Mobilize People to Fulfill the Great Commission
What do the words God, gospel, and good news have in common? You can’t spell any of them without "GO."
Jesus commands us to GO into all the world and preach the good news to all people.
Missions is Who We Are
At Idlewild Church, we believe missions is not what we do, it's who we are. Taking inspiration from Acts 1:8, our desire is to reach people and help them walk with God whether it is in our community or to the ends of the earth.
The light that shines the brightest at home also shines the furthest. Because of this truth, we challenge our congregation to an annual kingdom investment; an opportunity to “love loud” in our city and across the globe. For one of the initiatives, we wanted to get 500 families in our church to each sponsor a child through Compassion International, and as a result, 503 children were sponsored.
Meeting My Sponsored Child
As a pastor, I am of the conviction that I can’t ask my church to be involved in something that I wouldn’t be involved in. I wanted to see the Compassion model for myself. So, to celebrate the sponsorship victory, I flew to Bogota, Colombia to meet Luis Daniel Padilla Montoya, the child I support through Compassion.
When I spent the day with Luis, I saw everything from his medical records to his discipleship spiritual growth chart. Luis loves to talk about Jesus! I also saw how my support extends to the child’s family and beyond. Luis’ translator, Leo, was actually saved because of his work translating messages of hope through Compassion letters for the children.
A Tool That Helps Mobilize Our People
I knew from that experience that my investment in Compassion is being used for the glory of God. Compassion works as a mission tool in our church because it helps mobilize our people to fulfill the Great Commission. It allows people to do missions personally.
Whatever our church does, we want to know that we are making a difference. The families in our church who are sponsoring Compassion children are changing lives around the world as well as in our community.
Luis and Leo in Colombia are two examples of Great Commission work. And when you multiply this by the hundreds of families sponsoring children, we know we are making an eternal impact.
Also, these families are teaching their own children to be compassionate and to live with purpose. As a body of believers, we are growing in our culture of generosity.
Worldwide Influence
Compassion allows us to have influence in parts of the world that Idlewild Church alone wouldn’t have. This is a chance to not only provide a better or longer life for a child, but an eternal one.
The gospel is still changing lives. And one day when we get to Heaven, we will be reminded that what we did for the least of these, we did for Him.