Beyond the Boundaries

Through the years, I have often found myself drawn to a particular passage of Scripture for a period of time. One that is currently n my mind is from 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 (The Message):

Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have oluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of
people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!

As the culture changes around the doorstep of our churches are we becoming servants to those outside the doors. How are we as associations helping the churches and pastors we work with to become all things to all men? Have we entered the world of other cultures? Are we becoming servants to those who are different and least expects it in order to share the gospel with them? Are we assisting our churches in how to reach outside of themselves to touch the lives of the various cultures around us? And, I am not talking only about people with a different skin color or different native language.

Some days I make it through the day and realize that my contact with that wide range of people has been very limited. The challenge is for me – I want to enter the world of those different and sometimes in my attempt to speak “their language” I fall flat on my face. But, I get up and I try again another day.

One of the churches I work with, for the last two summers, has done Grace (Baptist Church) in the park. They have done some evenings and some mornings. When the service is over then the grill comes out and the inflatable bouncer and obstacle course goes up. As a result, they are crossing the cultural boundaries. We see cowboy churches and motorcycle churches. In the coming year, lets help our churches cross the boundaries in an attempt to lead others into a God-saved life!

Jim Pratt
Area Missionary, Siouxland Association
South Dakota