission Drift foreward as printed in the June 30 post, graduated with a M.Div from Boston University School of Theology and served ten years as campus pastor with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Harvard University; hence I’m deducting Peter Greer and Andy met at Harvard somehow, sometime… And when I read Andy was a classically trained musician who draws on pop, folk, rock, jazz and gospel leading musical worship for congregations of five to twenty thousand, I logically assumed…. and we all know the trouble assumptions cause… Also, it appears Andy is now at the helm of Christianity Today after a lengthy association therewith editorially.

Secondly, I’m thinking I may have exceeded some of your attention spans taking 10 days to get thru one chapter. My apologies. Know that it was really hard for me to refrain interjecting other hot item posts midstream when I encountered them! I personally thrive on being fluid and responsive in the moment when inspired, hence I’ll not likely author a book, but rather seek to provide you bursts of insights & encouragements as encountered.

However, I trust this 10 day stint, as with other prior blogs, will in the complexities of your daily living be a resource when needed for either reinforcement or encouragement, for you and/or others.

NEXT UP: Andy Crouch changes his morning routine!

Taken from Mission Drift: The Unspoken Crisis Facing Leaders, Charities, and Churches, Pg 174.

While operating in a closed country context, an organization had a fantastic problem – people were coming to Christ. In fact, one survey revealed that 59% of families served heard about Christ for the very first time from staff members serving their community. Many individuals made a profession of faith and desired to gather together to “do church.” Eager to help and thrilled at the impact, staff members began home churches.

          These independent churches began growing and taking on church-planting responsibilities. But it didn’t take long for the problems to start. Questions of belief and practice came flooding in. With little training and no support, the staff members were unsure how to handle these challenges. They didn’t have the foundation to disciple others into mature, growing Christ-followers. These challenges impacted their service as their expertise was in community development, and they struggled to understand hoe to navigate key issues related to growing home churches. Clearly, they needed help.

          After several years of frustration, the group changed the approach and partnered with a local group of churches eager to expand to these communities. It was a symbiotic relationship – the local church had a new outreach tool, and the ministry was able to focus on its programs. Truly a win/win partnership. The church as a church, and the parachurch at her side.

          No entity is more expansive than the local church. Pastor and author of The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren illustrates this principle by laying out three maps of the western province of Rwanda. In the first map, three small dots mark the location of hospitals. The second map identifies the eighteen health clinics that serve 700,000 people. The third map identifies the churches – 82 OR 6 dots cover the map. This visual powerfully conveys that the church has a far greater scope and scale than virtually any other social entity in the region.

BOTTOM LINE:

Beyond these practical benefits, the underlying reason for partnership is that it binds organizations to their mission. The church grounds all good works in the grander vision of humanity’s fall and God’s redemption. It’s not easy, but for most organizations desiring to stay Mission True, the question with local church partnerships should be “How do we partner?” not “Should we partner?”

NEXT UP: Mission True org’s minimize confusion and work more effectively building churches by these 6 steps…

Taken from the book Mission Drift: The Unspoken Crisis Facing Leaders, Charities, and Churches. Pg 173.

       The global church needs each member, a lesson enthusiastic North American mission trip participants sometimes need to hear. We all have something to give, and we all have something to receive. For example, I have learned so much about prayer through my brothers and sisters in Rwanda and the Philippines. In the Dominican Republic, the church members have taught me about experiencing joy in Christ as I ’ve never experienced it before. No one person or org. has all the answers. As Paul said, “Just as a body, so it is with Christ.” Though this applies to individuals, it also covers institutions. We’re part of a much larger family and independence just isn’t an option.

Very rarely do we get a glimpse of Jesus’ prayer life. Though we know He frequently sought solitude to spend time with His Father, few passages reveal the prayers. That is what makes Jesus’ prayer in John 17 a fascinating glimpse of Christ’s heart.

Jesus lays out His attention for the body of Christ:

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one – I in them and you in me – so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

          BOTTOM LINE: Unity is the central characteristic of the body of Christ. And it’s this unity, Christ says, that will compel others to pay attention to the message of grace. In essence, we have the opportunity to fulfill Christ’s prayer when we partner with the local church in a spirit of friendship and mutual dependence.

          NEXT UP: No entity is more expansive than the local church which grounds all good works in the grander vision of humanity’s fall and God’s redemption.

Taken from the book Mission Drift Chapter 15 Pg. 171

         At a backyard party a few years ago, Laurel, my wife overheard a teenager’s rude comments making fun of our son. Trying to impress his friends, he used inappropriate words and gestures, unaware an adult was within hearing distance. Laurel grabbed our son and broke into tears as she walked away.

