First Fruits

This is the first in a planned series of reflections on my recent two weeks in Turkey, leading conferences for Turkish pastors and church leaders.

In this land of 75 million people, estimates are that only about 3,000 are Protestant Christians. 99.8% of the population are Muslim.

I was privileged to lead conferences in the capital city of Ankara, and in the Mediterranean city of Adana. I also preached in churches in each of those cities. Each time I told them this:

I believe, and many others believe as well, that God is preparing a great harvest of souls for Turkey and the Middle East. In any harvest, a few fruits (or vegetables or grains or nuts) ripen first. These are called the first fruits. Then all the rest come ripe very quickly.

Those Turkish people who have come to Christianity in the past few years are the first fruits of the coming great harvest. Some time, probably not too far in the future, many thousands of people are going to come to faith in Jesus very quickly. Then they will say, “OK, now I’ve believed in Jesus, now I’m a Christian. Now what do I do?”

They will look around and see you (one of the Turkish believers I was talking to), and they’ll say, “You’ve been a Christian for a year, or two years, or five years. I just became a Christian. Tell me what to do!”

My purpose in leading these conferences was to help equip Turkish pastors and church leaders to prepare their people for that time.

My advice to them was, I think, also a good exercise for every Christian, in America as well as in Turkey. Here is what I told them. Next time you say a prayer, or read the Bible, or go to church, or try to do what Jesus would do, think about what you are doing. If a brand-new Christian asked you why you were doing that, what would you say? If they asked you to show them how to do it, how would you explain it?

You don’t have to be in Turkey for people to ask you about Jesus, and the practice of Christianity. It could happen to you tomorrow. Are you ready?

I'm Back from Turkey

I got home from two weeks in Turkey about 10:15pm Monday night (Feb. 16). It was a wonderful experience leading conferences for the Turkish churches in Ankara, the capital city, and Adana, the fourth largest city. We visited Antakya (Biblical Antioch) where Jesus' followers were first called "Christians," and where Paul and Barnabas were commissioned by God as the first traveling missionaries. We also visited Tarsus, Paul's home town.

Over the next few days or weeks I'll be posting thoughts about my trip here in this blog. I hope they are a blessing to you as the trip was to me.

And I'm so grateful to those who kept Trinity Church moving forward in my absence. Good folks we are blessed with here!