For God so loved the world...

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ~ Jn 3:16-18

This may be one of the most famous passages in all of Scripture and for good reason. As I was meditating on this passage this morning I was struck with the picture it paints of what Jesus did and the reality of the human predicament.

Jesus came on a rescue mission to save those who were and are already condemned. Many times I have been sharing the gospel with someone only to have them respond with "that is a pretty condemning message!" or the predictable "who are you to judge me?"

The reality is that we are all condemned and are in danger of having the wrath of God pour out upon us. As you encounter people in your day to day activities let this truth penetrate your thinking.

Jesus was sent in order that the world might be saved through him and as the Father sent Jesus, Jesus has sent us into the world (Jn 20:21) to point people to the cross.

The verdict is in and the judgment has been rendered. GUILTY!!! I have a renewed sense of urgency to save others by snatching them out of the fire (Jude 23).

I thank the LORD of His Word and the mission He has given us in this life.

The Incarnation of Christ

This morning I was studying Jn. 1:1-18 and was struck once again with the beauty and glory of the incarnation of Jesus Christ.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. ~ Jn 1:14

The magnitude of this event has gripped my heart afresh today and this truth has given me great cause to praise our LORD. I was also gently rebuked by the LORD because I do not reflect on this amazing truth nearly as often as I should.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. What a powerful truth. I encourage you to meditate upon it for a while and think through the implications of the Word becoming flesh. I trust that you will be blown away by the magnitude of this event.

Soli Deo Gloria

Some Good Recent Reads

The Intentional Church
by Randy Pope

Randy is the Pastor of Perimeter Church in Atlanta, Georgia and a regular presenter at Global Church Advancement's North American Church Planting Seminars. This excellent book lays out a plan for developing an intention ministry structure.

This is a highly valuable book and is one of those must reads for any pastor who is responsible for the strategic planning of any ministry. Randy is also available for Intentional Church Conferences.


Big Dreams in Small Places
by Tom Nebel

Tom is a seasoned church planter, church planting coach, church planting director and has now reached the level of guru in the world of church planting. He is also a regular presenter at at Global Church Advancement's North American Church Planting Seminars

Tom makes a compelling case for the need to plant churches in small communities as a catalyst for developing church planting movements.

This book is greatly helpful in identifying the characteristics of small town life and how to reach people in these communities. The greatest strength of the book is its instruction on how to launch a church planting movement.

Check these books out. They are well worth the time and you will be wiser and more effective in ministry as a result of your investment.

What is in a name?

It is an interesting discussion when you talk about what you should name a new church plant. I have wrestled with this for about three months now and have come to some conclusions about the naming of our church.

1. The name of our church must communicate our vision.
2. The name of our church must be distinctive and memorable.
3. The name of our church must be understandable.
4. The name of our church must have church in the name.
5. The name of our church must be indigenous to the community.

At some point I had to make a decision that fits the criteria above. After much thought and discussion with others I choose the name Pointway Church.

1. Pointway Church communicates our vision of pointing people to a life transforming encounter with the Kingdom of God.
2. Pointway Church is both distinctive in that it points THE way and memorable because of the short and catchy phrase Pointway.
3. Pointway Church is understandable, we are a church that points the way!
4. Pointway Church is a Church! Not a chapel or a fellowship or a community. It is a church!
5. Pointway Church is indigenous to our community that has many points on its numerous lakes and many ways with its numerous paths and trails.

While choosing a name is important it is not the most important thing and I am thankful that this task is complete so that I can focus more time on reaching out with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Update

Pray for us as we continue to transition from Duluth to Brainerd/Baxter. Things are progressing and we are excited to get on-site and begin planting Christ's Church. There are many things that go along with church planting that are not exciting as well. Administrative things like getting a Post Office Box and obtaining Federal Identification numbers so that I can open a bank account.

