Steve Addison's Blog, page 29

May 22, 2021

The Missionary Spirit of Pentecost

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Jesus had risen from the dead, he had restored his failed disciples, he had spent forty days taking them through the Scriptures from Genesis to the Malachi explaining why the Messiah had to die and rise again. Finally he gave them their missionary task—take the message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins to the nations and make disciples by baptising them and teaching them to obey everything he has commanded. As they go, Jesus promised to be with them.

What else do they need? They have the message and the mission, they have the promise of his presence, yet Jesus says “Wait. Don’t go until the Spirit comes with power.” The church in Jerusalem is born in prayer, prayer in anticipation of the Spirit who will take them to the ends of the earth.

When the Spirit came in power at Pentecost he came upon every disciple, not just the apostles. Every disciple—young and old, male and female, rich and poor—they all received the full measure of the Spirit’s power.

Words can be made to mean whatever we want them to. The word mission can be made to mean anything we want it to. That’s why God gave us the book of Acts, it’s his commentary on what our mission should look like.

What do we find in Acts? The people of God taking the Word to the ends of the earth in the power of the Spirit. The fruit of their mission are new disciples and reproducing churches in every place. The Word grows in power and multiplies resulting in discipling communities scattered throughout major cities and spreading into the surrounding towns and countryside. This is a movement of multiplying disciples and churches.

That’s what we’re aiming at. That’s what it means to be a missional movement. Everything else is a distraction. No matter where our theologies and missiologies and seminal thought leaders take us, we must keep returning to the core missionary task in the power of the Spirit.

Want to learn more? Read Your Part in God’s Story and sign up for the 40-Day Challenge.

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Published on May 22, 2021 15:02

May 20, 2021

May 18, 2021

When leaders fall we should all tremble before God

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So yet another high profile leader betrays his wife and his Lord — not in a moment of weakness but after months, even years, of deception.

A common response is let’s blame the other tribe, for instance those successful, megachurch, leaders with too much money and power. Then what about the internationally recognised theologian, ethicist and social justice advocate abused scores of women over decades? Then there was the greatest Protestant theologian of the 20th Century who was an adulterer who brought his mistress to live in the family home with his wife and children. An African church planter wants a second wife and threatens to take his network of churches back into Islam if it is not permitted. The founder of a world-renowned ministry to the disabled was an abuser of women. A model pastor who drew tens of thousands to his leadership summits was forced out of his church in disgrace.

Before we blame that other tribe, or the patriarchy, tremble before God.

One of my heroes is Floyd McClung. Decades ago I heard him say, “I pray the fear of God upon my life every day.” I never forgot that lesson. Guard your heart before God.

Here’s another poor response — “God has already forgiven him before he asks, he should forgive himself.” That’s not forgiveness, that’s permissiveness. God’s love is holy. Paul told the Corinthians because of their abuse of the Lord’s Supper, some of them are sick and some have died. Why does God judge in this life? So we won’t face final condemnation with the world (1 Cor 11:3). God judges people in this life to protect them from a worse fate.

It’s a work of grace when God waits for us to turn back to him. It’s a work of grace when he exposes us so we might turn back to him. It’s a work of grace when he judges us in this life that we might turn back to him and avoid final judgement.

The great temptations for leaders are money, sex and power (fame is one form of power). What are we to do about them?

Years ago I heard Arch Hart say Christian leaders worry too much about morals and not enough about ethics. Ethics are the guard rail at the top of the lookout so you don’t fall off the mountain. Morality is the ambulance at the bottom of the mountain.

Morality asks, should I give this attractive woman a reassuring hug after our private conversation in her home? Ethics says, I’m not going past the front door if it’s just the two of us. David should have been in the field with his army, not spying on Bathsheba bathing. Build ethical boundaries in your life and make sure you’re accountable.

Pray for the fear of God, don’t take his holy love for granted. Do not neglect such a great salvation. Do not crucify again the Son of God. If we keep on sinning, living a lie, refusing to seek his mercy, we are in eternal danger (Heb 10:26-27). Let the fear of God awaken us to his loving mercy. Bring sin into the light. Put it right now. Flee immorality. Our failures are not the final word. There will be painful consequences. David lost the child born to Bathsheba. His kingdom and his family was torn by civil war, but God forgave him and restored him.

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Published on May 18, 2021 14:04

May 13, 2021

Eating Dust on the Damascus Road

Paul Damascus Road - Caravaggio

Paul Damascus Road - Caravaggio

I’m on Day 30 of the 40-Day Challenge. It’s the story of Saul/Paul’s conversion and call. I’m struck by Jesus’ authority as he confronts this destroyer of the church. Whatever inner turmoil Paul may have been experiencing, Luke doesn’t mention it. Paul is determined to go to Damascus and Jesus stands in his way.

