Missions and The Kingdom

For a long time in my life, I glossed over the many, many verses in the Bible that refer to the Kingdom of God. I guess I thought that it was always referring to Heaven or some distant place in the future, and as long as I was going there it really didn't matter to me at this point what it was like. 'The kingdom of God is near' never made a lot of sense to me. Why was Jesus saying it was near when it's been 2000 years and it still isn't here?


Then I came across a book titled 'The Divine Conspiracy" by Dallas Willard and the idea of the Kingdom began to come alive to me. I realized that the Kingdom is a present reality just as much as a future one. This new way of looking at things became very important in the way I thought about missions. I came to realize that at it's core, missions is about the present time expansion of the kingdom of God.



So what is a kingdom ...
Very simply, a kingdom is a place where a king rules. The extent of the rule determines the size of the kingdom. Anywhere the king's will is followed is part of the kingdom; anywhere the king's will is not followed, is not part of the kingdom.


Translating this into Christian terms ... the kingdom of God exists where the will of God is done. When Jesus teaches us to pray 'thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven', He is telling us what 'thy kingdom come means.' The second phrase is simply a clarification or restatement of the first. This is the 'missions' portion of the Lord's prayer.


If you think about it, there are really only two ways for the kingdom to come to earth or to expand. First, it can expand in our lives as we become more and more people who do what God wants us to do. Second, it can expand as it enters into the lives of more and more people. This internal and external kingdom expansion is why we are here. This is the good news. It is why Jesus came.


The Significance to Missions ...
I had always felt that the sole purpose of missions was to glorify God. I still believe this to be true, but I had to reconcile it with this idea of missions being defined as Kingdom expansion. John Piper says that missions exists because perfect worship does not. He views missions as the path to extend the worship of the one true God (for the joy of all peoples). If we couple this with the definition of worship given to us by Paul in Romans 12:1 (being a living sacrifice), Piper's statement becomes 'missions exists because perfect, living sacrifice does not'. A living sacrifice is nothing more than a person submitting his or her will to God's will. So I was able to reconcile the two ideas - Romans 12:1 showed me that the goal of worship (or glorifying God) is really one in the same as the goal of God's will being done on earth (or Kingdom expansion).

So when Jesus tells a story and says 'the kingdom of God is like ...', he is often talking missions. When strategizing about missions, we must use a kingdom view, and our main goal must be Kingdom expansion. If we think of any other structure or goal other than the Kingdom of God, we will get bogged down by organizations, rules, and human limitations. If we think in terms of kingdom expansion we can see it expand like yeast through bread or like a mustard seed as it turns into a tree. CPM strategies (which I will describe in future posts) take a Kingdom expansion view and that is why they work.



And I just happened to be reading ...
I just happened to read Luke 11:20 this morning so I'll throw it in free of charge. :) Jesus says "If I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you." There is the 'Kingdom' word again. Jesus is saying here that if God's will is entering a person's life and a demon is being driven out, it means the Kingdom has come. He is once again clarifying for us what it means for the Kingdom to come! I'm telling you - once you grasp this concept you will see it everywhere.

CPM - What is it?

OK, so I used an abbreviation in the title of my previous post that I didn't define - CPM. It stands for Church Planting Movements and will be the focus of our strategy in India. A CPM is a phenomena that missiologists began taking note of in the 1990s. It has resulted in a complete paradigm shift over the last decade in the way most missions organizations approach church planting around the world.

At its simplest, a CPM is a movement of rapidly multiplying churches. David Garrison says it this way - "A Church Planting Movement is a rapid multiplication of indigenous churches planting churches that sweeps through a people group or population segment."

