Some Of What Nick Shock Is Thinking About

When Jada and I moved to the Austin area over 5 years ago, we knew how to “do church”, but we were terrible missionaries.  We longed to reach people outside of the church, but we had become focused on implementing the “build it and they will come” strategy. For years, we allowed ourselves to be so busy creating programs and pulling off events in the church, that we rarely shared the Gospel with anyone outside of the four walls of the church building.  Personally, I could share the Gospel from a platform all day long, but found myself moving past neighbors, waiters, checkout clerks, etc. without engaging any of them in spiritual conversation. 

As we made the move, we asked God to teach us to live “sent lives” in all of life.  At first it was akward and painful…like trying to learn to ride a bike.  I struggled in conversations with people who did not believe the same things I do.  Sadly, I needed to reformat my spiritual hard drive and begin to see that I am just as jacked-up and in need of the Gospel as people outside the church community. I was afraid to offend people and so we would get to know them and never talk about Jesus.  At other times I would get impatient and go into “evangelism mode” like we had been trained to do for so many years.  Through it all, we just kept praying that we would see people the way that God does and love them enough to communicate the good news of the Gospel to them. 

Thankfully, God started to grow us and we began learning how to be effective missionaries. Now, as we are starting another local church in a different part of the Austin area, we are being stretched again and growing in new ways.  We are not planting a church service in South Austin, we are planting a group of missionaries to our city to be the church demonstrating and declaring the Gospel.  We are praying for people to know the love and truth of God through tangible acts of service and our willingness to speak about who God is and what He has done.  Here’s some of what we have learned, and maybe this will be helpful to you as well. 

1. Being an effective missionary begins on our face.  This seems simple enough, yet few of us actually spend significant time in prayer.  Jesus withdrew regularly to pray and told His disciples to wait in prayer before they started the work of accomplishing the mission of making disciples of all nations.  Yes, we are sent, but not without God’s Spirit.  If we do not pray, we are fools.  We will attempt to do what God has directed us to do without the power He provides.  In addition, we will not be aware and available when He puts opportunities in front of us.

2. Seeing God rightly is our greatest motivation for sharing the Gospel.  To say this differently, worship is the fuel for mission.  I used to think that if I could focus enough on the spiritual condition and eternal destination of others I would be moved to witness to them.  However, when we forget who God is in all of His glory, greatness, grace, and goodness, we will not talk about Him to others.  When I am struggling to be motivated to share the Gospel with others, it is because I have lost sight of Him and the good news of the redemption He is inviting us to experience.  When we are renewed in our awe of him, we can’t keep from talking about Him.

3. Reflecting on the Gospel message continually, is the most effective way to move away from mechanical Gospel presentations to applying the good news to every broken aspect of the our lives.  If the only reason we share the Gospel message is to get someone to give mental assent to a set of ideas and pray a prayer after us so that we feel accomplished as Christians, we are missing the point.  When we believe the Gospel at our core, we see how it changes everything.  This means that every conversation is a spiritual one with the opportunity to point people to Jesus. 

4. Accomplishing the mission of proclaiming the Gospel to all nations is impossible in isolation.  We cannot sustain mission without the people of God encouraging us, challenging us, and celebrating with us.  The church is that group of people, spiritual family, and the mission of the Gospel is what birthed the Church. As I heard recently from Alan Hirsch, “the church does not have a mission as much as the mission has a church.”

In my daily Bible reading I read Deuteronomy 11 yesterday.  Verse 2 stopped me dead in my tracks!  It says, “You must understand today that it is not your children who experienced or saw the discipline of the Lord your God…” He continues by briefly summarizing God’s rescue of them from Egypt.  Then, the writer concludes with verse 7 saying, “Your own eyes have seen every great work the Lord has done.”

As I sat and reflected on this, I was again reminded of the responsibility that I have as a Gospel-believing parent to help my children know and understand who God is.  If they don’t know who He is, it’s not their fault, it’s mine!  I must take every opportunity to share the stories of God’s grace and power in my life.  The stories of transformation and deliverance.  Here’s some reasons why I can struggle to remind my kids who God is and what He has done…

1) I assume they are getting it.  This is so dangerous to make the assumption that because my kids are growing up in our home that they “get it.”  As I have heard a number of times, what is assumed in one generation is forgotten in the next, and completely abandoned in the next.

2) I don’t want to talk to them about my sin.  I am afraid I will lose credibility with my children if I share my own struggles and weaknesses.  The truth is they need to hear that I am a sinner in need of a savior just like they are, or they will just see me as a hypocrite unwilling to own my struggles.  This will cause them to create their own patterns of pride and arrogance.

