Stay on the Wall

God has entrusted to His followers the good work of His kingdom. I often share at Refuge Church that our mission is to display and declare the good news of Christ's kingdom to individuals near and far.

What greater work is there in the world?

This work is both our joy and honor to be participants with God in fulfilling.

Like Nehemiah, who passionately pursued the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the restoration of Israel as a city of light to the nations, the church is to be a people allowing God to make us a city of light, set on a hill, shining the light of God's glory and gospel to the world.

This work, however, is not easy for this work takes place in a work of brokenness, fatigue, and opposition. Nehemiah and the men who worked to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem faced it all.

Threatened with invasion and death by enemy armies, the men worked for weeks moving rubble and rebuilding the walls. In the midst of this, they were taunted and derided for their work by their opponents, while their family and loved ones begged them to leave the work and come home. Amazingly, though, none left. They all remained on the wall!

There are in life a few works in life that are so precious as to never abandon for any reason. Following Jesus in the pursuit of Him and the advance of His kingdom ranks first.

Of course there will be moments when you are opposed in the work of the kingdom. You will be belittled for following Jesus and perhaps persecuted or put to death. Sharing the gospel may not receive and warm reception. Serving the needs of the city may come under suspicion or lead to our being pushed away. The response of others changes not the importance or urgency of the work.

Throughout the Bible we are encouraged to stay on the wall. Paul said, "Be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vein" (1 Corinthians 15:58). At another time, Paul reminded us that reaping comes to the faithful who do not give up or grow weary in the good work of God's kingdom.

Are you still on the wall?

Take a Daniel moment:
1.  Give thanks to the wonderful gift of Christ to be part of His salvation.
2.  Celebrate God's calling us into the work of His kingdom.
3.  Pray for strength amidst adversity and opposition, fatigue and personal struggle.
4.  Ask God to make clear where your place on the wall is and ask His help to see it through.

Make Us a City of Light

Jesus is the Light of the World. In Him is life and His life is the light of all people. When He entered into the world, darkened by disobedience and rebellion, the Light shone into the darkness and the darkness could not understand it. The darkness even sought to extinguish the Light by putting Jesus to death on the cross. But the grave could not hold Him and darkness could not put out the Light.

By the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Peter says we have been called out of darkness and into His marvelous light. Christ died once for all to rescue us out of darkness and convey us into His kingdom. Now as His followers, Jesus teaches that we are to be a city of light. He taught that His disciples are a city set on a hill to shine the light of Christ and the gospel into a dark world. 

Being a city of light includes living in such a way as to display to the world what life can be when individuals surrender to worship and obey Jesus Christ. Jesus' followers are anything but perfect. But the unfortunate truth is that the church has often struggled to be a light to the world. We either have hidden our light from the world, we have run from the darkness in fear, or we have simply looked and lived more like those outside of the kingdom of God than those who ruled and rescued by Jesus Christ.

God has made you, re-made you in Jesus Christ, and placed you where you are today. You are there as a Jesus-follower to display what life in Jesus Christ looks like. You are there as a Jesus-follower to declare how life in Jesus Christ is received. 

Take a Daniel moment:

1.  Celebrate that Jesus is the Light of the World and that His light never dims or goes out.

2.  Give thanks that the full assault of darkness on Jesus Christ could not extinguish His life or light.

3.  Thank God for calling you out of darkness and into His marvelous light.

4.  Pray that God will make you a city of light.

5.  Ask Jesus to make clear specific ways you can display and declare His light to the world beginning right where you are today.

The Refuge Mission

Planting a church takes work. In the flurry of activity, it is easy to lose sight of the mission. For it is the mission that is far more important than the method. 

The mission is more important than where you physically meet, the music style used in worship, or the general structure of the church. While all of these may and should be shaped by and supportive of the mission, the mission stands head and shoulders above.

Jesus' lasts words conveyed the mission. Displaying and declaring the good news to individuals near and far so that they may become worshipping disciples of Jesus is the mission. It is God's mission. It is the mission we seek to keep in the cross hairs at Refuge Church.

