Our Goodly Heritage

We encourage you to share the following with your church leaders, teachers, volunteers, and small-groups.

Originally printed in Strength for Service to God and Country: Daily Devotions for Those in the Service of Others, second revised edition copyright © 2002 by Abingdon Press/Nashville. All rights reserved.

 

The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.—Ps. 16:6

 

When it comes to riches and marvels of native land, when it comes to benefits and blessings, when it comes to rights and privileges, and when it comes to opportunities and possibilities, we, the people of these United States, have a goodly heritage—something we are in danger of forgetting, unless we remind ourselves of it from time to time, especially in view of the fact that there are some among us who are always finding fault with our country. We would be wiser and better citizens if we would spend more time in evidencing our appreciation of what we have and less time in complaining about what we do not have.

Praising America More than God

With the U.S. Independence Day holiday coming up, many churches will be holding patriotic worship services extolling the virtues of the nation. However, other congregations and pastors struggle with what kind of relationship the church should have with the nation. How should we acknowledge our gratitude to a country that allows us to worship freely without fear of persecution or censorship without abandoning our prophetic call to proclaim God’s kingdom on earth? There is no easy answer, and every situation is unique, so let me share about how it came up in my ministerial context one time.

Got Your Six

You can’t hang around a church for any length of time without hearing someone use the term missional. It’s hard to believe that this mainstay of our lexicon was introduced to us less than twenty years ago when a group of six professors and pastors published their research in a book called Missional Church: A Vision of the Sending of the Church in North America. Since then, the majority of churches has become more focused on the theology of mission work and has created flourishing ministries, reaching out to all the sub-cultures of their communities . . . all, that is, but one. The military.

”Maybe its the ‘can’t-see-the-forest-for-the-trees’ type dynamic,” says Gary Sanders,

founder and president Military Missions Network (MMN), a non-profit organization in Chesapeake, Virginia. “But the majority of churches do not have any kind of organized ministry for the military. That’s been surprising to me.”