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Missions in Hard-to-Reach Places · Reformed Thinking

0:00
Welcome to this audio broadcast of reformed thinking.
0:03
You know, when a trauma unit responds to a massive physical
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crisis, the medical staff, they operate on a very clear, like
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highly calculated protocol. Yeah, they use triage.
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Yeah, the system of triage, you stabilize the patient, you
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address the immediate trauma and well, you stop the bleeding.
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Absolutely. The focus is entirely on the
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physical right there. Right.
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And the results of those interventions are, you know,
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they're immediately visible, the monitors beeps, the blood
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pressure stabilizes, and the surgeon knows the immediate
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threat is handled. That makes.
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Complete sense. I mean, the physical needs in a
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trauma Bay are glaringly obvious.
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Yeah, you can see them. The doctors address the most
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critical issue first. They prioritize survival before
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moving on to anything else like long term rehabilitation or
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physical therapy, right? It is a system built on
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immediate tangible action. But consider what happens when
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the emergency isn't physical in nature, OK?
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What happens when an entire community is experiencing an
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acute crisis of the soul? Wow, Yeah, that's heavy.
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It is. We are talking about a
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collective trauma, a shared grief that you just, you can't
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put a bandage on it. And it despair so heavy that it,
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well, it suffocates the entire population.
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So today we're taking a deep dive into the realities of
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conducting ministry and severely isolated, difficult to access
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locations. And we have some really
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fascinating source material for this.
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We do. We're pulling our insights from
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an excerpt in the book Biblical Missions, Principles,
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Priorities, and Practices by Mark Tatlock and Chris
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Korbernett. Specifically, we're focusing on
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a chapter that details outreach in the Alaskan Bush.
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We're looking at a 20 year outreach effort by Grace
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Christian School. Which is just an incredible
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timeline, 20 years. Yeah, it's a huge span of time.
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We want to understand how they model a biblically faithful
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methodology for cross cultural missions and, you know, relying
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entirely on the Holy Spirit sovereign grace to open hearts.
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I think to set the theological stage for you, the listener, we
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really need to view this through a distinctly Reformed lens.
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Both of us hold to Protestant Reformed theology.
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We align with the Westminster Confession and from that
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perspective we understand that human effort.
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No matter how good it is. Right.
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No matter how well-intentioned, strategic, or, you know, well
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funded, it is, human effort cannot regenerate a dead heart.
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Yeah, that's a core tenet for. Us that regeneration is the
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exclusive sovereign work of the Holy Spirit.
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We can't manufacture a conversion.
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We can't force it. No, not at all.
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Yet God routinely uses ordinary means to call his elect.
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Right. He uses the faithful presence of
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believers, the slow building of trust, and, you know, the
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faithful expository preaching of His word.
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Yes, and this discussion shows us how those ordinary means are
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applied in one of the most extreme, unforgiving
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environments on earth. And we have to start by looking
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closely at that environment. I mean, before we can analyze
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the theology behind the mission, we must grasp the severe
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physical and emotional landscape of the Alaskan Bush.
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It's. The text calls Alaska the land
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of the midnight sun, and for a lot of people living in the
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lower 48 states, that phrase brings up images of high end
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tourism. Yeah, like you picture rugged
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mountains, pristine lakes, maybe luxury cruise ships.
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Yeah, people flying in for trophy hunting and fishing,
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taking photos. Right, but the source material
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shatters that idyllic postcard image very quickly.
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It really does. This is an incredibly harsh
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environment. We are talking about Long, dark,
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cold winters where the sun barely rises for months.
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And that kind of weather breeds intense isolation and, honestly,
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clinical depression. Yeah.
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There are roughly 250 remote villages scattered across this
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vast Arctic wilderness, and here's a shocking fact, there's
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absolutely no Rd. access to most of these places.
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Wait, no roads at all? None.
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You can't just pack a car and drive there.
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Yeah, they're reachable only by small Bush planes, and even then
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only when the weather permits. That geographical isolation, it
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creates A psychological and social isolation that is really
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hard for most people to comprehend.
