Latest / Harvest After Sunday / Mission:Go: Harvest DNA
Transcript
- Harvest Media: Welcome to the Harvest After Sunday podcast. I'm Natalie and I'm your host and I'm with Stefan Wilson, pastor of preaching and teaching. And today we're going to be talking about a recent announcement at church about our missions and evangelism focus that we're calling Mission Go. Really exciting, big announcement, a significant shift in the focus of our church. And we've been a strong discipleship church, but we want to be equally as zealous for the loss and that involves going. And could you just tell us some more about this framework of mission go and why we're focusing on that at this time? Yeah. So we have as Harvest Bible Church in our history, we have had a strong missions element. ⁓ We support global missionaries and partners around the world. We've planted churches in countries around the world. We have had global trips. We have things locally that we've done that are our missions and evangelism oriented outreach events things like that we care for the nations in that we have we have a Spanish congregation Iglesia harvest that was planted out of this church and all those things are have certainly been present But as our elder team was praying last year and moving into the fall We got together and... And we were praying about, Lord, where are you wanting us to really focus and emphasize in 2026? What is something that you are going to call us to step forward in a more intentional, strategic, robust way that we haven't yet done? And it was actually, it was so encouraging because every elder on our elder team, all of them said missions. All of them and so our elder team was really confident at that point. God is leading us to be much more strategic intentional and and pervasive in terms of Through the whole church seeing this as an emphasis not just for the church generally but for every person in our church that we want to be a church that Really prioritizes being a people who fulfill the great commission And our purpose statement as a church is that we exist to glorify god through the fulfillment of the great commission and the great commission is in matthew 28 where jesus says go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father the son of the holy spirit and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you and behold I am with you always even to the ends of the earth and so ⁓ they the command in that commission is to make disciples and the means by which we make disciples is that we go and so mission go is really saying our mission to make disciples is going to require that we go. It's going to require that each one of us sees that our place in the church is going to necessarily involve going with the gospel, that we as a church need to equip our people to be able to go with the gospel. I think a lot of people fear evangelism because they feel ill-equipped. And so we want to make sure to be equipping our people in how they think and how to talk with their neighbors and how to be present as a light for the gospel. And then as a church we want to we want to intentionally put resources Toward missions God has blessed harvest Bible Church with the resources to be able to To pursue these things more and we don't want to hoard that We want to say Lord if you have if you have given us resources to steward for your mission may we use them for the advancement of your mission so this this focus at this time is because our elders feel very strongly that the Lord is leading us in this time to have this focus. And so then... the kind of the way that we talk about it as mission go is Is really for us to see that there is a cohesive strategy behind all of it I think that it's really easy to to see personal evangelism and community service and church planting and Support for global missionaries and missions trips like as being kind of disjointed Like they're kind of floating around in this realm that we call missions And so it's easy to say, well, you know, I don't really, I don't really do these things, but this is my, this is my mission's passion. And so I'll focus on this. And instead we really want to say, mission go. is all of those things. Like we're all participating in all of those things in different ways, different capacities, certainly. But no one's sitting on the bench in the mission. Like we're all going. And so that's the reason for the focus. It's not that we haven't cared about missions, we have. It's that we want to take a step forward toward a renewed focus. ⁓ an intentional strategy that we all participate in. And I just want to highlight you mentioned it twice as you were speaking. We are an elder led church and I love and really appreciate kind of getting a peek at that. Some people might not be completely familiar with how that always works and plays out. But to see an announcement like this and to hear this strategic plan and to know that when the elders were meeting a year ago that the Lord unified you in this direction and this calling. I just think that is such evidence that As we say at the end of every podcast, it's the Lord's mission. Like it's his mission We're trying to rightly align ourselves with it and I just so appreciate the leadership of the elders to seek the Lord and what ⁓ What he has for the direction of our church and so I think that's a good kind of not peek behind the curtain like things are clandestine but just getting more of an understanding of how strategic ⁓ plans and emphasis like this and even the teaching that we have is the Lord is leading the elders of our church ⁓ in a direction for his mission, for his glory, and we get to participate. And this is an announcement of kind of a strategic plan, like you said, a framework, and we'll kind of get into some of the categories here so people can ⁓ understand it even better. But it's also an invitation to just be already thinking as you explain kind of the different ways we'll go as a church. Be thinking. of how this is an invitation to you individually that is a listener right now ⁓ and a participant in our church body about how the Lord might be leading you to participate in this. So tell us a little bit ⁓ about these different categories. We have go