I love it when writers I respect are saying the same things I am, more importantly, on this topic, missionaries are saying the same thing. I wrote a few weeks ago about an exchange with a World Magazine writer about the fact that we’re all called to be missionaries. A missionary subscriber took exception.

Well, not all professional missionaries want to be recognized as the only missionaries. Here’s a blog by Heather Holleman from October 4. It’s short, and I reproduce it in its entirety.

I’ve been thinking the past two days about people who seem to have that “missionary spirit.” I asked a wise woman about how surrendered she was in her life; she can go anywhere, sleep anywhere, eat anything, and sacrifice all her comforts to serve the Lord. And she has. She’s in her 70’s, and she pushes on with her “missionary spirit.” Then, the very next day, I met with a missionary about to leave for another country after living in 14 other ones. I told her that I’ve been thinking about special people who have that “missionary spirit. “

“I don’t buy that,” she said. “You’re a Christ-follower, so you are a missionary. You have a missionary spirit already. It’s not reserved for special people.”

I thought about her words all day long. I asked God to help me live more in alignment with that missionary spirit. I want to go anywhere and do anything with great joy. – Heather Holleman, October 4, 2023

“You have the missionary spirit already…I asked God to help me live more in alignment with that missionary spirit.” That will preach!

We just heard a sermon Sunday that Matthew 28.18 – 20 is built around “as you go” about your day-to-day life, make disciples. Amen.

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Therefore, as you go make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. (Matthew 28.18 – 20, NKJV, emphasis mine and changed slightly to match what the Greek scholars tell us is a better translation.)

While writing Getting the Word Out, I was reminded of The Gospel Blimp, a parable by Joseph Bayly, published along with some other stories in 1960. B. Nathaniel Sullivan has written a 2-page summary which starts:

George and Ethel were especially concerned about their next-door neighbors, whom they knew were not Christians. The idea of the Gospel Blimp was brought up soon after a plane flew overhead. They use blimps in advertising, so why couldn’t a blimp be used to spread the good news about Jesus Christ? It sounded like a great idea! Signs with Scripture verses on them would trail the blimp (everyone would see them), gospel tracts would be dropped all over the city (who wouldn’t read these if they fell down from the sky?), and, as it turned out later, a public address system would be added (no one would be able to avoid hearing the good news about Jesus). All of this would require a great deal of planning and effort, but it would be worth it. After all, what better way was there to show the Griscom’s next-door neighbors how to become Christians?

You can see where this is going to go, can’t you? George and Ethel’s neighbors did become Christians, but not because of the Gospel Blimp. The story ends this way, as captured in the summary:

Well, after George stopped attending the [Blimp] board meetings, he and Ethel took a personal interest in their neighbors. George went on fishing trips with his neighbor, and when his wife was sick and in the hospital, Ethel came and visited her often and did everything she could to help. Because the Griscom’s next-door neighbors saw Christ in Ethel and George, they wanted what they saw. And so they came to Christ. The group invited the neighbor to help with the blimp, but he couldn’t. The next day he and George were going bowling with the fellow who lived across the street.

As we wrote yesterday, and as Seth Godin suggested, people are reached, not by fancy advertising or big events, but by word of mouth. The good news is, that’s more effective and less expensive! (By the way, The Gospel Blimp was made into a 37-minute movie in 1967. )

I also thought of The Gospel Blimp when Passion of the Christ came out in the early 2000s. It’s a powerful movie, no question, but did thousands of people become Christians after seeing it? Not that I’ve heard. I was on staff of a large church, and we rented a storefront near the theater where it was showing so we could counsel those who might want to become believers. I don’t know that anyone came. Mass media is not a substitute for our daily interactions with our neighbors. I speak to myself.

You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5.13 – 16, ESV)

Seth Godin has written another blog with a killer application for us. Seth is a marketing guru, and his daily blog often includes insights directly applicable to ministry. Nothing to Ad (not a typo!), October 5, 2023, is such a blog.