          Moments later, when I learned what happened, adrenaline shot through my body. The Popa Bear instinct kicked in. Walking over to the child who made the comments, I communicated that his words and actions were unacceptable. I very clearly suggested he not make them again. “It is time for you to go home. Right Now!” Nothing makes me react more strongly than someone threatening my wife or children.

          In Scripture, God talks repeatedly about the church as His bride. We know this bride has plenty of blemishes, yet she is still Christ’s bride. You cannot love the Bridegroom yet show disrespect for the bride.

          Imagine a friendship with someone who constantly berated the one you most treasure – it just wouldn’t be a friendship for very long. In a similar way, might the Bridegroom not take too kindly to us constantly pointing out the flaws and problems and miss the central point – the church is still His beloved and chosen bride?

          In God’s wisdom, the local church is God’s Plan A. There is no Plan B. His work continues through His chosen instrument. With a supernatural origination and divine mandate, the church is Christ’s hands and feet bringing the Good News as we love God and our neighbors. The Church is Christ in the world; Christ’s bride really makes Him present, at this time, in this place, among these people.

          While imperfect, the body of Christ is the anchor, “the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.” You cannot remain Mission True without a vigorous commitment to Christ’s body – the church.

          We would be wise to examine the practice of our Catholic friends and even some Protestant denominations. Their parachurch ministries fall under the authority and leadership of the church. This arrangement creates structures and accountability many evangelicals lack, For example, World Renew, the Christian Reformed denomination’s arm for relief reached more than 1.75 million people with life-changing services in 2011.

          Some parachurch ministries recognize the joys of partnering with the local church. Caring Partners International, a short-term medical missionary organization, understands that the local church is the sustain force behind their ministry. Their motto is “Partnering with the local church enables us to turn short-term trips into long term impact.” Without the local church, Caring Partners recognizes that their ministry is temporary. The church is what sustains the work of Christ for the long haul.

          In his book Walking with the Poor, Bryant Myers writes that Rene Padilla in a World Vision workshop highlighted the danger of missing the role of the local church in ministry: “The path to secularization is made straight if you lose sight of the local church.”

          Consider Habitiat for Humanity. Milliard Fuller founded the organization out of his faith convictions. In a difficult season of life, he “found God” and created Habitat to provide housing for the poor. His first Habitat project was an experiment while he served as a missionary in the Congo.

          During his final days, Fuller shared his greatest fear – that his organization would forget its Christian identity. And he noted that Habitat’s growth and success were perhaps its biggest downfall. Millard employed his fellow Baptists to fight for his org’s core: I have a deep concern that Habitat for Humanity remain firmly a Christian ministry.

“From the beginning, I have seen Habitat as a new frontier in Christian missions – a creative and new way to proclaim the gospel… My greatest concern for Habitat for Humanity is going secular.”

Without the church serving as an anchor at Habitat, Fuller recognized Habitat would drift. The church has lasted for over 2000 years and is a direct link to the teachings of Jesus. Despite humanity’s best efforts to crush it, it remains. In his book Bad Religion: How We Become a Nation of Heretics, Ross Douthat summarizes:

“You couldn’t spend your whole life in Campus Crusade for Christ, or raise your daughter as a Promise Keeper, or count on groups like the Moral Majority or the Christian Coalition to sustain your belief system beyond the next election cycle. For that kind of staying power you needed a confessional tradition, a church, an institution capable of outlasting its charismatic founders.”

BOTTOM LINE:   Wisdom lies in anchoring ourselves to the church as the church is anchored to Christ. Across time & culture & trends, the church remains.

NEXT UP: At some point, the realization hits “We can’t do it alone” in context with John 17’s Olivet Discourse, the question with local church partnerships for org’s desiring to stay Mission True should be “How do we partner?” not “Should we partner?”

Two Quick Short Stories & You’ll Understand!

Taken from the book Mission Drift Chapter 15 Pg. 169

Working in close collaboration with like-minded local churches is perhaps the easiest way to stay on mission. But from our experience, it’s also the most complicated.

Story One: Several years ago, while working in Rwanda with World Relief, I (Peter) gathered with staff and clients in a rural church to disburse small loans to assist entrepreneurs to start or expand their businesses. It was a time of celebration. Each client shared a business [lan and dreams for the future.

