We just kicked off our annual Missions Conference yesterday morning with a terrific start. Rev. Joseph Wong, Pastor of Living Stone Community Church in Orlando, gave the “Church Multiplication Report” (otherwise known as the “Home Missions Report”) for this year. I have known Joseph personally since we were students together at Reformed Theological Seminary back in 1999 or 2000. But I had never yet heard the story of how the Lord had called him to plant an English speaking Asian church here in the Orlando area.
Rev. Joseph Wong and family
The Living Stone Community Church began in October of 2007 and has been functioning very well ever since. They meet every Lord’s Day in the family life center at Downey Memorial Church, one of our affiliate churches. God has been faithful to provide for the newborn church which had its beginning during a time of difficult economic downturn. And in spite of the odds against its success, they have enjoyed a healthy, vibrant community of Christ for almost two and one half years now. The lasting impact of Living Stone Community Church serves as a witness to the Lord’s sovereign purposes and providence on their behalf.
Rev. Wong challenged us with a message from the fourth chapter of the gospel of John. But it probably wasn’t from the passage you would have first expected. Instead of preaching about the woman at the well and her encounter with Christ, he preached on the passage immediately following, where Christ addresses His own disciples about the harvest. The conversion of the woman at the well was compelling evidence that the harvest was ripe. But the disciples were too blind, or unwilling, to see where the fields were ready for harvesting.
He spoke of the moment of “good success” (Qarah) that each of us can experience, just as Abraham’s servant found as he prayed for God’s direction in choosing a wife for Isaac. This “good success” has nothing to do with the modern form of a prosperity gospel. It’s not about us experiencing material or financial prosperity in this world. But, rather, as he referred to this moment of good success, I understood it more like what we might call a “divine appointment.” In other words, each of us can experience this moment of good success as we pray and ask God to give us favor in doing His work. Only He will open the doors so that His purposes in missions or evangelism or anything else will prosper.
In his sermon, Rev. Wong reminded us that it was the Lord who sows the seed! We are simply the reapers of the harvest, if we are willing to engage in the Lord’s work. We must avoid our tendency to delay or put off the work that the Lord has called us to do. But we are greatly encouraged to know that God is ever working to sow the seed so that we’ll have a harvest to gather. That’s the kind of Biblical promise that ought to fuel the work of missions and evangelism rather than deter them!
I loved the four principles that Rev. Wong closed his message with. He said that we should (1) go to places we never go, (2) talk to people we don’t normally talk to, (3) dream the dreams we never dream, and (4) do the things that we never do. When we do these things, we will submit to the Lord’s direction rather than operate from our own personal agendas.
Please pray for the Living Stone Community Church in Orlando and for Rev. Joseph Wong their Pastor. Pray for his family that faithfully serve God as they passionately do His work. And pray for the Church Multiplication division of the Southeastern District and the Christian and Missionary Alliance. Praise the Lord for church plants like Living Stone that desire to reach particular communities or peoples for the gospel of Jesus Christ.