As we head out into diverse neighborhoods in our city, we often run into new Americans, people who've just recently come to North America and who have yet to master the English language.  Like first generation immigrants from years past, they'll probably never master English, working rather to earn a living and give their children a chance at a better life than they had.  

As someone interested in sharing the good news of Jesus with these new neighbors, this poses an interesting challenge. 
​

• How do we communicate? 
• How do we build relationship? 
• How do we tell the story of Jesus?

Technology offers a way around this challenge.  There are some amazing apps that you can use to help  share the good news of Jesus with the nations among us.  These can be found by searching for the apps below on either your iPhone or Android phone.  

Here are seven smart phone apps for reaching the nations among us that we have found helpful.  As always, if you know of others, please share them in the comments below.

[READ ALL OF THE 7 SERIES BLOG POSTS]
​

Jesus sent the “seventy two others” out on mission.  These aren’t even his closest disciples but “others” who’ve been hanging around, learning, growing, observing.  And Jesus sends them out on mission.  They are to go into the villages of the region, sent as sheep among wolves. They’re not to take anything with them but rather to depend on the hospitality of strangers.  They are to find the peaceful person who will accept them and feed them and listen to them. They are to heal the sick and proclaim the kingdom. If they don’t find the peaceful person, they are instructed to brush the dust off their feet and leave.

Who does ministry this way?  . . .  Jesus does.

Think of it this way.  You may be the person of peace in your neighborhood, the person through whom God will work to introduce your friends and neighbors to the life of faith in Christ.  You know these people.  You have regular chances for interaction. You understand their culture, language and history.

But you probably won’t be the one to reach the apartment complex on the other side of town.  The harvesters are in the harvest. The person of peace living in that apartment complex, who knows the culture, language and history of those living there is better positioned to naturally share the good news of Jesus with everyone in the apartment complex.  

Jesus commands his disciples to pray for harvesters as they are going into the harvest.  Why? Because the harvesters are in the harvest. And so when we go into neighborhoods and apartment complexes and new communities, we are not looking to evangelize the whole area.  We are looking for the person of peace and, when we find them, we don’t leave. We invest there. We cast vision. We train them to be disciples of Jesus so that they can disciple their friends and neighbors.
​
This is the basic idea behind the idea of the person or house of peace.  Again, it’s not the only way that God works to expand his kingdom but it is an important principle that we see again and again in scripture.
​
I want to encourage you to explore this principle more. First, study Matthew 10:5-14 and Luke 10:1-11.  Read the book of Acts as well. Look for how and where the person of peace principle shows up. Take notes and ask what it would look like to apply the principle in your context.  

Next, take some time to look through the resources in the links below.  I’ve added approximate times to read or watch each.  In it all, be like the Bereans (Acts 17:10-12) and examine the scriptures to see if what we’re talking about here is true.

Learn it   -   Apply it   -   Share it   -   Today.

Are you using "Shema" statements to start spiritual conversations?

One of the tools that I was trained to use to help start spiritual conversations with non-believers was the "Shema Statement".

The Shema is the passage of scripture found in Deuteronomy 6:4-9:

If we follow the example of scripture and believe that God is drawing people to himself (John 6:44), then the more shema statements we make with strangers, the more likely we are to discover the people that God has been preparing to hear the truth.

The basic idea of the Shema Statement is to make statements in our conversations with the people we meet each day that naturally lead to spiritual conversations.  The idea is not to share the full gospel but rather to say things that lead to conversations that lead to sharing the gospel.

It is through making shema statements that we can find the people who are seeking the truth.

Here are some examples of Shema Statements:

• Isn't this a beautiful day that God created.
• If God could do a miracle in your life, what would you want Him to do?
• Can I tell you something I am learning about God?
• That reminds me of something I read in the Bible recently.
• Do you ever wonder what God thinks about you?
• I hope that you experience the blessing of God today.
• Do you ever have dreams about God?

Again, these statements are not said to share the full gospel.  We say them prayerfully and then listen prayerfully for the response of the person we say them to.  

Some will not respond at all. Some might respond negatively.

But others - those God has been preparing - will respond in ways that lead to further conversation and opportunities to share about Jesus and what He has done in our lives.

Application

1. Take out a notecard and write down 5 - 10 Shema Statements that you can try in the next few days in your context.
2. Pray for  boldness to share Shema Statements today.

Learn it. - Apply it.  Share it.  Today.

Read More:
http://globalfrontiermissions.org/shema-statement/


Shema Statements are one of the tools we train everyone at Everywhere to Everywhere events to use and then we go out and practice using them.  Come to our next E2E event or bring it to your city. [learn more]

When my son was six years old, he returned from his Turkish kindergarten class one day singing a new song - it was more of a chant really.

"Ataturk yoktu, dushmen choktu.  Ataturk geldi, dushmen yenildi!"

