The theme of the 1910 World Mission Conference was “The Evangelization of the World in this Generation.” Everyone in the world would have the opportunity to learn about Jesus and choose whether to become a follower before that generation had passed away.

Well. Two World Wars later, after a Cold War and a Great Depression, after decolonialization in the developing world and societal upheaval in the developed, that goal may be somewhat closer, but we seem, a hundred years later, to be in no danger of attaining it in a single generation.

One thing has changed for the better. Today, we know who the target is. A hundred years ago, they said “the world” but they meant “distant lands full of heathens.” Today, we know better: Christendom is dead-if it ever existed-and the mission field is just as ripe next door as it is across the planet.

During that same year, 1910, the United Presbyterian Church of North America (a predecessor of our denomination) adopted what it called the Great Ends of the Church:

The great ends of the church are (1) the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind; (2) the shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God; (3) the maintenance of divine worship; (4) the preservation of the truth; (5) the promotion of social righteousness; and (6) the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world.

It’s not a bad list, but we sure can be selective in advancing those ends. For example, the greatest part of our budget goes to #3: divine worship, led by myself and our choir director. The bulk of your volunteer effort goes to #2: fellowship and congregational care. The 4th and 5th ends — truth and social righteousness — need not be in conflict, but it’s a very rare church (or denomination) that is able to hold the two in balance. Generally, what we do is choose one or the other, and then say bad things about Christians who pick the other one.

And that leads us to #1 and #6. How serious are we about proclaiming the gospel to people who’ve never heard it? How much thought to do we give to exhibiting the Kingdom of Heaven to the world?

Especially since we now realize “the world” is next door. It’s across the street and down the block. It’s the grocery store and the gas station. It’s all over. “The world” is everywhere. How well are we doing in evangelizing it? Does it even know we’re here?

Those conferees in Edinburgh a hundred years ago wanted to evangelize the world. They didn’t realize how much of the world needed to be evangelized, but they were willing to try.

Let’s try, too. Let’s not let our church be defined by just one or two of the Great Ends of the Church. Let’s maintain divine worship and nurture the children of God, by all means. But let’s not forget to tell people about Jesus, or to exhibit his Kingdom to them, either.

Now, I’m on record as liking the new look of our denomination’s website. And I’ve already commented, negatively, about a particularly smarmy “reasons I’m a Presbyterian” badge posted there.

But I was hoping the PC(USA) web site would at least be better organized. I entertained the hope that it would be easier to find things there now, and it’s not.

It’s always been difficult to find anything. The organization is…um…let’s say, “obscure.” I got in the habit, whenever I needed to find something there, of using a Google search with inurl:pcusa.org appended. That’s how I found what we believe.

But if you follow that link today, it doesn’t go to a web page about what Presbyterians believe. It goes to an advertisement for people to buy the dead-trees Presbyterians Today magazine! Apparently there’s a plan to add selected content there over time, like this helpful piece about “how to speak Presbyterian.”

Dead trees–I kid you not! In 2010! GAMC FAIL. Sigh.

When I was in Holland … I heard about a Christian mission that had been proselytizing in Morocco. The government kicked them out and sent them back to Holland. I thought, “You don’t have to stop proselytizing — just go to the Muslim community in Amsterdam west and carry on there.” But of course there, they’re not only going to face the radical Muslims as opponents, they’re also going to face the multicultural opponents, saying they’re not supposed to be telling people to leave their religion.

I suppose it’s a sort of affirmation, when an atheist sees Christian proselytizing of Muslims as relatively benign. But perhaps she assumes too much. How many Christians are able to effectively proselytize these days? How many can articulate their faith in a positive way at all, much less in a way to attract the adherents of another faith?

I think she’s right, though, that Christians would come under fire from multiculturalists. I wonder how Christians would respond to attacks from secular people arguing that religions should leave each other alone.

It’s interesting, too, that Ayaan Hirsi Ali sees Christianity as a “culture.” My reading of Paul is that Christianity should transcend (not replace) culture: “There is no longer Jew or Greek,” etc. (Galatians 3:28, and see Colossians 3:11 also.)

It was an interesting article, but before Christians start doing cartwheels, they should ponder this:

I would, if I had the power, abolish Muslim schools. Children born to Muslim parents in North America or anywhere else in the West would get Islamic teachings at home, which is fine. But when they go to school, they would get the regular education that’s going to enable them to be absorbed into our society and become law-abiding, well-established citizens.

Even assuming you think that’s a good idea, could you do it in a way that would permit Christians to have Christian schools?

Then he went about among the villages teaching.
He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two.
—Mark 6:6-7

In AD 100, the worldwide total number of Christians might have been about 25,000. For the next two centuries, Christianity was an an illegal religion, and endured several waves of violent persecution. It had no trained clergy, nor any church buildings as we know them. But in the early 300′s, when Christianity was finally legalized, the number of Christians was about 20 million.

