We are currently on sabbatical until May 3rd and plan on returning refreshed and excited to share more about the work of Jesus to reach the nations around the world. Stay tuned for what He has in store.

May Jesus be your singlemost treasure and the Holy Spirit your Power.

For the Fame of Jesus,

MissionaryRoad.com

What do you think after seeing this?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/23338456#23338456

MORE LINKS ON THIS STORY:

http://pewforum.org/about/inthenews/

http://news.aol.com/story/_a/survey-finds-religious-landscape-in-flux/20080225170509990001

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-02-25-survey_N.htm

http://neilwestbrook.wordpress.com/2008/02/27/big-news-about-faith-in-america/

This chart lists differences from the New Testament Church and more Traditional Church:

By Brian Anderson (Simple Church)

What are your thoughts on what you see in these 2 different church models? Has God already been stirring your heart to ask these questions about how church is done?

I wanted to let you know about an article my friend Jessica wrote called “Sex and Church” in response to a pastor’s challenge to both couple and singles…for the couples to have sex for 30 straight days and for singles to abstain from sex.

Here is an excerpt from her article, which you can find in its entirety here:

“This is a very interesting topic. Sex. Church. Two of the most controversial, I’d say. I love it. I think We shouldn’t be silent about this…. church or no church. Our society is remarkable at devaluing sex. We are constantly bombarded with messages that sex is casual, that sex is meaningless, that sex should be had by anyone and everyone, no matter what the age, what the circumstances….if it feels good, do it. Right?”

I appreciate Jessica sharing this. In a way, I like the challenge this pastor gave for both singles and marrieds. He shows that sex in marriage should be viewed as a beautiful act that can be experience without guilt or fear. For the singles, he seems to challenge those who may be having sex outside of marriage and urging them to abstain for a season. But, yes, if that’s as far as he goes, he is selling the beauty of sex and the love of our God and King far too short.

And, this bodes the question, How do we communicate this well to a sex-crazed culture you’ve described? I grew up in the “Don’t” and “Thou Shalt not” type of church…very reminiscient to the pharisees of Jesus’ day that he scolded. Over the last few years, I’ve seen a truer picture of how God views sex and the beauty of waiting for marriage…reminding me of Jesus’ loving interaction with the prostitute and his grace-filled charge to go and sin no more.

We may be laughed at by our culture for this stance on marriage and sex, which could be like my encounter with a swedish girl who thought I was crazy for being almost 30 and still a virgin. But, with this knowledge requires great responsibility. For those who have seen the beauty of Jesus, desire to follow him, and declare his Lordship of our lives, we have a great high priest, a friend, a lover and a King who will be our mediator in such a charge. And for those who need strength to follow this call, God’s promised the power of the Holy Spirit to all who call upon him for help in our “Sex Sells” culture. The key though I’ve learned as I get closer to be coming the 40 year old virgin is…

Treasure Jesus and share Jesus with everybody!
As a bonus, I wanted to include a video about how our culture views sex and pornography…I hope this will give you more of a taste for how to reach our culture and how to live a Spirit-Filled, Holy-Filled life for all the world to see!

How do you view sex today in our culture and how are you combating it as a follower of Jesus?

Do you know someone who isn’t saved?

Better yet, do you know of a people group that hasn’t even been engaged with the Gospel?

This will be the first of many videos and posts that will be related to the church considering the important task of reaching every tribe and language and people and nation, fulfilling the declaration in Revelation 5:9:

“…with your blood you purchased men for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation.”

How are you currently reaching these 4 groups?

12“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. ”

And, I have checked my heart as to the reason I am going to this conference. I want to be used by God to display the fame of Jesus and if people will come to Christ through his supernatural power of raising people from the dead, than I want to be on board with what God can do. And to show you more confirmation, today’s article in Charisma Magazine features a story of a young girl being raised from the dead in India and how she praises Jesus for this miracle in her life. See the article here!

Excerpt from Charisma Magazine’s Fire in My Bones article from J. Lee Grady:

“I know Jesus is a great God because he raised my daughter to life,” Suribabu said, wiping away tears. He was already a new Christian when the miracle occurred. His brother and two more of his Hindu family members converted to Jesus after they heard the story and saw the revived girl.”

Description of “Raising the Dead” Conference at ExtremeProphetic.com:

“Jesus told us that we are to release the Kingdom everywhere we go. That includes seeing the sick healed, the demons cast out, and the dead raised! This conference will focus on seeing dry bones come to life … in both the physical and spiritual. Every one of the speakers has an inspired level of faith to see each of us walking in the fullness of the Kingdom … including raising the dead. Many of the speakers have raised the dead. Some have even been raised from the dead. If you have felt dry of late, or there is a dream or calling in your life that seems dead, come gather with the prophets and hear the word of the Lord proclaimed. Your faith will be stirred. And you will be reminded that the entire Kingdom is for you. You are meant to heal the sick, cast out demons, and raise the dead!”

