Tuesday morning we had the opportunity to sleep in a little bit, because we did not have to be at the SCY pastors conference until 10:00. SCY stands for South Chennai Youth. Its a group of young pastors who started getting together several years ago when they were all youth pastors, but since then many of these guys have become senior pastors as well.
We try to have at least one meeting with these guys every year. Twice in the past, we rented out a resort for the day and had them bring their wives and spent an entire day with them, including meals, games, fellowship, and plenty of good teaching. But this year we did not have the extra $1000 in the budget, so we met with the guys at one of their churches, and had two 1-hr sessions. Zach spoke first, teaching about enduring hardship as good soldiers of jesus Christ, giving examples of lessons he learned in the last year of ministry. Then I spoke on a few different points that help me keep an attitude of humility in ministry, spring boarding off of a quote by Warren Wiersbe. “Ministry is not something we do for God. Ministry is something God does through us.”
We received a lot of feedback form the pastors pretty much immediately following the meeting. The subjects we discussed happened to be the exact thing that was pressing them the most at that time in their ministry. Its always pretty cool to find out that God has worked it out like that and used you to be a blessing or an answer to someones prayer. We think we are just sitting down and preparing something of substance that we intend to share, but God in his providence is setting it up so that we can speak for Him into people’s lives. What a blessing for all of us, and an opportunity to give Him the glory He deserves. Praise the Lord!
In the evening, we had a meeting at City Rock Church, which is a relatively new church in Chennai. The meeting Tuesday night was geared towards young people from late teens to early twenties. The same people we taught at the BUILD conference we instrumental in setting this event up. They brought in a bunch of fired up youth and had them bring non-Christian friends to the event, where we had some excellent music, some funny skits, great dancing, and gave them the gospel. The music was really cranked up and loud, and the skits were a hit with everyone. Then they did some cool dances.
Music and dance are a big part of Indian culture. Any movie or television show you watch is like a musical, with dance scenes about every 10 minutes. So these young people have a group that meets and comes up with dances that incorporate a gospel message into them. Its pretty cool to see.
Linda gave her testimony to the kids, and I preached a short gospel message to them. Around a dozen or so of them responded to the call of salvation, and prayed to receive God’s forgiveness. This was a really great night for us. We are exceptionally passionate about reaching the younger generation with the gospel, and getting them excited about following and serving Christ. It has been amazing working with them this week and seeing them bearing fruit for God’s kingdom here in Chennai. We look forward to continuing to work with them over the coming years.
Wednesday is our last day in Chennai. This morning, we had a pastors conference at Christudoss’ church. We have been having conferences there every year for the past 4 years, and he packs the place out every time. Pastors come from as far away as Pondicherry, which is about 160 km away. This year, he requested that the theme of the day would be evangelism. Obviously I was thrilled to speak on that topic.
Apparently, a lot of the pastors and churches in India are not very zealous when it comes to outreach. He told me that a lot of the pastors are content to just minister to their people and not be bothered with reaching the community with the gospel. Its sad when people fall into the trap of just doing the cliquey church thing and forget that the reason we are here as the church is to be the light of the world. Sound familiar?
In the first session, I spoke on the importance of evangelism, and how our love for God and love for people should motivate us to obey what He says and preach the gospel. I gave many verses to them and stressed that God has called us to GO in to the world.
In the second session, I continued on by reminding them of the fate of the ungodly, talking about the reality of hell and the eternal judgement of the unsaved. Compassion for the lost should swallow our fears and give us a sense of urgency in getting the gospel out.
Then I gave them a bunch of Scriptures on biblical evangelism. That is, how to actually share the gospel, and give the whole counsel of God when you do it. Its extremely important that we share the biblical message of the gospel, and not a watered down or corrupted version that ends up hurting more that helping those we intend to win.
Honestly, I thought that this would be pretty boring, elementary stuff for these men, but they really appreciated the teaching. Many of them confessed that they had grown lazy or complacent when it comes to evangelism, and were convicted and committed to becoming more zealous in soul winning.
That is it for ministry on this trip! We have a few hours left until we head to the airport, so we are currently packing our bags and getting ready for the long flight home. We have a 4 hour flight to Dubai, a 3 hour layover there, and then a 15 hour flight to Seattle. Its pretty amazing when you stop to think about the fact that in just 22 hours, you can travel quite comfortably to the other side of the world. 150 years ago, it would have taken months to complete such a journey. The modern day missionary has so many advantages that the church has never known before. I thank God that He has chosen to use our teams year after year to fulfill His work.
Thank you for your prayers and support. We are so grateful that you have partnered with us in this ministry. We are the lucky ones who get to be here, but we wouldn’t be without you behind us. You have an equal share in the rewards of this ministry. We thank you and bless you for it.