“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

-Matthew 28:19-20

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

-Matthew 22:36-40

What is it that God calls us to do as Christians?

This is the question we should be asking ourselves, and the answer to that question should be dominating our lives.

Rwanda was a shaping experience for me, and I had never really thought deeply and philosophically about this question. It’s one of those things that I think we assume we know the answer to without actually thinking about answering the question.

Rwanda changed that. My preconceived notions of what God is calling us to do in the world and who God is calling us to be in the world were challenged.

The tragedy of the modern Christian Church is that we have largely fallen into two camps.

There is one camp that firmly declares our duty to evangelize. Our duty to preach the gospel and save sinners and make disciples of all nations. “But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.” – 2 Timothy 4:5.

There is then another camp that trumpets our obligation to the poor, to the hurting, to the most vulnerable. To love our neighbors as ourselves. “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” – 1 John 3:17-18

The fundamental flaw with both camps is that they are in fact both right. The problem lies in that both camps have excluded the truth of the other’s position.

I don’t think this is entirely an issue of false doctrine. Indeed, there is plenty of false doctrine, and it can appear on both sides, and we should not tolerate it in the slightest. What this is though is a case of incomplete doctrine.

The fundamental truth that we need to grasp is that Jesus gave us both the Great Commission and the Great Commandment. Jesus commands us to make disciples and bring salvation to the darkest corners of the earth. Jesus commands us to love our neighbors and bring relief to a hurting and broken world. This is the answer to the question of what God has called Christians to do.

Obviously salvation is of eternal consequence and physical relief is fleeting. We are allowed to prefer that people be saved before they are fed, but we are not allowed to ignore the second half of Christ’s command simply because we are fulfilling the first. The commands are not mutually exclusive and should not be treated as such.

We need to break free from our two camps and find where God has called us to live – fulfilling the entirety of His commands.

“Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”
-John 14:21

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If I had to sum up all that I’ve learned during the Future Leaders Program this year in one sentence, it would be, “Give the Ministry away.”

Here’s a secret: I hate giving the ministry away.

Of course I do! Why wouldn’t I? It means that I don’t have 100 percent control over how it is being done. I don’t have every little detail under my control. My ministry is in the hands of someone else, and of course they don’t care about it as much as I do.

Here’s the problem with that though: We have to give it away.

Why? Well, to start with, it’s much more biblical to spread the ministry around to the entire body, as opposed to limiting it to a bunch of people who happen to work at a church.

That’s why we have to do it, but why should we?

Because it gets done much better that way.

It goes completely counter to my controlling, communications/branding mind to think that you give control of anything over to someone, but it works.

One of the things I realized today is that I cannot do the things my ministry needs to do. I simply can’t. All I know about CSS is how to spell it. I have a few skills, and I think that I’m pretty good at them, but I can’t do everything that needs to be done. Undoubtedly though that there are members of the congregation that are absolutely brilliant at those things. I met with one of them a few weeks ago and was talking with another tonight. It just makes sense to ask the people who are some of the best in the world at what we need to have done to do it, as opposed to me arrogantly thinking that I can fumble my way through and get the job done.

Also, I’ve found that volunteers are often more passionate about the ministry than staff anyhow. I’ve said to my co-worker a few times that I think the quickest way to become jaded about church is to work at one. Why not ask the people who care the most about the ministry to do it?

So giving the ministry away is hard. It means you need to re-think what exactly your job is and re-think your philosophy of ministry. But if you want to do all that you can for the Kingdom, you have to do it.

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Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

-James 4:13-15

All of a sudden I’ve been surrounded by a flurry of planning. I think that planning is good. It’s necessary. Heck, sometimes it’s even fun.

But we need to have it in the proper context, and we need to approach it seeking God’s will and with submission to His authority and plan.

Just a thought.

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One of the greatest things we saw on our trip to Rwanda was something that is integral to the success of World Relief. World Relief organizes pastors across denominational lines to work together for a common goal – preventing AIDS, training orphans in a vocation or any other number of amazing things. But it’s all dependant on the pastors being able to put aside differences and work together to achieve a common goal.

When we saw that many of us were a bit depressed. We don’t see that kind of cooperation very often in the American church. I myself thought that it sounded almost impossible. Until I saw it happen today.

Today I was a part of a video conference call with Communications directors from across the country. I realized that we were doing exactly what the Rwandan church was doing…working across denominational lines to achieve a common goal, and it was pretty cool.

I’m still trying to process everything that happened on my trip, but it was really heartening to see that we’re getting one thing right.

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This was actually something that I shared during the Friday Chapel time at World Relief during the Rwanda trip, but I decided to publish it in letter form here.

To World Relief Rwanda,

Before I left America I was not sure what to expect. As some of you know, this was my first trip outside of America and I really didn’t know what would happen. To be honest, I thought I would come here, serve you for a bit, learn about Rwanda, go home, and keep living my life the same way as before.

What I was not expecting was to fall in love with a beautiful organization, a beautiful country and a beautiful people, and to have my world completely shaken.

It is easy for us in America to talk about our responsibility to the most vulnerable, but until we see it face to face we cannot fully comprehend what must be done, and we tend to take the commands of God lightly. We treat them as interesting lessons and go on about our lives, often unchanged. Visiting Rwanda has been a wake-up call for me, and I’m sure for some others on my team.

The first several days I felt overwhelmed. How could anyone hope to solve these problems? But then Tuesday I had the opportunity to visit Musanse and see the amazing work World Relief is doing. I realized that although the task is large, with the help of the Lord, we can help the most vulnerable and change lives with the gospel message.

I saw Christians living out the command to love your neighbor as yourself. I saw the body of Christ working together to heal the sick, clothe the orphan and protect those who cannot protect themselves.

Seeing this brought hope. Hope not only for Rwanda, but for America. My prayer is that the Church in America would learn from you as we have this week. That we would fight for God’s Kingdom as fervently as you. That we would love not only our brothers but our neighbors as you do.

What I know now is that everyone can do something. But more importantly, everyone must do something. In 1 John 3:17 it says “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?” I am not sure what God would have me do yet, but I know I must do something.

Several verses from Colossians have been on my mind recently. Paul is writing to the church at Colosse and says in Colossians 1:3-4 “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, whenever we pray for you, for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love you have for all the saints.” I realize now that if the letter had been written today he could have easily been writing to the Church in Rwanda, for I have seen your great faith and the love you have.

My promise to your now is what Paul says later in verse 9, “For this reason since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.”

World Relief, I thank you for everything you have done and are doing. I will be praying for you and for Rwanda. You are such an encouragement to me, and I thank you. Lord willing, I will return to your beautiful country again.

Murakoze
-Ryan

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