How we (the church) stumbled upon this ...
In the 1990s, several segments of population around the world (within China, India, Cuba, North Africa, etc.) began experiencing explosive growth in the number of churches and believers. God was up to something big! He was also up to something quite different than had been seen in recent time. This explosive growth showed some unusual characteristics. The growth was occurring in persecuted population segments. It was not marked by a organizational structure. In fact, organizations couldn't keep up with the growth; it was out of control. It was made up mostly of small churches (10 - 50 people) meeting in homes or in the community. Most leaders were not seminary trained and were not paid. It was self-sufficient and did not require a lot of outside resources or funding. The movements were marked by signs and wonders that are difficult for many of us to comprehend. These characteristics were unusual for the modern times, but they also looked remarkably similar to characteristics of the early church in the book of Acts! Could it be that God has chosen this time in history to begin pouring out his Spirit in a special way on certain peoples of the world?

What kind of growth are we talking about ...
Here is one example. In China I had the privilege of meeting and learning from a couple who had sparked tens of thousands of churches to form and hundreds of thousands of people to begin following Christ in less than a decade. As you can imagine, people were skeptical of the reports so some outside research teams were sent in to validate them. In one case the researchers found a church that was 13 generations removed from the original. Take 2^13 and see what would happen if all the churches had multiplied like that! It was not uncommon to find churches 5-10 generations away from the source. Everything was really happening as reported, and rapid multiplication was the key. Similar, but smaller movements have continued to occur all across China. The church in China is estimated today at over 100 Million and growing. The church in China has grown from relatively few in 1980 to a point where more people attend church in China than in the U.S.!!

So I ask you, who wouldn't want to be a part of this? CPM is our goal for our work in India. It is a huge and humanly unattainable goal. We set it as our goal because it is the only way possible to meet the spiritual needs we see. Building a church, or two, or ten just would not sufficiently meet people's needs. In addition, it would take monetary resources away from other initiatives such as orphan care, HIV/AIDS care, Leprosy care, providing clean drinking water, and fighting poverty.

Fortunately, we share this goal with many like-minded groups throughout the India. We are all working together to see the Kingdom expand - and Kingdom expansion is the goal. I think I'll spend some time writing on Kingdom expansion during my next post. You can't really understand the Biblical basis for CPM until you have a little bit of a grasp on what Jesus is talking about when he refers to the Kingdom. He talks about the Kingdom more than just about anything else yet it is a word we don't use much in the church. In fact most of Jesus' parables begin with the phrase 'the Kingdom of God (or of the Heavens) is like ...'. These parables are where we first start to see CPM principles in the Bible.

A New Focus and My CPM Influences

I've been away from blogging for a while, and I'm sure all 2 of you who read this blog regularly have really been upset! :)

I'm introducing a new focus today!! For the next 6 months or so I have given up my MBA classes and will be using that time to focus on developing a plan for my church to facilitate church planting in India. (Before you give me extra credit for giving up MBA classes, you need to know that Sprint cut my reimbursement. God has a funny way of showing us the direction we should go!! )

I will be travelling to India in October to kick off the strategy so until then, I will be writing about what I am learning. I'd love for you to follow along on the journey with me.

First things first ... my thoughts on church planting have a bunch of influences. As I write, I'm sure I will not adequately give credit where credit is due so I thought I'd take care of that up front. Here is a list of people - both famous and not so famous - who I have learned a great deal from.

Ken Lumley - He would likely be shocked to see his name here, but he was the first person who taught me to spend daily time with God and how to share my faith. He also introduced me by email several years ago to an author named Dallas Willard who has greatly influenced the way I think about God and His Kingdom.

Bob Anderson - He reinforced in me what it means to be fully committed to a God. He demonstrated for me that God is worthy of our complete trust. I would not be the same person today without Bob's influence.

Jeff Lewis - I heard a talk from this man while in college that revealed to me God's heart for the nations in a way that has impacted me ever since.

John Piper - His book - Let the Nations Be Glad - is an amazing look at the desire of God to see all peoples find joy in Him.

Erwin McManus - His book - An Unstoppable Force - is the vision of what a church movement could or should be. His writing and speaking have greatly influenced me.

Matthew Nance - My friend and coach. He taught me that nothing is too bold. I have never met anyone with more of a 'just do it' attitude. The Kingdom needs more of that! Most of us have a 'just sit on my rear and listen to the pastor talk' attitude.

