There are times in our desire to get to the “what does that mean to me” of Bible interpretation that we miss out on the big picture of what God is doing.

A story is told of a preacher who was given an opportunity to preach to 120,000 people – not at a large Christian event or conference but to truly lost people. Most preachers would give anything for that opportunity. As Global vice president I have had opportunities to preach to truly large numbers of people who are far from God – but nothing like this! On the day of the event,, as the story goes, the preacher was a no show. He just didn’t show up. No actually it was worse than that – he ran away from the opportunity.

This preacher not only was a no show – he attempted to bypass the responsibility by going thousands of miles in the opposite direction. No he didn’t take a plane, but he did take a ship and try to go as far away as he could – unimaginable. Who would think to leave 120,000 people without hope in a God who loves them?

As the story goes the ship gets caught up in a big storm and the preacher is tossed overboard and then – and this is amazing – he is swallowed by a big fish! Wait a minute, maybe you know this story already!

We often look at the story of Jonah and focus on the prophets’ disobedience. We apply the story in our sermons and small groups to the importance of obedience to the call of God – and rightfully so. But in our desire to ask what the story means for me, we sometimes lose sight of the bigger picture. There was a city of 120,000 people that were far from God. A city that God wanted to have the opportunity to repent. A city loved by God in spite of their wickedness. The big picture is about them and God’s desire to save them.

In this article we want to step back and see the big picture – the view from 32,000 feet (cruising altitude on most of my global trips), if you will.

I believe many would agree that the first 11 chapters of Genesis are eventful to say the least. In those few chapters we see creation and people as the climax of God’s creative activity. We observe God’s desire to be with people as he walks with them in the garden made especially for them – then we see sin or as others have put it paradise lost.

It is unimaginable how quickly people dissolve into a chaotic life of sin and rebellion. The first family produces the first murder, and life quickly becomes defined by the word wickedness (Genesis 6:5). God is so repulsed by His own creation that He decides to destroy what had been the very pinnacle of creation. But plan A is still to have fellowship with people so God preserves one family to continue the blessing of creation.

The world is destroyed by a flood and life begins again with one family – the amazing thing is how quickly life once again dissolves into wickedness. But God’s desire is still to bless people and to be a blessing to people. He gives Noah and his family blessing once again (Genesis 9:1) just as He had done with Adam and Eve (Genesis 1:28).

In many Bibles you will find Genesis 10 called the “table of nations.” An interesting refrain found in the table is this: “peoples spread out into their territories by their clans within their nations, each with its own language.” Indeed it is said of each of Noah’s three children. But we don’t yet, at least as far as the narrative goes, how this came to be. Then we reach Genesis 11 and learn of people’s desire to once again refuse the creative blessing of God – to multiply and fill the earth. They decide to not scatter but rather stay together and build a great city – another in a series of acts of disobedience.

But do not forget, God has always had a plan A – fellowship with people! Genesis 12 becomes the revelatory moment of how God intends to stem the tide of wickedness, defeat it, and restore fellowship with people – or once again, as others have put it, paradise restored.

God calls a man named Abram and his family to one of the most pivotal moments in all of revelatory history. To this man Abram God makes a series of promises in Genesis 12:1-3:

The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. 3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.” (NLT)

There are personal blessings given to Abram – I will bless you and make you famous. There is a blessing to his progeny – I will bless you and make you a great nation and I will give you a land I will show you.

But don’t become so fixated on the family that you miss the greatest blessing of all – through you all families on earth will be blessed! That is the point! That is what God has been building up to through the previous 11 chapters of Genesis – there is still a plan to defeat the wickedness and once again bless people.

Blessing is a marvelous thing – it has its revelatory moment in creation and has God as its source. It is focused on what God wants to do in people, but now we see also that it is what God wants to do through people. And then, in what is an utter mystery, that which began with God and passes through His people to others can and ought to be returned once again to Him – “bless the Lord, O my soul…” (Psalm 103).

