I know we have a world reputation for being ethnocentristic and geographically challenged as a Nation, but I had no early idea that things had gotten to this point. We can't even answer basic questions about the world at large! I caught a news clip from the UK interviewing US citizens on the streets of New York. Now I live on the other side of the earth from most of the people reading this, but even to me, these seemed like the basic of all basic questions! It was more than a little appalling to hear some of their answers. No one could answer the following questions correctly:
What State is KFC from? They guy even knew it stood for Kentucky Fried Chicken!
Where is the West Bank? Answers given: New York, on the east coast!
What is the religion of Israel? Answer given: Muslim!
How many World Wars have there been? Answer given: 3
Who is Tony Blair? Answers given: A skateboarder, Linda Blair's brother, an actor
What is a Mosque? Answer given: An animal.
How many Eiffel Towers in France? Answer given: at least 10
How many kidneys does a person have? Answer given: 1!
Star Wars is based on a true story. Answer given: yes.
What have Nagasaki and Hiroshima have in common? Answer given: Some form of Sumo wrestling.
Where was the Berlin Wall? Answer given: respondents could not venture an answer.
The language they speak in Latin America is Latin. True or False? Respondents could not venture an answer.
As Jeff told me when I showed him the clip, they probably took the worst of ignorance shown that day and put it together in a segment to show the world . . . but this was bad.
It reminds me that one can never stop learning and can never stop being teachable. No one can know everything, there is simply too much knowledge in the world and information is expanding ever so rapidly. What this means for us in the church I think, is that we have to be grace on steroids and learners on steroids, to counter-balance the ignorance on steroids.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Blackmarket Medicine
Living in the hairy armpit often means that one makes . . . ur . . . adjustsments to one's expectations. For instance, we have an almost impossible time getting Brenda's epilepsy medicine. It is a prescription only medicine, and of course the doctor is 4 hours away in Greece . . . and finding a Greek pharmacy open is more difficult than shipping snowballs to hell. Of course the prescription is written in Greek and neither we nor the Macedonians can read it. Not only that, the Macedonian pharmacies don't even carry the medicine once we get the silly piece of paper translated!
So what does one do? Well the black market of course! One first of all discreetly asks one's friends, "Are there pharmacies who can get medicines from outside the country?" And then when one finds out the information, you then go to that pharmacy and ask for the medicine you are searching for . . . and of course they can't get it, plus you don't have a prescription they can read. Thus one stands there with a slightly urgent look upon one's face, and the person behind the counters says eventually, "We might could order it from our Greek source." "Oh could you try?" we ask. And so then one leaves a deposit and phone numbers to ensure that one will return for the medicine.
A week or two passes, and then a call comes. "Your order has arrived." and then you go and pay the remaining money and you have your medicine without a prescription, without a receipt, without any paper trail whatsoever . . . and you thank God for black market ingenuity! it's all about who you know. It's call connections. In fact you can't get anything accomplished in this part of the world without connections. It drives Westerners mad!
But I hate to say, yet it's true, that is precisely how God works. We are reconciled, justified, righteous and His children all because of connections. It is only when we are connected to the Vine that we are the children of God. Without a connection to God we would be in big trouble, just like trying to get decent medicine in the Eastern Europe without a connection is all but impossible.
So what does one do? Well the black market of course! One first of all discreetly asks one's friends, "Are there pharmacies who can get medicines from outside the country?" And then when one finds out the information, you then go to that pharmacy and ask for the medicine you are searching for . . . and of course they can't get it, plus you don't have a prescription they can read. Thus one stands there with a slightly urgent look upon one's face, and the person behind the counters says eventually, "We might could order it from our Greek source." "Oh could you try?" we ask. And so then one leaves a deposit and phone numbers to ensure that one will return for the medicine.
A week or two passes, and then a call comes. "Your order has arrived." and then you go and pay the remaining money and you have your medicine without a prescription, without a receipt, without any paper trail whatsoever . . . and you thank God for black market ingenuity! it's all about who you know. It's call connections. In fact you can't get anything accomplished in this part of the world without connections. It drives Westerners mad!
But I hate to say, yet it's true, that is precisely how God works. We are reconciled, justified, righteous and His children all because of connections. It is only when we are connected to the Vine that we are the children of God. Without a connection to God we would be in big trouble, just like trying to get decent medicine in the Eastern Europe without a connection is all but impossible.
Monday, May 29, 2006
The sun . . . at 5:11 AM?
You know what that means don't you? Right, we are geographically located in the wrong time zone. In fact the sky was brightening up at 4:23 this morning! And how do I know this? Well because we had a short term team here and their flight left this morning at 5:40 . . . so we had to leave the house at 4:20 or so to get there and hurriedly get them checked in to catch their flight.
So yeah, that was what I doing up at 4 this morning . . . but that still does not answer the questions about why Macedonia and frankly, the entire former Yugoslavia are on Central European time, rather than Eastern European time? As you can see here on this map Central European Time Zone is much much larger than Eastern European Time Zone? Why?
Well the most logical, yet most illogical, reason would be politics . . . that most of Eastern Europe wants to be identified with Western Europe period. This means the sun comes up at ungodly early in the day. It sorta like living in Alaska. A Warsaw Pact Alaska.
The simple truth is that I am a lazy bum and I think it should be dark when one drives out of the airport parking lot at 5:11 am and starts the drive back home. There is something wildly wrong about the sun peaking over the eastern mountains at 5 in the morning. I think I will go back to bed until the world rights itself.
Oh I forgot, it's already the middle of the day. No wonder I am so tired.
So yeah, that was what I doing up at 4 this morning . . . but that still does not answer the questions about why Macedonia and frankly, the entire former Yugoslavia are on Central European time, rather than Eastern European time? As you can see here on this map Central European Time Zone is much much larger than Eastern European Time Zone? Why?
Well the most logical, yet most illogical, reason would be politics . . . that most of Eastern Europe wants to be identified with Western Europe period. This means the sun comes up at ungodly early in the day. It sorta like living in Alaska. A Warsaw Pact Alaska.
The simple truth is that I am a lazy bum and I think it should be dark when one drives out of the airport parking lot at 5:11 am and starts the drive back home. There is something wildly wrong about the sun peaking over the eastern mountains at 5 in the morning. I think I will go back to bed until the world rights itself.
Oh I forgot, it's already the middle of the day. No wonder I am so tired.
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Batman, Spiderman, Superman, Whateverman
Hollywood seems to have impacted missions in some significant ways. Western culture (and progressively the entire world) is contaminated by “one-man army” ideas. According to my students at Evangelical Theological Seminary this can be seen in Hollywood (Spiderman, Batman, Whatever-man). One gal asked, "how responsible is Protestantism with its overemphasis on the Cross (forgetting the carpenter and the empty tomb) in creating these “Lone Ranger” ideas that we now struggle with?"
Then the real fun begins. From there the students allowed me to see that from where they are sitting, mission leaders sometimes act like managers of companies. Vision-casting is nothing more than pet project promotion, forcing our Western ideas on the nationals. Having lived in the Slavic world for most of the last 12 years, I have to uncomfortably admit that there is much truth to this. Of course the CMA is never guilty of this, we are talking about other missions, . . . ah hum.
When one begins to look at missions and missional activity from the perspective of the local . . . it doesn't seem quite so clean and altruistic and holy. There is only one way to redeem such situations and assure that they no longer happen. My students and I agree; we have to work, engage, and live in relationships of mutuality and equality. All superiority and arrogance needs to stay home in the West!
When I tell my students about our relationships with our Macedonian leaders and what we are invited to do and invited to join in with and invited to share, they are not quite sure they believe me. I tell them, "there are no supermen or whatevermen in our partnership in Macedonia, only the dream team." No superstars needed or wanted.