More Links on Jim Caviezel and The Passion of The Christ

The Passion of the Christ

Jim Cavieze’s Website

Brother Paul: They believe there is only one reason why God has left them here on earth: that is to evangelize the lost. Anyone who is not actively pursuing this holy purpose is missing the mark. The Great Commission cannot be compromised. Their methods are anointed preaching with signs following. The leaders instruct the evangelism teams to go to a new village and inquire about the worst problem in the village. Then they are to go and minister to that problem and
show that Jesus is the all-powerful Savior.

With this success, they turn to the people and preach Jesus to them.

Excerpt from article by Denny Kenaston of The Remnant Magazine (Distributed by H2H Magazine)

For the entire interview, use the following link. The article can be found under January/February 2003:
www.charityministies.org/theremnant/theremnant-textonly.cfm

What do you think of this telling answer about living out the Great Commission compared to how we live it out here.

More on Jesus Movements soon…

Al Mohler and R.C. Sprohl on “Seeker Sensitive Movement”:

John Piper on “Is God Better than Sex”:

Mark Driscoll on “The Emerging Church”:

When Mark Cahill’s Newsletter arrives in my email every month, I always open it to see what Mark’s talking about each month. This month’s title was “Andy Stanley Says We Must Earn”, and right away I knew who Andy Stanley was because he is the head pastor of a large mega church in Atlanta called North Point Community Church, where Passion Conference’s Founder, Louie Giglio has been on staff in the past (check out 268generation.com for more info). Andy Stanley is also the son of a well known baptist preacher, Charles Stanley. I have heard Andy Stanley speak at Passion’s Thirsty Conference and have also been encouraged by his book How Good is good enough?. But, after what Mark shared from a USAToday, I was discouraged by Andy Stanley’s comments regarding evangelism. Mark writes in his newsletter about the following USA TODAY Article:

“One thing I do now when I hear quotes from Christian people is to see if the quote can be backed up with Scripture. One pastor told me one of the mistakes we regularly make with Christians is that when we listen to them we put our guard down instead of putting our guard up. Andy Stanley, a pastor here in Atlanta, said: “If we were able to rewrite the script for the reputation of Christianity, I think we would put the emphasis on developing relationships with non-believers, serving them, loving them, and making them feel accepted…Only then would we earn the right to share the gospel.”"

What stuck out to you in this quote from Andy Stanley? For me, it was unequivocally his statement, “only then would we earn the right to share the gospel”. This sounds a lot like many Christians today that I speak with, and some at my church in Orange County who have used this statement to defend what may be complacency toward sharing the gospel with strangers or their possible fear of evangelism altogether. As you will see from Mark’s newsletter, he uses sound biblical understanding to look at this argument. Please take a look at his full newsletter here.

I do not wish to cause division by bringing this into the light, but I do hope that this can foster sound biblical doctrine, a missional heart like Jesus had, and more unity than ever before. We need to analyze our viewpoints toward why we don’t share our faith with strangers. I think this goes so much deeper than evangelism. In fact, I’ve been fighting the wrong battle for too long. The real issue is about the church, and fighting against the institution of Christianity. We need to be about a Jesus movement that disciples well, embodys the life of Jesus well, and be a community with the purpose of reaching out to the world around us. And, I know that if you and I together are willing to seek out these answers in both the Scriptures and life of Jesus, we will become a unified church with the heartbeat of Jesus’ heartbeat “who came to seek and save that which is lost”… …and I guarantee they won’t just be your neighbors, coworkers or family members.

See one of Mark’s videos called “No Crossing Over: Is it true that people in hell believe in personal evangelism, but people on earth do not?”:

About Andy Stanley
Andy Stanley serves as senior pastor of the campuses of North Point Ministries, including North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia; Buckhead Church in Atlanta, Georgia; and Browns Bridge Community Church in Cumming, Georgia. Each Sunday, over twenty thousand attend one of these NPM campuses. Andy is the bestselling author of Visioneering, The Next Generation Leader, The Best Question Ever, and How Good Is Good Enough? Andy and his wife, Sandra, have two sons and a daughter.

About Mark Cahill
Mak Cahill has a business degree from Auburn University, where he was an honorable mention Academic All-American in basketball. He has worked in the business world at IBM and in various management positions, and he taught high school for four years. Mark now speaks to more than 25,000 people a year at conferences, camps, retreats, etc. He has also appeared on numerous radio and television shows. Mark’s favorite thing to do is to go out and meet people and find out what they believe and why they believe it. Mark has written “One Thing You can’t do in heaven” and “One Heartbeat Away”.