Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to a live recording from Westside Church in Bend, Oregon. Thanks for joining us.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: Morning, everybody. I'm Ben Fleming. I'm one of the senior pastors. I'm not your speaker. Today I have the pleasure to introduce to you, for those of you who don't know him, Pastor Gonzalo Franco. And so Gonzalo has been pastoring, along with his wife Ashlyn, our bilingual ministry that we call west side Iglesia here since Easter of 2020. And so Gonza's done a few things for this church in this community. The first thing is that to pastor, that community has been such a powerful thing. And also he has allowed us to cheer for Argentina and Lionel Messi, because he is Argentinian, because American soccer is not nearly as fun.
So he's given us those gifts over the years. And today he's going to present the message to you as part of his commissioning Sunday. So if you would, please welcome Pastor Gonzalez.
[00:00:56] Speaker A: Good morning, church. Good morning. I'm really happy to be here with you. I would say I feel really loved by Westside in general, except when they talk about Argentina because we lost the final, and that was really painful.
I still feel love, but it's challenging still.
[00:01:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:14] Speaker A: Anyways, you know, it's a tremendous honor for me and my family to be sent to the mission field through you guys, to be sent by you. Thank you so much. We are extremely grateful.
We believe that we are part of the extension of a mission that Westside Church has. Probably some of you or most of you know what's the mission of Westside, but if you don't, I want to share with you right now. You should know it by heart, I guess, at some point in your life. Westside Church exists to equip men, women, and children to extend the life and love of Jesus in their world by helping them to know Jesus and become more like him, simple and direct. Live love Jesus. If you're thinking about getting a tattoo this week, that's a good one. Live love Jesus.
Life in community. Love for our neighbors and Jesus always at the center.
We had been able to join that mission through Iglesia, our bilingual ministry.
It's been six years since we started, and this last Sunday, it was the last Sunday as their pastor.
It was a special moment, significant moment for us and for my family.
And I wanted to share a little bit of a joyful time that we had that last Sunday at the end of a service. We have baptisms, but before I get into the baptisms, I want to share with you that during the last year we have a group of kids, probably 10 to 12 kids, that they join us for every service for the course of a year.
Those kids are coming from Jbar. J J Barjay is a program that helps kids to get out of juvenile and to be reinserted in society. So a few months ago we started a Bible study at their ranch and we got to know their stories, people, their wounds, what they've been through and their hopes for life. And this last Sunday we got to baptize 10 people and five of them were from JBarjay. So praise God for that. I want to show a picture with you.
It was a really beautiful and significant moment for us as a church and for us as a church to keep on doing this life. Love, Jesus.
Thank you for your prayers because you're part of this. Thank you for your support because you're part of this.
Lord willing, we will be heading to the mission field at the end of September, my family and I.
But I want to share with you a little bit about my journey into missions.
I'm technically a missionary. I left Argentina over 15 years ago and for them I'm still a missionary.
But I would say that my journey into missions started way before I realized that God was putting something in my heart regarding missions.
I grew up going to a primary school that was funded by a British missionary. And when I was 10 years old, around 10 years old, one of the teachers came to us and told us how sad it was that then 30 years ago, if you look at Europe and you look at the European countries that have been sending missionaries throughout history around the world, you can say that Europe was spiritually dying.
That happened 30 years ago. I'm definitely getting old, but it's good.
The thing is, when I was asking God what to do with my life, he brought me back to that teaching during the primary school when I was 10.
And he led me into understanding that I needed to spend some time in England.
But before I got to England, I got to enjoy different mission trips in different parts.
I did mission trips in Argentina, in different small towns. I went to Peru, Bolivia, Chile, places where the need was huge. And I got to experience that part of a mission.
And then I went to England after finishing my university degree. I was sent by my church.
I spent four years in England.
That's where my posh and royal accent comes from. Okay, actually, I do need to share with you something that shows I wasn't a really brilliant kid growing up. My mother, she was an English teacher. But growing Up. I always thought, what's the point of English? Who wants to learn English? Why would I ever use English? So I didn't take advantage of my mother being an English teacher who will end up living four years in England and then marrying an American woman and getting American kids. Nobody will do that.
So I wasn't that brilliant. And I wish I got more classes from my mom growing up, but I learned English as an adult.
And if some of you are learning a second language as an adult, you will realize that it's a little bit more challenging than when you're a kid. So whatever age you are, start now to learn a single language, because it gets difficult and more difficult every year. Anyways, I was sent to England and supported in prayer by my local church in Argentina. They also gave me 50 bucks per month. And I know that that doesn't sound like a huge amount, but it was represented to me is that they were praying for me constantly. And that has a lot to do with economy in Argentina and all of that. But I will say, during the last 15 years, they kept giving me that money faithfully every month. And it's an honor for me to maintain the relationship with them and to know that they are praying for me. So when I went to England, I worked whatever jobs I was able to find. I became a forklift driver. I was packing cereal in Kellogg's. Who likes Kellogg's here? Yeah, you like Kellogg's? Okay. When I started working for the company, I thought, great, I'm gonna get breakfast for free every single morning.
