Into All the Earth

Message Transcription

It is good to be with you. We are excited this morning. We wanted to read this passage because we believe it's at the heart of our missions here at Broadway that that not only has Christ done something amazing for us, as Larry reminded us around the table, that he has died and is alive again. But he's called us to live in such a way so that others could see that could know that next week we're going to hear from one of our missionaries who he and his family have dedicated their lives to, sharing this message of hope and life to those who are living far away and many who are have never heard the name of Jesus. And so we're excited for for us to get to hear from Brian next week. But this week, we wanted you to hear from some of our family, some of our folks who have tried as best they can to live on mission, and sometimes actually going on a trip, living on mission in some specific places. In just a moment, they're going to come share with us about that. But in general, I've tried to live in such a way that they see the mission of God alive and at work in their lives every day.

I love how this passage ends as as Jesus gives them this great commission and then is called back into heaven. They just stand there. Looking into heaven until two guys dressed in white say, Hey, guys, what are you looking at? Get to work. Let's go. So without further ado, let me invite my panel to come up here and join us, because we want to take a couple of minutes this morning to to allow them to share with you some of the ways that they have tried to live on mission, some of the specific places where they have been. And we'll we'll talk together about that. I'm going to start by having them introduce themselves to you here in just a moment, but then we'll we'll jump into our conversation together. I've given them a couple of questions to be thinking about. And so those will kind of guide our time. But I may follow up with a different question. But Kelton, let me pick on you to start us out. If you would just tell us kind of that first question, tell us who you are, what you're doing these days and how you got connected.

My name is Kelton Porter. If you do not know me, I am Randy and Jennifer's eldest. I am currently a senior over at Lubbock High. I don't have an occupation other than school. I came to get to know Broadway largely because my parents worked here. I've been here since the sixth grade, running around these halls, helping when I can, causing ruckus when I'm not helping. Yeah.

So you're getting ready to graduate and what are your plans right after graduation?

So after I graduate, my plans are to go to ACU, to go major in missions and with a minor in music, and after that, to hopefully pursue a master's of linguistics, to go do linguistic missional linguistics work overseas.

Perfect. Thanks, Kelton. Samantha.

Hi. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Samantha Gilchrist. I was born here in Lubbock and then moved around for a while with my dad's job and then came back for college. And that is where I got involved with Atlas, which is now Atlas, but used to be CAA or Christ in action. So I've been here for about six years. I graduated from LCU in 2020 with a bachelor's degree in English, and now I'm working at the Texas Tech University Library.

All right. Thanks, Ragan.

My name is Ragan. Ragan. Hold the. I just now realized that I'm the old guy up here.

The wise man?

Yeah, the wise man. So I'm a little bit taken back by all that, but so let me get over that part of it. I'm a Broadway product, so the I'm what we used to call Broadway brats and I see a lot of my old classmates and from back in those days. So. But anyway, just Broadway kid. Been here all my life.

All right. So, Ragan, let me get you to follow up with question to tell us, how did you get connected with missions here at Broadway?

Well, that goes back a long way, but it actually and I'm assuming we still do it, but we used to do missions in in the junior high and high school, the high school program. We we had mission trips every summer and and and went places. And it was it was a part of the curriculum. It was something that we did were prepared to go to these places later on after I was married, in fact, Paul Johnson and Floyd Stumbo cornered me one day up on the second floor and they told me I was going to be on the mission committee. So that was, I guess prior to being asked, you were appointed and or at least I was. But so I got to be a part of the mission program in our mission committee here. I guess that had been during the early nineties up through probably the early 2000s.

So great you were the original volun told member of exactly the missions committee. Okay. All right, great. Samantha, what about you? How did you get connected to missions here at Broadway?

So I had done a few in high school in Kodiak and I also in a North Pole, Alaska. I had also been to Sofia, Bulgaria, on a short term mission trip in high school. And then I came here to college and I had been to Costa Rica for nine days and it was while back then see that a lady from LST or Let's Start Talking came and presented a worship night there. And so I went to a couple of meetings, ended up joining a four person team that went to Athens, Greece for six weeks. And then just last summer I spent three months in Croatia with the same group.

