I decided to run for a seat on the Oxnard City Council in the recent midterm elections, after it became clear that was what God’s Spirit was telling me to do. I have to admit, it’s not what I wanted, and it took a while to comply. The nudge to run began a couple of years ago with a mild awareness it was something I needed to pray about. I didn’t. And I didn’t because I was concerned God would tell me to run. The subject kept coming up at various times in diverse conversations. I waved them off.

After a while, what made them difficult to wave off was the recurring delays our church experienced in the city’s issuing us permits to build out our new facility. Our church has outgrown its current facility and purchased the building next door as a new sanctuary and offices. A process that ought to have taken no more than four months took six times that long: two full years! These delays were due to a Byzantine permit process that discourages business. Without a healthy business environment, a community cannot prosper.

Then, at a pastors conference, one speaker after another made remarks that were hard not to interpret as confirmations I was to run. A chance encounter with a close friend and his wife saw words spoken that were clear and certain confirmation. I realized and repented of the error of resisting God and “gave in.” I thought it best to wait till 2020 to run. When I learned the new district structure in Oxnard meant the district where I live would not come up again until 2022, I decided now was the time and filed papers.

The Campaign

Having never run for office, I had a steep learning curve. Knowledgeable friends both old and new came to my aid and quickly brought me up to speed. I never did appoint a campaign manager because all the assistance I had made it unnecessary. Though I did not win, we ran a good campaign. We knocked a lot of doors, made a lot of calls, took out adds, used a heavy dose of social media and attended events to get the message out. Despite this, we lost by a handy margin.

The winner was the well-respected incumbent who carries significant name-recognition and is her party’s scion in a community where that party holds a 21% lead. That party’s candidates won all the seats.

What I Learned

God made it clear to me, despite my attempts to ignore it, that I was to run, not necessarily to win. I never sensed a win was certain, only possible. And of course, I ran to win. It would have been disingenuous to conduct the campaign any other way. I discreetly shared this with a few during the lead up to the election. I did so because, by that time, I realized I’d already gained three specific benefits the outcome of the election, whatever it was, couldn’t take away. Those three benefits are:

. Those I Met .

I met people in the course of the campaign I would never have otherwise. I got a chance to meet with city leaders in various departments and civic works and realized our community has amazing potential. I got to meet residents who have no official title but are concerned about Oxnard and committed to its wellbeing. And I learned this: People we disagree with on civic issues think their views are best for the community. Contrary to the echo chamber most people live in where their views are endlessly reinforced, and they never engage a living person with a different view; the fact is, we ALL want what’s best for our city. We just disagree on the best way to what’s best.

Politics is the art and science of compromise. Those who refuse to compromise aren’t politicians; they’re tyrants. People in politics must be willing to give a little to meet others in a middle that sheds the incidentals to embrace the necessities. Give a little to get more. All that begins with healthy relationships.

During the campaign, I learned while it’s easy for demagogues to sit on the sidelines and snipe, those tasked with governing come into a room that has 27 poles on top of which spin 27 plates. They have to run around but not into each other to keep those plates spinning. Without agreement and negotiation, it’s all going to come crashing down.

Though I wasn’t elected, I’ll be following up on the contacts I made, aiming to deepen the relationships and influence the decision makers. Just because I wasn’t elected doesn’t change my call to be a blessing to my city.

. What I Learned about City Matters .

I came into the campaign knowing little about the specific needs of my city. I had what might be called the “fly-over” view. The campaign immersed me to my neck in it. The result is that I now know my community and its needs much better. That’s important in my role as a pastor. Whether on the council or as a resident, my concern and call to serve remains the same because it’s based in my calling before God.

Knowing Oxnard’s specific needs fuels my prayers with greater precision. It also sharpens my focus as I seek to influence decision makers because I know what I’m talking about and what they are dealing with.

Regardless of the outcome of my campaign, a secondary intention in running was to encourage other Christians to enter the civic arena, especially pastors. Here are people accustomed to public speaking, called by God to be a blessing to their community. The very salt and light of God’s Kingdom – let loose in a dark and needy world. Next to leading a church, what better way to bless their community than to run for office and bring the influence of God’s Grace and Truth to the public square?

Knowing my city better can’t help but make me a better pastor because this is the time and place God’s called me to lead His flock.

