Building Babel

"For His glory in global worship, God purposes to redeem a people from all peoples and rule a Kingdom over all kingdoms."

This is what God is doing all throughout Scripture, all throughout history. We see that God is a missionary God throughout the whole Bible. Contrary to popular belief, the Great Commission is not a single random verse that pops up as an afterthought. We see it, first revealed as the Cultural Mandate, from the very first verses of Genesis.

God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground. - Genesis 1:28

After the Fall and after the Flood, God gives the same command to Noah and his sons - twice (Genesis 9:1,7). We've now seen this commanded three times, and this brings us to the next major scene in the Story, the Tower of Babel.

There is an interesting dynamic at work here. The whole world speaks a single language, and there is, in essence, one culture. They decide to build a city, a tower, their own kingdom, rather than obeying the oft-emphasized command of God to take possession and fill the whole earth. "We may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."

God intervenes. He confuses their language. "So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city." The last phrase just strikes me as funny. Perhaps it did to God, too. Here they've gone to all this trouble to build a massive zigguart or the like, to make a name for themselves so they won't have to obey God. Then he creates new languages and throws them all over the place. Construction screeches to a halt.

It's a nice Sunday school Bible story, but the conviction hits close to home in a couple of ways.

There have been many times in the past three years I've seen my plans crumble to pieces. I've often questioned why, with little response. But I'm beginning to see that in most, if not all of these situations, I was building my plans, my goals, my kingdom. Even if it was "work for God," it wasn't ultimately God's work, His call and plan for my life. Time and again, I've seen everything from career choices to small opportunities crash and be scattered to the four winds.

In some of these things, I've already begun to see God's redemption and creation of His plan in my life, and I find His plan is infinitely greater than my grandest dreams. In others, I don't really see why they weren't what God wanted, and I probably won't. That's not the point, though. The point of Babel is that God will accomplish what He commands, with or without my consent. I have to be willing to obey, regardless of the consequences it has on my plans.

I also felt convicted as a member of the American Church. We build beautiful huge buildings that sit vacant most of the week. We pour millions of dollars into programs that attract seekers and keep up with the latest technology. We don't invest heavily in the Global Church. We don't focus on obeying the command of Jesus to take the Gospel to all nations. We seem much more interested in building our own individual kingdoms. Is this true universally? No, of course not. But we have tremendous resources, more than enough to see the evangelization of every people group. Yet we don't.

The good news is this: God is actively working to redeem every culture and people that come out of the dispersion at Babel. People from every tribe and nation and tongue will stand and worship before the throne of God. The Lamb will receive the reward of His suffering.

A New Chapter

We started class with one question. What obsesses God and drives Him to the point of killing His own Son?

That's a loaded question if there ever was one. There's not a short answer, either. Actually, the answer is a journey encompassing all of human history, and we're in the middle of it now.

What is so incredible that it made God pleased to destroy His Son?

That's the question initiating this exploration. I don't claim to have all the answers or even begin to understand the ones I do know. But I want to find out. I want to know God, know His heart, His passions.

I'm taking a class called Perspectives on the World Christian Movement, and I'm blogging about it. The class is basically an intense missions study, three hours every week for fifteen weeks. The blog will be daily, now until the end of the year.

I'm blogging because I need to, for several reasons. One, God has called me to write. Two, writing is the way I process just about everything. Three, I have a ton of information to process - more than enough just from the weekly lectures, not to mention the textbook and assignments...and the books I'll be reading on my own. Four, I need to practice discipline in writing - both in the daily effort and in keeping posts brief. Five, I hope and pray this will be beneficial to someone else.

I don't know how to express how excited I am about this chapter God is opening up. I'm excited I have to hear missions experts and read articles and study missions for the next several months. It just resonates deep within my core - this is what I was created for: to know and glorify God by being involved in seeing all peoples come to worship Him.

