I'm continuing a series I started a week ago on the greatest lessons I learned while on staff with Cru. They don't do any justice to all the things God taught me, but are one way for me to thank the Lord and reflect on all He done, and hopefully are a blessing to you all as well. Also, they are cathartic for me! Posts 1 and 2 are here.
The Mission of Jesus has always been to the entire world, and followers of Jesus must be committed to the entire world
The 3rd thing Jesus has taught me is that His mission is and always has been for the whole world, and every follower of Jesus must also be committed to spreading the good news to the fartherst reaches of the world.
Cru has always been about changing the world tomorrow through reaching the college students of today. And Bill Bright , the founder of Cru, always stressed that you do that by going to the world, not staying in the US.
I take this for granted now, because it is the air I breathed for so long. And thankfully, I believe the influence of people like John Piper and his book Let the Nations Be Glad have helped to spread the calling of the Church to go to all nations here in the broader American Church. But so much of what I learned when I first came to know Jesus through Cru was that this news is so good, so transformative, so universal that every people group everywhere has to hear about it.
And Cru lives out what they preach in this regard. Cru ministries exist in every country of the world . This summer we are helping dozens of students teams go to every continent as part of our final assignment with Cru. I had the chance while on staff to spend a year in São Paulo, Brazil, six weeks in Mexico City, and several trips to the Dominican Republic to help students overseas meet Jesus.
This makes me think that sending to the nations, while sending to our neighbors, must be a part of our future church culture from the beginning. After all, Jesus wasn't a white, American God. He was the Jewish Messiah, probably brown and middle-eastern looking, not anglo-looking. He came for Israel and all the Gentile (non-Jewish) nations, of which this white guy is blessed by! When I see that I am humbly included in who He rescued, how can I not tell other nations about this amazing Jewish Savior?
I am thankful Cru has helped teach me this from the beginning. Jesus is not just the God of the Jews, or the God of white Americans, He is the God and Savior and Lord of every nation, every people. May I and our future church live to tell people that wonderful news.
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