Jun 23, 2016
by Clinton R. Brown
Executive Director SDB Missionary Society
Our 2016 General Conference President, Dr. Ken Chroniger, has set a theme of Faith, Family, and Education. As you may have noted, the Missionary Society has been receiving and helping respond to many in our Family of Faith asking for help with their need for Education. The two final teams of our T.I.M.E. for Zambia (leadership training sessions) are gearing up to go for their sessions. In July we have Dustin Mackintosh, pastor of Next Step in Colorado, and his brother, Jonathan Mackintosh, heading out to work with our Zambian brethren to build the Zambian leaders’ preaching skills and their worship leading, and to make sure they have a good foundation for their general pastoral theology. While there, they will encourage our SDB brothers and sisters. They will be available for opportunities to share the gospel with people in the communities and direct them to local Seventh Day Baptist congregations to help them learn to submit their lives to Christ.
“Every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter.”
Dusty and Jonathan will need your prayers as they step out into all the challenges that a ministry work like this can afford. While we pray for these guys and their responding to this call to leave the comfort of their everyday lives, we should consider reflecting on our own abilities and preparations to respond to God’s call for us to take the gospel message to all the peoples. Charles Haddon
Spurgeon is attributed with saying, “Every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter.” I believe Spurgeon was renowned as a power preacher, but not typically as a missionary in the sense that he went to foreign places. So what did Spurgeon mean? I think Spurgeon was trying to say that if we do not have a heart for reaching those that do not yet know Jesus as their Lord, we do not have the new heart and spirit as written about in Ezekiel 36:26 and 2 Corinthians 5:17.
You can only receive this new heart by Faith. But as part of your Family of God I can recommend some Education that will help you better understand how “missions” is the mission that God is on and the one to which He is calling us all to be a part. We do not have to necessarily stop doing what we are doing to answer, but we do need to continually refocus our mindset to match His and remember and respond to what this life is all about.
A great way to explore your role in missions ministry, be able to better articulate God’s Great Commission, and refocus your mind, is to take the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course. It is a bigger investment in time than Dusty and Jonathan will spend in Zambia, but you can get this training in your own neighborhood or online and it is spread out over weekly meetings for a semester. One of the great things about taking the Perspectives course right now is the Missionary Society is offering scholarships to cover the cost.
For more information go online and check out perspectives.org
or contact our office at 401-596-4326 or perspectives@sdbmissions.org.
