Participants: Karen Thomas, Jason McCracken
Series Code: IAA
Program Code: IAA000065
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00:31 Welcome to another edition of Issues and Answers. 00:33 I'm Karen Thomas. We're so glad that you joined us today. Our 00:36 special guest is Jason McCracken. He's back with us. Came all the 00:40 way from Maryland for this program and we're so glad that 00:42 you're with us today, Jason. 00:43 Thank you. God bless you. Thank you so much. 00:45 Let me just kind of refresh our audience a little bit about you. 00:50 Jason has traveled all over the world. He's lived in Brazil. 00:54 He's fluent in Portuguese, English and a few other ones. 00:59 Spanish, OK. And he is a marketing representative for the 01:03 Review and Herald Publishing Association. He is known to a 01:07 lot of people as the representative for the Message 01:11 magazine and Insight magazine publications and he is also a 01:15 youth evangelist and has been instrumental in bringing over 01:19 2000 souls to the Lord Jesus Christ. So what is our topic 01:24 today? Well, we're going to be talking 01:25 about Bible foundations for the mission of the local church and 01:30 we're going to focus on how a small church can grow. 01:35 Well that's good. Normally in North America you 01:38 have a lot of small churches and I have visited many and pastored 01:43 some and sometimes they're so small they don't want to grow 01:46 and that's an issue. We need to help them grow. 01:50 Well you know I imaging too that in other places around the world 01:54 maybe where there's a work that is just getting started that the 01:58 congregation is small so for those that are listening in 02:01 other places, I'm sure that you will find information that will 02:05 be very helpful today. Oh, most definitely. First of 02:07 all I think we're going to start off with the Bible. 02:10 That's a good place to start. 02:11 That's a great place to start and I'm going to read from 02:15 Matthew chapter 28 and let's begin with verse 16. 02:25 Matthew 28:16. Yes verse 16. OK 02:29 And it says here: Then the 11 disciples went away into Galilee 02:34 into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they 02:38 saw him they worshipped him but some doubted. And Jesus came and 02:43 spake unto them saying, All power is given unto me in heaven 02:47 and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing 02:51 them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy 02:56 Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have 03:01 commanded you and, lo I am with you always even unto the end of 03:06 the world, Amen. We can see that Jesus had appeared on a mountain 03:10 in Galilee, you can find this in Mark chapter 16, verse 15, and 03:16 also through 18. Here Jesus is with 11 disciples and he's in a 03:21 mountain and he appointed them to go and to preach. He wanted 03:26 them first of all to teach all nations, then baptize them in 03:29 the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. 03:33 After that baptism there's a continuation of teaching because 03:38 here, the gerund now, teaching them to observe all things. Now 03:42 Jesus had left a number of things in the Bible to be taught 03:46 and so that is discipling, making disciples and in small 03:50 churches we have a problem with making disciples. One of the 03:55 major reasons is because we feel we're too comfortable and when 04:00 we're too comfortable we don't grow ordinarily. So we're going 04:03 get right into our Bible foundations, but let me show you 04:07 there are seven different foundations for the Bible. 04:11 And when we look at these seven different Biblical foundations 04:15 we will see that the small church can really grow. Let's 04:19 start with the congregation. 04:21 When we look at a congregation let's say a small congregation 04:25 or a medium size congregation the congregation has to have a 04:28 mission. That's recorded from the word of God. Go ye therefore 04:32 unto all the world and preach. Once they establish that mission 04:35 they're empowered by the Holy Spirit there are now some 04:38 essentials that they need to understand. Number 1 the gospel 04:43 message of Jesus Christ which is the center of their teaching. 04:48 Number 2. The mission to make disciples. Number 3. The 04:54 ministry of every believer, every individual in that 05:00 congregation must understand that they have a mission. They 05:04 just can't sit in a congregation but they must respond to its 05:08 call. Number 4. The role and function of the Holy Spirit as 05:12 it plays a very active part in their lives and also the role 05:16 of the congregation. And the 05:18 church as the body of Christ. 05:21 The entire church the ecclesia, which is in Greek, which means 05:25 church is the body of Christ. 