Radical Together
This is a new friend, Dima, Pastor of Grace Evangelical Church in Kiev. I was introduced to him today by Oleg, our partner from International Leadership and Development Center. I am giving him a copy of “Radical Together,” which was written by my pastor, David Platt.
Today we met so that I could share my vision of helping orphans fulfill their God-given purposes through Skills for Orphans. I explained my own struggles of having seen too many American teams come to Ukraine and reach out to orphans with material things; stuff. I told him my desire to see the local church embrace Ukraine’s orphan population that is teachable. I asked him to challenge families at Grace to join us.
I was amazed at this man’s transparency. You see, I am a pastor’s son, so I am not impressed with that title. I have shared on this blog about my dad’s impact on my life, but he was a human like the rest of us. Anyway, Dima talked about the complacency that has infiltrated his congregation. He shared how people come to church out of routine and obligation, with no passion for God. It was far too familiar. He told me that last week, from the pulpit, he said that he did not know why some people even bothered to come to church. That is a man who is facing discouragement. Pray for him.
Dima, however, is not defeated. He is in a position of humility before God. I am not sure if he has always been there, probably not. The important thing is that he is humble now. Grace flows from humility, and God can use that. When God gets us to a place of humility, He can more readily trust us because our hearts are in the right place.
The reason I shared this book with Dima is because it was written on the grounds of a place where humility has swept in like a gale-force wind. By God’s grace, our church is being used, more than ever, to reach the nations.
To be “radical” is not to be legalistic. For the Christ-follower it is a heart response of, “Jesus, you are right.” The rich young ruler could not say that to the point where he was willing to follow Jesus because his heart was with his wealth, not the Savior. He was complacent. He had no real passion except to further his own status before men…a recipe for disaster.
Our meeting ended on a note of encouragement. Dima gets the idea of spiritual duplication. If God’s people represent the hands and feet of Jesus then results will follow. Guaranteed. I hope we can be radical together.