. What I Learned About Me .

Last is what the campaign taught me about myself. The revelation was simple but embarrassing to share. I was lazy. Maybe that’s not the best word. Productive is better. I wasn’t productive. The form my laziness took is that I avoided the productive work I ought to have been doing with easy work that accomplished little.

As a full-time pastor, I was busy. I had a full calendar and kept a steady pace. Anyone who knew me knew I was busy. How many times a week did I hear, “I know you’re busy, but …”? And to all appearances, I was. People asked me at the outset of the campaign where I was going to find the time. I didn’t know and fretted about it. But guess what, I found the time. No, better—I made the time. I arranged my schedule more efficiently and for two months was both a full-time pastor and ran a campaign for city council. None of my responsibilities were left undone. No one complained that the quality of the pulpit at CCO diminished. On the contrary, several remarked it seemed even more effective.

Only a month into the campaign, I realized how much I was getting done without feeling overworked. I’d mismanaged my time before, filling it up with busy but unproductive work. I came to realize busy and faithful aren’t the same thing. Good stewardship isn’t marked by what you’re doing so much as what you’re producing. I didn’t have a lot to show for all the time I spent. It turned out to be time wasted, not invested. I was busy, but lazy because I occupied myself with easy work that distracted me from harder but more productive work.

I won’t be returning to the old way of busy but unproductive work. Though I didn’t get a seat on the city council, as a pastor, I’m still called to serve my city.

While Evangelical Progressives applaud recent cultural changes, those of the Conservative branch are concerned as traditional values are thrown over in favor of the Moral Revolution. What they need to remember is that this is the way it’s been since the beginning.

In Genesis 2:17, God warned Adam and Eve if they ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they would die. As warned, when Adam ate, death insinuated itself into creation. It’s wrapped it’s pale fingers around the throat of our world. Everything decays and dies, even stars. The Second Law of Thermodynamics is an inexorable rule; everything goes from order to disorder, unless energy is intelligently put into it.

What’s true of the physical realm, is true also of the spiritual.

History is the tale of how, left to themselves, human beings go from bad to worse. If that course isn’t interrupted, the worse they go to ends in ruin. But the interruptions, rare as they are, effect a reversal that allows a Golden Age, a bright shining moment in time when people see what could be if they’d just do things God’s way.

All major civilizations of history enjoyed their period of ascendancy precisely because they honored the eternity God planted in their hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11). That was a work of His grace, staying the deleterious effects of the Fall, in a reversal of a kind of spiritual Second Law of Thermodynamics, one in which moral order falls into disorder.

As the followers of Jesus, let’s not forget we live in a fallen world that, precisely because it is fallen, will keep falling further into moral decay and chaos.

The best we can do is be salt to slow that decay and light to offer a refuge for those individuals who want out. But salt can’t reverse decay. And our light at best shines in the darkness. Only the Daystar can bring the Day.

Churches err when they think to effect social transformation through political action and social justice campaigns. History proves sweeping cultural renewal is a sovereign work of God’s Spirit bringing revival.

Let’s be salt and light by learning and living God’s Word. And let’s pray earnestly for a sovereign and mighty move of God’s Spirit birthing a new season of culture-transforming revival.

By God’s permission and design, people from around the world now live in my community and have become a part of my day to day and week to week sphere of life.

I regularly interact with a Sikh gentleman from Punjab state, India, a hard working cultural Muslim man from Iran and various culturally Muslim men from Bangladesh. My guess is that at least 60% of the people living within a mile of my house are Spanish-speaking cultural Catholics, originally from Mexico or a central American country, and who only speak English when they are at work or out and about around town.

Where you live may not be as ethnically diverse as my community, but it’s probably moving in that direction.

As a follower of Jesus who takes the Bible seriously, I’m not discouraged about the changing ethnic makeup of my community and my country–I’m actually excited about it. Why? Because I’m convinced that the God I serve, the God who has revealed Himself through His written word, is intentionally permitting these precious people from around the world to relocate in to our communities.

And He has already told us what His “end game” plan is going to be. At some point in the future, He will receive worship from at least a portion of every people, tribe, tongue and nation that He originally created to uniquely reflect His glory.