3) I don’t prioritize it.  I simply don’t make the time or take the opportunities when we are together to talk about the most important thing I could talk about…God!  I can actually spend more time trying to invest in others and help them get it and neglect my own children if I am not careful.  I am going to be held accountable before God, first and foremost for how I stewarded my family.

4) I forget who God is and what God has done.  How quickly we forget.  Just like the people of Israel, we allow the difficulties and realities of today to block out the faithfulness of God in the past.

In verses 18-21 God gives us practical wisdom on how to actually teach our kids about Him.  He says to impress them on their hearts and minds by teaching them when you sit, when walk, when you lay down, and when you get up.  He says to write His words on the doorposts and gates.  We should saturate their lives with God.  Every opportunity we get, we should be talking about Him.  We have to help them see Him in every aspect of life.

God, I’m praying that I will not neglect the amazing responsibility I have to tell my children who you are and what you have done.  Please keep me mindful and motivated to teach them over and over so that they will never forget your greatness and your grace in our lives! I recognize that it’s not their fault if they don’t know about you, it’s mine!- amen

I was asked by a family member to give her some insight on how to best evaluate the student pastor at her church. The student pastor deserves props for asking for some honest feedback on how he’s doing in his role. I took a few minutes to brain dump the following thoughts.

Three Areas-

Godliness- How is his passion for God? Is he demonstrating a gospel-focused heart through actions that reflect grace and truth, confidence and humility, compassion and accountability? What evidence shows he is growing in his love for God and people? Is he a person of character? Does he give God the glory for success or is the focus on himself? Are the fruit of the spirit evident?

Effectiveness- Is he skillful in his work? Is the ministry producing fruit? (Growing numerically and in depth?) Is there clarity about the vision and purpose, and is progress being made towards accomplishing it?

Excellence- Is he doing the work for the glory of God? Is he a hard worker? Is he implementing his ideas not simply talking about them? Is he getting a gifted team involved? Is he continually learning and improving?

Three Focuses-

Students- Does he love and care for students? Does he know and seek to disciple them? Is he studying students to know how to speak into their worlds accurately and biblically? Are students following him? Are unbelieving students coming to faith?

Parents- Is he working to partner with parents? Does he communicate with them effectively? Do parents trust him? Are parents involved in the life of the student ministry? Are the number of parents connected to the church growing because of the student ministry? Is he spending time with parents consistently to build into them and cast vision to them about their role?
Leaders- Is he equipping lay leaders to the work of ministry. (Ephesians 4) Is he building the ministry around himself or multiplying ministry through many equipped leaders? Is the ministry increasing the number of qualified, equipped leaders? Is he able to cast a compelling vision to leaders? Are leaders loyal to him?

Thoughts? Additions?

This past weekend I went on a quick shopping trip to track down a new shirt for Easter.  We’re trying to do the matching thing with the family so we can get that all-important Easter pic where we are all dressed in our bright spring colors.  So, as I was walking through the store in search of the right shirt for the right price, I was thinking about this idea of new clothes.  It seems that almost every Easter I get a new shirt, Jada finds a new dress, the girls get new matching dresses, and Leif get’s a new shirt to coordinate.   I remember doing this growing up as well.  Why?  In part because that’s just what you do.  You get something new to wear for Easter.

But, as I was mulling over this, God prompted my heart to remember the spiritual parallel of this habit.  You see, as believers in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus that we will celebrate, we have been given “new clothes.”  In the Garden of Eden, we see sin stripping humanity naked as it reveals our ugly prideful rebellion.  Adam and Eve were driven to clothe themselves because of the guilt and shame that entered their minds and hearts.

However, God in his loving mercy provides clothes to cover them physically.  More importantly, this moment of provision points to a greater provision.  Not one of physical clothing, but of spiritual.  The animal skins covered the outside, but could not cover the gaping new wound on the inside.  Only God could remedy this ugly reality.  Like a fashion designer from What Not to Wear, God declares that those clothes would not do.  They were insufficient.  Temporary.

Humanity would try to fix the problem.  Covering our lives with the stylish threads of good works.  But like a bad outfit gone wrong, the man-made clothing was not remotely appropriate.  Actually, despite all the hard work nothing more than filthy rags.  Only God could step in and send a legit covering.  And that’s what He did.  Jesus covers us.  These “new clothes” are comprised of the righteous works of Christ through his blood shed on the cross.  Isaiah 61 says it this way,

¹⁰ I delight greatly in the LORD ;
my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

So, this Easter as we slip on that new piece of clothing we picked up at the store, may we ultimately worship more fully as we consider the righteous clothing we received at the Cross!  Happy Easter Week To All!  He Is Alive!