Okay, great. Thank you. Kelton, how about you?

So missions have been part of my life, quite literally, since I was born. I grew up in Salvador, Brazil. My parents were missionaries there. But when we came back, we came started coming to Broadway. And for the mission trips here, I've been to work with the Batmobile, Hope Church down in Houston the year following Hurricane Harvey. And we did a youth mission trip there for about a week. And the other mission trip that I've worked with was when we went to go work in Alabama with a program there doing housing for low income families.

Perfect, great church. One of the things we wanted you to hear was not only how these guys were connected to missions, but how they tried to be engaged. And each one of them found their way into missions and different ways and different opportunities, which is really exciting. One of the things I want to hear as well from you guys is how did your experiences on the mission field, knowing you've each been on a short term mission before, you've been impacted by missions in different ways. How did what were some of the things you did on your mission? Samantha, I'll start with you this time. What were some of the things that you did while you were on a short term mission trip? And how did you see God at work in those things?

Yeah, so I'll talk about the LST trips that I did. So LST or friend speak as it's known domestically works with people who want to work on their conversational English by reading stories from the Book of Luke. There's no. Pressure to convert. There's no pressure to come to church. We just read the stories and let conversations happen organically, and they often happen to be about spiritual topics. So this is what I did in Greece as well as in Croatia, Croatia. I was there with two other girls and I was also helping with other efforts that the church there does.

Okay, great. Thank you, Kelton. What were some of the things you did on your trips?

So for the Houston mission trip, I would have been in 2014. I want to say hesitantly, don't quote me on that. We went, we split guys and girls, at least in the guys team, we went to go rebuild a fence and work on a kitchen for a house that was completely destroyed and had to do a complete renovation for it. For the Alabama mission trip, we did a couple of different things working with, first off, the actual place that did the housing for low income families. And through that we did some gutting of a different house and we worked in their school. They have a school there for their families that is affordable for them and offers a Christian education for this inner city community. And then we also worked with a place called Manna House. So it's like carpenters, but on steroids, Camille had a heart attack when she walked in because essentially what it is, is that you just walk through and you get all the groceries that you want and they're getting truck fulls of different foods for them to be able to have. And so these individuals from all over the city can just come in. And we as volunteers work through carrying these boxes of groceries for them. We get to have conversations with them, hear their stories and so on that we did those two things. We also went to go to another town or another to Montgomery to look at some of the racial history there, working through the Equal Justice Initiative Memorial and Museum.

Okay. Thank you, Ragan. What about you? What what have you where have you gone? And what are some of the things that you've done on that work?

Well, because I'm the old guy, I can't remember where all have gone, but the the one that that is probably left. The biggest impact on me is that a few years ago, Tim Talley and Brooks Loveless, now we went to Kenya and I thought we were going over there as a as an evaluation to kind of see where we were with that program. Usma That was one of the things that the Talley's had kind of left in and had gotten started and was this centerpiece of this community in Malindi. And it and from that they had at that time they were they were doing preacher training, they were doing some vocational type training and various things like that for the people in the community. But one of the things that they had began was this Christian school. And it I don't remember exactly how long they had been, maybe a year or two by the time we got there. But I was just stunned. I was I was overwhelmed with with this piece that they had. I mean, the kids it just so many kids. But but really probably what left the biggest impression to me and I see all these flags, I'm reminded of all this that this incredible work that God had done through these people and that that what was what was left after the tallies and the backs and and the mission team that we had originally sent after they had pulled out and it started working in other places, was this second and this third generation.

