ASI 2009: By Knowing Him

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ASI 2009 Seminar: Reaching Your Marketplace

Steven Grabiner

From Professional to Professional Missionary

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the privilege of being together here at this convention.

We pray that our time together would further our walk with you, that you would, through this meeting, through the other meetings that we attend, that you'd speak to our hearts about the need for our commitment to you.

We're grateful for the providence as you place us in and that you lead us through in order to fulfill your will in our lives.

Before I start, I'm supposed to tell you that this is recorded on Audioverse.

So if you want to share it with your friends or if people want to download it, it's there.

I think I fulfilled my legal responsibilities, right?

My name is Stephen Grabner and I work with an organization called Outpost Centers International.

It's a network of organizations that are involved in missions.

You can come up there if you'd like more information.

But I was asked to talk about this transition from the professional life to professional missionary.

Now a couple of people have asked a question as they read the blurb in the magazine, are you really gonna be talking about what to do in our jobs as evangelists, or are you gonna be talking about transitioning to mission work?

And the email that I originally got was to emphasize what it takes for people to leave their jobs, their vocations, and move into full-time mission work, whether that's overseas or whether that's here in the United States.

So that's kind of the background that we're going to be doing.

If you were hoping that this was going to be a class or a seminar in evangelistic techniques in your job, you'll be disappointed.

We will talk a little bit about it, but mostly we're gonna be talking about the things that go through people's minds when they sense that call to be involved in cross-cultural missions.

And what we're gonna do, we're gonna have 4 basic areas just to outline what we're going to do this morning together in our time allotted.

And then first of all we're going to talk about this call to service which every Christian experiences.

With the call to be a Christian is a call to service.

And 1 of the great lacks in our church today, worldwide church, our local church communities, is this concept, this idea, this separation, that I could be a Christian without really being involved in service.

I think someone with a lot more wisdom than I have called that a fatal delusion, to think that, you know, I can just go to church, I can just receive benefits and not give anything out.

We're all called, as we follow Christ, we're also called into service.

So we're gonna talk a little bit about that, we'll look at a couple of scriptures as well.

And then we're gonna talk about the call to cross-cultural service.

How do we sense when God's calling us from the plow, so to speak, into full-time missions.

Then we're gonna talk to some people that have made that transition.

It's nice, we got some folks from AFM here, a friend from Malawi, Lisa, who worked with us in Zambia and Riverside, and we're gonna hear some experiences of individuals who have sensed God speaking to them and then have stepped out in faith.

And I think that'll probably be the most interesting part, to hear some of the struggles that people go through trying to discern, is God calling me?

And then lastly, we'll be giving you some real life situations, some circumstances that would be very embarrassing in a different culture, and we're going to ask you to get in small groups and say, okay, well, what would you do in this situation?

Kind of maybe test your am I ready for mission life experience.

So you're going to cooperate with that, right?

Yeah, I think that'll be fairly interesting as well.

I want to say this, again, just by way of background, you might have read it, I served as a pastor for 11 years in southern New England, then had the opportunity of going overseas into Africa and Zambia for about 10 years and I work with mission organizations all around the world.

And you know mission work is a lot of everyday work.

Now mission stories, you know people write, AFM puts out a fantastic magazine, and you get all these different magazines where people talk about, yeah, mission work and all these great things, but you know, it's a lot of work.

And so, if we're thinking, well, I'm going to go be a missionary because that's gonna be a glorified experience.

You can cross that off your motivation list.

Those of us that are involved in mission work in the United States, those overseas, we realize that it's simply a call to be a Christian where we are, and a vast majority of that time is just life, being a Christian in the everyday world.

Which brings us back, you know, to the first call again, and that's that call to service that Christ has called each of us to service.

Now, excuse me, I've got my Bible over here.

We're going to look at Matthew 28, which I'm sure most of you have memorized, right?

There's a lot of sermons in this 1 passage.

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, I'm reading from the New American Standard, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

All authority is given to me in heaven and on earth.

