Archive for the Mission Category


Nov 12

Dolls, Legos, Christmas, and the Gospel

2012 | by Trent Hunter | Category: Announcement,Mission

On Sunday we announced details for this year’s Christmas Store, DSC’s largest annual local outreach. By helping children and parents provide gifts for one another on Christmas, we are praying for conversations about Christ in order to share about the free gift of God’s grace in the gospel.

Watch this video for a brief introduction to the heart of this ministry, and click here to learn more.

Here are details from the Christmas Store page about how each of us can be involved:

We have approximately 3,500 items to purchase as a church body. Christmas trees are up with tags listing needed items. Please consider taking 8-10 tags per family unit. Most of the items can be purchased at the dollar store, or for under $10.00. Bring the item back, unwrapped and with the tag on it, so we will know which ministry/church it is to go to. Deposit the item in the box that matches the tag by Sunday, December 9. If you would like to serve at a Christmas store, you can sign up at one of the kiosks in the foyer. For more information, please contact Carolyn Rush at 505.797.8700.

Examples of Christmas tree tags include sports balls, baby dolls, legos, children’s books, school supplies, winter clothing items, tools, wallets, diapers, baby toys, and jewelry.

Christmas provides us with unique opportunities for inviting friends and family to church and for sharing the gospel. Let’s pray, each of us, with the Apostle Paul, “that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel.”

May 23

Signup for the New DSC Missions Blog!

2012 | by Trent Hunter | Category: Mission

If you were with us on Sunday, you learned about the launch of the exciting new DSC Missions Blog. The purpose of this new blog is to inform and encourage our prayer, participation, giving, and going with respect to the spread of God’s glory through the gospel in our area and among the nations.

For years, Clint, DSC’s Missions Director, has sent email updates to a subscriber list with summaries, photos, and news related to DSC and missions. These updates are of great encouragement, including letters from DSC members from the field and ministry partners abroad.

Over the last few weeks, Clint has posted dozens of these updates to the blog, going all the way back to 2004. Here are a few examples:

Now, updates like these will be posted to the DSC Missions Blog, and they will be emailed to those who subscribe to receive these blog posts by email. In his most recent post, “Language School in Antigua – Preparing for the Mission,” Clint included a letter from the field written by Marvin Gibson about his work in Guatemala. Posts are also searchable by category, including, Church Planting, Field Updates, Global Missions, Local Missions, Rabinal Achi, Redemption Church, and Trips.

To read the Missions Blog, click here. Subscribe to email updates with posts from the Mission Blog by indicating your interest on the Comment Card attached to your Sunday bulletin, or on the right column of the Missions Blog.

Dec 16

Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011)

2011 | by Trent Hunter | Category: Gospel,Mission,Recommended Link

Christopher Hitchens, a prominent and widely influential atheist, died yesterday. If you aren’t familiar with Hitchens from his book, God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, then you may know him from TV interviews or articles in any number of magazines.

On the occasion of his death, a few articles are worth reading. Justin Taylor has a helpful reflection at his blog, and Douglas Wilson was asked to reflect on his death for Christianity Today.

Doug Wilson, by the way, was Hitchens’ debate partner in a multi-article debate hosted by Christianity Today in 2007 (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6). That debate was eventually turned into the documentary video, Collision: Is Christianity Good for the World?:

[RSS and email readers, click here to view this video]

We can genuinely hope that Hitchens died in Christ, since we know he heard the gospel many times. That is never impossible if someone has heard, but that is unlikely. Doug Wilson reflects a bit on this in his article. To the question of deathbed conversion, Thomas Gurhrie, a 19th century Scottish preacher has a timely word: “It cannot be too often, or too loudly, or too solemnly repeated, that the Bible, which ranges over a period of four thousand years, records but one instance of a death-bed conversion—one that none may despair, and but one that none may presume.” (chapter 1 of Early Piety).

Christopher Hitchens was deeply impassioned about the non-existence of God. It really does seem, though, like he really was debating against something, or Someone, instead of nothing. And we believe that he was. How much more should those of us who know the True and Living God be known for our loving, impassioned, and authoritative persuasion with the gospel.

HT: JT

Nov 4

Audio by Topic from the Elders Q&A

2011 | by Trent Hunter | Category: Church Planting,Community,Mission,Vision

Last week we published a post in follow up to our recent Elders Q&A. Below are links to audio for specific sections from the Q&A, along with relevant links around DSC’s website and additional recommended resources. 

Church Planting 

DSC Finances

DSC’s Affiliations and Accountability

Shepherding

Church Membership 

Community Groups

Adoption Ministry

Schooling Approaches

Global Church Planting

Click here to listen to previous Elders Q&A’s.

 

Oct 14

God, Water, and the Achi

2011 | by Trent Hunter | Category: Mission

The Book of Psalms is rich with imagery. It’s rich with imagery because it’s a book of songs and prayers written about and to the Creator of everything we see.

Psalm 104 is perhaps one of the psalms richest with creation imagery, helping us to bless the Lord for His greatness revealed in and through everything that He has made. Just read verses 1-4:

Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, you are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering yourself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent. He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters; he makes the clouds his chariot; he rides on the wings of the wind; he makes his messengers winds, his ministers a flaming fire.
– 104:1-4

Our Water Team is now wrapping up their current trip to the Achi in Guatemala. As they complete their trip, this psalm reminds us of God’s goodness and power on display wherever we find water:

He set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be moved. You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. At your rebuke they fled; at the sound of your thunder they took to flight. The mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the place that you appointed for them. You set a boundary that they may not pass, so that they might not again cover the earth. You make springs gush forth in the valleys; they flow between the hills; they give drink to every beast of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst. Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell; they sing among the branches. From your lofty abode you water the mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.
– 104:5-13

Thankfully, water is more than a sign of God’s goodness and power in the provision of physical life. We can bless Him because it is also a sign of His saving power and goodness in His provision of spiritual life. In Isaiah 44:3, God makes a marvelous promise: “I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground.” That dry ground is us. When Jesus came, he fulfilled this promise, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink” (John 7:37).

We should pray for God to use our team among the Achi, so that they may have water for physical life. But we should pray all the more earnestly that they may come to Christ and drink the water Jesus came ultimately to provide – water unto eternal life.

Visit our Global Missions Core Initiatives page to learn more about DSC’s partnership with the Rabinal Achi. There you will find information about what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and how you can be involved.

To hear Psalm 104 set to music, download Fernando Ortega’s “Creation Song.”