And the incredible work that they were doing, the the churches that they had planted, the number of Christians that had come, that it started from this little small seed and was just this enormous work. Can it. I'll look at all these flags and and it reminds me of not the mission works that we did, but what God did after we left. Man Heaven is going to be a quite a place of these people. That we never knew that we didn't we didn't send people to them. But the the churches that were planted all these years ago and the continuation of this works and the number of churches that have been planted because of what started as such a small seed here. But it was for me then and now this time of year, I'm always reminded of just how humbling it is that God would allow us to be a part of such an incredible, important work that we get to see a little small piece of that. But, you know, I can I can tell you how this story ends for these mission works that we're involved now because it it turns into thousands of people in and hundreds of churches through the generations that will be planted.

So absolutely well in the way that God transforms lives through what like he said, that small seed, that simple first step that you thought, hey, I thought we were just going to check something out here. It turned into something incredibly different.

Yeah, I realize the reason I was there was not. It was not the reason that that I was that I was there. So the it became so much more than that. Absolutely.

Well, kind of sticking with that theme. Samantha, let me go to you. How did you see God at work and some of the things that you were doing, whether it was in Croatia or Greece or Alaska? What were some of the ways that you saw God at work in the the missions that you were a part of?

Yeah. So this was most felt in Croatia, but it's a similar vein through all of them that you don't have to do anything huge or complicated in order to reach people and minister to them and bless them. All you really have to do is be present, be authentic, and be sensitive to their needs. Really. I remember there was this one guy I read with in Croatia that he came in and he saw that it was a church and he told me, okay, I see this as a church, don't try to convert me. But he kept coming and we ended up like going through the scriptures and he learned that he could have a relationship with Christ. And that was really beautiful. I think for me, I was able to take that home and recognize that I can do that here. I don't have to go anywhere, but it is beneficial.

Absolutely. Thank you, Kilton How about you? How did you see God at work in some of the mission trips that you were a part of?

So there it is. Largely, I'm going to speak for the Alabama mission trip because it's just mostly it's the most recent. It is fascinating how God works through people that you don't expect them to work through. The guy who is in charge of the inner city housing project is a dude who came up from a very, very rough background with his father and mother. Both being alcoholics and his father beating his mother. Regularly, I'll put it that way. And he described to us, there's that commercial or whatever you want to call it from the Ragan administration, where it's like you get an egg and you throw in a frying pan, and it's like, this is your brain on drugs. And he said, Yeah, that was exactly my brain when I was growing up. And he told us his story of how as he grew up, the transformation, the transformative power that God had on him, that working through him created this this amazing project that is transforming this inner city, and that to be able to see this of God working through this guy, that if he had walked in as a junior to most churches, I don't know if he would be welcomed or not. And then how God has worked through him in amazing ways to start this thing that is literally changing families and changing these neighborhoods that are places like what the Overton used to be. That's what the neighborhoods he's working in and they're transforming them to these amazing places, these amazing communities that are safe for this for these low income families. And so it's just amazing to see what God is doing through to the people that I don't expect him to.

This reminder that God is at work all the time in all kinds of situations and circumstances, just because we don't see it doesn't mean it's not happening. It's powerful. Invite you church after service this morning to come and hear some more. Ask them more about some of these stories. It's really amazing. I want to shift to our last couple of questions to get a little bit more personal. Sam, you started to kind of point us in this direction, but how did how did God impact your life? How did these experiences impact you, change you? You know, Ragan, you mentioned that I realized the reason I went on the trip wasn't the reason I went on the trip that God had something different in store for me, kind of along those same lines. And I'll pick on you first to start us with that one. How did God impact your life? How did your life change? How were you personally impacted by this experience?

Well, there's been a lot of ways. I mean, my my kids can tell you I still reference that trip of of just different things we saw in the culture and the different things that we got into to go anywhere with with Tim Talley as kind of an adventure all over the town. But it but but just to see to to see the power and the passion and the love that those people had for for spreading God's kingdom of because we were we mostly spent our time with the children of the people that they had originally had had reached out to and had come to Christ. And then this was their kids and how that group of kids had taken on this this mission and this desire and this just this incredible energy that they had about them, that and the vision that they had about them, that they not only wanted to do this, they wanted to do that. And this and this continuation of of of how they were going to grow and how they were going to continue to mentor to people and to and to spread that word. It was just I can't get over how humbling that was coming from here, thinking that was something we did and getting there and realize we didn't do anything. They look what God did here and it and it's such a it's such a humbling experience when you're when you're in the middle of that and you're hugging on these kids, that that had no idea that this guy from way back here in this land of Texas that I didn't know them. They didn't know me. And that that we were we were connected. Now we were all part of this body of Christ.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you. Samantha, what would you say? How how have you been changed? How have you been shaped by these experiences?

