MissionLawrence.org – Saint Andrew's Church

We’re looking for Radical Christians to join us in God’s work here at St. Andrew’s Church!

Is God calling you to help here? To find out, download Your Copy Of “Wanted: Radical Christians”

Download "Wanted: Radical Christians"!

This resource is free, but your donation is appreciated:

Download Here – Wanted:Radical Christians

Can you help us reach our outreach goals?

What follows is the “article” that spawned the ebook. It’s still relevant. When we have a new need, we update the list below!

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Some people have thought this page was simply a “book review”. Consider it more of a “shameless appeal”… or actually a “prayer request”. This page is about challenging what your view of being a “Radical Christian” is. Sometimes what we think it means betrays more about our own sense of superiority than anything else. We’d like you to consider the fact that being a radical Christian might mean joining us (even relocating here) to help a rural mission and church plant start so that the 60+% of unchurched people in this county may come to have a vital relationship with Jesus Christ and so that His glory will be displayed here.

Let me tell you how this page got started…

I was reading a book review called “If Platt’s Radical Was Radical” by Anthony Bradley. It’s about the book Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream.

Bradley’s critique of the common definition of “Radical” got me thinking….

Few people think of relocating to rural areas to do “mission”… we are fixated on “foreign” nations and the “inner city” where we consider the “heathen” live. That, we consider, is a REAL mission field.

Anthony Bradley calls this impulse “White Messiah Christianity”. The places we target are places that have “deep needs” we say. The problem with that as Rev. Bradley notes is this:

Inadvertently, Platt encourages the “White Messiah” neo-paternalism common among justice-oriented younger evangelicals. Nearly all of Platt’s illustrations of living radically to help the poor are of white evangelicals going to the “inner-city,” or some developing country of non-Caucasians, to find the helpless brown, yellow, needy, and ignorant natives who need white Christians to solve their problems. A truly radical approach would also send Christians to wherever the devil is destroying God’s good creation (1 John 3:8)—in trailer parks, Western Europe, Australia, rural America, and the suburbs. Christians follow Christ wherever the curse is found. For example, according to the latest census data, 44 percent of America’s poor population is white while 25 percent is black, but you wouldn’t know that from reading [this book].

But as Bradley notes, sin and it’s curse are coextensive with creation. God calls us to declare the Good News of Jesus’ reign in all places to all people. EVERYWHERE is to be the object of the church’s aim. Some of the most overlooked people are, as Bradley notes, the rural white poor. Sure, there’s often plenty of  ”religion” but not often vital Christianity. While churches dot the countryside, 60% (or much more) of the population have no vital connection to the Body of Christ.

While the nation as a whole now experiences approximately a 10% unemployment rate, our county has experienced such rates for years!

Meth addiction, prescription drug addiction, and many other problems proliferate.

“Backpack kids” are sent home from school on the weekends with non-perishable food to sustain them for the weekend. Their parents either won’t or can’t feed them at home for whatever reason.

Though we’re the “Bible Belt”, it doesn’t mean there aren’t hordes of people who have no vital relationship with Jesus Christ – there’s plenty of opportunity to reach people here.

You may have thought things like that only happened in the “inner city”. But no, it happens here too. Is there a Savior and a hope for such people besides Caesar? We believe there is – Jesus Christ!

So would you like to do something RADICAL?

• Do you want to help form a serious Christian Community centered on Jesus Christ and a worshiping community built on historic Biblical worship?
• Do you want to serve with and build a ministry team?
• Do you love God’s Word and the historic faith of the Reformation – and have a burning desire to live out that faith in mission?
• Do you share Rev. Bradley’s commitment to the Biblical Message that God is not only redeeming individuals but restoring communities and cultures by the Gospel of Jesus Christ and NOT just creating “lone ranger Christians”?
• Do you have ministry experience?
• Do you have experience in a “12 Step Group”?
• Do you know how to lead a Christianity Explored group or an Alpha group – or simply participated in one before?
• Do you have some time to work in our Donation Center? It helps keep the rest of our ministry operating.
• Do you have a desire to see Christian Men doing what God has called them to do through our Rebuild ministry or by starting a local “New Commandment” men’s ministry?
• Do you have entrepreneurial skills?
• Can you relocate here with a telecommuting income or otherwise support yourself as a tentmaker?
• Could you relocate a business that could employ people here?
• Are you a licensed Nurse (LPN or RN) who is about to retire, would like to relocate someplace without 10 feet of snow in the winter, but would like to donate your nursing skills part time in Christian Ministry as a Parish Nurse?
• Do you believe Uncool People Need Jesus Too? In other words do you believe that the Good News of Jesus isn’t just for cool people you like hanging out with in a Big City that happens to have all the creature comforts you treasure?
• Can you make the switch from Starbucks to McCafe and live somewhere without a 3G network for your smartphone – for Jesus Christ the Lord? (Good news – we do have 3G here if you’re on Verizon! )

If some or all of these are things you can answer a resounding “YES!”, we may have a place for you here! In fact we’ve been praying for you because we’ve been praying for the Sovereign Lord to send laborers into the harvest!

If that’s you, please CONTACT US! We’re looking for some truly radical servants of Christ to join us!

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