people, go projects, go churches, go partners, and go trips. And as you mentioned, people will see all of these things are already happening and they have been at our church. But kind of in this organized way, ⁓ explain these categories for us. So if we kind of start with go people. ⁓ First, one of the things that we've started saying around Mission Go is that gospel people are Go people. That by very nature of the fact that we are gospel people at Harvest Bible Church, you see it on the wall every week when you're hearing huge letters, we are gospel people. Well, we want that to then immediately transfer in our minds of, and so we are Go people because we're taking the gospel. And I would say that while yes, ⁓ personal evangelism has been happening, I also think that it's true that for a lot of people in the church personal evangelism doesn't really happen for myriad reasons. For fear, feeling ill-equipped, ⁓ not wanting to alienate the people in your life. not wanting to be seen as weird, whatever the reason. think that there are a lot of people who struggle with the idea of personal evangelism. go people as the first layer is to say, listen, all of us as gospel people have people in our lives that we need to go to with the gospel. We have neighbors, we have family members, we have friends, coworkers, other families on our kids baseball team. Like there are people in our lives that God by his sovereignty and providence has put in our lives. And while Maybe not all of them will respond to the gospel by receiving Christ Some some very well will and so we want to have that kind of confidence as We live our lives in the community where God has placed us We want to have that kind of confidence that says Lord you've put these people in my life and you've put me in theirs and I don't know what you're gonna do But I know you're gonna do something and so let me be faithful to the mission of Christ in my life By going to the people that you've put in my life. That's where it starts. That there really needs to be a culture of personal evangelism that is just cultivated in our church. That it is just like it's how we talk and it's how we live and we are encouraging one another in it and we're picking things up from one another in it. Because frankly if I'm unwilling reluctant to to live as a gospel person in personal evangelism I'm probably also going to be reluctant in those other areas of the mission ⁓ I'll if I if I come up with reasons to not share the gospel with the people that are in my life regularly who I know better than The people that I barely interact with if I can come up with excuses and reasons to and not talk to them about it, I can come up with reasons and excuses to not do any of the other ones too. So it really does start with seeing ourselves individually as members of this body at Harvest Bible Church to say, I have a role to play in the mission with the people that God has placed in my life. And so that's why it starts there. And then we move to go projects. And ⁓ there's an intentionality in how these five layers kind of unpack. in Acts chapter one, verse eight, Jesus says, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. So Jerusalem is where they're standing when he says that. Judea is the region that Jerusalem is in. Samaria is outside of Judea, and the ends of the earth are outside of Samaria. So Jesus gives a near to far trajectory of the mission. He says, you're gonna be my witnesses right here, and then you're gonna move outward, and you're gonna go further and further and further until the gospel has reached the ends of the earth. And so the kind of outworking of these five layers of mission go is the same near to far philosophy. So what's the nearest thing to me? Well, it's the people around me. Next it's the community in which I live and so go projects is now focusing on the community in which we live and we've been doing family service projects and we called them church family service projects and then they would be at different locations doing different things and so now we're just we're calling them go projects because they're all coming under this umbrella of mission go as a particular way of living out the mission through service projects in our community. And in Scripture we find very clearly the call to see the needs of those who are who are less fortunate, who are in dire need, who are neglected, and to be the means by which those needs are met. And then in meeting their immediate needs, point them to the one who meets their ultimate needs. We have for too long expected institutions to carry out the care for people that scripture calls believers to do. If you look throughout church history, it was Christians who started hospitals and orphanages. was the conviction that it is up to us as the church to bring help to those who are ignored, who are oppressed, who are neglected and in doing so we are a light to a lost world because we are doing the things that God has called us to do and so we're reflecting him to a world that doesn't know him so that we can point them to him and so Go projects are the way that we as a local church do that that we see needs in our community and we go out to meet those needs and in doing so we reflect the the God who sends us we reflect Jesus us as his light in the world and we then can point people to their ultimate need and that is reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ. So those projects are part of the mission. It's not just, you know, we're doing this project because, uh, you know, I feel really great when I go pack some meals or when I go help out at, uh, you know, uh, a place that, feeds the homeless. Like, yes, it should, it should feel good. It should be encouraging, but the reason we do it is because it's part of the mission. Reaching the lost at the place where they have needs so that we can point them to Jesus who meets their ultimate need. Then there's go churches. So now this expands to our city We have lots of churches in the Phoenix area and That is a good thing But we should never think you know, I think we're good. I think we have enough if the hope of the world is Jesus Christ and And Jesus is made visible in his body If when we gather as