Ministry

Christmas was a fun time. Kay and I received greetings from staff friends around the world. Friends in Asia, in the Middle East, in Europe, in Africa sent Christmas greetings. We heard from so many of our U.S. donors and friends.

We had the privilege of spending time with our children and grandchildren and parents in Texas.

Many of the Christmas greetings we received and the family updates came by email or an electronic greeting card, especially from our friends around the world. It’s fun to live in an internetworked, connected world where we can communicate so easily and inexpensively. Some of the Christmas greetings came from people I’ve never met in person, but we’ve met and worked together in online forums as members of “virtual” teams that work together online.

Kay and I, as individual staff members of Campus Crusade for Christ, have a very large network of friends and associates living and ministering around the globe. We know a small fraction of the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ.

When I put on my “Chief Technology Officer hat”, I realize how important it is for our ministry to know who our staff are around the world, where they are ministering, how it is going, how we can help them more. But currently, we do not have a global system where all our staff are known.

This might sound atrocious, but at our core, we are a highly decentralized group of individuals called together by God and bound together by our passion to know Him and to make Him known. Our staff are well known within each individual country, but not as well “known” across geographic and continental boundaries.

This hasn’t been a significantly limiting issue until recent years. With God’s gift of the internet to speed missions and allow us to win boldly, build deeply and send urgently using email, web, chat, video and other internet technologies, geographic barriers no longer exist.

We can also work together as staff members across these geographic boundaries. This happens every day in Campus Crusade for Christ. We have teams of people working on common projects where some live in Asia, some live in Europe, some live in North America. We work as a single team because God has provided communication that no other generation of missionaries has ever had.

We now have a greater need to know who the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ are at a global level. We need to know who to invite into some of these projects.

To put this project into perspective, imagine a project to know all the church members in your city, in all churches, that is accurate every week. How would you begin such a project?

So I am on the road again. In an airplane seat again. I left my best traveling buddy (Kay) behind in Orlando. I’m making a short trip to Singapore where for a meeting top global leadership to begin addressing the issue of how to create a global human resources system so that we can know who our staff are, how God has gifted them, where they live, how they are ministering and contributing to the Great Commission, and other simple information.

We’ll launch this project with a physical meeting in a geographic place (Singapore). We’ll mostly work the project through internet communication tools like email, Skype telephone, Oovoo video conferencing, Global ConneXion virtual teaming, and WebEx online meetings.

Living as a missionary in 2008 is filled with tremendous possibilities that never existed for previous generations of missionaries. It’s a tremendous time to help everyone know someone who truly follows Jesus.

Global cell phone use at 50 percent – Yahoo! News

I read today that the number of cellphone subscriptions now is half the population of the planet.

Worldwide mobile telephone subscriptions reached 3.3 billion — equivalent to half the global population — on Thursday, 26 years after the first cellular network was launched…

What does that mean to you? I thought about it. To me, it sounds like half the planet is only a phone conversation away from hearing the real meaning of Christmas. Emmanuel — God with us. Half the planet is only a text message or a web page away from knowing about Jesus.
It sounds to me like we’ve got work to do, co-laborers.

Kay and I were on a flight from Dallas to Atlanta as we returned to Orlando. I sat next to Matt.

Matt was returning to Charleston from a medical mission project in Mexico. He was very excited and deeply touched by the things he had witnessed. He told me story after story of suffering and deprivation . One thing I’ve learned is to never assume people have made a personal decision to accept Christ. As I talked with Matt, I asked him one of my favorite questions, “How would you describe your spiritual journey? Where are you in your journey?” His response surprised me. “I’m wandering.”

The Delta Airlines seat assignment system had been used by God to make a divine appointment. Kay and I are people who truly follow Jesus. And Matt needs to know people who truly follow Jesus.

Matt lives off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina. He told me proudly that he lives in the 62nd most prosperous zip code in the U.S. He is the son of a pastor. But he was hurt deeply as a young man by “people in the church”, as he put it. He does attends a church with his wife and children “because it’s good to be exposed to church stuff as long as the people are nice.”

But Matt doesn’t know Jesus. Matt is growing in his awareness that there is more to life than owning a home in the 62nd most prosperous zip code. God used the medical mission trip in surprising ways that touched Matt deeply.

As we parted in the airport , I gave Matt a booklet that speaks to young professionals. The booklet begins, “You invest in yourself daily — education, relationships, career. But have you ever considered the value of investing in the spiritual aspect of your life? The following four principles will help you succeed spiritually through a personal relationship with God.” I encouraged Matt to seek out a small Bible study group of similar young professionals to explore the spiritual aspect of his life.

So in this season of giving thanks, Kay and I are so very thankful for God’s faithfulness in our lives. We are thankful for His allowing us to serve as His ambassadors helping people find purpose and meaning in life. We are thankful for friends and partners who pray and give so that we can work around the world, and also so that we can speak to the guy sitting in the next airplane seat.