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Published: 05 November 2016

If a person skips school too often they call out the truant officers.  Truant officers “ensure that students are attending school and investigate students who have unexcused or excessive absence.”  We don’t have one of those guys for church attendance.  (The Baptist mafia is an urban legend.)  We are admonished in the Word, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-- and all the more as you see the Day approaching”—(Heb. 10:25 (NIV))  As early as the first century there were Christians who started playing hooky.  They probably had a house on the lake somewhere or they wanted to go to a ball game.  Maybe they were hunting or golfing or had some other first century distraction.  The writer of Hebrews gently reminded his readers that meeting together is for the purpose of encouragement and is intended to be of mutual benefit.   The same is true today.  Meeting together should be a rhythm of the believer’s life.  It should be weekly or he will become “weakly.”  I’m mentioning this today because this weekend is missions weekend and some of you might decide to play hooky.  If you are sick or otherwise involved in some missional activity then we’ll give you an excused absence.  However, if you are staying away because the missional partners are speaking, the loss will be yours.  We’ll be hearing from Bill Brittain this weekend about the amazing ways that children are being cared for around the world in God’s grace.  We’ll hear from Dennis Schermer about missional media and how evangelistic films are reaching thousands of people with the gospel in their own language.  Hopefully you have been praying and/or giving for our missional endeavors and this will be a “dividend report” for you.  If you haven’t been giving and/or praying, you’ll still want to hear what God is up to and the creative ways that God is using the diversity of His body to redeem and restore His image in the world.  Looking forward to seeing you on Sunday :).  Remember, it’s Dinner on the Grounds week too…so, “don’t play hooky!”

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Published: 27 October 2016

Words are important.  Words have meaning.  When words lose their meaning, confusion ensues and trouble begins.  Years ago, some well-meaning person wrote a song for kids titled, “Be a Missionary Every Day.”  Some of you probably have the tune (with the claps) stuck in your head.   That song is another classic case of the perils of so called “Christian music.”  We get the idea that if we sing it in church it must be true.  The song is not evil but it sure waters down the Biblical concept of missions and blurs the lines between missional living, missions and missionaries.  So let’s get some clarity about important words.   God is on a mission.  He is redeeming and restoring His image for His glory.  If we are believers we’ll want to join Him in that mission.  Whatever we do and wherever we are, we represent Him and His Kingdom.  Living with that mindset is missional living.  If we are missional in mindset, we will remember that God desires the worship of all people groups.  We have the privilege of being partners with Him in the story of His glory.  This means we will try to figure out how to send qualified, Spirit-filled people to places where the worship of God is absent.  We will probably have to join other believers/churches to have enough money for that purpose.  The sending of the individual is called missions and the sent one is called a missionary.  We should all be involved in missions in one (or more) of three ways.  We should be praying, giving and/or going.  Most of us will not be going.  All of us can be praying, some of us will want to give in support of what we are praying about.  There are many more involved in the sending than in the going but all are partners with God in His mission.  You are probably not a missionary.  You should be involved in missions.  Missional living should be the mindset of all God’s kids.  We address these matters at least annually to stay on track with God’s glocal desire.  He has desires for the greater Greenville area and He cares about the world.  Let’s be glocal, missional and involved in missions…for the glory of our great King!