I’ve taken a bit of a break from my regular bi-weekly schedule of blogging, for at least three reasons all of which in one way or another, as you’ll see, bear on the themes of this week’s posting.

First, I spent just over a week in Indonesia, pursuing a growing relationship with some wonderful Christians there who are developing a network of Christian schools at all levels. We at Covenant are finding great joy in identifying pathways for collaboration with these deeply committed colleagues in the Christian education enterprise.

Second, Covenant had the privilege of co-hosting, with the PCA’s global mission agency, Mission to the World, the triennial PCA Global Missions Conference here in Chattanooga. Wonderful singing, strong biblical exposition, and inspiring testimonies encouraged and instructed the more than 2,000 attendees, including about 150 Covenant students, regarding God’s glorious gospel work around the world.

Third, we’ve just returned from ten days with family in the Chicago area, where Kathleen and I celebrated Thanksgiving with our three sons and two daughters-in-law, and experienced the almost overwhelming thrill of meeting our first grandchild – Adelyn Grace Nielson – born on Saturday, November 20, to our oldest son Jon and his wife Jeanne.

These three experiences shared some common qualities and characteristics.

They were all filled, first, with a sense of the past, as in each case the people involved recognize that they are building on the work of those who had come before. Our Indonesian Christian friends are wholeheartedly Reformed in their theological outlook, reflecting a gratefully received heritage that includes faithful Dutch witness and also now several generations of indigenous, dynamic Reformed church leadership.

What a joy to see a large church in central Jakarta where the solas of the Reformation are boldly declared, both in the very architecture of the church building and in the regular preaching and ministries of the Word. The schools growing from the hearts of these brothers and sisters are solidly rooted in the soil of the long history of explicitly Christian and biblical education, with administrators and teachers who understand the importance of the preeminence of Jesus Christ in their academic disciplines and their schools’ environments. Their guiding motto, “True Knowledge, Faith in Christ, Godly Character,” is intended as an integrated educational vision that aims to be faithful to the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

The PCA’s global mission enterprise, under its past and present leadership, is also thoroughly and purposefully rooted in the past – not only the more recent past of the PCA’s mission work but also the longer history of biblical, gospel mission which has been going on for millennia. Much of the inspiration for the church’s present-day missionary and cross-cultural work is taken from the instruction and stories of faithful messengers across the centuries, carrying the prophets’ and apostles’ witness about Jesus to the ends of the earth. I was delighted to see so many Covenant students, many of whom have family roots in missions, watching and listening and participating in the plenary and seminar sessions, and more vitally and personally connecting with this history as their own.

And then of course there’s Adelyn Grace, born into an extended family which has included many gospel preachers and teachers and missionaries, along with musicians and business people and scholars and military servicemen. She is a child of the covenant, and as her grandparents we celebrate the multi-generational heritage which is hers, not simply as a family matter but most especially as a gospel matter: she is an heiress to the gospel promises of our covenant-keeping God, which are hers and will be hers by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

So first, then, a sense of the past. Now second, a sense of the future.

Our Indonesian friends have huge hopes and dreams for their burgeoning educational enterprise – a vision for more than a thousand Christian schools across the vast, thousands-of-islands expanse of their country, schools which will contribute in sound, biblical ways to a nation emerging as one of the next great economic growth centers, located in one of the next great economic growth regions of the world.

I’ve had the privilege of visiting a good number of these schools, including one on the island of Nias off the west coast of Sumatra, where almost 400 students are receiving a strong, biblically-grounded, and academically excellent education, from teachers most of whom are graduates of the Teachers College on the outskirts of Jakarta founded by these visionary folks to provide the unique, Christ-centered preparation required for this Christ-centered enterprise.

We at Covenant now have the privilege of sharing in this enterprise, through graduates of our education program teaching in some of their schools where classes are taught in English (we have our first graduate there now); through recruiting graduates of their high schools to Covenant where they can continue their Christ-centered education at the college level in preparation for returning to Indonesia equipped for their roles in God’s work there; through faculty exchanges that will enable us to benefit from each other’s vision and strengths. What an opportunity not only to watch the global future unfold, but to contribute to it with the distinctive gifts and capabilities with which God has blessed Covenant.

So many of the testimonies during the PCA Global Missions Conference, whose theme was “Jesus: The Hope of the Nations,” were filled with the hope of the gospel for the nations and for the specifically focused hope of the gospel for specific peoples and countries and cities of the world. In the present context of politics in the United States, with all the undeniably important issues of the economy and social issues and global political tensions, how wonderful to be reminded of our true and glorious future – and not only ours but of the whole world – secured for us by the death and resurrection and reign of Jesus Christ and not by political process or political party or achievement of a favored set of political aims. As James Davison Hunter writes in his recent book, To Change the World: the Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World:

As we have seen, the expectations that people place on politics are unrealistic, for most of the problems we face today are not resolvable through politics. That, however, is not the most serious problem. Far more grave is the way politicization has delimited the imaginative horizon through which the church and Christian believers think about engaging the world and the range of possibilities within which they actually act. Politics is just one way to engage the world, and, arguably, not the highest, best, most effective, nor most humane way to do so.