Then the real fun begins. From there the students allowed me to see that from where they are sitting, mission leaders sometimes act like managers of companies. Vision-casting is nothing more than pet project promotion, forcing our Western ideas on the nationals. Having lived in the Slavic world for most of the last 12 years, I have to uncomfortably admit that there is much truth to this. Of course the CMA is never guilty of this, we are talking about other missions, . . . ah hum.
When one begins to look at missions and missional activity from the perspective of the local . . . it doesn't seem quite so clean and altruistic and holy. There is only one way to redeem such situations and assure that they no longer happen. My students and I agree; we have to work, engage, and live in relationships of mutuality and equality. All superiority and arrogance needs to stay home in the West!
When I tell my students about our relationships with our Macedonian leaders and what we are invited to do and invited to join in with and invited to share, they are not quite sure they believe me. I tell them, "there are no supermen or whatevermen in our partnership in Macedonia, only the dream team." No superstars needed or wanted.
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
"worm" blood
I know, it sounds gross and if all were as it seems then it might be indeed. This highly descriptive phrase appeared in a paper that I read yesterday. The exact quote was, "Often we say that Macedonians and Serbs are people with “worm” blood, because of their temperament." Balkan people are pretty unique, so I did not readily dismiss the idea that she meant exactly what she said, but after some dialogue with other students, I gathered the real intent was "warm" blooded, not worm blood. The student continued, "Slovenians are cold, Bosnians careless and Croatians prudent."
This all came about as I am getting hammered by my students. Each day they have a reading assignment and a response paper is due. Yesterday and today they are reading various chapters of my doctoral thesis as two of those six chapters directly relate to our Biblical Theology of Missions class.
They hate my thesis. They simply hate it. They hate the way that I drew conclusions, made sweeping remarks, and steadily lumped them together into a geographical melting pot that had consistent themes running, regardless of ethnicity, sub-country, culture or language. Today when we were talking about it class, I saw why they have had war after war after war here for a thousand years. When I tried to give them a bit of contrast with the rest of the world to show them how small a section of the world we are actually referring to here (New York city was my example, with 140 plus ethnic groups and over 110 languages spoken there daily, it is a really diverse place), they were unable to see that the entire world has almost infinite layers of sub-cultures and groups within groups, in levels of complexity that make the Balkans look absolutely simple in comparison. No they were insistent, the Balkans are the most ethnically diverse place on earth and no outsider could ever possibly understand it. Well, no arguing with that last point.
Fortunately I have thick skin and appreciated the fact that I had pricked their ire . . . because it empowered them to respond in kind. And they fired off paragraph after paragraph of their true feelings about westerners, Americans in particular. Now that was incredibly painful and hysterically funny, and occasionally powerfully insightful. Americans are truly ugly when let out of their pen . . . and the students weren't shy in letting me hear about some of their capers.
We are insensitive, offer advice constantly but never take any, use money like a weapon, are superior in our attitudes to a fault, arrogance unchecked, Westerners are platonic dualists to the end, imperialists, "prove me wrong" wrong attitudes, can't learn foreign languages, most westerners have low self-esteem, . . . and on and on I could quoting their observations about us westerners. But many of you would be quick to point out that not all westerners are like this. And we agree. The Balkan students quickly did the dirty deed they are accusing me of . . . lumping them all together. Perhaps Macedonians and Serbs have worm blood after all.
This all came about as I am getting hammered by my students. Each day they have a reading assignment and a response paper is due. Yesterday and today they are reading various chapters of my doctoral thesis as two of those six chapters directly relate to our Biblical Theology of Missions class.
They hate my thesis. They simply hate it. They hate the way that I drew conclusions, made sweeping remarks, and steadily lumped them together into a geographical melting pot that had consistent themes running, regardless of ethnicity, sub-country, culture or language. Today when we were talking about it class, I saw why they have had war after war after war here for a thousand years. When I tried to give them a bit of contrast with the rest of the world to show them how small a section of the world we are actually referring to here (New York city was my example, with 140 plus ethnic groups and over 110 languages spoken there daily, it is a really diverse place), they were unable to see that the entire world has almost infinite layers of sub-cultures and groups within groups, in levels of complexity that make the Balkans look absolutely simple in comparison. No they were insistent, the Balkans are the most ethnically diverse place on earth and no outsider could ever possibly understand it. Well, no arguing with that last point.
Fortunately I have thick skin and appreciated the fact that I had pricked their ire . . . because it empowered them to respond in kind. And they fired off paragraph after paragraph of their true feelings about westerners, Americans in particular. Now that was incredibly painful and hysterically funny, and occasionally powerfully insightful. Americans are truly ugly when let out of their pen . . . and the students weren't shy in letting me hear about some of their capers.
We are insensitive, offer advice constantly but never take any, use money like a weapon, are superior in our attitudes to a fault, arrogance unchecked, Westerners are platonic dualists to the end, imperialists, "prove me wrong" wrong attitudes, can't learn foreign languages, most westerners have low self-esteem, . . . and on and on I could quoting their observations about us westerners. But many of you would be quick to point out that not all westerners are like this. And we agree. The Balkan students quickly did the dirty deed they are accusing me of . . . lumping them all together. Perhaps Macedonians and Serbs have worm blood after all.
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
deep enough for mystery?
It was facinating today to read some the papers that my students were turning in. Maja said it so well, "We’re looking for a faith that is colorful enough for our culturally savvy friends, deep enough for mystery, big enough for our own doubts." There is the postmodern christian perspective in a nutshell. Are our churches up to this definition?
I am more and more convinced that the christian life among the young is something quite other than my generation. It has more integrity and authenticity. This is why I enjoy engaging these post-moderns in the classroom. We had a full-blown debate/argument in class today that was wonderful. I am learning more than I am teaching. The students are speechless when I stop class discussion in order to write down something someone said. It makes them a little giddy that I am learning from them . . . but I am convinced that this is the gas on the fire in class.
But back to the questions Maja's comments demand; are we living and communicating a faith that is big enough to handle the questions and doubts of the post-moderns, or dare I say it, our own? I really have my doubts about this one, no pun intended. Church can seem so programed and shallow . . . just look at our inability to response in a significant manner when bad things happen to Christians. I know several young ladies who have been attacked and handled in very abusive ways by theives and men just intent on evil this past year . . . and the almost complete paralysis of the church in ministering to them in meanful ways is heartbreaking . . . significant doubts have arisen in both of these young ladies about the validity of faith . . . if faith and the christian community cannot address real problems in a real world, where is the meaning?
And is our understanding and expression of the Gospel of Christ presented in such a way that it is "deep enough for mystery"? I bite my toungue in class often to stop myself from giving out the same old answers to what I percieve are the same old questions. It requires real effort to frame the message in a culturally significant manner, regardless if you are in New York, New Deli or Croatia.
Finally I grow weary of the bashing of the cultural expressions of the young, by the old . . . er. Oh yes, their expression of the Gospel is much louder and bolder and brighter than perhaps our generation, and yes they have their challenges, but I find that they challenge me too . . . and I find that yearn for many of the same things in my God as they wish for in theirs. Lead children lead!
I am more and more convinced that the christian life among the young is something quite other than my generation. It has more integrity and authenticity. This is why I enjoy engaging these post-moderns in the classroom. We had a full-blown debate/argument in class today that was wonderful. I am learning more than I am teaching. The students are speechless when I stop class discussion in order to write down something someone said. It makes them a little giddy that I am learning from them . . . but I am convinced that this is the gas on the fire in class.
But back to the questions Maja's comments demand; are we living and communicating a faith that is big enough to handle the questions and doubts of the post-moderns, or dare I say it, our own? I really have my doubts about this one, no pun intended. Church can seem so programed and shallow . . . just look at our inability to response in a significant manner when bad things happen to Christians. I know several young ladies who have been attacked and handled in very abusive ways by theives and men just intent on evil this past year . . . and the almost complete paralysis of the church in ministering to them in meanful ways is heartbreaking . . . significant doubts have arisen in both of these young ladies about the validity of faith . . . if faith and the christian community cannot address real problems in a real world, where is the meaning?
