Faithful Witness

I have just read John’s prophecies to the 7 churches which were in various cities in Turkey during the first century. These were city wide churches and probably included more than 1 congregation. The prophecy to each church was clearly connected to the city where the church was located which means that these churches were incarnated into the larger world around them rather than being extracted from the culture. These prophecies were to be given to the angels of these churches. Angels in this case probably means messenger sent by the churches to see John. So, a delegation arrives on Patmos where John is exiled, and in response to what they say, John hears from God what he is to give to the messengers who then relay that to the churches they represent. The first thing Jesus reveals to John is a powerful visual image of his reign as Lord and King of these churches. John is summoned into the presence of the King and hears his decrees about each church. It is clear why Jesus remin...

One night, several years ago, when we lived in Belleville, I woke up at 3 am. I was wide awake, so I got out of bed so I wouldn’t disturb Melanie. I went downstairs and read Leviticus. By the way, Leviticus is not the protagonist in To Kill a Mockingbird. It is the third book of the Pentateuch in the Bible; 3 am, reading Leviticus. Draw your own conclusions from that. It quickly became clear that God had an agenda. As I read the descriptions of law and sacrifice and atonement, the Holy Spirit revealed the fulfillment of all of this by Jesus. “Read this”, God said, “as if it has been fulfilled.”  But the Holy Spirit did not stop there. Jesus did this through the power of the Holy Spirit, and that same Spirit dwells in me, empowering me to receive the life of Christ within me. This means that Leviticus is fulfilled by me because Jesus is in me. This means I am righteous. But the Holy Spirit didn’t stop there. The Spirit reveals this about Jesus to people all over the world. ...

This post is from my friend, Frank Daugherity. I liked it so much I posted it here. It is serious ( you know me, Mr. Happy Go Lucky! ) and important. I hope it speaks to you. If you want to explore this further, see more of Franks writing about mission and missions at http://daugherity.com/frankly. Has it come to a contest between "missions" and “missionality” in our churches today? What has happened to "missions" (traditional cross-cultural evangelistic and church-planting ministry) since the "missional" emphasis has really began to gain traction? Is it dying out? I was a cross-cultural missionary for 21 years (8 in Japan, 13 in greater NYC among Japanese expats), and contemporaneously a missions pastor in a large church in northern NJ for 8 years, so I know the older traditional picture pretty well. My oversight responsibilities included liaison with 66 missionary families. When I was asked to give my perspective on what's going on now...