Stopped by the Police for Hitchhiking

I have never ever had so many police stop me in the same day for the same reason!  Each and every one of these guys wanted the same thing.  They wanted to hitchhike with us!  In the last 12-13 years that I have been roaming the more exotic locations of the Slavic world, I have encountered any number of wild and unheard of reasons for the police to stop me.  I have been stopped for having dirt on the license plate, I have been fined for not having a sticker on my car, I have paid brides and tickets out the wazoo for years and years.  But this was the ultimate, and I did not even have to pay a fine.  Several times now at the borders, a Serbian Customs agent has asked me to take a friend or co-worker to the next city or farther.  Of course I always feel like the implied message is, take them or be stuck at this border crossing for the next week!  So when someone with a gun asks you to give someone else a lift, you generally do.  At least I always have.

Brenda and I led the worship at the church service on Sunday morning and then we headed out for Croatia, to the Evangelical Theological Seminary where I teach a number of times each year, and where 14 or so of our future Macedonian church leaders are studying.  To get to Croatia, you have to navigate Serbia.  I always and carefully obey each and every traffic law in Serbia.  America bombed their country for 88 days.  This is not a place I want to be stopped by a man or woman who has a gun and authority and who might have lost a brother or father as a result of the bombing we inflicted on these people who have been nothing other than our allies for the last 50 years (don't even get me started into the whole politic thing).  I have never been stopped by a police officer in Serbia nor did I ever want to be stopped period.

Well I got stopped yesterday.  Three times!  The first guy stops me . . . and I think "Oh crap" (in a holy way of course), and I roll down my window and say "good day" and he says "good day".  Then he asks me if I will take his fellow officer, a young lady, to the next town.  I point out to him that my car is already full, and that there really isn't any place for the officer to sit.  He agreed and let me go. (Huge Relief)  But we traveled less than 2 kilometers when we were stopped again and this time it was a whole GROUP of policemen!  Basically we had the same identical conversation, and then again at the next stop.

This morning as I was watching the sun rise, it occurred to me that a number of things had happened the day before that could have turned out quite differently.  Number one was that none of these police officers knew we were Americans.  Our car plates are Macedonia, and we drive a very typical Macedonian car, not a big fancy one like lots of foreigners do.  Number two, we spoke Macedonian and so it obviously never occurred to them to ask and see our passports.  Number three, our car was really full (of gifts primarily for the students here from their families).

I then realized that there are several important spiritual lessons I could learn from this whole process.  The first being that when my car (emotions, life, ministry, heart) is full of God, there is no place for satan to sit. (I am not saying that Serbian police officers are satan or evil in any way, just drawing an analogy).  This is the most important lesson for me, because like every other person, I like to flirt with the edges.  But honestly, if I think of satan as a Serbian Police officer with a gun, rather than this  . . . for the most part likeable fellow who has made a few mistakes and is on the outs with God at the moment, I believe I will pay attention far more to who may be riding in my car.

The other lesson I think I can take away is a bit more complicated, but no less critical: that while my spiritual passport may say that I belong to the Kingdom of God, I have been given the tools to appear like anyone I choose . . . e.g. I can appear to be Macedonian, although I am not.  This can be used for good or evil and I need to be careful that my motives are right and that my actions are right.  I often use these skills to hang out with the most non-christian folks you can imagine, and as long as I am missional with these tools, that is OK.  But to use them only in order to disguise my true passport country is perhaps a sin.

translatability of God

I was thinking, (dangerous I know) and I found out that I believe the primary work of ministry is the translatability of God. Or perhaps a better way to say it is that our work is to plant a seed of Faith in every segment of culture and society. Of course we immediately think of politics and schools, but I actually think those are two areas we need invest ourselves in as people of character, but leave the religious rhetoric behind. (Don’t even get me started on the Republicanization of Evangelicalism!)

I was especially thinking about the translatability of God to the homosexual community (or tribe), the postmodern tribe, the post - postmodern tribe (yes it is already here and no you will not hear about it in your church or local Christian bookstore - I was going to write a book about it, but by the time I published it, there would already be a post-post-postmodern tribe).

I realized today that people talk in movies. What I mean by that is every third sentence goes, “oh, do you remember in the film . . . where they . . . and then the . . . came in and then . . .” etc, etc. Postmoderns and others on the edge talk in movies. While I have studied the culture and can speak to it intelligently in some ways, I haven’t watched a movie since the first week in July . . . and now it is the last week in October. In fact I do not believe that I have actually turned the TV on since the last game of the World Cup (not to be confused with the World Series), except to show some American visitors what Serbian Turbo Folk looks like.