This does not mean that Christians shouldn’t “vote their values” or be active in political affairs. It is essential, however, to demythologize politics, to see politics for what it is and what it can and cannot do, and not place on it unrealistic expectations. It cannot realize the various mythic ideals that inspire different Christian communities; it cannot even reduce the tension that exists between the concrete realities of everyday life and the moral and spiritual ideals of the Kingdom of God. At best, politics can make life in this world a little more just and thus a little more bearable.

As one whose political, economic, and social views would undoubtedly be described as “conservative,” I confess frustration with policies and directions which, I believe, undermine human dignity, economic vitality and opportunity (especially for the poor and dispossessed), the sanctity of life, the covenant of marriage, the welfare of communities, and true justice. I vote and give accordingly. But what a blessing to be reminded, as we were again and again during the conference, of where our real hope lies, and to be challenged to set our priorities according to the infinitely grand merits of that hope.

(I should add that this was brought home to me in Indonesia as well, where our friends are energetically pushing forward with their hope-fueled vision in a land where hope of political ascendancy for their convictions and values is virtually non-existent.)

And then of course there’s Adelyn Grace, whose birth signals the hope of the gospel in a world where hope often seems dim. With each such birth – and it’s appropriate, I think, to feel this most vividly in the birth of one’s own progeny – we can hear God’s glorious “YES!” to the question of his ongoing commitment to his redemptive purpose for his creation. With each incoming freshman class at Covenant, my heart rejoices at God’s renewed “YES!” as he raises up another generation to explore and express the preeminence of Jesus Christ in all things and to be witnesses to gospel hope in the decades ahead. In all probability, I won’t live to see too much of the fruit of that hope in Adelyn’s life, but God’s promises are sure, and Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

So, a sense of the past and a sense of the future. But now, a sense of the risk.
We have to acknowledge that God’s people doing God’s work in God’s way are always at risk. The gospel is an offense, and as early as the opening verses of the third chapter of Mark’s gospel – after reading of Jesus’s kingly authority in word and deed – we read that “The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him” (Mark 3:6).

Our Indonesian friends are aware of this, and they pursue their vision with the confidence that God is at work and that God will always accomplish what he intends, including – and often especially – through the suffering of his faithful people.
Our PCA missionaries are aware of this, and they do their gospel work, with proclamation of the good news bearing fruit in deeds of mercy, knowing that still today God carries forward his salvation of the nations often by martyrs’ blood. I was reminded a couple of weeks ago, as we prayed for Christian brothers and sisters persecuted for their faith, that they ask that we pray not so much for the elimination of their suffering as for the power of their gospel witness through their suffering.

And then of course there’s Adelyn Grace, born into a world and a country where biblical faith and life are becoming more and more, let’s say, consequential. Can her parents and grandparents sing that verse from that old hymn:

Our fathers, chained in prisons dark,
Were still in heart and conscience free;
And blest would be their children’s fate
If they, like them, should die for thee.

With trembling and trusting hearts, we say “yes,” for God still says “YES!” and he is good and mighty and will do all things well. Jesus Christ is indeed the same yesterday, today, and forever.

A sense of our gospel past; a sense of our gospel future; a sense of our gospel risk – reflections on three distinct but interrelated experiences of this past month. And of course such reflections bear on the mission of Covenant College as well, as we seek to teach and equip our students in light of these realities, for gospel witness in all the pathways of all the callings which God has in store for them.

After this past month, it’s great to be back to a normal schedule, whatever “normal” actually means! I’m grateful for the daily routines of the ordinary life and work of the College, punctuated by more extraordinary times like those I’ve described here. May God grant us all a clear sense of our gospel past, future, and risk, so that we walk both ordinary and extraordinary paths with gospel hope in the One who is preeminent in all things.

Nieil Nielson is a Ruling Elder in the PCA. He is the President of Covenant College (PCA) in Lookout Mountain, Georgia. This article first appeared in The President’s Blog at http://president.blogs.covenant.edu.and is used with permission. Source: http://president.blogs.covenant.edu/2010/12/02/what-indonesian-schools-the-pca’s-global-missions-conference-and-my-new-granddaughter-have-in-common/

[Editor’s note: The link (URL) to the article source is unavailable and has been removed.]