YK - The author of T4T which you will here a lot about. He is a humble, unimpressive man on the outside who relatively silently, in his own part of the world, may be doing more than any other person to expand the Kingdom.

Bill S. - The person who introduced me to CPM, T4T, and other strategies that are working internationally. An incredibly passionate and no-nonsense man who I admire very much.

Countless IMB Friends - I can't possibly list all the people I have learned from during conferences, training, and conversations around a dinner table. There are truly great people at the IMB.

Neil Cole - The author of Organic Church. A true practitioner of multiplication church planting principles in the USA.

Dallas Willard - A philosopher and writer whose thoughts on the Kingdom of God have changed the way I think about Christianity.

David Garrison - The author of Church Planting Movements. A man who took time to research what God is doing around the world and write it down in an understandable and doable way. I will refer to his book a lot.

Floyd McClung - I have just recently met Floyd. I have heard him speak and visit his blog from time to time. He is living all of this stuff out in South Africa. He's a great teacher and the Kingdom is benefiting greatly from his work.

Schaun Colin - A man who simply loves. He loves God, loves kids, and loves serving. I've learned a lot about love, justice, and mercy from him.

Peter and Joshua - two great friends in China who I miss dearly and who I learned a lot from in my two years there.

Matt Adams - A man passionate about following Jesus within community. I learned a lot from him about leading small groups in a U.S. setting which although I didn't realize it at the time, translates beautifully into church planting in an international setting.

Conservatives, Liberals, and the Great Depression

Just a quick post to share something I find kind of funny. Most of you probably won't, but I'll share it anyway. :)

I was in two facebook status/comment discussions at the same time. With one person I was arguing that government spending did in fact have an impact on the economy and the idea of a stimulus was a good thing. With the other person, I was defending the argument by Republicans that there is plenty of non-economic focused spending in the stimulus bill that shouldn't be there. Then in unison ... they both bring it up - The Great Depression.

Person 1 paraphrase: The Great Depression showed that government intervention works - FDR was a hero.

Person 2 paraphrase: The Great Depression showed that government intervention didn't work - FDR was a goof. We would have recovered much quicker without him.

Hilarious. Same event, and two completely opposite views ... so I did what anyone would do - I googled it. Turns out the real economists are split pretty evenly on this as well. The cause of the Great Depression is generally agreed upon (Money Supply, Gold Standard, etc.) The reasoning for why it took us over 12 years to recover is not. Very good arguments have been made both ways by people smarter than me. It's hard to argue with the fact that we did recover ... eventually. It is also hard to argue with the fact that it was the worst (most prolonged and painful) recovery ever. Oh yes ... and that most all the other countries in the world suffering through the same depression recovered much quicker.

Another interesting note: FDR was viewed at that time much as Obama is now, and Hoover was viewed much as Bush is now. FDR could do no wrong. I ran into a Will Rogers quote, he basically said that FDR was idolized so much that he could burn down the white house and the public would say 'great, look at that, we started a fire!'. Hoover was thought to be market driven and relaxed on government-intervention but his actions in office were anything but. This reminds me of Bush talking about fiscal responsibility and spending a whole bunch of money.

So the lesson here in my humble opinion is to beware of group-think. We all have a certain opinion, then we read things that mostly match that opinion. Look at anyone's blog roll to see this - generally not much diversity there. As we read more, we begin to lean even more in that direction. Eventually we think one side is right and the other side is wrong when the truth usually lies somewhere in the middle. If living in China taught me anything, it is that we as humans are not the independent thinkers we claim to be - we are very much a product of the information we take in.

Some Random Thoughts

There is not enough time for blogging lately ... here's what's been on my mind.

1. our congress as a whole is dishonest and disappointing and that is about as gentle as I can put it. This article explains it well: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/17/cafferty.stimulus/index.html

2. excited that the India microfinance ministry my wife and I are helping with will have a story in the KC Star ... Wednesday I think ... look for it.

3. bummed I have to quit school for a while (Sprint cut my funding :) ). I will have to come up with some other kind of project to work on in the mean time.

