Summary of Blessed to be a blessing
Preamble
Brent explains that this particular Sunday is national turn outward Sunday.
Dave does a quick overview of the scope of services that are offered by Fellowship International.
God calls Abraham to be a missionary
God tells Abraham to go to a new land. God said that he would be a blessing to the entire world because of his obedience to God’s request. Abraham did go, but it must have been scarey. Abraham maybe had self doubt. But Abraham wasn’t an obstacle to himself. He obeyed God.
The first obstacle to mission work is us
We get in our own way. We let our own selfish nature block our obedience to God’s command to go into all the world and make disciples.
The second obstacle to mission work is a lack of creativity
This is the North American way of building a beautiful church with smart and educated leadership. This is the “come and see” style of church creation. We cannot transport that to other cultures and countries. We must think outside our North American box. Dave uses an example of a Pakistani church initiative. This initiative no longer uses the traditional way of “come and see” to build a church.
The third obstacle is the cost of a North American style church in another country is too expensive
Fellowship International has learned that emerging counties do not have the means to operate a church the way North America operates a church. Churches in other cultures must be created and operated in a way the works with the culture, not North American idealism.
Conclusion
Fellowship International has been learning to create “reproducing churches” by using small missionary teams that focus on growing a small group of local believers. Then from this small group training this small group to go and replicate. Small home churches with tight networks has been the key. The success of this has been evident in the constant replication of these small community groups in Pakistan.
How can we get involved
Are we willing to give financially?
Are we willing to get involved in new creative ideas to spread the Gospel in our own community?
Are we willing to get even more involved and spread out even further from our own community and have a global impact?
About the Speaker
Dave Marttunen was a pastor in a number of different churches across BC. Now he is the Director of Fellowship International, the division within the Fellowship that manages all of our missionaries at the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches.
Dave and his wife Donna come from different family backgrounds and yet both found their way to Christ while at home. Dave’s family was heavily involved in their local Fellowship Church in Campbell River, and his Mom ‘carried him’ to worship before he was born. Donna found her way to a Fellowship Church in Calgary … Read More.