Participants:
Series Code: GMS
Program Code: GMS000906A
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00:10 There are many types of buildings in Tampa, Florida
00:13 but among the high rises as a fair representation 00:16 of post-modern architecture 00:19 symbolic of cities around the world 00:21 with postmodernism 00:23 and post-secularism is starting to dominate. 00:26 The challenge of the urban mission, 00:28 that and much more coming up next. 00:36 Just before He went up to heaven, 00:38 Jesus gave us a command. 00:41 He gave us a mission. 00:44 Jesus said go, "Go, unto all the world 00:49 telling them of His love." 00:51 This is our mission, this is our Global Mission. 01:02 Hello, I'm Gary Krause 01:04 and welcome to Global Mission Snapshots 01:06 coming to you today from Tampa, Florida 01:09 in the United States. 01:11 On today's program 01:12 we take you to various parts of the world. 01:14 We will take you to Port Charlotte 01:15 just south of here 01:17 where Compass Communities 01:19 is making a difference being the hands 01:21 and feet of Jesus Christ at they feed and cloth people 01:25 and show the love of Jesus. 01:27 We will also learn about Chinese characters. 01:30 How the Chinese alphabet actually points to stories 01:33 from the Bible 01:35 connecting God's Holy Word with the Chinese people. 01:38 But first up, let's go to London, England 01:41 where Ana and Sam 01:43 literally go to the streets of that city 01:46 with something called the Sabbath sofa. 01:50 No matter where you go you find that people are tired. 01:55 The stress of daily life can be overwhelming. 01:58 We created the Sabbath sofa to introduce to people the idea 02:03 that they can rest each and every week. 02:06 Our last two adventures took place 02:08 at Marble Arch and Soho in London. 02:11 Take a look 02:12 and see how the Sabbath sofa was received. 02:16 Sareene. Hamida. 02:18 Hamida and... Munnah. 02:20 Munnah. What do you do for a living? 02:23 Are you tired? 02:24 Yes, I am. 02:26 I don't know, I've been walking for really, really long time. 02:29 What time did you start work? 02:30 I start at three. 02:32 Commute that makes you tired. 02:33 The maneuvers that makes me really tired 02:35 but working day tired to listening 02:39 but me was tired as like people they say they are tired 02:42 but they should be sounding like 02:44 rather than complaining I do not. 02:47 I've done a lot of walking and walking tires me out a lot. 02:50 Right. Okay. 02:52 You said you are tired mentally, 02:53 why you tried mentally. 02:54 The things you see, the things you hear 02:56 I think you should smell when you are out 02:57 in Afghanistan or Iran. 02:58 have you been to Afghan? Yes. 03:00 Wow. 03:01 Okay, what about you 03:03 anything else I guess that gets you tired? 03:04 The evil in this world. Wow. 03:05 Now I'm looking for a new job 03:07 because I've got little more energy to do it. 03:11 Sometimes what you can use 03:13 you do get bored and then you get-- 03:14 it reaches a point where you wait for me 03:16 I just don't want to you sometimes. 03:19 Imagine with me, 03:21 imagine that you could take 24 hours out of your life 03:26 every single week 03:28 let's just say from a Friday sunset 03:31 to a Saturday sunset 03:32 and in that time you could rest. 03:36 Amazing. That sounds incredible. 03:37 yeah. yeah. That's like a dream. 03:39 A dream? A dream come true. 03:40 Really? Yeah. 03:42 I do, you know, day like that and it sounds like my own, 03:46 my own small world. 03:48 Be that there when you can just not feel her in just relax, 03:51 just and has a moment to like refresh yourself 03:54 for the next day. 03:56 And it's a day that we just take time out 03:59 to remember we were not designed 04:01 to just keep going. 04:03 I think it's brilliant, any time you can give 04:06 to anybody or what you do is spend your time 04:09 or money or whatever 04:11 if you just do good it's perfect. 04:13 I would like to challenge you today 04:15 that for this coming week whatever you're doing 04:19 to take some quality time out for yourself 04:23 and for your family to rest. 04:25 I'm really grateful you've come. 04:27 Me too. Really very nice thought. 04:29 Thank you 04:30 It's really nice that you could just 04:31 hear about the Sabbath for yourself. 04:33 I hope you get an opportunity to just coming for yourself. 