I’m overjoyed at the reality that participation in the Great Commission that Jesus gave to His followers to make disciples from among every ethnic group is no longer limited to those who leave everyone and everything behind and relocate to faraway places for the sake of the Gospel.

Oh, He still calls some of His servants to be missionaries, to leave everything behind and go to those faraway places, and He is still calling the rest of His people to send and care for those who obey and go.

But He is now giving those of us who send and care for missionaries the added opportunity and privilege to participate directly in fulfilling the Great Commission by reaching out with His love and truth to our new neighbors that He is bringing to us from around the world.

In order for us to communicate His love and truth effectively to these precious people who He also created in His image and likeness, but whose cultures are radically different than our own, I believe that God calls us to think about and study what the culture of His Kingdom is, what our own cultural values are, and what the cultural values of our new neighbors are.
When we take the time to do that, we discover that:

. Western culture in general and American culture, specifically, is fundamentally different than both the cultures of the vast majority of the rest of the people that live on this planet, and the cultures and values of the people that are recorded in the Bible.

. By understanding and viewing God’s word and truth it contains through a non-Western lens, we can increase our hunger to worship Him for His goodness and grace for all people, AND our ability to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the most life-changing way possible with those from other cultures.

In my next few posts, I will unpack the first miracle that Jesus did, turning water into wine at a wedding.

But I will do so through the non-Western cultural lens through which those who were there at the time, and the vast majority of the people on our planet today, perceive life through.

Even more importantly, my prayer is that by understanding these things, when given the opportunity, you’ll have the ability to share the Gospel with those from other cultures using an emphasis that you may not currently be familiar with.

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do [it].” Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece. Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them, “Draw [some] out now, and take [it] to the master of the feast.” And they took [it]. When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom. And he said to him, “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the [guests] have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!” This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him (John 2:1-11).

According to Acts 1:3, from resurrection Sunday until He ascended to heaven, Jesus spent a total of 40 days with the apostles and disciples. Although He probably discussed a myriad of subjects with them during that time, the written record of His post-resurrection conversations in the Gospels and the first few verses of the book of Acts are minimal yet powerfully focused.

That focus was God’s love for all people and the role His followers were to have in expressing it.

As Luke 24:44-49 reveals, Jesus knew that for His disciples to receive, comprehend and obey the command He was about to give them, they needed to view and understand God’s written word in a way they never had before. That even though they had been born and raised under the influence of His written word and had just spent three years interacting with Jesus, their minds needed to be opened so they could truly comprehend the Scriptures.

After giving them this fresh perspective on God’s word, Jesus showed them that because His recent suffering, death and resurrection had already been written about, those events had to be fulfilled—which is what they had just witnessed themselves.

But He didn’t stop there.

He went on to say that in the same way the things written about Him MUST take place, so also, the need for repentance and forgiveness of sins MUST be proclaimed to all of the ethnic groups that God Himself created, starting with their fellow Jews there in Jerusalem.

Although Luke didn’t record the Old Testament scriptures Jesus used, (the New Testament hadn’t yet been written), or how they were the basis of the command He gave to His followers to go and preach the Gospel and make disciples among every ethnic group, I believe these are a few of the things He may have pointed out to them:

1. Their God is the creator of all languages and ethnic diversity and will receive worship from people within each of those distinct groups (Psalm 86:9).

2. Thus He is also the creator of their specific ethnic group, and He had made clear to the three main patriarchs that the unique relationship they had with Him was not just for their own good, but for the ultimate good of all ethnic groups (Genesis 12:1-3; 26:4; 28:14).

3. That His glory must be declared to all ethnic groups, so that His name and fame will be spread to all people regardless of where they live on the planet (Psalm 96:3; 1 Kings 8:41-43).

4. That He is the suffering servant referred to in Isaiah, and that the sacrifice He made wasn’t just to provide light for Israel alone but for all ethnic groups throughout the whole earth (Isaiah 42:6; 49:6).

Whether He used those Scriptures or others, what’s clear is that He showed them God’s love for all people using only the Old Testament, and then commanded them to take the message of that Good News to every ethnic group regardless of where they live and to make disciples from among them.