We later learned something alarming. Right after the staff members left, the local pastor called a special meeting with all the clients – a conveniently timed Bible lesson on tithing. He began his talk describing how the Bible required each member to tithe 10 percent. He then preached that tithing was required on any funds they received. Since they had all just accepted a small loan to invest in their businesses, he required each member to tithe 10 percent of the total loan amount. It would be like your pastor showing up after you just took out a $100,000 mortgage for your home and required you to “tithe” $10,000.

Members tried to share about the difference between productive investment and profit, but to no avail. If they wanted to to continue attending the church, they needed to pay up. The group of entrepreneurs disbanded after the first cycle, and it was not a positive experience for anyone involved.

Story Two: On another occasion working for a Christian microfinance organization in Rwanda, I received a recommendation from a senior denominational leader. Attesting to Sheila’s character, volunteer experience, and capacity, the letter was one of the most glowing reporsts I’d ever reviewed. We hired her.

Less than a year later, we discovered Sheila was stealing from the organization. It turns out Sheila was also the niece of the denominational leader who provided the reference. Conveniently, this detail was left out during the application process. Even more disheartening, when we discussed the issue with the denominational leader, he threatened us. He made it clear we’d face issues if we dismissed Sheila. Not denying the allegations, he misused his power to protect a family member.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case. “I know the church is described as the Bride of Christ in Scripture, but too often it acts like Bridezilla,” Gil Odendaal of World Relief remarked.

BOTTOM LINE:  Therefore, the question is why would organizations desire to tie themselves to the church when it seems it would so much easier to operate alone?

FYI, Merlin now, I was not at all familiar with ‘zilla term so consulting my phone I learned the term is assigned to a bride or a bride-to-be who is extremely demanding and difficult to deal with ticking off their friends, insulting family, abusing florists, photographers, and caterers! Get the picture?

NEXT UP: In God’s wisdom, the local church is God’s Plan A. God has no Plan B. Is that statement COUNTERCULTURAL or what? What’s sad is that man’s Plan B Mission Untrue may already be in practice by key leadership individually within the Church, or across or throughout congregations! That’s just the way the devil strategically facilitates DRIFT! I Repeat. God has No Plan B, in case you missed it!   

Relational Drift

For centuries, the local church was the centerpiece of outreach and service. The rapid creation of separate parachurch org’s is a relative recent phenomenon. Para, parachurch’s prefix, is Greek for “alongside” or “beside.” The purpose of the parachurch org is to come alongside, to support, the local church.

Following World War II, a concentrated effort to respond on a massive scale to the devastation of Europe and Asia began. Newspapers carried images of suffering in Europe and Asia to the doorsteps of many Americans, prompting a compassionate response. A few years later television opened eyes to the world’s needs. The result was the rapid increase of Christian relief and development org’s motivated by faith, but largely disconnected from the local church. Over time, many of these org’s, like Christian Children’s Fund, received increased funding from a variety of supporters.

No longer were partnerships with churches necessary. In fact, sometimes stifled organizational growth. Parachurch ministries and outreach org’s pursued independence. More significantly, a separation developed between the “works” of justice and the “message” of salvation. Slowly, the church was given the responsibility to share the Good News verbally while the work of physical restoration went to nonprofits.

David Bronkema describes the implications of this period: “In effect, the theological rubber band that held the two elements [of the Good News and good deeds] … had snapped.” But not all org’s walked away from the local church. Mission True org’s know the importance of collaboration with local congregations.

BOTTOM LINE:

One of these org’s is World Relief. Today they actively work to connect churches around the world. Every outreach program has to have a clear plan of action grounded in local church partnership. They recruit through local churches and actively seek to strengthen church networks. World Relief understood from the beginning that the building up of the church is the anchor to mission!

NEXT UP:

This collaboration with the local church can be complicated: resembling either a “bride,” OR “Bridezilla?”

Mission True organizations recognize that the local church is the anchor to a driving mission.

Drift. The very word conjures images of a boat blown by the wind and led by the currents. Lacking a clear destination. Floating endlessly.

            You don’t have to be an expert sailor to realize that there is an easy way to prevent your boat from drifting. Throw an anchor overboard.      

          When I (Peter) was in middle school, my brother and I would carry an old boat on our heads to the Concord River. We’d cast off. I’d do the rowing, Jon the fishing. The boat leaked, which only added to the adventure.

          An old cinder block and some rope served as our anchor. Nothing fancy, but it worked. Anchors are perhaps the most ancient of nautical adventures. Cinder blocks, old tires, or welded iron – they all do the trick.

          For org’s who desire to protect against Mission Drift, on of the most powerful anchors is the local church.

