This post concludes the pressure points series–the longest series I have written on this site. We have covered a great deal of territory as we looked at what I believe to be twelve of the most critical issues influencing the Church and Her mission. It is my hope that these posts have provided you with a good overview of my book Pressure Points: Twelve Global Issues Shaping the Face of the Church. If you have missed any of the previous writings, they are linked below.
Pressure Points was written to assist you and your church in understanding the world around us. It is extremely important that we know the contexts in which we are serving and sending others to serve. When it comes to leading your church into a world filled with pressures, I want to conclude with five points of guidance.
Know your Box before Thinking Outside of It
We often talk about the need to “think outside of the box” when it comes to making healthy adjustments. While this is a good thing, we must recognize that in order to think wisely in this realm, we must first know our box. We need to ask ourselves how well we understand our present circumstances within our churches, agencies, and institutions from a biblical and missiological perspective.
We must understand the box in which we presently find ourselves in order to make the necessary shifts for gospel advancement and church multiplication. In order to best understand our lives and churches, we need to ask the Lord to open our eyes to sins that we need to forsake, structures and organizations that we need to change, and a vision for the nations that we need to embrace in light of the global pressure points.
Recognize the Pressure Points
Start with understanding the twelve that I have covered in this series. You may find that your context includes other pressure points. If so, know them as well.
Develop Your Disciple Making Strategy
God is sovereign, but He expects His Church to be intentional, wise, and in accordance with His will. Strategic planning is a prayerfully discerned, Spirit-guided process of preparation, development, implementation, and evaluation of the necessary steps involved for global disciple making. For more on this process, I will direct you to the book Developing a Strategy for Missions.
Share Today’s Stories Later Today
We like to share the stories that reveal the thrill of victory, but we often fail to tell those that remember the agony of defeat. We create a culture that is opposed to hearing the unsuccessful stories, fooling ourselves into believing that such is a practice of wise stewards. The time spent between the date we hit the field and the date we begin telling our stories is too long. We must compress time.
Tell us what is working and not working NOW. We are in this mission together and need to hear from one another.
Remain Grounded in the Word
Many of the pressure points of the age could easily push us from our biblical moorings. The challenges arising from the pressures of our time are so great that we could easily follow the path of fear, paralysis, fatigue, apathy, or complacency. Our only hope is to avoid such detours by following the Way. We must remember that He has overcome the world (John 16:33) and, by His grace, so have we (1 John 5:4).
As we remain in the Word, walking in the light as He is in the light, His leadership will keep us on the right path. Apart from abiding in Him, all of our strategies, methods, desires, and interests are worthless for the sake of the kingdom.
Greater is He who is in us than are the pressure points in the world!
Pressure Points: Twelve Global Issues Shaping the Face of the Church is to be released July 16. You may pre-order it HERE. I do hope that you will get this book and use it to equip your people for making disciples of all nations–whether across the street or across the world.
Pressure Point #12 Pornification of Societies
Pressure Point #11 Oral Learners
Pressure Point #10 Health Care
Pressure Point #9 Children and Youth
Pressure Point #8 Growth of Cities
Pressure Point #6 Globalization
Pressure Point #5 International Migration
Pressure Point #4 Pluralism and the Plurality of Faiths
Pressure Point #3 Growth of the Majority World Church
Pressure Point #2 The West as a Mission Field
Pressure Point #1 Unreached Peoples
The Church and the Pressures of the Age
(image credit: Microsoft Office)
