Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Miscellaneous Updates

This is a simple blurb to give everyone an update regarding the missions Mt. Carmel Christian Church is currently supporting.

1)Mid-India Christian Mission/Bethlehem -India -- Church Planting and Discipleship

2)Southwest India Christian Mission -- Orphanage and Discipleship

3)Christ Reaching Asia Mission -- Discipleship, Evangelism, and Social Welfare

4)Lecce Christian Mission -- Discipleship, Evangelism, and Restoration

5)Pakistan Christian Evangelical Services -- Church Planting, Discipleship, and Christian Action

6)Pioneer Bible Translators - Vanuatu -- Bible Translations, Evangelism, and Discipleship

7)Mulberry International - Ukraine -- Foster Services, Street Evangelism, and Social Relief

8)Living Water Christian Mission - Haiti -- Education, Church Planting, and Discipleship

If you have specific questions about any of these, please don't hesitate to drop me an e-mail.

Grace and Peace
chris

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Sweet Submission


The term "submission" is a cause of great concern to many who hear it and for many rightly so. Those who have submitted to someone only to have themselves abused, abandoned, or taken advantage of definitely would seem to have a legitimate argument against submission in any form.


But recently borrowing an idea from Richard Foster regarding the discipline of submission, I realized that God deals with this all the time. The perfect act of submission, demonstrated through the act of Christ on the cross, has been abused, abandoned, and, yes taken advantage of (in the negative sense) by all of us at some point in our lives. This realization caused me to understand submission in a whole new light.


Submission as many of my missionary friends would tell you, is essential to experience all the sweetness of life that God has to offer. Submission you see takes us to the place where we no longer have to be burdened by our own selfish interests and desires, but where we can tap into the Beloved and derive our satisfaction and worth from the knowledge that we have been found pleasing in HIS sight. Truly sweet indeed!

Monday, October 12, 2009

10 INDICATORS

10 Indicators That Your Missions Program Has A Problem

1) The church "mission guy" always allows his emotional desires to override the Spirit's direction, failing to extend grace to others. (A lesson this blogger needed to be reminded of recently.)

2) The missionary field easily becomes a topic for the latest round of political posturing.

3) Missions is always someone else's call or gift.

4) The mission field is always somewhere I am not.

5) We can't believe that God would really want to save "those people".

6) Saving Muslims, Hindus, Atheists, Buddhists, etc. where they live is a missions opportunity, but if these same individuals come here to our country and our churches they are somehow a threat.

7) Everyone seems just too busy for missions.

8) "We support that one guy, right?"

9) "Missions? Oh right, that's where we send checks to those foreigners who seem to always hound us for money."

10) "Look at us we support 100 missionaries at $10.00 per month!"


Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. -- Hebrews 10:23-25

Thursday, October 01, 2009

Restoration Movements

Coming from a Restoration Movement church, I found the following life analogy to be quite interesting. It deals with a "little" project dad and I have slowly, VERY SLOWLY, begun in his garage -- the restoration of a 1972 Toyota FJ40 Landcruiser.

Much like the frame pictured here, the frame on our cruiser was in pretty good shape, solid and ready for use, a good foundation to start from. The body on the other hand was quite a different matter altogether. The hull was so rusted in places that it simply lifted off the frame mounts. The two of us removed it quickly after somework with a sawzall. This body was in need of some major work.

This reminded me of some simple truths that many of our missionaries in the field already know:

1) Restoration is good for the church because it allows us to discover a usable frame -- the New Testament -- solid, designed by God.

2) Restoration is good for the church because it removes the rotten parts that have been attached to the frame, often for too long -- removing the hypocrisy that Christ warned against.

3) Finally restoration is good for the church because it allows us to examine the body in context of the frame, it allows us to see if our "mounts" are in good shape and in the proper places -- alligned through God's Spirit.