How can we in the church best unleash the people of God in the Spirit of God with the Word of God for the glory of God in the world?
This question consumes me. I want my life and the church I am a part of to count for the mobilization of God’s people and the completion of God’s purpose. I join with others who, like you, don’t want to miss out on the thrill of radical obedience to Christ in the world because I am busy maintaining business as usual in the church. I want to be a part of a community of faith that is enjoying the great pleasures of God in the context of abandonment to the global purpose of God.
Years ago Heather and I decided to begin praying a specific prayer together. We said to God, “Wherever you want us to go, whatever you want us to do, however you want us to live, we give our lives and our family for you to spend in making your gospel and your glory known to the ends of the earth, particularly among those who have never heard the gospel.”
It was the everything-is-on-the-table moment in our marriage.
I sometimes wonder why God used that prayer to lead me to pastor a church in Birmingham, Alabama, where there is a myriad of other churches and multitudes of other Christians. And I’m not alone in thinking this. Last week a man from another church who is not a big fan of Radical said to me, “You just need to leave and go live in another country, and I’d be happy to help you get there.”
Maybe the Lord will end up leading us to live overseas one day. Every time we commission a church-planting team to go into another part of the world, Heather and I put ourselves in front of the levee and ask God to sweep our current lives away if he so desires. But at this point, in his wisdom God has given me the privilege of pastoring an incredible people called the Church at Brook Hills. This church, like yours, is composed of wonderful men and women who have not been designed by God to waste their lives on good church activity devoid of great kingdom productivity. Instead, these men and women have been destined by God to spend their lives in the urgent task of announcing God’s reign and advancing his kingdom to the ends of the earth.
We are constantly exploring what being radical together looks like in the context of our faith family. My intent in this book has not been to put forward Brook Hills as a perfect model. We are on a journey, and we have a long way to go as a church. More specifically, I have a long way to go as a pastor. My brothers and sisters have been patient with me as together we are discovering how to best share and spend our lives together for God’s glory in the world.
Obviously, other churches are implementing obedience to Christ and his purposes in the world in different ways. Small groups and churches, from Florida to California, are participating in variations of the Radical Experiment, a challenge with five steps that I proposed at the end of Radical (see www.radicalexperiment.org). Those steps include taking a year to pray for the entire world, read through the entire Word, sacrifice resources for a specific purpose, spend time in another context, and share life in a multiplying community.
Are these steps radical in and of themselves? For some, the answer has been yes. For others, the answer has been no. But for all, the aim has been to set our lives and our churches in motion by putting ourselves in positions where God can mold our hearts with his gracious Word for his glorious purpose.
The effect has been widespread. Men and women in the church are moving into high-risk areas in our cities and in other countries. Others are staying put and sacrificing earthly resources for eternal reward in their lives and their churches. Whether it is a mission church in El Salvador, a metropolitan church in London, a multiethnic church start in the northern United States, or a 150-year-old church in the South, communities of faith are experiencing the joy of deeper satisfaction in Christ through deeper surrender to Christ.
For example, one church took the Radical Experiment and adjusted its elements to create what they are calling the Kingdom Challenge. In their words, “The Kingdom Challenge is a strategy that challenges believers to obey Christ’s command to deny self, take up our cross daily, and forsake all that we have to follow him in expanding his kingdom.” They are “praying daily for unreached people groups (Luke 10:2); taking the gospel to those who have little or no access to it (Acts 1:8); discipling others in developing a biblical worldview (Matthew 28:19); meeting the physical and spiritual needs of the poor, orphaned, and widowed (James 1:27); and providing medical care for children who are susceptible to deadly diseases in poverty-stricken areas (Matthew 25:36, 40).”
As they call one another to selfless living and radical giving, they are sharing and showing the gospel locally in inner-city housing projects, mobile home communities, and residential rehab programs. Globally, they are partnering with churches in impoverished areas to provide clean water, orphan care, and ministry support for the sake of reaching unreached people with the gospel. One member of this church said, “Our God is sovereign, and we are trusting him to do great things in and through us. We want to be faithful to proclaim the gospel all around the world as we look forward to one day worshiping alongside every tribe and nation.”
Who can imagine what might happen as communities of faith intentionally pray for the world, walk through the Word, sacrifice their resources, and spread the gospel in their neighborhoods and among the nations, particularly where the name of Jesus is not yet known? Regardless of whether or not a church goes through a specific variation of the Radical Experiment, what happens when steps similar to these become the new normal in the church? There is no end to the possibilities when God’s people come together in absolute devotion to God’s purpose.
Some may say, “Well, isn’t all of this a bit extreme? Selling possessions and adopting children and adjusting lifestyles and going overseas. People might get carried away with all this talk about taking the gospel to the nations.”
To this I say, so what? What if we do get carried away in taking the gospel to the nations? What will happen? The nations will end up being reached with the gospel, and then Jesus will come back. I think that’s a reward worth the risk.
To return to imagery from the introduction, you and I find ourselves rushing down a mountain, our eyes opened to the gospel of Christ in his Word and our hearts longing for the glory of Christ in the world. We have been joined together in the church by God’s grand design for a purpose that is far greater than any of us could imagine or achieve alone. So let’s live radical together in eager anticipation of the day when we will see his face and, as a community encompassing every nation, tribe, tongue, and people, enjoy his beauty for all of eternity.