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When you are cut off from the rest of the world by hundreds of
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miles of frozen wilderness, the struggles within a community
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become amplified. It's.
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Like a pressure cooker. Yes, the isolation acts like a
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pressure cooker. The text points out that despite
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nearly two centuries of various attempts to reach this area, the
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Alaskan Bush remains largely an unreached mission field.
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Which is staggering to think about.
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It is the sheer logistics of getting there, staying there,
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and surviving there present a massive barrier to consistent
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gospel witness. I mean, you are fighting the
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elements just to have a conversation.
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That brings us to the specific catalyst for the ministry we're
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looking at today. About 25 years ago, a teacher at
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Grace Christian School, which is located in Anchorage, received a
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distress call. And this was a heavy call.
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Very heavy Three teenagers in one of these remote villages had
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committed suicide. We really have to pause and
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consider the scale of that tragedy.
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The text mentions that this specific event occurred in a
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place already suffering from endemic systemic issues.
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Yeah, it wasn't an isolated issue.
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No, we are looking at rampant alcohol abuse, severe domestic
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violence and widespread depression among the youth.
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These villages are tiny. How tiny are we talking?
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Often they have populations of fewer than 300 people.
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In a community that small, the families are closely knit.
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Everyone is related, or at least knows everyone else intimately.
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So everyone feels it. Yes, the emotional impact of
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three young lives lost in a single stroke was devastatingly
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acute. It was an existential blow to
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the entire community. The grief would have touched
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every single house in the village.
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Absolutely every house. This goes back to my earlier
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thought about triage for the soul.
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The caller on the phone essentially asked if the school
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could come and give the children the village some semblance of
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hope, and the school responded immediately.
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A couple of teachers and several high school students from
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Anchorage got into two small Bush planes and flew out to the
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village. Just dropped everything and
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went. Right, so this raises a huge
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question. When a community is in acute
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grief, plagued by systemic sin and absolute despair, how does a
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sudden arrival of outsiders in two small Bush planes managed to
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offer genuine hope? That's the big question.
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Like when they step off that plane onto the frozen airstrip,
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how do they avoid coming across as naive tourists dropping into
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gawk at a tragedy? Well, the key is that their
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initial action was not to roll in and host a polished
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theological seminar. Right, they didn't bring a
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whiteboard. No whiteboard.
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They didn't arrive with a slick presentation, a projector, and a
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rigid syllabus. It was an urgent, compassionate
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response to acute human suffering.
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They simply showed up to mourn with those who were mourning.
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Which is so biblical. It is that immediate response
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demonstrated the love of Christ in real time.
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By simply being present in the midst of the village's darkest
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hour, crying with the families and offering a shoulder to lean
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on, they laid the groundwork. Groundwork for a relationship
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that has now spanned 2 decades. Yes, and expanded to over 10
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villages. They responded to the immediate
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crisis, which eventually opened the door to address the root
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spiritual needs over the long term.
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That transition from the initial crisis response to a long term
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sustainable strategy is where things get highly practical
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moving forward. From that first tragic visit,
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the team had to figure out how to slowly build credibility in a
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culture that is understandably skeptical of outsiders.
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Very skeptical. The text uses a phrase that
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really stands out to me. It says that in cross missions,
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trust is built slowly, broken quickly.
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That principle is vital for anyone trying to cross cultural
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lines. You cannot fast track trust,
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right? Especially when you are entering
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a community as an outsider. Historically, outsiders have not
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brought good things to indigenous populations.
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Yeah, there's a lot of historical baggage there.
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Tons of it. Often people come in from the
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outside to take resources, impose new rules, or exploit the
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locals. The Grace Christian School teams
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understood this historical baggage.
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They didn't ignore it. No.
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They work to break down that barrier of foreignness by
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engaging in highly practical, tangible tasks.
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They didn't restrict their activities to preaching on
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street corners. They got their hands dirty.