Go therefore, King James says, go ye therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the ages, or the end of the world, the King James.

All authority, all power, all prerogatives, all wisdom, all guidance in heaven and on earth is given to me, Jesus said.

Now it's been pointed out in a couple of sermons, I remember hearing Pastor Finley several years back unpack this passage a little bit where he focused on the 4 alls of the passage.

You know, all authority, nothing to worry about.

All nations shows the scope of our charge, that we're to go to the entire world.

All things, we're to communicate everything that Jesus has communicated to us.

And then the King James says, Lo, I am with you always.

The Greek says, I am with you all the days.

So there's never a moment in our life when Jesus isn't with us.

Even when it seems the darkest, even when it seems like our work is coming to nothing, even when the future looks perplexing, I'm with you all the days.

There's something else that's very interesting in this passage.

All authority's been given to me in heaven and on earth.

Matthew writes this passage and he uses a participle in the Greek and the intent of the thought is, in the going, make disciples.

Too often we read this and we think, okay, go therefore and make disciples.

In other words, okay, here I am, and now I'm gonna go out and make disciples.

But the intent of the underlying Greek is, in the act of going, make disciples.

In other words, in your movement about in your daily life, you should be making disciples.

We heard a little bit about that last night when Justin kind of shared with Jesus interaction with the woman at the well.

And you love real life experiences, don't you?

You know, fresh from the, well I've got 1 to share.

You know, I had an encounter with someone today and it didn't go very well because of me.

You know, we were talking about something and it was a staff person and I was irritated and they weren't being helpful, They were stonewalling and I, you know, walked away and then it was like, what's that?

Where is the going and making disciples in that kind of an encounter?

Have you ever had an experience like that?

I mean, I love the positive stories as well, but we need to be realistic that there's plenty of other unfortunate stories where in our going, we're not always very representative of our master.

All authority is given unto me in heaven and on earth.

So don't worry about the small stuff, because in your going, in your life, in your movement, make disciples.

And that's really important for us, to realize that there's not this separation between, okay, well I'm gonna be a missionary and I'm gonna go overseas and then I'm gonna be a spiritual person when at home, I'm really a bear to live with.

It happens all over the place, But that's not the point of this passage.

The point is, as you go, as you live your life, make disciples.

And part of making disciples is, yes, that they would be baptized and that they would be taught, but it's making disciples, making followers of Jesus Christ.

That's part of the call to every 1 of us.

Denise Hayden

How Business Gives Birth to Mission

Again, I want to welcome everyone to the business seminar on how, what initiatives or what initiates a ministry from your business.

Lots of you have said you're already in business, And so when you go into business, at what point do you say, something's happening here that Jesus is using within me and within my business in this community to reach out to other people?

Well, our panel of experts are going to help you by sharing their experience, what was their defining moment, and how each moment made their business or their ministry more effective for either the ministry or the business.

Dear Father in heaven, we can do nothing without you.

So we ask as we start this panel discussion that you would be in our hearts and in our minds and in the ears of the listeners so that they will hear you speaking to them, saying, this is the way, walk in it.

The Bible says, if any man would not work, he, neither should he eat.

And if you have no bees, you have no honey.

Well, our panelists have found that they can work and serve God in ministry, which means give, in ministry without a reward, a financial reward or a substantial temporal reward.

But the reward that they have received has been so much more.

God has not only blessed their business, but he has blessed their ministry as well.

And so we're going to hear from the panelists today.

First to introduce themselves, then they're going to tell you that defining moment, and then they're going to take a few moments just to give you their personal testimony about what has worked and what has not, how God has effectively led them.

And then at the very end, we're going to have questions and answer period, so that you get a chance to engage with the panelists.

So put your seat belts on, because when God gets involved in something, it's wow factor.

So let's go to our first set of panelists, who are Gary, Daryl, and Mary Jo, oft.

And then the next to them is Gary Bartholomew.

Tell us who you are, what your business name is, and whatever you would like to tell us to introduce yourself to the crowd.

