#541

 

Did you know that together the United States of America and Canada have 451 unreached people groups* living within their borders? I didn’t know that until I read Strangers Next Door by J. D. Payne.

541 people groups. 28,945,173 persons (and that figure is from 2012!)

To put that number in perspective for you the total number of unreached people groups living in other Western Countries (Europe, Australia, New Zealand) is 632. The U.S. is the third largest country with unreached people groups in the world (China and India are numbers one and two).

I stumbled onto J.D. Payne by “accident.” Actually I know it wasn’t an accident, though I cannot for the life of me remember when I first heard his name. But over the last six months I have read a few of his books, listened to his podcast, and in the process have come to learn more about Diaspora Missiology. Diaspora Missiology is the integrated discipline of “bringing migration research to bear on the study of missions.” (p. 151)

At the heart of this is an understanding that God is absolutely sovereign in the movement of people across the globe. Payne writes: “as kingdom citizens we understand that the Lord of the nations is working our his will in the universe, and the migration of peoples to other lands is not a serendipitous occurrence.” (p. 30)

That means that the Congolese families that have been relocated to Palm Beach County as refugees are here because God brought them here. That means that my dear friend from West Africa is here, as an asylum seeker, because God orchestrated it in his plan. That means that the people who are coming to our church’s ESL program are in our country, and in our ESL program(!), because God ordained it to be so.

How should the Church of Jesus Christ respond to this amazing opportunity? Friendship. It is possible for us to befriend, serve, and witness to people who are unreached… and all we have to do is drive around town or walk across the street. What do we do with such an amazing opportunity?

Are we as followers of Jesus prepared for such wonderful opportunities to serve and share the only hope for abundant and eternal life? For the most part, I believe the church has neglected numerous similar opportunities in epochs past. Now we live in a time of unprecedented movement, and these are days of grand opportunity. The peoples of the world are now living next door to us. May be recognize the sovereign hand of the Lord who has moved them and join in his mission, that they may know him and make him know. (p. 94)

* An unreached people group is a group of people that has less than 2% claiming to be Christians.

 

Need, not Comfort

On Sunday November 15 Pastor Ron Perry of Truth Point Church is coming to help our congregation to think biblically about race, racism, and racial reconciliation.  We decided that the shooting of Corey Jones provided us with the opportunity (and need) to address these topics head on.  Below is the text of an email I sent to out church this morning.

 

Recently one of our leaders was having a discussion with a friend about our upcoming discussion on Race and the Gospel. The friend was concerned that a discussion like this one could be potentially divisive in the church. The leader explained that our goal is not to be divisive, but to help us see heart transformation.

That interaction reminded me of this quote from John Piper’s book, Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian:

To be a Christian is to move toward need, not comfort. Christian life means to get up in the morning and go to bed at night dreaming not about how to advance my comforts but how to advance some great God-centered cause. When we speak of multiplying and growing, we mean raising up a people who don’t spend themselves day and night pursuing self-preservation and self-exaltation and self-recreation, but who pursue something bigger and greater than themselves or their family or their church.

God is calling the church to pursue racial reconciliation because he himself is reconciling us to one another (cf. Eph 2:11-22). This means that we need to have discussions about race, racism, and racial reconciliation. We can’t avoid having these conversations because we want to be comfortable. If we do, we won’t be equipped to fulfill our calling as his church.

This is why we have asked Pastor Ron Perry from Truth Point Church to come preach and teach on November 15. Pastor Ron will help us by pointing us back to Scripture. After the service he will do some more teaching and we will have plenty of time for Q&A.

Becoming Learners

On Sunday November 15 Pastor Ron Perry of Truth Point Church is coming to help our congregation to think biblically about race, racism, and racial reconciliation.  We decided that the shooting of Corey Jones provided us with the opportunity (and need) to address these topics head on.  Below is the text of an email I sent to out church this morning.

I have found that one of the hardest phrases for people to say is “I don’t know.” Sometimes it is hard to admit our ignorance because we don’t want to look badly in front of another person. Other times, however, it is difficult for us to admit our ignorance because we don’t realize we are ignorant. It is this second type of ignorance I want to address.

Over the past 10 months the elders and deacons of our church have been discussing John Piper’s book Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian. In this book Piper seeks to explain and expose the problem of racism and points us to a biblical view of ethnic harmony that is rooted in the Gospel.

It has been a hard 10 months for us in many respects because we’ve had to learn so much. It has been a hard 10 months because for all of us our ignorance was exposed at various times and in various ways. It has been a wonderful 10 months because together we have been able to admit our ignorance. It has been a wonderful 10 months because we have been able to grow closer together as friends. The end result is that we are much closer to each other in our understanding of race, racism, and racial reconciliation than we have ever been. The reality, however, is that we still have a long way to go.

I believe that one meeting in particular was the turning point for us as we wrestled through these questions. And what happened in that meeting is the impetus for what we are trying to do going forward.

One of our conversations happened not long after the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore. In the midst of that conversation we were challenged to put ourselves in the “shoes” of an African-American we know. We were challenged to admit that if we are not African-American we are on some level ignorant of what it means to be an African-American in our country.

This means that the most important posture we can have when it comes to matters of race is the posture of a student. It is a posture that admits what we don’t know. It is a posture that is even willing to admit that we don’t know what we don’t know. It is a posture that is comfortable admitting ignorance, but is unwilling to remain ignorant.

We believe that the Scriptures are an incredible resource that should shape our thinking about these questions. We also need to see that godly African-American men and women are a wonderful resource to help us think about these questions.

This is why we have asked Pastor Ron Perry from Truth Point Church to come preach and teach on November 15. Pastor Ron will help us by pointing us back to Scripture. After the service he will do some more teaching and we will have plenty of time for Q&A.