Sun Ministries is a missions
organization. We seek to facilitate the training and relocation of
missionaries to America's inner cities, in order to plant faith
communities. Not churches, programs, or communes, these faith
communities are just that – communities of believers living out
their faith in real and active ministry. Our missionaries are taught
to pastor their communities as they live and work in neighborhoods
for healing and restoration.
We call this work the Isaiah 61
Initiative. We've been inspired by the words of Isaiah chapter 61.
The next few blogs will explore these words and what they mean to us.
“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon
me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the
afflicted. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim
liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners...” Isaiah 61:1
These are the opening lines of Isaiah
61. These are the same words Jesus quoted at the start of His
ministry, as recorded in Luke chapter 4. This was Jesus' mission.
He is saying, “This is why I'm here.” We believe that Jesus'
followers are called to this same mission. We believe the Spirit of
the Lord is upon each of us to bring good news - good news of healing
and freedom.
This first requires our own healing and
freedom. We do not feel you can effectively minister to hurting
people if you don't know your own pain, and have freedom from it.
You can't lead someone to freedom if you continue to sit in prison.
Overcoming this can be hard, and impossible on your own. Many today
are held captive by pain, pride, fear, ignorance, or even traditions
and ways of the world that set us on a course of activity or
accomplishments that never see true ministry. We must become humble
servants, willing to seek truth that frees us, so that we can follow
our Lord to spread good news. These are the ministers that can take
on the mission of Isaiah 61.
For us, this is the heart of ministry.
The physical needs we can supply are good and necessary. But Jesus
didn't come to bring us jobs and food. He came to set captives free
and bind up the brokenhearted. All the programs and resources and
opportunity can become meaningless if a person never receives
healing, or if they are never told that they have been set free. And
as we have been healed and set free, we can now come alongside others
and share this good news.
Posts
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