What would happen if Christians—particularly those in the comfortable, complacent West—genuinely leaned into those areas of the world rocked by war, religious persecution, poverty, institutional evil, famine, totalitarianism, etc …  For example, what would it take to send communities of men and women who could be, in word and deed, the presence of Jesus into an area like southern Lebanon as the fighting wanes in the days to come? (photos above)

Where are some of these places where those committed to Jesus would find most inhospitable in today’s world?

North Korea, South Lebanon, Somalia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Timor, Yemen, Sudan/Dafur, Libya, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Cuba, Afghanistan, and more ….

What would it take?  How do we get teams of skilled, well-trained, deeply committed individuals into such places?  We know it would require people who understand the realities of spiritual warfare and how God uses signs, wonders and the supernatural for his kingdom purposes.  I suspect they would be mostly single men and women, prepared for hardship, physical suffering and even death.  It would necessitate a neo-monastic commitment and a clear sense of apostolic calling. And it would take the appropriate apostolic structures without which such undertakings would be foolish and cavalier.

The fact is there are no “closed” countries to the gospel of Jesus in today’s world. There are only “creative access” countries.  There is no nation on the face of the planet where committed followers of Jesus cannot go to live and minister as representatives of the living Christ.  We can get into any place as long as we are willing not to have any assurance we could ever come out.

So where are such people?  Where are those in the Christian movement with the same zeal that we see demonstrated daily by those in the Islamic world willing to blow themselves up in suicide forays?  Perhaps Greg Livingstone is correct when he says that Christians will never be taken seriously until we are willing to populate Muslim jails.

It can be done. With CRM, we can get access to the places. We’ve got the capablities. We have the apostolic structure to facilitate such ministry in any nation.  All that’s lacking are the people.

“The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” – Jesus

Holiness is “...the beauty of earth and Heaven, without which we cannot live well on earth, nor shall ever live in heaven.” - Ralph Venning (1620-1673)

“The life of a Christian is wondrously ruled in this world, by the consideration and meditation of the life of another world.” - Richard Sibbes (1577-1635)

“...spiritualize our hearts and affections that we may have heavenly hearts in earthly employments.” – Thomas Gouge (1605-1681)

“If God be over us he must be over us in every thing.” - Peter Bulkeley (1583-1659)

“Have you forgot …the milkhouse, the stable, the barn, and the like, where God did visit your soul?” - John Bunyan (1628-1688)

“...there is difference betwixt washing of dishes, and preaching of the word of God; but as touching to please God, none at all.” – William Tyndale (1494-1536)

“The main end of our lives is to serve God in the serving of men in the works of our callings.” - William Perkins (1558-1602)

What could we learn from these English Puritans?

No divide between secular and sacred.
The integration of the physical and the spiritual
Living fully in the present because of the reality of the eternal.
Desiring the kingdom rule of Christ to be extended over all aspects of creation

“Within a year or so, more people will live in cities than in the countryside for the first time in human history: the 21st century will be an urban one. But increasingly, the urban core itself is downsizing. Already, half the city dwellers in the world live in metropolises with less than half-a-million residents. Second Cities—from exurbs to regional hubs, resort towns to provincial capitals—are booming.

Between 2000 and 2015, the world’s smallest cities (with under 500,000 people) will grow by 23 percent, while the next smallest (1 million to 5 million people) will grow by 27 percent.”

See the full Newsweek article, “Unlikely Boomtowns” at MSNBC

1. Can the movement adopt to forms of community that are appropriate to such urbanization?
2. What type of transformation is necessary for the leaders of such church expressions in order to adapt to this sociological change?
3. Since theology is never the same as truth, never neutral and always done within a context, how does it continue to adapt to the urban scene? While there has been good urban theology done the past fifty years, I am suspicious that it is inadequate for such a future. Sixteenth century theology is woefully deficient for 21 century urban realities.

The Celtic movement combined a profound commitment to trinitarian theology with a deeply experiential/sensual/visual spirituality. Celtic understanding and practice of community and holism was exemplary. And their missiology was highly incarnational with a remarkable understanding of apostolic structures. A Celtic monastic community’s purpose was:

“… to root your consciousness in the gospel and the scriptures; to help you experience the presence of the Triune God and an empowered life; to help you discover and fulfill your vocation; and to give you experience in ministry with seekers.”

A wonderful example of Celtic apostolic passion—firmly grounded in trinitarian spirituality—can be found in this portion of the famous Celtic prayer, “St. Patrick’s Breastplate:”

We rise today
In power’s strength, invoking the Trinity,
Believing in threeness, confessing the oneness,
Of creation’s Creator.

For to the Lord belongs salvation,
And to the Spirit belongs salvation,
And to Christ belongs salvation,
May your salvation, Lord, be with us always.

CRM has people serving and living in Lebanon. It is hard to describe the difference it makes when the scenes on CNN are places I’m familiar with and where I know people on the ground. The geo-political becomes profoundly personal.