his body, we are reflecting, we are making visible the headship of Christ as our King, then we should desire to multiply more churches that embody Christ as their King. Like that is if he's the hope of the world, the means by which the world is going to see him is through the church and through more churches being planted and through churches that are struggling being revitalized. So we have lots of church buildings in Phoenix. And so if you just look at the number of church buildings and say, yeah, we have a lot of churches. Okay, sure. There are a lot of churches that honestly need help. Either their leadership is struggling. Maybe their people are weary because they've been carrying the load of ministry for a long time. Maybe that generationally there aren't a lot of young people in the church anymore. Or the other way, it's made up solely of young people and so there's not a lot of older wisdom and discipling guidance in the church. There are things lacking that are necessary for a church to be healthy. So we want then with our go churches focus to say we want to be a church that says we want healthy churches in Phoenix and abroad. But immediately in the Phoenix area, we want healthy churches. So we're going to plant healthy churches and we're going to partner with other churches that want to be healthy but are struggling and we're going to we're going to support them and send people and help them help them establish leadership. that they can be a healthy church. And then the great thing is those churches then multiply into more healthy churches. We at Harvest Bible Church, I have no problem going on record saying we don't want to be the biggest church in the valley. We're not interested in in building a bigger building so that we can have more people come here. We're interested in sending people out so that there can be more churches out there. And so as as the church, as this local church that God has given us, we want to be faithful to steward that and for all of us at Harvest to say, you know, we're a part of that. Maybe it means I give toward future church plants. Maybe it means that I go as a future church plant. Maybe it means that we have men in the church who who are aspiring to be elders someday and could be qualified to be an elder and They might they might go out someday to help lead a Local church and so they come forward now and say I would love to be trained so that when that day comes I can be a part of going to start a new church like that all those things play into this go churches layer The next one is go partners, right? So we've gone near, now we're going further. We have partners in the U S and abroad who are missionary organizations that we support and opportunities come to participate with them. Like with AMG Guatemala, we, we have trips that go down there to work with them. We also have partners who do ministry locally, like at the GCU campus, and saying, listen, we want to support them, we want to add more partners. And we want our church to say, listen, because our church partners with them, I personally will partner with them in whatever way is going to advance the mission of Jesus and then go trips. Now we're talking strictly global, going to the other side of the world so that more can know the gospel of Jesus. And so we have trips that go to Guatemala, Moldova, Chennai, India. Hopefully we will start to identify more places where we can go and I think especially it's really important when we talk about global missions and trips to not forget that Jesus said that he will return when all the nations have heard and I think the best way to interpret that word nations based on how he's using it the word that he uses is people groups, not geopolitical nation states with borders, but people groups. Within every nation there are tons of different people groups with different dialects. And so there should be for us as a church, we should absolutely prioritize and have a heart for the unreached. those people groups, those languages that don't even have ⁓ the gospel presented in their language even, we should be saying, who are some people who have never heard? And let's focus on being a part of the mission that gets them to the point where they As you talk about this framework and talk about it in terms of like layers or near to far, is it correct or incorrect to think of it as progressive? Like step one, step two, like, well, if I'm not yet, you know, able to share the gospel with my neighbor or my family member, then I can't go on a trip or OK, I'm doing that. So now I can do a project and now I go help us understand. No, I think that's fair. I think that. The answer is yes and no. So. You can participate in any of these five areas of focus at any point. It's not a progression in the sense of, know, like, go people is the white belt in karate, and then you get your yellow belt and you can go on a project. It's not like that. Only the black belts and the super Christians are going on a plane. That would be the wrong way to view it. Because it is not the super Christians who get on the plane. It's all of us. But I do think that if the later ones are intimidating to you, I'm really scared to get on a plane and go to India. The idea of being a part of a church plan is something I've never considered. Like that's kind of crazy to me. Okay. Then start by going next door. Like just start small. Cultivate a heart for evangelism. Do a service project. See the the way that God uses you to meet the needs of another person To to platform the gospel like see what that does for your soul See what that does for your love for the lost See what that does for your your love for the mission And what will happen is very soon you'll be asking, okay, how can I participate in the trip? How, how, when is the, when is the first church plant? Like, can I go? Cause what's going to happen is your, your heart is going to be drawn to the mission. just will be because it's God's will for us that we make disciples. He is always going to use his people and his word and his church to conform you and I to be more in line with his will. He's gonna do it. And so if I will step out in obedience to say, Lord, I want to be conformed to your will. I just