National Revival to Global Missions:

“We were birthed in a church, Park Street Church in Boston,” said Stephan Bauman, president and CEO of World Relief. Park Street Church in historic downtown Boston is home to many “firsts” including introducing Billy Graham to the revival ministry. Graham became a lifelong friend to Park Street’s pastor, Dr. Harold Ockenga. Graham said that “nobody outside my family influenced me more than [Ockenga] did. I never made a major decision without first calling and asking his advice and counsel.” Today Graham and Ockenga are credited as being the bricklayers of a revival toward Christian orthodoxy that swept across the nation.

But Park Street’s pastor was concerned with more than his own congregation and those across the country. He was convicted “that missions make the church” and “that the local church is the key to world missions.” He cared deeply for the needy. And he understood God’s heart for the vulnerable. As the president of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), Ockenga oversaw the creation of the War Relief Commission, which started partnering with local churches in Eastern Europe following the devastation of World War II.

Today it is known as World Relief, a global relief and development agency serving over four million people through 2,500 staff members and 60,000 volunteers in over 20 countries. World Relief’s birthplace was symbolic of its mission to partner with the church, a mission that is still at the heartbeat of the organization today.

BOTTOM LINE: “Everything we do is through the local church,” shared Bauman.

NEXT UP:  Did you know “drift” is birthed when the “works of justice” are separated from the “message of salvation”? Anyone relate?

CONCLUSION

As I (Peter) was packing up and getting ready to leave Rwanda to return to graduate school, my pastor warned, “People who go to schools like Harvard end up walking away from their faith. Please don’t it happen to you.”

          When I arrived in Camgridge, I braced myself for the secular assault on my faith. Bur what I found surprised me. Despite Harvard’s steady institutional drift since its founding, there is simply no doubt that God is still changing hearts in the halls once officially devoted to Christo et Ecclesiae, Christ and the Church.

          Once in Cambridge, I received an invitation to a barbeque at Jeff Barneson’s home. Jeff led InterVarsity Christian Fellowship on the campus, and I was amazed at how many people were there. Even before classes started, I realized Harvard was full of people eager to live out their faith. I struck up a friendship with Jimmy, and we decided to meet regularly to pray for the school and our classmates.

          But an even greater surprise was that throughout my graduate school experience, there was a surprising openness to issues of faith. My classmates were incredibly intelligent, driven, and compassionate. They were not bombastic, but rather open to thoughtful conversation. We all had questions and were there to thoughtfully discuss answers.

          When Billy Graham asked Harvard’s former president, Derek Bok, “What is the biggest problem among today’s students?” Bok replied “Emptiness.” To fill this emptiness, many students are asking real questions about life. And none of us had the intellectual audacity to claim we had figured it all out!

          In its early years, Harvard overtly encouraged students to explore the relevance of Scripture and faith in all areas of life. While not explicit today, there is still honest exploration. And despite the changed mission, people are coming to Christ at Harvard.

          While in Cambridge, I read a book called Finding God at Harvard, and I realize my experience was not an anomaly. While some walked away from their faith, many others found new faith in Christ while studying.

          Harvard’s motto, Veritas, “was just another, shorthand way of recognizing Jesus Christ, who was seen as the ultimate Truth.” Throughout the university, lives are being transformed as the God of Truth continues to reveal the divine in the midst of honest pursuit.

          However, as much as we see God still at work at Harvard, we can’t help but wonder what would have happened if Harvard had remained true to its original purpose.

          What if this institution had figured out how to vigorously pursue academic excellence without giving up the quest for Truth?

          What if leaders had learned to stimulate innovation but not at the cost of losing their core identity?

          What if they trained men and women for global engagement yet also encouraged leaders to devote themselves fully to the living God?

          What if it had remained Mission True?

Harvard, ChildFund, and the Y slowly drifted, and the world will never know what would have happened if they continued to be Mission True.

          Today, too many boards, staff, and leaders are silently choosing to follow this well-worn path of Mission Drift.

          Monitoring inputs and outputs, they forget to measure what matters most – their ability to implement their full mission. They hire for technical competency alone. Soft-pedaling their Christian identity, they do not defend their mission. Growth becomes their primary definition of success.

          However, in researching this book, we discovered there is another option chosen by courageous Mission True leaders. The more we learned their stories, the more we were encouraged. From their founding, these leaders stood unwaveringly upon the truth of the Gospel. In all areas, they have demonstrated intentionality and clarity in retaining Christian distinctiveness. They are committed to Christ, first and foremost.