We live here in Arizona and we'd like to welcome you to our sunny warm state.

We have, I'm a registered nurse and we have a business in Payson in Globe, Arizona.

We have 2 clinics called Occupational Health.

Most of our clients and the services that we provide are to employers.

We take care of the health and safety needs of the employees to employers.

So most of our clients are employer groups.

The nature of our business is occupational health, but within that and what kind of really leads over a little bit into our ministry is just to know that part of our business has to do with working with a group of people, generally as child protective services, people who have gotten in child protective services that have lost their children, they've been brought up on drug And they are really at the bottom of the barrel and where life is at.

And when they come in, they're quite angry because they will have to be in a system that may take them through a year to 2 years of drug testing that can be anywhere from 1 to 5 times a week.

And so when they come in to us, initially, we see quite angry people.

They've lost their kids, they've maybe lost their job, and now they're in the court systems and they're being required to do something that they really don't like to do.

So that really started with a philosophy in our business to treat everybody, it doesn't matter if it's someone that has come in from Child Protective Services or if it's the CEO of a business, everybody gets treated the same And that is a basic philosophy that we didn't even realize that would move us in a different direction someday.

And what is your function in the business?

I do the bookkeeping and the paperwork and I do some of the services as well.

I'm Gary Bartholomew from Spokane, Washington.

I was raised in the water well drilling business which included installing pump systems.

17 years ago we quit drilling, leave that for the young guys and I presently have a water well pump system company.

I install pumps, I service them, especially in the hot weather.

When I get a call, it's, Gary, I'm out of water, when can you come?

I'm a licensed electrician, So I do electrical and plumbing and pulling pumps out of wells, set them back in.

And Ashley Cobb, where are you from and what is the name of your business?

I'm a professional private investigator and licensed in the state of New York.

And you may say, well, why are you here as a private investigator?

What does that have to do with witnessing in the workplace?

I've been in business 34 years now, and all I can talk about it, I mean, began to tell my age, but I've been around a long time and connecting private investigation with a world that we, and now it's a lot of, it's a lot of witnesses can be done, a lot of people, lives that are coming loose from the scene can be witnessed to in the workplace.

The people that I deal with, you know, many of them never have seen a church and they don't go near a pastor because it's a strange thing about people.

They will act a different way if they said met a pastor, then they didn't mean it, just let themselves and tell it like it is.

So I may be, or either my colleague may be the only church or pastor that they see.

And we'd find out that it was a great thing.

In fact, the Lord told me it was necessary that I establish a ministry, what we call it, HMB, He is my brother.

The slogan of it, He is not heavy, but he is my brother.

And after we established the ministry, as I want to say, Denise, the Lord began to let other talents.

I didn't know I was a writer, so I wrote a book.

Well, my wife always said I speak a lot, probably too much.

So out of all of that, I was able to put it together and use it for the God.

Please tell us who you are and your business name and what your occupation is in that business.

My business name is Grand Tops, International Procurement Specialists, actually.

And we import, design, fabricate, and install granite countertops, specialized in exotics.

And out of that, we have a ministry called Michel Serve International.

Now, Gary, what was that moment, that defining moment, when you knew that God was calling you for more than just running that business.

Tell us a little bit about that defining moment.

I think the defining moment was a tremendous failure, and out of that came my ministry.

But the background to that was we chose to help at an orphanage for several years in Central America, in Guatemala to be specific, International Children's Care Orphanage.

Did little projects down there each winter for a week or 2.

And 6 years ago some of our family helped raise $20, 000 to have a contractor in the country drill a well.

He says we've got 300 gallons a minute, more water than you'll ever need for this orphanage and school.

And so when we went down we found there was maybe 3 gallons a minute.

Ed Zinke

Workplace Soul Winning: Why Christianity?

They tell me that the other meeting led out a little bit late.

I don't know if we still have people coming or not, but we'll get started.

I'm going to conduct this partially as a lecture and Partially as discussion, so the closer you want to get together, the easier it will be for us to talk to each other.

I started in the ministry and then went to biblical research at the general conference.

