New Wineskins

Last week, three of us traveled to the New Wineskins for Global Missions Conference up in Ridgecrest, North Carolina. It was excellent. I have a whole thick file of ideas and contacts to follow up on in the weeks to come. But immediately, I can say I was inspired yet again by being in the presence of so many engaged in the advance of the Gospel worldwide. The intriguing thing is that I did not know how energized I was by the conference until today--on Wednesdays, we have morning Eucharist and healing prayers, a Bible study in Hebrews, an evening Eucharist, and today the first session of our new course, Where 2 Now? It was evident all day long that I was excited to be teaching and refreshed. Why did it take three or four days for me to discover that God has renewed me through the Conference? In part, because we often--let me change that to, I often--look for fireworks, those sudden bursts of light and excitement that appear to signal drama and passion. In this case, New Wineskins was more like a gentle fanning of the flame. Yes there were powerful words spoken by for example Archbishop Akanya of Nigeria. But the power of the week was that my vision of God was gently refreshed so that the enthusiasm has grown in intensity these last few days.

About one in five persons around the world, maybe even one in four, has no access (that's the key word) to the Gospel or the Church in their own heart language. They are often called "unreached peoples" who are waiting to be told of the Good News of Jesus Christ. Another name is "hidden peoples". Both names have their advantages, and one of the advantages of hidden peoples is that that description points to a challenge that can be addressed. Namely, it is hard for the Church to get excited about people whom the Church knows nothing about. When different peoples of the world are hidden from our view, we are likely not to know about them, care about them, feel a connection to them, pray for them, or invest in them. Likewise, we will not see what God is doing among them--for nobody is hidden from His view or from His love. The conference awakened me to some of those hidden peoples and to the incredible things God is doing among them. I began to see them and His plan for them.

Then today we opened up the Scriptures: Ephesians 2 in Eucharist, Hebrews 10 in Bible Study, and Mark 1 in Where 2 Now? And all of those Scriptures relate to what God purposes to do among the hidden peoples. The Word of God jumped out at me today in part because God had fanned the fire in North Carolina. It was a rich, rich day. God is awesome! The Good News of Good Friday and Easter is really good news! And it applies in Florida as well as around the world. And the neat thing is that God invites me, our parish, and the whole Church to get involved, to see this good news up close, and to be inspired by the extravagance of His generosity around the world. Let's have Church again tomorrow :-)