Clearly I don’t talk in movies. The last movie I watched was a pirated version of Pirates of the Caribbean (no pun intended) at the local theater. I tend to talk in ideas and structures. Can I be a tool of the translatabiling of God to these other groups? And there are thousands of niches that have not had God translated to them yet: bikers (ricers and HD boys), NASCAR, quilting, cooking, antique car buffs, hunters, fishermen, hikers, mountain climbers, secretaries, Ambassadors, government, engineers (and thousands more) who all have their own language, codes, patterns, outlooks and points of view.

I guess the next question is which of these tribes is God calling me toward, and which are within my purview? . . . right after I figure out if the translatability of God reaches that far or not.

I wish I had their energy

Dr. B wore me out this week! He and Betty just flew out, heading to Jordan today. How I wish I had their energy! My prayer is that people in the CMA will listen to him and follow him. I have a keen appreciation for how tough his job is, and frankly can’t imagine how many different threads within the Alliance pull at him. I could never navigate the waters that he does.

I drilled him with questions for three days and he handled me with ease. But then again, I am a sissy compared the lions he has to face all the time. It was way cool to see them interact with the 20 + college students we had over to the house on Tuesday evening for a big bash. And even though they were tired from their trip from Spain to the hairy armpit, they stayed up longer than I thought they would and Dr. B is just a serious social bunny. He walks up to every person coming through my door and says, “Hi, my name is Gary.” I got weary just watching him connect with person after person.

I am so busted . . . I am going to bed, but when I grow up, I want to be just like that.

Erratic Compulsions

I was looking at the bombed out buildings along the side of the road today as we drove to the Resurrection Center wondering; what must it have been like for those who were living there when the mortar shells were falling on those homes?

Here in the Balkans, the truth is this; he who has the most strength makes the rules. And we Westerners can identify with both strength and rules. Unfortunately Paul took exception with both.

Paul actually frames this addiction to the law, rules, and regulations as an erratic compulsion that leads to trying to get your way all the time (Gals 5:19). He goes further and clearly says that obsession with the law, rules, and regulations leads to an obsession with sin! (Go read it!). In contrast to this style of life Paul suggests, "Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?" (5:18 The Message)

What a powerful indictment to our religiosity and religious culture today. What is there about us that resists a Spirit-led life, and embraces a rule-focused existence?

I have been giving this some serious mental percolating time. I also have been bouncing these questions and ideas off our President Benedict (who is currently staying at my house in Skopje), a District Superintendent from the USA and other key leaders within our organization. I see a large disconnect between our theory and our practice. We make people sign papers that bind them to laws, rules and regulations.

What I hear our leaders saying is that we want to be an organization that embraces the Spirit-led life of Freedom, and several times I heard that we actually are that kind of organization. On the opposite side, I have been told that I work too hard and that I should rest more, take better care of myself, and in general relax more. That looks good on paper, but reality is this, I am valued for what I do, not who I am and not what I think. President Benedict says the most amazing things, which give me hope that we can let go of our erratic compulsions. Nobody hopes more than I, that he is right, and that my cynicism is wrong.

I have found myself at the bottom of the spiritual dogpile so many times . . . on the other hand comments left on yesterday’s blog about Incompatible Selfishness give me some hope. Hey maybe I can muster the energy to try once again to effect change within the CMA and see if we can let go of our erratic compulsions.

incompatible selfishness

Or I could have entitled this blog, “Castration, going all the way with Jesus” or some similarly uncomfortable picture, but I finally decided on incompatible selfishness, because maybe I won’t get too much flak for the the following content. Incompatible Selfishness is a condition of the soul that happens each time someone makes a rule designed to restrict your freedom in Christ.

I was at an impromptu meeting Sunday night after our interrupted church service click to see previous post and one person there was describing how “really serious about God” people act and behave. It was disheartening once again to hear the Gospel reduced to a list of does and don’ts. No wonder the process of evangelism and many churches struggle for success around the world; we evangelicals have become the modern day pharisees, making rules that add to scripture and make serving the Lord an impossible burden. This is especially an affront to our Savior who clearly states that His freedom is real freedom. It is the most anti-rule statement anyone could possibly make!

For whatever cultural reasons North Americans seem to be the least comfortable with Freedom of any culture that I have ever been a part of in my life. I have heard about 50 sermons on not causing a brother to stumble, for every sermon I have heard on Freedom. But causing or not causing our brother or sister to stumble is an element of the Gospel, whereas Freedom seems to be a central part of the foundation!

Paul talks about this in Galations 5 . . . and he sums up the Gospel as “ . . . we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love.” (The Message)

What matters is something far more interior . . . Paul wrote Galations because of the tendency of the church to constantly fall into legislating holiness, which of course is never holy because holiness is something far more interior. Paul continues on calling this legalism a “detour” that is not from God (vs 8) and that these people calling for external rules for holiness are dangerous . . . they are like yeast, just a few affect the whole loaf.

