December 31, 2007

• Need more light…Shine in the darkness

  Last year on this day, Sofia & I were in Atlanta, GA for the Passion’07 conference that was being held in the first few days of January. We attended Pastor Charles Stanley’s church that rain drenching morning and the sermon’s main point was “The best has yet to come…” After we left, we had an incident with our rental car that completely changed our perspectives on a lot of subjects. 2007 has been a defining year for me. It has ranged from the theological aspects of who God is & how He works, to the very practical aspects of life such as learning how to live in the phase of being engaged, learning and working within a foreign culture, and the expected marriage-planning stresses that come. All of this started with the ironic-at-the-time statement from Charles Stanley…

  I was one of the many volunteers at the Passion’07 conference and whenever I had free time, the volunteers were allowed to check out the numerous resources that were made available for the college students who attended. One of these resources included a whole wing for Mission & world aid organizations. If one has ever been to an Urbana conference, then one wouldn’t be surprised to find information about organizations that were sending missionaries to S.America, India, China, etc and other organizations dedicated to social justice issues such as human trafficking(modern day slavery). However, there was one section that did surprise me as I stood there.

  For the N.America section, the Passion organizers placed an emphasis on 3 target missionary cities. In other words, out of all the cities that are found in the N.America continent, 3 stood out as cities that need missionaries to come in and do work within…Boston, Toronto, and New York City.

  It was a really strange sensation to see my own hometown listed as a missionary-focused city. When I read the description and information about Boston, if I wasn’t a Bostonian, I would totally believe that Boston was a dark spiritual place. I didn’t disagree with the description of Boston, but it was hard for me to accept as I’ve lived here all my life and the city didn’t seem to be that spiritual oppressed to me. It’s a hard city, I thought, but the Gospel is here and working…

  Fast forward to Sept’07 and I’m listening to a podcasts from Louie Giglio talking about Boston and the upcoming conference being held at the Agganis Arena in October. 2 things struck me as I listened…

  1. The Passion organizers truly love Boston & the potential that the Gospel can do within the city, especially through the many college students who live here.
  2. Boston is a dark, spiritually, oppressed area where the Gospel’s penetration has been slow.

  Later that evening, I had a talk with my pastor about some future events being planned for our church and the topic about Passion and Boston came up. To my surprise, my pastor completely and wholeheartedly agreed with Louie’s assessment of the city. This came from a man who has been in Boston for 8-10 years, who came from one of the other “target” N.America missionary cities, but who honestly can testify that sharing the Gospel in Boston is an extremely difficult task.

  “Have I lived here so long that I’ve grown used to the darkness?“

  That question rang in my heart that night as I struggled with the realization I had become accustomed to the darkness within my home city. I was so used to the spiritual situation in Boston that I didn’t notice all of the struggles followers of Christ faced here. I missed out on the details that were completely visible to people like my pastor.

  I was like a person lived in a house filled with 40 walt light bulbs. There’s some kind of light and that was good enough right? When one lives in that type of circumstance for a long time, then 40-walt light bulbs are totally fine. One can find yourself around just fine it seems, not missing out on any details…

  …until, someone walks into the home with a 150-walt light bulb and installs it into one of the lamps. Then one begins to notice the dustballs, the mud tracks, the small things that escaped one’s eyes in the dark corners of the home. Illumination becomes revelation as one finally sees all that is happening.

  Boston is a hard and difficult city to share the Gospel in. Followers may not be explicitly persecuted or risking their lives here, but it is nonetheless still a city where the Gospel message competes against so many other messages. It is a city where the Gospel has the most potential, especially amongst the next generation of leaders, that it becomes crucial that followers here learn how to share and live this message out.

  Hundreds of years ago, a man named John Winthrop once described Boston as “a city upon a hill.” Maybe one day it can be called that again.

  “Greater things have yet to come. Greater things are still to be done in this city.“

  • 4:03 pm
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