Church Volunteers serving their Community - Photo by Don Eland
My uncle, Bill Iverson, (the guy who built the water purification systems we took to Japan) just wrote this email to me and I decided to edit and post it because I really saw this in Japan and see the need more than ever for real Gospel Community centered Church planting in the Tohoku area…
“I didn’t think there would ever be a day that I would agree with Bill Mahre on anything. However, his statement the other day could not have been framed more poignantly.
“What it comes down to is that there is one religion in the world that kills you when you disagree with them. They say, ‘Look, we’re a religion of peace and if you disagree we’ll cut your head off. And nobody calls them on it, or there are very few people who call them on it. You know, it’s like if dad is a violent drunk and beats his kids. You don’t blame the kid because he set dad off. You blame dad because he’s a violent drunk.” (See Here)
I see a radical difference between radical Islam and the radical gospel Jesus taught. One is a vehicle for homicide, while the other is the vehicle of grace. When people ask for a definition of Jesus’ favorite topic, the Kingdom of God, I think vehicular grace begins to describe it.
Jesus’ bride is His church, and it is His bride whom He works through (the means or the vehicle) to usher in the Kingdom of Grace and Redemption into
Some members of our team helping in a damaged home
this world which so desperately needs it. Whether it is the Tsunami in Sri Lanka, or the Civil War in Sri Lanka, or the quake and tsunami in Japan, the church is vehicular grace for the distraught people. The Red Cross was not allowed into the devastated area for over a week. But the church was there immediately. Churches across American got funds to the churches in Japan to help people in their immediate need. Money given to the Red Cross was just sitting in banks. This was not the Red Cross’s fault, they simply had no means to get it to the people. But the church is the ordained means, she is vehicular grace, and no edict of government could stop her from vehicular grace.
What if there were no churches in Japan when this happened? The church is very good at responding when there is a catastrophe. Unfortunately, we are not very good in times of no catastrophe. It made me realize all the more, that the primary goal must be church planting. Without those planted churches, there would be no vehicular grace. May we be passionate in our giving between catastrophes for radical church planting.