5th Year Anniversary

As I reflect on the 5th anniversary of the launch of Empowering Action this month, it would be difficult to communicate the impact McLean Bible Church had on my life during my 8 years on staff, as it was there that the Lord cultivated:

1. A Heart for missions: reaching the physically and spiritual poor with the Gospel
2. A Passion for the Word of God and Church of Jesus

5 years ago those two things inspired members of MBC to launch Empowering Action, a ministry:

• To combat physical and spiritual poverty in partnership with the local church
• To transform impoverished communities by empowering and equipping the body of Christ
• To build capacity within the local church to both declare and demonstrate the gospel
• Where our methodology would be grounded in our theology – as poverty being a result of sin, and brokenness from The Fall in Genesis 3.

Over the past 5 years, by the grace of God and support of churches and individual, who have truly been a “partner in the gospel from the first day until now” (Phil. 1:5), God has condescended, as George Muller used to say, to use EA in the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Haiti and Kenya by developing a virtual toolbox of:

• External Partnerships
• 4 In-house Programs

to yearly minister to over 33,000 individuals by serving over 3,000 leaders.

As we stop and reflect on God’s provision, notably our four core 4 competencies below, we are humbled and grateful for what the Lord has done within and through the EA family these past 5 years:

• 242 Discipleship Program for Church Leaders
• Genesis Ministry to develop healthy families
• Abundant Life 16-week Poverty Alleviation Program
• Church-based Savings Groups

Attitude and Aptitude of Biblical Decisions

Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over…and expecting a different result.”

Often in leadership we must make difficult, at times highly unpopular, decisions, given our desire to see different results, personally and professionally.

Recently, I’ve seen this play out, on both a micro and macro level, at my home church in Washington DC. As a result, I’ve found myself reflecting on core convictions regarding the biblical process of decision-making.

Haddon W. Robinson has written a powerful book, entitled Decision Making By the Book, where he notes an essential attitude and aptitude for biblical decision-making:

– “God has given us tremendous freedom and responsibility in making decisions. When seeking to carry out that responsibility, the place for us to begin is in an attitude of complete submission to the sovereign will of the all-powerful God.”

– “To make good decisions I need to be mighty in the Word of God. This is not a peripheral issue. I need to know the Scriptures—the New Testament and the Old.”

With that attitude of complete submission and aptitude of biblical literacy in mind, these are three questions I use to evaluate personal and professional decision-making:

 1.  Was the decision bathed in prayer?

-If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. (James 1:5)

2.  Did I seek wisdom in Scripture?

-Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. (Prov. 3:5-6)

3. Did I seek wise counsel?

-Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety. (Prov. 11:14)

CAUTION:

-Beware…

Breeding discord
Creating disunity and divisiveness

-We recognize our passion

Remember our role – WE are the primary disciplers of our children

-As parents we know:

It’s not what you do, it’s how you do it
It’s not what you say, it’s how you say

Tithing – Not….

-Stockholder’s meeting

-Kid with his ball on a playground

-This isn’t the same as your child’s education: I pay my taxes!

Stewards of God’s resources; not something to use for blackmail

Confrontation –

-If you see that, we have a responsibility to speak truth in love

-Bear One Another’s Burdens

Gal.6: 1-2
1Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

-Remember our children are watching us…

Are we going to talk ABOUT people or practice Matt 18:15 and talk TO people.

Sharing EA’s M&M’s

Recently I was asked to clearly and concisely in 3-5 minutes share the motivation and methodology of Empowering Action to leaders of other Christian nonprofit economic development organizations. The request was quite last minute so I quickly assembled the bullet points below, which I pass along to you for your encouragement and edification:

 Empowering Action exists to combat physical and spiritual poverty in partnership with the local church

We want to serve the local church. We want to build capacity within the local church to both declare and demonstrate the gospel.