Jesus wrestles Paul to the ground and accuses him of persecuting God’s Messiah by persecuting God’s people. God strikes Paul blind and he is led by the hand into Damascus, helpless. For three days he doesn’t eat or drink, waiting for God’s next move.

Jesus takes charge of this man’s life. He humbles him, convicts him of sin, then he calls him, restores him and fills him with his Spirit. All Paul can do is obey the command to be baptised and have his sins washed away as he calls upon God’s mercy.

Paul doesn’t volunteer, he will be told how he will play his part in God’s plan.

He will face rejection and experience suffering, but God will rescue him. Paul will bring light where there is darkness. He will deliver people from the power of Satan to God. Paul will preach repentance and faith, resulting in the forgiveness of sins and inclusion of new disciples among God’s people.

The rest of Acts is a commentary on what that mission looks like.

This is Paul’s mission because it is God’s mission. Paul is not the second founder of Christianity, as some scholars claim, Paul was chosen and called by the Risen Lord Jesus and told what to do. He obeyed.

If at the end of the day our best thinking about mission leads us in a different direction, we might be wrong.

Want to learn more? Take the 40-Day Challenge .

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Published on May 13, 2021 03:02

May 10, 2021

Jesus Did Not Transform Jerusalem

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Jesus did not transform the city of Jerusalem, he prophesied its destruction. Yet there is a recurring tendency to drift from the core missionary task under the false assumption that it’s our mission to transform this world.

The place to begin is with the life and ministry of Jesus. What did he do, what did he train his disciples to do, what does the risen Lord continue to do through Paul and the early church?

One thing is clear, Jesus did not transform the city of Jerusalem or the nation of Israel. He prophesied the city’s destruction under the judgment of God. Jesus didn’t come to throw out the Romans, he came to call tax-collectors and soldiers to repent and believe and join with those who would follow him as Lord.

Jesus made disciples, he called sinners to repentance and faith in him. In the account of the woman who wept at his feet, he announced to a room filled with judgmental men that her sins were many, yet they were forgiven. That’s why her love for him was so strong.

When the crowds sought bread, and nothing more than bread he walked away. When the people wanted miracles and nothing more than miracles—Jesus handed them over to God’s judgment. Woe to you Chorazin! Woe to you Bethsaida! Woe to you Capernaum! Not much transformation there. When the devil offered Jesus political and cultural power he would not bow the knee. He chose the cross instead. He died for the sins of the world.

When Jesus rose from the dead he had 40 days to restore his disciples and prepare them for a world-wide mission. He took them from Genesis to Malachi and showed them why the messiah had to suffer and die, then rise from the dead. He explained God’s purposes throughout the whole of Scripture now culminating in the mission to go into the world and proclaim the message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. They are to make disciples of every people group by baptising them and teaching them to obey what he commanded—nothing about transforming this city or transforming the world. Instead Jesus promised his disciples persecution and hardship and promised his presence.

Jesus will return to judge the world. Transformation will come. There will be a new heaven and a new earth on the other side of God’s judgement. Until then we have a job to do.

But don’t rely on what I think. Take the 40-Day Challenge and journey from Genesis to Revelation expecting Jesus to open your mind to the purposes of God and the part you are to play.

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Published on May 10, 2021 05:31

May 5, 2021

247-Multiplying Movements Among Unreached People Groups

Stan Parks tells the story of multiplying movements among unreached people groups in SE Asia. He's been a movement catalyst for almost thirty years.

Find out more at 2414now.net

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Published on May 05, 2021 16:32

May 4, 2021

How the Emerging Missional Consensus Gets it Wrong

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In Wright On Mission I wrote about the emerging consensus on the nature of the church’s mission in the world. That consensus has been building for over a century and it’s wrong. Like a plastic pot plant, it won’t grow and it won’t multiply. We’ve seen it all before.

The nineteenth century gave birth to a student missionary movement on both sides of the Atlantic that resulted in thousands taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. Their motto was, “The evangelisation of the world in this generation.”

These pioneers paved the way for Christianity to become a truly world faith in the twentieth century.

To take stock of the advances and plan the way forward, a World Missionary Conference was held in Edinburgh In 1910. This conference became a series of conferences which gave birth to the World Council of Churches. A student missionary movement morphed into an ecclesiastical bureauracy.