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They tutored students who were falling behind in math and
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reading. They spent hours organizing the
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village school library. Which sounds so mundane, but
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it's huge. It is they went outside in the
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freezing cold and played with the children at recess.
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Let's look at the mechanics of that.
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I like to think of this process as while laying down gravel on a
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muddy Rd. OK, I like that analogy.
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You can't drive a heavy truck full of deep theological truth
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over a road made of mud. The truck will just sink.
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The locals will reject the. Delivery, he'll just get stuck.
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Exactly. I mean spot on.
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You have to lay down the gravel of trust first.
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You are moving into their space and before you earn the right to
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speak into someone's life, you have to contribute to the
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household. You're paying relational rent.
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Right, paying relational rent. But I want to push back on this
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slightly. From a strictly operational
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standpoint, doesn't spending hours organizing A secular
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school library or playing dodgeball at recess distract
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from the urgency of sharing the gospel?
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That's a common critique. Right.
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Like if we believe people need salvation, and we know that
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faith comes by hearing the word of Christ, why are these
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missionaries sorting books by the Dewey Decimal System?
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That is a very fair question, but if we connect this to the
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bigger picture of reformed theology, we see a clearing
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answer. OK, laid out for us.
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Providing for the temporal physical needs of a community is
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never a replacement for the gospel.
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It is not a substitute, and the social gospel is not the true
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gospel. I am into that.
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However, practical labor softens suspicious and cynical
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residence. Think about it from the
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perspective of a village elder. Outsiders frequently come and
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go. When the local see a team of
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outsiders working hard for the tangible betterment of their
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village and specifically for the well-being of their children, it
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generates immense relational equity.
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It proves their motives. Yes, it proves to the village
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that the team's motives are genuine.
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They are not there to take, they are there to give.
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OK. I see.
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That practical labor clears the debris off the path so the
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gospel can be heard without the immediate barrier of susmission.
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You are demonstrating the character of Christ through your
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actions before you explain the work of Christ with your words.
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That makes perfect sense. You are proving your character
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through your sweat. Absolutely.
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So once you have laid down that gravel, once you have paid that
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relational rent, how do you know the transaction was successful?
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Good question. The text gives us specific
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indicators of when a team knows they have earned enough trust to
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actually share their faith openly.
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The first major indicator is gaining access to the children.
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The text highlights a universal human truth.
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Here, all parents want to protect their.
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Children 100%. It doesn't matter what culture
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you're in, what language you speak, or what climate you live
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in, parents are fiercely protective of who influences
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their kids. Therefore, the highest sign of
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trust a community can offer is allowing outsiders to interact
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with their youth unsupervised or in instructional settings.
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And the school teams operate in two very distinct venues to
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interact with the youth. There are the activities during
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school hours and then there was the after hours ministry.
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Right, it's two different worlds.
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Let's break those down, because the contrast between the two is
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really sharp and it shows a lot of respect for the local
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authorities. During school hours, the team
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operates within government funded secular schools.
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OK, the administration allows them to speak at assemblies, but
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the topics have to be secular in nature to abide by state laws.
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So no preaching from the stage at 10 AM.
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Right, none of that. They use this time to discuss
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vital issues like cyber bullying, the impact of social
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media, how to build good friendships and the very real
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dangers of drugs and alcohol Which?
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The schools desperately need. They do.
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They are providing valuable social instruction that
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addresses the immediate behavioral issues facing the
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teens. Right.
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They are addressing the symptoms of the brokenness we talked
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about earlier. They're talking about suicide
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prevention and healthy choices. But then the bell rings.
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School is out, and here is where the dynamic shifts.
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This is the turning point. Because of the trust they built
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during the day by respecting the rules of the secular assembly,
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the village leaders permit the team to host events after hours.
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They hold open gyms, run games, do crafts and perform skits.
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And during these after hours events, the restrictions are
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lifted. They're allowed to integrate the
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message of salvation. And that leads directly to the
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most vital aspect of their trips, which is direct
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evangelism. The text notes that the visiting
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student team members share their personal salvation testimonies
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each night. Oh, that's powerful.
