Who's helping who?

What an unbelievable week it was in Barranquilla, Colombia. This was the smallest campaign I've been on, in terms of the number of people involved. There were 23 of us from 3 different churches. About a third of those were from my home church, Firewheel Church. The other two thirds were comprised of friends from Waterbrook Church here in Wylie, and Jacksonville Chapel in New Jersey.

The daily schedule of these trips looks like this......

7am..... Breakfast/Worship and Devotional

8:30ish.... Load up with your team into a van and head out to your assigned barrio

9:30-10.... hit the streets in the barrio

Noon.... lunch (provided by the church with which you are working)

2:00..... hit the streets in the barrio

4:00-4:30.... snack and preparation for service

4:30/4:45.... neighborhood celebration service

5:15/5:30.... head back to the hotel

6:00/6:30....dinner with your team/free time till bed

Obviously, the majority of your time is spent in the barrios with the people living there, and the church that has been planted there. Our purpose?...... to evangelize and disciple the people of the assigned barrio, and to train the members and pastors of the neighborhood churches on how to reach their community.

It can be easy to start with an attitude of ... "we're here to help," as if we have this down. But how is it that we think we can help them with something we don't even do a good job of here at our own church.

Seriously....when is the last time we spoke to someone in our own neighborhood about Jesus? And by neighborhood.... include your office, school, family, etc... We talk about "helping" these churches with their evangelism and discipleship, when the truth is....I wonder how many of our church members and staff would show up if we had a day where someone was going to walk with us through our "neighborhood" and show us how to evangelize/disciple our community. My guess is not many. Because we're the trainers, not the trainees....we've got this down.

We have cool buildings, convenient service times, A/C, coffee bars, and plenty of programs for us to come to at various times of the week. So many actually, that we can choose what is most convenient for us. We've made it incredibly easy to substitute inviting someone to church for real, doing life together evangelism and discipleship.

The people of the communities that we work with in Barranquilla come to church to celebrate the one true God and His son Jesus. They come because he deserves to be praised. There is nothing there to draw them in..... half of them bring their own chairs to the worship service. No screens, little to no sound system, no A/C..... nothing but unashamed, passionate worship in all that is done.

I am not saying that we should be ashamed of our resources. I am saying that, at times, we should be ashamed at the way we use our resources. We have so much that we've been given to reach people for Christ. Our homes, cars, jobs, educucation, communication

devices, health...the list goes on without even mentioning our church buildings. Because of the nature of our daily lives we have the opportunity to reach countless people through our actions and words every day of the week.

John 13:35..."By this they will know you are my disciples, if you love one another." The love of Christ is to be modeled daily in all that we do, not just talked about. To equip and empower people for daily evangelism is where genuine, community changing, life transforming spiritual growth of individuals and churches occurs.

I have to ask myself...what am I doing so that others will know I am His disciple? How does God's love for me show through in the way I treat others? How do I encourage and help the people I work with to be the best they can be? Am I being a good steward of the gifts that I've been given? As a pastor... do I think too much about one area of influence, or how my one area can influence other areas? And do I equip and empower the people around me to use their gifts to reach others? So many questions...

I am so thankful for my time and my friends in Barranquilla. They are such an inspiration to me. They are an encouragement in ministry and in the way I live life daily. I am humbled by the way they worship in all that they do. They remind me that the church is a body not a building. And they model for me what it looks like to "love one another."

So thank you to all of those that I had the opportunity to minister with in Barranquilla last week. I don't know if anything I did in my week there could come close to the way you loved and

discipled me. I am humbled and incredibly grateful for my time with all of you.

I'm out.....