And is our understanding and expression of the Gospel of Christ presented in such a way that it is "deep enough for mystery"? I bite my toungue in class often to stop myself from giving out the same old answers to what I percieve are the same old questions. It requires real effort to frame the message in a culturally significant manner, regardless if you are in New York, New Deli or Croatia.
Finally I grow weary of the bashing of the cultural expressions of the young, by the old . . . er. Oh yes, their expression of the Gospel is much louder and bolder and brighter than perhaps our generation, and yes they have their challenges, but I find that they challenge me too . . . and I find that yearn for many of the same things in my God as they wish for in theirs. Lead children lead!
Monday, May 22, 2006
When do you let the consequences kick in?
Last night I had the most unpleasant experience . . . I had to tell one of my brightest, high-potential students that they could not sit for the final exam. Bethany is involved in EVERYTHING! She is a student here working with InterVarisity, but she is also a fulltime student here in the seminary . . . yet she is never in class. She has attended only 46% of class so far. You can't learn if you are not in class. But it pains me terribly to write her and tell her that she cannot sit for the final exam, which essentially means that she is finished for this course.
So I wrote her and told her that she cannot sit for the exam. Well today the Dean's office overruled me :-) Personally I am glad, but this seminary is in deep trouble, because of this very type of stuff . . . they can't keep their own rules!
I wonder if we in the church have decided that this is what Grace means in all situations. I agree that Grace essentially means that I DON'T receive what I deserve in terms of eternal punishment. But does it also mean that with all aspects of everyday life? So whenever the rules are broken, it's OK, we will be gracious and let it pass? Again, I am personally thrilled that Bethany will now be able to finish the class I am teaching . . . she is one of the best students! On the other hand, when do you let the consequences kick in? I would love to know what you think.
So I wrote her and told her that she cannot sit for the exam. Well today the Dean's office overruled me :-) Personally I am glad, but this seminary is in deep trouble, because of this very type of stuff . . . they can't keep their own rules!
I wonder if we in the church have decided that this is what Grace means in all situations. I agree that Grace essentially means that I DON'T receive what I deserve in terms of eternal punishment. But does it also mean that with all aspects of everyday life? So whenever the rules are broken, it's OK, we will be gracious and let it pass? Again, I am personally thrilled that Bethany will now be able to finish the class I am teaching . . . she is one of the best students! On the other hand, when do you let the consequences kick in? I would love to know what you think.
The bullet holes in the building next door
As I sit here in this third floor apartment alone thinking and devoting, I just looked out the window as I heard some birds singing and I noticed the bullet holes in the building next door. I was wondering what this place must have been like 10 years ago when the fighting was most intense? I wonder who was in that apartment when someone took an automatic weapon and fired it at their window with the hope of killing someone inside?
I have noticed that many of the buildings here still bear evidence of gunfire and a few of them even bear evidence of mortar fire. Here is a photo I took last week in Bosnia which shows the kind of destruction I am talking about.
Of course we Westerners ooh and aah in amazement when we see things like this but there were people dying in these buildings during the war. This was not a movie.
Nor or things miraculously healed when a political agreement brings an end to the fighting and dying. A couple of weeks ago I got horrendously lost here in Croatia and there are almost NO road signs, and I stopped the car several times and asked people (yes real men ask for directions) if the road I was on was the road to Belgrade? Most just turned around and walked the other direction when I mentioned Belgrade. One man yelled at me incredulously, "Belgrade!???" and then stomped off. Not a single person was willing to tell me if I was headed in the right direction or not. And I instantly became the enemy when I said the word Belgrade and it became known that I was headed that way.
What does the Gospel offer these folks and who will give it to them? How will they hear without a preach, and how shall they preach unless they be sent? Will the preacher be able to live in a place that neither appreciates him nor wants him?
I have noticed that many of the buildings here still bear evidence of gunfire and a few of them even bear evidence of mortar fire. Here is a photo I took last week in Bosnia which shows the kind of destruction I am talking about.
Of course we Westerners ooh and aah in amazement when we see things like this but there were people dying in these buildings during the war. This was not a movie.
Nor or things miraculously healed when a political agreement brings an end to the fighting and dying. A couple of weeks ago I got horrendously lost here in Croatia and there are almost NO road signs, and I stopped the car several times and asked people (yes real men ask for directions) if the road I was on was the road to Belgrade? Most just turned around and walked the other direction when I mentioned Belgrade. One man yelled at me incredulously, "Belgrade!???" and then stomped off. Not a single person was willing to tell me if I was headed in the right direction or not. And I instantly became the enemy when I said the word Belgrade and it became known that I was headed that way.
What does the Gospel offer these folks and who will give it to them? How will they hear without a preach, and how shall they preach unless they be sent? Will the preacher be able to live in a place that neither appreciates him nor wants him?
Saturday, May 20, 2006
What is good about Good News to the poor?
As you can see from this photo I took this week, Macedonia is home to Muslims. It is also home to the largest concentration of Roma (often called Gypsys) people anywhere in the world. Now we had gypsys in Russia when we lived there, but those gypsys were very different than the gypsys that live here in Macedonia. These people are the poorest of the poor. As I was working out along the river this morning, I saw once again that a small clan of gypsys had set up a rambling shamble of card-board buildings that they are living in. Come met a few of their children . . . it will break your heart and tear a hole in it.
Jesus defined His arrival as the Messiah by stating that Good News has come to the poor (see the last post "the ghost of pan-missionism"). But what is good about good news to the poor? If we could only define this, if we could only answer this question, then we may understand what is good about the Good News for all of us.
The Lausanne II conference in Manila stated "The good news is that God established his Kingdom of righteousness and peace through the incarnation, ministry, atoning death and resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ. The Kingdom fulfills God's purpose in creation by bring wholeness to humanity and the whole creation . . . Those who respond to this good news who are poor in the material sense or powerless are empowered by the Spirit and served by other members of the Kingdom community to experience full humanity . . . the non-poor who become poor-in-spirit receive true dignity replacing false pride in riches and are liberated to be truly human with a passion for justice for the poor."
This amazing statement ends with this kicker . . . "The task of evangelisation among the majority of the unreached who are poor will be carried out primarily by those who are poor, with appropriate support from those economically advantaged who are poor in spirit."
So unlike some North American preaching I have heard in my many years, that the good news means all things become new, e.g. no more mortgage, no more credit card debt, jobs with tenure, and never a financial worry ever again in life . . . that message just doesn't preach in Shutka, the Roma neighborhood. They are poor . . . poor in a such a manner that few can imagine in the West. Don't confuse poor with "a difficult time." The poor have no hope that it will ever get better or easier . . . ever.
So what is good about the Good News to the poor? Three things: dignity (identity), status and worth. Dignity literally means a sense of self-worth. This gives one identity, which answers the question "Who am I?" while dignity more answers the question "What am I worth?" (this is an argument that Christopher Sugden lays out). Look at those two questions! The Scriptures and a relationship with the living God, yells out the answers to those two questions. Look at Luke 15 and see Jesus being marginalized by the religious people because he was hanging with sinners. Then read the rest of the chapter and see WHO the lost are and WHAT VALUE the lost have . . . I am a son of the living God, that's who I am! And what am I worth? Well, everything.
Next time I will have to write about the second part of the kicker . . . about us economically advantaged folks.
Jesus defined His arrival as the Messiah by stating that Good News has come to the poor (see the last post "the ghost of pan-missionism"). But what is good about good news to the poor? If we could only define this, if we could only answer this question, then we may understand what is good about the Good News for all of us.
