A Different Kind of Weekend News
September 21, 2008
One of the most insidious effects of imbibing mainstream media is that we might actually believe the priorities they communicate. If you were to look at the front page or homepage of your news source of choice and ask, “How important is the church’s work of fulfilling the Great Commission?” the answer would be “The church? The Great Commission?!? These are, at best, of peripheral importance compared to the financial crisis, the upcoming election, the…!” Such are the priorities we are fed daily.
Yet these are not the priorities of eternity. When John sent his revelation to the seven churches of Asia Minor-churches enduring suffering that make our news laughable-he wanted them to tune in to the news of ultimate reality. He wanted them to hear the voices of heaven announcing what is soon coming: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15). And because of this reality, he wanted them to know that the advancement of the church’s mission, no matter how important Babylon and her wares seemed at the time, was the real news of the day.
As we seek to hear the pronouncements of heaven over the babble of contemporary commentators, it should raise our sense of the seriousness of the church’s march toward that final consummation of God’s kingdom. This weekend we have a number of exciting opportunities to tune in to news sources that may not make the headlines but have infinitely more eternal significance than the front page items because of their Great Commission connections:
-Tonight (Friday) members of the Congo team will be sharing about the tremendous work of redemption God is doing among women who have endured the most horrific forms of abuse in what has been called the “rape capital of the world.”
-Tomorrow (Saturday) morning our men have the opportunity to hear more stories about suffering and redemption from Africa as Dan Hoffman will share about his experiences both in Congo and Uganda this summer. Aaron Dotterer will also share about the work that Team Croatia did this summer in supporting Stevo and Sarah Vuletic’s work to reach Croatian youth with the gospel of Christ.
-Sunday morning there will be two opportunities to tune in to Great Commission activity during the Sunday School hour. For the parents of our young children, we will have an update on the state of affairs of our children’s ministry and how that ministry seeks to be intentionally fulfilling Jesus’ command to make disciples of all nations, including our little ones. For those not in that life situation, missionary David Hayton will be sharing about his family’s upcoming work in a small, Muslim country in Central Asia. Dave has an infectious passion for reaching the unreached people groups with the message of Christ, and I know you will want to hear him share as part of the broader adult Sunday school class.
We do not want to be a people who ignore the current events of our day. But as we hear the news of God’s global, gospel work this weekend, let us pray that, as one of our core values states, we would be further “shaped in our priorities and affections by the Christ-centered story line of the Bible rather than the values and assumptions of this passing age.”
Pastor Chris