Since I last blogged I have had lunch on an active volcano, hiked deep into the Amazon jungle with a machete in hand and eaten termites just to be able to say I had. I stood on the equator with one foot in the North and one in the South. I have gazed on unparalleled beauty and been stunned by God’s creativity in design in nature. “For God’s invisible attributes…have been clearly perceived in the things that have been made” (Rom 1:20) and never has this been more evident to me than hiking through the Amazon jungle or standing 14,000 ft above sea level looking our over the city of Quito, surrounded by majestic mountains. But more than the grandeur and beauty of the landscape I have, once again, been surprised and apprehended by God’s sovereignty and grace through His desire and willingness to direct my steps and involve me in His grand story.

When I was invited to Quito, it was for the purpose of teaching discipleship to a group of pastors who do not have access to theological training. I had prepared and planned with this task in mind. However, just hours before the seminar was to began, I received word that work schedules had changed suddenly and none of the pastors would be able to attend. Certainly in such a situation it is not a surprise that I was a little disoriented and confused by an apparent wasted trip to South America. However, it would not take long before the promise that “man makes his plans, but God directs his steps” was ringing load in my ears as God begin to reveal His purposes.

Because of my abrupt change in plans, I was invited to travel to Shell Mara, which is about 5 hours away from Quito. Shell Mara was the headquarters of Jim Elliot and his team when they were attempting to connect with the Huaorani Indian tribe. My traveling companions had no idea of my life-long desire to visit Shell Mara and I had no idea where we were going until we had arrived there. This was an incredible blessing that I will never forget. I have long admired and been challenged by Jim Elliot and the other missionaries who were martyred for their faith and now I am deeply humbled that God would use me to water the fruit that was planted by the blood of my missionary hero.

As wonderful as all of these experiences were, the greatest experience continues. You see, one of my new friends is a pastor in the city of Quito. Remember, I had no plans to travel with him because of the other plans that we had made previously. But as we begin to talk and dream it was clear that we dreamed the same dreams and were committed to the same work. Before the end of the week I would find myself meeting with a group of leaders from this pastor’s church and before the end of that meeting it would become even more clear that this was the reason that God had brought me to Quito. This pastor and church are deeply burdened for their city but simply lack the training and examples of how to most effectively reach and disciple their city. Most of the pastors in, and around, the city do not have access to theological training and they are crying out for others to help them advance the gospel and teach the Bible on a level that they, themselves, have not been trained. Surprise! This is the thing that I am most passionate about and the thing that I feel most compelled to do. And suddenly standing before me was a pastor and church asking me to disciple them so that they might disciple others so that their city might be transformed with the gospel for God’s glory.

We are already making plans to return to this beautiful city in 2014, but in the mean time I will begin preparing short lessons on discipleship and posting them online for the church to use in training until I can return and teach them face to face. We will dialogue on a regular basis regarding questions that they might have as they engage with the lessons or real life matters of discipleship. The internet has certainly shrunk the world and changed the face of mission work.

Please pray for our continued involvement in Ecuador and especially for this church and missionaries like Carlos and Evelyn Ruiz who labor daily in this culture to make the name of Christ known. Pray that God would use us to strengthen the church and raise up strong men of God and families who will be part of a disciplining and church planting revolution in Quito. Thank you to all who partner with us to make ministry like this possible. You are making an eternal investment that you may never see or people you may not meet until we walk together in eternity.

Training Church Leaders

Otavalo, Ecuador

Beautiful mountains surrounding Quito

Equator Monument

Ministry partner and friend, Carlos Ruiz

The reward for hiking 3hours into the Amazon jungle

Bird’s eye view of Quito
350 year old Catholic Church building

Our team cutting our way through the Amazon

The canopy of the Amazon

The radio room where the wives of missionaries stayed in contact with their husbands

My Ecuadorian familyThe headquarters of Jim Elliot and other missionaries martyred in 1956

The time is quickly drawing near for my departure for Ecuador and I am growing more excited about the role I will play in strengthening and building up Christ’s bride there. Several hours outside the sprawling urban center of Quito, there is a rural community called Oatavalo. It is here that I will have the unspeakable privilege to teach and train local pastors who are seeking to make disciples in their own town and country. It is very sobering to think that many of the Quichua Indians which I will have the joy to serve are likely spiritual descendants of my missionary hero, Jim Elliott who gave his life in Ecuador many years ago. My objective while there will simply be to encourage and teach pastors and church leaders to be more effective disciple makers as they catch God’s greater vision of  how we are to be participants with God in seeking to cover the earth with His glory. Please pray for me as I prepare for this time and certainly during my time there. If you are able to partner with me financially to help meet the remaining needs, you can give tax-deductible gifts online through Crosspoint Church in Clemson. Simply visit http://www.crosspointclemson.org/ and follow link at top of page which says, “Give.” You will be prompted to create an online giving account and then make sure to designate your gift as “Kirby Ecuador.” To see updates during my time there follow me on Twitter (@worthywalk). Thanks in advance for your help and partnership.

