Merry Christmas from the McDaniel family! May your Christmas this year be focused on the One that left all the benefits of heaven to make God understandable to us and then to die as a substitute in our place.
Twice each year our ACMC staff gathers at Pioneers headquarters in Orlando for several days of interaction. Last week was one of these gatherings. It is always an encouragement and benefit to be with my colleagues from across the U.S.
We had the opportunity to interact with Pioneers’ U.S. president, Steve Richardson. It was helpful hearing his perspective on what is happening around the world among unreached peoples where Pioneers missionaries labor to initiate church planting movements. And we interacted with Steve Shadrach, mobilization director for the U.S. Center for World Missions. Steve is keenly aware of the heartbeat of young adults in this country and how to effectively engage them in the task of world evangelism. We also devoted a session to interacting around David Platt’s excellent new book, Radical (my best read of 2010).
ACMC is about to begin its 36th year of service to local church mission leaders. We are distinct from most missions mobilization organizations in that our focus is on engaging local churches, not individuals. The local church in the U.S. has changed radically since our formation in 1975. The birth of the mega-church. The spread of seeker focused churches. The rapid expansion of charismatic churches. The decline of mainline churches. The birth of the house church movement in this country. And the recent missional church movement. Among many other noteworthy changes. Because of these changes, ACMC has changed as well. And we will continue to change going into the future.
Under the leadership of Pioneers new VP for church resources, Denny Spitters, ACMC will make a priority in 2011 of seeking God regarding our future as an organization. Our sense at the front end of this process is that our mission will remain unchanged -- “ACMC helps churches mobilize their resources for effective involvement in world evangelization”. However, we will be developing a new vision statement. We will re-examine our core values. We will likely sharpen the focus and scope of our mission. And we will consider what methodologies will best serve us in accomplishing our new vision moving forward.
Please pray for our task force which will be grappling with these issues in early 2011. We will be enlisting the involvement of an outside facilitator, Matthew Ellison with 16:15, to assist us in this process. Our hope is to be able to sign off on this work at our next staff gathering in late June. And then begin the important work of realigning what we do in each of our areas of service around what God reveals through this process.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Sunday, December 5, 2010
from December 5, 2010 prayer update
The tensions in life are often presented as a choice between A and B. I am convinced that many of these tensions are better viewed as both A and B, rather than either A or B. Demonstration of the gospel vs. proclamation of the gospel is one such tension.
For 150 years in the Western world, there has been a polarization between the theologically liberal (social gospel) vs. the theologically conservative (verbal gospel proclamation) when it comes to the responsibility of the Church with the lost. When I study the models of evangelism presented in the four gospels, the book of Acts, and the epistles, I see both prominently present. People come to faith in Christ in response to the clear verbal proclamation of the gospel (Romans 10:14-15). However, cultivation of the soil and the resulting openness to the gospel message usually comes as the direct result of selfless acts of service that demonstrate the reality of the gospel.
Perhaps a helpful illustration would be an arrow, with demonstration of the gospel representing the shaft of the arrow and proclamation of the gospel representing the arrow’s point. There is no penetration and impact without the force and momentum of the shaft behind the razor tipped arrow point. Both are absolutely essential.
For the past decade a focus on justice for the vulnerable and exploited, and benevolence toward the poor and needy, have increasingly been the calling card of the emerging generation (18-35 crowd) of evangelical Christ followers. May this new generation avoid the social gospel only error of their grandparents and great grandparents. May they recognize that as important as justice and benevolence are, they are of limited kingdom value if pursued in isolation. They must be coupled well with a clear verbal proclamation of the gospel. And may the evangelical boomers and busters that have preceded them embrace the power and increased effectiveness that this new emphasis on justice and benevolence can bring when strategically joined with intentional and culturally relevant evangelism.
May we powerfully demonstrate the reality of the gospel through our tireless service among the lost. And may we also boldly verbally proclaim the life transforming good news of Jesus Christ in our natural spheres of influence (where we live, work, and play) and among the least reached around the globe. What better opportunity to do so than during our culture’s Christmas celebrations.
For 150 years in the Western world, there has been a polarization between the theologically liberal (social gospel) vs. the theologically conservative (verbal gospel proclamation) when it comes to the responsibility of the Church with the lost. When I study the models of evangelism presented in the four gospels, the book of Acts, and the epistles, I see both prominently present. People come to faith in Christ in response to the clear verbal proclamation of the gospel (Romans 10:14-15). However, cultivation of the soil and the resulting openness to the gospel message usually comes as the direct result of selfless acts of service that demonstrate the reality of the gospel.
Perhaps a helpful illustration would be an arrow, with demonstration of the gospel representing the shaft of the arrow and proclamation of the gospel representing the arrow’s point. There is no penetration and impact without the force and momentum of the shaft behind the razor tipped arrow point. Both are absolutely essential.
For the past decade a focus on justice for the vulnerable and exploited, and benevolence toward the poor and needy, have increasingly been the calling card of the emerging generation (18-35 crowd) of evangelical Christ followers. May this new generation avoid the social gospel only error of their grandparents and great grandparents. May they recognize that as important as justice and benevolence are, they are of limited kingdom value if pursued in isolation. They must be coupled well with a clear verbal proclamation of the gospel. And may the evangelical boomers and busters that have preceded them embrace the power and increased effectiveness that this new emphasis on justice and benevolence can bring when strategically joined with intentional and culturally relevant evangelism.
May we powerfully demonstrate the reality of the gospel through our tireless service among the lost. And may we also boldly verbally proclaim the life transforming good news of Jesus Christ in our natural spheres of influence (where we live, work, and play) and among the least reached around the globe. What better opportunity to do so than during our culture’s Christmas celebrations.
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