Hey guys!

Here are three things to spark your inner missional flame:

💥 INSPIRED BY

Art as Avenue for the Gospel In New Zealand

I once went on a CRU summer trip to New Zealand during my college years. I had contemplated even joining staff because I saw the impact campus ministry had on myself and others.

The trip’s mission was simple: many students from unreached people groups studied abroad in New Zealand. Let’s try and share Christ with them in this third space.

I remember attempting the typical drive-by evangelism strategy. The one where you intrude upon a stranger, catching them off-guard, and trying to quickly share the gospel.

This fell shortly as quick as it does in America. I guess awkwardness is a universal language.

But CRU had something special in their back pocket: Soularium cards.

Soularium is a bundle of 50 5” X 7” high gloss print cards featuring an assortment of creative photography. What we did was lay out these cards all over a table in the commons area at the university and allowed the imagery to do the work itself.

Numerous people were drawn in to inquire what we were doing.

Upon telling them we were Christians from America looking to share Jesus with others, some turned away. But others did not.

Some leaned into the images.

We asked a few open ended questions:

• Which image best represents your life right now?
• Which image best represents where you hope your life will go?
• Which image best represents the greatest issue in the world?
• Which image best represents your greatest problem?

For those who seemed sustained in this dialogue, we would then use the cards to walk through a simple gospel presentation.

While I could not tell you the number of converts or baptisms that came from this, I will say with confidence that the nuance of the arts builds bridges of trust with strangers half a world away.

🛠️ EQUIPPED BY

Making is our Mission

To be an artist implies you use that skill. Using your craft gives artists the right to call themselves, “artists.” So it is with Christians. Being a disciple of Christ implies your whole life permeates with the life and love of Jesus. We were designed to use what God gave us and steward it.

Every time I make something, something that did not exist now exists in the world to be useful and beautiful for whomever. When I say “designed to make” I mean God gave us gifts to invest into the world for his kingdom. Whatever He’s given us, make something with it. When Jesus was asked about the end of the world, notice his commands and parable implications from Matthew 24-25. As the disciples and Jesus interact about the destruction about the temple, he says things like this:

• Watch out that no one deceives you about signs of Jesus’ return (24:4)
• See that you are not alarmed…the end is not yet (24:6)
• The one who endures to the end will be delivered (24:13)
• If anyone tells you ‘Look, here is the Messiah’… do not believe it (24:23)
• Take note of what Jesus is saying here [his coming will be very apparent] (24:25)
• Learn the parable of the fig tree: seeing these things means the end is near (24:32-34)
• Be alert (24:42), Know this (24:43), Be ready (24:44)
• Faithful is the one… (24:45)
• …the master who finds the slave working… (24:46)
• The virgins who were ready for the bridegroom’s return went in with him to the wedding banquet. Those not ready were not welcome (25:10)
• Therefore, be alert, because you don’t know either the day or the hour of the master’s return (25:13)
• Invest God’s gifts: The faithful are those who invest their talents God gave them (25:14-30)
• Invest in: the needy, hungry, thirsty, stranger, sick, naked, prisoners (25:35-36)

Allow this passage to sink in.

Those who bury their gifts, who do not use them to serve the “least of these” will be sent to the furnace of Hell, forever.

🚀 SENT WITH

Steven Pressfield

-Matt