The Fallen Mantle

Most are familiar with the biblical story of the prophet Elijah introduced to us in 1 Kings 17 and how his life plays out during the following several chapters. He had an amazing entry point into the biblical narrative with the prophecy that there would be no rain or dew upon the land according to his word. The land entered a time of drought and because of this a time of famine.

Elijah hid for a time by a the brook Cherith and later stayed in the home of a widow woman. Each of these events are accompanied with amazing miracles of God’s intervention and sustaining for Elijah. The zenith of his life no doubt would be the great showdown on Mount Carmel with the 450 prophets of Baal before the undecided children of Israel. Who can forget that scene and the great miracle of God answering by fire. What a ministry high point! What an addition to his prophet’s resume.

But in 1 Kings chapter 19 the story begins to spiral downward from it’s pinnacle. And this is the main thesis of my post today. All of us have high points and low points in ministry. As we look back over the years we can think of times when God sustained us and times when it seemed we were alone. We have had victories and defeats. In this chapter Elijah runs from a woman. He ran for his life. He requested that he might die.  He felt alone. God was not there for him in the wind, earthquake or the fire, but God was there in the still small voice that asked him again, What doest thou here?

That is a good question for all of us. It reminds us where we are in our life and ministry. And no matter where we are or what excuse we have for being where we are, the message of the Lord to us is always the same – “GO” (1 Kings 19:15). There is something more for you to do. Elijah, you have some prophet work to do. (1 Kings 19:15-16) And your work will lead you to who will wear the mantle, who will be the prophet in your place.

Who will take your place? As I have opportunity to travel around at times and meet pastors, missionaries, church leaders and members I am amazed that so many act as if they will continue on in their place forever. They have no one that they are preparing to “anoint” in their place. If the mantle were cast who’s shoulders would it fall upon?

Many churches are not hearing messages the Holy Spirit can use to call out their “Barnabas and Saul” members to go. Many are not calling Timothy’s to go along with them to prepare them for carrying on in their place. Our ministry leaders are aging and if we are not prayerfully preparing the next generation we may see only a fallen mantle with no one to carry on the work of the ministry. My prayer is that God will help us to have someone to cast our mantle upon. Where is your Elisha? Find him!

Missions is … A Worthy Calling

I have some opportunities to preach in stateside churches and when I do I always bring a missions message. It has been a practice of mine to preach a type of message that defines what missions is all about from a biblical context. Often my messages will be titled as “Missions is …” then I will use a chosen text to develop my missions theme. The following post continues along these lines…

Missions is … A Worthy Calling. My text is from Ephesians chapter four. Paul was a prisoner and writes a powerful and important letter to the Ephesian church. In chapter four he begins by speaking of the need to walk worthy of the vocation or the calling that we have been called to as believers. What is that calling? It is missions, the fulfilling of the Great Commission, the grand and eternal purpose of the church of Jesus Christ that every believer is to be involved to participate. In order for us to participate in this worthy calling their are several requirements, encouragements and helps.

The first is found in Ephesians 4:3 where we see that this worthy calling demands UNITY. “Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” With a world of 7 billion souls that need to hear the gospel we cannot afford fractions, schisms and divisions among us as believers. Our disunity, especially over things that are so trivial in some cases will certainly be the cause of much of our judgment when we stand before Christ. Some times I am amazed at the things that we allow to divide us and that weaken our cause before the watching world and a disappointed Commander in Chief. I am not speaking here of glossing over the need for sound doctrine which I will address in a moment, but I am speaking of extremely trivial, illogical, personal and non essential ideologies that many hold to as their sacred cows. Jesus told his disciples that it would be by our love for one another that a watching world would know we were his disciples. The early believers were an incredible example of being in accord. Where is this in our ranks today? We rally around our man made institutions and parade our personalities while the world goes to hell.

That is why in verse two we are told to walk in lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love. I believe it is because we do not walk in this manner that we have a fractured, weakened and greatly ineffective witness to a world waiting for the good news of our Savior. It is our pride of personality, pride of possessions and our pride of our performances that make us egoistical, mean-spirited and haughty. It is our lack of patiently waiting on the Lord that cancels out long-suffering. And it is our closed-hearted spirit toward others that will not allow us to have a greater witness and opportunity to win them over to Christ.