No way. They won't even give you anything. Like, they won't let you touch any cereal anyways. If you ever see the owner of Kellogg's, just say that I'm mad at him.
I did whatever it took to get involved and to be able to live there in England for a few years. And I would say I realized fairly quickly that that's a different mission field. When I did missions in South America, generally speaking, you will go to a place, usually it's a poor place, and you will bring resources and you will bring happiness and you will bring joy and programs. And I dress myself many times as a clown. Sorry for those who are terrified of clowns. I was a good clown, I promise. Anyways, you will do everything. And yes, there will be some resistance. You will face some witch doctors that are not really happy with you being might end up praying for some demon possessed people. But generally speaking, you get a lot of love back from the people that you're serving in. England was a Little bit different. When I was at Kellogg's, working in that company, one of my co workers right next to me started singing. I came from Argentina. I came to steal jobs from people.
And I was like internally thinking, I came here to give you the love of Jesus, so you better receive.
I think the Holy Spirit lead me at that moment to react in an actually positive way. In Argentina, our sense of humor, at least in Cordoba, where I'm from, is connected to bullying in a good way or teasing each other in a good way. So the more that you get bullied or teased, the more you feel loved by them. So what I ended up doing in that moment, I started singing with this guy, his song, and we didn't become great friends, but he never sang that song again. He was like, okay, this is not going to work with him anyways. Different mission field now. In my time after work, what I would do, I would get involved with a church plant in Manchester, England. And in that church plant, I was a young adult leader.
That experience was amazing. We were working to reach out to international students, but also to refugees. We were working with refugees and asylum seekers.
Now part of our outreach was getting involved in the streets with a little stand, a little table where we will present some Jesus material to people. Right. Some of the material that we had were movies in different languages that Muslims speak.
So we have the film about Jesus. And that stand allows us to engage with so many conversations.
I got to talk with so many different people, different Muslims, different backgrounds, even some Muslims that became Christians. But they didn't trust that we were legit until talking with them for half an hour and then they would share to us. Actually, I'm a Muslim and I feel free to share this with you.
It was a really interesting experience in the streets.
But to be honest, one of the things that I realized fairly quick is that we were not the only ones trying to share our faith in the streets.
They were also Muslims trying to share their faith in the streets. And they have a stance and everything. And to be honest and not to get competitive here, their stance were much nicer than our stance.
Turns out that the oil industry, oil money, fuel more than cars. It can help to spread Islam around the world too.
Anyways, many times we will end up talking with them, having great conversations.
And some of the conversations were pretty challenging.
Sometimes some of them will threaten us and say nasty things to us. And not because we were shouting the gospel in the streets. We were just in our stand trying to engage to whoever will come to us to talk and I got to a point that I got decent on defending the fact that Jesus is not just another prophet, but that he is the son of, of God. I ended up talking sometimes with Muslim university professors and I felt prepared to defend my faith.
Now, one day when we were in that table, something happened that completely caught me off guard. A little girl, she was probably 12, 13 years old, she came to our stand.
She looks at me and she says, what is this about?
And I'm like, well, have you ever heard about Jesus? And I thought that her answer will be the same that I've been receiving most of the time in that stand. Yes, but I don't believe in Jesus. Or, yes, my grandmother used to believe in Jesus or I have a cross or whatever, but she looked at me and she said, no, who is Jesus? I never heard about him.
Who is he?
And I remember thinking, and to be honest with you, I got stuck in that moment because I was automatized to share with someone who already heard about Jesus before.
In my mind I'm thinking, what do you mean, who is he?
I was prepared to debate with Muslims or other religions about my faith, but it seems to me that it wasn't prepare for someone that had simply never heard about Jesus.
So that question stayed with me for a while.
Who is he?
As an Argentinian, I did what every Argentinian will do in that situation.
I told her, well, do you know Messi?
And I sure was, no, I'm kidding. I didn't do that. I didn't do that.
Felt tempted, but I didn't do that.
But, you know, we're in England.
It's a country whose flag is only a cross.
The only thing that you have in their flag is a cross.
A country with incredible churches, beautiful cathedrals, a lot of tradition. A country whose history is deeply marked by Christianity, yet a little girl can walk down on the street and say, I never heard about Jesus. Who is he?
Is that possible?
Can you have a Christian culture where people don't actually know who Christ is?
I believe you can. And Spain, the country we're going to be going, it's an example worth considering.
Spain has beautiful churches, cathedrals that took generations to be built, incredible architecture, bells, images, traditions, a history deeply marked by Christianity. But there is a difference.
