Missionaries to America

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Acts 1:8 (HCSB)

When we think of "missionaries" we tend to think of Anglo Americans moving to exotic places to tell stories from the Bible to savages living in huts. I am not sure that stereotype has been accurate for three decades, but that is often what we think of when using the term.

As America has moved further and further away from its Judeo-Christian heritage, fewer people are attending church, and consequently, fewer are answering the call to go to other nations to share the gospel. Indeed, very few are even willing to go down the street to tell a neighbor about Jesus. Many churches in stuck in a long slow decline. Every year fewer people in our culture identify as Christian. Many church leaders are wringing their hands wondering what to do.

God has a plan to reverse this. He is now bringing missionaries from other nations to America as missionaries. Often the children or grandchildren of people who came to Christ as a result of American missionaries, these internationals increasingly look at America as a place that NEEDS missionaries instead of a place that SENDS missionaries.

In New England, where I have ministered since 1993, I am deeply moved by the presence of godly missionaries who have moved from places like South Africa, Brazil, Nepal, Ecuador, Guatemala and Nigeria to serve as missionaries in America. Though they often begin their ministries by reaching people from their native lands, as soon as they gain mastery of English, they begin reaching out to Americans. A growing number of churches that were once consider "ethnic" are now becoming "multi-lingual." They are creating a new model for how America can be reached with the gospel, and it is led by missionaries from other nations who have answered His call to come to America.

How will we Americans respond to this? We can act arrogant, falsely relying on a Christian heritage that is long distant. We can act indifferent, and simply ignore these international missionaries who have come to our shore. We can respond humbly, thanking God for sending these missionaries to help us reach our nation with the gospel. These are the same responses that American missionaries used to get when we WENT to other nations. Now we have to decide which one we want to give to those who COME from other nations.

As for me and my house, I pray for revival to come to America and if God chooses to use missionaries from other nations to bring that about, then praise His name! The Acts 1:8 challenge was not just given to Americans so we can go to other places. It was also given to Christians in other nations so they can come to America. Let us celebrate God's work, in whatever form He chooses to display it, and rejoice that His powerful gospel being proclaimed in our nation.

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Dr. Terry W. Dorsett has been a pastor, church planter, denominational leader and author in New England for more than 20 years. He is a happy husband, a proud father and adoring grandfather. He is a cancer survivor and believes that God works powerfully through times of suffering. He writes extensively and you can find all of his books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Dr.-Terry-W.-Dorsett/e/B00405U4NY

Small Churches Impact Communities

If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, keep warm and eat well," but you don't give them what the body needs, what good is it? In the same way faith, if it doesn't have works, is dead by itself. James 2:15-17 (HCSB)

I recently visited with a pastor of a small church. He shared how his church feeds the homeless four times a week, maintains a clothing closet to help people when they need nice clothes for job interviews, and how the people in his church embrace the homeless who often wonder into their worship services. After hearing all his church was doing, I asked how many volunteers he had to make all of this ministry happen. To my surprise, he said TEN. I stood in shock wondering how ten people found the time and energy to make all that ministry happen.

What motivates such people? Surely not money, because none of them get paid, including the pastor. Surely not prestige, because few outside of that community realize all that church is doing. I only live twenty miles away and I did not know about all the ministry that church was doing. Surely not the hope of those homeless people cleaning themselves up and becoming tithing church members, as that hasn't happened in fifteen years of doing this ministry. Many have been saved, but when they clean themselves up, they go back to where they came from and live the life they should have been living before. It is a very transitional group. This pastor, and the members of his small church, are driven by the love of Christ to show compassion to those in need. They take seriously the command to show their faith by their works. Many larger churches talk about helping the needy, this small church does it.

They may be a small church with less than 30 in worship on Sunday, but they are impacting their community with the Gospel. We need more churches like this if we hope to push back spiritual darkness in our nation. Let us pray for God to raise up more volunteers, pastors and churches like this.

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Dr. Terry W. Dorsett has been a pastor, church planter, denominational leader and author

in New England for more than 20 years. He is a happy husband, a proud father and adoring grandfather. He is a cancer survivor and believes that God works powerfully through times of suffering. He writes extensively and you can find all of his books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Dr.-Terry-W.-Dorsett/e/B00405U4NY

Can Our Automobile Keep Us from Showing God's Love?

Do not owe anyone anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. Romans 13:8 (HCSV)

A recent article in Time magazine reported that in the second quarter of this year 29% of new car loans were for 8 years. Due to the way cars depreciate, that means that five years from now tens of thousands of people will be driving cars that are worth significantly less than the loans they have on those cars.

While there have always been a few people with bad credit who bought cars using shaky financing, this new wave of auto debt is fueled by people with good credit who just want more car than they can afford. And they are willing to pay for it, even though there is no good logical reason for them to do so.

One might argue that a family needs a good car, but no one can logically argue that they need one so expensive that they must take out an 8 year loan to pay for a car that in five years will have very little value left. It's financial suicide, yet, it is also becoming extremely common.

This is propelled by our society's desire to have more, even when we can't afford it. This is the age old monster of greed raising up in a new reincarnation. It is greedy for financiers to offer these loans. It is greedy for car dealers to suggest them. It is greedy for consumers to buy cars using them. Five years from now when those cars are worth a lot less and the loan still has three more years on it, there will be plenty of blame to go around. But the deal will be done and the damage will be done.

Those of us who are Christians need to take seriously the Lord's words about debt. He spoke through the Apostle Paul to tell us to "not owe anyone anything, except to love on another." Christians who engage in debt driven accumulation of material items will have less resources to demonstrate love tangibly to those in need. If we hope to fulfil the law of Christ, we must resist our culture's desire to have what we cannot afford. We can choose to save longer and only buy what we can afford. We can choose to buy something less expensive. The choices we make about these things says a lot more about our faith than we may realize. Let us make sure our financial choices are proclaiming Christ's love to those around us.

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Dr. Terry W. Dorsett has been a pastor, church planter, denominational leader and author in New England for more than 20 years. He is a happy husband, a proud father and adoring grandfather. He is a cancer survivor and believes that God works powerfully through times of suffering. He writes extensively and you can find all of his books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Dr.-Terry-W.-Dorsett/e/B00405U4NY