“It is simply impossible to alleviate poverty – in its fullest sense – apart from the local church.” – Church in Hard Places, 9Marks.org

We do so by facilitating growth of pastors and lay leaders in three areas:

1. Personal Character (Be)
2. Theological Competency (Know)
3. Ministry Capacity (Do)

We find MOTIVATION for our mission in the passages such as these below:

“Keep watch over yourselves [personal character/theological competency] and the entire flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God [ministry capacity], which He purchased with His own blood.” (Acts 20:28)

 “And David shepherded them with integrity of heart (character); with skillful hands (competency/capacity) he led them.” (Psalm 78:72)

Our METHODOLOGY to accomplish our mission focuses on 4 Core Competencies (In-house initiatives):

1. Acts 242 – A Systematic Leadership Discipleship Process for members of our church network
2. Abundant Life – Church-based 16-week Poverty Alleviation Program
3. Genesis – Church-based Family Life Initiative, training churches to equip parents to raise a generation that both knows the Lord and the things he has done (Judges 2:10)
4. Church-based Savings and Credit Associations (Implementation 2018) – While Abundant Life addresses finances at an individual/family level (the theology of work, household budgeting, small business practices and personal savings), Savings Groups will facilitate ministry at a corporate church (and community) level

Strength of our Approach:

Theology is global. Theology dictates our methodology, so while contextualization of practices is necessary, biblical principles are universal applicable.

Threats to be Avoided:

Without prioritizing ministry regarding character and theological competency, we can actually inadvertently affirm negative behavior and bad theology, by helping a ministry to grow numerically. (Prosperity gospel)

Our Prayer for Vision Week 2018

As we prepare for tomorrow’s visit from members of our in-country team, our prayer for the week, as they share what God has graciously been accomplishing for His Kingdom through Empowering Action, is for the following three things to occur:

1. God to be glorified

“Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!” (Psalm 115:1)

2. Supporters to be encouraged

“For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.” (Romans 1:11-12)

3. Empowering Action to be sustained

“And the people came, everyone whose heart stirred him, and everyone whose spirit moved him, and brought the Lord’s contribution to be used for the tent of meeting, and for all its service, and for the holy garments.” (Exodus 35:20-21)

George Muller has provided me inspiration over the past 5 years, regarding personal purity, ministerial motivation, as well as Divine dependency, remembering the words of Psalm 24:4-5,

“He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation.”

We find inspiration in Muller’s words below,

“Let it be especially observed by the Godly reader, that not only does this work continue to exist, after more than 22 years, carried on solely through the power of prayer and faith in the Living God; but also year by year its operations have been extended. Unbelief is thus put to shame. It is plainly proved that the work of God can be carried on simply by trust in God.

If our work is indeed the work of God, faith and prayer will be found efficient agents; and if they are not efficient, we may well question, whether we do indeed make use of them; or, if we do, whether the work, in which we are occupied, is truly the work of God.”

– A Narrative of some of the Lord’s Dealings with George Muller Volume IV

Encouragement from Elijah

It’s called “the mic creep.” It occurs when, in the midst of a program or service, the emcee begins to move toward a guest speaker to indicate “it’s time to wrap it up…you’re going long.” I’ve used the move many times myself, but recently I had “mic creep” occur to me! I saw it happening out of the corner of my eye, as the emcee of the Sunday School class began to creep closer, indicating, “You’re done here, Husted. Land the plane!”

I laughed internally, even as it was occurring, as I was given 2-3 minutes to promote an upcoming EA event, and yet I always like to incorporate Scripture into any speaking opportunity.

Recently, I’ve been studying the life of Elijah, including reading A.W. Pink’s commentary, so I found inspiration in the content below.

1 Kings 17 – Elijah Predicts a Drought to evil King Ahab

2And the word of the LORD came to him: 3“Depart from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan

A.W. Pink notes, “Instead of a river, God often gives us a brook, which may be running today and dried up tomorrow. Why? To teach us not to rest in our blessings, but in the blesser Himself.”

Over the past 5 years of Empowering Action, God, in His wisdom, has not seen fit to provide EA a raging river of financial support, overflowing its banks, but he has provided a constant brook.

4You shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.”

Pink again notes, “The prophet might have preferred another hiding-place, but to Cherith he must go if he was to receive the Divine supplies: as long as he tarried there, God was pledged to provide for him. How important, then, is the question, Am I in the place which God has (by His Word or providence) assigned me?”

