This week’s post is sponsored by The Master’s Academy International (TMAI), a global network of pastoral training centers that specialize in expository preaching. They invite you to sign up for their 2023 International Symposium on March 7th in Los Angeles, California.

We sometimes hear that a mature church will be “all in” when it comes to missions, but we rarely define what that engagement can look like for every member of our church. 
In 2023, with an ever-growing wealth of technology at our fingertips and an abundance of Christian expertise in many sectors of society, the question of how whole churches can support missions requires a careful answer.
As an extension of pastors preaching God’s heart for the nations and how to reach them, is there also a way for them to train our business professionals, schoolteachers, musicians, and others to leverage even their vocational skills for the good of the global church? Is there more to supporting missions than sending money and men? 
We believe the answer to these questions is yes. And if you’re looking to shepherd your church towards greater maturity and missions-mindedness, we want to help you capture a vision for how to do that with all hands on deck. This is why you’re invited to join us at the 2023 International Symposium on March 7th, where we’ll enjoy keynote messages from John MacArthur, Conrad Mbewe, and Paul Washer. 
While “missions proper” will always remain the work of sending pastors and planting churches, “missions support” can get much more dynamic than sending dollars. In fact, we’ve seen our own support network exploring creative ways to help local churches advance the word, and in doing this, they are following a godward trajectory of thinking that was recovered in the Reformation.

What the Reformation Recovered for Us
Prior to the Reformation, it was easy to embrace a sharp divide between “sacred” and “secular” aspects of life. Priests were privileged to do “sacred work” while the 9:00-5:00 labors of the common churchman could be considered “secular.” In this thinking, the everyday work of Christians was easily distinguished from the holy purposes of God.
But when the Reformers recovered their Bibles, they also recovered biblical insights that could repair that disconnect and show us how the Lordship of Christ graciously governs everything we do. The Reformers reclaimed a clear commitment to the priesthood of all believers (Rev 1:6) and spoke about how every Christian’s work is sacred unto the Lord (1 Cor 10:31; Eph 6:5–9). In teaching this, God’s word helps us understand that what we do from Monday to Saturday matters in the grand purposes of God.
And yet, even today, it seems there are dots left to connect when it comes to how the gifts of every church member can integrate with the Great Commission.

Where the Bible Reforms Us Further
Despite the biblical perspectives recovered in the Reformation, it’s still easy to slip into the belief that if we aren’t missionaries, then our role in the Great Commission doesn’t extend far beyond our checkbooks.
And while financial support of missionaries is entirely biblical (2 Cor 8:1–4; 3 John 8), we would do well to realize that, as it was in the Bible, our wealth involves more than our money (cf. Deut 8:11–18). And this means that our support can involve more than a check.
Because of this, we want to help churches expand beyond a one-dimensional view of supporting missions and grow into a deeper, more holistic mobilization of the church body.
Whatever your skillset and stewardship, it’s no accident that you have your gifts at this time in church history. You need only to consider how you can employ your gifts in the service of God’s word around the world.
To help your church become more missions-minded, join us Tuesday, March 7.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

(Yesterday on the blog: Saved By the Quivering Of an Eye-Lid)
We Can’t Talk About Purity Culture without Talking About the 1990s
I really enjoy Samuel James’s reflections, whether on the past or the contemporary world. This new one is about purity culture.
Every Day I Climb The Mountain
“What if this momentary affliction that I experience every year is actually- in my weakness- giving God the opportunity to prepare me for something better? Maybe the darkness I face, part of the turmoil of this world, is the very thing that pushes me to seek God’s light and strength in ways that I otherwise wouldn’t have bothered.”
Resurrection Somehow
You will appreciate this reflection on the resurrection. “Not once in all his writings does he vacillate on the certainty of resurrection – in the experience of our Lord and, therefore, in that of his people. The principle is as firmly-tied to the person and work of the Saviour as it is possible to be, but the process, the actualising of resurrection for the believer, remains shrouded in a mystery that Paul is content to live with.”
What Does the Bible Say about Marriage?
Christoper Ash has a quick rundown on what the Bible says about marriage.
Continuance in Ministry
“I had a mentor who once told me, ‘It’s easy to start something in ministry, but it is very difficult to follow it through to the end.’ This is so very true.” Isn’t it, though?
Science Can’t Answer Transgenderism’s Deepest Questions
“Scientific studies can offer answers on outcomes and physiology. But they cannot tell us what it means to be male, female, or even human.” This article shows how science cannot answer the deepest (and, really, most important) questions about transgenderism.
Flashback: Taking Up a Collection in a Cashless World
…how do our churches make giving to the Lord an act of worship when, rather than being done corporately and manually, it is done electronically and automatically?