He starts off talking about the futility of trying to advance your brand by advertising on social media. I don’t understand the technical details, but the conclusion is this:

The path forward is very different.

Your (current) customers need to bring you your (new) customers.

It’s not ironic but it is edifying to realize that this is EXACTLY how every one of the media companies you’re paying ad money to grew. They grew with word of mouth, not the sorts of ads they’re selling.

Facebook or that influencer–they didn’t grow by running ads and selling subscriptions. They grew when their users felt that it was in their own selfish interests to bring them new users.

As long as your project is built around the misguided myth of “getting the word out” and promoting itself to strangers, you will struggle. Someone always wins the spend-money-on-DTC-promo game, but it probably won’t be you. It’s simply a lottery where one of the spenders hits a magical level of critical mass and becomes buzzy. For the rest of us, there’s only the glorious work of creating a product and a situation that people think is worth talking about. It’s hard, it has dead ends, but it’s the work. – Seth Godin, October 5, 2023, emphases mine

“Your current customers need to bring you new customers.” I.e., word of mouth. I’m not against ad campaigns like He Gets Us. But Jesus laid out a strategy that is more like Seth Godin:

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. (Acts 1.8, ESV)

“My witnesses” sounds like word of mouth, doesn’t it?

We start Deuteronomy which is primarily Moses’ last words to the Israelites, a review of Exodus – Numbers. It opens with their failure to take the land in Numbers 13 and 14.

The LORD our God said to us in Horeb, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain…See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their offspring after them.” … “See, the LORD your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has told you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” … Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. (Deuteronomy 1.6, 8, 21, 26, ESV)

And then we come to chapter 2, which talks about the time AFTER they had wandered 40 years in the wilderness as a result of their unbelief recounted in chapter 1 and contains this shocking verse:

For the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing. (Deuteronomy 2.7, ESV)

They weren’t supposed to be in the wilderness for 40 years. They were supposed to be conquering the Promised Land. But even in the wilderness, after their rebellion, “Your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.”

We often live as if everything depends on us. But the promises of God hold true even when we fail. This truth should provoke a different attitude. Not, “I need to do everything right so that God will bless me.” But, “Thanks be to God who blesses me even when I don’t do everything right.”

Contrast the attitude of the home-schoolers I read about in There’s No One Equation for Educating Christian Kids by Gretchen Ronnevik, September 29. 2023. She writes that as a home-schooler she was often called upon to…

…sign a contract committing to homeschool all my children through high school graduation and declaring my belief that homeschooling was the best educational choice for all families.

Many of these home-schooling parents were disappointed when not all their children kept the faith, especially when the kids perceived that the faith was dependent upon their works. Their perfect works. Gretchen writes:

I’ve witnessed many homeschooled kids who graduate wanting nothing to do with God. “It’s just too hard,” one of them said to me. “God wants me to be perfect all the time, and it’s not that I can’t try to please him anymore; it’s that I no longer care.”

The problem is…

We subconsciously start to believe that if we parent perfectly, we’ll have perfect children—and homeschooling offers a level of control that other education options can’t match. But this is a formula devoid of the doctrine of sin and redemption. At its root, it’s a sort of salvation through works. It’s devastating—and not only for the children who lose their faith.

I’ve been heartbroken sitting next to a friend who spent years of her life training up her children, only to see a child reject the faith she taught them. In her mind, she did everything right. She kept the standard high. She disciplined well. But the equation didn’t work.

I’m all for home-schooling in certain circumstances. If I had school-age children in today’s world, I’d certainly consider it. But home-schooling can be done badly. I’ve seen it firsthand in our extended family.

The issue I’m calling out today is the attitude that, as I wrote earlier, “I need to do everything right so that God will bless me.” That form of legalism and mechanistic faith is contrary to Deuteronomy 2, and it’s the sort of thinking Jesus often challenged the Pharisees about.

I’m also not diminishing the importance of obedience and the desire to be obedient. And I’m not downplaying the consequences of rebellion. It’s just that God’s faithfulness is larger than my faithlessness AND my “righteousness” based on hard and fast rules.

