Some of you may remember our Missions Emphasis from 2013. That year we invited Brian Hogan, a missionary with YWAM and a church planter in Mongolia to visit with us. Brian shared with us how God used a small team of ordinary men and women from different nations (Russia, Sweden, and the United States), to bring about an indigenous church planting movement in Mongolia. I listened again to his message this week. I highly encourage you to take 40 minutes and do the same thing by clicking here to listen to his message on our website. I also encourage you to pick up Brian’s interestingly titled book, There’s a Sheep in my Bathtub, which tells the story of his family’s church planting experiences in Mongolia. You can find it by that title at Amazon.com.
Brian’s teaching style was somewhat unorthodox. On a couple of occasions he touched on some doctrinal topics that left some wondering where he was going, although I felt that he was careful and biblical in each instance. Once he dispensed with some of those technicalities, however, his testimony and his heart for seeing unreached people encounter Jesus through the gospel became unmistakable. I was both challenged and encouraged by his teaching/testimony.
It struck me that what Brian and his team faced in Mongolia after 70 years of atheistic communism was akin to what the early church faced as it looked out on a vast empire of unreached people steeped in paganism and superstition. Brian and his family joined a Mongolian people group with absolutely no known believers…anywhere in Mongolia. They had to hope in God, believe in the work of the Holy Spirit, and acknowledge the absolute trustworthiness of the gospel message to penetrate that society with the good news. Some aspects of that ministry are somewhat strange to us (e.g. teenage girls being the first converts, and therefore, the first teachers for other teenagers being reached with the gospel). I had to check my theology and realize that what was happening there was unique, as was the teaching of the first converts in the days of the apostles. The apostle Paul entered some cities, preached for a few weeks, and then appointed some as elders to teach others who surely had only known Christ themselves for a few weeks. That is part of the reason why we have many of his letters in our own New Testament; those early converts and leaders continued to need teaching/discipleship, and they were making some big mistakes (for an example of this, read 1 Corinthians).
At that time, I had some ask me if I was uncomfortable with Brian. My answer was and remains, “no.” I found him to be refreshing, thoroughly evangelical, and challenging. Did I agree with everything he believes about teaching/preaching in the local church in the American context? As I remember back, probably not. Nevertheless, I do know that I appreciated his family’s willingness to sacrifice and their love for the Lord that compelled them to take the gospel to the Mongols. I love theology and find it indispensable; I also believe strongly in biblical doctrines that protect the church. However, we must be careful about making our own theological constructs a litmus test for everything. Biblical theology will never be in opposition to the proclamation of the gospel. If it is good theology, it is also good for the gospel.
Brian did not come to us in 2013 as a theologian; he came to us as a missionary church planter. We were doubly blessed because his theology was also biblical. I liked that. This year our Missions Emphasis is entitled “The Uttermost.” We will focus on God’s call to take the gospel to all the nations. I will be preaching from the book of Jonah, and we will have the pleasure of hearing from another missionary church planter who partners with his wife to take the gospel into an entirely different culture from that which Brian Hogan encountered - the hostile (to the gospel) world of Islam. Bob & Debi have been supported by our church family for many years, and he will be sharing with us on Sunday morning, September 24. You will not want to miss it.
I will be with many of you Saturday, September 23 at 6:00 p.m. for our Missions Emphasis Night. We’ll hear from another missionary that LifePoint supported, in this case, in an effort to reach people in a Muslim context for Christ – Jason Kandel. Along with Jason’s talk we’ll have the opportunity to peruse some mission tables and eat some ice cream sundaes. You will not want to miss that either. : )
Grace and peace,
Pastor Jym