People of Blessing

06 May 2014 4 Comments

by Visible Unity, Inc. in Churches, Diversity, Faith Communities, Missions, Spiritual Life, Uncategorized Tags: , , , ,

This past Thursday, I attended a ‘Missional Forum’ put together by BODY | Oak Cliff.  The speaker was Fuller Seminary professor, Reggie McNeal and it turns out he and I have very similar thoughts about the state of the church today.  Two things I took away from the gathering were:

1.  As the people of God, we are to be a people of blessing.

2. We are to partner with God in his redemptive mission in the world and this means our lives are to be a mission trip – the way we live, how we treat people, who we engage, etc.

It was a good reminder for me at a time when I’ve been somewhat frustrated with churches and Christians.  Another reminder was a clip a friend sent me where they were testing to see if people would see the homeless people as they walked by.  In this clip, the ‘homeless’ people were the loved ones of the people walking by.  Yet no one noticed.  How I live my life, how I see and treat people, who I reach out to and seek to know, all say a lot about whether my walk and my talk are in sync, whether I am a person of blessing or not and whether I am partnering with God in His work or seeking to create my own.

Churches have somehow gone astray and don’t focus as much on living as Christ lived and blessing others. McNeal suggests that over the years we have some confused things and see going to church as the end point, not being the church. Being involves giving of ourselves, our time and our resources to help those in need of assistance and to reach out to those in need of a friend. So, at the end of each day, let’s reflect on whether we have been people of blessing and what more can we do the following day. Lord God, please bless us so that we can be a blessing to others and help in building your kingdom.

Mission Leaders Conference 2013

23 Sep 2013 Leave a comment

by Visible Unity, Inc. in Diversity, Faith Communities, Missions, Uncategorized, Workshops Tags: , , , ,

I went to an excellent conference for Missions Leaders here in Dallas, September 19-21, 2013.  The theme was Stand and the four general sessions focused on Stand Up, Stand Together, Stand Firm and Stand Fast because “The Great Commission is too big for anyone to accomplish alone and too important not to try to do together” (Missio Nexus).

As an African American woman, it was great to feel welcomed, included and valued.  It’s not often I get to experience this from my white brothers and sisters and it came at the perfect, God-ordained time.  I didn’t realize how much I needed that.   Also, the conference was a good reminder for me to maintain my relationship with Christ; keeping my soul connected to his.  I will remember to ask myself and others – “Is it well with your soul today?” (Ruth Haley Barton)

A couple of things to share:

  • A ‘discipling culture’ exists when we have high invitation and high challenge (Mike Breen).  It is not enough to just issue the invitation, we have to go a step further and usher new converts (and even old converts) into the challenge of being a child of the kingdom.
  • Challenges for us today
    • Relational disciple making not programmatic discipling
    • Transformational ministry not church activity

 Feel free to use the outline below to develop a missions culture in your church.

African Americans and Hispanics in Missions

Reasons not involved in missions

  1. Lost culture of missions due to oppression and struggles  within own country to focus on
  2. Not educated, informed and know own history of minorities in missions
  3. Not necessarily the resources to fund missions within individual churches
  4. Not credible, respected or viable risk for funds from white churches

Recommend

  1. Begin or increase missions education and information
    1. Approach 18-30yr olds – in colleges, on Facebook, etc. to be missionaries
    2. Address denominational leaders for partnering and support
    3. Address congregational leaders for partnering with other churches for support
    4. Speak at churches and community organizations for support
    5. Have a missions conference for Blacks and Hispanics
    6. Create partnerships among churches to share missions

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