But God has called us to Freedom. Rule-makers and enforcers are the essence of incompatible selfishness, because they are first of all incompatible with the freedom Christ died to bring and second they are selfish mandating all to live at their level of weakness. I hate to say this, but people are not lining up to be given rules of do’s and don’ts, but offer them the freedom that God is about, then lets see what happens! I had 25 college kids in my house for five hours tonight and they each will tell you that they gladly and firmly face ostracism from society and family, because of Freedom, not rules. Christ has come to set the captive free, and that includes those caught in the bondage of man-made rules of holiness. As God said to the prophet Samuel, “I am not like men, I look at the heart.” (Dr D’s paraphrase).

He crashed our church service!

Right in the middle of the sermon, at a critical moment, he opens the door to the church and stands there in the door. Finally Nikola asked him, “May I help you?” and the big lunk says, “Can I come in?” And he does. If he had sat there peacefully, it would not have been a big deal to interrupt in the middle of the sermon, but he sits down in the front and then turns around and starts blowing kisses at the girls! Then he looked over to where I was sitting and began wagging his tongue at the girls on my side of the room.

Needless to say, this totally ruined the atmosphere and the train of thought in the sermon, not to mention made everyone extremely uncomfortable. Brenda and I immediately bowed our heads and began to pray that God would take control of this situation and prevent this man from destroying the work that God was doing in the service. About the second minute of our prayer, one of the guys got up and went outside and left the door open, and motioned for the “visitor” from hell to follow him out of the room. He resisted the idea at first, but then with a little bit of encouragement from Nikola, he followed Victor out of the room.

When they went out of the church, Nikola said that we always need to be people who are welcoming to one and all, even those who make us uncomfortable. While my mind agreed with Nikola that this was our biblical position, my emotions were rebelling. Welcoming those who are leering at our young ladies during the service is beyond my current spiritual maturity level. Today, 16 hours later, I can acknowledge that Jesus died for this man too, but frankly he seemed much more under the influence of Satan than a soul searching for God. Victor returned after five minutes or so and said that while the man would not be returning to the service, he was waiting outside near the street and that he was waiting for our girls.

Nikola’s response was much more mature than mine. He reminded us all that we too were and are sinners and that we have experienced the great blessings of God. Our goal and greatest wish should be, must be, for others to experience God in the same manner. Again I mentally agreed fully with Nikola, but my heart wanted to pound this guy into the ground (I have two teenage daughters!). As I have been examining this internal inconsistency within myself, I have been searching to see if there are other areas where I have mental understanding, but lack heart change. I think that each time I do not do what the scriptures say, that this is revealed in me. There are several solutions to this lack of maturity; I can submit my heart, not only my mind to God’s Word, or I can just take those parts out of the bible since I do not plan to obey any way. click here to see the new bible

Clearly this disruption came from the evil one, but God turned it to His purposes as always. We all focused much better after the interruption. And when we finally dismissed, the lunk was gone.

Two languages at once

This is possible . . . in a group . . . not in one person at time. I am currently sitting at 4500 feet elevation at this hotel high up on the mountain, looking out over the mountain ranges to the North with 27 leaders from the Evangelical churches of Macedonia.

These men and women represent all the Evangelical churches in Macedonia. In many ways these 27 people represent the only Light shining into Macedonia, a country of 2 million people, seven major ethnic groups and a 1000 year history of war and hate and ethnic strife. In the local languages here, there is no "after the war" there is only "during the war" or "between the wars."

Marino and I are leading the music here and we are singing mostly in Macedonian, but an occasional song in English (for the sake of the guests that we have visiting from the States). Today Marino and I started with a Macedonian song, and then we followed that with an English song which we also happen to sing locally in Macedonian. About half waythrough the song it was becoming unbearable, because half the total group (50 people) were singing in English and half were singing in Macedonian . . . And it was terribly confusing for me, because the words don't quite match up rhythmically and I started losing my place in the song! Finally I got them to take turns in the song and it worked out in the end.

This confusing of languages is representative of the challenges that we face in every day life. We often try to communicate with people in our lives and ministries, but we speak different languages, even face to face. We don't hear what the other person is saying really. Or we don't understand the underlining message that is often there which is the real communication level. It takes an amazing amount of understanding, or time, or listening to Holy Spirit to get to that level of communication.

Now try to think about this in the spiritual communication arena. The confusing of languages in this area is that two (at least) different world views are at play or in competition. So the unconfusing of language is one of the primary tasks of any missionary or frankly, every child of God.