Secondly, in our worthy calling we need to have EXCLUSIVITY in our beliefs. Here in Ephesians 4:4-6 Paul outlines the vital articles of faith for these believers. One body, one Spirit, one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God. The definition of “one” means undivided, or not allowing something else. Using ONE Paul shows the exclusivity that followers of the Savior must have in our biblical beliefs. All of these go back to the exclusivity of Exodus 2o and the teaching of exclusivity of NO OTHER GODS and the fact that our God is a jealous God. We are not at liberty to adjust, add too, take away or dismiss any of these exclusive issues that are put forth in Scripture. But have you ever stopped to consider how many things we have added to our “doctrinal” statements, our declarations of faith and our personal and preferential fellowshipping requirements that cannot be found in the Word of God. We hold them as “sacred” traditions. We teach for “doctrines” the commandments of men. We hold traditions from historical scholarship over the clear, sound words of Scripture. This is a hindrance to our witness to the world. This divisiveness surrounds our witness with blight and confusion. We fight, fracture and fume while the world goes to hell. Some preachers shout, stomp and spit more about versions, colleges, fellowships, conventions, clothing, and all their preferences and on and on more than they do to declare the clear gospel of Jesus Christ to hell bound souls. God help us!

In my next post I hope to continue some other thoughts from Ephesians 4 about the worthy walk of missions as to our equipment, directions, and the warning given by the apostle.

To Hyper-Critics Of Everyone and Everything

Do you ever get tired of the endless bashing of everyone, everywhere? I know I do. I believe in being an untiring advocate for sound Bible doctrine. I believe we should “contend for the faith”. I have no problem with those who want to preach, teach and write persuasively for their beliefs, opinions and methodologies. I do that all the time. But is it necessary to trash and bash good men and ministries dead and living continually? I suppose some are called to be at times “watchmen” on the wall. But, full time? I think some take great pride in such a position. I suppose few speak about or try to answer these hyper critics because they know they will be the next to go through their graceless grinders.  After reading another hyper critical review of a well known and well respected ministry today I ran across the article I have included below. Some perhaps would not use it because of their feelings about Calvinism or Wesleyan-ism but I know most preachers today will use Spurgeon’s quotes and most sing Wesley’s songs. Anyway, whatever you think about either I believe what Spurgeon had to say about criticism was apropos for my thoughts today and maybe will benefit others too.

From – The Gospel Coalition

Calvinistic Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon grew tired of the John-Wesley haters of his day:

To ultra-Calvinists his name is as abhorrent as the name of the Pope to a Protestant: you have only to speak of Wesley, and every imaginable evil is conjured up before their eyes, and no doom is thought to be sufficiently horrible for such an arch-heretic as he was. I verily believe that there are some who would be glad to rake up his bones from the tomb and burn them, as they did the bones of Wycliffe of old—men who go so high in doctrine, and withal add so much bitterness and uncharitableness to it, that they cannot imagine that a man can fear God at all unless he believes precisely as they do.

But he also had little patience for the Wesley fanboys:

Unless you can give him constant adulation, unless you are prepared to affirm that he had no faults, and that he had every virtue, even impossible virtues, you cannot possibly satisfy his admirers.

Spurgeon had a different posture toward Wesley: critical appreciation.

I am afraid that most of us are half asleep, and those that are a little awake have not begun to feel. It will be time for us to find fault with John and Charles Wesley, not when we discover their mistakes, but when we have cured our own. When we shall have more piety than they, more fire, more grace, more burning love, more intense unselfishness, then, and not till then, may we begin to find fault and criticize.

_________________________________________

May God help us to wake up, work on curing our own problems, have more fire, more grace and more burning love and then start finding fault and criticizing others.

(Spurgeon painting by Ransom Maggard – available here -
http://www.etsy.com/shop/RansomMaggard
)

Comfort Kills

Dr Morris just left the room. What a message he had! A message I needed! Good for me and many others. Who is this Dr Morris? He is my cardiologist. He just left my hospital room. The message he gave me said that though I was faithful on my medicine I had become comfortable just medicating the problem and not doing anything to really change the cause for the medicine I was taking. I had grown comfortable over the years. The medicine was mostly doing what it was supposed to do but it was not curing or changing anything. The medicines were helping me stay alive but I was not really healthy. I am doing no better, just surviving.

