Missions
Weekly Rundown (9.19.2010)
- From my heart: I really believe our church is on the verge of a greater manifestation of God. All I sense from God is to seek Him but wait for Him. Please pray with me for our church to walk in step with God, glorify Christ, and depend radically on the Holy Spirit. Please pray God’s Word is honored like never before.
- New on Staff:
- We hired Ben Honeycutt as a new part-time worship leader. Ben will be leading mostly in our student ministry but will lead occasionally during our adult weekend services.
- We hired Kent Boyd (part-time) as our Student Production & Outreach leader. Kent was in our FIRST youth group.
- We hired Jarred Owens as our new IT Director.
- Crazy but all of the above hires were replacement hires (We did split one full-time job into 2 part-time jobs)! Had several folks resign, move, etc over the summer and are just now filling their vacated positions. I am thanking God for faithfully providing these individuals so quickly. They have all hit the ground running!!
- Celebrating & thanking Him:
- For the 3rd straight year we have been named one of America’s Top 100 Fastest Growing Churches!! We are #46 … wow! But church is so much more than just the number of people attending … how many are we sending? How many disciples are we making? Is God being glorified?
- Baptism today was incredible … God’s grace, life change, God’s glory … does not get much better!!
- Seeing our Calhoun Student Minister, Kurt Kessler, baptize his son was awesome!
- Story after story of life change (overcoming pain, addiction, religion/legalism, etc.) … wow!!
- It never gets old to hear people proclaim Jesus as their Lord!!
- Missions: We continue to pursue local and global opportunities to partner and proclaim Christ. I am so excited to learn of God’s work that is occurring everywhere and in the most unlikely of places!
- Good meeting this week with church planters in the greater Chattanooga area.
- Hearing some interest about Rock Bridge going into Ringgold??!!??
- Had a conversation this about Rock Bridge helping plant churches by equipping potential church leaders in IRAQ!!
- Great discussion about incredible work in Whitfield County called, City of Refuge. We might come alongside a few other churches to help meet real needs in our community.
- We are continuing to press forward with doubling our missions budget/giving in 2011. We are committed to investing this kingdom money in the wisest and most strategic ways possible.
- These Scriptures are guiding my prayers regarding missions right now:
- Preaching:
- Follow Me: Part 2 — I love preaching about the purpose, power, and potential of Christ’s church!! Especially convicting is the thought that we have made the church more about our comfort than Jesus’ cross. Especially exciting is that the church holds the “keys” to help reveal Christ to the world!!
- Next week: Part 3 — I was personally “rocked” during my preparation for this message. It is changing my Christian walk. We’ll be talking about a subject that can be easily misunderstood and is seemingly hard to apply. The scripture for next week is John 14:12-27.
- What’s going on?
- Many of us continue to challenged by David Platt’s book Radical. You can get a copy in the lobby space of any of our worship venues.
- Preparing to unveil new opportunities to pray through a 24-7 prayer initiative.
- Pondering and praying about other ways to increase prayer in and through our church.
- Our new Technical Director has been hired. We can’t announce anything yet until he has had a chance to talk with his current church … but we are pumped!! This means Brian Holt will be moving into the Groups Pastor role in a few weeks.
- We need to multiply, reproduce, & plant NEW small groups!! We need to see a major breakthrough in this area.
- Exciting to hear our new Children’s Minister, Allen Bishop, share more of his thoughts and vision. Exciting possibilities on the horizon as we seek to enhance/improve an already amazing ministry in our church!!
- Calhoun Campus is looking intently about leasing a building!! God has been really manifesting Himself in that campus … several salvations and “God-stories”!!
- Asking this question a lot: Is there anything we are doing that is good, but keeping us from what is best?
- PLEASE let us know if you have questions — email justask@rockbridge.cc or my personal email is matt@rockbridge.cc.
- My life:
- Love my family and being a dad!
- Had to have my first (but definitely not last), “I made a mistake as your dad” conversation with Eyasu this week. He understood and I think (?) he forgave me. Being a father helps me see my sinfulness from another angle and gives me even more motivation to seek God’s grace!
- Georgia football … ugh! Go Navy!!
