Judea, Montana – Christ Close to Home

October 18-19, 2012

Featured Speaker: Dr. Art Azurdia from Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon

Can you smell the coffee, bacon, and eggs  at your local café as a couple old-timers settle into a booth and spread out the morning paper?  One reads the headline for the Montana Bible College leaders conference.

“Judea, Montana?  Where’s that?”

“Ain’t it one of those little towns on the highline?  I think it’s between Inverness and Kremlin.  Or maybe it’s up near Scobey? . . . Plentywood?”

“No, maybe it’s Southeast, over by Baker, or maybe Birney.  I know I’ve heard that name before!  I bet I’ve been there, too.”
“I got it!  It’s over towards Lewistown!  It’s where they got all them windmills!”

“Naw, that’s Judith Gap!”

So, where is Judea Montana?  It’s nowhere.  And it’s everywhere.  There is no such town.  But we’re borrowing from the words of Jesus, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth.”  It’s the famous “ripple effect” passage where Jesus tosses the pebble in at Jerusalem, and in our mind’s eye, we watch the message of repentance and forgiveness of sins ripple to the whole world like rings on a placid mountain lake.

So Judea is close to home – your own community and the immediately surrounding area.  It doesn’t matter if you live in Eureka, Montana or Eureka, South Dakota, or if your home is Mud Lake, Idaho, or Rock River, Wyoming, or Turtle Lake, North Dakota.  Judea still applies from Fargo to Missoula; from Great Falls to Idaho Falls.

Judea, Montana – Christ Close to Home, is the first of three conferences about you leading your church to fulfill the mission Jesus has given you to make disciples – close to home.  Our observation is that being “mission-minded,” to most people, means a global focus across oceans.  And that’s good!  We should have a global focus for those God calls out of every tribe and language and people and nation.  But have you noticed that in many of our churches a lie persists that only a few of God’s people are called to fulfill Jesus’ mandate to make disciples?  “That’s the job of the pastors and missionaries!”  Or perhaps you’ve already peeled off that first layer of lie in your church only to be confronted by the daunting challenge of mobilizing your people to overcome the inertias of a busy life, the fear of rejection and the belief that, “If people want to come to Jesus, they know where to find Him, because, after all, our building is easy to spot and we’ve got lots of good programs going.”

Here’s how we envision this three-year conference series unfolding:

Each year we’ll take a two-pronged approach, wedding theological conviction to practical action.  General sessions will lay the Biblical groundwork.  Our desire is to bring personal understanding and conviction to leadership teams as well as to model how to effectively communicate our mandate to the people God has called us to shepherd.  Break-out sessions will wed the theological to the practical by guiding ministry teams (whether two or ten) to lay solid plans to lead their people in living out their mandate to make disciples.  We’ll take the practical side of things in three “bite-sized” chunks, focusing on one per year.  To tip our hand, we’ll take a decidedly non-programmatic approach flowing from our conviction that discipleship is directed relationship unto maturity in Christ.

Year 1:  Judea, Montana – Christ Close to Home.  [dates]

Dr. Art Azurdia from Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon will lay the biblical foundation for our disciple-making mandate.  His 25+ years of pastoral ministry will help him speak to ministry leaders as one wrestling with the same struggles they face.  On the practical side, breakout sessions will help church leaders plan for meaningful engagement close to home by working through the municipal power-brokers and gate-keepers.  These are key people who unlock the doors to many more people.  They are your school teachers, coaches, principals, and superintendents.  They are your law enforcement, jail and emergency services supervisors.  They are your social workers, your rest home supervisors, and kids’ program organizers.  If we were going to a foreign mission field, we would recognize our need to work with those in power, but we seem to forget that in our own communities.  How can we work through these gate-keepers to build meaningful relationships with the hurting-lost?

Year 2:  Storm the Gates!

We’ll help leaders understand and learn to communicate the offensive posture Jesus describes for His ambassadors.  How do we guide our churches to change their internal cultures so that intentional and purposeful contact with the lost is the norm?  On the practical side, we’ll plan to help the people of our churches deliberately include in their lives the “sinners”, the fringe, and the hurting lost people around them.  Little league coaching and the gospel can go together!

Year 3:  From Safety in the Fortress to Service in the Field.  

We’ll seek to dismantle the fortress mentality that infects the way people think about the church.  Instead, we’ll foster a mentality of service in the fields which Jesus described as “white unto harvest.”  This will give us the opportunity for a healthy critique of the emergent church movement.  On the practical side, we plan to help church leadership guide their people toward teamwork in the fields close to home.  Small groups can have organized engagement with people for the purpose of sharing the gospel.  We’ll avoid programmatic approaches and social gospel pitfalls while leading small teams toward organized disciple-making efforts.