Sound familiar? Spiritually speaking, many of our Christians and our churches are in a similar situation. We are taking the medicine. (our “meds” could be to add another local ministry, change our method of worship, build another ministry building, add more staff or generate more activities, etc) We are staying alive but we are not really healthy or strong. Like a patient we find the prescription necessary to go along so we can continue what we are doing but there are major issues that threaten our finish because we are not addressing the core and crucial problem of obeying the Great Commission. We are basically comforting ourselves with our meds and lying to ourselves that we are really okay.

What is the real diagnosis? From a biblical standpoint we Christians and our churches have been given the responsibility to preach the gospel of the good news of salvation through Christ to the entire world. (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:47; John 20:21 and Acts 1:8) Perfect health would be accomplishing this command. By the way, Paul and those in the early church did that. They are our model of what a healthy Christian and church should look like.

Talking with my doctor he gives me the statistics of my health values. I am looking at the lab results now. He says for instance, that my blood work shows my triglyceride totals are 156 and they should be lower than 150. My HDL, (the good cholesterol) measured 27 and they should be over 40 and my LDL (bad cholesterol) showed 65 (which is good). I am looking at the lab results that give a profile of my overall health. I don’t feel too bad because I take prescription medications for some of these issues. I am comfortable but that comfort will not help me do what God called me to do. Dr Morris asked me if I wanted to keep preaching, keep starting churches and going to the mission fields. I have to do more than take the medicine that makes me comfortable, I need to get healthier and not just rely and be comfortable on the meds. Comfort kills.

I am reading a book (When Missions Shapes The Mission by David Horner) that gives the “lab results” for the Southern Baptist Convention. It is very telling. I am independent Baptist but being a Baptist and knowing this is the largest gospel / evangelical group of churches I paid close attention to their evaluation. Also after more than 35 years of experience working in my own circles I can see the same results in our churches.

Here is the “blood work”
There are some 45,000 SBC churches in the US with 16 million members. On any given Sunday these churches average 6 million in attendance. In a recent year the SBC churches gave $8.7 Billion in gifts through their churches and of that amount $500 million was given to their mission program to support 5,656 missionaries worldwide.

Looking at the above “Blood Work” here are the “lab results”.
The first issue is this:  Where are 10 million members every Sunday?
Of the 16 million members only 5,656 of those members or .03% are going from their numbers to reach our 7 Billion world inhabitants.

Only 6% of their funds go to reach 95.5% of the rest of the world’s population.
Some of the other statistics are very telling but are more specific to their organization but one very telling truth here in our US churches (not just SBC) is this: most of our funds stay at home for our local budgets, programs, buildings and comfort.

For all the talk of world evangelism our churches missionary force and our churches budgets show that we are not healthy. We take the “meds”. We are alive and comfortable but, are we healthy spiritually speaking and are we really obeying Christ’s command? If you as a Christian submitted to a spiritual health evaluation how would your “lab results” look? How about your church?

Dr Morris said I was sitting in front of him because I was headed for real danger. My body was shutting down and I was not paying attention to the signs. I was taking the meds and had grown comfortable being unhealthy. But he said, “Comfort kills”. On the spiritual side of things I know many churches in danger, close to shutting down (1000′s do every year). Many have already shut down on anything outside their own “Jerusalem”. They take their “meds” and tell themselves they are doing okay but a simple “blood test” will reveal the “lab results” that are the TRUTH of how they are really doing with a world of 7 Billion out there that is careening toward hell at an alarming rate. Remember with me the message of Dr Morris, COMFORT KILLS!

On Fire For Church Planting

Over the last couple of days I have had the opportunity to speak with several of the national pastors who are our partners in this ministry and I was blessed to hear them telling of their excitement for our work of church planting. Ransom and I had wonderful ministry in Guatemala training and participating in several new works and evangelism in various areas of the country. Saturday night I spoke with Felipe as he reported on their Bible Institute classes which we hold in their area of Guatemala. Several new students began taking our classes. He was excited personally for the opportunity to learn and grow as a young pastor. He also told of recent growth in his new work in San Andres Huiste and of the evangelistic work of the team in La Laguna. Pray for Edmundo, German, Martin and Felipe in the north and for Pastor Salomon in our High Road Ministry Center in Xejuyup. We have three US teams heading to Guatemala in the next couple of months. Pray for their outreach opportunities.