Pharisees challenged Jesus:

• Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? (Matthew 2.16)
• Why do your disciples not fast? (Matthew 2.18)
• Why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath? (Matthew 2.24)

If we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself. (2 Timothy 2.13, ESV)

Here’s a sentence I’ve read hundreds of times and given little thought to:

As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’”…Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” They replied, “The Lord needs it.” (Mark 11.1 – 3…Luke 19.32 – 34, NIV)

Did you see it?

“The Lord needs it.”

These accounts of the Triumphal Entry are the only places in the entire Bible where “Lord” and “needs” occur in the same verse except Isaiah 58.11 where the Lord is meeting our needs and Joshua 9.27 about the Gibeonites meeting “the needs of the altar of the LORD.”

This speaks to the humility of Jesus. (See Philippians 2.5 – 8). As a man, he needed things: for example, rest and water to drink (John 4). In this case, he needed a donkey. He asked (probably arranged ahead of time) and someone provided. His father could have created a donkey for him or he could have bought one out of their treasury, but he just borrowed one.

Even today, God could send angels to proclaim the gospel, but he chose to train men and have the message spread from person to person. Hence, in that sense, “The Lord needs us.” He could miraculously provide for every person in need, but he prefers to have those needs met through people.

Just a few weeks ago I recalled how early in our marriage, June and I had an unexpected expense and no margin in the budget to meet it. It was “only” about $200, but it was $200 more than we had. And just as unexpectedly, a friend of ours, someone we knew through The Navigators, a single Naval officer, just endorsed his paycheck and mailed it to us. The amount? About $200!

How does the Lord want to use you to meet “his needs”?

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Matthew 9.35 – 38, NIV)

Our people must also learn to engage in good deeds to meet pressing needs, so that they will not be unfruitful. (Titus 3.14, NASB)

I wrote about Sam and Shirley Hershey and their profoundly disabled son, Shad, back in 2019. If you have not read that blog, please do so now, along with the one written the day before. I’ll wait…

Shad passed away suddenly on September 13, at the age of 41.

As I wrote back in 2019, I know the Hersheys well, but there were things I didn’t know. A friend of mine has more history with them and went back to the San Diego area for the memorial service. Here is what I learned from my friend:

• I wrote that the Hersheys had one other son, but you’ll note there were two. My friend said that the first was stillborn or died very early.
• Shad had trouble keeping down food and couldn’t eat normally. Shirley prepared a special pureed diet and fed him through a tube.
• Sam and Shirley built their ministry around Shad. They didn’t consider him an interruption or something to be endured. They never hid him from others or tried to act as if he wasn’t part of their lives. I see that now in the picture I posted back in 2019. Their pictures always included Shad:

The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. (Psalm 16.6, NIV

As for God, his way is perfect: The LORD’s word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him. (Psalm 18.30, NIV)

What is the primary task of ministry? According to Brad East, an associate professor of theology at Abilene Christian University, in an article: AI Has No Place in the Pulpit, the primary task of ministry, taken for granted by the author, and, I’m afraid, most pastors is this:

What are the primary tasks of ministry? The classic answer, laid out most simply by John Calvin but common across Christian tradition, is the service of Word and sacrament. A pastor is called by Christ

• to preach and teach the gospel,
• to baptize and administer the Lord’s Supper,
• to lead Christ’s body to worship him by his Spirit, and
• to shepherd Christ’s flock through times of plenty and times of lack. – Brad East, emphasis his, list bulleted for clarity

Who is our authority? John Calvin? Where does this list come from? Where in the Bible is the phrase “the service of the Word and sacrament”?

What did the Apostle Paul say the primary task of ministry was?

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4.11 – 13, NIV, emphasis mine)

Where in Calvin’s definition or Brad East’s list is equipping?

Timothy was a pastor of the church at Ephesus. Everyone would agree on that. And what did Paul tell him to do?