There it is, an insight into the intimacy of the fellowship God desires with each of us. To both receive His blessing, be a blessing, and together return blessing to Him. The Hebrew word is the same, but many translations use the word “praise” in Psalms 103. This blessing, or praise is an act of adoration to the God of creation. The creator of all! The One who desires, as He always has, to have fellowship with us.

In this pivotal moment God sets in action a redemptive plan to bless a family, a nation, and ultimately all peoples. He continues to invite us to be part of that plan – to pass on the blessing of redemption which will ultimately end in victory over wickedness.

That is the big picture – that is what God is trying to accomplish in the world – through us. The great commission is not new at all – it has always been God’s passions and should be ours as well. To be a blessing – in my home, my family, my workplace, my community, and wherever God may lead – so that all people may return that blessing and praise His name.

About the Author: Mark Powell is the Vice-President for Global Missions at General Baptist Ministries and is the senior pastor of Pleasant View General Baptist Church in Risco, Missouri.

The other day, my husband decided it was time to move the big bunch of cattle across the county road to finish up the last of the pasture. (And praise God, we still have pasture and haven’t fed hay yet to them!) But of course there were some that didn’t make it across, even though they had plenty of opportunity to do so. And for a few days, there was a lot of bawling across the fences.

In a couple of weeks, all of the grass will be gone, and the ones who made it across, will join with the others as they come back across the road to them. And that really got me to thinking that many times in this life, we’ve missed out of the goodness of God because we simply were not paying attention to Him.

He moved, and we lagged behind. We were oblivious to our surroundings and missed “the call.” I can guarantee you that every one of those cows heard us “call” them and all the neighbors within 3 miles did too.

And that’s so much like us humans. We miss the plain, seen things of God. We see miracles of salvation, deliverance and healing and yet still stick our noses in the ground. I can tell you that I sure don’t want to miss it anymore.

I want to keep my eyes on Him and my heart fixed. I want to be ready for whatever He may “call” me to do. It may just be the fact that I need to go visit someone, pray with someone or even just look up and smile at someone. That’s the simple stuff that most of us miss.

What if we didn’t though? What would our world look like without the prompting of the Holy Spirit? I can tell you the world would be dead and life would be so dull and one might even wander why they exist. I do know that I want to stay in His Word and heed His “call” on my life, whatever that might be.

I can tell you that I’ve wrestled with the Lord in my life. I’m bull headed and don’t want to do certain things, or just avoid thinking about them. In 2015, I was asked to go to Africa, but the Holy Spirit nudged me and said, “not now.” Boy was I glad when He did, to tell you the truth.

But that put a spark inside of me in which I knew someday, I would go. I really don’t want to go and in a way, I’ve acted like Jonah running from the “call.” I like to stay where I’m comfortable and content. But I do know this for a fact, that God said “GO!”

I’m not sure what lies across the road from here to there, but I’m ready to find out. I’d say more than likely, that I will glean more than I give and have a brand new perspective on how wealthy I am, even though the bank owns my house and my car.

So, my daughter and I will journey into the unknown, knowing the God that leads us will never forsake us nor lead us astray. I challenge you to get out of your comfort zone and journey across the road of life to where He will lead you. And one unending day, He will lead us home to where we belong, to those green pastures where the river of life flows freely and eternity begins. Let’s all cross over to the other side together.

About the Author: Hi I’m LeaAnn Crum, I’ve been a pastors (Neal Crum) wife for the past 22 years. We have 2 grown daughters, 2 sons in law and one granddaughter. We own and operate a 400 acre farm in Douglas county, MO.

Children’s Church. Kid’s Worship.  I am not sure what this special ministry is called in your church, but I can guess there are only a few reactions to these phrases.  Some reading this will smile sweetly, calling to mind happy memories perhaps as a participant, perhaps as a leader, of Bible memory verses and crafts and snacks. 

For others, “Children’s Church” causes sweat to pop out and a fear to fill your chest almost as bad as a public speaking event.  In many cases, the children’s church teacher is sent to the church basement only to emerge 58 years later.  For others, it is a quick trip. 