04:34 I hope so. I really hope so. 04:36 You can see that people are eager for the Sabbath 04:39 without even knowing it. 04:41 The Sabbath so far is just one of the many ways 04:44 that you can witness to the people around you. 04:46 How will you tell people about the good news of Jesus? 04:57 On this program we talk a lot about church planting 05:00 and my guest is Pastor Anthony Wagner Smith 05:03 who is a church planter. Thanks for joining us, Anthony. 05:06 You now, we talk about church planting 05:08 what is that exactly, how would you describe it? 05:11 Well when people hear 05:12 that someone is a church planter like I am 05:14 they often ask you two questions, 05:16 when does the church meet and where is the church? 05:19 So most people think of a church 05:20 or a new church in terms of a program 05:23 that meets once a week 05:24 and so is Adventist, you know, 05:25 meets once a week on the Sabbath 05:27 and they think of it in terms of a worship service. 05:29 But really a church plant is where you plant the gospel 05:33 before you start a worship service. 05:35 So in my ministry we do three things 05:37 before we start worshipping on Sabbath 05:38 with new churches. 05:40 We do discipleship with our core team, 05:42 really going through what they got-- 05:44 disciple-- the gospel is 05:45 and how it changes our everyday life. 05:47 We also do visioning and prayer 05:49 so that we have a vision for the plant 05:51 in a DNA, in a strategy. 05:52 And then the third thing is community involvement. 05:55 So I'm hanging out with my neighbors, 05:56 train bringing other people along 05:58 so that it's not just teaching and talking 06:00 but it's believing and walking in our everyday life. 06:03 So it's all about inviting people to a building 06:06 for a worship service, you're talking about. 06:08 Now people will say well, this is all very good in theory 06:11 but I don't have time for community involvement. 06:14 What do you say? 06:15 Yeah, if someone tells me they don't have the time, 06:17 I would say you misunderstand the gospel. 06:20 Because the gospel is not about clearing your schedule 06:23 to do additional church stuff 06:25 it's about being intentional 06:27 in the rhythms of life that you already live. 06:29 So for example here in Tampa we're shooting this video 06:31 there's some high-rises and the hockey theaters 06:33 right over here, the hockey stadium 06:35 and some-- many people I work with enjoy hockey 06:38 and so they say I don't have time 06:40 but they have time for hockey. 06:42 So I encourage them invite your un-church neighbor 06:45 to the hockey game with you 06:46 and invite them into the rhythm of your life 06:49 rather than feeling like you can no longer go to hockey 06:51 as a Christian to make space to do "church stuff." 06:55 Right and so we have three meals a day 06:59 and so instead of eating it by ourselves 07:02 we invite someone to share the meal with us. 07:04 Now, Anthony, tell us-- tell me 07:06 a little bit about your church planting background. 07:09 Well, I've pastored to establish churches 07:11 and districts and over the course of time 07:15 God really opened doors for me to work full-time as a pastor 07:19 with developing new churches 07:21 and the first one that we planted 07:22 called Campus Communities 07:24 and we were there for three, four years 07:26 trained up two of our elders 07:29 to really take the lead with that church. 07:31 We started as two house churches 07:33 have moved into a community center 07:35 and it's a multi-ethnic multi-economic church 07:37 that's just really making a dynamic impact 07:40 in that community. 07:41 And then after that we moved to Tampa 07:44 we plante and start a new church 07:45 a year and a half ago 07:47 and I also work as a coordinator 07:49 with other pastors in the area making plans, 07:52 praying together, and then developing strategies 07:54 to facilitate new churches. 07:56 So let me ask you a fundamental question 07:58 why do we focus on studying new congregations 08:02 rather than just filling up the ones we already have? 08:05 I mean, it's an issue especially in western context 08:09 but if a church hasn't grown for 20 years, 08:12 they continues doing the same thing 08:14 its probably gonna have the same result. 