March 22, 2023
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An upscale restaurant in Manhattan's iconic Rockefeller Plaza, filled with Wall Street "movers and shakers." A dusty reservation basketball court, surrounded by impoverished, hope-starved Native American young people. I've ministered in both worlds, within weeks of one another. Worlds that - at first glance - seem to be really far apart. But when it comes to what God is doing, these divergent worlds share some striking - and instructive - similarities.
The "natives" in both worlds are hard to reach with the Good News of Jesus. The success, the drive of those marketplace men and women spawn a confident, self-reliant facade that doesn't open up easily. The young people on that reservation; they've been hardened by years of pain and a strong belief that "Jesus is the white man's God."
But - amazingly - there's a great move of God in both of these hard-to-reach cultures. I've seen it! And many are choosing to follow Jesus. The secret of these breakthroughs reveals a simple, but powerful, strategy for helping people from any culture or subculture find our Jesus. People from a tribe are the key to reaching lost people in that tribe.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Tribe, Your Mission."
In Manhattan, it's Wall Street men and women reaching Wall Street men and women; opening their heart to share the brokenness in their lives and relationships, and the Savior who was broken for them so they could be healed.
On the reservation, it's Native American young people reaching Native American young people. Through our ministry's all-Native, On Eagles' Wings teams reservation young people are pouring out the desperation and despair of lives surrounded by abuse and addiction and then sharing how "a brown-skinned, tribal man named Jesus changed everything."
I'm convinced that tribal rescue is the key to breaking through to countless lost people in every culture and every subculture. Moms listen to moms. Soccer players listen to soccer players. Hunters listen to hunters. Cancer survivors to cancer survivors. We're all in a tribe. You're in an occupational tribe, a recreational tribe, an educational tribe, a generational tribe, maybe an associational tribe like the PTA, the booster club, the country club.
So whatever tribe you're in, you are the best possible Gospel messenger to people in your tribe. You face the same stresses, you talk the same language, you share the same experiences. All those are bridges you can cross to open their heart to Jesus.
Do you understand you've been positioned by God to represent Christ in your tribe as no one else could. No evangelist, no pastor, no professional God salesman. It's you, because you're one of them. In fact the Bible puts it this way in our word for today from the Word of God, "We are Christ's ambassadors" (2 Corinthians 5:20).
What's that mean? Well, an ambassador - a chosen representative assigned to a particular place. You've been assigned to your personal world to be the voice and the face of Jesus there. This is an outreach strategy that any church can employ. Identify what tribes you have represented in your congregation. Take that as God's clue as to where your church should be targeting an outreach strategy. And then mobilize and equip your "tribal ambassadors" to claim their tribe for Christ.
This isn't new. When Jesus wanted to reach Samaritans, He didn't just go blazing into their village. He reached a Samaritan woman at a well. She told her tribe about Jesus and the Bible says, "and many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Him because of the woman's testimony" (John 4:39). People from a tribe listened to someone else from that tribe.
So just think what could happen in our country if every believer claimed their tribe for Christ and stepped up to be the face and the voice of Jesus there. Praying for and looking for God-given opportunities to use their tribal credentials as a bridge to tell about the difference Jesus Christ makes for someone just like them.
There's a world of "Samaritans" out there who would trust our Jesus if only they could hear about our Jesus from someone from their tribe. Like you!