At the same time liberal Protestantism was on the rise in the West seeking to make the Christian faith relevant to modern man. Human reason and experience was elevated above the Scriptures so that every new generation and every individual could interpret the Christian faith for themselves. God was on a mission to transform the world through political and social movements. Mission became the pursuit of heaven on earth rather than Jesus’ command to make disciples of the nations.

Theological liberalism reached its zenith in the 1970s with the World Council of Church’s funding of revolutionary movements in Southern Africa. It has been in free-fall ever since.

While all this was going on there was a monumental shift in world Christianity from the Western, prosperous global North to the developing Global South. Christianity was no longer a dominant European and North American religion, it was increasingly the faith of Africans, Asians and Latin Americans.

When the world’s poor turned to Christianity the form they embraced had two key foundations: Biblical orthodoxy and a supernatural worldview. Indigenous Pentecostal, charismatic and evangelical movements where captured the hearts and minds of ordinary people in developing nations.

Despite the failure of liberal Protestantism, a new generation of Western evangelicals are drifting down the same path convinced that the church’s mission is to transform this world now. It appears this drift is cyclical.

The drift comes in both progressive and conservative varieties. Yesterday’s liberals have become today’s green-left progressives. There’s even a charismatic version in which the church’s mission is to rule in each of the seven mountains of social influence— family, religion, commerce, politics, education, media and the arts.

The progressive and conservative versions of transformational mission are mirror-images of one another. They have the same essential flaw—that our mission must prioritise the transformation of this world according to their understanding of the Kingdom of God.

Water that idea all you like, but like a plastic plant, it won’t grow and it certainly can’t reproduce.

*Adapted from The Rise and Fall of Movements: A Roadmap for Leaders.

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Published on May 04, 2021 23:10

Wright On Mission: The New Consensus

NT Wright (L) Christopher Wright (R)

NT Wright (L) Christopher Wright (R)

After 100 years of discussing and debating mission, there is now a consensus in the West about the nature of God’s mission in the world. According to leading missiologist, Christopher Wright (r), God is on a mission to renew the whole creation. Therefore our mission is to apply the redemptive power of the cross of Christ to all the effects of sin and evil in the surrounding lives, society and environment.

Here are some examples of what that looks like from leading New Testament scholar, NT Wright (r: they aren’t related).


The church must “go straight from worshipping in the sanctuary to debating in the council chamber—discussing matters of town planning, of harmonizing and humanizing beauty in architecture, in green spaces, in road traffic schemes, and … in environmental work, creative and healthy farming methods, and proper use of resources.


If it is true, as I have argued, that the whole world is now God’s holy land, we must not rest as long as that land is spoiled and defaced. This is not an extra to the church’s mission.


It is central.


So salvation means more than getting souls to heaven. Salvation involves political and economic justice, creation care, racial and gender equality. This is God’s mission and therefore mission of his church.

That’s the consensus. We are on a mission to transform the world.

Or are we?

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Published on May 04, 2021 11:13

April 22, 2021

246- From Megachurch to Multiplication with Chris Galanos

Chris Galanos tells the story of his journey from megachurch pastor to movement catalyst.

You can connect with Chris and access his training and resources at experiencelifenow.com.

To find out more about 2414 visit 2414now.net.

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Published on April 22, 2021 05:37

April 13, 2021

Don’t be dismayed by what’s happening in Germany

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The collapse of the established churches—both Protestant and Catholic—in Germany is nothing new. It’s the pattern of history, including Biblical history. Movements rise and they fall depending on the degree to which they identify with the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus.

The established churches in Germany have suffered for generations from failure of success. They have had a recognised and influential place in society, they are generously funded by taxes collected by the state, they have a well educated and well paid clergy. They own billions of euros/dollars worth of land and properties.

Yet attendances are in free-fall. I haven’t seen the figures, but for certain the membership will be ageing and dying at increasing rates with not much hope of replacement.

A growing percentage of the faithful no longer believe such central truths as the resurrection. They have a gospel of this world that echoes the concerns of privileged cultural elites. Congregations tend to follow, not lead the clergy into unbelief. Why would anyone want to share what faith they have left with others?

The failure of success will result in the decline and decay of religious institutions. That’s what has happened in Germany. Religious institutions decay rather than die. They can survive for generations on external life support.

Meanwhile God is always at work on the fringes breathing life into his people who, like Jesus, are obedient to his Word, dependent on the Holy Spirit and faithful to the core missionary task of multiplying disciples and churches everywhere.

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Published on April 13, 2021 18:42