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Hearing a peer speak openly about their faith has a massive
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effect. Picture a high school student
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from urban Anchorage sitting on the bleachers next to a native
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teen from the Bush. Right, their life experiences
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are wildly different. Totally different, but when the
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anchored student talks about their own brokenness, their own
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struggle with thin and the grace they found in Christ, it bridges
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the cultural gaps It's. Relatable.
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Very relatable. It leads to highly vulnerable
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and honest conversations about guilt, shame, and forgiveness.
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And it culminates in giving Bibles to any students who
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express a desire to read the word for themselves.
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That's amazing. So the secular assemblies build
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the platform of credibility, but the after hours ministry
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delivered the saving message. Access to the children is huge,
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but there is a second indicator of relational equity that the
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text points out, and it involves being invited into intimate
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community life. Right.
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The text mentions A-Team being invited to attend his funeral
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and the meal celebration that followed.
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Yeah, that's not a small thing. Not at all.
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In a village of 200 people, a funeral is not a public event
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for strangers. It is a highly private, grieving
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moment. Absolutely.
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Bringing outsiders into that sacred space shows a massive
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amount of respect from the village elders.
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It really demonstrates that the team is no longer viewed as a
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group of tourists or temporary volunteers.
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Right, they've crossed the line. They are viewed as friends who
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can share in the sorrow and the communal rituals of the village.
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They have crossed the threshold from outsider to trusted guest.
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The text provides another example of communal rituals that
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we really had to discuss. It's the whale hunt.
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Yes, this is fascinating. Easily one of the most
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interesting details in the source material, the text
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describes a whale hunt as a centuries old tradition among
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coastal native communities. It is an incredibly dangerous,
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highly coordinated effort to secure thousands of pounds of
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meat for the winter. It is so protected that only
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Native Alaskans are legally allowed to undertake it.
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It's restricted by federal law. Yes, fiercely guarded both by
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federal law and by ancestral tradition.
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Yet A-Team leader from the school was invited to join the
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community on a whale hunt. And when the hunt was
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successful, the abundant meet was shared not just with the
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village, but with the visiting team.
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That is a staggering level of inclusion.
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It really is. To be invited into an activity
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that is bound by strict legal codes and deep ancestral
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heritage is a rare privilege. The village is essentially
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saying we trust you enough to bring you into the very heart of
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how our people survive. But this brings up a really
15:50
tricky theological dynamic for a Christian.
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Let's look at the mechanics of this.
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OK, let's look at it. How does a Reformed Christian
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maintain orthodox doctrine, completely avoiding any
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compromise of biblical truth, while respectfully participating
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in deeply guarded cultural traditions that might have roots
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in non Christian worldviews? That's the challenge.
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Because a traditional Hut like that often involves animistic
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prayers or rituals acknowledging the spirit of the animal.
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How does a Christian work through that without
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participating in idolatry? That is the tightrope walk of
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cross cultural missions, but the reformed concept of common grace
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provides the framework here. Can you break that down for the
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listener? Sure, common grace teaches that
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God bestows goodness, skill, and provision on all people,
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regardless of their spiritual state.
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Right. The rain falls on the just and
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the unjust. Spot on.
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He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good.
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A legal celebrated whale hunt provides vital sustenance for a
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community and a harsh environment.
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They need that food to survive the winter.
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Yes, that provision of thousands of pounds of meat is a common
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grace from God. By participating, the Christian
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is acknowledging and respecting the skill of the hunters and
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celebrating the provision of food.
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OK, you do not have to endorse every spiritual belief attached
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to a tradition to appreciate the tradition itself.
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That sounds very similar to the Apostle Paul's instruction in
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First Corinthians chapter 8 regarding meat sacrificed to
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idols. Yes, very similar.
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The meat itself is just meat. The provision is from the Lord.
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That is a very accurate parallel.
