Jesus taught us how to pray and commanded us to pray. Paul told us to pray without ceasing. However, many Christians only pray when an emergency happens or when they have a wishlist to present to God.

We are going to start using the Echo Prayer App as a means to help you get in the habit of continual prayer and to help us to pray for each other. This app is free to use without advertisements, or you can pay a low, yearly premium to be able to start your own groups and feeds.

Our church has its own feed that you can subscribe to now. This is where we will put prayer items of a general nature, such as when someone is ill, lost a loved one, etc. We also have a mission feed that you can subscribe to where we will put prayer requests pertaining to our missionaries and church planters.

If you would like to submit a general church prayer request, you can always send them to melissa@grandfamily.net. Or, you can send mission prayer requests to scott@grandfamily.net.

In chapter three of the book, Spirituality for the Sent, Susan Booth proposes that we must hold three dimensions in proper focus: spiritual, missional, and global.

Spiritual

As believers, we are called to be disciples of Jesus. This process of discipleship is made possible by the work of the Holy Spirit through the practice of spiritual disciplines. Just like physical health comes as a result of the disciplines of healthy eating and exercise, spiritual health is produced by a combination of spiritual disciplines empowered by the Holy Spirit, such as Bible reading and prayer.

This process of becoming a disciple of Jesus, called sanctification, should produce the fruit of being obedient to the commands of Jesus. All too often, though, the disciplines simply become an end unto themselves. We see this in church all of the time. People who call themselves Christians come to church week after week. Some read their Bibles. Some pray. Some even teach classes. However, most of these have never shared the Gospel. Most of these will never live their lives intentionally as missionaries where they live, work, and play. The vast majority will never even think about how God could use them to reach the unreached people groups of the world.

Developing spirituality through the spiritual disciplines is essential for every believer, and it should always move us into the missional sphere.

Missional

In the process of maturation as a disciple of Jesus by the work of the Holy Spirit through the spiritual disciplines, one sees clearly in Scripture that obedience to the commands of Jesus impresses upon us to make disciples of other people. As a result, Christians should naturally and intentionally begin to leverage their lives to be missionaries where they live, work, and play. Whereas the spiritual disciplines look quite similar amongst all believers, this missional component will look vastly different for each individual based upon their gifts, talents, resources, location, and passions.

This will change everything about how you live your life. You will no longer see work as a place to go and earn money, but you now see it as the place where God has planted you in order to expand His Kingdom. You no longer see your hobby of fishing as a means of escape from the world, but as an opportunity to bring someone along as you disciple them. You no longer see your home as a place to cater to your needs and watch television, but as a strategic base located in a neighborhood full of people that need to hear about grace.

3 Cautions:

1. We must not do the missional component without the spiritual component. If we try to do it on our own power, we will fail. Missions flows out of the spiritual disciplines.
2. We should not wait to do the work of making disciples until we have perfected our spirituality. Sanctification is a life-long process that we will never perfect this side of Heaven. We must begin obeying the commands of Jesus simultaneously with our spiritual disciplines.
3. Do not stop with your location. Go global.

Global

Jesus’ command in Matthew 28:18-20 is clear that we are not just to make disciples of those around us, but we are also to make disciples of all people groups. This is NOT a general statement that we can just ignore, but a specific, strategic command given by our Lord to reach all of the people groups.

In his book, In This Generation by Todd Ahrend, he uses a helpful illustration to explain Jesus’ command: Let us say there are 5 ships and all 5 of these ships are on fire. The coast guard has one helicopter and is commanded to save as many people as they can before they all sink. Their strategy would be to go to the closest ship and grab all of the people they can and continue to that ship and the next closest ones to get as many people as they can. However, if they were ordered to get as many people as they can from each ship, their strategy would change.

Jesus’ command is clear that we are to go to every tribe, tongue, and people group, not to just stay where we are and get the people closest to us. This being the case, it is imperative for every believer to work toward this goal. Each follower of Christ must ask themselves how they are to accomplish this mandate. For some, it might mean moving overseas. For others, it might mean working with refugees in our country. For all, it could mean giving to missions, praying for the unreached people groups, helping to support and send other missionaries, etc. Just like the missional component, the global component will look different for everyone as you take into account your gifts, talents, resources, and passions.

