Thinking Beyond Ourselves

As I sat in the quiet of the Rockies a couple of weeks ago, enjoying the views above, I found myself in thought and prayer about many things.  Found God taking me to many different places as I spent the week in quiet and solitude with Him.  One of those places was back to India and Bangladesh, to the cities and villages visited there, to churches like the one you see below, a gathering of believers meeting outside in a village in Eastern India.

This group of believers, this church numbering about 75-100 people is only two years old, meaning that each of these folks have come to know Christ within the last two years, out of an Animistic background.  Yet meeting with them, I was struck by their focus as a church, the focus really of all the church leaders that I found I had the privilege to spend time with.  One thing that struck me about the leaders I spent time with in India and Bangladesh was their commitment and their focus of seeing unreached peoples coming to know Christ.  The hours I spent with them in prayer as they poured out their hearts to God asking Him to save their state and their country.  As they spoke about future plans for the church, it was all about which village might God be calling them to next.  They existed to worship God and take that worship to people who have yet come to know this God.  It was the focus it appeared of all they did.  And this was being done in a context where persecution has existed, and people have died for their belief in Jesus.  They enter this knowing it may cost them their lives, and yet inspite of that, exists this belief that they exist to bring others to the glorious truth of Jesus Christ and what he has done for them.  It seemed a church that was soaked with the idea that they exist for what lies beyond their walls and their own comfort and needs being met.

As I sat in the beauty of God's creation, I found myself troubled as I think of the Western church these days, a church seeking to worship God in a consumeristic culture, seeking so often to have our own needs met, our own desires met, somehow thinking this is the purpose of the church.  And I am saddened many days realizing that our consumeristic mentality has crept into our view of the local church.  I am fully aware that one cannot guage everything on a few weeks, and we often tend to look at things through rose colored glasses.  I do not mean to, nor wish to do that, as I continue to reflect on my time in Asia.  However, one difference between the church in the West and the church I experienced in India was this very thing.  While they were asking how do we continue to spread the gospel?  How do we reach the unreached people in our country?  We are asking what will this church do for me?  Will it meet my needs?  Will I like how they do it?   Will there be something for everyone in my family?  I ponder sometimes if we have become somewhat overfed in the West, and thus we have forgotten why the bride of Christ exits - to worship God and to bring others into the worship of our great God.  Being a church that visibly displays the glory of God to the culture around it.

While the church I experienced in India was thinking evangelism reguarly, we struggle to think beyond ourselves, forgetting I believe, that our call is not simply about us, but rather to display God's reality to the world outside our four walls.  I'm not sure we should be asking questions like what will this church do for me, but rather, 'as this church worships the glorious truth of who God is, is it a church that has it's sole core and purpose, bringing the gospel to those who don't know Christ, as they worship this God'.

It is interesting to note that while in our consumeristic 'spiritual' culture much of our church growth is often a moving around of the body of Christ to other locals, a relocation so to speak.  While in Asia it appaers the church is growing and an incredible missions movement is rising up out of Eastern India and Bangladesh.  Should give us something to question and reflect upon!