Impacting Nations with Kingdom Values

The Gospel is Good News. It changes people from the inside out by the power of the Spirit. Equally true, when changed people find creative ways to elevate Kingdom values they can dramatically impact nations. I am not talking about a militaristic attempt to mandate morality, rather a concerted effort to communicate the wonderful effects of living Biblical values, and sharing the source from whom those values come.

Evangelical churches in South America realized the potential impact of peace-making in cultures of pervasive violence. They sensed God’s call to impact the most popular national venues in which acts of personal violence were common and in which the masses wanted that violence to stop; professional soccer. They prayerfully asked what followers of Christ could do to make a positive difference in a culture where crowd violence by gangs often resulted in injury and death as rivals faced off before, during and after soccer matches.

The journey of those churches has resulted in No Mas Violencia: un Mensaje de Dios (No More Violence: a Message from God) an organic movement that has grown from simple beginnings to impacting nations in less than a decade. I spent some time this week with Richard Gomez, Executive Director of NMV and we talked about how the movement started.

Church members first volunteered to help in crowd control, maintaining peace among fans awaiting entrance into soccer stadiums, soon No Mas Violencia (NMV) volunteers became the provider of wholesome entertainment between periods at matches. As their influence grew, the movement developed an educational curriculum to introduce students to Kingdom values, trained believers as curriculum instructors, and offered the curriculum without charge to public schools.

This year members of the Body of Christ taught Kingdom values to more than 175,000 students in public schools of Argentina. They did so at the request of the federal government’s ministry of education. Why? Because Kingdom values are transforming the lives of students as they commit to be persons who value life and reject violence. That commitment impacts issues of self-care and management as well as treatment of others in family and community.

And as the church ministers in stadiums and instructs in schools, and as it continues to develop other creative Kingdom initiatives, it is finding favor among the nations of South America. The values of the Kingdom of God; patience, love, peace-making, hospitality, encouragement, sexual purity, etc. make life better for all. And as those values are taught, individuals are coming to faith in Christ. Live are being changed. Futures filled with hope are being fashioned. The church is being blessed and it is being a blessing to the nations.

My friend David Balyeat, President of NMV International challenged me when he said the best report card for the church is the newspaper of society. As the transformational impact of the Gospel makes a difference in what is reported in the news, the church accomplishes its Kingdom purpose of bring Good News to the world. It is discipling nations.

To learn more about this organic movement among churches in South America visit http://www.nomasviolencia.org/nmv/index.php. Click here to visit Missional Church Center's video resources and watch our brief video.