Yeah, kind of. In the same vein, it is a very humbling experience to recognize that you're not actually doing any of the transformative work. But it also takes some of that pressure off because you know that you all you really have to do is show up and be willing to be a conduit for change. For me, I still have some friendships with some of the people that I've read with, and it's beautiful to see the butterfly effect in these people's lives of recognizing that they can have a relationship with Christ and it can be beautiful. And then also for me, it encourages me to show up as myself in my everyday life and to be present and. Aware of the everyday opportunities to minister to people.

Absolutely. Thank you, Kelton. What would you say? How have you been impacted by your experiences?

So largely it's a perspective on things has been said already, but where the work of God is happening, whether I'm aware of it or not, whether I have a test next period or whether I'm low on sleep, that the work of God is still happening and that it's happening in a in spectacular ways that I don't really comprehend or even know about. And so for me, what it was is going in and hearing all of these different stories, whether it's the guy who actually started the project or when we're working in Manna House and I'm walking and I probably walked with 20 different individuals and heard their stories, or at least bits and pieces of it, to know that these are all people who are like me or sometimes have very, very different lives. But that got us working through their lives, in their lives and in the community around them, whether I'm there or not, and whether I'm just a little piece in the road to walk with them or just to hear their story that God is still there and that He's still working. So no matter where I am or what I'm doing or how much energy I have, that the work of God is still happening, and that I'm called to be a part of that. And in every day, because whether I'm aware of it or not, it is always there.

It's happening. Yeah. Thank you. So last question. Why then? Why would you say it's important for us as a church to continue supporting missions and giving? We've got a big goal next Sunday, 125,000 we're trying to raise to continue these and other kinds of works. Why would you say what reason would you give Kelton for why it matters that the church rallies to and helps support these kinds of works happening in our church.

So. I want to start one thing if, as my parents are doing missionaries or raising their funds to go work as missionary support people, one of their mentalities is that to not be afraid to ask for money because the money is God's money itself is not something that we have because we take nothing with us. It is asking the Lord's people to use the Lord's money to do the Lord's work. The mission field is something that's massive, and whether you want to support it financially or in prayer or physically go, which I would encourage every single person to do. That we go and we engage in the work that we're called to because we are God's people and that the mission field, whether it's in Kenya, whether it's in South East Asia, whether it's just over an open door, whether it's just in this very building, is something that we as a church are engaged with, and it is a part of our very identity. And whether we choose to acknowledge that or not, it is something that is always happening. So to support Broadway mission is to support the actual mission of what we're called to as Christians, and that to realize that our money is not actually our money, that it's actually is God's money. So to put it to essentially put the money where it goes, to put God's money to support his people, to support his work around the country and around the world.

Thanks, Kelvin. Samantha, what would you say? How would you answer that question?

Well, first and foremost, it's an act of obedience. We are commanded to go out and make disciples of all nations. But it's also something that's very beneficial for us as a church to look out into the world and see what God is doing there, because it's encouraging for us. And we can also go and be joyful workers in the harvest out there as well as in our own living rooms.

Thank you, Smith. Ragan. What would you say?

Well, the the the wisdom that's here, I think it's been said it I don't know that I could really add a lot to that. I think they're spot on with that. But my experience of of the number of times through the years that I that we sit in these committee meetings and we were trying to figure out how were we going to afford this and how could we do this and do that? And all the financials of it. And and just year after year and time after time after time that I saw, if if you'll just participate, God will multiply that the I don't know that we really ever had an accurate account of what we gave and what God multiplied because it was it was incredible. And it I I've I've watched it happen. I can see several people that were a part of those committees and, and, and that our job is just to participate. God will multiply that and it it and what a what a what a blessing that is what a what an honor that is. How humbling that is that something this important that God is going to allow us to be a part of?

