Where's the Hope?

Where's the hope for the church today? I wonder.

I was talking with a friend today, and we discussed the situation in the church. Where is the hope? Where is the way to change into more of what Christ expects and get past our preferences/likes/dislikes?

Where are believers in our churches who have a missional mindset--getting past what I want for the sake of others who not yet are reached?

My friend sees the consumer mindset in college students and other young people--believers who have that mindset that church is all about me and my wants/desires--what helps me most. And I see that also in other generations in America who feel the same way--but the preferences of the middle and old are certainly not the wants/desires/likes of those younger.

The hope for the church probably is not those within it right now. But those yet to be reached. Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 9:37-38, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask (or pray) the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." Where are followers praying/asking for more workers? The hope is those yet to be reached, who will have a passion for Christ and for others not yet reached, a passion that we do not seem to have.

When in collegiate ministry, I often found that those who had a passion for Christ and growth were those who had recently accepted Christ, not those who had grown up in the church. Yet my plan and our philosophy, I guess, was to try to find those who had grown up in our churches and let them be our leadership to then reach others. But so often it was those who recently came to Christ or those who had not had good Bible teaching who had the passion, the need, to desire to grow and mature, and to reach out to others. Those others were just inoculated with the gospel and with the Word of God, but it didn't really take, for some reason.

I still find that to be the case. We talk about missions--we give to missions--we even pray for missions--but where is the everyday Christian who LIVES missions. Missions in our mind is always somewhere else than where we are--and it is someone else than I am. With all the teaching and education about missions, we still just want our preference and that preference is comfort and things done My way.

Jesus said in Luke 9:23, "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me." But whether young, middle age, or old, where is the denial? Where is the denial of preferences/likes for Christ and for the good of others?

The hope is in the world yet to come to Christ. It is in those recently come out of the world that, as one of my missions professors used to say, "they don't know yet it can't be done." They haven't learned yet that I should not take too seriously the gospel--that I should not read through large portions of the Bible--that I should stick with my preferences and seek what is good for ME. And when these recent converts are discipled by a growing believer, there is hope that the world can be reached through them, because they don't know better. Maybe they will deny their personal preferences for the good of their family and friends who have yet to come to Christ.

Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 28 that they were to "make disciples of all nations." Where are those believers committed enough to take the time to really follow up and "disciple" a new believer, so that person learns what the Word of God says, and lives it out? Where are those believers willing to get past their personal preferences about music and time and budgets and money and "things" to make the time to reach out for the good of others?

We've got lots of churches--and lots of preferences--and lots of techniques and programs--but where are the disciples who are discipling others and going out of our way for the good of others? Where are disciples who are into "giving to others" instead of just "receiving from the church or others?" "I didn't get anything out of worship today." Is worship about me or Christ?
Where are those disciples who will be different?

They are yet to be reached--yet to come to Jesus. That is where the hope of gospel is for our nation, for our world, for the mission and the kingdom of God.

The Lord of all the world cries over this situation while the devil laughs.

So who will live out Matthew 9:37-38 and Luke 9:23 and Matthew 28:19? Maybe it will be the ones not yet reached--maybe they will seriously take these verses to be applied in their lives, and see the "world turned upside-down" by their teaching.

But who is praying to the Lord for this to happen, and who is working toward it now? "Not me, I've got other things to do. Let someone else do it! I'm too old--I'm too young--I'm too busy--I'm too ..." Sound familiar?