You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Timothy 2.1, 2, NIV)

“…entrust [teaching] to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.”

The scriptures are clear, but there is no hint in this entire long article that training and equipping others is one of the duties of a pastor. This article is about the model of pastors “soaking in the word” for many, many hours so they can preach an effective sermon. I don’t deny that an AI-produced sermon should not be an option for the pastor’s preparation. That’s the point of the article. But I do deny that this model of “ministry” is biblically complete. It may even be wrong. The only reference I can think of that talks about pastors “giving themselves to the ministry of the Word” is this one:

But we [the apostles] will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. (Acts 6.4, ESV)

But did Peter and the others mean they would be studying 20 – 30 hours a week so they could preach a 30-minute sermon on Sunday? Hardly. Just five verses earlier we read:

And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus. (Acts 5.42, ESV)

I apologize for criticizing my brother Brad East, whom I don’t know. I’m sure he’s faithful and sincere. But the problem is that people I’ve talked with around the world lament a serious dearth of disciples. It’s been incorrectly attributed to Einstein that “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Whoever said it, it’s true, but churches continue to run the same incomplete model of “the service of the word and sacrament,” neglecting the training and equipping piece, and wondering where the disciples and mature believers are.

He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher to train Christians in skilled servant work, working within Christ’s body, the church, until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ. No prolonged infancies among us, please. We’ll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are an easy mark for impostors. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. (Ephesians 4.11 – 15, MSG, emphasis mine)

If you’ve been reading this blog for more than a year, you know that I always write about Sputnik Day, in memory of the first satellite, launched by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957. This blog, from 2019, highlights the importance of technology to solve problems.

Sputnik was the first satellite. Today, on many nights, one can look up and see multiple satellites. For example, Space-X just launched 21 new Starlink satellites on September 25. You can go here to find out when you can see a Starlink train go by.

I had never seen a rocket launch…until September 14 when we were in San Diego. A small Texas-based company launched a satellite from Vandenberg Launch facility on short notice in a test for the US Space Force. June and I saw the contrail; June saw the late stage; our son Mark, in a separate car, took these pictures.

It’s all very exciting. I remember, when I was a boy, a few preachers decried “sending up satellites to intrude on God’s front porch.” As if by sending rockets away from earth we were invading “God’s space” without his permission.

Don’t believe it. ALL technology is under God’s control. Here are some snippets from the book God, Technology, and the Christian Life by Tony Reinke. (I can’t wholeheartedly recommend the book – he makes good points, but the book is too long, and he makes those good points multiple times!)

For now, I ask: What is God’s relationship to human innovation and technology? In Noah, he commanded it. In the ark, God took human engineering and technology and wrote it into the grand story of redemption. But in Babel, God squashed it. In the face of human self-glory, he introduced the tensions that utterly thwarted human collaboration. (page 44)

And if we’re being honest, many Christians operate with this assumption. In the face of human possibility, God seems aloof, surprised, alarmed, even threatened. But such a conclusion is very wrong, as the prophet Isaiah shows us. (page 44)

Where do innovators come from? God answers this question directly in Isaiah 54: 16–17, as he speaks comfort to his people. “Behold, I have created [bara] the smith who blows the fire of coals and produces a weapon for its purpose. I have also created [bara] the ravager to destroy; [and yet] no weapon that is fashioned against you [God’s people] shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication from me, declares the Lord.” (p45)

(1) He creates the creators of weapons. (2) He creates the wielders of those weapons. (3) He governs the outcomes of those weaponized warriors—the ravagers. (page 45)

I’m enjoying the technology that I use to create these blogs and the magic of email and the Internet, which allows you to read them. Unfortunately, the same technology can be used to spread vitriol, pornography, and easy access to betting on sports.

You hold WAY more computing power in your hand than what was used to put men on the moon. And we don’t need to give each other directions anymore. GPS, satellite technology, gets us there.

I’m having trouble landing this rocket ship! So I’ll just stop. God gave us the technology; let’s use it for his glory.