It is interesting trying to open a bank account with no money. The banker looks at you and asks, "Why do you need a bank account when you have no money?" Then you answer, "God is going to provide every dollar we need to plant this church!" This is a great answer if you are a follower of Christ, but a terrible answer if you are a banker. So we do not yet have a bank account until we have some money to actually put in the bank.

Another amusing part of church planting is the expression on people's face when you answer their question, "So where is your church?" I usually try to be witty and say, "your looking at it!" Then confusion sets in. Most people think of a church as a building and not a body. Currently we have a congregation of 3 (if you include the pastor).

There are also interesting tasks like putting together strategic action plans, choosing a name and designing logos and websites. I am looking forward to passing these things on to people who are more gifted than I am so that I can spend more time preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to lost sinners.

We need your continued support in prayer and financial giving so that we can see the glory of God displayed in Brainerd/Baxter through the proclamation of the gospel. Please consider what the LORD God would have you to give for the expansion of the Kingdom of God.

You may send your support to:

Pointway Church
P.O. Box 331
Brainerd, MN 56401

Thank you for your commitment to the LORD and your faithful support of our church planting adventure in Brainerd/Baxter.

We Found a Home

Since about mid-September we have been living at my in-laws house. Today we found an apartment in Baxter, MN where we will be planting a new church with the Christian and Missionary Alliance.

Thank you for you prayer support. We are looking forward to getting moved in.

Free books!!!

You could win 40 copies of R.C. Sproul's The Truth of the Cross and 1 copy of Richard Phillips' God the Evangelist.



Don't Forget to enter my referral number. It is 20888.

What Should We Name It?

Next month we will begin planting a new church in the Brainerd/Baxter region of Minnesota. Our church plant does not yet have a name! That's where you come in to the picture. Please offer your suggestion of what we should name this new church. The winner will receive an exciting no expense paid trip to Brainerd to feast on hotdogs and macaroni & cheese w/ the Ericksons!!!

Spiritual Warfare 101

Read this post about Spiritual Warfare.

Please Pray for John Keranen!

John is my father-in-law and was injured last Sunday when his horse, Banjo, began bucking wildly. John came crashing down on the horn of his saddle 4 or 5 times. As a result his pelvis was broken in half and he also incurred other injuries.

He had surgery to bolt his pelvis back together on Wednesday and he faces a long hard road to recovery. Pray that the LORD would glorify Himself in John's recovery to the point that those around him, including the medical staff, would marvel at the grace and power of John's LORD and Savior Jesus Christ.

Note: Just to let you know what a tough old cowboy my father-in-law is. After he had his pelvis broken he crawled out of the horse pen to his pick-up truck about 75 feet away and pulled himself inside so that he could use the horn to signal for help!!! This is a man's man if I ever met one.

Mark this day and Marvel at the Work of God

Listen | Download

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By John Piper September 5, 2007

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I do not doubt that what happened on September 7, two hundred years ago, will be celebrated in heaven for its epochal significance in world history. The first Protestant missionary set foot on Chinese soil on September 7, 1807. His name was Robert Morrison. He was a Scottish Presbyterian, and except for one furlough, he spent the next 27 years in China.

Persevering against the hostility of official opposition and the resistance of foreign merchants, Morrison baptized the first Chinese Protestant Christian, Cai Gao, on July 16, 1814. After the baptism of Cai Gao, Morrison wrote prophetically in his journal, “May he be the first-fruits of a great harvest, one of millions who shall come and be saved on the day of wrath to come."

Last month The National Catholic Reporter carried an article by John Allen documenting the fulfillment of Morrison’s prayer. Here is what he wrote:

At the time of the Communist takeover in 1949, there were roughly 900,000 Protestants. Today, the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, which puts out the much-consulted World Christian Database, says there are 111 million Christians in China, roughly 90 percent Protestant and mostly Pentecostal. That would make China the third-largest Christian country on earth, following only the United States and Brazil.

The Center projects that by 2050, there will be 218 million Christians in China, 16 percent of the population, enough to make China the world's second-largest Christian nation. According to the Center, there are 10,000 conversions in China every day.

