We begin offering articles from a host of contributors from around the world who engage their context or others with the “mission of God.” We begin today with Russ Rankin. You may find more information about Russ on our Contributors Page.

The Kingdom Principle

Several years ago I accompanied a friend on hiking trip. Our objective was more than just spending a few days in the great outdoors. The location was a restricted-access country in Asia where mission work is forbidden. My friend, a strategy coordinator for an unreached people group, asked me to join him on the trip high in the mountains to locate and mark with a GPS villages previously untouched by Westerners. His desire was to count doors, do a needs-assessment and hopefully encounter men of peace through whom he could introduce the Gospel to a secluded people. As a journalist, I planned to do a feature package on the people and the challenge of bringing the Gospel to them.

We spent our first day navigating dusty trails and narrow goat paths straight up a mountain nearing 10,000 feet. At one point, having run out of water, we resorted to drawing and filtering from streams that were no more than mud puddles. Periodically, we encountered people living on the mountain; villagers tending to crops on semi-flat fields or goat herders on patches of mountain grass. At one rest stop, two members of our team engaged a couple of farmers in light conversation and gave them tracts in their language.

In our ignorance, we didn’t realize those farmers were heading down the mountain to a village at a lower trailhead. I can imagine their report to the local officials: white devils were on the mountain handing out (illegal) materials. To our dismay, as we broke camp the following morning we saw coming up behind us a trail of military vehicles. Needless to say, the language barrier didn’t mean much as the officials angrily interrogated our leader and hauled us all off the mountain.

We were held for several hours in the village headquarters. Our team leader received the brunt of their wrath since he knew the language, but after a time we were left under the watch of one of the armed guards. As we sat in the sparse room, our team leader sat at the doorway engaged in conversation with the guard.

After several hours a bus arrived. We were told we would be taken down the mountain to the provincial capital and expelled from the country. As we loaded our gear on the bus, I noticed our team leader place both of his hands on our guard’s shoulders and speak to him. The guard’s head lowered. He nodded, seemingly with resignation.

I knew my friend was telling this man about Jesus. I couldn’t wait to hear the whole story.

The guard had continued to tell our team leader that what we were doing was illegal. But “I put my hands on his shoulders and looked him the eye,” my friend shared. “I told him: ‘You know that the Kingdom of God has come near to you today.’” The guard nodded his head and said, “Yes, I know.”

It was a simple statement, but it reflected our marching orders. Before our hike we were told we were operating under the “L.K. 10 principle” just as Jesus had instructed the 72 as He sent them out – to proclaim the Good News; to speak to those who would listen; to pray for the sick; to proclaim the Kingdom of God.

While this story is digestible in the context of being overseas in a country resistant to the Gospel, I feel this basic principle is one that is too often overlooked in the safety shell of our American church. Most understand the mandate to be the hands and feet of Jesus, but do we take seriously the mandate to intentionally intersect the lost, the questioning, the maligned, the people all around us; to look them in the eye and proclaim the truth, challenging them to understand through our actions and words that the Kingdom of God has come near to them? How have I brought near the Kingdom of God today? Did anyone even realize it?

What does “L.K. 10” look like in the missional context? Is it enough to hope that the waitress serving us thinks we are “different” because we smile and leave a decent tip? That the store clerk is impressed that we don’t get aggravated in the long checkout line like those around us? That maybe we give a sandwich to the homeless vet on the corner? These things are good and should be expected of Christ-followers. But isn’t there more?

There is intentionality in the series of instructions given to the 72: Ask the Lord…Go!…Speak peace…stay…eat…drink…heal…tell them: “the Kingdom of God is near you.”

I’m not suggesting you grab someone on the street and say, “The Kingdom of God is near you!” That could get ugly. But why are we afraid and intimidated to ask about the needs of someone’s heart and explain how every desire and broken promise they have been harboring can be found in the person of Jesus? Is it because we know it’s been attempted so many times in harmful “turn-off” ways that we’re fearful of being lumped in with the offensive kooks? Is it because we really don’t have a clue how to effectively translate God’s story into someone’s context and language? Is it because we ourselves don’t know it well enough? I wonder.

By the way, we created a second chance for ourselves that day on the mountain by giving the bus driver the slip and trekking back into our targeted territory. God’s story was communicated to a people for the first time. May His Kingdom come.