When my husband and I were first called into ministry we excitedly signed up to help with the upper elementary age group at our church.  Three short months later we begged for a reassignment.  We were still fairly certain we were called to ministry, but we were confident it was not with that sweet little age group.  We thankfully found our niche during that time with the middle schoolers. Regardless, children’s church serves an important role in the ministry and discipleship of our youngest students. 

Fast forward 11 years, knowing its importance, our new church leadership began praying about what this ministry should look like.  What would we want our own children experiencing and learning during their time in this service?  God had already been drawing our hearts toward two specific areas: discipleship and teamwork. 

We knew we could only begin a part of discipleship in our Sunday morning services with our students, but it could be done with a powerful team of teachers. We started by praying about who to talk to about helping in children’s church.  It was decided we should have teams of two adults and possibly one teen each week, but with no one serving more than one Sunday a month.  We have teachers who also serve in nursery, on the worship team and who teach a Sunday School class. 

It was important to us that our teachers be adults, women AND men, who were growing in their faith and preferably plugged in to a small group of discipleship themselves.  If they were to be teaching our students how to grow in their faith, then we wanted them living that for themselves. 

We began by asking couples, parents of our students, and other men and women who were in discipleship groups to prayerfully consider serving on this ministry team.  The details were spelled out: one other team member, on a rotation of no more than once a month, and agree to complete one year. At the end of the year, we reassess how this ministry team is working for each of our team members.  Many times, they agree to another year of serving. However, there are also years when a team needs a change or a break.  Our intention is for this yearly assessment to prevent burnout and ultimately resentful serving.  It gives our leaders a chance to change ministries and encourage healthy transitions. 

The team approach also helps teaching be a little less intimidating for those who do not feel as “natural” in that role.  Our children’s church serves students in pre-k through 5^th grade.  We split the group in two and have the younger students begin with snack and Bible memory work while the older students go to their lesson time.  At the halfway mark they switch classrooms which gives the students a change in scenery and allows the teachers to interact with all the students.  

Our curriculum has changed over the years, but we have currently landed on one with enough material to last Sunday morning and Wednesday evenings.  The Scripture lesson and Bible memory work is taught on Sunday mornings and then Wednesday evenings are spent reviewing the lesson and adding in fun activities. 

As we focused on discipleship, we wanted our students to retain the information and live it out and we felt that could be better accomplished by focusing on one weekly lesson.  In order to create rhythms for our students (and a schedule our teachers can remember!) we have the Children’s Church teacher teams take a month at a time for teaching Wednesday nights. 

We have been doing VBS on Wednesday nights in August, and then we begin our semester with our first set of teachers in September.  This allows the other teams to attend our adult Bible study until it is their turn to teach.  Again, we want our teachers growing in their faith, too.

Our goal has always been to disciple our students and teach them to worship Jesus, however, as we were beginning to restructure our system, we realized our students did not know how to transition from student ministry to the adult corporate worship time. With that goal in mind, we implemented a new component of our Sunday morning children’s ministry called Family Sunday. 

The last Sunday of each month we have all our students remain with their families for the main service, but we still offer nursery for our youngest children.  This Sunday offers a break for our teachers, but we truly believe in the power of our families worshipping together.

We are one full year into this specific team of teachers and curriculum.  Of course, it isn’t perfect; however, I believe we are seeing one of the healthiest teams our church has developed in many years.  It is a team that has been flexible, eager to serve, and perhaps most importantly, growing in their individual faiths.  As a result, we are watching our students grow in their faith and knowledge of our Lord Jesus. 

Our prayer is that this ministry and part of their discipleship will develop a foundation that they will build upon as they grow and become disciple makers themselves.

Lyndsey Reese is first and foremost a disciple of Jesus. A few of her other favorite titles are “wife” to Tim and “Mama” to their two daughters. Lyndsey is a small town girl who moved back to the family farm where she and her family serve in their local, rural church. She can be reached through email at tnlreese@gmail.com.