BOTTOM LINE:        

  Today, you have the privilege of choosing which path your organization, church, ministry, life will take. Will you follow the path toward Mission Drift OR will you have the intentionality, courage, and resolve to follow a path of faithfulness? Imagine the potential impact of a generation choosing to remain Mission True.

NEXT UP:

For the brevity of the hour and the necessity of its message, the next seven posts, Lord willing, will be taken verbatim from chapter 15 of Mission Drift, titled: Save the Church – Mission True organizations recognize that the local church is the ANCHOR to a thriving mission.

..

Peter Greer and Chris Horst have identified one of the deepest challenges any leader faces: how to ensure that an organization stays true to its mission, especially when that mission becomes countercultural! (merlin now: Actually, being countercultural is all most of us oldsters have ever known, whereas you birthed since ’80, may regard the past 35 years as more or less, normal; and your parents as being paranoid, or worse). And, Peter & Chris squarely and succinctly have faced the more specific challenge of our time: how to create lasting institutions that forthrightly place the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ at the heart of their mission.

          I appreciate the way Peter and Chris are careful to affirm t want us to ponder the path to the “Y” from the “YMCA.” The Y has gradually elided not just three quarters of its name, but much of its original Christian mission, and most traces of its founding history, from its institutional identity. What happened to the comprehensive vision of human flourishing that once might have placed the real good of basketball in a context of greater goods and God’s ultimate good? Drift happened.

          To be sure, one person (or generation)’s “drift” is another’s “growth.” But Peter and Chris remind us that too often, institutional drift is fundamentally unintended, the result not of sober and faithful choices in response to wider changes but simply unchosen, unreflective assimilation. Peter and Chris are not asking us to create organizations that never grow or change – they are asking us to create organizations that do not drift passively downstream when the cultural currents become swift.

          They are marvelously honest about the sources of drift. Money plays a key role (as they remind us, you cannot understand the secularization of American colleges without understanding the role of the Carnegie pension bequest). There is also the simple failure to pay attention at crucial moments, such as the selection of board members, or the words we use to describe ourselves and our cause to diverse audiences. Most of all, there is the scandal of the Gospel, which constantly calls all human beings and human institutions to repentance and transformation rather than accommodation and self-preservation.

          This book addresses two dimensions of Mission Drift. The first kind is the drift that can happen on our watch, even under our very noses, when we take our mission for granted. The second is the drift that may or will happen after our watch, and direct influence, has ended.

          The first kind is above all a call to personal humility and accountability. I found their reminder of why leaders fail – precisely at the moments when they seem to be succeeding – bracing and challenging. The greatest temptations it seems, comes at moments of great success or promise of success, the moments when it is easier to forget our desperate need for God, without whom we can do nothing truly good or enduring.

          The second kind of drift, meanwhile, is a call to institutional humility and accountability. I’ve had the opportunity to personally witness what happens at 11 a.m. in the offices of International Justice Mission, when meetings, email, and phone calls screech to a halt and the entire staff gathers for prayer. Peter and Chris describe the board members of the Crowell Trust talking time every single year to pray and read its founding funder’s vision out loud. These are vivid examples of institutional humility (as strange as that phrase sounds) practices that keep ambitious and energetic people grounded in something beyond themselves, something that came before and will endure after their monetary stewardship of the organization’s mission.

          The point of this book is not to denigrate or denounce the institutions that have changed, even from Christian roots, to become something quite different. Indeed, we need institutions that cross boundaries and barriers in our pluralistic, secular world, making room for faith without requiring it. I love Peter and Chris’s appreciation for the genuine flourishing, and room for faith, that is possible at secularized institutions like Harvard University. There are still plenty of young Christian men who are called to play basketball at the Y, alongside neighbors who may not share their faith. Avoiding Mission Drift does not require us to retreat into safe, sectarian subcultures.

          But some of us are called to tend earthen vessels that hold an incomparable treasure: the scandalous offer of grace from the world’s Creator, through the sending and self-giving of the Son, in the power of the Spirit. Staying Mission True requires first of all that each of us become, personally, more and more deeply converted by this unlikely and beautiful mission. And then we are called, no doubt with fear and trembling, to do our best to build structures that will help that mission be encountered and believed long after we are gone.

          BOTTOM LINE:  Thankfully, this is not just our mission – in fact, in the most important sense it is not our mission at all. It is the mission of the One who will remain true even if all prove false, who has never drifted from His love and creative purpose. “The One who calls you is faithful, and He will do it.” I Thess. 5:24

NEXT UP: We’ll see, won’t we? Unknown yet.