Getting to the same language and meanings takes alot of coffee and time in this part of the world. You will know what it costs for where you are, but this one thing saves us; that the language of love is pretty much universal.

Freedom?

Date: October 19, 2006 3:22 PM
Topic: Freedom?

I heard this story today. Cindy was a dutiful daughter until the
time her mother died. But then her dad married Cindy’s husband
aunt! Mindy was very close to her dad, and the new mother/aunt was
very threatened by Ciny’s relationship with her father, and began to
undermine their relationship to strengthen her own. In fact the new
mother/aunt finally stated to Cindy, “Hey I have the keys to all your
relationships, and if you don’t give me what I want when I want, I
will take all these relationships away from you.”

Cindy understood that forgiveness was her correct and only response.
So she forgave the offenses, she followed the biblical mandate. But
then new wounds were inflicted over and over, and the forgiveness
happened over and over. This process went on for 15 years! Cindy
learned to become very specific and detailed in her forgiveness. Too
often we are just too general in our forgiveness. OR we just decide
that we will not let it bother us . . . which of course it still
does. But healing in Cindy’s heart could not start, because real
forgiveness was not taking place.

Cindy had experienced God’s forgiveness, so she understood
forgiveness because she had experienced it. But one night Cindy came
to understand that freedom was not coming and she finally decided
that what bothered her the most was that she was trying to please
mother/aunt and of course that never happened. So what bothered her
the most was that her reputation was being destroyed by mother/aunt.
So when Cindy repented of her pride . . . she finally found freedom.
God in fact gave her a love for mother/aunt. But peace finally came
to Cindy, and in that was real true freedom.

To David (me) it seems that true forgiveness cannot occur when only
the offenses are focused upon. It appears that we have to discover
the real underlying hook that keeps us tied to these situations.
Until we deal with the inside stuff on our part, never will the
offenses lose their sting and power. Unforgiveness robs us of
freedom and peace.

I need freedom to love wisely, and I need freedom to release freely.
But without looking inside of me, David will never really forgive,
because I keep holding to how I have been affected. I hope that it
does not take me 15 years like it did Cindy . . . but it might, just
because I am so slow in maturing and growing up. I need to keep
these principles close by, because I am still offendable and thin-
skinned some days. You never outgrow the need to forgive.

Freedom?

Date: October 19, 2006 3:22 PM
Topic: Freedom?

I heard this story today. Cindy was a dutiful daughter until the
time her mother died. But then her dad married Cindy’s husband
aunt! Mindy was very close to her dad, and the new mother/aunt was
very threatened by Cindy’s relationship with her father, and began to
undermine their relationship to strengthen her own. In fact the new
mother/aunt finally stated to Cindy, “Hey I have the keys to all your
relationships, and if you don’t give me what I want when I want, I
will take all these relationships away from you.”

Cindy understood that forgiveness was her correct and only response.
So she forgave the offenses, she followed the biblical mandate. But
then new wounds were inflicted over and over, and the forgiveness
happened over and over. This process went on for 15 years! Cindy
learned to become very specific and detailed in her forgiveness. Too
often we are just too general in our forgiveness. OR we just decide
that we will not let it bother us . . . which of course it still
does. But healing in Cindy’s heart could not start, because real
forgiveness was not taking place.

Cindy had experienced God’s forgiveness, so she understood
forgiveness because she had experienced it. But one night Cindy came
to understand that freedom was not coming and she finally decided
that what bothered her the most was that she was trying to please
mother/aunt and of course that never happened. So what bothered her
the most was that her reputation was being destroyed by mother/aunt.
So when Cindy repented of her pride . . . she finally found freedom.
God in fact gave her a love for mother/aunt. But peace finally came
to Cindy, and in that was real true freedom.

To David (me) it seems that true forgiveness cannot occur when only
the offenses are focused upon. It appears that we have to discover
the real underlying hook that keeps us tied to these situations.
Until we deal with the inside stuff on our part, never will the
offenses lose their sting and power. Unforgiveness robs us of
freedom and peace.

I need freedom to love wisely, and I need freedom to release freely.
But without looking inside of me, David will never really forgive,
because I keep holding to how I have been affected. I hope that it
does not take me 15 years like it did Cindy . . . but it might, just
because I am so slow in maturing and growing up. I need to keep
these principles close by, because I am still offendable and thin-
skinned some days. You never outgrow the need to forgive.

unchosen poverty - living like Jesus?

I know that in the CMA sometimes, missionaries are seen as being way over the edge, the big risk takers, the ones who are willing to try anything. Reality is often something quite different than you would think. Missionaries are inclined to carve out new hideaways for themselves, to protect themselves at an emotional level. I think that the majority of missionaries struggle with this at some level.