Today, we have the privilege of coupling the biblical basis He gave them from the Old Testament with truths like these from the New Testament:

1. The global scope of His purpose for coming (Luke 2:10,14; John 1:29).

2. His declaration of God’s love for Gentiles during Old Testament times—and the response of His own people to Him pointing this out (Luke 4:23-30).

3. His commendation of the faith of Gentiles (Matthew 15:22-28), and that some of them will dine at His table too; (Matthew 7:10-13) and that He doesn’t just have sheep from the fold of Israel but from other folds (ethnic groups) too (John 10:14-16).

4. A written record in the book of Acts of His people’s obedience to the command from the day He ascended till approximately 40 years later.

5. A reinforcement of the truth that He created all ethnic groups from one original couple, along with the fact that He predetermines when those groups would come in to existence and where they will call home (Acts 17:26).

6. Details about the future that includes a description of Him receiving worship from people representing every people, tribe, tongue and nation (Revelation 5:9; 7:9), and that the unique glory and honor He has bestowed upon each ethnic group will be offered to Him as worship in the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:24-26).

Clearly, Jesus has given us a command to participate in bringing about an outcome that is guaranteed to take place. This means that it’s possible to create metrics that can help us measure the level of our obedience to the command up to this moment in time.

In my next two posts, I’ll explore some of those metrics, paint as clear a picture as possible of how far our level of obedience has moved things toward that guaranteed outcome and then try to nudge all of us to fresh obedience through a Mordecai moment and message.

When Jesus ascended into heaven after His resurrection, He told His disciples, “You shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The Greek word He used for witnesses is martys, from which we get our English word martyr, a person killed for their beliefs. Indeed, a martyr is a profoundly powerful example of what it means to be a witness—sealing one’s faith and devotion to Jesus by laying down one’s life.

Not all of Jesus’ disciples were called to be His witnesses through violent death, but in the Early Church Era, under severe persecution, many of His followers did indeed suffer for His name’s sake as a mighty witness to the power and truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Along with the threat of heresies such as Gnosticism, persecution was one of the greatest external threats faced by the Early Church. Although the Jews and others were in some ways hostile toward Christians, the most extensive persecutions came at the hands of the Roman Empire; in fact, in his Book of Martyrs, Foxe denotes ten distinct periods of Roman persecution of the Church that took place sporadically over the first few centuries of its existence. There were several reasons why the Empire targeted the Christian Church.

1. PRACTICES:

As we have seen previously, Christian belief and practice was very distinct from that of the Roman culture around them. Christians believed many things considered odd to the pagan mind. For one thing, they rejected the multiple deities of the Romans to serve one God alone, one not represented by any image or idol. Oddly enough, for this reason they were often labeled “atheists.” They also rejected unethical activities like gladiator battles and theater performances, and they refrained from engaging in any work associated with Roman deities.

The Christians themselves had practices that were considered strange to the Romans. As oppression increased, Christians were forced to become cautious and secretive, which gave the Roman mind freedom to speculate about their gatherings. For example, rumors abounded that the Lord’s Supper was actually a cannibalistic affair in which Christians ate the flesh and drank the blood of their master. The use of the holy kiss led the Romans to believe that the Christians were engaged in raucous orgies when they met together. And the fact that Christians referred to each other as “brother” and “sister” gave rise to rumors of incest among them. While these rumors were wildly misconstrued and false, it was because the Christians were so different from the rest of society that many people believed such absurdities.

2. POLITICS:

As the Roman Empire grew, it was more difficult to maintain control of the various people groups they conquered. It became clear that steps must to be taken toward the unification of the Empire if it was going to survive. Somehow, allegiance to Rome must be secured among such a diverse array of peoples and cultures. Because religion can exert powerful sociopolitical influence, Rome ultimately decided that worship of the Emperor as a deity would serve as the greatest unifying force.

The Romans thus took a very pragmatic, political stance toward the religions of the peoples they conquered; they were very tolerant of all belief systems as long as Emperor worship was included in them. The Jews were the only exception to this rule, as they stubbornly insisted on worshiping the one true God, Yahweh. However, because the Jews kept to themselves, Rome didn’t consider them much of a threat or concern. So as long as Christians appeared to be part of Jewish culture and religion, they were in Rome’s eyes just as harmless.

