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Gateway Chapel | Fall '25 | Zane Pratt

Gateway Chapel | Fall '25 | Zane Pratt

Nov 13, 2025

Series: Fall 2025 Chapel Series

Category: Chapel

Keywords: intersect, jesus, gospel, missions, humility, serve, servant

Summary:

Zane Pratt, Vice President for Global Training at the International Mission Board and Associate Professor of Christian Missions at Southern Seminary, spoke on the need for humility and gospel contextualization in missions. "It's one thing for us to say, "I will be a servant of the people of God." It's another thing to walk into a setting where people don't know God at all and say, "I will have the posture of a servant toward these people." And this rubs our flesh the wrong way, especially when you're in the throes of culture shock. Especially with those who are different from you. And all too often, what I've observed is missionaries show up and they don't want to serve those people, they want to set them straight. They want to teach them the way it really ought to be done, which is the way we do it. And yet Jesus himself came not to be served but to serve. He came to serve people who really were wrong, who were in rebellion against him and who would ultimately kill Him. And yet He came as a servant. So how can we serve those we want to see saved? And how can we serve them in ways that seem like service to them? Which requires getting to know them, which requires time and investment in relationships. The posture of servanthood reflects the character of Jesus, shatters negative stereotypes of Christians, and often negative stereotypes of Americans, and lowers barriers for people to hear the gospel of Jesus."

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