The Lausanne II conference in Manila stated "The good news is that God established his Kingdom of righteousness and peace through the incarnation, ministry, atoning death and resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ. The Kingdom fulfills God's purpose in creation by bring wholeness to humanity and the whole creation . . . Those who respond to this good news who are poor in the material sense or powerless are empowered by the Spirit and served by other members of the Kingdom community to experience full humanity . . . the non-poor who become poor-in-spirit receive true dignity replacing false pride in riches and are liberated to be truly human with a passion for justice for the poor."
This amazing statement ends with this kicker . . . "The task of evangelisation among the majority of the unreached who are poor will be carried out primarily by those who are poor, with appropriate support from those economically advantaged who are poor in spirit."
So unlike some North American preaching I have heard in my many years, that the good news means all things become new, e.g. no more mortgage, no more credit card debt, jobs with tenure, and never a financial worry ever again in life . . . that message just doesn't preach in Shutka, the Roma neighborhood. They are poor . . . poor in a such a manner that few can imagine in the West. Don't confuse poor with "a difficult time." The poor have no hope that it will ever get better or easier . . . ever.
So what is good about the Good News to the poor? Three things: dignity (identity), status and worth. Dignity literally means a sense of self-worth. This gives one identity, which answers the question "Who am I?" while dignity more answers the question "What am I worth?" (this is an argument that Christopher Sugden lays out). Look at those two questions! The Scriptures and a relationship with the living God, yells out the answers to those two questions. Look at Luke 15 and see Jesus being marginalized by the religious people because he was hanging with sinners. Then read the rest of the chapter and see WHO the lost are and WHAT VALUE the lost have . . . I am a son of the living God, that's who I am! And what am I worth? Well, everything.
Next time I will have to write about the second part of the kicker . . . about us economically advantaged folks.
Friday, May 19, 2006
The Ghost of pan-missionism
Walter Freytag used the phrase "ghost of pan-missionism" to describe the phenomena of calling all ministry missions. In fact, what is usually meant is evangelism, not missions. Earlier in our history we defined missions geographically or theologically. Theologically defined along the lines of van Ruler's argument that one must distinguish between a Westerner and a non-Westerner. van Ruler insisted that the Westerner has brushed against the idea of "God-in-Christ" for much of our history and this cannot be undone. Even a de-christianized European is not a pagan. Bosch says that he can never become pre-christian again, only post-Christian. But I am getting side-tracked . . .
If evangelism and mission are primarily understood as verbal proclaimation, then geographically and theologically they are indistinguishable. But if we look at the nature of the two, then perhaps we might/could agree with John Stott's ascertion that mission is a comprehensive concept, "embracing everything which God sends His people into the world to do". Evangelism on the other hand is less comprehensive and is actually a component of mission. Mission is then defined by Stott as "evangelism plus social action." I actually don't like Stott's phrase here, but missions is about crossing frontiers of geography, language, cultures and world views. In fact I agree with Bosch that evangelism is something more than merely a component of mission and mission is more than evangelism plus social action. Evangelism is an invitation to leave one life and embrace another, it is not merely the verbal proclaimation of objective truth (which in our modern world, does not exist anyway according to the masses).
BUT it involves more than verbal proclaimation of the Gospel. Remember when Jesus began His ministry in Nazareth he quoted Isaiah and outlined what He came to do: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has annointed me, he has sent me to announce good news to the poor, to proclaim release for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind; to let the broken victims go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Now you gotta admit, there is a bit more there than verbal proclaimation! Evangelism is a dynamic expereince where the person receiving the gospel and the person who is sharing the gospel create a dynamic synergy that is evangelism. Of course the contents of evangelism will be different for one location over another, with one social situation versus another.
The Evangelical view of missions generally can be summed up in the GC in Matt. 28:19-20. It is given urgency by a conviction (in Evangelical circles) that people who have not heard the gospel will perish eternally. The problem here (and this is another subject all by itself!) is that, as Bosch correctly states, the gospel becomes primarily "a subject for belief" rather than "a way of life." It becomes a message which if accepted gives the person entrance into the Kingdom. I think we evangelicals have ventured out onto thin ice here. This view of missions/evangelism turns people into projects, and makes evangelism a magic wand religion where one can say the magic words and the door opens (wasn't that alli-baba?), and lets face it everyone wants to be saved from hell but few want to be saved from sin.
As I look at us evangelicals, it seems that we believe that we have been saved from hell, but weren't we also saved from materialism, me-ism, nationalism, selfishness, gluttony, lying, gossiping, hatred, and retirement planning? It seems that I want fire insurance far more than I want the rest of the package. What ever happened to the idea that salvation was a life?
If evangelism and mission are primarily understood as verbal proclaimation, then geographically and theologically they are indistinguishable. But if we look at the nature of the two, then perhaps we might/could agree with John Stott's ascertion that mission is a comprehensive concept, "embracing everything which God sends His people into the world to do". Evangelism on the other hand is less comprehensive and is actually a component of mission. Mission is then defined by Stott as "evangelism plus social action." I actually don't like Stott's phrase here, but missions is about crossing frontiers of geography, language, cultures and world views. In fact I agree with Bosch that evangelism is something more than merely a component of mission and mission is more than evangelism plus social action. Evangelism is an invitation to leave one life and embrace another, it is not merely the verbal proclaimation of objective truth (which in our modern world, does not exist anyway according to the masses).
BUT it involves more than verbal proclaimation of the Gospel. Remember when Jesus began His ministry in Nazareth he quoted Isaiah and outlined what He came to do: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has annointed me, he has sent me to announce good news to the poor, to proclaim release for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind; to let the broken victims go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Now you gotta admit, there is a bit more there than verbal proclaimation! Evangelism is a dynamic expereince where the person receiving the gospel and the person who is sharing the gospel create a dynamic synergy that is evangelism. Of course the contents of evangelism will be different for one location over another, with one social situation versus another.
The Evangelical view of missions generally can be summed up in the GC in Matt. 28:19-20. It is given urgency by a conviction (in Evangelical circles) that people who have not heard the gospel will perish eternally. The problem here (and this is another subject all by itself!) is that, as Bosch correctly states, the gospel becomes primarily "a subject for belief" rather than "a way of life." It becomes a message which if accepted gives the person entrance into the Kingdom. I think we evangelicals have ventured out onto thin ice here. This view of missions/evangelism turns people into projects, and makes evangelism a magic wand religion where one can say the magic words and the door opens (wasn't that alli-baba?), and lets face it everyone wants to be saved from hell but few want to be saved from sin.
As I look at us evangelicals, it seems that we believe that we have been saved from hell, but weren't we also saved from materialism, me-ism, nationalism, selfishness, gluttony, lying, gossiping, hatred, and retirement planning? It seems that I want fire insurance far more than I want the rest of the package. What ever happened to the idea that salvation was a life?
Thursday, May 18, 2006
don't watch the wrecks!
OK, I admit it, I was rubber-necking. Doesn't everyone? As you can see from the photo, it wasn't much of a wreck anyhoo . . . BTW that little car is known as a Ficho, which is the Yugo version of a VW bug, except it looks like a pregnant cockroach. And I was making my twice weekly ride up the mountain on my bike and I came up on this just-happened accident and I was trying to figure out who got hurt and how the accident happened and if perhaps they had run over a cyclist such as myself with this particular damage to the car.Now when you are rubber-necking, you generally are not paying attention to other things, and of course this can have significant consequences for the driver of a car, but even more so for a cyclist . . . because what is at every accident? Of course, broken glass! So while I was slowly huff and puffing past this tiny accident and not watching the road, I was driving through loads of broken glass!
