A grammatically close look at Matthew’s account of the Great Commission reveals there’s really one verb in play: make disciples. This is modified by something quite important, however: of all nations. Here really is the core mandate of the Great Commission: spiritual reproduction without ethnic … Read More
Is it Missions or Mission?
The primary marching order for the church, the Great Commission, was given by Jesus and is recorded in all four of the Gospels as well as in Acts. Matthew 28:19-20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the … Read More
Christ’s Last Words, Our First Concern
Over the next few weeks, I intend to post excerpts from a booklet I recently wrote for our church, a publication I subtitled “a little booklet about a big deal.” The big deal? Christ’s last words. Of course, we commonly know those last words as … Read More
If Only One
I’m not sure I remember the year, but I sure recall the moment. I was a young Jr. High youth director, still in college in fact. Our group had spent the week in Mexico doing evangelistic ministry in mountain villages, traveling from Tennessee in a … Read More
Would You Change Your Name for the Sake of Those Who’ve Never Heard?
We know him as the Apostle Paul. The preeminent first-century church planter/missionary and prolific author God used to pen many of the New Testament letters. We also know he was called Saul. That’s how most of us refer to him when he was the threat-breathing, … Read More
It’s STATurday: Church Numbers
From issues of morality to the importance of missions, here’s what recent surveys and numbers report about either Americans, those who call themselves Christians and what we are part of—the church, or both.* 44% of practicing Christians agree that it’s a good practice for couples … Read More
Remembering Pastor Chirwa
Yesterday morning I received word that a pastor friend of mine in Lusaka, Zambia passed away: Pastor Gerald Chirwa. While Gerald and I weren’t real close simply due to location issues, we did talk frequently over FB, and I had been to see him on … Read More
Baptized Bodyguards and the Providence of God
We had climbed five flights of narrow stairs, some in the dark, before we ended up in a small room, perhaps 12 x 12, where gathered was about 20 believers. They were part of this house fellowship in south Asia—a church no less—and present were … Read More
Live Interview Re: India and Nepal
Last Thursday I appeared on Mac’s World Live, a daily radio/web show on KTIA 99.3, concerning aspects of my trip to India and Nepal. Here’s a link to that interview. (You’ll want to start around the 15-minute mark as the first part is a rabbit … Read More
12 Words, 3 Phrases, 8 Days: Observations From South Asia
Cardboard houses all in a row. Yet in the middle of it a church was there, serving and preaching the beautifully good news of heaven in what seemed like a hellhole of human existence. God’s church, alive and well, had come to the slums. A … Read More
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