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The believer knows that the earth is the Lord's and all it
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contains. By eating the meat and
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celebrating the successful hunt, it shows the locals that the
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team values their humanity and their survival.
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Right. Participating builds massive
17:37
respect. And here is the crucial part.
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That respect then creates a platform for honest dialogue
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about the Creator who actually provided the harvest.
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Oh, I love that. When you sit down to eat the
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whale meat, you can authentically thank the God of
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the Bible for providing it. You are celebrating the
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provision while looking for the opportunity to point them to the
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true provider. That's brilliant.
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It's very intentional. So what does this all mean for
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you, the listener? The specific successes in Alaska
18:06
yield broad principles that you can apply to any resistant or
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hard to access context. Yeah, these aren't just rules
18:14
for Alaska. Right, the text shows us how
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playing the long game is the only way forward.
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There is no substitute for developing long term
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relationships. People are the focus of
18:23
ministry, not the activities themselves.
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In rural Alaska, future trips are never guaranteed.
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You might have your bags packed, your plane tickets bought, and a
18:32
massive Blizzard grounds all plains for a week.
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You're at the mercy of the weather.
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Entirely. The logistics are a constant
18:39
nightmare. Because the logistics are so
18:40
incredibly difficult, the fact that the team keeps showing up
18:44
year after year proves their steadfast dedication.
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It really does. It proves they aren't fair
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weather friends. Imagine the psychological effect
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on the village. They might think, oh those
18:56
church kids came once, but it's too cold.
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They won't be bad, right they. Expect them to quit.
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But then the next February, the plane lands again.
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And the next year, it lands again.
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And theologically, this long game mentality aligns perfectly
19:08
with our understanding of God's Providence.
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Oh, so we must recognize that God's timing in drawing His
19:16
elect is not bound by our mission trip schedules.
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Oh, that's a great point. We can't force a spiritual
19:22
harvest just because we only have a five day visa or one week
19:26
school break. We build trust patiently and
19:28
wait for the Lord to open the doors.
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We're on his clock. Yes, we plant the seeds, we
19:33
water them, but God but gives the growth.
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The teams also utilize incredibly flexible
19:37
methodologies. The Tex notes that they use a
19:40
wide variety of methods. We're talking drummels, sports
19:44
counseling, tutoring, cooking. Even doing maintenance around
19:47
the village, fixing broken doors or frozen pipes.
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This flexibility models Christ. He is the ultimate helper.
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He routinely met physical needs. You know, healing the sick,
19:58
feeding the thousands. To address the far greater
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reality of spiritual poverty, A rigid program will fail in a
20:06
fluid environment. The team must assess what the
20:09
village needs on any given day and adapt their skills to meet
20:12
that need. So true.
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If a pipe bursts in the Community Center, you don't hand
20:16
them a tract, you grab a wrench. Which leads directly into the
20:20
reality that A1 size fits all approach simply does not work.
20:24
Not at all. Every single village out of
20:26
those 250 has unique tribal roots, specific traditions and
20:31
distinct environmental factors. A generic mass produced ministry
20:35
plan printed in a corporate office in the lower 48 is
20:38
entirely useless here. You have to tailor the approach
20:41
because the hurdles are different in every location.
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And the theological hurdles are incredibly varied.
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Let's talk about those. First, there is traditional
20:49
spiritism, which includes nature and ancestral worship.
20:52
In an environment where the weather and the wildlife dictate
20:55
your survival, it is easy to see why unregenerate people would
20:59
begin to worship the creation rather than the Creator.
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Yeah, that makes. Sense they are trying to appease
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unpredictable spirits to ensure a good hunt or a mild winter.
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Then you have extreme syncretism.
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Let's break that word down for the listener.
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Good idea. Synchronism is when you blend
21:15
different religious beliefs together, often corrupting the
21:18
truth in the process. You mix a little bit of
21:21
Christianity with a little bit of paganism.
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The text specifically notes that traditional native beliefs have
21:27
often been blended with foreign works based religions.
