Why Churches Need Parachurch Ministries and Parachurch Ministries Need Churches

This week my oldest child is at FCA Leadership Camp. She will be a huddle leader at her school again this year. I'm so proud of her and excited to see how God is using her for the sake of the Kingdom.

Last week I had breakfast with a staffer for Young Life in another county that my family supports each month. As I listened to stories of camp and this past year of serving in ministry I was reminded of the need that is out there to reach the next generation with the gospel.

Our church like other Baptist churches across Georgia is placing an emphasis on getting kids in the word. Helping them to spend time reading the Bible as individuals or as a family. Helping them memorize scripture and learn the books of the Bible. Why are we doing this? Because we believe that reaching children and youth is vital to the health of our church and fulfills the Great Commission.

My wife and I are both involved in the work of Guido Bible College.  A small school situated at Guido Gardens in Metter which is helping to train the next generation of sowers for kingdom work.

As college students we were involved in a local congregation that helped us grow immensely in our faith, but our involvement in a college ministry associated with that denomination is what really helped us lay a foundation of our faith.

Throughout my time in ministry I have wrestled with the tension that exists between the church and parachurch ministries. Often times there is great hostility between the two entities rather than seeing each other as partners and allies in gospel ministry. I am so thankful to be shepherding a congregation that gives to parachurch ministries financially and otherwise. The truth of the matter is that it takes the combined work of the church and parachurch ministries as partners to accomplish the work of God's kingdom. Just as any one church will not reach everyone, any one ministry will not reach everyone either. However, together there is strength and power to be more effective at reaching people for the gospel, training and equipping them for ministry and service, and seeing the world radically changed by Jesus!

I'm so thankful for the opportunity to hear stories of the work of FCA, Young Life, Guido, RUF, BCM, and other ministries that come alongside churches to engage people with the gospel. Perhaps the future of Christianity will be shaped by more cooperation among churches and parachurch ministries to see even greater kingdom impact.

Southern Writing

My wife and children gave me Harper Lee's Go Set A Watchman for some occasion in the last few years since it was released. To be honest I can't remember if it was Father's Day, Christmas, or birthday. Either way they know my love language is books, so they purchased it for me. Earlier this year I reread Lee's classic, To Kill A Mockingbird in anticipation of reading Go Set A Watchman. I recall others commenting that they didn't like Atticus Finch in the second book or something else about the book that disillusioned them surrounding the mystique of Harper Lee or the legendary book she was known for nearly all her life. Though I enjoyed To Kill A Mockingbird more, I really liked Go Set A Watchman. 

I liked it for the same reason I like most southern writing, particularly southern fiction. In the pages of Flannery O' Connor, Harper Lee, Walker Percy, Will Campbell, Ferrol Sams,  Pat Conroy, and others one is confronted with the hypocrisy of the south in all its glory. One is forced to wrestle not just ideologically but personally with issues of rich and poor, black and white, educated and uneducated. One reads the characters in these pieces of literature and finds glimpses of self shining through. Questions of ideals, racism, sexism, and even theological tensions. Many of the famed southern authors have faith or at least religion somewhere in his or her identity which manifests itself in the ink of the page. I read these authors because I find traces of myself in each book. Things about me that I like, things I don't like. Things I have changed, things I want to change. Ultimately each author and each of the books by them I have read push me to examine who I am as a person, a Christian, a husband, a father, and a friend...because of this I will keep reading.