don't know how. Well, the most obvious way is is right across the street or in the cubicle next to you. Like there's a very obvious way to participate and God will use that to slowly grow you to be able to participate in other ways. So that's where it's yes and no. think it can be a progression in the sense of if you're hesitant, but it's certainly not a progression in the sense of you have to build, you know, you have to build up skills and things like that. Accomplish step one and two before proceeding. But certainly as we grow in spiritual maturity, And as we're sanctified, we will be becoming we becoming more like Christ and we our heart will reflect his as you mentioned, he had a heart for all the nations. And so as we are progressively sanctified, our heart for the nations will grow and we will ⁓ be more equipped and less intimidated and more eager to participate. ⁓ And those in our church that consider themselves gospel people should be considering themselves people. that go and that are willing to go in any way that God is calling them in each of these categories. What I mean, what do we stand to lose if we don't embrace this mission go? Well, if if Jesus commissions us to go and make disciples. And if we're going to say that that's our purpose as a church, which it is, and we didn't make that up, it's straight from scripture. And if he tells his disciples that they will be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth, that means that a part of being a disciple of Jesus is that I see myself as a part of the mission. I just do. ⁓ And I think that if we explain it away or we ⁓ choose to sit on the bench, We are stunting our growth as a disciple. That is actually a value statement about my own discipleship. Like, can grow in other ways, I don't need to grow in this way. And I would just frankly say that is deficient discipleship. That is to seek to grow only one part of your life while neglecting others. And that just isn't sustainable. And that's not true Christian maturity. True Christian maturity is that I am conformed unto the image of Christ with all that I am. Well, Christ was very clear about his mission in the world. And so if I'm being conformed to his image to reflect him more and more, then I'm going to grow and I'm at least going to desire to grow in my participation in the mission. James describes looking into the word of God as looking into a mirror. And Paul says, ⁓ now we look at a mirror lit dimly, then we will see face to face. the and and Paul's the one in Colossians who says that we're being conformed to the image of Christ. So we take all those together. There is coming a day where we're going to look. at Jesus face to face because we have been fully conformed to his image and so we are a full reflection of him so much so that it's no longer a mirror I'm looking into it is I am looking at the very one that I reflect that's that's the vision of the end that's when we're in glory when I am immature in my faith, that mirror is so blurry. It's very hard to make out what I'm reflecting because I haven't been changed to reflect Christ more. In between those two points, the very blurry mirror and the seeing face to face is my Christian maturity where the mirror is growing in its clarity and God's Word is showing me where my life isn't reflecting Jesus and it's sanctifying me and I'm just slowly growing to where that reflection becomes more and more clear because I'm reflecting Jesus more in how I live. That is the vision of Christian maturity. then that means that if I neglect the mission of Christ, I am letting a large chunk of that mirror remain blurry. And we shouldn't want that. So I think that what we do is we say, okay, then I'm gonna be a part of the mission of Jesus and I'm gonna let him use it to sanctify me so that I continue to reflect him more and more. Yeah, now that we've had this announcement and really explanation of this strategy and focus, what do you want our people to expect moving forward? Do you have a call to action to give our church family and maybe an additional resource? Yeah, so the call to action would be first pray. God to give you a heart for the mission of the church and to give you clarity on where you can participate now. And then he'll give that clarity and then take that step to participate. And like I said that the lowest hanging fruit is going to your neighbor and Easter's coming up. So the lowest of the low hanging fruit, like the easiest one is go to your neighbor and invite them to church for Easter and then plan to get lunch with them afterward. Like follow up on that invite after they attend church. But it could be, it could be more than that. It could be that as you pray, God gives you a heart to get on a plane and go. Okay. Then, then let's start making plans to get on a plane and go. So I think that the call to action is one, embrace the vision of Mission Go, pray for leading in Mission Go, and then step out and participate in Mission Go. And then resources, there's actually two. Both of them are from Nine Marks Ministries. One is just, it's just called Evangelism. Great place to start. It's a very short book. I mean, I think it's like 90 pages. It's a very short book, but it's, the focus is cultivating a culture of evangelism and just being ⁓ a person who takes personal responsibility for evangelizing people in your life. And then the next one is called Prioritizing Missions in the Church. So both of those are by nine marks. They also wrote ⁓ a ⁓ companion volume to Prioritizing Missions in the Church and it's Prioritizing Church in Missions. And you take them together and it's we should be a church that cares about missions and the way that we do missions should be to establish churches Not to just like just send people and come home There's an end game. The end game is that they have a healthy thriving church In their community that then is the hub that people get sent out from I think if we read those we'll have a we'll have a great vision for missions as a church. Yeah, that's exciting Thanks for joining us for the Harvest After Sunday podcast where we help you grow into the image of Christ by applying the truths of His Word for His mission. We'll see you Sunday.