Just

do it.

just
do it?

Sometimes intercultural work or spiritual work seems more complicated than it actually is. Often we only think that we could do something wrong and withdraw or do not act. We lose the lightness.

Of course we also question that: Can we just do it?

If we know who commissioned us and who is ultimately responsible, it becomes possible!

This works out! Because we don’t want to make our lives complicated, but rather move forward with ease. We can do this because we know that God sees us and that he fulfills his promises.

 

Yes!
Do it!

Just do it means not first following the concerns, but to try happily, not thoughtlessly to start without understanding, but not only with double security.
Albrecht Hoch, 1st chairman, pastor of the Heilandsgemeinde Stuttgart Berg
We can just do it because we know that God sees us and that he fulfills his promises.
Dieter Trefz, Mission Director, International Leadership Team

just do it.
concretely lived

This is what it looks like at various locations for our coworkers.

baked
love
So easy that anyone can do it.

Mother Teresa says: “Loneliness is not being seen and not being loved”. And doesn’t everyone know that!? Moved by the need of loneliness and the God who sees me, I give away my homemade sourdough bread to sozial weak and homeless people.

It’s so easy, and actually anyone can do it – with my haversack I not only want to bring encouragement to the people on the street, but also encourage us Christians to do small services with great love.

Selina Streitenberger, bread missionary for lonely, socially disadvantaged and homeless people in Speyer

just
brave.
We go and read.

We simply went to a neighboring country of Thailand, namely to different villages of a still quite unreached ethnic group. Arrived in a village, we just red out: the Sermon on the Mount.
During this time, my wife had found the most interested listener, while our five children between 6
and 13 years mostly were painting pictures. The chosen person then received a solar radio called megavoice, recorded with the New Testament, a few short messages and songs, and those who were interested also got a few evangelistic CDs. Now and then a little nursing care, and we were gone again see you next Saturday in another village.
In February 2020, the security officers then struck and since then we have had a five-year entry ban. I am currently translating the Bible and we are working through daily radio broadcasts for another people group.

Markus Steeb with family, Bible translation and evangelism, Germany

Follow
Jesus together!
And the miracle happens.

We asked the teachers at the school in a remote village if we could teach the five classes the Bible story of
the lost sheep and are allowed to place two football goals in the schoolyard. So far there was no playground equipment – just red dry earth. The teachers agreed immediately and two days later we were there.
Spontaneity is very important in Madagascar, and so we found several fathers who helped us with the construction. Working hand in hand with the eager men was a lot of fun. We finished just before the rain started so that we could inaugurate the gates with a small soccer match.

Stefan & Daniela Frank family, Missionaries, Madagascar

 

 

just do it.
An encouragement to move forward

This simple request, consisting of two words, an adjective and a verb, has it all. First of all, it is ambiguous: If the tone is more on “simple”, then we have to admit that almost nothing is easy in Germany: Neither the tax return nor the driver’s license theory, almost nothing is – as they say “quite easy”, “conceivable”. simply”. Digitization makes some things more accessible for younger people and almost inaccessible for older people.

But we put the sound on “do”. “Just do it” then means: Don’t waste your time with steep theories for too long, but aim for a starting point and then get started. “Just do it” is then the opposite of “putting it off”, weighing things up forever and, above all, considering what could speak against a decision that has been made.

 

In the 1970s there was a somewhat clumsy tract depicting a life film: The first picture showed a baby with the title “too young -“, then a small child with “too playful -“, then a teenager with “too in love -” , then a family with “too busy -“, at the end a coffin with “too late – to think of God”. It’s true, there will always be something in our lives that wants to push itself to the fore and push even impressions that are burning in our hearts to the background.

 

In 2005 a large Willow Creek Congress took place in Stuttgart in the Schleyerhalle. I don’t like big events and didn’t sign up even though I could have walked from the vicarage. A year before the start, the organizers called me to ask whether a pre-conference for pastors with the speaker of the congress could take place in my church. I agreed, and so it was that I got a home church building talk and was able to spend a lot of time during the breaks with Pastor Gordon MacDonald from New York. He reported on the most diverse situations of his church work. He said to me in no uncertain terms: if I were young again and could start from scratch, there is one thing I would do differently: I would no longer let myself be held up and slowed down by people who reject change and who always raise concerns. His eyes lit up as he recounted steps where he had the courage to “just do it” even though success wasn’t guaranteed and setbacks could happen. I felt it was a gift that I received personal encouragement from the speaker, even though I wasn’t registered for the congress.

 

As a young vicar, I asked my supervisor if I should consult the church leadership first on something I wanted to try. He said, “You better not do that. Up there is a collection of skeptics who above all know why something doesn’t work!” He himself had started many unusual projects, e.g. an exemplary diaconal work to open up new ways for the homeless, which found imitators nationwide.

 

What am I shaped by? Do I hear the voices of the doubters and those who always know everything better and, above all, why something won’t work? For us, making it simple can mean not first following our concerns, but trying out things happily, not starting rashly without reason, but also not just “with a network and double security”.

 

As a pastor, I always visit old, sick and dying people who look back on their lives. I don’t remember that anyone I spoke to regretted having tried something for themselves, having undertaken a journey, having dared a new beginning. Many have only discovered their own gifts in completely new contexts, which they would not have suspected without courageous steps. I’ve often heard women say, “If I could turn back time, I would take bolder steps to change…”

 

Just do it! is the advertising slogan of the sports article brand Nike. He wants to encourage people to dare to try something new in a sporty way. However, the statement comes from a macabre context: It was the last request made by a multiple murderer in the USA to the prison officers at his execution, which the copywriter later overheard. Our motto, make it simple, on the other hand, gets its dynamic from God’s Word: A contact mission pioneer used to say: Christians should burn, not smoke! He was alluding to Romans 12:11: Do not be lazy in what you ought to do. Be burning in spirit. Serve the Lord!

 

In Greek there is the concept of kairos. In contrast to the long period of time (chronos”), this means the unique, the favorable opportunity to do something. Sometimes we feel that too and say: “Now or never!”.

When Philip had explained the gospel to the eunuch, the latter said with great determination: Behold, water! What prevents me from being baptized?

Objections immediately pop up for me: Uh, after a conversation? Will he have a good church? Who does the follow-up work…?

But I like the uncomplicated action of faith. He decides to follow Jesus and gives visible expression to his decision. What’s stopping you? Nothing!

What prevents us? Nothing! Just do it!

 

Albrecht Hoch
1. Chairman of Kontaktmission e.V.,
Pastor of the Heilandsgemeinde Stuttgart Berg

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