STATE MISSIONS: Faithful Servants
“Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts” (Psalm 145:3-4).
What does it mean to be a faithful servant of God? A servant is not free to do what he wants when he wants to do it but must always do the will of his master or face the consequences. The Christian willingly puts himself at God’s disposal instead of his own. He longs to do God’s will, no matter the cost. He lives his life attentive to the voice and desires of His master. Perhaps this is what Paul was referring to when he mentioned being a bondservant.
When faithful servants are found, they will have some distinctive characteristics that cannot go unnoticed. With humility and readiness, they will persevere. A servant expects to suffer, not just emotionally but also physically. Again, Paul said, “I bear in my body the marks.” Yet does God reward His faithful servants? According to I Cor. 15:58, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” Hebrews 6:10 (ESV) says: “Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart.”
There is a lesson to be learned throughout the Bible about the importance of passing the baton from one generation to another — Moses to Joshua, David to Solomon, Elijah to Elisha, Jesus to His disciples and Paul to Timothy. It is not enough to just run the race. We must pass our mission — our work — to the next generation. No generation stands independent of its predecessors or those that follow for generations overlap. Every generation is indebted to those that went before.
From Our Missionaries
Misión Creciendo en Cristo (Growing in Christ), North Little Rock: Juan Carlos Posadas writes, “Sergio, a seven-year-old boy, stood out during the opportunities we had to bring Christmas carols to some homes and during the Christmas gathering on Dec. 24. He sang with great enthusiasm, and you could see in his face how much he enjoyed doing it. His mother, Rosa told us how he and his little sister, Melani rehearsed at home.
Then Sergio started looking for the Christmas carols in a piano application and quickly learned to play them. When he arrived at church, he quickly looked for a piano to play the Christmas carols. Mrs. Sayra had the initiative to motivate some brothers and sisters from the church to buy a keyboard and give it to him. After the Sunday meeting, Sergio was given the keyboard and went to his house very excitedly. At night, his mother sent us a video with Sergio playing the song we usually sing when we celebrate a birthday. The results we can have are impressive when we take individual care of our children and encourage them to develop their skills and gifts.
“On Saturday, we had a day to review our strategic planning. Twelve congregation members met and had a very profitable meeting. We did not manage to finish the review of the plan, so we will continue next Saturday. These meetings are key to transmitting our mission of bringing the gospel and discipleship in obedience to the Great Commission given by our Lord Jesus Christ to His disciples. Please pray that each member of our congregation will understand our mission as a church and commit to the Lord to fulfill it.”
Misión Gracia Soberana (Sovereign Grace), NWA:Roberto Marcelletti writes, “This week, due to the intense cold, we had several cancellations. We had to cancel our Grace Group in Pea Ridge on Tuesday. On Wednesday, we met in Rogers, although with some absences; and on Thursday, we had our group in Springdale. We were talking about the current condition of man and how he is living away from God in need of His grace.
“On Wednesday, Ashley, a young woman from our church, asked me about baptism since she wants to be baptized. We already have two candidates for our next baptism service we plan to do in April. Yesterday, after praying, asking the Lord for directions and seeing some news from the area, we had to cancel our service due to the intense cold and snowfall.”
Epic Life, Pea Ridge: Jake McCandless writes, “Last week, our Garfield Connection Group started back with a bang! This week, our Woodbridge Connection Group started with a bang — we were at full strength. The Kings, who typically host the Woodbridge Group, have been out for the past couple of months with the birth of a baby girl. This week was their first week back, and it was like an amazing reunion. We celebrated Baby Twyla’s first Connection Group.
She probably got the most attention of any first-time guest. Our Prayer Collective also met back this week for the first time since Christmas. This really is the powerhouse of what we’re doing in Pea Ridge.
Unfortunately, the winter weather on Friday kept our Garfield group from meeting, and the snow on Sunday kept us from having our January Collective Gathering. That’s disappointing, but that’s life. The winter weather didn’t prevent Amanda and me from traveling to Bryant for training with South City’s City Group leaders. This was such a godsend for us. It was the very training I had experienced in Kansas City with the KC Underground that laid the basis for our work in Pea Ridge. It was wonderful that Amanda had the chance to hear it as well. It was also refreshing to hear this again with more humble ears as I know the challenges first-hand.
The biggest blessing of the training was the encouragement that we are on the right track and are really ahead of schedule. This method can seem so tedious and slow, but the depth it builds is incredible. We especially enjoyed having dinner with Lawrence and Jesslynn Hale, city group leaders at South City Church. Again, it is a godsend to ‘talk shop’ with others utilizing the disciple-making movement ministry model.”
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Paul White
Arkansas State Missions Director Paul White pens a weekly column to inform the BMA of Arkansas concerning Arkansas Missions’ activity and includes individual reports from each church planter.
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