Others don’t. Some of my coworkers think we should live like the natives here, and they choose to do so, or at leas they think they do. But I would argue that there is a huge difference between chosen and unchosen poverty. Chosen poverty is when I chose to live like the natives. Unchosen poverty is when I am the native! And there is almost no way out of that kind of poverty. Compared to those caught in unchosen poverty I walk differently, hold my body differently, expect differently, think differently, drive differently, express differently, order my day differently.

For instance, my day today is like this:
6:30 rise and shine
6:30-7:00 devo’s
7:00 - 8:30 prayer and exercise
8:30-9:15 clean and brush
9:30-10:15 breakfast with my lovely
10:30-12:30 leadership training with part of our team
12:30-4:30, email, phone, music, planning, networking, publishing, translating, etc, etc
4:30 -5:30 slupper (lunch/dinner) with my lovely
5:30-6:30 music practice before worship team practice
7:00 - 9:00 Worship team practice/prayer
9:15-10:30 talk to my children-email my children, IM my children, hopefully connect with my children etc, etc
10:45 to bed

Now this is a pretty typical day for me, and looking back on this day, it felt far more intense than it looks on paper ☺ What I see about my schedule is that I have far more freedom and independence than do those who live in unchosen poverty. Someone said, “Because individualism is based on the first sin, independence (people craving to be independent from God, longing to be in control). This pursuit defines Western culture, the pervasive quest to manage our environment, control our world through technology, eliminate surprises and predict every eventuality.“

So is chosen poverty or unchosen poverty living like Jesus? I don’t really know, but I think the question is far more complicated than it looks at the surface. Someone said, that both wealth and poverty are impostors. I believe he meant that both require the same from us as individuals - pursuit of God is competing with everyday life no matter where you are on the poverty/wealth scale. But most of us chose the temptation of wealth over poverty. Me too, and I still am undecided if that is good or not.

marginalized and admired

The stock market of religious organizations is far more volatile than the financial markets. John Maxwell referred to this as “pocket change” but to me it has always been much more like a stock market, except in this case, we are talking about political stock, not financial ones. Maxwell said that good leadership brings more pocket change to the leader, and I would agree with him at the local church level. But at the organizational level, Maxwell himself was both marginalized and admired by his parent organization.

This marginalization and admiration by those who manage the systems of an organizations is what I call the political stock market. In my 20 years with the CMA I think I have probably seen the bottom of that scale more than most and I have even seen the top a few times. But I spend the great majority of my time split - split between where I am being measured by those who manage the systems and then where I am assessed by those who are sitting in the pews so to speak. According to Olive Drane and others, leaders are always “both marginalized and admired by those who manage the systems.” You could get a complex from being one of these political footballs.

After 20 years of up and down the CMA political stock market (high being I can do no wrong and low meaning I can do no right) my goal is no longer (and probably never should have been) to be “high” on the political stock market. My goal is how to live with the reality that leaders and those who ask hard questions are always going to be both marginalized and admired by those who manage the systems, and at the same time find new ways to stay fully integrated in the CMA.

We are in the middle of a huge cultural rift and our mandate is to reach this changing world, not remain what we think was our glorious past.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to foment revolution, but rather freedom and creativity and entrepreneurship and insight. Nor am I talking about relevance here. Hey, when you have love and hate, war and peace, sacrifice and cosmic struggle, the Bible is plenty relevant already. No the Ancient Text just needs to be set free in the modern world, the story doesn’t change, but the setting certainly has. So I long for an organization that majors on the majors, that doesn’t fear the seismic shifts going on the world, but rather sees them as opportunities. I long for an organization that is confident enough to take risks with leaders and not marginalize them when they fail, but admire them for trying. I long for an organization that doesn’t trivialize holiness by making rules all the time, sets women free like Jesus did, and doesn’t admire numbers (people and dollars) so much more than substance. I long for an organization that is strong enough to venture out to the cultural edge!

And in that sense, I reckon the CMA is just about perfect, because they let people like me stay on the team, although they often don’t know what to do with me. No worries, my mother didn’t either.

WWJD - what would Jesus drive?

I was reading Phil Steiner’s blog today and he is thinking about getting a Citroen in China, but actually he is currently enjoying the great freedom of NOT having a car. I occasionally drive a Peugeot . . . are the French taking over the world’s car production?? What a scary thought! What Would Jesus Drive, that is what WWJD stands for in my mind. For those of you who think that WWJD is a recent phenomena I hate to burst your bubble, but Charles Sheldon coined that phrase over a 100 years ago. And for another pin-prick into your evangelical bubble, Sheldon asks the question what would Jesus do in the context of the social gospel, e.g. taking care of people’s physical needs with the same urgency that we care about their spiritual needs. Whoa Nellie! Who let that liberal in all our churches?? WWJD indeed.