Missions Monday: Things I’m Learning
I’ve been on a process of discovery lately seeking to learn more about the global status of Christianity and discern how God wants Rock Bridge to be part of His kingdom work to the ends of the earth. Here’s a summary of what I am learning so far:
- The most evangelized countries (USA; Canada; Europe; Australia) are not giving much money and resources to the least-evangelized countries.
- A U.S. dollar can do a lot more in Africa, India, & South America than it can in America.
- A lot people (children mostly) die everyday from preventable causes and the “world” barely notices.
- Christianity is growing very rapidly in a grass roots type of way in unexpected places like Afghanistan, China, and Ethiopia.
- The Bible does not give us the option to “opt out” of global missions. We are commanded to “go” to the ends of the earth (I had to repent when I was confronted with that truth!).
- We can feed people food and give people water but if we do not share Christ and His Gospel then our “mission” is incomplete.
- About 25% of the world’s population lacks any real knowledge of Jesus Christ.
- Prayer is the most important strategy for missions and world evangelism.
- Generous giving is a critical component.
- I am convicted: are we praying and giving to advance the Gospel?
Pakistan Flooding: Our Response
The devastating floods in Pakistan have dominated world news and it should burden our hearts as Christ-followers.
Isaiah 58:6-8
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.”
As we attempt to gain and reflect the heart of God into the world, these tragedies become opportunities for the Gospel to advance. Because of your generous giving, we are able to seize this opportunity and help meet real needs … both physical and spiritual during this tragedy.
Rock Bridge will be contributing to Samaritan’s Purse which is a strong Christian agency that is currently working with 6 churches in 6 affected regions in Pakistan. These churches will be able to minister to 2000 families. {To learn more click here.}
Your giving back to God enables God’s love for all peoples and nations to be declared and demonstrated!!
Let God be glorified by our generosity. Let His name be declared to the ends of the earth!!
Let us pray for Pakistan!!
Monday is for Missions: the Unreached & Unengaged
In our world today there are some 12,000 distinct people groups. A people group is collection of people with similiarities such as language, culture, geography, etc through which the Gospel of Christ can spread easily.
6500 of these groups are “unreached” which means <2% of their members are evangelical believers in Jesus Christ. This effectively means that there is not an indigenous community of evangelical Christians with adequate numbers and resources to spread the Gospel within that particular people group. The total population of these unreached people groups represent 1.6 billion people or 25% of the world!! Many of these groups are also “unengaged”, meaning there is no church or organization actively working inside that people group to spread the Gospel!
To put it bluntly, almost every one of these people live and die without ever hearing the Gospel and there is currently no active work trying to change their situation!!
- Pray for these people groups.
- Pray for a new wave of missionary activity to come.
- Pray for an open and burdened heart as our church begins to wrestle with our responsibility regarding the unreached and unengaged.
- Visit www.peoplegroups.org or www.joshuaproject.net for more information.
Monday is for Missions
In 2011 we will have the opportunity to go on short-term missions trips with Living Water International. We are excited about this partnership with an amazing Christian organization seeking to bring physical and spiritual water (see John 4:14) all over the world.
These trips will involve both physical work (building or repairing a water well in a community) and relational/spiritual connections with the people. We will be getting more information out very soon about dates, costs, and how to sign-up. Please begin praying now for this trips and our long-term partnership with Living Water.
Monday is for Missions
As a church we have charted a course to be much more involved and intentional with mission work, both locally and globally. We are tripling our missions giving over the next 3-4 years, launching short-term mission trip opportunities within our congregation, and deepening our partnerships in our local communities.
We’re excited to announce a partnership with H.E.L.P — Help End Local Poverty. Through this partnership we are working to restore orphans in Zimbabwe affected by the HIV/AIDS crisis. There are over 15 million children who are orphans because of AIDS, and 12 million of them live in sub-Sahara Africa! We are supporting an orphanage in Zimbabwe. We directly support these 5 children through our church budget:
Tendai (18 months)
Karen (3 yrs) — loves to play with dolls and go to church
Luke (11 yrs) — favorite activities include school, soccer and other sports
Kudzanai (14 yrs) — likes soccer, learning English, and geography
Cynthia (17 yrs) — like to cook, sing, and play with younger children
Please commit to praying for these 5 children, the work in Zimbabwe, and the H.E.L.P. Team!!