A Stone's Throw

Ran across this post of a pastor in Springfield.  They are starting a new series called “ImpACT.”  They are going to be talking about fighting four global giants: Disease, Poverty, Illiteracy, and Spiritual Emptiness. I absolutely love this idea that we CAN make a difference here and around the globe!

I have been a fan of Rick Warren as well since I was in seminary and he has a similar project that he and his wife Kaye have been working on to eliminate these Global Giants. They call it the P.E.A.C.E. Plan.

So what is the P.E.A.C.E. plan? (From their website thepeaceplan.com)

There are five giant problems that affect billions of people on our planet  We call them Global Giants.

Spiritual Emptiness Billions live without hope, and in conflict.  They don’t know that they’re not an accident, and that Jesus Christ died for them so that their past can be forgiven, they can have a purpose for living, and they can have a home in heaven.

Self-serving Leadership Jesus said leadership is about serving, and if you want to be great, learn to be the servant of all.  The goal of leadership is not to see how many people help you, but how many people you help.

Extreme Poverty Half the world lives on less than two dollars a day–three billion people are in extreme poverty.

Pandemic Diseases Billions of people are still suffering from diseases that we know the cure for, and that’s unconscionable.

Rampant Illiteracy Half the population of the world–three billion people–is functionally illiterate.  How can anybody make it in the twenty-first century if they can’t read or write?

These giants loom so large that no one person or organization can provide significant relief.  The United Nations hasn’t been the solution.  Governments haven’t.  Businesses haven’t.  None of these have the advantages the church has.  The church has the biggest distribution, the most people, and the greatest motivation–love.

So we have developed The P.E.A.C.E. Plan to attack the world’s five Global Giants:

P – Promote reconciliation (by planting churches)

E – Equip leaders

A – Assist the poor

C – Care for the sick

E – Educate the next generation

If you do a simple Google search on “The P.E.A.C.E. Plan,” you will get a lot of negative things that come up as well.  Mainly legalistic, fundamentalist, Americans who don’t like Purpose Driven or Rick Warren or megachurches who have a website and rant about the dangers of such a thing.  Yeah, dangers like billions of people having the possibility of their life being changed by the Gospel.  Billions of people who might be helped to get out of extreme poverty. Billions of people who are educated so they can become successful in helping others.  Billions of people being saved from diseases that we as Americans are not effected because of modern medicine.

Bottom line.  How can it be a bad thing that the Church of Jesus Christ become mobilized to do what God intended it to do in the first place?  For these folks who are ranting against this idea of the P.E.A.C.E plan, I would like to know what their plan is for fighting these giants!

I hope that we can all begin to think globally and think with the Gospel in mind in everything that we do.  Hats off to Pastor Tommy as you endeavor to make your people aware of these global giants and vow to do something about it!

What are some practical things we can do to help attack these global giants?

Tommy Sparger Would you like to change the world?.

Mark Batterson has a new book coming out later this year called “Primal: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity.” His book “In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day” was an extremely influential book in my personal leadership and spiritual pilgrimage. I read it all the way through in the middle of the night…I couldn’t put the book down.  It came at a time in my life when I was extremely open to the concepts and I really did take some risks that I felt God was calling me to do.

I am currently reading through his second book, “Wild Goose Chase” on my Kindle 2.  Really enjoying his book on the Holy Spirit along with a companion book, “Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit” by Francis Chan.  I have been studying and learning about the doctrine of the Holy Spirit lately.

The publisher, Waterbrook-Multnomah is giving away 500 copies of Primal to bloggers who would review the book.  I would hardly call myself a blogger of any significance. However, I love books…and Mark Batterson books…and Batterson lived in SGF for a while in college…and I lived in SGF for a long time–and college too!  Anyway, a guy can hope for a free book, can’t he?

Amazon.com: Primal: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity (9781601421319): Mark Batterson: Books.

I came across this post from the Lifechurch.tv/Swerve folks and it made a lot of sense in regards to my recent post, and particularly John’s comment.

Interesting post.  I have had the same statements from people…especially when they are “checking us out.”  You can always tell when people have left their old church and are reluctantly looking for another place to worship–not necessarily a place to serve and sink their heart into for the long haul.  They have a lot of expressions like, “well at our old church, we did X…you ought to do that…that might be a good idea for you to do.”  I believe it was Rick Warren who said at a church planting conference I attended, “just respond back to those people, ‘Why don’t you just go back to your old church, be reconciled with them, and we will all be better for it.’” That takes courage to actually say that, but it is true.

Much like in a counseling setting; if you are not willing to work on it and put some of the things into practice, you are wasting the counselor’s and your time both!

I love this statement in the post:

I’m asking God to empower me to move people from “going to church” to “being the church.” When they stop going and start being, the church goes from yours to mine.

Lord, let that be our prayer as well!

Making It “Their” Church – LifeChurch.tv : swerve.