I grew up in a church culture that was pessimistic and hopeless. The world was spiralling out of control, things were going from bad to worse, and everyone was out to get us. The church had a remnant and fortress mentality, thinking that it was just our little group and that we needed to hole up together and just wait for Jesus to come back. Sara Groves has this great song about taking our church to the moon that reminds me of what it was like growing up.

I have since then developed a different way of looking at things. I now look at the world with much more optimism and hope. I am inspired by that heavenly vision of people from across the globe and throughout the ages unified in worship of Jesus. I am challenged by the great problems of our day, problems that governments have been unable to solve but maybe the church could. I have been captured by the little phrase, “Love Wins.”

So, what does that mean? For me, it means that we adopted a little girl from the foster care system. It means that I support the One Campaign. It means that we have a Compassion International child. It means that I dream of adopting another child from a desperate part of the world (and, yes, my wife knows about that.) It means I can’t wait for Vintage to be in the financial position to make a serious commitment to oversees missions, not as white American saviors, but rather in training local pastors to lead effective, world-class churches in their countries.

There is so much to do. And with God’s help and by his grace, we can do it.

What does being a world-class Christian mean to you?