We have only to leave off watching and praying, and a noxious crop of unbelief will soon spring up. —J.C. Ryle

Do you remember the weeks and months leading to the release of Peter Jackson’s The Return of the King? Do you remember the buzz and anticipation that reached its crescendo in December of 2003? We had already enjoyed The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, films that had transported us to Middle Earth and gotten us deeply engaged in Tolkien’s world, characters, and lore. We knew it had all been leading to this—to the journey into Mordor, to the ascent of Mount Doom, and to the culminating battles between the forces of good and the forces of evil. We were ready. We were waiting. We were excited.

What none of us felt in the lead-up to the final film was fear or dread. We did not fear or dread the film because we knew it was right that a story that had begun should come to its close. We may have felt an element of sorrow that the story was ending and we would need to bid farewell to characters we had come to love, but we knew that it was good for us to come to its final chapter. And we longed to see and experience it.
There are many people who live in fear of old age, many who live in dread of reaching their twilight years. And in many ways this is understandable, for age brings with it inevitable sorrows and challenges. Life’s later years are rarely life’s easiest years, nor its least problematic. They bring the diminishing of abilities, the loss of friends, the narrowing of life’s borders. The Sage spoke truly and universally when he said “the doors on the street are shut … terrors are in the way … the grasshopper drags itself along,” and so on (Ecclesiastes 12).
Yet these years are also precious in the eyes of God and are meant to be embraced rather than dreaded or denied. Old age is the final part of God’s plan for us before we depart earth for heaven. It is the closing chapter of a story. It is the culmination of a tale that has been told since birth. And why should we fear the ending of a story? Why should we despise the fact that a story begun must also end? Should we not anticipate it as the beautiful final act? Should we not determine to close the story in a way that is beautiful and admirable and honoring to God?
We will undoubtedly live out these years with less energy than we once had and with less of the old vim and vigor. We will perhaps have narrowing opportunities and diminishing abilities. Yet this in no way excuses neglect or indolence, for the Lord still has tasks for us to do, still has people for us to bless, still has graces for us to display. He still means for us to live for his glory and for the good of others—for those in our families, in our churches, in our lives. Our tasks are not complete until he has called us home.
As the Lord of the Rings trilogy drew to its close, we saw that the characters who had been naive at the beginning of the story had become wise. The characters who had been weak at the beginning of the story had become strong. Their qualities had grown and their character had been proven. When the credits had finally rolled and the curtain had finally dropped, we left behind characters we had come to know and love, characters who had shown themselves worthy.
And so too for us. It is in old age that the fruit that began to grow in the younger days finally comes to its ripeness. The seeds that were planted many years before are seen to have grown and multiplied. The investments that were made in youth and middle age—investments in character and godliness—are seen to have been wise and discerning. Old age is the crescendo, the climax, the denouement. It is the beautiful and powerful ending to something precious, something wondrous. It is no more to be dreaded than the final chapter of a great story, no more to be feared than the closing film of a trilogy. May God give us grace to live those days well—to live them with courage, to live them with conviction, to live them with hearts fixed firmly on his glory and eyes fixed firmly on his heaven.