What kind of war are we waging?

I've been reflecting a bit lately on our attitudes towards soldiers in the American church vs. our attitudes towards missionaries in the American church.  This is a bit of a generalization, but I would imagine that our troops get celebrated and prayed for more than our missionaries who are also serving on the front lines.  I am guessing that there are more prayers for bin laden to get taken out than to get saved.  My theory is that the nations that get mentioned the most in our worship times might be the places where we are waging war on terror rather than the places that have the greatest spiritual need. 

Now, lest I come across as sounding like an upset missionary asking for more "air time" at church and for more finances going to the mission field, let me clarify.  My goal in posting this is to ask the question whether America and it's dream may have become our passion rather than Christ.  I wonder if our first allegiance might be to our nation rather than the kingdom of God.  You can often times tell where your heart is by looking at your treasure and also by looking at what you are willing to risk for something or someone.  It seems like Francis Chan, David Platt, and many others are asking the church these same hard questions.

I love America!  I really have never second guessed a soldier leaving his wife and children for up to 18 months at a time to make sure that our nation is safe.  It doesn't seem strange to me for someone to take mediocre pay for a chance to defend our country.  Most parents would be proud to have their children in the military and often times encourage them to do so in place of college.  I applaud someone willing to lay down their life for the cause of freedom.  We know that a lot of these people are going to come back emotionally, physically, and psychologically drained and yet we think that it is worth the risk.  It seems normal because we love, honor, cherish, and respect our country.

Now if someone wanted to make those same sacrifices to take the gospel to the places where it has never been preached, we might consider it negligent, unwise, not prudent, and not worth the risk.  It would be pretty "radical", and definitely not "normal".  That brings me to the questions that haunt me...  What's the difference between the two (war and missions)?  Why is the war on terror more of a cause worth risking everything for than the glory of God among all nations?  Why are our young people that go to Afghanistan celebrated while the ones wanting to go to the mission field discouraged?  Is it possible that we have started loving life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness more than this Christ that we claim to follow?  Why is carrying the American cross more culturally acceptable even in Christian circles than taking up Jesus'  cross? 

Where is home?  I pledge allegiance...

Do we know how to make disciples?

Jesus' last command before leaving this planet was to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, and teaching them to obey" everything He commanded us.  If I took this command seriously and decided to make one disciple each year and ensured through follow-up and accountability that each of my disciples was discipling one other person, then the whole world of 6.8 billion people would have access to Christ in 34 years.  That's the power of multiplication and exponential growth!

Mt. 13:23 says "But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."  Farming is a process and takes time, so does discipleship.  Instead of holding a big crusade and trying to do "microwave" missions, what would happen if we focused on a just a few (or one) disciples and do "crock pot" life-on-life discipleship.  It isn't quite as glorious to put in the ministry update/newsletter, but in the long haul it has the potential to produce 30, 60 or 100 disciples in a lifetime which should go out and put into practice everything they saw in your life.  Maybe Jesus was on to something...

Has America been passed over in the Great Commission?

There are actually less American missionaries on the field now then there were 30 years ago.  Is it the economy and people giving less which in turn causes fewer people to be deployed?  Is it that Americans are too comfortable and not willing to sacrifice and go overseas because of our gods of comfort and security?  Have we decided that it is cheaper and more efficient to accomplish the task by "outsourcing" the remaining task to the third world and global south?  Has the huge growth in the short-term missions sector encouraged us to go for a week or month at a time rather than committing to certain areas until the work is done?  Maybe technology is allowing us to share good news in previously closed countries while Google translates for us making it not necessary for us to actually have to move to the Muslim world and learn Arabic to make disciples?

There remain over 6600 entire people groups that are still considered unreached with the Gospel.  What do you think the U.S. role is in this whole endeavor?  Has our time as pioneers passed and now we need to focus more on our role as givers and equippers of others to finish the task?  Or is it time for a fresh new missionary movement to rise up and thousands of new laborers deployed to the hardest to reach final frontiers?  I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments.

Is there anything wrong with the American Dream?

This video is an intro to the book Radical by David Platt. I'm always up for a good kick in the pants, so I thought I would pass this on for others to "enjoy" as well.

How much have we accomplished in a year?

One year ago today, I posted a blog concerning Finishing the Task (FTT) which is an effort by some of the major missions organizations to see church planting work started among the least reached people groups of the world. When they started promoting groups that were unengaged by missionaries or Christian work, there were 639 people groups with more than 100,000 in population numbering over 535 million people total. Here are the statistics one year later:

The FTT website states that now, of the original 639 unreached, unengaged people groups:
* 26 remain unengaged. No one is trying to reach them. (144 on June 1, 2009)
* 167 are adopted but not engaged. (146 on June 1, 2009)
* 403 are engaged with church planting. (308 on June 1, 2009)
* 354 have known believers. (299 on June 1, 2009)
* 168 have at least one known church. (69 on June 1, 2009)

Not bad for a year, but let's do more! There are still 600 evangelical churches for every unreached people group. This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come (Mt. 24:14). Join us in praying for the unreached people group of the day.

Are we playing it too safe?

Francis Chan recently resigned from his megachurch to possibly do some overseas missions work or some innercity ministry in Los Angeles.  Here is a clip where he talks about playing it safe.  We use some of Chan's videos and his Crazy Love book in our missionary training school curriculum.  I hope you are challenged by this video to take some big risks.

Are you afraid of Muslims?

Check out this video clip to learn about the modern day Samaritans (very similar to us but definitely considered our enemies), and see if you might be able to view them as God does: