15 Dec Getting Airborne in Reaching Our World

Tom Blaylock, Director of Church Multiplication

Recently, while out on a hunting trip in northern Michigan, I saw a rare and beautiful sight — a bald eagle in flight. The very first time I saw a bald eagle was on that same hunting trip a few years earlier, when an eagle swooped down to grab one of our duck decoys. In my excitement, I spun around and shouldered my shotgun before realizing the true identity of this over-sized Mallard. (That day I thanked God for my hunter’s safety course mantra; “always identify the target before firing.”) As I lowered my shotgun and watched the eagle flare and with a few strokes of its powerful wings soar out of sight, I was moved by the beauty and strength that God has designed into this creature.

I was reminded of that familiar passage in Isaiah 40:31 that says, “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

In my previous post, I looked at the negative forces that work against Christians when it comes to our obedience and fruitfulness to “go and make disciples of all nations.” I likened this force to gravity, which always pulls us downward. This type of gravity shows up often in our congregations and is expressed in inward, self-centered, and self-serving patterns.

Other forces in physics are more powerful than gravity. These are the same forces the eagle employs as it lifts from its perch and soars high above the earth. For instance, the eagle must contend with drag. To understand the basic idea, just think about walking into a strong wind, or consider that drag forces cause a weight to fall faster through air than through honey. So to fly, the eagle not only must overcome gravity, but also drag.

What does drag look like in a local church? The example that first comes to mind is persons who resist true outward-focused ministry, counteracting any missional momentum being generated by the pastor or leaders. Of course, forces outside the local church also resist any advance of the Gospel.

Fortunately, two forces can overcome both gravity and drag. They are lift and thrust. “Thrust is produced by flapping the wings…which creates a vortex wake that has the net effect of pushing the animal forward.” Here’s a concept that we can all understand – good old-fashioned wing flapping! Thrust comes from muscles that produce power.

Lift, on the other hand, is a little more complex. “In animals that generate significant lift forces (like true flyers), the angle of the wings against the flow of air creates a resistance that has the net effect of moving the wing (and the animal) upward.” Lift has much to do with the design of the wings and how their shape (more area on the bottom of the wing than on top) moves through the environment.

So, what’s the point? Well, for starters, we need to take an honest look at our thrust as Christians and local churches. HHow much effort are you really putting forth to help lost people in our community connect with Jesus Christ? How hard do you flap your wings? How developed are your wing-flapping-muscles? (Or has it been so long since you’ve used them that they have atrophied?) Are you putting forth the required energy to even have a chance at overcoming gravity and drag?

Let’s be honest, many of us haven’t done much wing-flapping lately when it comes to extending ourselves for those not-yet-Christians that God brings across our path. Where there is no thrust, there will be no flight. Also, we need to remember that Luke’s second book is called the “acts” of the Apostles (not the “musings” or “seminars”) precisely because Christ’s mandate called for determined action by his first followers.

But what about lift? The truth is that eagles can never fly by thrust alone, and we can never be effective disciple-makers by effort alone. There is a role that God must play, a key role, the deciding role. Just as God formed the wings of the eagle in such a way that thrust creates lift, so God anoints and empowers in making disciples.

And how does God give us this kind of lift? Acts 1:8 says, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes.” John 6:24 says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” God gives us lift as the Holy Spirit empowers his people to be Christ’s witnesses, and as the Father draws men and women, boys and girls unto Himself.

What part do we play in all of this? We start by praying to the Lord of the Harvest to send forth laborers into his field — where the crops are ripe and ready. When was the last time you prayed for God to send forth laborers, both overseas and around the corner? What plans does your local church have to regularly pray for God to not only send forth laborers, but also to regularly pray for lost people by name?

I would be the first to admit that I have not done nearly enough in this crucial component of prayer. I tend to be a “doer” and somehow I have had the misguided notion that prayer is passive — but it’s not. God is working with me (and hopefully with all of us) to change me into the kind of Christian that not only talks about prayer, but actually engages. One way I recently did this was by going on a couple of “prayer walks” in communities where churches were being planted. A group of us walked through neighborhoods, street by street, house by house, and prayed for the people living there.

One last question to ponder: what could God do through the Church of the United Brethren in Christ if we put our best efforts into demonstrating and declaring the good news of Christ and earnestly praying for laborers to be sent out and people to be drawn to Christ? What would that future look like?