World Impact missionary Ryan Carter is often asked to fill the pulpit for pastors who are away, but one particular Sunday he was asked to preach just to give the pastor a week to sit and listen rather than deliver the sermon. Pastor Tim has been taking Ryan’s urban seminary classes through The Urban Ministry Institute and he has been soaking it up! Tim has a fantastic story of God’s grace to tell and has a growing church that we have come to love. He is a model student and it has been a pleasure for Ryan’s family to know him and his family. Pastor Tim got up to introduce Ryan and it went a little something like this:
Pastor Tim to his church: I have a surprise for you all today!
Church: (rumbles of excitement)
Pastor Tim: I'm not preaching!!
Church: (heavy sighs and disappointed groans)
The man sitting next to Ryan’s family: That's not a good surprise!!
And then Tim went on to give Ryan a glowing introduction and Ryan preached a powerful sermon from the Lord. The church was extremely warm to Ryan’s family after the service and they were even treated to lunch.
This story perfectly summarizes what World Impact missionaries want to be about in ministry. We want Pastor Tim’s church to be disappointed that he is not bringing the Word of God to them every Sunday. And we want them to feel so connected to him and the church body that they are free to express this. Ryan has never had a better introduction. Reading his credentials and telling flattering stories is not what he wants to be about. He wants to make Pastor Tim shine.
In these past few years World Impact has been talking about indigenous leaders, those men and women who are in the city already and have leadership in some way. This leadership could be in a formal capacity like a pastor or informal like a neighborhood mom who knows everyone and is the glue to the community.
Along with the language of indigenous leaders we have talked about empowerment. Not a meeting goes by where we are not discussing how to better empower those who we are privileged to minister alongside. Empowerment can be a hard thing. But when we allow ourselves to change our mindset to empowering those who we are working with – we see what God can do. That does not mean we do not have something to offer though. We encourage and guide and steer, but we do all of that as a means for empowering them.
Join us in praying for leaders like Pastor Tim and his wife Karla. Ryan has over 20 people in his TUMI class every semester – that is 20 potential indigenous leaders who can take our city for God!