Friday I was in Miami with the first pastor that we began training in 1995 in Cuba. Recently he left Cuba after much persecution and personal suffering. We are praying about opening a new Spanish language church plant in Miami area with he and his family. He has taken some time to recover and renew his strength and energy and says he is now ready to begin to launch out with our help. Pray for this exciting possibility.

I also spoke with Pastors Riccardo St Gelus and Felbert Merilus. Pastor Riccardo had already been talking to me about new opportunities for church planting in outlying areas of Haiti where he is working. I encouraged him to bring the other pastors in our team along with him. He told me they were on fire for that work too. Then Pastor Felbert told me he was on fire for starting a new work in Canaan where he has recently moved. Pray for these men. Pray for them as they work together to encourage one another and try to set others on fire for this work.

Today I spoke with Pastor Maurange about the orphanage building in Santos, Haiti. We are trying to raise funds to get the children into their new home quickly. He is also concerned for the health of his wife who will have surgery next week. Pray for her and for all the Patmos Baptist ministries in Haiti. We have several teams headed for Haiti this summer to help with our camps and evangelistic meetings. Pray for them!

I honestly do not have time or space to share all the things that God is doing in our ministry. I am excited to see this church planting FIRE! I am blessed to work with these godly men and to help guide and grow their ministries for God’s glory. Pray for Baptist Evangelism! Pray for the Maggards!

Doing Pauline Missions

For more than thirty years I have been involved in what has been called “Pauline” missions. I have written numerous articles, included it in our prayer letters, brochures as well as in my preaching and teaching. Still it seems there are many, many who question the legitimacy of this type of missions that we practice. It seems amazing to me that we can use the Apostle’s doctrine for our beliefs, his church polity for our ministries and yet somehow we will not use his methods for our missions.

First, I want to DEFINE Pauline missions. Someone has succinctly defined Paul’s mission in these five operational methods: (1) preaching, (2)organization, (3) appointment, (4) revisiting and (5) epistles. Others have defined it even in more briefly by stating that the Pauline objective was the establishment or planting of churches and his methodology was first, evangelism and secondly the training of leaders. Certainly there would be those detractors who would want to say that Paul was a unique individual and that there are none like him today. They would state that his education, his citizenship and other issues of his formation make it improbable that others today could emulate his success. But the truth of the matter is that in 15 years Paul took the gospel into 4 provinces, largely covering the known world with all his limitations and persecutions, and we have not made such comparative progress in 150 years with all the advantages of the printed page, modern technology and modern transportation. I think it would behoove us greatly to look again at the successes of Paul’s methodology to see if we should endeavor to implement it in our mission to see if this could help us be more effective in reaching our world for Christ before He returns.

Secondly, I want to DEFEND Pauline missions. Roland Allen in his masterful work entitled, “Missionary Methods: St Paul’s or Ours?” has stated that “It is as if we have shut our eyes to the profound teaching and practical wisdom of the Pauline method”. Are we in the west so sophisticated, educated and advanced that we cannot switch gears from our practices and methodologies that have made little advancement to fulfill the great commission? We must be able to see that sending western “pastors” to hold down career ministries in a foreign field is not advancing the cause of the Great Commission. A missionary used to be described as one who was on the field to work himself out of a job. But some of these “jobs” have turned into multi generational pastorates held by western pastors sent and supported on the foreign fields. In their ministries they seek to duplicate western style methodologies and build impressive legacies.  Again, this does little to advance global evangelism. We MUST re-visit Pauline methodology!

Thirdly, I want to continue DOING Pauline missions. In order to do that some things must be dealt with. Just as Paul endeavored to destroy the idolatry of his day, we today are in need of turning from the idolatry that we have incorporated into our missionary methodologies in this modern era. I work in several areas that are entrenched in the idea that there cannot be a church without American dollars involved. This entrenched idea has become their idolatry. Just as Paul preached that the Thessalonians must turn to God from their idols, we MUST do the same. In past days of missionary activity America’s strong economic role did play an important part in sending out missionaries. But today, with waning economy and weakening spirituality American churches are not able to keep up with the global demands of evangelism.  The methodologies used in those days served in some ways to enslave those who now  could be stepping forward to be the new senders. For these reasons but even more because of biblical integrity we need to return to Pauline practices and principles in our missionary methodology. I for one intend to continue DOING Pauline missions.