As this conflict has exploded onto headlines around the world, these courageous folks yesterday wrote:

“The situation is devastating and maddening … It is war, war at large… Your prayers (and the prayers of those who know us) are very much needed. Prayers for safety, for peace in this country, for mercy and grace… We fully trust the Lord, the Almighty with our lives, our families and the ministry. We wholeheartedly believe that He does hold tomorrow. We trust that even in the darkest moments of such wrath and intense anger, His mercy and goodness will prevail. There’s a huge atmosphere of depression and desperation in the country and the Israeli forces are applying a complete siege, which is creating panic among the people. Yet we believe God is good…”

“It is all about spiritual DNA: who does the American evangelical look like? Does he or she resemble Jesus in his focus, values, and mission? Our analysis has concluded that Jesus is not the spiritual father of our Evangelical culture. Our Evangelical world is more about our peculiar cultural values and what we like and dislike rather than a reflection of Jesus. If we take a hard, objective look at the Gospels, we will see a great deal of similarity between our Evangelical values and the values of the Pharisees rather than the values of Jesus.”

“If we are content to maintain and promote a mission strategy that accepts the status quo in North American Christian culture, we can assume the strong likelihood of either failure or recidivism in our training of missionaries.”

In the most recent issue of Mission Frontiers, Dick Scoggins has an excellent article on “Nurturing a New Generation of ‘Pauline’ and ‘Petrine’ Apostles.

It is incredibly insightful, brief and well worth the read. To summarize:

“Pauline apostleship is exercised by pioneering, mobile communities which start local communities of the Kingdom where they do not exist. A second form of apostleship – what I call Petrine apostleship – is also portrayed in the New Testament …[and] is more prevalent than I had imagined.

...there is an apostolic ministry to the unreached (the Pauline), but there is also an apostolic ministry to the exisitng people of God (the Petrine).”

*Painting is Greco’s famous “Apostles Peter and Paul” circa 1592

I had the privilege of speaking the opening night of the CRM Conference.

As I had prayed and thought for months in advance about the content of this important evening, what evolved was an illustration from my own life of what it means to be a “sent one” in an apostolic, missionary vocation. Hence, this message from Isaiah 6:1-8.

It can be downloaded as an MP3 file.

A few clarifications:

Because the businesses created by CRM Enterprise are actually owned by the CRM entity in the respective nations, profit distribution is a decision that entity makes, i.e. ministry perspective dictates use of money earned.
The profit stays in the country/region where it has been made. These businesses do not suck resources out of the local scene. They are not exploitive.
While CRM entities own the businesses, there are a variety of ways individuals – nationals and ex-pats – can participate as equity partners in the ventures.

For more information on how CRM is doing this through Enterprise, check out the stories on the link or connect with Colin Crawley at colin.crawley@crmleaders.org

When business people get a chance to see, touch, feel and experience CRM Enterprise, they get it.

First, they understand the concept of leverage. A dollar invested in such a way earns a significant return because, as Stephen Covey puts it, that dollar is invested in “production capacity,” not just “production.” It keeps on earning.

Secondly, these business oriented individuals usually begin to salivate because finally they have discovered a way whereby they can put their own expertise and business skills directly to work for ministry purposes. Their abilities are valued.

Involvement with Enterprise is a real life illustration of the old adage about giving a person a fish or a fishing pole. What results from the fishing pole is exponentially more effective.

I can already hear some of the back room comments on my last post (June 27):

“Profit? How mercenary?”
“This just smacks of western capitalistic opportunism.”
“Make money? What’s that got to do with ministry? Why can’t they just trust God?”
“I can’t believe they are mixing business and ministry …God’s work will be the loser in such an unholy alliance!”

I’ve heard all the arguments from my friends on the left about the inherent evils of capitalism and likewise, know all the arguments from my friends on the theological right who frown on such “worldly” attention to lucre which they believe can only corrupt the purity of the gospel.

The sad fact is, when it comes to money and the wise even shrewd use of resources, Jesus’ admonition that “...the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves …” seems strangely applicable.

To our detriment, others have historically done a better job at this than those who have been followers of Jesus. For example, the Mormans have done it for years while most of those committed to historic orthodoxy have sat on our sanctimonious hands.

There is no biblical, historical or missiological reasons why business, wisely operated, cannot be utilized for Kingdom purposes.

The Christian movement is littered with the intentions of well meaning visionaries who either would not or could not find the resources to make their dreams become reality.

The primary purpose of the businesses created through CRM Enterprise is to quite simply make money. Profit is the bottom line.

There are certainly other worthwhile byproducts of these businesses. For example they

Provide jobs, often in economies where employment can mean survival;
Model good business ethics and mores;
Contribute to the overall welfare and development of the local and regional economy;
Develop nationals as entrepreneurs and business leaders;
Can provide a platform to legitimize ministry, particularly in limited access nations;
In word and deed, function as authentic expressions of the presence of Jesus in the marketplace

In reality, and by design, all of these side benefit have happened and are happening. But just because they happen does not insure that profit flows as a result. At the end of the day, we have deliberately chosen for these entities to turn a profit that can in turn be invested in ministry. These businesses are to be an economic wellhead to help vision, given by God, become reality.

What is one of the best ways to screw up a business? Let the ministry types run it.

Of course there are some exceptions, but on the whole, those in vocational ministry are not good business people. In CRM’s Enterprise Division, we do our best to keep the ministry folks away from the operational aspects of the businesses because they rarely have the skills or the experience to know what to do.

Enterprise offers business men and women a unique opportunity to really go for it using all that God has entrusted to them. For some, this may mean taking a one or two-week trip a year where their unique abilities can be applied in the developing world. For others, it may mean packing it up and spending months or even years in locations around the globe pioneering such ventures.

And for many, it means being part of a Business Development Group which gathers other like minded and committed business people together to anchor such projects without leaving home, contributing advice, expertise, and even investment capital.