There is a huge difference between being surrounded by Christian symbols of Jesus and actually knowing him and actually knowing Jesus.
A few months ago, I wanted to take my kid to Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood. Have you ever been there? Pretty sure most of you. If you haven't, you should Go. It's a beautiful lodge.
And I was telling him, hey, let's go. It's a journey. It's like two hours to three hours.
But it's going to be worth it because that lodge is like a castle. Let's go to a castle together.
You know, it's not a castle, but it's probably the closest thing that you can imagine in this area.
So I'm like, let's go to the castle.
So we went to Mount Hood. As soon as we walked in, his eyes got huge. The columns, the wood, the enormous rooms. He was in a castle.
Everything caught his attention, at least for a few minutes. Because after a few minutes he started losing interest. And I can tell, and I didn't understand why until I realized what he was looking for.
He looks at me and pulls me and he's like, daddy, where is the princess?
Where is the princess?
And he started asking that question to pretty much everyone that would come close to him. Where is the princess? Where is the princess? He even started asking this question to some girls directly. Are you the princess?
And I'm like, oh, shoot, what people are going to think about me right now that I'm like training my kid to go and find princesses in a lodge.
It was really interesting to go through that experience. He didn't find a princess, sadly.
But what I want to share with you is that that picture can help us to understand something about the church in Europe and particularly the cathedrals in Spain.
We can have beautiful buildings. We can have music, tradition, architecture, we can have history.
We can have a culture that still presents Christian symbols. But if the person of Jesus is no longer at the center, the castle is empty.
Quick thoughts about Spain that probably you never heard before.
Until 50 years ago, the Protestant church was legally persecuted in Spain.
That lasted for almost 450 years.
I met the son of a Protestant pastor in Argentina.
His dad was a Protestant pastor in Spain. In the 50s 60s when he was a pastor in Spain, one of his neighbors came to his house, knocked the door and told him, you need to run away now because they're coming for you because of your faith.
So he took everything that he had in a second and he went to Argentina.
My grandmother, she was a Spaniard, she moved to Argentina. She got impacted by the gospel once she was there in Argentina. And for decades she tried to share her faith with the Spaniards and with sadness.
She used to say, Spaniards are really hard hearted people.
Ten years ago, I lived in Spain for two years.
I did a lot of street evangelism. I got engaged in conversation with different type of people and I would say if you find a person 60 and younger in Spain, it's really hard for them to tell you, yes, I believe in God and I believe in Jesus. It's really rare to find someone that will tell you that with conviction. Now what some people will say, they will tell you, I don't believe in God. But if there is a God, it couldn't be the Christian God, it couldn't be Him. Look at Christianity in our country.
I will be talking and sharing a little bit for those who are interested next week after every service in the classroom of our Spain and what we're going to be doing there as a mission.
But I want to let you know a little detail right now in Spain, if you count people in the Protestant church and in the Catholic Church that they are born again Christians, you will find a lot smaller number than the Muslims that are living in Spain right now.
So next Sunday, for those who are interested, please stay. After every service, we're going to be sharing a little bit of information about history and what we're going to be doing as a family.
Now, Paul tells us in Ephesians 2 that we are saved by grace, through faith, not by our own works.
That means that the center of Christianity is not what we do to get to God. It's what he has done to get to us, to come to us. It's not about an institution, it's not about tradition, and it's not ultimately about morality.
Christianity, the gospel is about a person, love, life. Jesus is about Him.
And that's why the Gospel has to be proclaimed. Not because we want to win arguments, not because we're better than other people, because most likely we're not better than anyone else.
But it's because we found something better yet. Someone who is far too precious to keep to ourselves.
That's why we share the Gospel.
Paul puts it beautifully when he says that he considers everything a loss compared with his surpassing greatness of knowing Christ.
That's the gospel. It's not about you get to be a better person.
It's not about you get to feel better every Sunday. It's about getting to know Jesus, knowing him.
Know the one who loves you, know the one who died for you. Know the one who rose again. Know the one who offers forgiveness you could never buy, the one who offers grace that you could never earn, the one who can reconcile you with God.
When we truly understand how beautiful he is, we want to tell to others, we want to share with others. It comes even natural. We feel pushed to share our faith with others, not because we feel a sense of obligation, but because it's beautiful to share good news. That's what they are called, good news.
Jesus gave us a mission in Matthew 28, after he rose again, he told us, he told his followers. He told us that we should go and make disciples to all who nations.
It's interesting.
Jesus didn't simply say, go to the people nearby.
He taught about loving our neighbor. That's the way to go. We're meant to share our faith with our neighbors. That's the way to go, because that's a way of loving them.
But he said to all nations, and that's to help us to understand that God's mission goes beyond the local.
God's mission is in the local, but also go beyond, in a global dimension.
