Called Out, Set Apart and Sent

Speaker: Pastor John Hatcher

There were many messages this week that touched the core of my very being. It is so hard to pick the one's that I should write about. Since my computer is down with a virus and I am writing from a remote computer, I may have to write about the messages in installments.

For my thoughts tonight, I will pick the message Pastor John entitled "10 Paradigm Shifts: Positioning the church for transition". For the sake of my readers, I will briefly list his 10 points, but I will only be journaling my thoughts on one point in particular point.

10 Paradigm Shifts: Positioning the Church for Transition

1. We need to switch from building walls to building bridges
2. we need to switch from measuring attendance to measuring impact
3. we need to switch from encouraging Saints to attend the service to equipping the Saints for works of service.
4. congregation needs to switch from "serve us" to service
5. move from duplication of services and ministries to partnering with existing ministries and services
6. move from fellowship to functional unity
7. move from being a pastor to a congregation to being a pastor to a whole community
8. move from condemning your city to blessing and praying for your city
9. move from anecdote and speculation to valid information (minister to real needs not your perception of what they need)
10. move from always being a teacher to becoming a lifetime learner

There was far to much info on each of those topics to go into too great of detail here. So those are now just points to ponder for the reader.

I did want to take time and elaborate on one of the points he made and make some practical application of that to my life.

Pastor John made a point under his "build bridges not walls" point that hit the bulls eye in the core of my being!! He said, "We cannot so shelter ourselves to preserve our "purity" that we no longer GO!" (referring to the Great Commission).

As many of you who are following my journey, you understand the significance of this statement in my personal struggle. We had been homeschooling the kids for the last 8+ years of our lives when God told us to put the children in school. I had also, in that time of homeschooling, had many conflicts with "well meaning friends" about things I felt God had asked me to do in regards to ministry. I was constantly met with "you cant do that, you are a woman!" Or even worse, "the only ministry God has called you to is to your children and your husband...any other type of ministry would just be your own selfishness seeking after your flesh."

The more I tried to explain my passion for missions and our family's evangelistic zeal, I was met with the harshest of criticism from the people I had expected the most support. I was told time and time again that for me to keep my children "pure" or to walk in "holiness" I must do x, y and z.

This last 8 months of my life, since God began speaking to Brad and I about this journey, has been a HUGE wake up call! It is as though I am waking up from the longest dream. I am remembering the truths I once understood at the time of my salvation...yet it is almost as though I am hearing them for the first time.

Pastor John, being used of the Holy Spirit, shot an arrow of truth straignt to my heart. It was a LIGHT BULB moment for me...a EUREKA moment, if you will!! We can no longer shelter ourselves to preserve our "purity" to the point of doing violence to the Great Commission. Being pure, holy, and set apart is WHO WE ARE by virtue of the shed blood of Christ. There is nothing we can do to add to what has already been done. The work of making us holy and set apart is a completed work. Yes, we continue to walk in holiness and purity because that is who we are by virtue of being BORN AGAIN. We, as Christians, will FOREVER be the called out and set apart holy ones of Christ. That is a sealed deal by His BLOOD.

It is because of who we are (the holy and set apart ones) that we are also sent out. We cannot be holy and set apart without accomplishing the task of the great commission. Those 2 things cannot be separated. That is something I used to instinctively understand! But somewhere in our years of homeschooling, I ran across some friends, with very strong and influencing ideas, that somehow twisted that basic doctrinal issue.

I was told by one friend that my desire to do mission work was selfish because I had a family to raise and a husband to take care of. (As if I would go to the mission field without my family?? As if my husband had no desire either?) We actually looked into a missions training program and were turned down because we had one too many children. The denial letter told us that the mission organization would only be responsible for two children, not three. We were sad, but sort of had a good chuckle at the thought (and arrogance) that the mission organization thought they would be the "provider" for our family if we went to the mission field! Silly us for thinking it was God who was our Jehova Jireh! This denial only confirmed to our friend that families with children had no business attempting the great commission...after all, that is what missionaries are for!

I questioned her further about witnessing to the neighbors. Do you even see that as a legitimate means of reaching the lost for Christ? Her response was that it was only appropriate for her husband to speak to the neighbors since she was female. This went on for over 10 years to the point I quit sharing major parts of my life with this friend. How could following the basic command of Christ become so mutated and have this dead weight of legalism?

I had another friend from church was stunned when I cut my hair. (I had 17 inches cut off and donated it to locks of love.) She said, "Boy! You made a liar out of me! I just told someone the other day you would NEVER cut your hair because of the holiness thing!" Talk about a wake up call! That was one of the first realizations I had that I was being lumped into a catagory by stereotype! My friend assumed I wore long hair for religious purposes. That never entered my mind! I just preferred longer hair because my husband liked it! But he likes the shorter look too.

It seems that because I homeschooled there were a lot of stereotypes that people made false assumptions about our family. We have always felt like the black sheep in the family in our homeschooling communities because we never did anything like the rest of them...we have always walked to the beat of a different drummer. We kept our TV when friend through theirs out. We listened to contemporary music when our friends thought we were hell bound for not listening to only hymns and "melodious music"...did our contemporary music not have melodies? We did unit studies when other friends said ABeka was the best source for Christian education....hhhmmm...silly us, we just used our Bible. I preferred my jeans when other friends wore dresses only. Other friends covered their heads per 1 Corinthians 11 instructons, when I, in my heathen rebellion, I guess, cut off my hair and donated it to a company who would make wigs for critically ill children. See...we were just black sheep in our communities!

It was just a wake up call to truly understand that people really did look at those THINGS/ISSUES to measure holiness and righteousness by...and I wont even go into the fire storm that was created when we shared that God was leading us to put the kids in public school! You would have thought that we had renouced our faith and rejected our salvation!

So thanks to Pastor John, I am walking a lot more freely tonight and having a huge weight lifted from my spirit. Jesus said, "Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, for I will give you rest. My yoke is easy and my burden is light."

I am trading the yoke of legalism and human expectations for the yoke of Christ and his burden lifting commands....

I can almost hear Leon Patillo singing the old praise chorus now...
Go ye therefore and reach all nations...Go...Go...Go...
Go ye therefore and reach all nations...Go...Go...Go...
Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost....
GO! GO! GO.....

I am just going to trust in the finished work of Christ to keep me Holy and Set Apart for His glory...and I will do all I can to GO!!

For I know whom I have believed in,
and am persuaded that He is able
to keep that which I have commited
unto him against that day.

Dawn