However, it soon became apparent that the Christians were very persistent in evangelizing or “proselytizing.” They weren’t just going to keep to themselves like the Jews; their hope was to bring the whole Empire to Christ! Politically speaking, the Romans viewed the Christians as a serious threat to their plan to unify the Empire through Emperor worship, because they refused to bow to Caesar when Jesus alone was Lord of their lives. Thus, the Church was seen as treacherous and disloyal to Rome. C.P.S. Clarke says that Rome viewed the Church, “…Much as a gigantic Sinn Fein or Trade Union organization might be, as an independent and possibly hostile state within the State.”¹

In fact, the Christians’ refusal to participate in Emperor worship was the greatest reason for their persecution over such a long period of time; the political unity of the Empire simply would not allow for such defiance.

3. PROBLEMS:

In light of these things, it wasn’t too much of a stretch for the Romans to find a convenient scapegoat in the Christian Church whenever there were problems of any kind in the Empire—Christians were secretive, they were strange, they made the Romans uncomfortable with their way of life, and they refused to worship the Emperor, so they must be up to no good!

The event that actually instigated extreme persecution of the Church occurred in 67 A.D. when the city of Rome experienced a devastating fire. Shockingly, Emperor Nero was apparently seen singing and playing an instrument outside the city as he calmly watched it burn, which led to rumors that perhaps he was responsible for the conflagration. What added to suspicion was the fact that the majority of the fire took place in a derelict area of the city, and that Nero constructed a huge palace on the ruins. It seemed very possible that he had started the fire himself in order to “prepare” a place for his new palace.

When Nero heard that this story was circulating, he realized he needed to blame the tragedy on another group under suspicion—the Christian Church. By blaming these upstarts for the fire, the Emperor effectively turned the anger of the people onto the Christians and instigated the first official persecution of the Church. From this time on, the precedent was set that anything bad happening in the Empire was somehow the fault of the Christians; they became the scapegoats for any problems or calamities that befell the Romans.

Over the course of the next 250 years, hundreds of thousands of Christians gave their lives for Jesus, boldly refusing to deny their faith in the face of such horrors as beheading, crucifixion, burning at the stake, slaughter by wild animals and being stretched on the rack.

And yet Jesus had declared in Matthew 16:18 that the gates of Hades would not prevail against His Church. And so John Foxe notes, “Though persecuting malice raged, yet the Gospel shone with resplendent brightness; and, firm as an impregnable rock, withstood the attacks of its boisterous enemies with success. Tertullian, who lived in this age, informs us that if the Christians had collectively withdrawn themselves from the Roman territories, the empire would have been greatly depopulated.”² It’s no wonder that the church father Tertullian stated, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church!” As Christians laid down their lives for Jesus, countless more arose in their place, and no act of Rome could stop it!

The Christians in the Early Church Era, while facing at times horrific torture and brutality for their faith, were given by God the remarkable grace to “count it all joy” (James 1:2) in the midst of such evil, considering it a minor thing to suffer for the sake of the One who had suffered and died for them. Their gaze was fixed on eternity and the joy of their Lord that awaited them.

In response to their vibrant and victorious witness, countless onlookers gave their lives to Jesus Christ, and God’s Church prevailed. As an early Christian apologist put it, “Christians love all men, but all men persecute them. Condemned because they are not understood, they are put to death, but raised to life again. They live in poverty, but enrich many; they are totally destitute, but possess an abundance of everything. They suffer dishonor, but that is their glory. They are defamed, but vindicated. A blessing is their answer to abuse, deference their response to insult. For the good they do they receive the punishment of malefactors, but even then they, rejoice, as though receiving the gift of life.”³

Truly the witness of the martyrs not only inspires and challenges us today, but affirms to us the truth of Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 4:8-10—“We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.”

¹C.P.S. Clarke, Church History from Nero to Constantine
²John Foxe, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs

³Unknown, Letter to Diognetus

Unity is a concept often discussed but rarely accomplished. Recently, I’ve seen it modeled well.

Earlier this month, I sat in a gathering with the leaders of Christian festivals from around the UK. They represent events with between 3,000 and 30,0000 in attendance. Our backgrounds are diverse: Pentecostal, Anglican, New Frontiers, Methodist, Calvary Chapel (that’s me, in case you were wondering), and more. Together, we are praying towards a John 17, Gospel-focused unity. This past weekend, I joined with church leaders from Wadebridge, Cornwall for the annual churches together service. We read from Matthew 5 and 1 Peter 2, spoke of the salt of the Gospel, sown into our communities, and the radiant light of the Gospel, reflected through His church. The joy of Christian fellowship was tangible.