08:16 So if that church were intentionally plant 08:18 the kingdom is extended 08:20 in the Seventh-day Adventist church 08:21 has a greater impact 08:23 and the research shows 08:25 it impacts the church set plans effectively 08:27 not every time but the majority of time. 08:29 So it's really-- 08:31 you have to give in order to receive 08:32 and if we have closed hands the gospel says 08:35 we're not gonna grow, we're not gonna receive. 08:37 And when a leader say to me well, we are gonna fill up our 08:40 existing churches first 08:41 I say how is that been working for you, you know. 08:44 So, now tell me how has this focus 08:48 on community ministry touch some people's lives? 08:51 Can you give me an example? 08:52 Sure, absolutely. 08:54 There's so many but for me 08:56 it's all about living a mission lifestyle 08:58 and so I cannot only talk to other people 09:01 about using their gifts but I have to use mine. 09:04 And so one of the things that God given me is a passion 09:07 for exercise and sports 09:10 and so I actually teach a cycling class 09:12 through a local gym where I live 09:14 and many young men got connected with him, 09:17 connected with others in the church and the community 09:20 and that man had been through 09:21 some pretty crazy stuff in his life 09:24 but as a result of forming friendships, 09:25 getting involve for discipleship 09:27 and everything else 09:29 he eventually gave his heart to Christ 09:30 and was baptized. 09:31 Before he was baptized he told me, 09:34 I don't know how to swim and I said that's okay. 09:36 You know, it's just gonna be waist-deep water 09:38 we had done it in a pool at someone's house 09:40 and when I baptized him he went under the water 09:44 and he came out of my grasp swim to the deep in 09:47 then he popped up and looked at me 09:49 and said forger. 09:51 So there's a great party going on 09:53 when people give their hearts to the Lord. 09:55 There's another lady 09:57 we really emphasized belonging before believing 10:00 and so when it comes 10:01 to the proclamation of the Bible 10:03 you have to be a committed Seventh-day Adventist 10:05 and a member if you're gonna be teaching 10:06 small groups working with kids 10:08 but other ministries people can get involved. 10:10 And so we had a lady who's a professional lady, 10:13 our current church plants in an affluent area 10:15 and she's a director of communication 10:17 for a national company. 10:19 She got involved with the church, 10:20 she came to our orientation for new members 10:23 and things we do 10:24 and I said there's two ways to join the church 10:26 either baptism or profession of faith 10:30 which means you already been baptized. 10:32 And so she checked profession of faith 10:33 and I said tell me, tell me about your baptism. 10:35 She said, I don't remember it. I was six months old. 10:38 She was baptized as an infant 10:41 but she was so committed to our church 10:44 into the vision that she was all in on it. 10:46 So she had to be studied with 10:48 and one of our leaders we study with her 10:50 and help her understand our doctrines 10:51 and be committed to our message. 10:53 Church planting is not about moving away 10:55 from the message that we've been given 10:56 as a Seventh-day Adventist Church 10:58 but it illustrates how people get involved, 11:00 they feel comfortable, they're connected 11:02 and then our doctrinal prophetic 11:04 understandings part of that growth 11:05 and part of that experience. 11:07 So as we see increasing secularism 11:10 where we see people don't have a background in Christianity 11:14 this becomes increasingly important. 11:15 Absolutely. 11:16 Another quick example of how 11:18 it's important in a secular context 11:20 I want to show people 11:22 and I want them to change in their understanding 11:25 of thinking of churches a worship service 11:27 to thinking of-- to thinking of service as worship. 11:31 And so it's quite common that 11:32 we cancel our worship service on Sabbath 11:35 and then we go into the community 11:37 to worship through service. 11:39 And so we developed partnerships 11:41 and practical service days in our area code 11:43 that we live in and that's a key way 11:45 that we invite our neighbors to come with us 11:47 and to serve along alongside of us. 11:50 Anthony, thank you so much for sharing with us. 11:52 It is an honor. Thank you. 11:53 And after this break more stories more missions. |
Revised 2015-11-09