Q of the Day: What does the Psalmist request from God in Psalm 67?

First, open the following link in a new window to get to Psalm 67- click here.

Second, read Psalm 67.

Third, answer the following question: What does the Psalmist request from God?

What are those new cards for again???

For the last few weeks, we've been telling you about the new "Elder Visitation cards," and now would be a good time to better explain them.

The idea came out of the Elder retreat in January. We've been talking about how the Elders can lead the effort for us to become more "missional" and how they can deepen their relationships with the people of our church family. These cards are a way to accomplish both goals at the same time.

The purpose of the card is simple. If there is someone you know (a friend, a relative, a neighbor) who would benefit from having an Elder meet with them, simply note their name on a card and hand it to an elder. Then an Elder and his wife or two Elders together will find a time to meet with this person and see how they can minister to them.

For example, perhaps you know someone who is ill or sad and needs someone to come and pray with them. Perhaps you know someone who has questions about the Christian faith. Or perhaps you know someone who needs to hear the Gospel.

The offer also extends to you. If you would like an Elder or two to minister to you, you can use the same card for that purpose.

The Elders don't have all the answers, but they are willing for the Lord to make them more missional and to step out in ministry to personal acquaintances of our church family. I'm very excited about the kinds of things God can do through this. All we need to do is to be willing put ourselves in situations where God can really use us, and He will do amazing things.

Ideally, the Elders would love to have you come along on one of these visits. That would make your friend more comfortable, and God could also then be using you as He ministers to your friend. The Elders look forward to being able to share this ministry with you and to help you grow in ministry, too.

The potential is enormous, if we would just unleash it! This is how Jesus did so much of His ministry - not by teaching the crowds, but by ministering directly to individuals. All it takes is for you to submit the names of those you know who can benefit from our Elders.

I don't know of many churches where the Elders are so willing to do this. To me, this would be more important than anything else the Elders presently do. I also believe that this can build the kind of church growth we all want - not by reshuffling who attends which church, but seeing those who don't presently attend church regularly be affected directly by the Gospel and by the love of Christ.

Please let your friend or relative know that the Elders are interested in serving in ministry, not waltzing in as authority figures. They don't come as judges and disciplinarians - they come with a towel wrapped around their wastes ready to serve in the name of Christ.

There is a stack of these cards on the back table.

What is "Missional"?

I have mentioned a few times lately the term "missional," and have tried to explain what the word means as I use it. I can tell that most of you have a good (but perhaps still a little vague) idea of the term refers to. It would be beneficial to have one of the books on the subject do the explaining for me. I pulled the following from Milfred Minatrea's Shaped by God's Heart: The Passion and Practice of Missional Churches.

Minatrea describes a missional churches as "reproducing communities of authentic disciples, being equipped as missionaries sent by God, to live and proclaim His Kingdom into their world." This is by no means a radical or unusual definition of what a church should be. The real difference is that there is a renewed effort to reverse the trend among the churches to gravitate toward being "maintenance churches" - churches that spend most of their energy maintaining themselves, more focused on the church activities than Kingdom activities.

Minatrea describes nine practices of missional churches - things that missional churches tend to do that make them missional.

1. Have a high threshold for membership. This may seem counterintuitive - we want to get people into membership, don't we? But when membership has a reasonably high threshold, that carries a sense of seriousness to membership, that only those who are truly willing to commit to be engaged with the ministry of the church make that covenant commitment. There are real expectations of members to the church and of the church to the members. Of course, all attenders are of concern, but membership itself is reserved for those who will make it mean something.
2. Be real, not real religious. The emphasis is on authenticity, not performance. They are serious about the "one anothers" of Scripture. They are authentic to the outside world, too.
3. Teach to obey rather than to know. All of the teaching of the church is for the intent of living out the authentic Christian life, not just gaining Bible knowledge. They equip rather than merely teach.
4. Rewrite worship every week. God is to be the center of worship, and worship is to be experiential and participatory. Again, authenticity is more important than form.
5. Live apostolically. Every person is sent (the word "apostle" means "sent one"). The members live lives sharing the Good News in a variety of ways.
6. Expect to change the world. Perhaps too many Christians don't really believe they can be used of God to change much of anything, let alone the world. Missional churches believe they can. They minister to others by building genuine relationships, and they have the rest of the world in mind with a strategy to reach at least some of them. If you doubt that DBC can change the world, let me introduce you to some Kenyan orphans who would insist otherwise.
7. Order actions according to purpose. Missional people have priorities in life that match God's priorities in Scripture. Then, they live their lives according to those priorities, not the priorities foisted on us by the world and by the religious community. This means letting go of things and activities that don't fit into the priorities.
8. Measure growth by capacity to release, not retain. Missional churches measure success by how many of their people are ready to serve, not how many people go past the turnstiles each week.
9. Place Kingdom concerns first. Missional people adopt a worldview based on the Word and evaluate everything by Kingdom standards. They are "Kingdom-minded," partnering with Christians who differ with them on the minor issues. They also understand that our real enemy is the leader of another kingdom of dark power.

We're not fully missional by any means, although our priorities have always been in these directions. The recent writings on missional churches will only help to clarify our vision for what we want DBC to become, and know that she can become. It is my deep heart's desire that all of us in the DBC family will develop a missional commitment to life as we continue to walk down this road together.

P.S. Please consider sponsoring me to raise money for Jerry's Kids by bailing me out of "jail". Just click here.