My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus' blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; All other ground is sinking sand.
Nine months into it, we are beginning to realize that there are reasons this is an unreached area. The ground is hard, the enemy is real, eyes are blind, and our flesh is weak, but thanks be to God He has overcome the world! The picture to the right is taken from an abandoned church were an image of Christ has been chiseled away. It speaks volumes of their conceived idea of who Jesus is. We need a revival in this distorted land. There are a handful of local believers, but no local church, however God is at work in the darkest place for this city’s good and His own glory. As we shared in our last blog we felt the Lord draw near in unique ways over this last month to shake what needs to be shaken. We are thankful to the Lord for His amazing leadership and faithfulness toward His flock. We are now beginning to rebuild structure and seek new vision for what the Lord would have us do in this city. One of the primary convictions that we have all sensed and are moving forward together in unity on is that God makes disciples of all nations through His church.
We, in the past, have primarily been operating as a missions organization that would in the future plants churches. However God has mercifully drawn near to show us that organizations don’t plant churches; churches plant churches. The downfall of a missions organization can be that everything is about missions. This doesn’t sound so bad until you begin to neglect the texts in scripture that don’t talk about missions or make every text say what you want it to. A Christian’s life is not all about missions, but rather all about Jesus. When He is at the center missions, worship, prayer, family, and structure are put in their right place. We need to structure ourselves off Biblical text, and Godly wisdom rather than organizational methods. What this means practically is that we are seeking to operate like a church with proper biblical leadership that seeks to equip the body to do the work of ministry without neglecting individual faithfulness, family health, and a thriving community of believers. We are seeking to live as the church of God here in this city so that as locals come to believe there is a healthy body to disciple and care for them as they seek a new way of life.
Our hope for the future is that a local church will be planted; people will be saved, baptized, and discipled; leaders will be raised up, and other churches will be planted. We are beginning now to lay the proper biblical foundations for such a church, but won’t publicize the church until we can hold the prayer, worship, and teaching in the local language. There is much work to do in a land with no grid of a Biblical worldview. Our immediate focus is to learn the language, disciple our friends and neighbors, and seek to faithfully please the Lord as His body in this city. We are continually building relationships, laying foundations, and sharing the Gospel with those we meet. Please pray for blind eyes to be opened, deaf ears to hear, and us as God’s people to represent Him well.