Amen. So good. Thank you all so much for what you've shared this morning. Church Can we thank them for opening up their hearts and their lives to us? Some of you may have heard some some mission points referenced today and would like to know more about that. What we want you to know, Michelle, has worked really hard this week to put together a special edition of our, by the way, magazine. It's going to tell you about our specific mission points that we're supporting right now. It will give you some ideas of of what's happening. But I hope it will also inspire you to be thinking about what are the ways that God is inviting you to be on mission. One of the things I love about hearing these stories and talking with any any of these three, you'll hear that God did amazing things as they were swinging a hammer, trying to build a fence. Or somebody who just said, I want to learn English, would you help me learn English? Or I've got some problems in my community that we need to work on. And so I'm just going to go to work teaching some basic vocational skills. And the next thing you know, God multiplied it and he poured his spirit out and amazing things began to happen. France We're just scratching the surface this morning. You're just scratching the surface of the ways that God has been at work, not only through these three, but through our missions here at Broadway.

And we want you to be a part of that, not just financially. We want to challenge every Broadway member to cross a border this year. Now, for some of us, that may mean, hey, we get a chance to cross a literal border, a country border or a state border for others of us that may just be crossing that border. That's between you and the coworker next to you or you in that lunch table next to you are you were that neighbor next to you. We want to challenge every Broadway member to cross a border. And it may be something as simple as just offering the most someone's grass. Hopefully we'll get some rain and that'll be a ministry opportunity for us. Maybe it's to borrow a pencil or a pen. Maybe it's to purchase a meal. Maybe it's some some way that you never know. God is going to multiply, that He's going to change a life and maybe a community, and you may not see the fruit of it. As Ragan said earlier, we started some things and weren't really sure and God took it and ran. Amazing things can happen if we're willing to live on mission. In just a moment, Gary and the team will come back and lead us in prayer. If you'd like to know more about what's happening at Broadway missions, I want to invite you to to find someone on our Missions Committee who can help engage you and talk to you about that.

Come and grab one of the staff members, grabbed me and grab one of these issues that, by the way, magazines got some contact information in there ways for you to get connected. Let me lead us in a word of prayer and then we're going to worship our God who is always multiplying, who is always on mission and seeking us. Let's pray God. Thank you so much for my friends this morning in the ways that you have been at work in and through them as they have tried to live on mission for Ragan and Samantha and Kelton for the ways that they have offered their simple gifts and those opportunities, their willingness just to go to answer your call, to go and cross the border. And the other way that you've impacted their lives, you've changed the way that they see you. You've humbled them. You've given them new perspective. You've reminded them that there's never a two bit's giving in the kingdom. That Father that story of Jesus sitting in the temple with his disciples and watching that that poor widow put in everything she had. That stacked up against the world's definition of economics. It was barely anything but God and the Kingdom. Ho, ho, Lord, in the kingdom, you can multiply anything. And so, God, would you help us to consider this week ways that you're inviting us to live on mission? God, would you help us to be incredibly generous next week knowing you're going to multiply it? You're going to take that money that's yours anyway.

And you're going to put it to work with your people doing your kind of work. And God, we we can't wait to see what you will do in the next year. And so God would help us to be faithful in our giving. God, would you help us to respond in obedience? Father, would you also open us our eyes up and our ears up to the ways that you're inviting us to cross a border, that you want us to step outside of our normal routine in busyness, to take a pause, a moment, just to be still and notice, Lord, what small act of service could I do today that might be planting a seed in someone's life just to let them know that they're loved, that they're cared for? That you have hopes and dreams for them. Oh, God, would you help us to be that kind of people this week? Lord, thank you. That we don't have to do this alone. Thank you. That we can live on mission together. And so, God, whatever way that we need to be encouraged and challenged this week. God, would you help us? We pray in Jesus name. Amen.