How MPD reaches people for Christ

I love to make connections with culture.  I get really excited when they jump out at me.  Truth is all around us and I love to affirm it wherever I find it.  One recent connection that jumped out at me was from the movie Argo.  Here's a little trailer in case you are not familiar with it.  It was a fantastic movie by the way.

Basic gist of the movie: A CIA agent comes up with a plan to rescue hostages in an enemy country.  His plan involves staging a fake movie as a cover.

There was seriously so many parallels to faith in this movie.  I wish I had time to break them all down.  I mean, this guy is risking his life to bring 6 people home.  And the one who is most skeptical is the one who ends up being the key person who gets them home.  If that doesn't peak your interest, I don't know what will.

Ok, on with my main connection.

One scene in particular grabbed my attention.  It was the scene in which images of a huge press spectacle for the fake movie was juxtaposed with images of war in the country in which the hostages were being held.  As the scene progressed I found myself wondering what the whole point was.  Here these people are drinking, laughing, schmoozing big Hollywood all the while people are being shot and hung.  A huge sense of injustice welled up inside of me.  I thought there must have been an easier way to rescue these people.  As the rest of the movie played out, I slowly came to realize the purpose of the time and care in which Ben Affleck's character takes to make the movie a plausible cover. 

He has to find people in the industry who are willing, able and have the resources to help him.  After Affleck enlists John Goodman's character to join his team they then make their appeal to Alan Arkin's character for his help as the screenwriter.  They go to great length to set up an office, get business cards, choose a screenplay, hire actors, get artwork, and press attention to make this plan plausible.  The scene in which I referenced earlier was the culmination of all their work.  And it was juxtaposed perfectly with a reminder of the need for all their hard work.  Because, without all that care and attention taken to make the story plausible, the plan would have never worked.  Something that seemed so pointless, was the crux of the whole plan.  It was the whole reason Affleck had any success in rescuing the hostages.

All of this came to a head when I saw how much this paralleled with our stage of life right now.  Ministry Partner Development (MPD) is not for the faint of heart.  It takes great care and time to cultivate a sending team.  But without them, we could not go.  It just would not be possible to have the opportunity to reach the nearly 4 million college students for Christ without our partners!  And sometimes, I find myself wishing we could just go now.  We are ready to jump into our new roles in Southern California.  Sometimes I find myself wondering how MPD will really reach people for Christ.  But then I remember that it's the center of how we reach people for Christ.  Together, as the body, we are enabled to share the Gospel with college students.

And then the last scene was a perfect picture of the joy that we pray our team shares with us.  Affleck's Hollywood team finds out that the plan worked.  They saw the fruit of their service.  The hostages came home safe.  They celebrated just as much or more than the CIA agents, and even the hostages themselves.  Even though no one could know of their role, they knew the huge part they played in the rescue mission.