How incredibly small is our world! We are part of a shrinking global village. This is a special blessing to the people of God, because it allows us to connect with global needs and to make a difference in places and ways not even dreamed about when I was born. Not only can we be present, we can communicate with ease.
Special blessings (such as the ability to travel with ease for the kingdom) sometimes bring special challenges. I received an email Tuesday evening saying one of our members (the wife of one of our elders) had been readmitted to the hospital and very ill. Jan went to the hospital and stayed late into the evening. People want a minister near in times of crisis—something reassuring about God’s presence and power and will. Blessed is the minister who has a wife who also represents God’s presence and power. God blessed me far above others with Jan. She says she selected me, we joke about it, I say I selected her. I think the truth is that God selected us for one another.
I was able to monitor the progress of the sister in the hospital by phone and email throughout the day Wednesday. Wednesday evening/night was especially difficult for her. In our shrinking world, I picked up the phone yesterday morning before I went to the airport and talked to my elder via computer phone on a connection that sounded as though we were next door. I assured him of our prayers. I called againl last night as soon as I was on the ground in Oklahoma City.
Yesterday I helped solve a couple of problems in Honduras, drank coffee with Pacheco, and talked briefly to the Baxter students at chapel. Today I will be part of Quest on the campus of Oklahoma Christian. The challenges of ministry—what a challenging topic (no pun). In a shrinking world, how does one do effective local ministry and find involvement in the global world of ministry at the same time?
I am contemplating today the way God uses people, each one different, with different talents and skills. Not everyone is a minister, not everyone is a missionary. Not everyone can travel and go and help and guide. Those who can go need the help of those who cannot go. Those who can go represent those who send them.
I like to talk about three groups of people. You may be in all three groups. You may be in only one group.
Some are the ones sent. They can go, they are willing to go, they can be effective when they go. Thank God for those in this group.
Some are the senders. These have the ability to send. They may not go themselves (or perhaps they do go), but they are doing what God has given them ability to do. They are sending those who can go to expand God’s kingdom work.
Some are the pre-sent. These are those who are present as God’s representatives in their daily lives. Wherever Christians go as part of the routines of their lives, they are the pre-sent, present in this world as ambassadors of God. They are God’s present to and presence in the world.
I don’t know who said it first, but it is worth repeating. “Every heart where God doesn’t dwell is a mission field; every heart where God does dwell is a missionary.” God give us missionary hearts, and the willingness to do what he calls us to do—sent, senders, or pre-sent!