Excelling in a generous undertaking

"We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that has been granted to the churches of Macedonia..." (2 Cor 8)

The times were tight in Biblical Macedonia. The three newly formed Christian communities in Philippi, Thessalonica and Beroea were struggling to stay on top of their own small church needs even as they were surrounded by an increasingly hostile culture. But word came to them that the persecuted church in Jerusalem was at the end of its rope, and needed help. Fast.

So they organized.

Acting in concert, they formed a common cause - advocating to meet the particular needs of another Christian initiative far away from their homeland.

They banded together to raise funds from their own strapped reserves, giving "voluntarily according to their means and even beyond their means," says 2 Corinthians Chapter 8.

And then they thought to themselves, Who else can we bring into this effort? They talked to their friend Paul, the roving Apostle, and asked him to help find other churches who would join them in this united effort. And so Paul writes the Church in Corinth, telling them of the Macedonian network, and urges them "to excel also in this generous undertaking" and join with the network as a way of proving the genuineness of their love.

Fast forward to today.

Most of our churches support individual missionaries or send money as individual churches to organizations, mostly unaware of who else also shares "in those generous undertakings." When our churches do so, we act out of concert, out of common cause.

But what of that brilliant lessons offered us from those wee kirks in Macedonia? There's power in Christian unity and common focus! Energies are unleashed when churches come together in a shared mission vision.

Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship challenges, mobilizes and empowers Presbyterian congregations into global partnerships that establish indigenous churches among unreached people groups. We're following on the early example of those Macedonian churches to link Christians together across church lines, state lines, even national lines in advocacy groups for the particular needs of planting a church where there is no church among unreached people groups. PFF works with Presbyterians reaching into over 200 unreached cultures this year, helping them discover new Christian partners with whom to work, churches in whom God is also stirring an eagerness to excel in some generous undertaking.

Where are these unreached cultures? They're in Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, and in Central Asia's many republics. They're in Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Burma. They're in the downtowns of London, Berlin, and Istanbul. They're in the downtowns of Chicago, Seattle, and Minneapolis.

Even back in its earliest life, the Macedonian Church realized that it's not just giving, but mobilizing, that advances the Kingdom. It's not just raising funds, but raising alliances, that gets the mission done.

So this is what the Christian Church, when it's faithful, does: It discerns those causes that the Lord calls it to pursue, and then it raises up a multi-lateral, interchurch response force, a mission network, and together as a force for God they contribute with all the energy they can muster. Doing so proves the genuineness of their love to a watching, evaluating world. And to God, the best audience.

What is your church doing to excell in a generous undertaking?

-- Dave Hackett