Called to Go, Called to Stay

Sunday's sermon at my church was about getting up and being involved in what God is doing, rather than avoiding risk and hiding in the comfort of the La-Z-Boy chair. The text was, somewhat predictably¹, from the Great Commission:

¹⁸Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:18-20

We discussed that idea in Sunday school. My teacher recounted the message of a missions conference speaker. With the Great Commission, a direct command of Jesus, all Christians are called to go. Biblically, you can't really argue with that - it is a direct, straight forward command. Go. Disciple all people groups.

Really, the question should not be "am I called to go?" but "am I called to stay?" Every Christian is called to be a part of going and discipling all the nations and people groups, teaching them to obey everything God has commanded. The only question is where has God specifically called you?

Many are called to stay at home, wherever that may be. But many are also called to go. Those not called to move geographically to spread the gospel have the the responsibility to support and encourage and assist those who are called to "go," all the while being faithful to spread the gospel through evangelism and cross-cultural ministry at home.

As for me, I'm called to go. And I'm currently struggling with my current season of staying home, but that's a story for a different blog.

Are you called to go or called to stay?



¹ Huge aside deserving of multiple future posts: the Great Commission is not the only call for Christians to go and be involved in what God is doing in the nations. All throughout Scripture, in every book, you can find God's heart for all the nations to know Him. In fact, the Great Commission is really a reflection of God's covenant with Abraham, way back in Genesis 12. Abraham was blessed and made into a great nation so that through him, "all peoples on earth will be blessed."

Defining definitions

I just came back from helping with a camp for 8th and 9th graders, in which the underlying theme of the week was missions. The first small group assignment began with the task of defining "missiology." You know its going to be a great week of camp when you start by defining seminary terms!

Missiology is the "study of religious (typically Christian) missions and their methods and purposes," which is great, but it does what my middle school English teacher never allowed us to do - use the root word in the definition. Missiology is great, but what is missions?

Missions is cross-culturally spreading the Gospel.

Okay, so what is the Gospel? The Gospel is the story of God's desire to create and redeem and have relationship with mankind. John Piper, using one sentence, puts it this way: "The Gospel is the news that Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, died for our sins and rose again, eternally triumphant over all his enemies, so that there is now no condemnation for those who believe, but only everlasting joy."

Missions differs from evangelism, in that it is cross-cultural. It is not just sharing the Gospel with your neighbor, who looks just like you and has basically the same language and traditions and experiences. That is evangelism. Missions is going to a different culture, a different people group with their own language, customs, beliefs, traditions, and location.

More to come later...

Iran

In the midst of political turmoil, don't forget to pray for those who are waging the spiritual battles on the ground in Iran. Elam Ministries has been training Iranian pastors and Christians both in and out of Iran for the past thirty years. They report that more Iranians have become Christians since 1979 than in the previous 1300 years combined. Meanwhile, persecution has intensified recently. Two young ladies have been in solitary confinement for the past three months for their witness. While asking for prayer for their release, pastors emphasize praying that all Christians will be faithful during persecution.

Missions Moblization

Here’s how Wesley Tullis, formerly a Director of Prayer Mobilization for Youth With A Mission, helps churches and believers understand mobilization: "Essentially mobilization refers to any process by which God's people are awakened and kept moving and growing until they find their place for strategic involvement in the task of completing world evangelization. Mobilizers are those who channel key resources, training, and vision for world evangelization to the Body of Christ. It has been said, that to improperly appreciate and support the role of the mobilizer is to seriously hinder the functions of the goer, sender, and welcomer." So, mobilization is not exclusively focused on just raising up more cross-cultural missionaries. The ultimate objective is to recruit, train, and connect every believer to their most strategic role in fulfilling the Great Commission—whatever role that may be!

Phil Parshall, missionary and author, described mobilizers this way: "Someone must sound the rallying call. Those who desire to see others trained, prepared and released to ministry are known as mobilizers. Mobilizers stir other Christians to active concern for reaching the world. They coordinate efforts between senders, the local churches, sending agencies, and missionaries on the field. Mobilizers are essential. To understand the role of mobilizers, think of World War II as a parallel. Only 10% of the American population went to the war. Of those, only 1% were actually on the firing lines. However, for them to be successful in their mission, the entire country had to be mobilized!"

From "Mobilization: The Key to World Evangelization" by Steve Shadrach