The Document: 4 Elements

"What makes your church different from any other secular philanthrophy?" I asked the Mormon missionaries.

the Mormons I met with want to know God personally

(A philanthropy is an activity or institution intended to promote human welfare.)

We had been reading through Galatians together.  We'd been meeting for a little less than a year, but a couple months ago our time came to a close.  One elder finally completed his mission and was going home.  The other received a new assignment to Spanish-speaking areas of the city.  Before they left I asked them again to explain how we obtain the Holy Spirit.  One of them took out a piece of paper and drew a picture.  "So, what you're saying is, we have faith in Jesus first.  Then because we believe we receive the Holy Spirit.  And then it is through the Holy Spirit that we have the ability to obey the ten commandments and please God.  Everything except the Spirit's work through us is to miss the mark of perfection; it's still shades of disobedience."  Awesome, Word of God!  I have learned so much from Mormon people through time; changed my mind on several things.  It is nice to have imparted something for them.

I contrasted our self-righteous works to the story of Abraham and the impossible promise of conceiving Isaac.  Faith is the heart of what it means to claim God.  "Your church does so many wonderful things," I said.  "However, so do many humanitarian organizations on the earth who have nothing to do with religion.  I can tell your church cares for people.  My church is no different - it also is known for its acts of care toward others.  So let's cut through to the heart.  Where is God standing apart from what people can accomplish?  Where is God alive, for you?  Here is where He is alive for me...".

The good works done by philanthropies and the good works done by the Church are dangerously close to identical.  Does anyone realize how easy it is to kindly mow someone's lawn and tell them about God?  Good works do not quite incarnate the Living God who offered a covenant to Abraham.  I can only know God if He does something that I am certain I cannot do for myself.  I am not accustomed to the power of God yet either.  But I count myself as someone who wants to live by it.  

(from the document...)

The heart of transformation and “knitting together” this ministry will provide for making disciple makers has four elements:

• Prayer.  We trust God to bring us to His Bride-to-be. God arranges the people and the circumstances and prepares their hearts to receive the gospel. We trust God to bring these people into our lives. Experience proves to me that the ones we will meet are tailor-fitted to naturally and humanly connect with us as individuals. Each believer has been given a certain arrangement of Spiritual gifts, which we trust God to exercise and show the excellence of the power of God that they might believe the promise of eternal life and life abundant. We trust the Spirit, and we trust our Spiritual gifts to be the witness that God is alive. Not only does the power of God lead us to His Bride-to-be, but it leads His Bride-to-be to receive Him and not just follow mere mortals or doctrines or religiosity. “And when I came to you, I did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the gospel of God. For I determined to not know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (1 Cor. 2:1-5). The Spirit out ahead of us runs the whole show. Without it we will not find them and they will not see Him. Without God working, we have a false or weak ministry.  Do you wonder if God has His own high-five notecard?  We do well to pray for our “high-five,” however receiving those God has on His “high-five” card puts flesh and blood agency on immediate redemption. 


• Courage.  Many believers want to share the gospel, open up their homes and open up their lives with others but are afraid or nervous to do it. This is also a work of the Holy Spirit which they will trust God to develop, and we pray alongside them that God would in fact take them in baby steps toward sharing their faith and their life with someone outside the church (Lk. 12:16-21). This is where some scriptures will be a helpful to strengthen a believer to boldly trust God. A small study in the mission of God and the image of God would be appropriate. Also a small study in the nature of faith and discerning the voice of God would be appropriate. Learning gospel scriptures and being able to illuminate them in power will be a central focus. 


• A basic ability to refrain from judging others.  For this reason, I am wary writing this paper. I sincerely hope no one feels judged or limited by what I write. His interests are what matter. This issue is constantly surfacing even for those who have been making disciples for awhile.  It's not a program I want to impart but a way of life which is adaptive to the people engaged.  Unfortunately for our finite ideas of God and His righteousness, God wants to receive the glory, and He does not want our images of Him to receive the glory. His thoughts are not our thoughts, nor His ways our ways. Some additional scripture on how to view struggles with sin or brokenness in perspective to the process of sanctification will be very necessary. 


• Family.  When the Spirit fell, there was identity in Christ and oneness of believers. We know that a person has come into God's presence by noticing evidence of joy and strength after being told the truth of God's standards and God's grace. This is enough that the Spirit is present, and therefore, there is oneness of believers even without their ability to yet articulate the gospel they have received. The Spirit falls in a way others notice in Acts 2:41 and it says that those who gladly received the Word were baptized, and all those who believed were together, and they took care of everyone according to their need. Family – it is a doctrine, yet intuitive. Peter asks when the Spirit falls in Acts 11:17 with Cornelius, “If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?” Above all doctrinal disputes on the content of the gospel, when someone relies on Jesus and the Spirit falls, we must accept that whatever they are to us, God has nevertheless accepted them. We are now members of one another, forever. Family means “we are in this together, and what I have is yours: my time, my love, my stuff – whatever you need to know you belong and you have potential as an image bearer of God, it is all yours.” We practice what the abiding God does with us, with new converts. We simply enjoy their company fully, without regret (John 17:9-24). Once within the family, there are times when every believer chooses to walk in the flesh and it is critical to gently point out the difference (Col. 2:6).

(more in the next post)