05:29 Number 5. The growth to maturity 05:33 in Christ. Number 6. The headship of Jesus Christ and 05:38 then the last, which is very important, the role and function 05:42 of pastors. That's one of the key points we're going to talk 05:47 about today. OK. So let's move on. Let's deal with the outreach 05:51 to the community. One of the first essentials is the outreach 05:55 to the community. When we look at outreach in the community, 06:00 most of us have an idea what are we going to do in the 06:03 community. Are we just going to go and tell people that Jesus is 06:06 coming or what are we going to establish. What type of outreach 06:09 Number 1:... 06:21 How can we do that? First of all when we provide a range of 06:26 services... I'm speaking of services that, things that are 06:29 happening within our church structure that we can offer to 06:34 the community such as scouting. Such as our community service. 06:38 We can feed the homeless or even having workshops in the 06:43 community talking to people who do not have fathers. What about 06:50 widows? What about homeless people. They need words of 06:56 comfort and cheer. There are so many things that we can do in 07:01 the community that they church would be sitting around for 07:05 years trying to establish an organized program, how to make 07:09 these things function. The church can be very active in the 07:13 community. I think some churches maybe 07:15 don't know, some congregations, which ones should they pursue. 07:20 How can they maybe make that decision? 07:23 OK let's take an inner city. An inner city has a variety of 07:27 problems because you have a lot of people concentrated in the 07:32 city. In the countryside, the problems are not as great. But 07:37 some of them are hidden. For example, if you have people who 07:41 are divorced in the inner city, you have people who are divorced 07:45 in the countryside as well. But they need the same hope and 07:49 comfort as people in the city. The problems are basically 07:54 the same because sin brought us that way. The disasters of New 07:59 York and Washington D.C. have lead us to believe that the 08:05 problems in the inner city are the same problems in the country 08:10 and that's why we need to provide a range of services that 08:15 meet the needs of persons in our community. Let's go in that same 08:21 essential, outreach to the community and the world let's 08:24 go to essential number 2... 08:33 There are many people that are hurting within our communities, 08:38 our neighbors, our friends, they are hurting. They smile but we 08:43 don't even know who they're hurting. So that's why we need 08:46 to display compassion. 08:49 You know some people, in traveling, they've talked to me 08:52 and they've said you know I don't know how to show 08:58 compassion, or I don't know what to do. Some people maybe if they 09:02 didn't have compassion growing up or in their families of 09:06 origin or maybe they haven't seen it demonstrated. What kind 09:10 of things, tangible things, could a person maybe who's 09:13 branching out into this new area of actually not necessarily have 09:19 an agenda of religion but of caring. 09:21 Let me give you an example. Recently I was on a plane and 09:26 they upgraded me to first class. I don't know how that happened 09:29 but I was very happy. That was a real blessing. 09:32 But right behind me this young lady was crying profusely. She 09:36 was just crying and crying and I was wondering what was happening 09:39 So I got up and went to the rest room and I noticed that she had 09:44 a captain's cap that had plastic around it. So I figured well 09:49 maybe she's taking that some where or to a different city 09:54 and I just sat there and prayed and I said Lord tell me, I need 09:58 to have compassion, show it to this young lady. When we all 10:02 stood up and they couldn't get the door open because they had 10:06 to wait for the plane to dock correctly, I turned to her and 10:11 said, you're hurting aren't you? What happened. She said my 10:18 father was a pilot in this airline and I'm going to bury 10:25 him and I hugged her. And I said you know what I'm going to a 10:30 youth retreat and this evening I will have all the young people 10:35 stand up and we're going to pray for your entire family. 10:40 She cried again. That's compassion. I didn't have to say 10:44 guess what church I'm from. Come to my church tomorrow. We prayed 10:50 for her for two days, Friday night and then on Sabbath. 