Archive for category: The Beacon

I recently returned from Ethiopia after going on my fourth mission trip to Addis Ababa. We go there on an annual trip as a means to support our partnership with Gospel & Grain. While our team of 9 was preparing to go to Ethiopia, there was another mission team of about 30 people serving in Eastern Kentucky at the Oneida Bible Institute. Before the year is out, our church will send four more teams on short-term mission trips to Colorado, Ecuador, Uganda, and Argentina.

I love that our church sends short-term missionaries around the world each year. Since I’ve been a member at Ninth & O, I’ve participated in 11 of these mission trips. As a church during that span, we have sent out 40 plus mission teams all around the world. We value missions. We give, we partner, we pray, we send, and we go.

As much as I love that we participate and seek to engage people through short-term missions trips, I realize that we should do so with much discretion and wisdom. Not every short-term mission trip is a good idea. There is a wrong way to do these type of mission endeavors, and there are plenty of resources on the subject. In fact, one book I recommend is When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. So, though others may read this short post, I’m mainly writing to the membership of Ninth & O Baptist to encourage them to continue the work of short-term mission trips. Here are five reasons why I’m glad we go on short-term mission trips.

1) Short-term mission trips help us participate in the Great Commission.

Just before leaving earth and returning to the Father, Jesus told his disciples, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18b-20). With these last words, the credits roll, and Matthew’s gospel ends.

There is something about last words that carry more weight. There is an added significance to them that we are left to cherish and ponder. Our Lord has commanded us to go, so we go. We go across the street and around the world. We go to Ethiopia, and we go to the East End. We go to Uganda, and we go through St. Matthews. We work in Beuchel, and we work in Ecuador.

I believe when people go across the street to share the gospel, they’re more inclined to go around the world. And I think that when people travel around their world for a short-term mission trip, they return energized and invigorated to engage in gospel witness in their home context. At least that’s been my experience.

I realize that not all of us can go. But as a church when we go on a short-term trip, it’s not only those traveling who are participating. It’s our entire church family. For example, on our most recent trip, we had to fly out of Cincinnati on Friday morning at 6:00 AM, meaning we had to be at the airport at 4:00 AM, and therefore, requiring us to leave Ninth & O at 2:00 AM. Our church bus was in Oneida with another mission team that day, so we needed another means of transportation. We had a faithful servant from our singles ministry drive us to the airport and back that night. No sleep. Solo trek back to Louisville. He didn’t travel to Ethiopia, but he was an essential member of our team.

And it wasn’t just this brother. We couldn’t have gone without the hundreds of people who give generously and sacrificially to our general church budget and the Great Commission Offering (GCO). Through the GCO, we were able to give mission trip scholarships to people to help them afford the cost of the trip. We know that many, if not most of you, prayed for us while we were gone that second week of April. So when a team is preparing to travel or is the midst of their trip, as a church, short-term missions allows us to participate in the Great Commission on a global scale by going, sending, serving, or praying.

2) Short-term mission trips are a tool for discipleship.

Every trip from which I return, I feel like I was the one blessed. You go, hoping and praying that God will use you to bless others, yet you come home having yourself been blessed.

There is a spiritual benefit derived by those who participate. Our teams often come back refreshed, energized, and awakened to God’s work around them. The Holy Spirit often uses these trips to do work in our hearts. God stretches us and uses these trips to grow us in an area of our lives and spiritual walk.

As a leader and pastor, it gives me the unique opportunity to see a team’s giftings and talents on full display. Frequently, gifts emerge that we were not aware of before that we can help people utilize in the church upon their return.

Just this past April, we had a man on our trip that was casually taking pictures, and they were all fantastic. He became our trip photographer and is considering joining our Photography Team at Ninth & O. The likelihood of us discovering his gift outside of this trip would have been much lower if not nil.

3) Short-term mission trips help team members build community.

One thing that drew me to take my first trip at Ninth & O was knowing that I would meet a lot of new people. It was our second summer at Ninth & O, and Rebekah and I wanted to begin meeting people outside of our Bible Fellowship Group. We thought going on a mission trip would help us do that, and it sure did.

We met people from all different areas of the church. Young and old. Professionals, doctors, students, and moms. And when we returned, we had an unbelievable bond with those folks. Now when I see some of them, we still reminisce about that trip. These trips build and strengthen the community.

4) Short-term trips allow us to partner with and support others.

Reaching & Teaching International Ministries and Gospel & Grain are two of our ministry partners. These partnerships contain giving, praying, and trip components. Beyond our partnerships, our church also engages in “missionary care” trips. These trips go to missionaries that have been sent out from our church. They’re one of us. We go to encourage and support them.

We believe that we can offer a great deal of support by taking annual trips to partner alongside these organizations in their mission. We hope that just as we benefit spiritually from the trips, their teams and communities do too. We like to use the analogy from Mario Kart. When racing in Mario Kart and you hit the turbo track, it propels you forward a bit faster. That’s what we hope our trips do for our partners.

We provide extra hands and feet to serve. We encourage them with our presence. We bring necessary supplies. We don’t engage in vacation missions. We partner in the same places with the same people, again and again, developing relationships and furthering our work alongside them in their contexts.

5) Short-term mission trips boost our missions energy levels.

