MissionLife

Over these first episodes of the podcast, we've looked at missional living from several angles including heathly relationship development, contextualization, testimony and calling. In this episode, we'll get to the heart of it all: love. In a sermon I preached a few years ago, I spoke on love as the foundation for everything and the definition of God. God is love.

*As a note, as I preached this sermon, I was setting a "banquet" table. Items from the setting of that table are used throughout the sermon as illustrations and you can hear clanging and shuffling in the audio. In case you're curious what the noise is...now you know.

What should the call cost? In this emotional and powerful episode, we delve into the lives of those who have paid deeply in their "yes" to the call of God. Although my job as their professor is to teach them, the lessons they have for me are far heavier than anything I've said to them. They are African pastors and they are on the cutting edge of Christianity in the modern world. Anything worth something must cost something.

When are we ready for God's call? After school? When finances look better? I think there is a way to talk about "ready" that makes us "never ready". And so, most of us are "never ready". In this episode, I think through places I've been and things I've seen that have impacted my perspective on readiness in the response to the call of God. In the end, we hope to see a new kind of "ready".

There are three ways I deal with the call of God. I think about it, feel it and pray on it. In this episode, I'm allowing myself to be vulnerable. In a transparent openness, I'm hoping that there might be something in my story that is helpful to your story. In my thinking and feeling and praying there have been some ugly responses to God's call along with some noble and righteous movements. Maybe you're like me. Take ten minutes and see what you think (and feel and pray).

God's call to service reaches every corner of the planet. On this episode, we hear from Tim and Helen on their move from New Zealand to Uganda (with stops along the way). How did God speak to them? What challenges have come? What rewards? With deep transparency and clarity, Tim and Helen reveal a longing for God's heart and a desire to see His people thrive. Tim is the Country Director for Tutapona. You can read more about them here: http://www.tutapona.com/ . Helen is a humanitarian photographer and storyteller. You can read more about her here: https://www.helenmanson.com/ .

Now that I'm across the ocean and basking in the equator sun of Uganda, I figure it's a good time to talk about calling. Not phone calling. God's calling. We Christians love to talk about God's calling on our lives. It's about our mission and purpose in life. It's about our value and function within God's bigger work among mankind. This episode is an introduction to a whole series on calling that I think you are really going to enjoy. It's a short one but it sets the table for some heavy content over the next few episodes. Take ten minutes to consider God's call on your life!

What do Grandma Duvall, a country schoolhouse and an Arkansas mountain have to do with MissionLife? In the 1940's, something happened in my family line that speaks powerfully to the value of missional living. In this episode, we hear the story of George Nofsinger, my great-grandfather, a missionary to Arkansas.

Have you ever been to another country? What were the people like? How are they different than you? The way we describe and understand "here" is important! In this last episode on contextualization, we're looking at "here". The phrase we've used to summarize contextualization has been: truth expressed here. If you haven't heard the previous episodes called "truth" and "express", you should check those out, too.

In part 2 of our series on contextualization (we're calling it "Truth Expressed Here") we turn out attention to expression. When we have truth in hand, what do we do with it? Why is expression such a big deal? Also, what does Aretha Franklin have to do with any of this? Merry Christmas!

This episode is the first of a three-part series on contextualization. Episode 8 was a bit of an introduction to the topic. In this episode, we will look at truth as something bigger than just "here's what I think". What's the difference between absolute truth and subjective truth? What is contextualization? How are those ideas related and why do they matter. All this and more in this 9th episode of the MissionLife Podcast.