Conclusion

I would highly recommend reading the book, Spirituality for the Sent edited by Nathan A. Finn and Keith S. Whitfield. It is a fantastic book that is focused on finally wedding together the spiritual disciplines movement with the missional movement. Each chapter is written by a different person from a different perspective. Although I do not agree with everything presented in the book, I very much appreciated how thought-provoking it was as a whole.

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It was exciting when I received the news that two of our International Mission Board families were finally heading to the field after being stateside for more than a year. Both of these families were forced to leave the country where they had originally intended to go when the COVID pandemic hit. They quickly found out that they would not ever be able to return because of government restrictions and would new to find a new field of service. After much heartache and prayer, both families landed on Europe.

You might have done a double take when you saw the word Europe! Most people equate Europe with tourist destinations, not missionary service. However, many of the countries there have declined dramatically in their number of Evangelical Christians, even to the point of hitting "unreached people group" percentages. The physical needs there may not be as great as African or Asian countries, but the spiritual need is vast. Both of these families are moving to areas that are considered less than 2% Evangelical Christian.

Eric & Janette Gunselman with their kids have just arrived in Italy where they will be working with university students in the city of Milan.

Tyler & Jenna Morehart along with their kids will be leaving this Saturday to set up a home in Lisbon, Portugal where they will begin the work of planting new churches and supporting the few existing churches.

Please be praying for both of these wonderful families as they settle in, find homes, get their kids in school, and learn a new language and culture.

If you are interested in being on their newsletter list or getting one of their prayer cards, come by and see me some Sunday morning in Guest Services or email me - scott@grandfamily.net.

Imagine if every believer could answer the question "Who's your one?" with the name of a person who is far from God - a person for whom they are praying and with whom they are seeking to share the Gospel!

That is the intention behind Who's Your One? We believe God's people don't merely need another method for evangelism. What they need is a white-hot passion to see people who are far from God experience the new life he offers through Jesus Christ. They need a true belief that people face an eternity apart from God in a place called Hell without the saving grace of Jesus. They need to be infused with the same love that God has for mankind and understand that they have been chosen to play a role in this great mission of God to redeem all people.

So, who is your One? Can you name at least one person in your life that has yet to make a decision to follow Jesus? Will you commit to pray for that person? Will you be intentional to see every opportunity of being around this person as a chance to speak truth into their life?

All that will matter 100 years from now is Jesus! If you believe this to be a true statement, you must get busy sharing the Good News of Jesus with people who need to hear it.

We would love to talk to you about baptism!

We believe that, although baptism is not necessary for salvation, it is necessary in following Jesus in obedience. We are supposed to be fully immersed under water after we repent of our sins and choose to follow Jesus as the Lord of our life. This is done as a symbol of what Christ did for us and as a public profession of our faith in front of our friends and family.

We have found that many people have questions about baptism. We want to make sure that you know that we are always open to talking to you about this very important topic.

If you would like to ask any questions or schedule a baptism, please, contact our Mission Minister, Scott Ward at scott@grandfamily.net.

Coffee shops, the gym, a board game with friends, golf, gardening, fishing, hunting, art, etc. All of these places, hobbies, and more can be considered a third place. If your first place is your home and your second place is your work or school, a third place is any place outside of that where you spend time and build relationships with others.

Beginning in June, our For The City monthly emphasis is Third Places. We are asking each of our members to consider their personal third places and think about how they can engage those places in order to further relationships with the ultimate goal of getting to the Gospel.

For example, our Mission Pastor, Scott Ward, enjoys spending part of his free time at the gym. As he swims or works out, he is constantly looking for the opportunity to meet new friends and start spiritual conversations with the hope of getting to the Gospel.

Now, you might not go to the gym, but you certainly can go get your nails done or go to the same coffee shop every day or, instead of going hiking by yourself, join a hiking club to be around others. There are a thousand things that you can do to place yourself in close proximity to those that are far from God.

When engaging our third places, there is one key that we need to remember. We must be intentional. Many people have gone to the same coffee shop or gym for years and have never engaged someone intentionally to get to a spiritual conversation or at the very least invite them to church. If someone had the cure to a deadly disease that you had and didn’t tell you, you would be rightly upset. Yet we do this everyday when we ignore the lost around us. The Great Commission (…go and make disciples…) compels us to build real relationships with the lost and share the good news of Jesus with them so that we can see new disciples that worship, grow, and go!

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