Not only was the accident distracting me from the negatives, but it was also distracting me from some powerful positives! It was literally keeping me from seeing the glory of God! This morning was an unusually beautiful morning . . . the rain from around midnight having cleaned our polluted air to the point that you could see the entire northern mountain range which are still snow covered even if it is the 18th of May! Here is the view that I was missing!!
Of course this little photo cannot convey the distances and majesty and scope of the scenery, but at the risk of sounding redundant, it was magnificient -- the splendor of God on display!
As I continued on my ride fully expecting my tires to go flat at any moment because of my idiotic distraction with the little accident, it occurred to me that I often, most days in fact, live my life just like that. Perhaps I don't see a car accident everyday, but the urgency of the immediate, the constant noise of the modern world in music and video/tv, the mundane trivia of everyday work, the pressure of deadlines, the insane schedules of the modern world, the overwhelming input of information, the everyday scream of constant distractions, or as Lynn Joesting Day describes this phenomena as "human enthusiasm for unexamined change" constantly grabs and unfortunately holds my ever-shortening attention span, I often miss the dangers in my life and the glory around me as well.
I think I need more immunity to the attraction of the loud and obvious, and more awareness of the dangers and glory in life. Help me Lord.
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
an atheist by the grace of God
An oxymoron you say? I am not so sure. I recently heard someone use Paul's contextualization on steriods (be all things to all people in order to win some) to become a nihilist for the nihilists and godless for the godless. One person suggested that the entire language of the Church has become meaningless and so he said that he had become "an atheist by the grace of God."
Now as a person who has always need much grace in my life, I can sympathize with anyone needing grace. But God giving grace to a person in order that they can believe that no god exists? Some would argue that if the world is the area of God's activity, that would certainly include religious viewpoints other than Christianity. In the end it seems that one would just end up arguing for the Buddhist to be a better buddhist and the Mormon a better mormon if this position goes to its logical end.
Is this what Paul meant? I think the view above is too extreme a reaction away from the clear meaning of the passage. On the other hand, the radical effects of the conservative evangelical perspective that the world is evil, contact should be avoided with the world entirely when possible, I mean our citizenship is in heaven not here on earth -- creates a huge disconnect with life. Isolationism and insulated lives result. There seems to be no balance on either side . . ..
Generally I like extremes . . . some would even argue that I personally am really extreme! On the other hand it seems imperative to understand/admit that God has left us in this world. We evangelicals seem to be focused a great deal on the glorious future when the saved individuals are with God in heaven. But what about today? Really? If the world is essentially evil, which means our environment is essentially evil, how does one remain unstained by the world, much less become all things to all people so that some might be saved? And isn't salvation more than just getting more souls into the Kingdom in the future? What about today? Would not the redeemed directly address the injustices of this world? So what should I do about the lady picking food out of the garbage dumpster on my street? The beggar who grabbed my leg this morning and wanted money for food? The lady in our church who lives in one room, with no water or toilet? The girl begging at the street corner who can't read or write and doesn't want to . . . she only wants to get married (she is 13)? What about homosexuals, pollution, war, refugees, hunger, human trafficking, and ethnic hatred? And these are the problems just in my neighborhood!
I guess being an atheist by the grace of God is no stranger than a salvation that doesn't change the world, only the final destiny of an individual.
Now as a person who has always need much grace in my life, I can sympathize with anyone needing grace. But God giving grace to a person in order that they can believe that no god exists? Some would argue that if the world is the area of God's activity, that would certainly include religious viewpoints other than Christianity. In the end it seems that one would just end up arguing for the Buddhist to be a better buddhist and the Mormon a better mormon if this position goes to its logical end.
Is this what Paul meant? I think the view above is too extreme a reaction away from the clear meaning of the passage. On the other hand, the radical effects of the conservative evangelical perspective that the world is evil, contact should be avoided with the world entirely when possible, I mean our citizenship is in heaven not here on earth -- creates a huge disconnect with life. Isolationism and insulated lives result. There seems to be no balance on either side . . ..
Generally I like extremes . . . some would even argue that I personally am really extreme! On the other hand it seems imperative to understand/admit that God has left us in this world. We evangelicals seem to be focused a great deal on the glorious future when the saved individuals are with God in heaven. But what about today? Really? If the world is essentially evil, which means our environment is essentially evil, how does one remain unstained by the world, much less become all things to all people so that some might be saved? And isn't salvation more than just getting more souls into the Kingdom in the future? What about today? Would not the redeemed directly address the injustices of this world? So what should I do about the lady picking food out of the garbage dumpster on my street? The beggar who grabbed my leg this morning and wanted money for food? The lady in our church who lives in one room, with no water or toilet? The girl begging at the street corner who can't read or write and doesn't want to . . . she only wants to get married (she is 13)? What about homosexuals, pollution, war, refugees, hunger, human trafficking, and ethnic hatred? And these are the problems just in my neighborhood!
I guess being an atheist by the grace of God is no stranger than a salvation that doesn't change the world, only the final destiny of an individual.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
AK-47
It's been a while since I have been this close to a Kalashnikov. Yesterday while crossing into SCG (Serbian/Crna Gora) from Croatia I needed to exchange some US currency (which is falling in value faster than the hailstones I got nailed with yesterday in Belgrade) into Serbian Dinar. The Serbian border has always had a Wild West feel to it and even more so now, when they are in the middle of construction and you have no earthly idea which way you are supposed to go.
They have moved the insurance-exchange-banking-customs offices to one side in these little modular buildings. The first three exchanges/banks I stopped in told me to go to the next one (well, as far as I could understand since I don't actually speak Serbo-Croatian . . . but I can usually understand about 65% since it is halfway between Russian and Macedonian). Sooooo when I arrive at the door of the fourth exchange/bank, I started to enter, but there was a man there holding an AK-47 (it wasn't one of the new AK-74's) sorta half blocking the door. As I was out in the sun and he was inside, I did not realized that he was an officer of some type. It is very unusual for anyone other than a military officer to carry a submachine gun in public. Most police officers have pistols. And I asked, "may I exchange money?" and received no answer. My internal SYRE (save your rear end) radar was not flashing warning signals loud enough to slow me down . . . so I came inside and found the atmosphere rather tense.
When I spoke I gave myself away as a foreigner, and while my spoken words may have implied I was a Macedonian, my dress clearly identified me as a foreigner foreigner! That is a non-former-yugoslav. So the young man with the Kalashnikov was tense and worried. When the man holding the gun is worried, then generally I worry too. Once I was inside and at the window, everything suddenly made sense. There was a cash delivery being made and I essentially had crashed a private party. Until the man carrying the huge bag of money and the man with the AK-47 left the little room, I neither moved nor spoke. While I generally have all of the emotional sensitivity of a crocodile, my self-preservation instincts are top notch.
It was the weapon itself that I kept looking at though, and that made the young fellow holding it even more tense. What I decided that I would not tell him, was that while in Russia, I had heard many stories about Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov, the designer of the very submachine gun this young man was nervously caressing. My foreignness and abrupt entry, combined with interest in his weapon, not to mention who knows how much money being passed from the safe into a large leather bag handcuffed to his friend created an atmosphere that was edgy.
All I had really wanted to do initially was talk about the AK-47 (OK OK I wanted to hold it too) and exchange my meager $200. Now I would have been content to leave and go outside, but I was essentially afraid that the young fellow would perceive movement to be threatening. So I held still in body and I held my peace too. The feeling in that little office lightened considerably when these two characters left.
As I got back in my Peugeot and headed down the Serbian highway, it occurred to me that it would not have taken too much to have made that little encounter have a very different ending. Such little episodes in my day remind me of how precious life is . . . so I called one of my daughters when I got home and gave my wife a big hug. Yeah, life is precious, and God protects the simple.