I think maybe we should also ask WWJE - what would Jesus eat? But that can be a blog for another day. Sheldon would certainly ask this question today - what would Jesus drive? - were he writing his famous book, In His Steps in 2006 rather than 1896. Because what Jesus drove would pretty much tell you all you needed to know about Jesus. Wouldn’t it? Perhaps the question would really be, would Jesus drive?

According to Commute Solutions if you drive your car 11,200 miles per year, then the actual cost of your driving per year is $13,350.40! That is the cost of driving one car in the USA one year that many miles. That astronomical figure is higher than the annual personal income of individuals in 142 of the 182 countries listed on the Wikipedia nominal per capita income website click here. So we have to ask once again, would Jesus drive, not just What Would Jesus Drive?

I am maudlin in my thoughts today . . . having a rare non-people day . . . trying to catch my breath before diving back into the tornado of ministry tomorrow, so forgive me if I become a bit sappy and syrupy as a result of my emotional overload from this past month of work in the hairy armpit. What we choose to drive ( if we choose to drive) states our values in the most public way. I believe Jesus may not be a Chevrolet fan over Fords, but I am confident that He is interested in the values behind what we drive. What we drive shows what we care about most.

The deeper I get into this blog the less I want to spell out where I am going, but let this suffice. When we were last on home assignment, two plus years ago, our family discovered that how far we were willing to walk or bike was far far different than our neighbors. We think little of walking a mile round-trip to get bread for lunch. We do not blink at walking a three mile round trip to go to church. Mind you this does not make us holy, not in the least . . . but it does say that most of us could restructure our lives and drive less . . . to have more resources to address the overwhelming needs in the world.

I think my diagnosis for this one is that Jesus would get a bike. In light of world hunger and poverty (if you are reading this blog you haven’t had too much personal experience with hunger or poverty since you have access to a computer), a car is just too much of a luxury. A bike has zero cool factor, and is a witch of a ride in inclement weather, but the cost per year can’t be beat. I think Jesus would get a bike and use because He would live out 1 Timothy 6:8 everyday.

This is not a criticism of having cars, but rather a challenge to hold them lightly, consider getting rid of them (you will love what this does to your finances) and make sure I am driving no more than necessary. Now WWJE?

French imposters

He held up a sign written in English, “I am Bosnian, I have no money” in Paris, (France, not Texas) standing in front of the Eiffel Tower. So my son walks over to him and starts speaking one our Slavic languages to him -- the man cannot understand a single word Jake is saying. Turns out that the man is French, hitting up on English speaking tourists by impersonating a Bosnian refugee! I was howling as I read Jake’s email about his recent trip to Normandy.

While that story was funny, I can find that I am an impostor sometimes too. I have been convicted this week as I have mulled over the last verse of James chapter one . . . about true religion, or spirituality, that of being there for orphans and widows in their tough moments. The problem is that all their moments are tough! Widows and orphans are inherently long term projects and I am the most mobile of people . . . long term projects don’t fit into my life, I can’t make that kind of a commitment, I am not in one place long enough to follow through with one of these long term projects . . .can I think of any more excuses?

There are excuses and then there are reasons . . . and I have a tough time figuring out when I am doing one versus the other. Reasons and excuses aside, the biblical mandate seems awfully clear and un-negotiable. Is this a simple obey or disobey gig? I don’t know for sure, though I had better figure out what position I am going to take on Sunday morning when I stand up and preach. I do know this, the vast majority of us, me included, don’t do anything with/for/to orphans or widows. (I wonder if widowers fit into this category as well?) And I have a feeling I already know what the Lord thinks about that.

the dirty old man next door - part two

When he kissed me today I knew there was trouble afoot. My dirty old man neighbor, if you remember my previous blog click here about Uncle Lybe, he came hobbling down the street after my car as fast as he could move with his cane. I got out of the car and he almost collapsed into my arms and kissed me on the cheek. This left me a little apprehensive since we are friends, but hugs and kisses between men are rare. In a broken voice he told me that his wife had died. I didn’t know his wife was still alive! I mean Uncle Lybe lives with his daughter so clearly he had a wife in the past, but since they never talked about her, I had no idea that until now she was in the hospital (for the last year) and had just died.

We don’t have funeral homes and all the shenanigans that you do in North America . . . folks are buried right away here or at the very latest the following day. So they had already buried her and I did not have any idea. Uncle Lybe was still clearly shaken and was holding on to me tightly. He said in the most pitiful voice you can imagine, “My friend, would you come to my house and share a drink with me in her honor?” I hate to tell you this, but I hesitated. I hesitated for all the wrong reasons.

