RETHINK AND engage.
IF WE CAN MULTIPLY KINGDOM LEADERS OUT OF CRISIS RESPONSE, THEN WE CAN ALSO MULTIPLY DISCIPLES, CHURCHES, AND SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS.
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Articles from the recent “Mission Frontiers”
MISSION FRONTIERS, VOL. 45, NO. 6 NOV/DEC 2023.
Mission Frontiers, a publication of Frontier Ventures (FV), is published six times a year. Contents © 2023, Frontier Ventures. FV is a member of MissioNexus and Evangelical Press Association (EPA).
What if we read Scripture through the lens of crisis and disaster? God consistently transforms the most destructive moments into the most redemptive stories. In the New Testament, the movement of God thrived in the context of multiple crises, such as persecution (Acts 8:1), famines (Acts 11:28-30), urgent needs (Titus 3:14), death (Luke 8:49-56), sickness (Luke 8:43-48), riots (2 Corinthians 6:4-5), and storms (Luke 8:22-25).
The word trauma has a variety of connotations in the West. However, much of the world does not have a word for it in their language, though they are not strangers to the concept and its effects.
Trauma is “an emotional response to a stressful event or series of events that cause(s) a variety of negative consequences, including mental and emotional difficulties, and sometimes physical symptoms.” A single event or a series of events can have the same physical, emotional, and mental impact.
View various resources on Trauma Healing...
Suffering comes in different forms and impacts everyone. As believers, “in fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” 2 Tim 3:12. To see God in crisis involves being able to see suffering through God’s perspective and responding to Him, recovering His design in a broken world.
When a crisis/disaster hits in a person's life or a whole country, we long to pray but sometimes wonder how. This prayer cycle guides you, as an individual or community, through 1 hour of prayer across 12 different sections with scripture on God's heart and perspective for us amid crisis and disaster.
Depending on where you live, different natural disasters can impact you or the people around you. These crisis and disaster moments are sometimes the most receptive moments in people’s lives, as they realize their need for God in the shaking of life. They are open to new connections, communications, and collaborations, in need of physical or emotional help, and spiritually searching for God…
PRAY
BUT DON’T STOP THERE. HERE ARE TWO REASONS:
As you talk to God, listen too. God speaks all through scripture and through the Holy Spirit. God may lead you, as you listen to Him, to what your actions can be, who He might want you to call, someone you forgot you knew, an idea that hasn’t been done yet, etc. the possibilities are endless because God is the one talking.
Prayer naturally moves people into action. Be ready for what action steps people can take as God moves on their hearts as they increase their prayers…
It is to the laser focused laborer who maintains their focus upon the main thing, who can keep their eyes focused upon the End Vision—the glory of God among those who have never had the Jesus option. O, that the peoples of the earth would come to know and delight in the joy of being and making reproducing lovers of Jesus (disciples) who hear and obey, who choose to live in transformed ways. How will they hear? How will they know Jesus unless they have the privilege of hearing and obeying the only One worthy? As the waters cover the seas upon the earth, so shall the knowledge of the glory of the Lord be demonstrated and declared throughout the peoples of the earth. (Hab. 2:14 paraphrase)
Movement brother S., talked through how his movement leaders approached an Ebola response with a movement mindset in his region of Africa in 2011-2013….
…TAKE STRATEGIC LONG VIEW IN SHORT TERM RESPONSE TO CRISIS.
In the book of Daniel, there are great reminders of steadfast confidence in God Almighty, no matter the existential crisis of the year or, in his case the 69 years. Pursuing the biblical vision of stepping into crisis, as fear's end game in the hands of the enemy of our souls is always to cripple, to debilitate, to annihilate any semblance of living a reproducing worthy life….
When responding to a large-scale crisis or helping people recover from a disaster, how can we maximize fruit? How can we maximize the practical support we give them? And what principles can increase urgent-needs response, sustainable recovery, and multiplication of believer groups in an integrated way?
What if we read scripture through the lens of crisis and disaster?
Think about some popular Bible stories...Joseph, Noah, Jesus...these and so many others are filled with crisis and disaster moments, from the famine when Joseph was second in command, the flood when Noah built the ark, the murder of Jesus on behalf of all of us.
What questions have you been asking lately? If we change the questions, we can change the ways we approach things and solve problems in a whole new light! When our perspective changes, it is a ripple effect into new possibilities and opportunities. To get you started, here are 35 questions to begin turning the wheels as you ask God, yourself, and others:
Globally, crises and disasters have the greatest level of devastation where there is the least gospel saturation.
The 10/40 window. What if crises and disasters create the highest accessibility in moments of least resistance? What if the moments with the highest destruction are also the moments with the highest receptivity in people’s lives? What if crises and disasters are our open doors (physically, emotionally, spiritually) to seeing Matthew 24:14, Revelation 7:9, etc. in our generation?