As I write this article, earlier this evening I sat with 8 believers from 7 towns and 8 churches, joining together to serve in the name of Jesus in the Calais refugee camp. These 8 represent a true spectrum: 3 countries, 1 lead pastor, 6 women, 2 men, 1 Saviour. Their prayers centered around the calling and leading of the Spirit in their own lives and for this trip. The meeting began with this quote shared by my friend, Edme Brink: “Don’t pat yourself on the back for making a difference in someone’s life, if the difference wasn’t eternal.” Stirring words. Together, these men and women gather around what is eternal. It is right and necessary to rejoice in these gatherings, to celebrate the good and rejoice in the ways the people of God are simply together…the people of God. As the Psalmist wrote:

“Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!”

Amen. At one of these gatherings, a simple statement arrested my attention: “There must, of course, be lines to our unity.” It caught me off guard. I was so overjoyed with my brothers and sisters, with the widening kingdom vision, with the flow of creative ideas around cups of tea… (It’s England. Everything happens around tea), that I slightly rebelled against the statement. I have been turning it over in my heart and my mind, and my realization is that there is truth and authority in this statement. Our unity can only come, truly and faithfully, around the one King we claim. It’s easy to quote this verse: “Eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). And forget that the context is that the unity of the Spirit is found in the clear and recognized, biblical Gospel of Jesus Christ: “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6). Our true unity is not so we can feel good about ourselves. It is not simply to rejoice in how glad we are that we love each other. True unity holds to the lines: of Jesus Christ, the only Saviour, of God, the only Father, of the Spirit, the only true Comforter, of the Word of God, the only truth. Period.

It is when we rest in these things that we discover a unity that can carry a continuing witness to the world around us. Unity is a beautiful thing. We are commanded to it for Christ’s sake, not our own. Let our lives be a witness to the unity that holds to a strength and anchoring lines. “That they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21).

As aspiring proclaimers of the Gospel we need some essential equipment. First, we must have a true conception of God and how He perceives people. Wonderfully, this is available to all, as Jesus said: “If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father.” As we consider Jesus, as He looks over the wretched, struggling, crowd, we see how God the Father sees people, including ourselves.

But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary (exhausted) and scattered, (isolated) like sheep with out a shepherd (Matt. 9:36).

Is this how we understand God? That He is seeing us and is “moved with compassion?” Or do we imagine God mad at the world and fed-up with us? Or is the image of God, more pagan than Christian? Do we envsion God to be more like Zeus with his lightning bolts ready to throw, than like God as revealed in Christ?

If it is, then repentance is in high order! As G. Campbell Morgan said, the Greek word “repent” means “a change of mind, of conceptions.” When God says “Repent!” He is saying, “You’re not seeing things rightly!” But there’s great hope as our thoughts of God and man can be straightened out by simply “fixing our eyes on Jesus.”

In Hebrews 4:15, the good news of how God thinks and feels about us becomes even more specific. We’re told that God “sympathizes with us in our weakness,” or more specifically in our “sin-struggle.”

Are “compassionate” and “sympathetic” descriptions that come to our mind when we consider God thinking about mankind? In John’s Gospel he describes Jesus as God’s heart (love) and logos (mind) manifest in flesh. Do we truly see God as compassionate and sympathetic toward us, desiring all to be made well (saved)? Or does our conception of God need some changes?

In Matthew chapter 9, Jesus shares with His disciples God’s yearning to gather to Himself all the exhausted and isolated, everywhere, to make them well. “Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” (Matt. 9:37-38 italics mine).

Next we need to understand that in this call to proclaim the Gospel, God is more interested in what we are, than what we do. Notice, Jesus said to His disciples, “Therefore pray.” He didn’t say, “Therefore go and make this happen!” Jesus later commissioned His disciples to, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). He tells them “before you go, first, wait, for the Spirit to come upon you” (Acts 1:8).