10:56 And I called out her name publically. I expressed to the 11:00 the congregation that she had a need and we need for the 11:05 presence of the Holy Spirit to touch her. And when she got off 11:10 the plane she had crowd of people waiting for her and she 11:13 said do you see that man over there? Their entire congregation 11:19 is going to pray for us. That's compassion. That's what we need 11:25 to show to our community. Because Jesus had compassion and 11:31 his disciples need to have compassion. When there's 11:34 somebody dying in the community, we should be there, 11:37 knock on their doors, right there hugging them caring for 11:44 them, showing them in the Bible the precious promises that Jesus 11:50 had compassion and that Jesus will handle it for us. Let's go 11:55 to number 3. This is what I like 11:59 Karen... 12:05 Did you not know that in America today we have so many different 12:11 cultures. People can look like they're from Africa and they can 12:16 be from Brazil. People can look like they're Caucasian and they 12:21 can be from Scandinavia. People can look like they're brown 12:25 skinned and they can be from Mexico, all white and they can 12:30 be from Alaska, maybe the Philippines. People of different 12:36 cultures have grown, born, reared, gone to school, they 12:41 were educated in this country and so now they're going to 12:45 church. And when we see people of different cultures we need to 12:51 make sure that we understand their culture. Lot of people say 12:55 some of my best friends are from your culture. That's not what 12:59 I'm talking about. I'm talking about learning and understanding 13:02 their culture even some of their language background. Even some 13:05 of their good food. I enjoy traveling. I just enjoy eating 13:10 certain types of food. Well I have to be health conscious of 13:15 course at all times. But eating certain foods and I acquire a 13:18 taste and I say I just love it. So when I go to their culture 13:22 I say, hey I love this. For example, I did a campmeeting 13:25 recently and it was all Philippinos. They came from all 13:28 over the east coast. And the first thing I said to them when 13:33 I got up in the pulpit, I said manonangopo and they all 13:37 screamed. And then I said I just love ponset. Yeah, it is good. 13:43 And you know what, that afternoon they gave me this type 13:49 of dress, this formal dress that they use. It's a shirt and 13:54 there's an undershirt underneath it. It's a formal setting for a 13:58 minister. And I preached in it. They gave it to me. I enjoyed 14:03 it; it was wonderful. And they said this, he is a part of our 14:09 culture. Learning to assimilate and understand cultures. That 14:14 is the key of accepting cultures into your church. Let's go to 14:20 number 4... 14:32 Now a strong public awareness means that we need to market our 14:37 church in the community. If we don't market our church in the 14:41 community, they don't know that we're in the community, but if 14:46 foster a strong public awareness of the congregation as a caring 14:50 Christ-centered resource in the community people will be 14:53 knocking our doors down to come to church. 14:56 You know, I don't know if you've seen any church billboards but 14:59 they have some really neat ones out there. I mean there's one 15:03 that is the Friendly Regional Church. Big billboard saying 15:07 welcome, come over here. Like you said, especially newcomers 15:11 coming to the community, they wouldn't know that your church 15:14 is there or that a church is on this particular street for some 15:17 time, but it's a way of welcoming people. I like that 15:19 idea. Also you can use a website to 15:23 show what you're church looks like on the inside. I must have 15:27 passed 100's of churches in my lifetime, literally 1000's of 15:31 churches and I would like to see well what does that church look 15:33 like inside. I wonder what it looks like. Well if you put your 15:36 website up and you can show video clips of certain sermons. 15:40 They will see your church, what are you doing. They would see 15:44 that you're singing hymns, they would see that you're praising 15:47 God. A lot of people have a misconception about what goes on 15:51 inside those doors. And we need to help them understand what is 15:54 happening inside those doors by promoting a strong public 15:59 awareness about out church. That is one of the secrets of sharing 16:04 Christ in the community, letting people know who you are. Let's 16:07 go to the next one here. This is good, I like this one, this is 16:11 so good, ooh this is juicy. Urge members to be actively involved 16:18 in public moral issues as a Christian witness. That's tough 16:23 Now how do we do that. Urge members to be actively involved 16:29 in public moral issues? 16:32 Well I'll tell you. You know this person, Jesse Wilson. Yes. 16:36 Do you want to tell the viewers about that situation. Remember 16:39 when there was some kind of controversy in the community 16:44 and he stepped right out and this is Riverside, California; 16:48 he stepped right out and immediately, in a very positive 16:52 way to the community, he was able to calm the community and 16:56 hence they also became aware of the Campus Adventist Church. 