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Like what? It mentions the Roman Catholic
21:33
and Russian Orthodox churches that pepper the Alaskan Bush.
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Right, Russian fur traders. Exactly.
21:40
Russian fur traders brought Orthodoxy to Alaska centuries
21:43
ago. The historical presence of these
21:46
groups has left a theological residue that combines grace with
21:49
human effort. So they're mixing grace and
21:52
works. Yes, you have communities that
21:55
might pray to ancestral spirits while also lighting candles to
21:59
icons, hoping their combined efforts will earn them favor.
22:02
That sounds exhausting it. Is.
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Furthermore, the text warns about the creeping danger of the
22:07
prosperity gospel. The prosperity gospel is
22:10
particularly cruel in this context.
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It really is it. Preys on vulnerable,
22:14
impoverished communities by promising physical wealth,
22:18
health and comfort in exchange for faith, where usually in
22:22
exchange for financial seed money.
22:24
Right. Send us money, God will bless
22:26
you. Yeah, when a gallon of milk
22:28
costs $15.00 in a remote village, the promise of sudden
22:31
wealth is a very potent temptation.
22:33
So as a Reformed believer walking into a village, you are
22:36
facing a theological minefield. You really are.
22:39
You have animism, you have workspace theology from
22:42
historical influences, and you have the false promises of the
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prosperity gospel. When you're confronted with all
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of that confusion, how does the Reformed focus on faith alone,
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grace alone, Christ alone cut through the noise?
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That's the beautiful part. Like, how do the five souls of
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the Reformation actually help a teenager in the Alaskan Bush?
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It cuts through the noise by offering the only thing that
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actually provides assurance to a weary soul.
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Assurance. Yes, think about it.
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If you are trapped in animism, you are constantly trying to
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appease unpredictable spirits. You never know.
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The spirits are angry with you. You.
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Always on edge. If you are in a workspace
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system, you are never quite sure if you have done enough good
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deeds to earn salvation. You are on a treadmill of human
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effort. And you can never run fast
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enough. Right.
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And if you follow the prosperity gospel, your faith is shattered
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the moment you experience physical hardship, which in the
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Alaskan Bush is a daily reality. Absolutely.
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The distinct Reformed message of justification by faith alone
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rests entirely early on the finished work of Christ.
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It requires uncompromised biblical truth.
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You tell them that Christ has done the work, that his
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righteousness is imputed to them by faith, and that his grace is
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sufficient. It is a message of absolute rest
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for exhausted people. Absolute rest.
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I love that. That brings us to the final
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section of our deep dive. After years of flying in, paying
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the relational rent with sweat and time, working through brutal
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weather and navigating layers of cultural and theological
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hurdles, the pioneer missionary inevitably hits a wall.
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They do. They have to ask the crucial
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question, what now? You can't just run short term
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youth trips forever and call it a completed mission.
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There has to be an end game. Right, you need an exit
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strategy, and the text provides A definitive, unyielding answer
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to that question. What is it?
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The core solution, the ultimate objective of all this labor, is
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to raise up an indigenous expositor of the Word of God in
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every single village. This is where the theology of
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the mission shines brightest. The text features a critical
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quote that affirms everything we believe about salvation as
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Reformed Christians. Oh.
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I love this quote. It says salvation is an
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individual, independent work of the Holy Spirit, which happens
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in the Lord's time in the Lord's way.
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I want you, the listener, to hear that clearly in the Lord's
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time, in the Lord's way. That single sentence changes the
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entire posture of the missionary.
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It completely relieves the missionary from the crushing
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burden of trying to manufacture conversions.
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Right. You're not a salesman.
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Exactly. You don't have to rely on
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emotional manipulation, mood lighting, or high pressure sales
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tactics to get a decision. You can rest entirely in God's
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Providence. You just preach the word.
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Your job is to faithfully proclaim the truth.
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The Holy Spirit's job is to resurrect the soul.
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That doctrine does not kill evangelism, it fuels it.
