Live The Great

The Summit is coming. You won’t get this for a few days yet, but I am writing these words from the airport in Zurich, Switzerland. I am on a mission of discovery and I have a lot of thoughts bouncing around in my head. My current trip has to do with surveying the situation of the Kurdish people both in Turkey and Iraq, and looking for ways we can serve them in the name of Jesus Christ. I know that The Summit is coming March 1-8 and I want to share some firsthand experiences with you. All the while this phrase rings in my mind – for such a time as this, from Esther 4:14.

Our Student Mission Council prayerfully selected this phrase as the theme for The Summit and I have been trying to develop it fully as we are going through a study of the book of Esther during January and February. As I think about this phrase and our study of Esther, a couple of principles stand out:

• We all have a divine destiny. Despite Esther’s secular, non-practicing Jewish background, God had a purpose for her greater than herself. When the time came, such a time as this, she was ready to embrace God’s purpose for her.
• Providence. This word dominates any analysis of Esther, a book in which God’s name does not appear a single time. Even in those times when we cannot see God or fully understand what he is doing, he is there nonetheless and his providence quietly goes before us, controlling people, events and even kings to provide, protect and prepare us for our mission of destiny.

One month from today The Summit begins. In our normal Sunday morning services on March 1, I will try to prepare our hearts for what is to come. That evening we begin in earnest and services continue through the following Friday night March 6 each evening at 7pm. This will be different. We are asking God to engage our entire church as a missionary. On Friday night I will challenge us to commit to pray for the Kurdish people and specifically to pray about how God would use us to be a channel of his love to them.

I invite you to join us on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings for a brief course on making disciples in our contemporary world. On Thursday morning I will meet with any visiting pastors and leaders and discuss forming an alliance of churches to reach the Kurds. We are anticipating a good number of our Latin American friends to be with us and the goal of this alliance is specifically to unite efforts between English speaking and Spanish speaking churches to make a difference in our world. For years through Live the Great Commission, I have been challenging Latin American churches to engage in mission to other languages and cultures. It has been a long, and at times a lonely road. I can’t help but think, though, that all of this effort has been guided by God’s providence for such a time as this. Saturday morning is a workshop to introduce people to the “new missionary” by having several of the new missionaries share their lives with us as to how God is blessing those who think creatively. On March 8, Dr. Paul Nyquist of Avant Ministries will challenge us to follow through with what we will have experienced during the week. Be sure to check out www.thenewmissionary.com.

Ground-breaking is coming. For years we have been praying, planning and preparing for such a time as this. It’s almost here! Just the other day I saw some of the final artistic conceptions of what this is going to look like. Wow! I knew it would be good, but I have to say that what I saw was very encouraging.  Not only am I thrilled to think what this means for our Children’s Ministry, I am also encouraged to think that we have some gifted men in our church who will now have some space to utilize their gifts in adult education as space in our current facility becomes available. I don’t think we yet fully understand just how much this is going to impact our ministry and outreach and it has come for such a time as this.

Youth League is coming. This year we are asking God for at least 600 youth to participate in our youth league. Maybe this is your destiny – to be used of God to touch the life of a child who one day will be mightily used of God for a destiny of his or her own. I am continually amazed at how God uses athletics to touch lives. Just last month we sent our third baseball team to the Dominican Republic to build relationships, make disciples, touch lives and weave networks of people whom God has brought together for such a time as this.

Finally. I hope you see how this all connects – for such a time as this. The Summit, ground-breaking for the campus expansion, youth league, missions and missionaries – it’s all about making disciples of Jesus Christ among all the peoples of the world, beginning right here in Kansas City and extending even to the often forgotten and oppressed Kurdish people on the other side of the globe. It’s destiny, our destiny – for such a time as this.

Jeff Adams is the Senior Pastor at KCBT
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