Mission Alive!

I experienced a powerful missionary movement, empowered by the Holy Splrit, during my two weeks in India, January, 2008.  Mission India has recorded over 3,200 conversions every day during the past 10 years.  Prayer, healing miracles, and witness in the face of harsh persecution are at the heart of their mission.  One of our Sunday mornings we traveled 3 and 1/2 hours into tribal territory.  We finally ended up driving down a very narrow and wooded pathway into a clearing.  There we found St. Mary’s Lutheran church.   About 50 people came out, greeting us like long lost brothers and sisters.  During the first hour of worship people kept arriving until the room was absolutely packed.  I asked the pastor why so many of his members came late.  He explained that most of his families walked at least two hours to worship, and some even six.  When the time for baptisms came, he invited the three of us who were visiting to perform them.  19 adults came forward that day.  He then explained to us that in that moment they crossed a line – their lives were transformed.  They would go home to rejection, loss of jobs and homes, and for some, even death.  Everything would change for them as disciples of Jesus.  After the service we ate and danced together in front of the church.

I couldn’t help but to feel this is what it was like in the Early Church.  That’s the way it is today throughout Africa and Asia, where Christianity is growing by leaps and bounds.   Why isn’t different in America?   Is our prayer and faith that lacking?  Have we become so intellectual, sophisticated, and business-like in our lives and church that we leave little room for God to make a difference?  At the same time, there is deep spiritual hunger and emptiness all around us.  This is our opportunity.  Are we ready to be disciples, who make disciples, and who focus on building the Kingdom?