Do you have a better idea? Let us hear from you.

Great Time In Xejuyup!

We just finished a great time working with the Iglesia Bautista Faro de Luz in Xejuyup, Guatemala and High Road Ministry Center where we hosted a spring break team from Virginia. This will be a busy year for High Road as we have already had two groups in and are expecting 4 or 5 more in the summer.

The teams coming in are always a GREAT blessing and not just in Xejuyup but we have already been working in three other towns nearby – Pancanal Dos, Pochol and Chuisanto Tomas. We are praying for the Lord to prepare and raise up preachers for these other towns. We have three young men studying in our institute there but they are not yet ready.

As we prepare for the next mission team I would like to send out a special prayer request. We need to purchase more bunks like the ones you see in the photo so we can accommodate more missioners in our dormitory at High Road Ministry Center. We have estimated that the cost will be $2400 for the remaining bunks. If you would like to give an offering for these you may send a check to Baptist Evangelism at 8153 SE Carlton Street, Hobe Sound, FL 33455 or you can go to http://www.baptistevangelism.org and click donate. An offering of any amount is appreciated and as always your prayers are NEEDED!

Preacher’s Workshop in Tzisbaj, Guatemala

Baptist Evangelism is about church planting and training leaders. We make the effort to be at work on those fronts at all times in our ministry. There is no downtime from the type of evangelism that we did in La Laguna that we believe will lead to a new church plant. There is no downtime when it comes to raising up godly and well prepared leaders to carry on the ministry “to the next towns”.

Because of this need we had called on our young preachers to meet with us in Tzisbaj so that we could spend as much time as we could in this teaching and training. We started early on Tuesday morning and between Ransom and I we had over 5 hours of teaching. We covered important subjects that relate to the ministry. Two of the young preachers, Edmundo and Filipe are newly married and two, German and Martin are single. So we want them to have a strong foundation for their families.

We also covered some very important gospel issues since we certainly want to be faithful in the presentation of the clear, powerful gospel in order to touch hearts and change lives. We spent several hours speaking about devotional life, message preparation and delivery and various doctrinal and church issues.

With just some short breaks for snacks and an excellent lunch provided by Edmundo, Trinidad (his wife) and his mother on Wednesday we spent hour after hour of concentrated teaching and answering questions and sharing resources. All in all our workshops seemed to be very helpful and they received things that they immediately began to put into use in their lives and ministries.

For ongoing and interim training we had provided a laptop computer with internet connection and a digital projector so that we can continue courses via skype, and other methods over the internet when we are not close enough to do the teaching in person. There was a real excitement about the courses. They are already beginning Old Testament and New Testament Survey courses.

Several more students are also hoping to enroll to follow a regular course of study in our International Seminary of Baptist Evangelism (ISBE). One of those enrolling was Evelio, Edmundo’s uncle. He has a burning desire to study God’s word. Coming from a strong Roman Catholic and charismatic background he has a real openness to obey the word and was like a sponge wanting to soak in and think on all we said to him about the studies.

After the workshops we went to preach at the evening service of the church in Tzisbaj that was started by Edmundo when he got back home from Florida. The first convert was his brother Enrique. Now they are part of a group of about 20 that meet for regular service times in Tzisbaj. Edmundo also has another small group that meets during the week in another village nearby. God is at work in all these young men’s hearts and lives as they give themselves to Him. What a vision they have for evangelizing and planting churches in Jacaltenango! Pray for them!

Mision de La Laguna, Guatemala

On Monday we headed out northwest of Tzisbaj and traveled along the paved highway in that area that runs to Nenton. Nenton is a city of nearly 10,000 that sits right on the Mexican border crossing. We looked around Nenton for a while trying to change our US dollars to Quetzales. Finally, not finding a bank or exchange place that would take our dollars we had to go to an ATM machine to get some “effectivo” or local cash. We discovered there is no Baptist work or really even a good gospel church of any kind in this needy city.