They have moved the insurance-exchange-banking-customs offices to one side in these little modular buildings. The first three exchanges/banks I stopped in told me to go to the next one (well, as far as I could understand since I don't actually speak Serbo-Croatian . . . but I can usually understand about 65% since it is halfway between Russian and Macedonian). Sooooo when I arrive at the door of the fourth exchange/bank, I started to enter, but there was a man there holding an AK-47 (it wasn't one of the new AK-74's) sorta half blocking the door. As I was out in the sun and he was inside, I did not realized that he was an officer of some type. It is very unusual for anyone other than a military officer to carry a submachine gun in public. Most police officers have pistols. And I asked, "may I exchange money?" and received no answer. My internal SYRE (save your rear end) radar was not flashing warning signals loud enough to slow me down . . . so I came inside and found the atmosphere rather tense.
When I spoke I gave myself away as a foreigner, and while my spoken words may have implied I was a Macedonian, my dress clearly identified me as a foreigner foreigner! That is a non-former-yugoslav. So the young man with the Kalashnikov was tense and worried. When the man holding the gun is worried, then generally I worry too. Once I was inside and at the window, everything suddenly made sense. There was a cash delivery being made and I essentially had crashed a private party. Until the man carrying the huge bag of money and the man with the AK-47 left the little room, I neither moved nor spoke. While I generally have all of the emotional sensitivity of a crocodile, my self-preservation instincts are top notch.
It was the weapon itself that I kept looking at though, and that made the young fellow holding it even more tense. What I decided that I would not tell him, was that while in Russia, I had heard many stories about Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov, the designer of the very submachine gun this young man was nervously caressing. My foreignness and abrupt entry, combined with interest in his weapon, not to mention who knows how much money being passed from the safe into a large leather bag handcuffed to his friend created an atmosphere that was edgy.
All I had really wanted to do initially was talk about the AK-47 (OK OK I wanted to hold it too) and exchange my meager $200. Now I would have been content to leave and go outside, but I was essentially afraid that the young fellow would perceive movement to be threatening. So I held still in body and I held my peace too. The feeling in that little office lightened considerably when these two characters left.
As I got back in my Peugeot and headed down the Serbian highway, it occurred to me that it would not have taken too much to have made that little encounter have a very different ending. Such little episodes in my day remind me of how precious life is . . . so I called one of my daughters when I got home and gave my wife a big hug. Yeah, life is precious, and God protects the simple.
Monday, May 15, 2006
the stench of a rotting corpse
Smells are amazing . . . they can bring back memories from many years in the past. Or they can make a moment most pleasant (see previous blog about the smell of heaven). Or if you have ever lived in some hairy arm-pit sort of place around the world, you certainly know that smells can be utterly awful.
So I found it facinating this morning to read that apparently to non-praying folks -- those headed toward destruction, find our "smell" to be like that of a rotting corpse! Now that is some serious bad smelling. Before I got married some 20 years ago, I drove an ambulance and in the course of that difficult job, received the opportunity to smell a rotting corpse. There is nothing, and I repeat nothing, that is quite as bad a smell as a decomposing human body.
In the same text, it is written that to those who are on the path of salvation in some fashion, we are an "exquisite fragrance" and it occured to me that the same thing is the stench of a rotting corpse and an exquisite frangrance all at the same time! This is a bit confusing, but the most facinating thing is that this entire discussion about smells is written in the context of hearing from God and communicating what we are told. It says, "This is a terrific responsibility. Is anyone competent to take it on? No--but at least we don't take God's Word, water it down, and then take it to the streets to sell it cheap. We stand in Christ's presence when we speak; God looks us in the face. We get what we say straight from God and say it as honestly as we can." (2. Cor. 2:16-17 The Message)
It seems that when I communicate the words of God, that these fragrances are released! I wonder what smell I am? At first glance I thought the receptivity of the message by the receiver (hearer) determined the odor, and there is an element of that here . . . but in the end, it seems much more that when I clearly really hear from God and communicate that well, or not (the hearing or the communicating), that the resulting praxis determines the odor. I wonder what smell I am?
So I found it facinating this morning to read that apparently to non-praying folks -- those headed toward destruction, find our "smell" to be like that of a rotting corpse! Now that is some serious bad smelling. Before I got married some 20 years ago, I drove an ambulance and in the course of that difficult job, received the opportunity to smell a rotting corpse. There is nothing, and I repeat nothing, that is quite as bad a smell as a decomposing human body.
In the same text, it is written that to those who are on the path of salvation in some fashion, we are an "exquisite fragrance" and it occured to me that the same thing is the stench of a rotting corpse and an exquisite frangrance all at the same time! This is a bit confusing, but the most facinating thing is that this entire discussion about smells is written in the context of hearing from God and communicating what we are told. It says, "This is a terrific responsibility. Is anyone competent to take it on? No--but at least we don't take God's Word, water it down, and then take it to the streets to sell it cheap. We stand in Christ's presence when we speak; God looks us in the face. We get what we say straight from God and say it as honestly as we can." (2. Cor. 2:16-17 The Message)
It seems that when I communicate the words of God, that these fragrances are released! I wonder what smell I am? At first glance I thought the receptivity of the message by the receiver (hearer) determined the odor, and there is an element of that here . . . but in the end, it seems much more that when I clearly really hear from God and communicate that well, or not (the hearing or the communicating), that the resulting praxis determines the odor. I wonder what smell I am?
Friday, May 12, 2006
The Atomic clock?
The atomic clock what a good idea . . . a clock that receives a signal each day that resets the time correctly so that you never have to think about if your clock is fast or slow . . . no, it's just right. According the folks I am staying with in Mostar right now that is a fine threory, but their atomic clock can be a half hour off, or 10 minutes off, or 10 hours off occasinally.
In fact Mark got up several hours earlier than necessary yesterday because the atomic clock that they have (which beams the time up on the ceiling) was couple of hours off. Clearly this clock is having a difficult time receiving the signal correctly. Or perhaps it is the high mountains surrounding Mostar. Perhaps it is the clock itself! But something certainly is not working right and the results are missed sleep, confused sleepers, and general chaos.
Boy what a picture of my communication with Christ! My signal cetainly get's crossed sometimes, or I am not picking up the signal at all. Maybe it's the mountains surrounding me in life, or perhaps it's just me. But one thing is for sure, just as an atomic clock that can't get the signal right is fairly useless as a clock, a Christain who can't receive, hear or understand the signals of his Savior correctly is pretty useless as a servant.
I think I will go signal-getting again, with my antenna all the way focused.
In fact Mark got up several hours earlier than necessary yesterday because the atomic clock that they have (which beams the time up on the ceiling) was couple of hours off. Clearly this clock is having a difficult time receiving the signal correctly. Or perhaps it is the high mountains surrounding Mostar. Perhaps it is the clock itself! But something certainly is not working right and the results are missed sleep, confused sleepers, and general chaos.
Boy what a picture of my communication with Christ! My signal cetainly get's crossed sometimes, or I am not picking up the signal at all. Maybe it's the mountains surrounding me in life, or perhaps it's just me. But one thing is for sure, just as an atomic clock that can't get the signal right is fairly useless as a clock, a Christain who can't receive, hear or understand the signals of his Savior correctly is pretty useless as a servant.
I think I will go signal-getting again, with my antenna all the way focused.
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Where will I be buried?
The question of salvation is not only a event versus process question, but there are other significant issues that come into play from the perspective of those who live in Eastern Europe. As Mark and Kathy Eikost were pointing out to me earlier this week, for Romy people living in Bosnia the first question related to salvation is, “where will I be buried?” The Romy have their own cemetery, but it is considered a muslim graveyard and the Hoja (muslim cleric) will not allow the potential convert to buried in their traditional cemetery. Nor will the Catholics allow the potential convert to be buried in their graveyard. So the potential convert has no place to leave his or her mortal remains. What is a person to do? What should we perhaps try to accomplish in this situation? Are there steps that we can take as missionaries to resolve this dilemma for these potential converts?