It was a chant celebrating Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey and someone who is reveared in Turkish culture.  It was a chant celebrating Ataturk's guidance as a general during the first world war in keeping the Allied forces of Britian, Austalia and New Zealand from conquering Istanbul and gaining control of the Bosphorus Straight.

It was a different view of the history I had learned in school.

The words in essense say, without Ataturk our enemies were many but when Ataturk came he drove them out!

Wait a minute!  My home country - the United States - were on the side of the Allies.  We weren't the enemies.  Were we?  

Should I set my son straight?  Tell him how history really happened?  "We" were the good guys and "They" were the bad guys, right?

If you begin to serve or live cross culturally, you will need to get used to these sorts of interactions.  It seems that not everyone in the world views history through the same lense as the American history teachers who wrote my text books growing up.  

You'll meet Australian friends who will insist we've been using upside down maps our whole lives.  

You'll meet many from the Middle East (why is it the Middle East and not Middle West?) that believe that the Crusades were the work of greedy, blood thirsty crusaders and that the invasion of Iraq in the early 2000s was only about taking control of the oil. 

One Sunday morning at our very international church in Istanbul, when one of my American friends bemoaned the loss of influence that the U.S. was having on the world, one of my British friends let out a hearty "AMEN!"

Outside of those that grow up in cross cultural experiences (like my son) , most of us grow up learning about the world through a very particular lens, one that, in general, paints "us" as the good guys and all of history moving toward "our" present reality.  It's a narrow lens.

As cross cultural ambassadors for Christ we must be prepared to humble ourselves and let go of our need to defend or promote our version of history. 

We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. (2 Corinthians 5:20; NIVUK)

We are Christ's ambassadors and we can leave the ambassadorial work of representing our country to the U.S. diplomatic corp.  Humility recognizes that, while I may not see it through the same lens, other people in other cultures might just have another view of things.

There is a pride and an arrogance that tends to have us placing our group at the center of history - or of  maps.

Maps made in the U.S. during the cold war always seemed to put the U.S. square in the middle and then cut the U.S.S.R in half, relegating the largest country in the world to the fringes.

Germans made maps for ages that placed them squarely in the center of the page - even though they are 60 degrees north of the equator.  This required shrinking Africa(20% of the earth's surface) and enlarging Europe (7% of the earth's surface) until they were nearly the same size.

And Australians printed maps that put them front and center at the top of the world!

Is one map right and the others all wrong, or are they just maps of the same earth from very different perspectives?  

If we want to be Christ's ambassadors in a lost and broken world, it is helpful walk humbly into these sorts of conversations, recognizing that, right or wrong, everyone has their own perspective and that, when it comes to history, there is a lot more grey than we probably realize.

And that is okay because while I may feel uncomfortable with my son learning a little different version of history than I did,  the kingdom of God is not in trouble.

The people you meet will most certainly view the world differently than you do.  Will you be ready to hear their story and recognize that there are other perspectives than your own?  Are you willing to learn?  To place yourself in their shoes? 

​For the sake of the gospel are you willing to see the world through their eyes?  


Take a nest step: Philippians 2: 5-11 Bible Study
Instructions: Read the passage 2 - 3 times and then answer the following questions.

• What was Jesus’ mindset as he came to earth?
• What did Jesus have to give up to move cross culturally into our world?
• What does it mean to “have the same mindset as Christ Jesus”?
• What are a few worldviews, habits, preferences that I might need to give up in order to cross a culture for the sake of the Gospel?
• With whom can I share one thing that I learned about today?

Luke 10:2 carries within it two key ideas.  The first is a statement of fact - the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.  Jesus doesn't say that the harvest is sometimes plentiful or plentiful in some places but not in others. 

Jesus says the harvest is plentiful.  It is a kingdom reality.

The second idea is a command, an action that Jesus tells us to take in order to confront the reality of the plentiful harvest - pray for workers.  

It is all really quite simple but for most of my life I ignored Jesus.   I'm not sure I believed him about the plentiful harvest and I rarely obeyed him. to pray for harvesters.  

A few years ago I was at a regional meeting with some folks from a mission agency and suddenly phones around the room started chiming.  Alarms were going off and I wasn't sure what was going on.  It was 10:02 and they were going to obey Jesus.

Ever since that day, I've worked to obey Jesus.  My alarm goes off at 10:02 every morning and I pray.  Sometimes I stop and pray for several minutes. Sometimes I'm with others and we pray together.  Sometimes I shoot simple one phrase prayers off and continue about my day.  But every day I'm reminded to obey Jesus and pray for harvesters to be sent out into the harvest.

I've since discovered that folks all around the world from different churches and organzations are praying at 10:02.  It's become a bit of a movement.

Will you join the movement?

Set a daily alarm on your phone or watch for 10:02 and begin to obey Jesus daily in this one thing.