los angeles, ca
6.15 am

just like bob
reframing: tipping point / part 2

i’m back in la today with a question on my mind: is the world tipping over?

thomas friedman, columnist for the new york times, suggests that we are witnessing three tipping points at once. here’s the second.

the second “reframing” event tipping the world is the murder of rafik hariri, lebanon’s former prime minister. the result of this assassination [widely believed to have been backed by syria], according to friedman, is that lebanese christians, muslims and druze are demanding that syria end their occupation of lebanon.

what new york times columnist thomas friedman doesn’t know is that my friend “bob”, who is planting a church in beirut and whose first convert was a druze, was already pushing the world in the right direction.

while in the process of planting a church in beirut, my friend “bob’ also helped planted a church in baghdad. he will no doubt plant countless others. and this is how the world is tipping over.

“bob” in beirut; derek in switzerland, adaumir, birger and toby in german; steve, paul, gordon, jonathan, barry and john in the states [and countless others across the west whose hearts are christ’s] are all pushing the world in the same direction. it will tip over.

is it possible that the world is tipping for a season

from secular or theocratic tyrannies…

…to a world in which representative governments prevail?

yes, hopefully. but what principles or value will guide the peoples of the middle east as they choose who will govern them?

this is where my friend “bob” and all of us who are committed to seeing the gospel of christ spread throughout western culture and beyond truly matter. this battle is won by the grassroots, love filled sharing of the gospel of the kingdom by the women and men who believe it.

we live in an explosive moment of immense macro shifts. meanwhile at the boots-on-the-ground level, every church planter, pastor and believing leader should be more like bob. our churches and church plants are not an end in themselves but a means to the advance of the gospel to the ends of the earth. historical moments like these when the ground trembles beneath our feet increase our stewardship of the gospel…and it’s advance.

church planter. the end game is not to plant a church, but to discover, develop and deploy leaders that will discover, develop and deploy leaders that will advance the gospel through every open door and crack until every nation dances in the streets because of the beauty of christ.

that’s how we tip the world over. like bob.

into the mystic…

© alex mcmanus, 2005