On a Mission
Welcome to Peniel CrossRoads, where we embrace Jesus’s heart and together live out the call to biblical unity!
Perhaps you noticed our blog has been less active recently. If you’ve been wondering where we are or if you’ve been dropped from our list, neither of us has left! Chris and I have just been focusing hard on the “New Thing” God has been calling us to. But there’s a backstory to this…
It seems the last four years of our lives have been years of almost constant transition. Due to the wake of COVID-19, we have been on the slow track to discover the specific calling God has for us here…now. Sometimes for our own protection, God allows His kids to make a slow pivot. And that’s where we’ve been.
But many of you do know that we have been retooling ourselves for this ministry of bringing forgiveness, relational and emotional healing, and reconciliation. We are so grateful for your prayerful support! What follows is what is burning on our hearts not only for the churches we are contact with, but for the Church in the USA and Canada at large.
When Jesus ascended into heaven 40 days after His resurrection, Matthew tells us He left the disciples with these instructions: “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them…and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you…” (Matt. 28:18-20)
Luke records Jesus’s instructions like this: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8, emphasis mine)
We know these verses well; we’ve heard them preached about many times. We’ve quoted them on missions Sundays. But do we really live them?
This continent has been through colossal cultural shifts in the last thirty years—that goes without saying. The Church of Jesus Christ in the West has had much to get used to. Or maybe we’re not supposed to get used to it, but rather rejoice that we don’t belong to it! Perhaps, in reaction to aspects of culture we have perceived as unbiblical, as the people of God we have tended to blend with the world too much in some areas and in other areas we have remained self-protective and ineffective.
Leslie Newbigin said, “The church is not meant to call men and women out of the world into a safe religious enclave but to call them out in order to send them back as agents of God’s kingship.”
It is not enough simply to support foreign missions. Our churches exist because of the obedience of living witnesses who came before, those who joined God on His mission. Individually, we must live our entire lives for the mission of God, lest we be turned away on that final day! (Matt. 7:21) Jesus’s last parting words entrusted to his future disciples were the mission of teaching and baptizing in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and to the entire world.
When we send missionaries overseas to build relationships and participate in the work of the Kingdom of God, are we doing the same? Is it easier for us to support the work of others in a different place than to do that same work where we are? Jesus called his disciples to be His witnesses first in Jerusalem and Judea—the neighborhoods and communities of their own back yards. This is not merely the task of the pastors or full-time evangelists; it is God’s call to every one of us.
This is what our hearts burn for: to see Christian mission revitalized in the Church. To this end, we have partnered with a handful of churches in our vicinity who desire revitalization. As Development Coaches, we will join these churches in praying and seeking God over the next year for His specific action plan for reaching their communities. We greatly desire your prayer partnership in this ministry!
This isn’t a matter of using old methods to reach a new generation. Nor is it a requirement that we all stand on street corners proclaiming the Gospel with a megaphone. It is a ministry of getting to know our “neighbors,” blessing our neighbors and community for Jesus’s sake, and testifying to the grace of God in Jesus Christ so that some will choose to be His disciples. It doesn’t matter whether that is within our own tribe or in others, or both! Preferably both!!
Jesus said, “The Son can do nothing by himself, he can do only what he sees the Father doing, because whatever the Father does, the Son also does.” John 5:19
Will we commit to do the same?
May the Lord cause His mercy to so fill us and overflow that those near us will come to know the love and grace of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to the glory of HIS Name!
If you would like more information on mission revitalization, OR if you would like to become a regular prayer supporter of Peniel CrossRoads, please do not hesitate to reach out to us at connect@penielcrossroads.org. We’d love to hear from you!