By Shane Bennett<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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One of the rare, exquisite joys of life is crossing a stream by hopping stone to stone. I don\u2019t get to do it often. A lack of practice, along with what may be a low innate ability, shows through pretty clearly. But a couple of weeks ago, a great guy at church invited us to come and see some land he\u2019d recently purchased. It consisted of a canyon with a small river running along the floor. The hike he led us on required crossing the stream a couple of times. Ah, the joy!
Since that afternoon, I\u2019ve been thinking about how cool a metaphor rock-hopping makes for the journey to the nations. If you\u2019ve been reading Practical Mobilization for a while, you know I\u2019m not afraid of being a little cheesy. If perusing these few paragraphs compels you to roll your eyes, I wouldn\u2019t blame you. Or you may feel it\u2019s a little remedial for you. If so, I apologize\u2014but encourage you to use that sense to spur you on to get it in the hands of people who might not have thought of these things yet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two of our party didn\u2019t cross the stream. In my mind, they represent people who are not going to the nations. In the past, I might have thought of them as dummies or immature, worldly believers who don\u2019t care about the important stuff like I do. Now I think of them as real people, children of God who are probably really smart and with whom God is pleased. My friend Greg, who owns the land and had done the walk a few times before, wore some nice, tall rubber boots. This allowed him to stand in the stream and hold the hands of the hoppers. He even lifted some of my kids from one stone to the next. This may be the role many of us play. In a thousand tiny bits of encouragement, along with a few big ones, we help the goers get gone. Visualize a stone path across a stream and those who are crossing with you. You need each other. Let\u2019s take a closer look at the key people and relationships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While single women have done much of the heavy lifting in taking the gospel to the ends of the earth, most of us will partner up. If God\u2019s nudging you toward the least evangelized parts of the world, do your best to find someone who\u2019s similarly compelled. Let\u2019s be honest, it\u2019s almost always easier to live where you grew up than to sink your roots into a new culture. And marriage isn\u2019t easy anywhere. Choose wisely. (And remember, grace abounds and God thinks you rock!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Start as early as possible to get known by a church that might someday lovingly launch you out. Build a track record of service there. Americans (like me) can so easily think it\u2019s all up to us. But God has got so much going on. Increasingly, our role might be to come alongside and serve the efforts of intrepid local pioneers who have crossed smaller cultural and geographic distances to begin new ministries among previously unengaged peoples. How can you help?<\/p>\n\n\n\n You may not be able to drop into an unengaged situation and find a viable, productive role being who you are right now. Ministry in most parts of the world requires training, preparation, and development. I\u2019m guilty of a \u201cwe just need warm bodies\u201d mobilization, but the reality is that it\u2019s tough to live in another culture. And if you\u2019re going to work a job or run a business in a \u201cforeign to you\u201d place, you probably need to be very good at what you do. What does that early stone look like? Should you get a Bible degree? A welding certificate? An MBA? Given my inability to predict the future, sometimes I think, \u201cJust jump to the rock you can reach!\u201d Look at how God has made you, then ask smarter, older people what they think. Take a step, knowing you\u2019ll probably skip to a different stone before too long!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Starting as soon as you can, become proficient at what you do. A track record takes time. The best time to begin building one was \u201cbefore now.\u201d The second best time is when you finish reading this!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hop over this rock and you\u2019re going to take a bath! Even knowing that, I\u2019m tempted to sneak around the service stone. But nothing replaces cleaning toilets, taking out the trash, and working in the nursery. Whatever the other side of the stream holds for each of us, the essential nature of the disciple is servanthood. It wasn\u2019t on a whim that Jesus used some of the most precious last moments of his life on earth to wash feet! If you\u2019ve ever crossed a stream like this, you know a couple of other things as well, don\u2019t you? Some of the rocks are slick with moss, others wobble and tip when your foot lands on them. In either case, you could end up bum-down in the creek. It\u2019ll happen. Grab a hand and get up. Shake and shiver. Then keep going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If anything in my life is certain, it\u2019s this: By Shane Bennett One of the rare, exquisite joys of life is crossing a stream by hopping stone to stone. I don\u2019t get to do it often. A lack of practice, along with what may be a low innate ability, shows through pretty clearly. But a couple of weeks ago, a great guy at church … Continue reading Steps to the Edge: From Stone to Stone to the Ends of the Earth<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":10027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-practical-mobilization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10022"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10029,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10022\/revisions\/10029"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
That\u2019s because, as passionate as I am about getting bodies in the last places and among the least-reached peoples, I\u2019m also growing in the realization that Paul is right: There are different gifts, but the same Spirit; one body made up of many vital parts<\/a>.
One of the two who stayed did so because she\u2019s recovering from an injury. Next time we go, she may lead the way. Feel free to listen in as I say this to myself: \u201cGive people a chance to heal, to deal with their stuff. God\u2019s probably not feeling as rushed as you are!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nWho Helps Goers Go?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes this feels like an also-ran, second-rate, B-team role. I\u2019ll tell you what though: If Greg had not helped our kiddos navigate the stream, the whole hike would have come to an early and tearful end.
Are you a rock-hopper helper? Hear me clearly: You matter. Probably way more than you think. Keep at it!
One more fundamental observation: As fun as the stone stepping is, the goal is actually getting across. In this analogy, the work is on the other side. You gotta cross to get there. Some of us from somewhere need to get where none of us have yet been. Get hopping!<\/p>\n\n\n\nYour Dream Stream-Crossing Team<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
1. Your Spouse<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
2. Your Church, Agency, and Team<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Many of us would be smart to link up with a sending agency. There are a gazillion, though. So how do you choose? Ask someone smarter and older than you for starters. My friend Jeannie Marie who is smarter (but not older) than me offers this great list<\/a>.
Few of us will go alone. Consider carefully who\u2019ll you\u2019ll team up with. Do you have the same ministry goals? The same vision for team life? Similar ideas about how to have meetings when you all have noisy little kids?<\/p>\n\n\n\n3. Those All-Important Partners<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
The Stones of Preparation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
So imagine the stones across the creek being the aspects of preparation that will get you from here to there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n1. The Stone of Study<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
2. The Stone of Practice<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
3. The Stone of Service<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Finally, for some of us, getting to the place across the river where God wants us will require following a well-trod path. We might even be blessed to watch others go from stone to stone ahead of us. Thank God for that.
But my heart longs for unengaged peoples to get what might be their first gospel attention. The path to places where those peoples live is yet uncharted. You might have to launch out on your own. You might do what I did on our hike: Toss some stones into the stream to fill in gaps too big to hop. Let\u2019s not be cavalier, but let\u2019s also not bemoan lack of precedence when God is calling us to set precedent.<\/p>\n\n\n\nConclusion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The other side of the stream is worth getting to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Editor\u2019s note: If you know someone who could use some encouragement on their \u201cstream crossing,\u201d please forward this to them. If your heart longs for unengaged peoples, give Shane a shout<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"