Missions
100+
More than a hundred people in the last year have accepted the call to GO. And we have gone. We have gone to the families of Detroit. We have celebrated faith conversations among the Arab Americans in Dearborn. Our partners in Idaho realized VBS would not work for them so they asked for help putting on a Junior Rodeo. What do we do? We nick name out Pastor, Cactus Dave, and we GO. We have sent people to the orphans of Kenya and the children in apartments less than a mile away.
We live with the reality of the Great Commsion. We are to make disciples teaching them to obey all that he commanded. How about Jerusalem? Yep, we reach out those most like us. Our Judea requires some networking. There are plenty of people in our community with just enough religion to be dangerous. Eastside loves them if they live close or across the nation. Our Samaria is really exciting because they are just outside our reach culturally. And the ends of the Earth, the most remote people, we find those people in Marietta apartments, Idaho valleys, and walking the roads of Africa. Around here we have a saying.
The Church + The Missionary = A Changed World
That means its is going to take both. We see the church and the missionary in the New Testament. We operate within partnerships that are two way streets. We help our partners with trips and resources, but we get so much in return. Our partners help us understand our mission responsibility in Marietta.
Missionary Partners
Mike Palmer, Cowboy Church Pastor (Idaho)
Jim and Myrtle Ballard (Idaho, NAMB Church Planters)
Trey and Whitney Sapp (People Groups Pastor, www.incompletetrust.com, Trey's Twitter)
Steve and Elaine Haber (Southern Africa)
Tim Cummins/ Michael Anderson, Whirlwind Ministries
Andrey Shirin (Washington D.C., Russia)
David Smith (Toronto Church Planting, The Vine Church)
Ted Stephens (Michigan Director of Misisons)
Larry Fillingim (Noonday Association, Director of Missions)
UPCOMING OPPORTUNITIES TO GET INVOLVED
After School Turtoring: Every Tuesday at Concept 21 Apartments off Bentley Rd. We are looking for tutors and people that share the love of God and the Gospel with children and families. Shoot a quick e-mail to Trey Sapp if you aee interested.
Toronto 2012 | June 30-July 7
David Smith, Pastor of the Vine Church and leader within Toronto Church Planting, has asked for some help reching young families in Toronto. We are goign to send a team of flag football players and ballerinas to help. The trip will begin with a Canada Day celebration, then we wil spend a week in children's camp and networking in the city. There are still many details of the trip coming. For now contact Trey Sapp (tsapp@ebcnet.org) to epress and interest in going. If you can't go just sketch a prayer for the team on my twitter.
Idaho 2012 | August 7-14
If you heard Pastor Mike Palmer at the Missions COnference or heard Jim Ballard's traning session then you are probably ready to saddle up and head to Idaho to assist in planting cowboy churches. The team has not yet fromed for this opportunity but get ready, shine those boots, and keep your ears open for more info soon.
Michigan 2012 | June 14-23
We have a chance every Christmas to give to support international missionaries around the world. The Lottie Moon offering supports the International Mission Board Missionaries serving all over the world. We are connected with all 5,000+ misisonaries but especially to some of our families already on the field and one of our young women who departs in 2012. Christmas is a great time to be his heart, his hands, his voice.
You can give any Sunday between now and the end of January.
For more information not listed here please contact Whitney Sapp
Acts 1:8
Describing the Mission Fields
Acts 1:8 is one of five commissioning passages in the New Testament. All of these commissioning or sending commands occur after the resurrection of Jesus and represent his closing instructions to his disciples. In these, Jesus instructs and empowers his followers to carry on the work he did during his earthly ministry.
Acts 1:8 specifically lists four environments or locations where followers of Jesus are to be witnesses. These mission fields are most commonly thought of as concentric geographic rings, each one radiating out further and further from the center of Jesus’ ministry. While this is certainly an appropriate way of viewing the mission task Jesus gave us, these environments can also be viewed through a “peoples” lens. The definitions which follow suggest both ways of describing these fields.
Jerusalem
The city of Jerusalem itself. Jerusalem was the center of Jewish life and was the place where Jesus met his disciples following his resurrection. The North American Mission Board (NAMB) equates Jerusalem with the local association geographically.
Focusing on people, Jerusalem was populated primarily by Jewish people. As such, the Jerusalem mission field is one where we focus on reaching people who are most like ourselves, that being the local church.
Judea
The land of Judea was the land originally settled by the tribe of Judah. Jerusalem sits in the land of Judea. As such, Judea represents the next larger geographic region beyond the city of Jerusalem itself. NAMB equates Judea with the state convention geographically.
Judea was the land of Judah, one of the Jewish patriarchs. By the time of Jesus, Judea was still largely Jewish but was also under Roman rule. Numbers of other non-Jewish people had taken up residence in Judea making it more ethnically and nationally diverse.
Samaria
The region of Samaria lies to the north of Jerusalem and the land of Judea. During the Old Testament period, Samaria was part of the Jewish nation. Geographically, it is more distant and had become a region in its own right by the time of Jesus. NAMB equates Samaria with North America.
Samaria was more than just the name for a region. It also described a group of people known as the Samaritans. These were people who were originally Jewish but who had intermarried with other non-Jewish people and had also adopted many foreign customs and religious practices. The Samaritan people were close cousins but now represented a different group of people from the Jews.
Ends of the Earth
Jesus uses this term to describe all the rest of the known world beyond the land of Israel. The geographic implications are obvious and challenged the early disciples to see beyond the Jews and people like themselves. These are the mission environments that are geographically most distant and typically require travel to reach. The International Mission Board (IMB) equates “the ends of the earth” with all of the non-North American mission fields of the world.
A peoples focus on the “ends of the earth” looks beyond geographic and political boundaries to identify and develop strategies for sowing the Gospel among all of the people groups of the world. Many, if not most, of the people groups of the world are now found in North America as well as in their native homeland.