Why wait? Wait, means to “wait and pray” until the Holy Spirit empowers us, as witnesses of God, in Christ. Without this empowering, without this authority, we really shouldn’t go anywhere, or preach anything. By the way, contrary to what some imply, Jesus never said to his disciples, “Go witnessing!” Read it carefully. He said in Luke 24:48, “You are witnesses.” In other words, “You’ve already come to see and know the Father, as you’ve seen Him in Me, therefore go”

Being a witness is not something we primarily do but something we are. Witnesses of God in Christ have come to know and believe that God is love, and that God has love for us (1 John 4:16 italics mine). They’ve got the “goods” and are thus ready to make the “delivery”.

Imagine if during a cross examination in a court trial, it was discovered that the witness had not actually seen or heard anything concerning the particular case. That witness would be dismissed as having no credibility or authority.

The Holy Spirit empowers us as witnesses by enlightening our “eyes” to see the Father in the Son. Seeing and believing, we enjoy Him and the Gospel; then we go and tell what we’ve seen and heard. This is our blessed job description as laborers in God’s harvest!

Listen to John, the witness:

That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full” (1 John 1:3-4 italics mine).

May God give us this essential equipment that we may fulfill our “job description” as proclaimers of the good news! Oh that we might know and enjoy the Gospel, that it might be seen in us and felt through us as we proclaim it. May we be powerful witnesses of God’s great redeeming love, the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

The term “relevant” is one of those hot button words in modern church culture. When most people talk about being relevant they are generally thinking in terms of how we must never be found irrelevant in our efforts to communicate the Gospel to fallen culture. For most Christians and for many in ministry that is a factor of conformity to the vocabulary, style and lifestyle. Without a doubt, those are important components to the advance of the Gospel. Hudson Taylor shocked his contemporaries when he set aside traditional British dress and style and began to dress like the people he desired to win to Christ on the mission field. A decade ago my two older children told me I needed to “lose the Hawaiian shirts!” At the time there were hundreds of young adults and teens coming to a Monday night Bible study I was teaching and it didn’t feel un-relatable or “irrelevant.” My kids understood culture better than I did. They saw where it was headed and that was their way of letting me know that I was not as “connected” with the people I was ministering to as I thought. This is what I believe is the really big idea wrapped up in our concern for relevance.

As I began to write this, the first thing I did was look up the definition of “relevant.”

relevant |ˈreləvənt|

adjective

closely connected or appropriate to the matter at hand

Then I looked at a thesaurus and found a specific word that really brought clarity to the whole idea of relevance: related.

Relevance is not primarily about being “relatable.” It is about being “related” — it’s about being connected! The most “relevant” church is not necessarily the one that most resembles its culture — or is most “relatable” — it is the one truly connected to the culture it desires to reach. The ultimate example is Jesus. Jesus is God become man. In His desire to reveal Himself to man and redeem man, Jesus did not merely go out of His way to “resemble” man. He literally became related to man. God incarnate had a genealogy!

He was on every level “connected” with the men and women who desperately needed to know about the Good News of the Kingdom of God.

So if relevance is not just resemblance; not just about being relatable, where do we begin to move towards being relevant? First let me say this, you are probably way more relevant than you think! Britt Merrick framed it like this:

All of us have people that are “our people.” The people in your home, your neighborhood; your office, your class room; where you shop, where you hang out; where you work out — those people are your people. There is nobody better to reach your people than you. You are with them. You get them! You understand them! You speak their language.

In other words — you’re connected to them. All of that is by God’s doing. And by God’s plan you are perfectly suited to tell them about Jesus.

That being said, it’s also possible (simultaneously) to be living in segment of culture and have zero connection with it. Or, God can move you into a new city, or send you into a totally foreign culture, and you can find yourself very unconnected within it. Here are THREE THINGS drawn from the life of Paul in Acts 17 that can serve us well in understanding “relevance.”

Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols (Acts 17:16 ESV).

1. Paul wasn’t self-absorbed, engaging Athenian culture only as it might benefit him.

Neither was he a casual observer, Paul had a passion to reach people with the Gospel. If we really want to be “relevant” we need to know the people we desire to reach. We will never really be connected or related to our cities until we get to know them. We need to get to know about the people in our cities.

I came across an article with a list of helpful questions we should be asking about our cities:

– What’s happening in my city?