The question of where I will be buried has larger implications than only for Romy converts. It’s a question I need to ask myself. Where will I be buried? Where will my final resting place be? Will it be here in Macedonia? Will it be somewhere else in the world where I might travel and work? Or will I return to my childhood hometown and find my final resting place there? These questions are important for more than a final resting place answer, because the answer to the question also frames what I am doing with my life. This then raises the question for me, is what I am doing worth dying for? Ok, of course all of you really spiritual people out there will immediately answer yes, but I am not sure some days. The price of what I am doing grows higher each year, and the costs to me personally in this life seem to have an inflationary tendency -- to always costs more. So I do not want to give a flippant answer. I need to think more about whether salvation is an event or a process (or both as most suggested in their comments), and I certainly need to think about where I am going to be buried.
I think I will go and . . . think.
The question of where I will be buried has larger implications than only for Romy converts. It’s a question I need to ask myself. Where will I be buried? Where will my final resting place be? Will it be here in Macedonia? Will it be somewhere else in the world where I might travel and work? Or will I return to my childhood hometown and find my final resting place there? These questions are important for more than a final resting place answer, because the answer to the question also frames what I am doing with my life. This then raises the question for me, is what I am doing worth dying for? Ok, of course all of you really spiritual people out there will immediately answer yes, but I am not sure some days. The price of what I am doing grows higher each year, and the costs to me personally in this life seem to have an inflationary tendency -- to always costs more. So I do not want to give a flippant answer. I need to think more about whether salvation is an event or a process (or both as most suggested in their comments), and I certainly need to think about where I am going to be buried.
I think I will go and . . . think.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Event salvation, e.g. magic word theology
North Americans think of salvation as an event, as a point in time where I can point to this day and say "I was not a Christian" and point to the next day and say "I am a Christian." Interestingly enough, the students in my Biblical Theology of Missions class believe that people come into the Kingdom in a process. There is no saying some magic words (repeat this prayer after me) and the immediate result being entrance into the Kingdom of God. My students admitted that perhaps that intense moment in time, that peak occurs sometimes, but the common experience of people in the former Yugoslavia is not like that. They come to Christ is tiny little steps and only Christ Himself could possibly discern when a person crosses into the Kingdom. Here it seems that an individual eventually comes to the realization that he or she is depending upon the justification and righteousness of Christ in faith (Rom 5:1), rather than trying to be good.
This really came to a head last year as we had a country-wide evangelization with a group of folks from California. They brought in some regular folks from their church, who had powerful testimonies. These men and women had honestly great testimonies and communicated them well. We took these communicators from the states around to our friends and acquaintances here and sat and drank coffee, and the locals heard these stories and at the end were asked if they would like to receive Christ as their personal Savior. About 80 percent of them said yes. All of those 80% were then lead in a repeat after me prayer . . . and some wanted to pray themselves. We were all thrilled and were rejoicing from our hearts. A year later?? Where are they?
In reality they are not in our churches. Our follow up with them was good, your connections with these individuals remains strong. I think that the real issue here is the magic word theology, the event salvation perspective. Maybe this works and really happens in America . . . but our folks seem fairly immune to coming into the Kingdom of God with a few magic words.
This really came to a head last year as we had a country-wide evangelization with a group of folks from California. They brought in some regular folks from their church, who had powerful testimonies. These men and women had honestly great testimonies and communicated them well. We took these communicators from the states around to our friends and acquaintances here and sat and drank coffee, and the locals heard these stories and at the end were asked if they would like to receive Christ as their personal Savior. About 80 percent of them said yes. All of those 80% were then lead in a repeat after me prayer . . . and some wanted to pray themselves. We were all thrilled and were rejoicing from our hearts. A year later?? Where are they?
In reality they are not in our churches. Our follow up with them was good, your connections with these individuals remains strong. I think that the real issue here is the magic word theology, the event salvation perspective. Maybe this works and really happens in America . . . but our folks seem fairly immune to coming into the Kingdom of God with a few magic words.
Sunday, May 07, 2006
The dead on the mountain
Today I discovered that Bosnians like their dead on the mountain. My co-worker Mark sent me on a bike ride up the mountain above Tuzla Bosnia. And he implied that I could not possibly pedal my bike up that hill. And of course that makes me want to say "of course I can" or "I can do it!" According to Mark it's a 32.8% incline. Who knows if that is true or not, but I will tell you that it was so steep, that when I was sitting and pedaling the front wheel was coming off the ground . . . and when I standing up and pedaling, the rear wheel would spin and lose traction . . . and of course Mark did not tell me that the asphalt was going to become cobblestones which are totally useless for traction because they are granite . . . the bottom line is that I couldn't. I said that I could. I thought that I could. I wished that I could. But I couldn't.
As I was passing the third graveyard on the mountain, two thoughts occurred to me. One was that all of these people in the graves may have gotten there by trying to bike up this mountain! Two was that the main point from the very sermon that I preached this morning applied, I can't do it on my own. That is why Jesus declares me justified by faith (Romans 5:1), cause I can't be justifed through my own effort. So I finally gave in to gravity and got off the bike and walked in the steepest points. I guess I will apply my own message and be thankful for the justification and righteousness of Christ. He sees me clean and just. I feel better already.
As I was passing the third graveyard on the mountain, two thoughts occurred to me. One was that all of these people in the graves may have gotten there by trying to bike up this mountain! Two was that the main point from the very sermon that I preached this morning applied, I can't do it on my own. That is why Jesus declares me justified by faith (Romans 5:1), cause I can't be justifed through my own effort. So I finally gave in to gravity and got off the bike and walked in the steepest points. I guess I will apply my own message and be thankful for the justification and righteousness of Christ. He sees me clean and just. I feel better already.
Saturday, May 06, 2006
The ethnic-social challenge
While teaching a seminar on leadership today in Tuzla, a huge discussion erupted over the issue of the challenge of planting homogeneous churches versus heterogeneous churches. Most current missiological thinking and church-planting models have given in, to fallen humanity and conceded that homogeneous church planting is just about the only way to reach niche segments of the population of whatever target group you are reaching for.
The object of today's loud argument was my efforts to get the local church leadership to consider planting a new church that targets the large number of adult students that come to their excellent English school. The pastor was having none of it! He has stuck adamantly with this position for the last two years that we have been discussing this. His rationale is that the church must be different than society! And in the former Yugoslavia, ethnic tensions are our theme. The Serbs live in their neighborhoods and the marry their own. The Croats do the same, and the Bosniaks do the same. The church must not have these divisions. I think his point has some serious validity . . . and some serious consequences.
I was suggesting that targeting the middle class group needs to happen, and the pastor was arguing more for an ethnically unified church, . . . the central question still may be, must the church take a different stand than society? One side of me thinks so, but another side of me thinks that the only human result from that spiritual desire is that no middle-class Tuzlans will come to Christ.
Does this mean that I have no faith? Does this mean that my missiological perspective is informing my theology, rather than my theology framing my missiological perspective? In the end I conceded to the pastor that I am not God (thankfully!) and that my words are neither prophetic nor infallible. I was only reporting the results and trends in modern church starts around the world. My heart hopes that in the end he is right and it comes about that I just lack significant faith. But my fear is that the middle-class of Bosnia may not be well represented around the throne.
The object of today's loud argument was my efforts to get the local church leadership to consider planting a new church that targets the large number of adult students that come to their excellent English school. The pastor was having none of it! He has stuck adamantly with this position for the last two years that we have been discussing this. His rationale is that the church must be different than society! And in the former Yugoslavia, ethnic tensions are our theme. The Serbs live in their neighborhoods and the marry their own. The Croats do the same, and the Bosniaks do the same. The church must not have these divisions. I think his point has some serious validity . . . and some serious consequences.