As individuals and institutions, it is imperative to regularly ask, “Am I in the place which God assigned me? Am I performing the good works that He prepared beforehand that I should walk in?” (Ephesians 2:10)

For me I find clarity of my current calling in personalizing Paul’s words to the church of Rome, in Romans 1:1, which states,

“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.”

“Kent, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to empower Christ’s church to combat poverty, set apart for the gospel of God.”

And I find motivation to “keep my hands to the plow” as long as the Lord commands in this endeavor in the following passage from Psalms and quote from Richard Baxter.

“It will be an unspeakable comfort to look back on a life well spent. And to be able to say, ‘My time was not cast away…It was spent on doing good to men’s souls and bodies.’”– Richard Baxter

Psalm 90:16-17

Let your work be shown to your servants,
and your glorious power to their children.
Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
and establish the work of our hands upon us;
yes, establish the work of our hands!

 

Operating off the Overflow

In his outstanding book Mission Drift, Peter Greer writes,

“The excellent leader is the steward-in-chief of the organization’s story…Leadership comes down to protecting the story, bringing others into the story, and keeping the organization accountable to the story. The leader tells the story, over and over again, refining it, updating it and driving it home.”

This week, as I found myself attempting to “invite” others to “join the story of EA,” by sponsoring an upcoming pastor’s conference, I wrote the following,

“I thought that perhaps the church and/or the October trip participants might be interested in contributing to this upcoming training opportunity in September. This preaching conference in Santo Domingo will be attended by a select core of our volunteer pastors, who will be facilitating the network development efforts, led by Raydel Riquelme, our new Church Network Development Director from Cuba. The goal is that they would serve as a catalyst in reproducing church leaders bathed in Scripture, serving out of an abundance of their own personal walk with the Lord.”

 “Serving out of an abundance of their own personal walk with the Lord.” Or, as I’ve entitled this blog, “Operating off the Overflow” something that Scripture is clear we must do daily in every facet of our lives, if we wish to honor the Lord.

This morning’s devotional from Andrew Murray on Paul’s words to the Corinthian church sums it up well,

Christ’s love controls us. (2 Corinthians 5:14)

“Think about this: God longs to have our hearts filled with His love so that He can use us as channels for this love to flow out to others. Let us be satisfied with nothing less and sacrifice everything to secure a place for this love in the hearts of men and women.

 Heavenly Father,

Fill my heart with Your love. May Your love overflow from my heart to the hearts of others. I pray that my words and actions shine with your love so that others may experience You through me.

Amen”

The Disinterested Life

Currently, each morning, as part of my personal devotions, I read a portion of George Muller’s Journal and The Biography of Robert Murray McCheyne by Andrew Bonar.

Years ago my pastor indicated that, other than the Bible itself, it is essential that followers of Christ regular consume the inspirational stories of great men and women of God.

FB Meyer in his work The Secret of Guidance writes,

We may still further secure the same results by studying the biography of saintly men belonging to recent centuries. Happy the man within reach of a library, the shelves of which are well lined with books of holy biography! He will never, never be in want of additional stimulus as he reads the story of McCheyne and W. C. Burns, of Brainerd and Martyn, of Jonathan Edwards and others. He will not envy or repine; but he will constantly lift eye and heart to Heaven, asking that as much may be done through himself.

This morning Andrew Bonar described Robert Murray McCheyne’s “living a disinterested life,”

As it was evident that his Master owned his labor abundantly, by giving him seals of his apostleship, attempts were made occasionally by zealous friends to induce him to move to other fields of service. In all these cases, he looked simply at the apparent indications of the Lord’s will. Worldly interest seemed scarcely ever to cross his mind in regard to such a matter, for he truly lived a disinterested life.

Question: Why was he “disinterested” in the things of this world?
Answer: Because he grasped Scripture:

Viewing himself as only a temporary resident here
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. (1 Peter 1:21)

Recognizing his citizenship was in heaven
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. (Philippians 3:20)

Setting his mind on heavenly things
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:2-3)

Let us strive, as well, to live a “disinterested life.”

Legacy. Possessions. Opportunity.

I was reminded of the wonderful verse below this morning, as I read a portion of George Muller’s journal.