Ed Stetzer has written much about church planting and the mission of the church. His article on Church Planting and the Mission of God is a great read and reminder. Let me commend this to you, especially those of you who are part of Refuge Church, as we embrace a work that looks, sounds, and structures differently than where many of us have been.  The article can be accessed here.

It is a joy, amidst the work that is relentless and at times exhausting, to be part of what God is doing at Refuge Church.

Who's Your One

Forbes Magazine recently ranked the Raleigh Metro Area the fastest growing city in America.  The growth in the Raleigh-Durham and surrounding areas continues to explode. In the North Raleigh and Wake Forest area, significant growth and development have occurred in the last ten years.  The expectation for future growth remains optimistic, with the anticipated growth occurring north and east of Capital Boulevard in North Raleigh.

When Sarah and I, along with a small team, began praying through and discussing the planting of a new church, God used this realization of the population growth coupled with the great spiritual need to confirm His leading to begin Refuge Church.

The desire to begin Refuge Church was birthed from a desire to display and declare the good news of Christ's kingdom to individuals near and far in order that lives would be transformed for the glory of God.  A new church planting movement across North America and around the world is, encouragingly so, motivated by this heart.

Therefore, we must collectively and individually be constantly asking how we are displaying and declaring the gospel.  We cannot afford to lull ourselves into a place of thinking we  enough people or we are financially stable enough.  

For Refuge Church, we know that in our immediate target area there are 70,000 people who are unchurched. (Yes. Our target is the world. That's 6.9 billion.)

Who's your one?  

It is easy to see large numbers and be overwhelmed.  It isn't surprising that faceless numbers never become a passion.  But the face of a friend, neighbor, family member, hair-stylist, car mechanic, landscaper, etc. can help us to see the need not as a number, but as people who need the gospel.

Think of one.  I'm thinking too.  

You may not have to think long.  You may think of ten.

But who is your one. And let's set out to display and declare the good news (and it really is good news) to that one.  How can you serve them?  How can you love them?  How can you share with them?  Who is your one?

Amnesia

And Jesus was going about all the cities and villages...proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness...  Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest."  Matthew 9:35-38

Southwest Airlines entered the commercial airline with the intent to provide the lowest airfare possible to customers. For this reason, to this day, Southwest Airlines doesn't have all the frills and extras that other airlines may offer or possess. In fact, when an executive once presented the idea of adding a small meal to longer domestic flights, the CEO asked the question, "How does this help us accomplish our mission?"  

That question caused an evaluation of the suggestion against the mission. The CEO easily vetoed adding this amenity because it would have added cost.

Churches decline and the gospel doesn't advance because believers forget the mission.  Many churches in North America suffer from amnesia.  They simply no longer remember the mission.  The mission sets direction and provides evaluation. 

Knowing your mission determines where you go, how you get there, and what things you will and won't do along the way.

As God led and affirmed the starting of Refuge Church, He reaffirmed the mission in my heart for me personally and the Church collectively.

Our mission is to display and declare the good news of Christ's kingdom to individuals near and far.

Jesus did nothing less than this in His earthly life and ministry.  

He declared the good news of the kingdom. He traveled to every city and village (individuals near and far), teaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom (declaring the good news). With His words, He spoke of the kingdom promised from the Fall. He declared redemption and restoration.  He proclaimed reconciliation with God through faith and repentance.

He displayed the good news of the kingdom. Yet Jesus also healed every kind of disease and sickness and demonstrating compassion (displaying the good news of the kingdom). When Jesus healed the sick, when He resurrected the dead, when He restored sight, and when He touched the untouchables, Jesus was displaying through tangible acts what the kingdom awaited for would be like. No more death, sorrow, disease, and untouchables.

Declaring and displaying the good news go together. Displaying the good news meets real need, provides credibility, and paints a picture of that which is to come.  Declaring the good news gives clarity to what we do as something far more than philanthropic.

Our mission is to display and declare the good news of the kingdom to individuals near and far in similar manner so that outsiders become insiders. God has set His affection upon those outside of the kingdom, desiring that they come to find refuge in Christ in His kingdom to the glory of God.

Every church, Refuge Church included, has this as our mission.  I pray we never suffer from forgetting our mission.