WHAT MAKES SIERRA TICK, #9

Our philosophy of ministry
by Paul Null, FormerTeaching Pastor

Spreading the good news

"And he said to them, 'Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.'" (Mark 16:15). Most of Jesus' final words to his followers before he ascended to heaven had to do with reaching out into all the world with the good news of salvation. In Acts 1:8 he promised that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them to be his witnesses "to the ends of the earth." It is no exaggeration to say that God has made us what we are in Christ so that we can effectively represent his message throughout the whole earth.

But the Bible and history both testify to the reluctance of God's people to move out of their cultural comfort zones to take the good news to the far corners of the earth. The book of Acts records that it took persecution (8:1-4) and a vision (10:9-20) to nudge the early Christians out of Jerusalem to Samaria and the ends of the earth. And when the apostle Paul was called to take the good news to Gentiles throughout the known world he was dogged and pressured by the very people who should have been supporting his call. In reality for most of the last two thousand years the church has not willingly taken the message of God's grace any further than it had to. And when it has it has more often sought to conquer territory rather than the souls of men and women.

But just over 200 years ago the mandate Jesus left with his followers was rediscovered by faithful people who were eager to put them to the test and the era of modern missions was begun. Men like William Carey, Hudson Taylor, Adinirom Judson and David Livingston overcame the opposition of church leadership and tremendously adverse circumstances to take the good news to places like India, China, Africa and to other far corners of the world.

In the last 100 years the prosperity of the United States has enabled us to become leaders in sending people around the world with the good news. Courageous individuals and couples having experienced the call of God have been sent out and supported by local congregations to spend their lives far away from the comforts of home to reach people and train them to reach others with the message of Jesus.

A new era of world evangelization has begun. No longer are American missionaries at the forefront of world evangelization. Now National Christians are more and more taking up the mantle and reaching their own people for Christ and American missionaries are concentrating on providing training and support for their colleagues who are now on the front lines.

Our own Mike and Lisa Ratsky, who came to know Christ through the ministry of Sierra Community Church, are serving the churches of Guatemala by taking work teams from the United States to assist the believers with building projects. Rachel Hall, who has been a faithful servant at Sierra for many years, is headed for England to work in the graphic arts department of a mission directed at the Muslim world.

At Sierra Community Church we believe that Christ's original mandate still stands and we are eager to play whatever role he would have for us in reaching the world with the good news. As we are involved in equipping believers for the work of ministry we pray that some will be called to move beyond the bounds of our local community in service for the Lord. We also contribute a substantial portion of the money that is given to our ministry to the mission beyond. If you choose to be involved with the ministry of Sierra Community Church here in South Lake Tahoe you can be certain that you will play a vital role in sharing the good news of Jesus with the whole world.

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