We average about 4.5 trips a year at Ninth & O. We don’t feel like we have missions fatigue but missions kindling. Short-term mission trips keep us moving the ball down the field and remind us of the goal: to make disciples of all people – across the street and around the world.

Thank you for being a giving, praying, sending, and going church. Keep it up!

Many moons ago I served as College Pastor at Ninth & O. One benefit of serving alongside young people is that they keep us older folk up to speed with the latest jargon. I remember one instance when a group of students were huddled in a circle and someone made an awkward comment. Without hesitation, one of the students raised his hand in the air, pretended to spray an aerosol can, and blurted out “Awkward Spray!” Smiles ensued. I was unfamiliar with the expression, but based on the students’ reactions it was obvious that he was attempting to interject some levity into an uncomfortable situation. It was a pretty effective tactic. In fact, to this day I still find myself using Awkward Spray from time to time.

The reality is most of us do not enjoy uncomfortable situations. But I’ve noticed most of the spiritual growth in my life has occurred when I’ve stepped outside my comfort zone (and into my “growing zone”). I bring this up because the March emphasis on the LIVE THE VISION Roadmap is to “find one way to move outside our comfort zone to amplify Christ’s name.”

There are two things I know to be true for myself and probably true for most of us. First, we genuinely desire to amplify Christ’s name to unbelievers. We sincerely do! Second, we genuinely desire to remain in our comfort zone. The rub here is obvious in that most times our amplification of Christ’s name to unbelievers occurs squarely outside our comfort zone. As best as I can tell, we have two options for reconciling this situation. Option #1 is to not share Christ with others. This option, while perhaps popular, doesn’t align with Scripture, so we should probably eliminate it from consideration. Option #2 (which is really the only option) is to share Christ with others in the power of the Spirit (Acts 1:8) and to depend on the Spirit to give us courage (2 Timothy 1:7) as we enter into conversational spaces that make us uncomfortable.

The beauty of living a life marked by evangelistic obedience is that the more we practice the discipline of moving from our comfort zone to our growing zone, the larger our comfort zone grows. So what we once considered to be paralyzingly awkward now becomes manageably awkward! But, if you find yourself squarely in the “paralyzed by evangelism” camp, I want to share with you a three step approach that helps me feel more comfortable as I share Jesus. And for me, this simple approach is like spraying Awkward Spray as I engage in spiritual conversations with unbelievers. Of course, every evangelistic encounter is different, taking on a life of its own. Regardless, having this approach in mind as a template as I share Christ helps calm my nerves and fosters within me greater confidence. I hope it will do the same for you as well.

Step #1 – Use a Keyword to Infuse Spirituality into the Conversation

• Turning everyday conversations into spiritual conversations is easier than you might think. In the natural flow of conversations, I look for opportunities to drop keywords into the discussion. Keywords I commonly use include “prayer” and “church.” For example, I might ask my neighbor what he did over the weekend. Then, as I respond to the question, I will talk about our family’s experience at church on Sunday. By simply mentioning church, I have infused spirituality into the conversation and opened a doorway into a spiritual discussion.

Step #2 – Ask If They Are a Person of Faith

• Truth be told, the transition from Step #1 to Step #2 is often the most awkward moment in the entire conversation for both you and the other person. Just be prepared for that uncomfortable 3-second transition and push through it. Most often after I mention one of my keywords I will say something like, “[Name of person], you know that church and faith are important to my family. And I know we’ve never really had a spiritual conversation before, but are you a person of faith?” I’ve never had someone respond negatively to this question, probably because of its unassuming nature. Making no assumptions about their spiritual background puts people at ease to openly share. Responses will vary depending on their comfort level. On rare occasions, the person may want to shut down the conversation, and that’s okay. Trust God’s timing in all things. But most will be open to discuss, so be sure to listen to their words and watch their body language carefully. Doing so will help you discern how best to respond.

Step #3 – Discover a Connection Point and Share

• As the person shares their spiritual story, I try to identify something they’ve said that I can use to connect their spiritual story to my own. Once I’ve discovered that point of connection, I use that as an entry into sharing the gospel. Without exception one of two themes will surface as they share, either 1) their spiritual upbringing, or 2) some element of brokenness. If they mention either, I have transitional comments that flow into sharing the gospel. If they mention their spiritual upbringing, I will say something like, “I grew up going to a Baptist church. The reason I’ve stayed Baptist is because they simply teach the Bible. It can be confusing with so many churches teaching so many different things, but can I share with you what we believe at my church?” I then transition into sharing the gospel. If brokenness is a strong theme of the person’s spiritual story, it’s easy to flow into the gospel with comments such as, “To some degree every person experiences brokenness, but one of the reasons I’m a Christian is because the message of the Bible makes sense of brokenness in the world.”

This three step approach has worked for me, and I hope it’s helpful for you as well. But one question you might still have is, “I know this approach ends with me sharing the gospel, but how do I do that?” I recommend learning 3 Circles because of its straightforward approach highlighting the themes of God’s design, brokenness, and how Jesus heals brokenness. You can learn 3 Circles as well as walk others through it by downloading the “Life Conversation Guide” app (iOS, Android) to your smartphone.

Evangelism is uncomfortable and understandably so. After all, by its very nature, it is spiritual warfare as light collides with darkness. But as we move outside our comfort zone, let us go with a simple plan and with the understanding that we witness not in our own strength but in the strength of the Holy Spirit.