17:01 Yeah. You see when there's a public issue, for example, if a 17:05 young person was viciously beaten, mobbed and the 17:12 community happens to be against that particular family, maybe 17:16 the son in that community caused this grief and so the community 17:21 retaliates, throws rocks at the house. Now the church needs to 17:26 step in. Ah, see this is kind of the 17:30 opposite side. Yeah, we're with the good guys. We're going to 17:34 minister to that bad guy, that so called bad guy. 17:37 Let's say how would Christ treat this person? We have to deal 17:46 with the issues that are plaguing our community. If not 17:50 what is the function of a church in a community? If the church is 17:56 just there to be a beautiful building, the grass is cut, the 18:02 bells may be ringing but if the members are not involved in the 18:07 community then the people in the community don't even know that 18:11 the church really exists. They just think that's there for just 18:15 for one day a week only. We have to be actively involved in the 18:19 community. We have to make sure that those moral issues... For 18:23 example, one of the biggest issues that is taking place 18:25 right now is prayer in schools. Should I pray in school. Should 18:29 I say a meditative prayer? Should I pray in school? Is the 18:33 school going to allow me? Another issue that's happening 18:36 is the American flag. Did you hear that recently that they are 18:41 not interested in people saying the pledge of allegiance to the 18:46 flag in some schools because it has the word God in it and they 18:51 think that will offend somebody. The Church needs to take a 18:56 stand. We need to defend God. Even on our bills In God We 19:00 Trust, there are people who are saying we don't even need the 19:05 word God on our own money. That's an issue. That's a moral 19:09 issue and we need to take an active stance. 19:12 OK now what about some of these other issues like abortion, gay 19:18 rights. These are other issues that you see people very 19:23 involved in. What about those kinds of issues? 19:27 Or can a local church handle that? 19:28 Well I'll give you a great example. Because I was working 19:32 in a large community in Canada and I was kind of popular. 19:37 I used to go get my hair cut. Not now, but at that time I used 19:39 to get my hair cut. And I used to go to the barber shop and 19:42 they used to cut my hair and we used to talk about these issues 19:46 in the community and one of them was about homosexuality and the 19:50 Bible. Well next think I know I get a phone call. Pastor we want 19:53 you on our radio station talking about homosexuality and 19:55 the Bible. So I said Uh hum, really. So McGill University 20:00 in Montreal 20:01 Canada asked me to come to their radio station and talk about it. 20:05 Well I got all the Bible texts together and a lot of 20:08 interesting facts and information and I went to the 20:11 radio station and there were three people there. One was a 20:15 lesbian, one was homosexual and the other was in favor. And so 20:20 I'm sitting in the middle and now they're on the radio station 20:24 promoting it and now after a brief word from our sponsor 20:28 guess who's on next? I'm on next and now I'm like in the middle 20:33 of a whole city tuned in to FM frequency and they want to hear 20:40 what the pastor has to say about it. My response was Jesus died 20:48 for all. Jesus has compassion. Jesus does not condone the sin. 20:55 He loves the sinner but hates the sin. When the sinner comes 21:02 to Christ, Christ will make the difference in their lives. Amen. 21:08 I didn't have to read those. I had so many statements from the 21:11 Bible. I didn't have to read them. And then the people in the 21:16 community started responding on the telephone. Yeah that's right 21:19 pastor, go ahead, you're doing the right thing. Jesus loves the 21:22 sinner, he hates the sin, that's OK. I sat there for the next 21:25 half hour and the whole community was actually defending 21:29 and so those who were actually in the radio studio after the 21:32 session they came in and said hey that was pretty good and 21:35 one of them said you know what? I used to be a Christian. 21:38 I said it's not too late to give yourself to Jesus Christ as your 21:43 personal Savior. Be actively involved. Now when you're 21:48 talking about standing up at different locations where people 21:53 are about to have abortions and shooting people, NO, no, no. 21:58 That's not moral issue that's a behavior that is un-Christ like. 22:02 That's the behavior that we're not talking about. We're talking 22:06 about issues that touch Christianity. In a positive way 22:10 let's be there to defend our cause. That's what I like. That 22:15 was good, I like that. Then the 22:16 last one... 22:30 Now I'm going to back up. Support global mission, 22:33 everybody says yeah I'm going to support the mission of the 22:36 church. Most people don't have a problem with praying. That's not 22:41 a problem. Oh, I'll pray for you I'll pray for the global mission. 