Sincerely,

Rick

5 Practical Ways to be Missional on Halloween

Guest post by Brian McCormack

Living on mission can seem daunting.

Sadly, we live in a culture where the idea of knocking on your neighbors door and having a conversation sounds completely alien. Many of our neighborhoods operate on an unspoken understanding of “If you ignore me, I’ll return the favor.” Since the invention of the automatic garage door it has been possible to go months without even seeing the people you live next to, never mind actually talking to them. However, once a year culture lobs us a softball called “Halloween,” and with just the slightest amount of intentionality the stranger down the block can become a friend. You just have to be willing to swing the bat.

Here’s a few thoughts for making the most of the opportunity that is extended to you every 31st of October.

1. Check Your Conscience

Halloween’s history is as complicated and diverse as its present-day reputation around the globe. The best brief handling I have seen on the history of the holiday and how Christians can reject, receive, or redeem it is a blog by Justin Holcomb. If you are not sure where you stand when it comes to you and your family’s participation, a quick read and some prayerful conversations with people you trust should be helpful.

Whether you feel compelled to participate or to find another way to spend your Halloween evening, do so with joyful confidence – knowing that you’re guided by the Holy Spirit, and with humility – understanding that others might choose otherwise and be just as faithful as you in doing so.

When we dress up our 3 boys (4, 2, and 8 months) like pirates on Halloween, it won’t be out of a desire to worship pagan Gods and summon evil spirits. If such activities were required to engage the culture and partake of the festivities, I assure you we’d pass.

No, we’ll be marching around our neighborhood with swashbuckling toddlers with completely different goals in mind; having a lot of fun with our kiddos, treating them to a one-night pass for gathering copious amounts of candy, and most importantly, meeting or reconnecting with the people around us we’ve been called to know, serve, and love.

2. When People Knock, Answer.

Sounds simple, right? Just to be overly clear, the very people you (should) want to be growing in relationship with will be walking up your driveway, and ringing your doorbell. They will be coming to you. So, open the door. Smile. Be friendly. Talk to people. Ask them their names. “Do you guys live around here?”

Tell parents their kids are adorable, or scary, or the appropriate adjective of your choosing. Give out candy — real candy — the kind kids want to eat. Go easy on the teenagers who are clearly too old to be trick-or-treating. Don’t be in a hurry. Be yourself. Have fun.

3. Visit Every House On Your Block.

Possible exceptions: a restraining order, an aggressive dog in the front yard, or a sign asking you to go away. Otherwise, this holiday is giving you the green light to connect with anyone with a porch light on. Even if the connection is brief and potentially awkward, it sets the stage for the next time you both check the mail at the same time, and keeps you from having to avoid eye contact while one of you is mowing the lawn. Introduce yourself. Remember names, and write them down as you walk to the next house.

4. Be Creative.

Feel free to go above and beyond. Consider putting a flyer in your neighbors’ mailboxes, inviting them over for hot cocoa and pumpkin bread before they take their kids out trick-or-treating. If you or someone you know is a photographer, set up a photo booth on your front porch and offer to take family pictures for people. If you think of an idea that ends up being a hit, do it every year.

5. Pray. A lot.

Before the evening’s festivities begin, pray that the Holy Spirit would give you eyes to recognize unique opportunities to connect with people, and the boldness to actually do so. If you do finish the night with a list of names, pray for them before you throw out the pumpkins and crash into bed. Start thinking right away, “How can I connect with these people again soon? Yes, to be a good missionary, but also just to be a good neighbor.”

Should doing so this Halloween lead to some good stories about new friends, make sure you pass them along. We’ll be excited to hear them.

My wife is a great blessing to me for many reasons, but mostly because she has a way of surgically cutting into my legalism and exposing my religious masquerade – all for the glory of God, of course! Most recently, this evasive procedure was accomplished by questioning the missional quality of how our family approaches All Hallows Eve. Because I hate Halloween and cannot justify how any spiritually-minded person could even eat a piece of candy corn without being defiled, I have shunned the day and all who partake of its demonic pleasures. However, my perspective is radically coming more inline with what I trust to be a more biblical view of such worldliness.

Until now, Halloween afternoon would find me “fencing” my home to guard against any adolescent intruder mistakenly thinking they were welcome on my doorstep. First, I would make sure that my front porch light was in the off position and secondly that the door was securely closed. For safe measure all signs of life would be moved to the back portion of the house just in case the closed door and dark porch did not send the desired message.