In 1949, there were about 2 million Christians in China. Under Mao, the state killed or imprisoned every senior Christian leader and banned all meetings of Christians. After Mao had died, and China was somewhat liberalized in the early 1980s, Westerners began to visit it. They were stunned to find that the number of Christians-after 30 years of oppression!-was at least 60 million.

These statistics come from The Forgotten Ways, a book by the Australian Alan Hirsch. From these and other historical lessons Hirsh argues that the Church flourishes in adversity and stagnates, or even decays, in periods of calm and comfort. Whenever it has the luxury to do so, the church ceases to be a movement and becomes an establishment. It spends less of its energy changing lives and more of it doing institutional maintenance.

That’s not a happy thought, but the history of the church in America (and especially Europe) doesn’t provide a very good argument against Hirsch. Our Presbyterian denomination has shrunk about 3% in the last 25 years, while the U.S. population has grown by nearly a quarter. Other denominations have declined as well. Between 1990 and 2008, the number of Americans identifying themselves as Christians has shrunk nearly 10%-from 86% to 76%.

We like to think our institutional trappings are a help to us. We have a place of our own to gather, with classrooms and restrooms and musical instruments and anything else we might need. But restrooms have plumbing and classrooms need painting. With the best will in the world, we find ourselves distracted by it all. Our focus subtly shifts from changing lives to maintaining the institution.

So what are we to do? Advocate for greater religious oppression? Well, you can do that, but I like not being persecuted for my faith!

Then what?

Jesus gives us the answer. Look at the gospels to see how he avoided the problems of institutional maintenance. He moved around. Even when he was popular, he kept moving. But he didn’t just move around with his disciples. He kept them moving too. Even then, we see the kind of problem Hirsch identified, with the disciples arguing among themselves about who was most important (e.g., Mark 9:33 and then again in 9:38). Maybe that’s why he sent them out without him on missionary trips.

After the Resurrection, Jesus sent out his disciples on the greatest trip of all, the one we’re still supposed to be on. “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

So let’s lift our gaze a little higher. When we’re talking with our neighbors, let’s see that conversation as the encounter between the church and the world God is redeeming. When we bump into a friend at the grocery store or the community center, let’s remember that’s a place we can be disciples, too. Let’s remember the church isn’t a building or even what we do there. The church is the people of God, moving through history loving God and everyone whom God loves.

Moses: They won’t believe me.
God: I’ll lend you some credibility.
Moses: But I stutter.
God: Since I made you that way, do you think I could fix it?
Moses: Please, don’t make me!
God: I’ll get you some help: Aaron, say.

We, like Moses, are called by God. First, God calls us to love him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. When we fail, God calls us to repent and put our trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord. Finally, God calls and commissions us to proclaim the good news about Jesus and make new disciples. That’s true for everyone who follows Christ. But what about you? What is God calling you to do, specifically? And which of Moses’ objections do you raise?

Moses’ first objection was external. There are external conditions that will prevent him from doing the job God’s assigned him. He’s afraid that the Hebrews won’t believe that God sent him to bring them up out of slavery. To that, God says, “I’ll give you the power to show them signs that will be convincing. If anyone isn’t convinced by the first sign, here’s a second. And, just in case, a third.” So, what about you? What are the external factors that prevent you from doing what God wants of you? What is the least thing God could do to overcome them? What would make it a little more convincing? What would it take to completely sweep those obstacles away?

Moses’ second objection is internal. He is limited in the things he can do. God replies that peoples’ gifts and abilities come from God, so when Moses speaks, it will really be God speaking through him. So, what limits do you have? What limitations do you operate within? How do they keep you from obeying God? How could God work through you to overcome your frailties or disabilities?

Moses’ third objection is just a cry from his heart: “God, I don’t want to!” This is the request God grants–at least, partially. What God tells Moses is that he won’t have to do it alone. In fact, God had anticipated this objection, and by his providence, God arranged for Aaron to be available: “even now, he is coming out to meet you” (Exod. 4:14). Like Moses, we may have our objections answered and yet still be afraid to obey. That is why God called us together as the church: so we could help each other–so we can encourage the faint-hearted and share the load between us. So who could help you do the work God has given you? And who can you help with their work? And–especially–what’s stopping you?

Anyway, one of the ways I use it is to save myself the trouble of typing some of the prayers in the PC(USA) Book of Common Worship. Mostly, the software does a good job, but once in awhile you get something amusing, like this:

Two.
Grant us, O Lord,
the grace always to do in pink
what accords with your purpose;

That’s an interesting image. It was supposed to be “and think.”

Maybe this was an “inspired” error: it’s a lot easier to think about things than to do them. So, to combine two slogans (from Nike and the breast-cancer awareness people): Just do it. In pink.

