This booklet becomes available this week:
Chris Anderson, ed. Gospel Meditations for Missions: Thirty-One Daily Readings to Help You Be Gospel-Saturated All Day, Every Day. Madison, OH: Church Works, 2011.
You can read the introduction and two meditations in this PDF sample.
I love the authors. They’re faithful servants.
Here’s an excerpt from one of the meditations (day 31):
Paul taught us that the essence of missions is going places where Christ is not already named (Romans 15:20). I don’t understand why church planters so frequently ignore that little word not. The mission is not to plant the coolest church in town, but the only church in town. Why target The Bible Belt when so many places don’t even have a Bible? Roughly 35% of the world has no access to the Gospel. I’m not talking about the people in your neighborhood who have never heard “a clear presentation of the Gospel” (but could if you would just cross the street). I’m talking about the 2,400,000,000 people who couldn’t find a Christian if they tried. How is this possible? How many of our mission workers are even targeting them? I might be satisfied with a proportionate 35%. But get this: it’s less than 5%! Tip a waitress 5% and she’ll spit in your soup the next time you order lunch. Five measly percent is a yawn in the face of the Great Commissioner, a shrug at the plight of the damned. It’s tantamount to telling the unreached to go to Hell.
Forgive my candor, but I don’t know how else to verbalize what our inaction is communicating. We’re cloistered in climate-controlled cathedrals, feasting while billions can’t even find a drop of Water. “We do not well! This day is a day of good tidings!” (2 Kings 7:9). Our main problem isn’t fear. Certainly we prefer our crosses gilded, not bloody—but there’s a bigger issue. Christ is not our life (Philippians 1:21). We’re self-absorbed. Distracted. Apathetic. Unimpressed at the stunning honor of fulfilling biblical prophecies. Passionate about anything other than harvest fields of unreached souls—unreached not because they’re unreachable, but because we’ve chosen not to reach them.
The Romans Rover is warmed up and ready to roll. Jesus is driving. The ride won’t be smooth. But there’s a seat with your name all over it. You in?
Aside: The man who wrote that is featured in episode 2 of Dispatches from the Front, and my favorite part of the entire Dispatches series is a bonus feature on that DVD where Tim Keesee interviews him.
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Really glad you’re raising visibility for this, Andy. I’m looking forward to looking into it and doing the same. Chris is a good brother. If it’s like the meditations for women, I’m sure it’s a sound, solid product. Good on you.