Ambassadors

We’re Going to Ireland!!!! This week sure has been crazy! We Had a tornado warning, a friend’s birthday, three girls got sick, my family group painted Tanya’s office, and we had to pack for a month of super cold/wet/rainy weather in under 50lbs. There has been so much to do and to get done because we are leaving for Ireland bright and early tomorrow morning and will be gone for the month of February. We started off this week with a visit to the Titanic Museum. I’m not going to lie, I always thought the Branson Titanic Museum was a joke (it’s in the shape of the boat), but I was wrong. I really enjoyed the museum and learning a lot of interesting facts about the ship. Did you know that 22 tons of soap were used to launch the Titanic into the water? I also learned that the ship hit the iceberg 37 seconds after the iceberg was spotted by Fredrick Fleet. I had fun at the Titanic Museum here in Branson but I am super excited that we will get to see the Titanic Museum while abroad in Belfast where the ship was actually made.

Me and Jamie are ready for Ireland!!

Painting Tanya's office, A.K.A family bonding!

         Despite all the craziness around here we did have a great speaker come this week. David Marvin, from Watermark Church in Dallas, spoke with energy and enthusiasm on being missional. Research shows that the first place a church grows cold is in evangelism. We are called to be ambassadors of God’s kingdom and share the good news of the Gospel with those around us. It was sad to hear that ONLY 14% of the 450,000 churches in America have an outreach plan. And did you know that only 75-100 million men and women in America have NO knowledge of God or a relationship with Him. These statistics are sad. What is holding people back from sharing the Gospel? We looked at the characteristics of the early church in Acts 2:42-47, the following is a short list of the adjectives that describe the early church:

         1.devoted

2. communal

3. teachable

4. reverent

5. servants

6.generous

7. joyful

These adjectives describe the early church but do they describe the modern church today? They should, but that’s not always the case.

We also came up with a list of how the modern church appears to outsiders and we concluded that today’s church often seems hypocritical, condescending, judgmental, generous, and encouraging. Though these are just a few from the list, it is disheartening to see that the church is viewed in this way. So what can we do to make a change? David challenged us to be more intentional in conversations and to engage in more spiritual conversations, and though this is not always easy I would challenge you to do the same. It is the duty of the church to be missional, and that doesn’t necessarily mean one has to travel to a foreign country, we can be missional in our everyday life. BE intentional, and BE and an ambassador for God’s Kingdom anywhere and everywhere you go!