The gospel is not broken

Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

On Thursday of this week I board a plane and take a mission trip to Argentina. It will be my 5th trip to Argentina working with Eduardo Bouldain who runs a church planting ministry there. It will be my 11th international mission trip overall. All of the trips I have taken so far have been to places with third world conditions. One of the things that is so refreshing about taking mission trips to the third world, is you see what Christianity is like without the heavy influences of materialism. It is budget time at our church. Different departments are presenting their budget requests for 2012. The Finance Committee will compile all the requests, make projections about expected income for 2012, and then present a budget to the church to be voted on in December.

If I can make an observation after 11 years of walking through this process as a pastor.....in the American church we don't think we can get anything accomplished for God without money. When you go to Argentina you see that they get so much done with so little. In the American church we seem to think that expensive gimmicks are necessary to build the church. Some times I think we are in the "Six Flags Over Jesus" mentality in the church in America. (Six Flags over Georgia is an amusement park just in case you don't get the reference). It seems that we think that you have to entertain people and spend lots of money amusing folks before you can get them to Christ in America. There it seems that they just rely on the gospel to build the church.  It seems like a purer form of Christianity to me.

I believe we are deceived in the American church. We don't need gimmicks to get people to Jesus. The gospel still works. It is still the power of God unto salvation. When the bible says it is "the power of God" it literally means that there is supernatural power associated with the simple gospel.

Every time I have been to Argentina, we have spent most of our time sharing the gospel. It is the way that they build the church. Every time I go, I see people who were led to Christ on  previous trips serving in the churches. They prove that the gospel isn't broken. It still works. We could learn a lot from our brothers and sisters in the churches in Argentina.