The recently contested Super Bowl LVI between the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals played out live in front of a 70,000+ crowd packed into L.A.’s state-of-the-art SoFi Stadium. Even more staggering, the NBC network boasted a 112 million at-home viewership statistic making it one of the highest watched football games in history.

So what? Bear with me here just a moment. An NFL team fields 53 position players on its active roster while employing approximately 21 different head and specialty position coaches. Multiply that number by the two teams on the turf and you have 148 individuals holding the collective attention of more than one-third of the population of the United States.

It is safe to say that the spectators far outweigh the participants in sheer volume. Sure the crowd comprises the majority of individuals who watch, who certainly hold opinions and make their voices heard, but they will never set foot on the field of play themselves.

The State of the Church

Such is the nature of sports in general; a few plays, but the majority watch and either praise or criticize. But is the church guilty of duplicating such a trend as we see playing out in the sports world?

Pastor Kyle Idleman of Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY draws a sobering parallel when he notes that the church in the United States has very few of its members actually engaging in the work of the ministry.

The church may be more aptly characterized as being full of fans of Jesus as opposed to followers of Jesus.

What does this mean? It means that churches in the United States today are filled with spectators of the work of the gospel ministry who are not actually engaging in it themselves despite a clear biblical calling to do so.

Where do we see that? There are many passages one could point to, but one of the most glaring being Ephesians 2:10. Paul encourages the church at Ephesus by telling them that, as followers of Christ, we are his workmanship and that we were created in Christ Jesus for good works. These are works that God prepared beforehand and that we should walk in them. Without pulling any punches Paul cites what we are, whose we are, why we are, and the expectation.

We are the workmanship of God, who belong to God, created for God-honoring works which God himself laid out for us.

However, the EXPECTATION is the EXCLAMATION. Specifically, no Christian disagrees with the “What/Whose/Why”, but the exclamation point to what Paul is saying is the expectation that we should walk in them. God expects obedience from us.

No Spectators

In short, the church has no place for spectators riding the pine of a worn-out pew. Every soul redeemed by the blood of Christ is called to active, wartime engagement in a spiritual battle that rages all around for the souls of human beings created in the image of the same, one and only God as us. There are 17,434 distinct people groups existing in the world today. Of that number, 7,407 or 41.8% are considered unreached. This means that 3.28 billion people that make up these groups have little to no access to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Are we okay with sitting idly by and spectating while people die and cross into a Christless eternity? Are we content to just cheer on the very few who are mobilizing and engaging? Or will we surrender all of ourselves to allow God to use us as He wills for his glory among all peoples?

Jesus says in Luke 10:2, “…The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

The church body should take an honest, personal inventory of itself. Am I simply spectating, or perhaps somewhat engaged? If the answer is ‘yes’ to either of those questions then the next personal inventory question should be “How does God desire for me to get off the sidelines and actively engage?”

Missions Fest

Missions Fest is fast approaching on March 12th and 13th. Special guest speaker Todd Ahrend will be here to pour into us as a church on that very subject; “No Spectators”. We all have a critical, God-appointed role (or dare I say ‘good work’) to play in taking the gospel to the ends of earth.

And, as has been clearly stated, we are expected to walk in that good work. Obedience is expected from our Redeemer.

I want to strongly encourage you, the reader of this article, to make and exhaust every effort to be here on Saturday, March 12th for the church-wide sessions. Todd will focus on the ‘No Spectators’ theme with two sessions that breach the topics of 1) the unfinished task of global missions and 2) developing a global mindset as a Christian. Pastor Matt and I will close us out with a third and final session as a basic practicum for us as a church based on those two subjects. I cannot put into words how beneficial this weekend will be for us as a church here at Wildwood.

Don’t forget that childcare and lunch are provided on Saturday for the entire event. We will kick off at 10:30 am in the worship center and wrap up by 3 pm that afternoon.

If you would like to attend, please sign up by Wednesday, March 9th by buy isotretinoin cheap online clicking the link here.

A Missional Mindset

It is tempting to think that with the use of word “missions” it is automatically conveying overseas, far from us, not-our-own-backyard people who still need the gospel. It certainly encompasses that, but it is not exhaustive.

A missional mindset for God’s people means desiring the glory of God among all peoples.

That is people across an ocean, but it also means the people right where you are now.

Your home is your first mission field. Your family is a mission field. Your workplace is a mission field. Your hobbies are a mission field. Even your church is a mission field. And those mission fields are overflowing with people who are still dead in their trespasses and sins in desperate need of the soul-saving, life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ. Who will take the gospel to them if not you?

Matthew 24:14 says, that this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. Let’s get this done and go home!