We headed back down the road the way we came to the town of Nuevo Catarina. This is the small town where Hermano Martin lives. He had been saved in the US, called to preach and had some training before returning to his home. Once he got home he discovered that he was the only believer in his area and after a short time became real discouraged. After some months home he heard on the radio about a Baptist work starting up in his departmento and he made contact with Hermanos German and Filipe. Martin has a real burden for his area and for church planting.

After visiting with him for a few minutes we headed out in two vehicles to meet up with Hermano Filipe in the next town up which is larger than Nuevo Catarina, a town called La Laguna. These good brothers have begun to evangelize this town door to door. They have won a few people to the Lord and have hopes to begin some regular services in this town soon. We all split up and headed out to knock on doors and talk to people about Christ. After walking a ways I begin to get dizzy. I hadn’t had any lunch and realized my sugar was dropping. I stopped by a local “tienda” (shop) and bought some cookies and something to drink. My team continued on as I witnessed to the store owners and some guys delivering soft drinks. Later we all joined up at the home of Maria. She had trusted Christ a couple of weeks before. We enjoyed a good time of encouraging her and her mother in the Lord.

Our last stop for the evening in La Laguna was at the home of Damien. Damien is another new Christian with a tremendous hunger for the word of God. He is eagerly enjoying discipleship, learning the books of the Bible and asking questions about things he does not yet understand. What an enjoyable time we had as we sat on his back porch sharing the Word of God with him. His wife is not yet saved but we are sure that with his vibrant testimony she and others in his family and his neighbors as well will come to know the Lord who has radically changed his life.

Toward dusk we parted ways from German, Martin and finally Filipe. Ransom and I headed back to our place in Tzisbaj rejoicing to see the work of the Lord that we believe will raise up a new work in La Laguna and in other towns in Jacaltenango too.

In our next post I want to share with you some of the workshop that we gave to our young preachers there in Guatemala and talk about the vision that we have to see new churches planted there. We will also tell you about the work in Tzisbaj where Hermano Edmundo is working and the opportunity to preach there.

San Andres Huiste, Guatemala

On Sunday we loaded up the Toyota to head to church in San Andres Huiste. I asked Hermano German how long a drive we had and he told me about an hour and a half. The roads we took wound through the mountains and valleys that surround the area known to be connected to the city or municipal of Jacaltenango. These are some of the steepest, narrowest and roughest roads that I have been on in Guatemala. Finally nearly three hours later we reached a town on an amazing summit that overlooked the Mexican frontier.

German directed us through the town to the house where young Pastor Filipe and his wife were waiting for us. After a delicious lunch of fried chicken, rice and beans we returned back toward the center of town to go to the church meeting. We parked and took a short hike up the hill to the house of Hermano Bruno. He is the owner of the property where Iglesia Bautista Celestial Lugares (Heavenly Places Baptist Church).

The church was gathering in the front yard of Bruno’s house and were seated on plastic chairs under the shade trees. Soon all the available chairs were filled. I saw several go down the hill to nearby houses and bring back more plastic chairs and a few kitchen table chairs. Finally a few minutes after the worship service began about 50 people had been seated. I looked around rejoicing at this truly New Testament church. Without a building or permanent meeting place IBCL has grown to 34 members in its first year.

I stood to preach and chose Revelation chapter one as my text and preached on how John heard something – a voice. He saw something – Christ in the midst and I emphasized how Christ should always be central in all our lives and our church. And then John did something. He fell at Jesus’ feet. I encouraged them to continue faithfully serving Christ. John had been exiled for his faithfulness. When he saw Christ in the midst of the seven candlesticks he was not seeing a church building, he was seeing people. I explained to them that there were no church buildings during John’s time but what he saw was an assembly just like the assembly I was preaching to on that Sunday afternoon.

Their young pastor was saved, called to preach and trained here in Florida. Then he returned with a burning fire in his heart to plant a church among his own Popti  people. He and his wife are faithfully working to win their own family to Christ. Pray for them and pray for this young church growing up like a young vine in rocky soil. Their burden is that other churches might also be planted throughout the Jacaltenango area.

In my next post I want to share with you the extreme dedication of this young team of church planters that God is raising up in this needy area of Guatemala. I will introduce you to another team member who was also saved in the US and has gone back to his home to plant churches. You will want to see how God is working through missional diaspora.