And Lamech took two wives. The name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.

• Adah bore Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock.
• His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe.
• Zillah also bore Tubal-cain; he was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron. (Genesis 4.19 – 22, ESV, bulleted for clarity. Application to technology suggested by Tony Reinke)

Last week I observed that the “famous” verse, “God is not a man that he should lie…” is in the middle of the strange story of Balaam. Here’s another verse that’s frequently quoted out of context:

Be sure your sin will find you out. (Numbers 32.23)

We were told as children, “Now don’t go sneaking around doing bad things. “Be sure your sin will find you out.” But the verse has nothing to do with that sort of thing.

I remember a sermon I heard in my early 20s motivating us to a missions mindset from this very chapter: Numbers 32. It starts this way:

Now the people of Reuben and the people of Gad had a very great number of livestock. And they saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, and behold, the place was a place for livestock. So the people of Gad and the people of Reuben came and said to Moses and to Eleazar the priest and to the chiefs of the congregation,… “The land that the LORD struck down before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock.” And they said, “If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants for a possession. Do not take us across the Jordan.” (Numbers 32.1 – 5, ESV)

This is toward the end of Numbers. Deuteronomy is largely the final sermons of Moses to the Israelites. At this point of the narrative, the people are getting ready to cross the Jordan and take the land (recorded in Joshua). But here are some tribes saying, “Wait a minute. The land right here, east of the Jordan (not the Promised Land) is good for cattle, and, guess what? we have cattle! So let us just stay here.”

Moses will have none of it:

But Moses said to the people of Gad and to the people of Reuben, “Shall your brothers go to the war while you sit here? (Numbers 32.6, ESV)

This starts a tirade from Moses reminding them of the faithlessness of Numbers 13 and 14. To which they respond:

Then they came near to him and said, “We will build sheepfolds here for our livestock, and cities for our little ones, but we will take up arms, ready to go before the people of Israel, until we have brought them to their place. And our little ones shall live in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land. We will not return to our homes until each of the people of Israel has gained his inheritance. (Numbers 32.16 – 18, ESV)

It’s in this context that “be sure your sin will find you out” appears:

So Moses said to them, “If you will do this, if you will take up arms to go before the LORD for the war, and every armed man of you will pass over the Jordan before the LORD, until he has driven out his enemies from before him and the land is subdued before the LORD; then after that you shall return and be free of obligation to the LORD and to Israel, and this land shall be your possession before the LORD. But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the LORD, and be sure your sin will find you out. (Numbers 32.20 – 23, ESV)

It’s not the sin of sneaking around doing bad things. It’s the sin of not engaging in God’s mission. The hymn captures it well:

Shall I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease

While others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas? – Am I A Soldier of the Cross?, Isaac Watts

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (2 Timothy 4.7, ESV)

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. (Ephesians 6.10 – 13, ESV)

Yesterday we looked at the story of blind Bartimaeus, which ends this way:

And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.” And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way. (Mark 10.51 – 52, ESV)

“Your faith has made you well.” It’s the same thing Jesus said to the woman who touched his garment:

And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” (Mark 5.34, ESV)

I think Jesus is being gracious. After all, it’s his power that made them well, isn’t it? Or is it both?

I walk into a dark room and flip the switch. All of a sudden, there’s light! Why? and How? Was it my switch-flipping that made the light come on? Yes, but only if there’s a giant electricity generator nearby, transmission lines bringing the electricity to my neighborhood, lines from the main line to my house, internal house wiring to a working light bulb, and a switch.

THEN, when I, in faith that all that power is there, flip the switch, we have light.

• Power but nobody flipping the switch = no light.
• Switch flipping when there’s no power = no light.
• Power + switch flipping = light.

The power is there. Are we flipping the switch? Or, to change the metaphor, if we believed that the prayer gun was loaded, what would we aim it at?

Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you… (1 Samuel 12.23, ESV)

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. (Matthew 7.7, ESV)