22:45 Money, hmm, could be an issue. It shouldn't be with the 22:50 Christian, but the last but not least is most important, 22:55 personnel. God needs you as an individual to get up out of your 23:00 seat into the street and be actively involved in the street. 23:06 That's the secret of being involved. 23:10 You know I like the emphasis that you place on global mission 23:13 because it also gets rid of selfishness or a local focus 23:18 on me; I'm only concerned about my church and my neighborhood 23:23 with my people and it's local. But when you go global you come 23:28 out of yourself and you give to someone else or to a country or 23:32 to a location that doesn't have what you have and you come back 23:36 with something. There are a lot of people who go on Maranatha 23:39 volunteer trips or Operation Reach Bag trips. There's a lot 23:43 of different organizations that are doing good things around the 23:46 world. I know I've seen a lot of young people who've gone and 23:50 they've deepened their relationship with the Lord Jesus 23:53 Christ and you're never too young or too old. Matter of fact 23:56 there was a lady in our church in Flint, Michigan who was 69 24:00 years old and she got a call to go to Zimbabwe, Africa and she 24:03 was wondering whether or not she should go. Well she had no chick 24:07 nor child as they say and she took a plane and left and stayed 24:11 for a whole year and loved it. 24:12 That's involvement. That's personnel. There are individuals 24:17 who cannot even go to Zimbabwe or Latin America or Europe, but 24:20 they can do something right there in their community. Let's 24:25 say that there's a family living next door. Interesting word, 24:32 family; mother, daughter. That's a family. No father, hardly any 24:39 relatives because they live too far away. The neighbor now 24:42 becomes the aunt to that child. That's mission. The neighbor now 24:51 can come next door and say I will babysit for you. I will 24:57 read Bible stories to your child Your child is growing up. I 25:03 will assist you with spirituality. I will even assist 25:08 you in helping cleaning your house. That's personnel. 25:13 That's investing in someone else That's called home missions. Yes 25:19 My wife and I, we're doing it right now, helping other 25:25 families where there's a gap. And so now the phone call is 25:31 can we go to church. Sure. We'll pick you up. The right time, the 25:37 right day. That is the secret of outreach to the community and 25:42 the world. That's essential number one. Let me read a 25:47 statement here. This is from the book Evangelism. Quite thick 25:54 isn't it. It's page 412 it's the bottom paragraph. There is a 26:01 great work to be done. It may seem to move slowly and hard at 26:08 first, but God will work mightily through you if you will 26:15 only make an entire surrender to him. Much of the time you 26:21 will have to walk by faith not by feelings. 26:25 I like that, that's a great statement. 26:28 Oh, by the way, for those 26:29 who are watching at home let me give you some resources before 26:32 our program is over. The book Evangelism that he's reading is 26:36 by a woman by the name of Ellen White who lived in the 1800's. 26:40 And she has written a lot of really wonderful things not 26:43 only on evangelism but on health and some other topics. If you're 26:47 interesting in getting hold of Jason McCracken or would like 26:52 to know more about these seven essentials that he has presented 26:57 today go to the 3ABN website, www.3ABN.org and look for 27:04 Jason McCracken and the Review and Herald and that website is 27:10 RHPA.org. You can find it on the 3ABN website. And again I want 27:15 say think you so much for coming to our program and 27:17 watching today and before we leave Jason will you have a 27:20 prayer with us please. Sure. Father we're so thankful 27:23 for the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world. We're 27:27 thankful that the mission of the church is to go and to preach 27:32 to every creature, every nation, every tongue, every language 27:36 there is and tell the good news about Jesus Christ. We're 27:40 thankful Lord for Issues and Answers and we're thankful that 27:44 you've been with us and help our studio audience as they 27:47 learn from these essentials. May they be blessed. May we all 27:51 be saved into thy kingdom, in Jesus name we pray, Amen. 27:55 Amen. Thank you so much and God bless you until next time. |
Revised 2015-01-21