The Apostle Paul writes to Timothy,

“Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.” (1 Timothy 4:12)

At that time someone could be referred to as “young” until they were forty years old.  Timothy had joined Paul on his second missionary journey (Acts 16:1), and the book of 1 Timothy was written fourteen years later. If, as many believe, Timothy was sixteen years old when Paul first worked with him, then he would have been at least thirty at this point, yet older men may have looked down on his comparative “youth.”

Still, I believe the principle can be applied to even young children, who can exemplify and inspire with an example of faith to adults, as evidenced by Jesus’ words in Matthew 18,

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matt. 18:1-4)

This portion of George Muller’s journal below also demonstrates a child’s ability to grasp the need for faithful stewardship and an eternal perspective.

“This morning we received a parcel with clothes and some money for the Orphans, from a sister at a distance. Among the donations in money was a little legacy, amounting to 6s. 6 1/2d. from a dear boy, the nephew of the sister who sent the things, who died in the faith. This dear child had had given to him, in his last illness, some new shillings, sixpences, and other smaller silver coins, amounting to the above-mentioned little sum. Shortly before he fell asleep, he requested that this his little treasure might be sent to the Orphans. This precious little legacy is the first we have had.”

Legacy.

The Puritan Richard Baxter wrote,

“It will be an unspeakable comfort to look back on a life well spent. And to be able to say, ‘My time was not cast away…It was spent on doing good to men’s souls and bodies.’”

Possessions.

Far too often, we, as adults, struggle with our possessions possessing us, as opposed to viewing ourselves rightly as stewards of God’s resources on loan to us.

Opportunity.

As South African pastor Andrew Murray wrote,

“What a wonderful religion Christianity is. It takes money, the very embodiment of the power of sense of this world, with its self-interest, its covetousness, and its pride, and it changes it into an instrument for God’s service and glory.”

Legacy. Possessions. Opportunity.

Heavenly Father, today we pray that you provide to our ministry, as well as all faithful, Christ-honoring ministries across the globe, individuals, organizations and institutions, who like this young child, possess a biblical view of legacy, possessions and opportunity, and, accordingly, are moved, through financial support, to serve as an instrument for Your service and glory. Amen. 

The Prayer for Transformational Prayer

Summer is a busy time for EA, as we regularly host visiting groups coming to encourage and be encouraged by working alongside our church partners in the Dominican Republic.

Often times I’ll ask the group, “What can we pray for the churches that we are visiting today?”

Answer: The same thing we pray for any church in the US: Health.

We can look to The Apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Thessalonica long ago to guide our prayers today.

We see fruit from a root. The result of the Word of God and the Work of the Holy Spirit produced an impressive faith.

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace. We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. (1 Thessalonians 1:1-10)

The apostle Paul knew that spiritual life is created by God’s words and Spirit working together. He knew this because he had witnessed the change in their lives. Listen to Jonathan Leeman in his new book Word-Centered Church: How Scripture Brings Life and Growth to God’s People,

Amid temptation, they were obedient. Amid persecution, they had joy. “You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia” (1 Thess. 1: 6–7). It’s not surprising then that Paul would refer to the Word of God as the “sword of the Spirit” (Eph. 6: 17). There is no greater power a church has at its disposal than preaching the Father’s Word of the Son working through the Spirit.

So while over time we may visit different churches, our prayer remains the same throughout the world: For the Word of God and the Work of the Holy Spirit to produce a faith that transforms communities in the name of and to the glory of Jesus Christ.

Tone Deaf

The Church can no longer afford to be tone-deaf, appearing at times completely oblivious to its surroundings, particularly in this age, which desperately needs to have the truth of God’s Word brought to bear on the events of the day.

It is true that the news cycle cannot dictate our preaching calendar, but often churches seem oblivious to current events. In doing so, they miss windows of opportunity to demonstrate that Scripture is both timeless and timely.

“The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” (1 Pet. 1:24-25)

Silence in the face of historic events, natural disasters and political and societal developments inadvertently communicates that God’s Word is irrelevant, as opposed to providing a lens to view the World.

The 1647 Westminster Confession declares that ALL things necessary for God’s own glory, man’s salvation, faith, and life are either expressly set down or can be deduced from Scripture.”

The Church must declare the Word of the Lord both corporately when it gathers on Sundays and individually as it is scattered throughout the week.