4. impressed with the coaching job Bill Self did against kstate on Saturday ... assigning lesser players to begin fouling Clemente and Pullen consistently was brilliant (and perfectly legal). Clemente has got to keep his cool there.

5. btw, I think Frank did a good coaching job as well - just has less talent right now. He doesn't have the 'bring everyone up top and then lob a 30 foot pass to the big guy' option.

5. wishing people would stop calling Clemente's frustration hit to the head of Reed a punch. Reed didn't even notice it or turn around. If it was a punch, he would have. Clemente shouldn't have done it ... but it was not a punch. My two year old hits harder than that. Same deal with the elbow ... yes - it was correctly called a technical, no - he was not really trying to hurt him. Again, I've been elbowed more seriously by my two year old in the last 24 hours. :)

6. pondering why Christians have to be so cheesy. Have you listened to KLove lately ... uggh.

7. amazed at the simplicity yet profoundness of Jesus' stories - there is so much meaning packed into simple stories about seeds, wheat, fruit, harvest, loans, sons, daughters, and money.

8. also amazed at the story of Joseph - one of the few old testament men who did almost everything right. Most of the others seem to be blessed in spite of themselves.

9. now you know where I'm at in my read through the Bible in a year effort ... can't wait to blog on Leviticus. Yippee.

Cheney's comments - Scary!!

An excerpt from a report on an interview with former VP, Cheney:

“When we get people who are more concerned about reading the rights to an Al Qaeda terrorist than they are with protecting the United States against people who are absolutely committed to do anything they can to kill Americans, then I worry,” Cheney said in the interview published Wednesday.
"These are evil people. And we’re not going to win this fight by turning the other cheek," he said.

Yikes, these are some scary comments. How can a person not be more concerned about values like freedom, and human rights than these quotes show? In my mind the only way you can possibly justify this type of behavior is if you are confident that every person you are interrogating is in fact guilty. In my opinion, there is no way that is possible. We have been torturing innocent people, and the fact is you could make a good case we shouldn't even be torturing the guilty ones!

I personally am willing to sacrifice a bit of safety in order to stand up for American values. If you think about it, we actually do that every day with domestic policy. I have lived in mainland China and can tell you that I have never felt safer than when I was there. However, freedom and human rights are greatly sacrificed there to achieve this safety. They execute people for things we would not. They do not allow any type of firearms at all. Often times you are guilty until proven innocent.

2000 or so people died in the twin towers attack, and that is terrible. But how many people have died due to gunshots? How many people have died because convicted felons are put back on the street? How many people have died because we presume innocence? My guess is it is a much bigger number than 2000 - and yet we are generally ok with it because it preserves our values of freedom and human rights.

We sacrifice our local safety daily so we can experience these liberties. Why should this change when we look at foreign policy? I don't think it should. Treat all people as human, with respect, and value them. This is how we will set an example for the world. If it makes us a little less safe, so be it.

Cut it off!

I'm still spending time reflecting on the Sermon on the Mount. Today I thought of something I've never thought of before. I'm sure someone has somewhere, but I've never heard it.

When Jesus says "If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out," or "If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off," it has always been a bit confusing to me. I've always just accepted that he is exagerating for effect ... after all it would be ludicrous to start chopping off body parts. (and painful!)

Here is my new thought: His point is more literal than that. This actually WOULD be the way to handle it if the parts of your body were causing you to sin, BUT THEY ARE NOT! He is not exaggerating. Instead he is mis-attributing the cause of your sin and taking that to it's logical conclusion so you realize how ridiculous it is! The truth is that at the end of all the chopping, you would be a bloody stump and still have a sinful heart. You've addressed the symptoms, but not the cause.

Your eye is not causing you to sin, and neither is your hand. Sin is not about the body, it is about the heart. The body is only an expression of the heart. This fits in beautifully with his next words equating adultery and lust, as well as his words equating hate and murder. He is telling us that it is not about the outside, it is about the inside. It is so clear, I am not sure why I haven't heard it or thought it before.