Intolerant Action
“Intolerance is a Beautiful Thing” read the front of a t-shirt I saw recently. The point, of course, was found on the back: “Mother Teresa was intolerant of poverty. Bono was intolerant of AIDS. Nelson Mandela was intolerant of apartheid. Martin Luther King was intolerant of racism. Jesus was intolerant of bigotry.”
In a world that claims to value tolerance, it is intolerance — the unwillingness to accept or endure an idea, situation, or belief — that is often the catalyst for positive action. It’s more than just disliking something such as tomato juice (yuck) or baroque harpsichord music. Intolerance, for good or bad, rejects passivity and leads to radical action. This t-shirt made me think: What am I intolerant of…?
Intolerance is often equated with hate — but that assumes intolerance is always bad. Christians can be labeled as intolerant for “proselytizing” — that is, attempting to convert someone to our faith (though it is God who is actually doing the converting.) Yet you may have heard the story told by Penn Jillette, a Las Vegas headliner and outspoken atheist (available on YouTube, viewer discretion advised). After a show, a man who had volunteered to participate in the act approached Mr. Jillette and handed him a Gideon Bible. Inside the front cover, the man had written his phone numbers and email if the performer wanted to talk. Mr. Jillette states,“I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. ..How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?”
Mr. Jillette is seeing only half the equation: I think it safe to assume that the man’s action were not about a lack of hate in that man’s life, but about love and compassion. Perhaps the man with the Bible was indeed intolerant — intolerant of the idea that someone might not know the true gospel.
Many in this world believe that the God of the Bible is intolerant. And those who follow Christ cannot deny such a claim. Scripture is clear that God is indeed intolerant of sin. But the good news is that God is also intolerant of the consequences of sin on His creation and the humanity made in His image! Because of His great love, God could not tolerate leaving things this way; His intolerance, driven by compassion and mercy, led to a bold and unimaginable plan to fix everything through Christ.
On an airplane, I sometimes look out the windows and — especially when landing and things become more easily identifiable — think about the people whose lives are represented by the houses, streets, and other buildings I see. In the large city I live in, I often realize that I’m surrounded by people I’ve probably never seen before and may never see again. In both instances, my mind often ponders if these people will ever have a chance to know about Jesus, to truly understand the transforming power of God’s redeeming love.
Maybe this is just how God has “wired” my mind to my soul. But I’ve realized that the more I understand God’s heart, the more I’ve become intolerant… I’m intolerant of the fact that, in the 21st century, someone could live his or her whole life and never have an honest opportunity to know Jesus. And this intolerance moves me to ponder ever more radical actions, ever bigger steps of faith to do something about it.
Summer Project
On June 19, three young men arrived at the airport in San Jose, California to take part in the Silicon Valley Summer Project. They came to spend six weeks this summer as interns with Global Media Outreach. The goal was to allow student interns to experience firsthand how God can use their gifts and abilities to reach people for Christ.
AJ (James Madison University) and Kenny (Penn State) worked with me on several different video projects — including a new, visually-orientated gospel presentation and the Arabic versions of one- to two-minute introductions to the books of the New Testament. Samuel (Ohio University) worked with our programming team on several different projects. Each of the guys also helped answer some of the email responses that come into GMO’s web sites.
Serving as the director of this project has been almost like a second full-time job — especially in the weeks and days leading up to the project. Once the guys arrived, I found myself in the role of project director, chauffeur, manager, teacher, financial manager, activity coordinator, discipler… and more.
Recruiting is one of our basic, not-so-subtle reasons for this summer project. By developing a vision for global online ministry within these students is something God might use to lead some of them into full-time work with Global Media Outreach. Like so many other things with faith, you plant the seed and wait to see what happens.
This is also the summer for Campus Crusade for Christ’s biennial staff conference in Fort Collins, Colorado. I’ve been helping our team plan a campaign to recruit new online missionaries and co-workers from among the 6,000 US staff members at the conference. My primary task was designing a booth for the ministry fair — a major undertaking that took us 8 hours to build, but turned out to be very effective in communicating GMO’s ministry and vision.