Some people will be called to cross the street.
Others might be called to cross the ocean. But we are all invited and encouraged and commanded to participate in his mission. The Great Commission wasn't only for missionaries. The Great Commission was given from Jesus to the church, to you and me. Some will go, others will send, some will pray, others will give, others will open their homes. Some will disciple people, some will preach.
But we are all going and doing this together.
In Romans 15, Paul is talking to the Roman church, the church in Rome.
And when he's coming to the end of that letter, Romans 15, he's saying to them that he's hoping to go and visit them in their way to Spain because God has called him to go to Spain and he's hoping that the church in Rome will support him in his journey to Spain.
That's really significant for me because there is no more biblical way to ask for supporting missions than quoting Romans 15. Just a joke. Anyways, what I will say is that God has placed in Paul's heart the need to go to a place.
But also God wants to use the church for Paul to make it to that place. God calls people, but God also mobilizes churches.
There are people that God sends, but there are also people who God uses to send them.
Everyone could be part of a mission. And then in Romans 15:30, Paul says something really significant.
He says to the church, I urge you, urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me. And I love that expression, to join me in my struggle.
Paul is basically saying to a church, hey, I have a calling. I want to go. Will you come with Me? Will you pray for me? Will you support me? How can you join? Supporting, praying, going, participating.
Some people arrive to the mission field through prayers, through generosity. Others arrive to the mission field through a boat or an airplane. But everyone is supposed to go together. No one goes alone.
And I'm in no way comparing myself to Paul because I abandoned the single journey guy reality like 8 years ago. Praise God for that. Praise God for my wife too. She didn't run away in the wedding day. That's great.
But I would say that God put something somewhat similar in our hearts to go to Spain. Not because they think that Spain needs Gonzalo or Ashland. Spain needs Jesus.
We simply want to be obedient to the place that God has been calling us. We want to arrive, learn, listen to people, we want to serve them.
And the goal will be always the life, love Jesus, for people to get to know him.
Because at the end of the day, that's the most important thing.
So church, I want to share with you this message where I want to tell you that we are one in this. We all want to do mission in a way, but we can organize outreach programs, we can have excellent services, we can have beautiful buildings, we can do really great stuff together.
But if Jesus isn't at the center, everything is in vain.
Without the princess, what's the point of a castle?
My son taught me that no matter how impressive the building is, it isn't enough.
He was looking for the person who made the castle meaningful.
And that's why we exist. That's what we exist to do as a church. To point people to the person who makes everything beautiful, to make people to get to know Jesus.
The mission is always important, global, local. Maybe God is calling you to be faithful exactly where you are. Probably your family is your first mission field. Could be your workplace, could be your neighbor, could be your university, your community.
Your mission field could be five minutes far away from you. But they might be here. Someone who has a calling to cross a border.
It doesn't matter. Wherever you're at and whatever you understand that God is calling you to do. I wanted to let you know something. When Jesus said, go and make disciples to all nations, he also said, and remember, I am with you always.
Church. Jesus is with us.
For me, it's an honor to be in this stage today and ask you something similar that Paul asked to the Roman Church in those days. Please come with me. Please join us as a family. How praying for us. That's a great start.
Now you might be thinking, well, this is not for me. But I do want you to know that you have a calling and a mission and a plan that God has for your life. It might be going, it might be giving, it might be praying, and it might be just starting sharing your faith to whoever you know that doesn't know Jesus, that doesn't personally know him.
Perhaps you will realize by doing that that there might be more than one people in Bend, Oregon that might have a similar approach to that little girl in England that will tell you who is Jesus. And if they heard about Jesus, they might tell you, I never heard about that loving Jesus that you're sharing with me right now. So I want to encourage you, wherever you are, join the mission.
We're not, we're not going anywhere to bring a culture or a tradition or an institution. We are going and we are sharing to people to introduce a person.
Because Jesus isn't simply part of history.
He's the hope of the world.
And if we really believe that he's beautiful, that he's more than enough, that in him we find forgiveness, grace and life and reconciliation with God, then we cannot keep ourselves from sharing that with others.
From Ben, Oregon to the ends of the world.
Let everyone know about him.
Join in. Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this church.
Thank you for the years of existence of this church.
Thank you for every single pray prayer, every single effort that was given so we can be here in this place today.
Please, Lord, help us to join your mission.
Help us to understand what you want from us, how we can be part of what you're doing.
Help us to see it and to be willing to join.
Lead us, Lord. Be in local missions or global missions. Please speak to us and help us to know what to do. Give us the courage to share about your love with others through our words, through our actions.
Help us to be that light that others need.
Please, Lord, use us. Keep on using. Wesley Church.
Thank you, Father. Because we can be part of your mission.
In Jesus name we pray.
[00:31:17] Speaker B: Amen.
