What are your biggest obstacles to sharing
the gospel?
A young leader wondered about how nice it
would be to have a church building. His congregation meets in a believers house…when
they meet together the neighbours often surround the home and pelt it with
rocks.
The “stoning’s” have been so severe, holes
have been knocked into the roof…
A passerby reflected that it sounded like
automatic gunfire as the stones hit the tin roof…
Others wondered how the established church could
be so focussed on building bigger buildings while church planters and
missionaries scrap out an existence, devoting their energies to sharing the
gospel that is life!
God has been powerfully present in these 3
days of teaching and learning together with church planters, missionaries, and
evangelists. The body of Christ is blest to have these leaders working on the
front lines – literally struggling with the principalities and powers,
combating the kingdom of Satan. And the presence of the Holy Spirit among these
leaders and the congregations they shepherd is humbling and awe inspiring!
Every day I began my teaching time by
inviting these leaders to engage Luke 10:1-12 together with me. Credit needs to
be given to Alan Roxburgh for this method of study – we’ve been using this as
part of our MCEC Mission Council gatherings for months and it’s amazing what
God reveals when leaders gather around this text. These last three days were
not an exception!
What could it mean to take no bag, no
sandals, no money when we engage a new community with the gospel? Is Jesus
inviting us into a place of voluntary poverty?
If the disciples are “appointed” by Christ,
surely Christ has gifted his disciples to fulfill the purposes of the Kingdom?
Who carries the Kingdom of God? Whether we
are welcomed or rejected, Jesus calls us to declare that the Kingdom of God has
come near!
Throughout this week it has been amazing to
see how the Holy Spirit has been working in these conversations, discussions,
and teaching times. Fanosie and I never had the opportunity to compare notes
before we arrived in Ethiopia – we had a general outline and themes, but
content had not been discussed. And yet, everything we shared seemed to flow
together!
As schedules and timetables shifted we needed
to cut and edit and revise on the go. Together we wondered at times if we had
rushed through too much material. Other times we wondered if we had given too little.
As we wrapped up for the week one leader
after another began to share the insights they would take away from these days.
It was incredibly humbling to hear…
About the power of the gospel…
about the urgency of sharing the good news…
about the surrender of self-sacrifice…
but then they asked if they could pray for
us – for Fanosie and for me! We knelt on the concrete floor (both of us were
thankful when one of the pastors tossed a couple of pillows onto the floor to
save our knees).
I still cannot reflect on that time of
prayer without tears coming to my eyes. It was such a powerful time of being
with believers in the presence and power of God. I am not usually a charismatic
person, but there were moments as Fanosie and I knelt that I begged God to
open my ears so I could understand every word…
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