I was involved in conducting a number of Bible conferences around the world.

And then Anne had started a business at home so she could stay home with the kids.

And I joined her full time in 85, but still remained active theologically in the church.

And we sold that business a year ago, which gives me a chance to get back even more into theology than we had before.

And Anne is the 1, it was Anne's house of nuts, my wife.

And So I certainly appreciate the support that she gives.

My interest is particularly in the foundations of Seventh-day Adventist belief, the role of scripture in Seventh-day Adventist belief and biblical world views and how that impacts academic disciplines.

And initially, when they talked to me about making this presentation, we were talking about something slightly different.

We were going to be talking about, if Christianity is a relationship with God, Why doctrine?

Why doctrine if Christianity is a relationship with God?

Why not just simply focus on the relationship and not be concerned about doctrine?

Now I'm going to still deal with that topic, but I'm gonna deal a little bit with foundations also, try to deal a little bit with creation and with the Sabbath as an illustration as to how that can impact our relationship with God.

And so starting out, you know, what is Christianity?

People have looked at Christianity in so many different ways.

In the third century after Christ, a man by the name of Simeon Stylites, A pagan converted to Christianity, he sold all of his worldly goods, set aside enough to keep his sister for her retirement, I guess you would say in our day and age.

And then he gave the rest to the church and then went out into the wilderness to meditate.

So he could separate himself from the world.

And pretty soon the nearby townsfolk discovered that this pious monk was out in this cave meditating.

And so they wanted to be close to the pious monk.

And so they started streaming out so that they could get closer to the pious monk and pretty soon he said, you know what, I came out here to be separated from the world and the world has surrounded me, so I'm gonna go further out into the desert and I'm gonna build a platform and I'm gonna live on that platform so I can separate myself from the world.

And pretty soon people discovered where he was out there on his platform.

And so they came along and built platforms around his platform so that they could get close to the pious monk who was separating himself from the world.

Well, when that happened, then he built his platform higher, in which case they built their platforms higher.

And according to tradition, he finally lived out his life on a platform that was 60 feet high in order to keep himself separated from the world.

Okay, now meditation of course is a good thing, but did he take it to an extent that it wasn't really the essence of Christianity?

And there are so many other things that we often look at as kind of the essence, kind of the basis of what Christianity is.

We, you know, we mentioned meditation works.

If I can just perform enough works, then I'm a Christian and then I will be saved.

Or if I can put in place enough social programs or if I can gain enough knowledge, you know, if I memorize the 28, then I'm a Christian and then I will be saved and so on and so forth.

And so there are so many different ways that people have looked at Christianity and attempted to develop their religion about that, around that.

Now obviously each of these are important to Christianity but they aren't the foundation, they aren't the essence of what Christianity is.

I like the definition that Christ gave himself for salvation in John 17 3.

And this is life eternal that they might know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.

Okay This is life eternal that they might know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.

Okay And there are many other places in scripture where our relationship with God is pointed out as the key foundational aspect of Christianity.

John, you know, wrote, I'm writing this with you in order that you might have fellowship with God and with his son.

And Hosea likened the relationship between God and his people to the marriage relationship.

Paul prayed for the Ephesians that they might have the love of God which surpasses all knowledge.

And so Christianity then is a relationship with God.

Now unfortunately of course you know the story, we'll go through this quickly, but our iniquities have separated us from God.

Our iniquities have separated us from what God's original intention for us.

He originally created us for fellowship and sin has separated us from His face.

All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

And Christ came in order that that relationship might be restored.

God's plan of salvation restores us the fellowship of God.

God demonstrated his love toward us and that while we were yet enemies, God sent his son into this world and God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.

And so we come to our question, if Christianity is a relationship, why doctrine?

We won't deal with the second 1 today but we'll deal with the first.

Why not simply emphasize the relationship?

And you know we are moving into a society more and more that really is not concerned with doctrine.

Series

ASI 2009 Seminar: Reaching Your Marketplace

Digging Deeper

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

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