Why is it we have so much difficulty inviting other people to church? I can think of two reasons. The first is that we really don’t care all that much ourselves. People don’t usually have much trouble expressing their opinions about things they care about, whether they’re books or TV shows or movies or restaurants or politics. Is our problem that we don’t really care anymore?

Look at Timothy. Either he lost his passion, or Paul was concerned he might. It wasn’t a question of faith — Paul wasn’t worried about that. What concerned Paul was passion: “rekindle the gift of God that is within you … for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice.” For another example, look at what Jesus said to the church in Ephesus.

The other thing that might make us hesitate to invite someone is how our church treats visitors. I’ll talk about that in my next post.

A neighboring empire had attacked Israel and Jerusalem was under siege. The city was surrounded, so nothing could get in or out, and people got very, very hungry. But one night, God caused the besiegers to hear the sound of a great army. They became frightened and fled, abandoning their camp outside the city.

Inside Jerusalem, nobody knew the enemy was gone. But outside the city gates were were four lepers. Like those in the city, they were hungry, and they decided to defect to the enemy. When they arrived, and found the enemy missing, the Bible says, “they went into a tent, ate and drank, carried off silver, gold, and clothing, and went and hid them.” Then on to the next tent—like the Grinch stealing Christmas.

But after awhile, the lepers said to one another, “This isn’t right. This is a day of good news, and we aren’t sharing it with anyone! Come on, let’s go back and tell the people at the palace.”

The story might not be familiar, but this picture is one that Christians should recognize. We are like the lepers: we’ve stumbled on treasure we did nothing to earn. (Similarly, Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to someone who found a treasure hidden in a field.)

We can be happy, like the lepers, and enjoy what we’ve found. What we can’t do is keep it to ourselves. We need to share the good news with people who haven’t heard it yet.

Too often, however, Christians model their behavior after people in other Bible stories. We act like a watchman posted announce the approaching doom (Ezekiel 3:16-21). Certainly there is a role for the prophetic messenger—but how often do we pick that role, instead of being called to it?

It isn’t easy to admit you’re a lucky leper. To admit everything good in your life is a gift God put in your path. But for most of us, it’s more honest.

This is the holiday season: A month of parties and special occasions between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, a time to gather with friends and family in celebration after celebration. Some people you know may be like the miserable victims of Jerusalem’s siege. Can you be like one of the “lucky lepers” and share your good news with them?

Note: this article originally appeared in the Yucca Valley Hi Desert Star on Wednesday, December 2, 2009.

Here it is, almost fall again! Where did the summer go?

A highlight of the summer for me was our brief trip to the Navajo Nation in Arizona. We were privileged to visit St. Michael’s Association for Special Education and the evangelical (Protestant) church at Hunter’s Point, along with several others from our church.

This type of ministry is the essence of what Jesus meant when he told us to be his witnesses (Acts 1:8). Too often, we assume that someone else will do it for us. “The church does that,” we think. But “the church” can’t go on mission trips. The church can’t visit someone in the hospital. The church can’t tutor someone who’s trying to learn to read or to speak English. People have to do those things, and I’m so happy that people who do, call this church home.

The church, of course, has a role in carrying out the mission of Christ in this world. Sometimes, we have to partner with others in our church to achieve what Christ calls us to do. As just one example, there are homeless people in our community who could actually afford to rent an apartment–except for the startup costs (first and last month’s rent, utility hookups, etc.). Believers at Desert Hills help to address that need by giving A.R.C.H. money through their contributions to the church’s mission budget. (For another example, see the article in this issue. We support the food pantry individually by donating food, and together as a church with our contributions.)

The second thing our church does is equip the saints (you and me) for ministry (Ephesians 4:11-16). The things we do as the gathered church–our Sunday worship, fellowship activities, and education programs –all function like the “huddle” a football team goes into before each play. When we’re finished with our “huddle” we disperse, going back into the world to carry out our Commission.

With summer winding down, we will be resuming our second worship service. Last spring, our two services were practically identical; the only significant difference was that the choir sang in the first service. This fall, we’re going to be looking for ways to give each service its own flavor. The choir will participate in the first service, as before. In the second service, I’m going to begin using multimedia (i.e., a projector). I have some ideas about how that can enhance the worship experience. This will give me a “laboratory” to experiment, by projecting scriptures and prayers on the screen, referring to other scriptures, including visual aids, and so forth.

No matter which worship service you prefer, you will be able to participate in a Bible Study this fall. If you come for the first service, stay for a Bible study afterwards. Or come for a Bible study during the first service, then join us in worship afterward.

It’s always exciting in the fall as we shake off our summer doldrums and ramp up our programs. I think our “huddles” will be even more helpful to us this fall. But nobody goes to a game to watch the huddle. What really matters is what we do after the huddle. If you’ve got ideas about things we can do as a church to help one another carry out the Great Commission between Sundays, give me a call. I’d love to talk with you about them. And until next time, be a blessing!