But recently, I have heard God speak and say to me, “Get a life and wake up and smell the coffee!” I’m certain you can find this in the Bible somewhere. Despite the origin of this diabolic celebration, there is not another day of the year in which so many children and families come knocking on my door. Many of these chocolate seeking ghouls are separated from God and His grace and have no connection to gospel oriented families. Don’t get me wrong. They are not unsaved because they celebrate Halloween. They are unsaved because they have never heard and received, by faith, the good news of God’s marvelous grace.

More than any other time of the year I hear well meaning Christians say, “We are to be in the world but not of the world.” And as much as I want to say “amen”, I am more convinced that this has simply become the motto of those who seek to isolate themselves from  people who don’t look, live or think like them. My confidence is based mostly on my own arrogant practices. But by God’s grace this changes this year.

This is not merely about Halloween. The point is that those of us who are “the light of the world” cannot afford to “light a lamp and put it under a basket.” Or in other words, we are deceived to think that blood bought sinners can close the doors and turn off the front porch lights when the world outside is dying to experience the love of Christ.

By God’s grace alone, I will grow in my ability to see how practices, such as Halloween, can become redeemable tools in the hands of the church to engage our culture and neighbors with the gospel. Some Christians may balk and ridicule, but sooner or later those of us who know Christ must be willing to get our hands dirty at the risk of being branded less spiritual or religious by those who refuse to turn on the front porch light.

So how will you approach Halloween this year? Will you ignore it refuse to acknowledge all that’s going on around you? Or will you ask the question, “How can I meet people where they are and live out the gospel in such a way that the good news goes forward?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m06DYIAeCtU%5D

Rev 21:5

“Behold, I am making all things new.”

Regarding end times, I have never been one of those guys who spent a lot of time focused on prophecy. Rather, I have found that my energies were better spent on the present while leaving the future in the hands of the one who controlled it anyhow. However, in recent months my mind has been marinating in the promises and vision of what awaits those who are in Christ, and it is not an exaggeration to say that my life will never be the same having caught a glimpse of the glorious horizon when I take my place in that day when “there will no longer be any curse.”

This promise of this glorious new world is, however, a future promise. There are pain and tears in our lives and the effects of sin permeate every facet of our existence, reminding the Christian that he is not home yet. But, dawn is breaking now!! With the last breath of Christ from the cross the sun’s rays from a distance land pierced through the darkest night signaling a new and glorious day. Nevertheless, the sun has not fully risen and the day not fully realized until sin’s black night be expelled forever with the return of our victorious King. The question at hand is, how should we now live in light of this glorious reality?

In Revelation 21:5, God spoke to John and proclaimed, “I am making all things new.” My question is, when does that “making all things new” begin? It would be easy to assume that God was merely speaking of the future work of bringing this world to an end and ushering in the new. But that would be a mistake. The word which God used to describe the act of making all things new does not speak of merely future action. It refers to God’s present (in the moment when God spoke to John) and continuing work of making all things new. This includes my life in this day. God is presently making and will continue to make all things new!!

This does not mean that our world is getting better and better. When our judicial system legislates and gives place to immorality and bombs are used to randomly kill innocent people, it is not hard to see that sin and its effects are still very present in our world. In fact, anyone not living under a rock must admit that our world becomes more self consumed and hellbent on eradicating all influence and memory of our Creator. So how can the “making all things new” and the visible spiritual bankruptcy of our world be reconciled?

In my life this very day, by God’s grace, there will be many redemptive moments that point to the work of Christ and are the result of his purpose to “make all things new.” Every time I choose to relate rightly to my wife and children rather than reverting to my old, sinful nature to demand my own rights and comfort, I see again the hand of God redeeming me. When I think His thoughts and choose His way instead of my own, His Spirit has, in that moment, sanctified and redeemed that much more of me. When I serve those around me and love those who hate me and when I give my life to make his name known, I am reminded that such fruit is the result of him “making all things new.” Any time I do ANYTHING which is contrary to my sinful nature, it is the result of the Holy Spirit’s power at work in me. Raising my children to be sold out participants in God’s mission to the nations rather than self-absorbed worshippers of pleasure and money is an example of something that is contrary to my sinful tendency. And If you choose to demonstrate diligence by cutting your grass or taking out the trash rather than lying on your lazy behind, even these become redemptive acts!

Today, I must live my life totally surrendered to the Lordship of Christ and the control of His Spirit. And as I do, he will continue in me and through me the redemptive activity which was introduced to John 2000 years ago.

As my life increasingly bears the evidence of Christ fixing what has been broken, it will point ahead to a day when the world will be restored to its intended glory. Sin and its effects will be gone. Death will die, darkness will flee away and we shall see Him in all His glory and all things will be new! Come quickly.