Coaching Churches

During the last century there were very clear distinctions between the concept of evangelism and missions.  In the simplest of terms evangelism was reaching people for the local church and missions was reaching people for the kingdom.

Within the context of missions there was a local, national and an international segmentation.  This implied the potential for several different strategies to be effective in all of these areas.  It was understood that to reach people in an international context that significant cultural barriers had to be addressed for the gospel to be effective.

Today the cultural distance between the people who are in the church in America and the people who are not is significant enough to require a cross cultural missiological approach to reach them.  They hold an entirely different world view and they are simply not going to come to our buildings regardless of how cutting edge our marketing may be.

For churches to be effective today in reaching the unchurched in America we are going to have to become missionaries in our own local context.  We will have to find ways to take the gospel to where the people live, work and play and do it in a culturally relevant way.

That is why we need to stop thinking in terms of the old models of segmentation.  The world has literally moved to America and through the use of technology and the new global economy everything has changed.

The church must become glocal in its thinking, which means one missiological mindset that produces multiple strategies depending upon who we are trying to reach in our area.

We know from reading scripture that God cares about every person on the planet and there is not a people group that is outside of His global plan of redemption.  However, we cannot miss as we read the Bible that God has always had a heart for the cities where the masses are living.

God’s passion comes out for the large cities in the book of Jonah in an incredible way.  He is moved by the multitudes that do not know Him and declares, “should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left.”

Even a nation like Babylon that was wicked in the sight of God to the degree that He promised to totally destroy its evil culture, God through Jeremiah tells His people who are living in captivity there, “And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace.”

Throughout the book of Acts and the birth of the missions movement as we know it today we see God consistently sending his missionaries to the largest cities of that day to reach out to the greatest number of people possible with the message of the gospel.  We read many stories of individuals coming to Christ but when God was reassuring Paul about pending persecution He reminded him, “for I am with you , and no one will attack you to hurt you; for I have many people in this city.”

The grand plan of worldwide redemption starts in a garden goes through a cross and ends in a city.  Yes God cares about the one individual that lives in remote Montana or Malawi but He also knows that the largest number of people in 1^st or 21^st century will always be found in the cities of the world.

How can we too not have compassion and prioritize reaching the millions that live there who still to this day cannot discern between their right hand and their left.