I was suggesting that targeting the middle class group needs to happen, and the pastor was arguing more for an ethnically unified church, . . . the central question still may be, must the church take a different stand than society? One side of me thinks so, but another side of me thinks that the only human result from that spiritual desire is that no middle-class Tuzlans will come to Christ.
Does this mean that I have no faith? Does this mean that my missiological perspective is informing my theology, rather than my theology framing my missiological perspective? In the end I conceded to the pastor that I am not God (thankfully!) and that my words are neither prophetic nor infallible. I was only reporting the results and trends in modern church starts around the world. My heart hopes that in the end he is right and it comes about that I just lack significant faith. But my fear is that the middle-class of Bosnia may not be well represented around the throne.
Friday, May 05, 2006
Return address?
"What do you mean I can't send the letters?" I asked the postal worker in Croatia for the third time! Obviously he was not understanding me, that I do not have a local address and if the letters are returned for some reason, I want them to come to my house in Macedonia, not some address in Croatia. "Oh you are just trying to force us to mail these letters to Macedonia!" the old fellow replied.
I thought to myself, he is not getting how ludicrous this whole scenario has become. He is suggesting that I am paying a premium airmail price to send these 14 letters to America, just so that I can get them into Macedonia?? It would clearly be much much cheaper to send the letters directly to Macedonia!
I have lived in four different countries, and have visited 30 plus, and have mailed letters from at least 15 different countries . . . and I have never ever in my whole experience had a post office refuse to mail a letter for me, because the return address was in some other country than the post office itself! And just when I thought that I had had every possible experience that a person could have in a post office.
It was a good lesson for me . . . one, that I have not yet experienced all that can be experienced in a post office, and two that there are different perspectives on the nature and work of post offices around the world. Spiritually I also have not experienced all of the Kingdom of God has to offer or that God even has for me personally, and two, there are different perspectives on the nature and work of the Kingdom of God within the Kingdom of God.
As I have been teaching Biblical Theology of Missions this week at the Evangelical Theological seminary in Croatia, I have been appalled at how small a percentage of the students feel the slightest urgency to evangelize a lost world. Even when I confront them with the overwhelming numbers of lost people in the world and how difficult it is to reach them . . . they seem to be utterly content in their salvation without the smallest concern about someone else's salvation. Today in the class discussion I realized that this phenomena is most likely connected to the fact that these churches in the Balkan Peninsula were planted with a local vision only, never a global vision. Now the question for me as their teacher-mentor is . . . how to interject into their personal lives and the life of their churches, a global vision? Can that even be done? I certainly seem to be using the wrong return address.
I wonder if the Bosnians will send my letters for me later this afternoon?
I thought to myself, he is not getting how ludicrous this whole scenario has become. He is suggesting that I am paying a premium airmail price to send these 14 letters to America, just so that I can get them into Macedonia?? It would clearly be much much cheaper to send the letters directly to Macedonia!
I have lived in four different countries, and have visited 30 plus, and have mailed letters from at least 15 different countries . . . and I have never ever in my whole experience had a post office refuse to mail a letter for me, because the return address was in some other country than the post office itself! And just when I thought that I had had every possible experience that a person could have in a post office.
It was a good lesson for me . . . one, that I have not yet experienced all that can be experienced in a post office, and two that there are different perspectives on the nature and work of post offices around the world. Spiritually I also have not experienced all of the Kingdom of God has to offer or that God even has for me personally, and two, there are different perspectives on the nature and work of the Kingdom of God within the Kingdom of God.
As I have been teaching Biblical Theology of Missions this week at the Evangelical Theological seminary in Croatia, I have been appalled at how small a percentage of the students feel the slightest urgency to evangelize a lost world. Even when I confront them with the overwhelming numbers of lost people in the world and how difficult it is to reach them . . . they seem to be utterly content in their salvation without the smallest concern about someone else's salvation. Today in the class discussion I realized that this phenomena is most likely connected to the fact that these churches in the Balkan Peninsula were planted with a local vision only, never a global vision. Now the question for me as their teacher-mentor is . . . how to interject into their personal lives and the life of their churches, a global vision? Can that even be done? I certainly seem to be using the wrong return address.
I wonder if the Bosnians will send my letters for me later this afternoon?
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Dear Sin!
This was the salutation that greeted me this morning as I opened an email from one of my Romanian students. It certainly caught my attention. One can only hope that it was a mistake and the intended salutation was Dear Sir. It is attention-getting for other reasons though.
It could be that we all need to write a letter of goodbye to the sin in our lives. IT was interesting in class today as we debated if the lost are really lost or not, how many of the objections to evangelism and missions were personal issues and person distractions.
For soldiers, aren't those distractions considered the highest form of treason? Would not all or anything that robs our attention of His tasks, goals and mission be considered horribly wrong? Perhaps we all should write some Dear Sin letters and tell them goodbye!
It could be that we all need to write a letter of goodbye to the sin in our lives. IT was interesting in class today as we debated if the lost are really lost or not, how many of the objections to evangelism and missions were personal issues and person distractions.
For soldiers, aren't those distractions considered the highest form of treason? Would not all or anything that robs our attention of His tasks, goals and mission be considered horribly wrong? Perhaps we all should write some Dear Sin letters and tell them goodbye!
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Land Mines?!
I was talking with Greg right before my Biblical Theology of Missions class was to begin . . . after teaching the class I wanted to ride the good ole' Carrera on some of the Croatian roads and trails. As he was telling me where to go, I noticed that he said "stay on the road/sidewalk about three times, I held up my hand for a time-out sign! "Why do you keep telling me to stay on the road and sidewalk? I asked. "Because there are still lots of land mines out there and the only way to avoid them of course is stay on the road and sidewalk" was his answer!
Well needless to say, I can think of a few hundred other ways to avoid land mines, like a vacation in the Bahamas, teaching at a seminary in Tahiti instead of the former Yugoslavia, but I said nothing and shook my head yes. And I did stay on the road/sidewalks and I yet live to write this blog. But Greg was not joking . . . there are signs everywhere along the direction that I was riding today, warning the person who values all their limbs and very life to stay on the road! There were even mines underwater in one place! And when I got to the turn-around point in my trip, there was a group of people de-mining right beside the path I was riding on!! Yikes.
Interestingly enough we talked about some serious spiritual land mines in class today . . . the exclusivity of Christ, the lostness of man and hell. The dialogue was great in class, although we kept flipping between a number of different languages . . . we communicated that these are both the reasons and often the stumbling blocks of missions. Most of all today I just wanted them to start forming their own biblical theology of missions. Me giving them one is rather pointless in my opinion . . . they will forget it within an hour of the final exam. But if they get God's point of view for themselves, then it might change their lives. I can only hope.
Well needless to say, I can think of a few hundred other ways to avoid land mines, like a vacation in the Bahamas, teaching at a seminary in Tahiti instead of the former Yugoslavia, but I said nothing and shook my head yes. And I did stay on the road/sidewalks and I yet live to write this blog. But Greg was not joking . . . there are signs everywhere along the direction that I was riding today, warning the person who values all their limbs and very life to stay on the road! There were even mines underwater in one place! And when I got to the turn-around point in my trip, there was a group of people de-mining right beside the path I was riding on!! Yikes.
Interestingly enough we talked about some serious spiritual land mines in class today . . . the exclusivity of Christ, the lostness of man and hell. The dialogue was great in class, although we kept flipping between a number of different languages . . . we communicated that these are both the reasons and often the stumbling blocks of missions. Most of all today I just wanted them to start forming their own biblical theology of missions. Me giving them one is rather pointless in my opinion . . . they will forget it within an hour of the final exam. But if they get God's point of view for themselves, then it might change their lives. I can only hope.
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