I hesitated because I was pretty sure Uncle Lybe and his daughter were atheists or nearly so - thus a conversation about the dead wife/mother could only go one bad direction. I hesitated because the traditions concerning the dead here are a vicious cycle of burden to the remaining family members and I did not want to add to that burden. I hesitated (now it gets really bad) because I have so much work that has to be completed . . . it defies belief . . . this is super-crunch time and this week has only been one interruption after another after another after another (and I am not overly interruptable to begin with). I finally I hesitated because I am a jerk! and who knows how long this might take?

That is a terrible admission, but I agreed to go, thinking finally that I just as well get on the boat back to Georgia and become a farmer otherwise. If you don’t have time for a pagan when his wife has just died, then just go back to wherever you came from . . . cause you sure enough ain’t much use here. So with that bit of fortifying rationale behind me I squared my shoulders and said, “Of course I will come to your house with you.”

When we got there, his 55ish year old daughter gave me a hug. Yikes! This is even more unusual than the old man giving me a hug and a kiss!! Now since I am roughly the shape and size of a full grown Pillsbury Dough Boy, I am highly huggable, but this was off the map wild culturally. I mean I am only a neighbor, and a foreigner to boot . . . we don’t get many hugs around here. And so we sat down and cried a bit and talked about the “house woman” as they affectionately called her. We drank some of her finest in honor of her. We ate some grapes from the vines she had planted in honor of her . . . and then the questions started. . .

“What are your traditions in the States?” (please remember that these people have a cold heartless dislike for the USA) So it was kind fun making light of some of our horrible traditions concerning the dead . . . so they were properly mortified when I told them that we drain the blood out of our dead and we then we pump them full of formaldehyde so that we can look at them for the next three days or so . . . I thus completely restored their faith in the Macedonian “you call, we haul” form of burying folks here. Americans are truly barbarians, and I first of all.

But then we got to the interesting (and hard) questions. “Does a person have a soul?” This question is super loaded because of their near atheistic beliefs . . . I decided to go straight and hard rather than dance . . . “I believe a person has an eternal element within them, a soul a spirit, call it what you may, and that this part of each one of us stands before God at some point and gives an answer for their life, how it was used and spend or wasted.” Their response was, “you are serious, aren’t you?” And my answer was “more than you can possibly believe, life has zero meaning if there is no God and no next life.” It was quiet for a long long moment . . . and then they took the questioning in a safer direction . . . “so you believe in reincarnation.” and on and on it went.

On the way home I was reviewing this whole affair and once again realized that I can’t save anyone and that only Holy Spirit can draw them to the King. But at least I know I am pretty high on their list of friends. Who knows were this will go? We can only pray that their hearts will open enough to hear the gospel - that ever so good news.

conforming and performing

Our conforming and performing element within the CMA prevent this CMA blog site from functioning as a healthy blog connection. And I am most likely going to get mangled for what I am going to say, but that is what blogging is really about - like Tim Crouch once told me, I am a political idiot. (My apologies to those who read my daily blog directly at my blogspot site, rather than through the CMA e-community. Some of this will make no sense to you at all, but the principles still rock if you want to read on).

So here goes . . . Blogs are web logs and most people put bloggers (web log users) into at least three categories: Personal, Business and Organizational. The stated purpose or definition of a blog (as found on the CMA website) is “an online journal of personal thought and commentary.” We connect to one another in this fashion, and we create new “tribes” to use a Doug Coupland’s term. I read certain blogs because those people challenge me, encourage me, spank me or any other 100 me’s. I am generally more into thought-provoking blogs rather than devotional varieties and those are the one’s I tend to gravitate toward. But the blog is my thoughts or views on a particular occurrence, event, subject or idea. It in no way represents the CMA official position, trend, thought, perspective or ignorance. Its just David talking, out loud in a fashion . . . making public my private thoughts. You are not required to read my blog. In fact you are encouraged NOT to read my blog if doing so raises your blood pressure, or makes you feel like you need to make certain that I color (play, draw) within the CMA lines . . . or if you wish to trivialize holiness by making rules that cannot bear the weight of scripture. Read someone else’s blog my friend. This is MY diagnosis, if you disagree (and please feel free to do so, as often as you like) then leave a comment so that everyone can see you disagree, don’t snipe privately via email. If your comment may cause someone’s blood pressure to rise, perhaps you should just write a blog about it :-)

