What is good news?

Come tomorrow Jan 20 (at noon to be exact), America will be receiving good news from her 44th President Barack Obama in his inaugural address.

The American people have been anxiously waiting in hope for their new president to deliver his promises made during the presidential campaign to turn the country’s economy around.

The present economy of the nation is in turmoil. Many financial giants have gone bankrupt and unemployment is rampant. Automobile and mass merchandising related companies are at the brim of going out of business. Millions of American men and women are counting on the President’s campaign for the CHANGE would bring them Good News!

The word good news ‘gospel’ or ‘euangelion’ (εὐαγγέλιον in Greek) is originally used in Greco-Roman time to propagate the birth or the appearance of a new emperor. Gospel means good tiding; it signifies a new emperor will usher in a new political era with good economic ideology, which will bring the empire to another milestone.

However, in the Gospel of Mark, according to the evangelist good news begin from the ministry of Jesus Christ on earth (Mark 1:1). It is not about the new emperor or the new political regime or the new economic ideology; it is about Jesus – the Son of God who ushered in the kingdom of God.

Political leaders come and go throughout the human history, thus the change or the good news brought by the new leaders is merely temporal, but the salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ is eternal!

All of us, every citizen of the world and America, must receive this good news – gospel – for according to the Scripture (Roman 1:16) it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. Amen.

Psalm 40:1-3

1I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. 2He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. 3He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the LORD and put their trust in him. (Today's NIV)

How do you run a church?

Learning how to run a church efficiently and especially to be effective in church ministry is something every pastor and Christian leader looks forward to. I believe none of the church pastor or leader somewhere along in their ministry path has never been pondering over the question what a church must really do? Without doubt we must have spent numerous resources and timeless effort in doing everything right for the church to strife for its best – that is to win souls for Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, we must humbly admit to a certain degree our effort often is of little success. We wonder sometimes if God is with us at all.

A book about the “Spirit-led” Ministry of the “Missional Church” by Craig Van Gelder shades some light on the matter. Van Gelder is a guru in pioneering the framework of the Spirit-led ministry of a missional church. He spends his lifetime interpreting what is missional ecclesiology: an important concept of understanding how a church could participate in God’s mission for the world versus what a church should do in its mission.

I have been serving in the church as lay leader for a decade in different capacity. I must say during the time when I was serving as Executive Chairperson of the local church board, numerous occasions and lengthy discussion was spent to define the church mission statements or what the church objectives are. Pastors and fellow brothers and sisters in the committee have also pondered over the one crucial question: what God is doing in our church? However, a lot of time, we have easily mistaken what a church must do in its existence as similar to what God wants us to do. We faithfully hold onto the duties and responsibilities of a church and diligently carry out its plan for mission, outreach, social concerns, teaching and sharing of the gospels. We lay them before God and earnestly seek Him to bless our work.

If you have read the preceding mentioned book by Van Gelder, you would have known it is entirely two different things on what the church wants or decides to do for God and what God wants the church to do for Him. The essence or critical difference here is who initiates the activity. Traditionally, and it is still true today, we would like to ask God to bless what we do. It is not too difficult to have a group of people to brainstorm what are the things a church can do. We usually do not have the trouble to come out with a physical long list of activity or program for the members to implement those events enlisted for their good cause and intention, however, if we put this to the perspective of Spirit-led ministry of a missional church, it appears clearly that we are heading in the wrong direction!

Spirit-led ministry as its term implied - the Holy Spirit is the One who initiates the activity. It is letting the Holy Spirit to lead us to participate in God redemptive work in Christ Jesus through the church. It is an exact opposite of laying down before God the work of the church for His blessing. In real sense, we are actually demanding God to accomplish the church’s agenda on our behalf.

I presume what is significant or the central idea or theme of the book is to be able to see the mission of God for the world – the “missio Dei.” God the creator who creates the world through Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit in the beginning, likewise, He would reconcile the world to Himself through the same Christ and by the work of the same Spirit in the present day. Our responsibility therefore, is to have faith and be able to discern what God is doing in our church for His people around us. Amen.