– Who’s moving into my city?

– What buildings are going up in my city?

– What buildings are coming down in my city?

– How many schools are there in my city?

– How many people are here in my city?

– What is the crime rate like in my city?

– What are the goals of my city?

– What are the values of my city?

– What are the beliefs of my city?

– What is the history of my city?

– How long has my city been a city?

– At what times and days does everything come alive in my city?

– What do the people in my city love about my city?

– What do people despise about my city?

– What’s the media saying about my city?

– What do people in my city put their hope in?

– Who’s hurting in my city?

– Who’s succeeding and thriving in my city?

If you want to know the answers to those questions don’t isolate yourself from your city — engage it — get connected to it! Your neighbors are a microcosm of your city — watch and engage! The teller at your bank, the person ringing you up or bagging your groceries at your grocery store, or your hair stylist, will tell you a whole lot about your city because they are the city; they’re in it, they know what’s going on in it. There’s one young lady in our church who came to know Jesus (and is now a dear friend of our family), because my wife, Valerie, got to know her while this young woman would cut and color her hair.

2. Paul saw Athens for what it was — a city of idols.

Do we see our cities as fallen culture sees them or do we see them as God sees them? No doubt, if the internet existed at the time of Acts 17 (c.50 A.D.) we would find something like this at the official website of Athens.

Athens — the city of Pericles and Demosthenes, Socrates and Plato and Aristotle, Sophocles and Euripides. Socrates taught in the Agora of this great city. It was the home of the Academy of Plato, the Lyceum of Aristotle, the Porch of Zeno, the Garden of Epicurus. Today men still talked about philosophy, poetry, politics, religion, anything and everything. Athens is still the art center of the world and home of the Parthenon, the most beautiful of temples which crowns the Acropolis.

–A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament

Paul no doubt walked around this famous city like any first-time visitor. But he didn’t see Athens like a tourist. Paul saw past the learning, the literature and the philosophy. Paul saw past the artistic-beauty of the best that Greek sculptors and architects could offer. Paul saw Athens through the lens of the Gospel.These statues were beautiful, but Paul was not deceived by the mere art for art’s sake. The idolatry and sensualism of it all glared at him.

-A.T. Robertson, WordPictures in the New Testament

3. Real relevance begins with being related to; connected to Jesus.

Follow me here. Paul not only saw Athens for what it was — a city of idols; Paul was wrecked by what he saw. He saw and he felt! It was a powerful response and reaction. He was provoked. A form of this Greek word ultimately found its way into the medical world in relationship to seizures and epilepsy. The word paroxúnō (provoke) is listed as the prefix pará, meaning “at the point of, unto”, implying movement toward a certain point. The suffix oxúnō means “to sharpen, incite, or irritate”. Thus, the word provoke is defined as “to urge on, stimulate” to a point of action.

I believe Paul was very connected to the heart of Jesus in this. Jesus is God who became man. God Incarnate saw and felt! God Incarnate looked at the city Jerusalem and wept for it.

And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes” (Luke 19:41-42 ESV).

The Book of Acts teaches us that the relevance we need most be concerned with is first and foremost vertical in nature! Relevant church and relevant ministry, is relational — it flows from relationship to Jesus. Acts is the record of Jesus continuing to work through the agency of the church. Paul looked at Athens and was provoked because he was connected to the heart of Jesus who looked at Jerusalem and sobbed convulsively.

Paul looked at the city of Athens and was provoked by it. Jesus wept because they knew the truth, but they didn’t want it. Paul was provoked because they wanted the truth but didn’t know where to find it. Think about this: Athens was home to men and women who had 800 years of Greek Mythology and 500 years of philosophy — and they were still searching!

TWO CLOSING POINTS OF APPLICATION:

1) As we live on and participate in Authentic Mission we are going to engage those who know the truth but don’t want it — and we will also engage those want the truth, but don’t know where to find it. Which best describes your city, your family, neighbors, classmates and co-workers?

2) I think that it’s safe to say that if weren’t provoked by what we see, we probably aren’t seeing things through the lens of the Gospel.

But if we are seeing the world as Jesus sees it —we will be urged on, to the point of action, as Paul was. Paul was provoked to tell men and women about the true and living God.