Admittedly, some estimate the numbers of Christians in China are as low as 40 million. Allen observes, “Even those conservative estimates, however, would mean that Protestantism in China experienced roughly 4,300 percent growth over the last half-century, most of it since the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s and 1970s.”

Other China-observers think that even the high estimates are understatements about what is about to happen. For example in the August 7, 2007, issue of Asia Times, Oswald Spengler wrote:

I suspect that even the most enthusiastic accounts err on the downside, and that Christianity will have become a Sino-centric religion two generations from now. China may be for the 21st century what Europe was during the 8th-11th centuries, and America has been during the past 200 years: the natural ground for mass evangelization. If this occurs, the world will change beyond our capacity to recognize it. Islam might defeat the western Europeans, simply by replacing their diminishing numbers with immigrants, but it will crumble beneath the challenge from the East.

John Allen comments on the dream we have been hearing about for some time concerning the aim of the Chinese church to evangelize the Muslim lands on their backdoor step.

The most audacious even dream of carrying the gospel beyond the borders of China, along the old Silk Road into the Muslim world, in a campaign known as “Back to Jerusalem.” As David Aikman explains in Jesus in Beijing, some Chinese Evangelicals and Pentecostals believe that the basic movement of the gospel for the last 2,000 years has been westward: from Jerusalem to Antioch, from Antioch to Europe, from Europe to America, and from America to China. Now, they believe, it’s their turn to complete the loop by carrying the gospel to Muslim lands, eventually arriving in Jerusalem. Once that happens, they believe, the gospel will have been preached to the entire world.

One of the lessons to draw from this anniversary of the arrival of Protestant Christianity in China is that we cannot measure the significance of our lives in our own lifetime. Robert Morrison could not see what we see. It is astonishing. May the Lord cause his word to run in China with great power. And may he keep us all faithful in our little sphere of influence. None of us is indispensable to the great cause of Christ. But if we will stand, and not give way under the pressures and pains of ministry, more good will come from our lives than we can know.

Here is a suggestion. A four-part video series issued in 2003, called “The Cross: Jesus in China” and produced by Chinese documentarian Yuan Zhiming, interviews many of the leaders of this revival. I have watched all four of these and recommend them for your awareness and inspiration. They are now available, amazingly, for free download at ChinaSoul.

Thank you, Father, for Robert Morrison and for the immeasurable fruit of his labor.

Pastor John

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Musings...

These days I have been thinking about closed doors and obstacles. My thoughts are focused on determining the difference between the two. I view closed doors as the LORD putting a stop to a direction I am seeking to go and an obstacle as man and/or the devil seeking to put a stop to a direction that God is leading me in.

In my current situation I seem to be dealing with obstacles. I would covet your prayers for me because my inclination is to blast through the obstacle I am currently facing. Sometimes blasting through is an appropriate way to deal with obstacles, but when the obstacle is a fellow follower of Jesus Christ blasting through is not an option.

The LORD planted Galatians 6:1 in my mind this morning: "Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted."

I am seeking God's wisdom as to how to confront this brother in truth and love. Please pray for me so that I would honor Christ in this situation.

Soli Deo Gloria

Question?

What would you do differently regarding prayer if you truly believed that the success of your church plant/ministry/spiritual life depended on prayer?

Thoughts about Prayer

Facing the formidable and largely unexpected task of evangelizing the whole world for the Messiah, the early church went to prayer, waiting for Jesus to pour out his Spirit to empower them for this task. Only the very presence of the risen Lord could equip them to move outward in mission. And this movement could only be maintained through a continual dependence on him, receiving divine direction and encouragement in prayer...The outpouring of the Spirit permanently equipped the church for mission. Nevertheless, a vigorous missionary movement can only be maintained and expressed by unceasing prayer in the face of obstacles and persecution.

~ Richard F. Lovelace, Renewal

A Good Soilder