From the Pastor's Desk

“…in every place where I cause My Name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you.” (Ex.20:24, NASB)

You will recognize these words as those being on “the Wall” as you enter the Mission Center. It almost seems like a long-lost memory now in trying to recall what was there before, but if you give it a few moments, the fraying seams of the world map will curl up and intrude into your memory. The faded and tired blue hue covering the width and height of the wall commanded your reluctant attention, at the same time trying to hide its exhausted depiction of continents and nations and seas. Some of you had asked…even for years, “can't we get rid of this thing…can't we change this?”

What does it mean that God will cause His “Name to be remembered” in a place? The word for “remembered” can also be translated as “to mark, to record” or the sense of “to set” or establish His Name. It means that God will cause the knowledge of Himself to be set or marked through His people who occupy a particular place in their generation. It means that through a people who will pursue the Glory of God in all things, through that faithful community of believers, God will elevate & broadcast His renown & majesty and bring it to the forefront of both His people as well as to those who come in contact with them. God's holy reputation will be made manifest through His people who are willing.

People do not like change. They are unwilling. They are comfortable with what they are familiar with, even if worn out and faded. The predictable prevents their imagination from better possibilities. People resist change. However, I would venture to say that most, if not all of us prefer this change from the old wall to the new one.

Undoubtedly, when that massive map of the world was first put up years (decades?) ago, it came from the right place of being on mission for the Gospel to the world; after all, missions is in our name. Kansas Mission Church's ambition was to take the Good News of Jesus Christ into all the world. However, after many mornings and afternoons in the sun, the original, commanding luster of the map had faded along with the effort to keep the Mission gleaming. It was easier to just disregard the dilapidation than to provoke trouble by proposing a change. In addition, to actually change would require a great deal of effort and work. Easier just to leave it...ignore it.

However, there were some who knew some things about our Great God and remembered some things about Him and could not abide the deterioration. Others of you may be intimately aware of the challenges of seeing this through; that there was a point at which it seemed the proposed change was not going to proceed. Entrenchment to what was familiar had stifled and choked a vision for a better Wall. Resistance, if not outright opposition, discouraged the few who had a vision for a new face to greet folks as they entered the Mission Center.

The servant-leaders and others of our church recognized that the dilapidated map did not rightly remember God's Name worthy of a Christ centered church like KMC. The reputation of who He is to what the wall recorded about Him did not match. For this reason, despite the resistance, we continued to pray and found ways wisdom would win hearts to be willing. Afterall, the apathy the map projected did not align with what we wanted our members and guests to remember about the God we serve. We wanted “a new wall” which matched KMC's warmth of a hearty welcome worthy of the welcome of the Gospel. We were convinced that the reputation of Christ was worth the confrontations against resistance as well as the labor required to see it through.

What does it mean when God promises that He “will come to you and bless you”? How can we know that God has come to us and is blessing us? The blessings of God are evident in the people. There are clear markers and indicators which manifest God's favor and blessing on an individual as well as on a community of believers. The blessings of God on a church are that they become so passionate about knowing their God and making Him known, they are causing His Name to be marked all around them. Their driving passion is evidenced in their obedience to God's Word and their willingness in serving Him. It is proved in their sacrificial service for one another in the Body. A people display their worthiness of their God's blessing by their humility and their love for Him and for His church.

Notice that God is the one who causes His people to remember His Name. Our passion and pursuit to do all things to the glory of God is both divine and human. God is the One who is sovereignly at work in each member to want to live for Him and for His glory. “…for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13, NASB). God is at work in us to stir us in our love and affection for Him and His things, but it is also our responsibility to want to (to will) and then taking forth the effort to do (to work) what it takes in serving Him. Though the map is no longer on our wall, the image of the world is projected in our hearts by the love of Christ. The lost still awaits the knowledge of God which comes through our preaching of the Gospel.

How will God cause His Name to be remembered through you, through us? Whatever that may look like and however it may be going forward will most likely mean change. The right kind of change is important. We want Kingdom change, Kingdom oriented, Gospel driven, self-less, Christ-centered change. Anything less is eternally meaningless and temporally insignificant. Whatever changes we make, small or big, the consequences are what we are after; so, whatever the price, as long as the results are Good and beautiful, the price of change is worth it.

We believe God wants to bless us as a church. And God blesses the church worthy of His blessing because such a church will be faithful to remember His Name among us and His Fame to be broadcast through us. Let's do this together. Happy New Year!

Soli Deo Gloria,

Pastor Jae