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How does it fuel it? Because it guarantees that God's
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Word will not return void. He will call his sheep.
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So once the Holy Spirit does that regenerative work and
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people are saved, the strategy shifts, right?
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The short term team transitions from being the primary
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communicators to acting as collaborators.
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They work with long term missionaries to identify a local
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man from within the village who can be trained.
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And this requires immense discernment.
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I would imagine so. You are looking for a man whose
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life demonstrates the qualifications of an elder as
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outlined in First Timothy and Titus.
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Right above reproach. Exactly.
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In a village with high rates of addiction and broken homes,
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finding a man who is above reproach, the husband of one
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wife and self controlled is a massive praise to God's
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sanctifying grace. Truly, once identified, he must
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possess the aptitude to handle the Scriptures accurately.
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Think of it like planting an orchard.
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The short term team brings the first baskets of apples to feed
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a starving village. Good analogy.
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They fly in, build the trust, do the practical labor, and share
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the gospel. But they can't keep flying in
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baskets of apples forever. No, that's not sustainable,
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right? Their real goal is to plant the
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seeds, cultivate the soil, and teach a local man how to prune
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the trees. The goal is to establish a local
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orchard so the village can feed itself for generations.
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Yes, the local man must pastor the flop and maintain sound
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doctrine over the span of decades.
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The need for expository preaching cannot be overstated
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here. A short term team can introduce
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a community to Christ, but true lasting impact only happens when
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an indigenous man is equipped to systematically explain the
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scriptures to his own people. Because he knows them.
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He knows the native language perfectly.
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He understands the cultural idioms.
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He knows the specific struggles of his neighbors better than an
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outsider ever will. He's one of them.
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Yes, when he shepherds them with sound doctrine, doctrine
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outlined, and rigorous confessions like the Westminster
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Standard, the Church becomes rooted.
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It's solid. It is no longer dependent on a
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Bush plane arriving from Anchorage.
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The local body becomes self-sustaining through the
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ordinary means of grace. They have their own elder, their
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own administration of the sacraments, and their own
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pulpit. That is the ultimate goal.
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You work tirelessly so that you are no longer needed.
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Exactly. Let's recap the progression
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we've covered today. We started with an isolated
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community devastated by a crisis of suicide and depression.
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We saw a team respond immediately, taking small planes
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into the harsh winter to offer comfort.
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We watch them slowly build trust, paying relational rent
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through practical labor like tutoring, math, and organizing
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library. Yeah, that earned them the right
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to speak at assemblies and host after hours evangelism events
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where urban teenagers shared their testimonies with Bush
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teenagers. Bridging that gap.
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They respected the culture, participating in traditions like
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the whale hunt to show common grace and build a platform for
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the gospel. And all of this careful long
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term labor points to a single objective.
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Which is training an indigenous man to preach the word of God to
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his own people. Yes, to you, the listener.
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The principles we extracted from the Alaskan Bush apply directly
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to your life. They really do.
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You might not be flying into an Arctic village in a Cessna, but
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you likely interact with a resistant family member, a
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skeptical Co worker, or an isolated social group.
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We all have those people in our lives.
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We do, and the methodology remains incredibly relevant.
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You must pay relational rent by meeting practical needs.
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Work for it. Yes, yeah, You must demonstrate
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the love of Christ through tangible actions before
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expecting a hearing for the gospel.
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You must rely entirely on the Holy Spirit's timing rather than
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your own schedule. And you must trust in the
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absolute sufficiency of Scripture to accomplish God's
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purposes. Here's a final thought for you
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to Mull over as we close If the goal of a successful mission is
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to make yourself obsolete by raising up local leaders
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equipped with the Word of God, look closely at your own life.
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That's a tough mirror to look into.
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It is where in your own sphere of influence, your workplace or
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your local church, are you holding tightly under control
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instead of passing the responsibility to others?
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Are you building a system that relies entirely on your
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presence, or are you equipping others to plant their own
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orchards? Think about it.
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We will catch you on the next deep dive.