As I write this letter, I’m in the last week of a 46-day marathon that includes a month in California for the project, 10 days in Colorado for the conference, and another 3 days in California to wrap up the project before returning to Orlando. I honestly don’t know who has gotten more out of the summer project — me or the students. All this left me with a “good kind of tired” — the kind where you know it’s God who keeps you going, not your own strength. I also believe that God will bring some good things out of this summer, for both me and the ministry. And I’m as thankful as ever for your prayer support!
The Big Shoot
I’m a fan of the “kill two birds with one stone” philosophy, but I may have outdone myself this month. I spent 10 days in the San Diego, California area shooting video for three different projects. 
The initial plan was to create a set of videos for use in a forth-coming guide for new believers. Each 60- to 90-second video will be integrated in a web page covering core concepts of the Christian faith over the course of 30 days. This trial project is part of our growing efforts to effectively disciple those we’re reaching online.
Earlier this year, I began planning the Japanese translations of our “core content” videos — one gospel presentation and 16 follow-up video messages. Rev. Suzuki, a Japanese pastor in the Los Angeles area, agreed to be our presenter. Once the follow-up project began coming together, it made sense to arrange for him to come down to the San Diego area to do the recordings. This was also the first time I’ve managed the whole translation process, which was very much an “educational experience.”
The third project was one of those “while we’re at it” things — a 10-part video series on prayer that will be part of an upcoming evangelism and discipleship site designed for a youth audience.
For the follow-up and prayer videos, we decided to use outdoor environments to create the feeling of two friends talking in a park. We also used some new equipment to create a “film look” for the videos — most noticeably, a shallower “depth of field” that allows the background to be out of focus. While these tools and locations let us achieve a new level of production quality, it also added significant complexity to the effort.
Every spiritual advance happens in the face of spiritual opposition. I’m convinced that when you commit an endeavor, big or small, to God’s will and protection, that nothing happens by chance — whether, in this case, it’s an equipment breakdown, scheduling conflicts, or a pesky cold virus. Before leaving on this trip, I e-mailed my partners and friends a reminder to pray for this production trip. And I’m convinced this made all the difference. Thank you for your faithful prayer support!
Gaining Momentum
Do you realize that the Great Commission may be close to completion? We are living in a day when Christ’s command to take His message to every nation is rapidly gaining momentum.
When the disciples asked about the end times, Jesus responded, in Matthew 24:14, “The Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come.” Looking at Jesus’ words in the larger context of Scripture, we realize that while the exact timing and details are still a mystery, the outcome is clear. One way or another, every nation will be reached with the good news of God’s forgiveness and redemption in Jesus Christ.
Colossians 1:16-17 says, “For by him [Christ] all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Walt Wilson, GMO’s founder, points out that “all things” includes bits, the most basic form of digital data. Bits form bytes, and bytes form text, images, video, and audio that we use to communicate the Good News. The opportunities we have for sharing the gospel in the Internet era didn’t surprise Jesus; He planned it from the beginning.
Other Great Commission efforts are also accelerating. Wycliffe Bible Translators can now, in a two-year timeframe, translate enough Scriptures to plant a church in a language group. OneStory (a partnership between Campus Crusade, Wycliffe, and other ministries) is creating Bible-based stories that can be easily learned and repeated in oral-learning cultures. There so many things I hear about God doing around the world; in faith, I believe He’s doing even more that is still unreported.
As I write this, Global Media Outreach is currently seeing as many as 24,000 indicated decisions for Christ each day — double what we were seeing just 6 months ago. This is due solely to the power of the Holy Spirit that is unleashed through our obedience to God’s will. Yet I am convinced that we have many, many more steps to take before God’s intentions for Spirit-powered, Internet-facilitated ministry are fully revealed.
Within the next decade, perhaps sooner, some 95% of the world’s population will be digitally connected — many of them through digital media devices using cell-phone networks. One thing is clear from the brief history of online ministry: wherever digital data can be accessed, we can share the gospel.
God’s redemptive plan, centered in the person of Jesus Christ, continues with full force in our present day. The clouds gathering on the horizon suggest that something big is brewing… yet while we see indications of what God might do, we won’t know for sure until it happens. Still, I can say with 100% certainty that each day brings us one step closer to the plan’s fulfillment.
Countless believers have faithfully and obediently been part of the Great Commission. To think that we could be witnessing God’s grand finalé — let alone actively participating in it — is humbling, challenging… and motivating.