One recent critic, suggested that were not my blog linked to the CMA’s e-community here, that then my blog would be OK and I could be as outrageous as I chose to be on any given bad hair day. Hmmmmmm. Do my views sometimes contrast with stated CMA policy? Clearly they do. Should I state in a blog that I have a different point of view? Not if I want to be well thought of by certain individuals who want to have a smooth sailing ship (read, no waves Aderholdt). But now we have gone from prudence to just plain old dishonesty. If you agree with every single tiny thing that an organization as huge and as diverse as this one does, then you are a robot, not a homo sapien. I know some in the CMA who will not dare write what they really think, because of the censure of their CMA peers. I know people who have told me that they worry about the security of their jobs were they to write what they really think and as often as they think it! And I know people in the CMA who will immediately doubt that I am speaking truth, because I have chosen to protect those who said these things to me (remember when I challenged you about an issue while riding to a hotel on the mountain, and you said “I don’t believe you!). But that is OK, you don’t have to believe me nor do you have to read this blog. That is the beautiful awesome postmodern ultimate pick-n-mix side of the internet, you are not required to read my blog.

We generally believe people who conform and perform in life to be insecure, but why do we want this in our denomination? I mean my own daughter told me to ”go jump in a swimming pool Dad“ left as a comment on one of my blogs this week. I am so proud of her, because she can think for herself. She thought I was full of it, and politely and humorously told me so. That’s good, not bad. That means I raised an adult, not an insecure conformist who must be told what to think.

The primary challenge to blogging here in this forum is that many of us gain our livelihood from the CMA in some fashion or another . . . so . . . are we so insecure as an organization that we need to fear for our livelihoods? Whatever happened to the official line that we ”embrace those who challenge us and who are entrepreneurial.“? Folks our greatest strength is our diversity (not our sameness) and how we each are pursuing God and seeking to accomplish the Mission together, but also as individuals who think, feel and believe differently than one another, yet have a common purpose - to fill heaven completely full.

artificial garbage

That is literally what it is called here. We certainly need more of it in the church and in our thinking. I am suggesting that we need to cultivate artificial garbage into the churches activities! Artificial garbage is critical for growth and health! Artificial garbage is what they call fertilizer here :-)

There is nothing needing fertilizer more than the church. Unfortunately we cannot just crank up a mulcher and chop up leaves and banana peels and have the church grow. No, we need Holy Spirit as never before, especially to combat what Ritzer calls the “McDonalization” of the world. While the business world wants everyone to experience the American culture of jeans, T-shirts, Reeboks and junk food - thus the “McDonaldization”, this is a death knell for the church.

It is always amazing to me how people who spend 1000’s of dollars to come a visit here, invariably want to go to our local McDonalds. Mind you, our McDonalds is far superior to the grease-pit experience you would have in most North American MCD’s, it still is just a burger and a fry in the end. No, I am starting to believe that they want the known rather than an actual burger and fry. That is actually what McDonalds is marketing around the world - a stable experience no matter where you are in the world. And let me tell you, when you are desperate for a bathroom, you know you can always find a reasonably clean one in . . . well, McDonalds of course.

But this McDonaldization in the church is deadly, literally. Today I had a conversation with the National Church President here that I have waited eight years to have . . . he told me . . . finally . . . we need a Macedonian expression of the Gospel here . . . that the Americanization (read McDonaldization) of the gospel around the world is, he believes, actually preventing most people from even considering the gospel in any serious manner. It becomes just another idea import, rather than being the same gospel that was first preached in the world right here 2000 years ago!!

Our president is right on the mark. It opened the door for a frank assessment of what might need to change in order for a movement of people toward God to happen here . . . for thousands to come to Christ, rather one here and one there . . . occasionally. Artificial garbage is needed everywhere, but nowhere more than here.

liquid modernity

She was one of the most famous persons that lived in the 20th century. Practically every person alive today knows who she is . . . her given name was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu and she was born about 4 miles from where I am sitting writing this blog. She may have had a greater impact on the world than anyone in recent memory. She was known to the world as Mother Teresa.

For 60 years she produced. In one of the toughest places in the world, and among some of the neediest people in the world. She is one of the best solid, production-oriented people in ministry. She represents modernity at it’s best. Liquid Modernity on the other hand, describes the shift away from that, to ultimate individualism, flexible-morals-theology-truth-reality existence that the world is today. Talk about values in contrast!

I know what the church looked like with a Mother Teresa, but what does it look like with liquid modernity? How does the church operate, grow, function in an unstable world, an “impermanent” world? Nothing is stable any longer, not your work, job, home, family, these formerly stable items, are now in a constant state of flux. No one here even uses landline telephones anymore, cell phones have completely taken over (and I hate the darn little thing . . . I can’t ever get away from it!), everything is mobile, my computer, PDA, phone, LIFE! This generation values “speed, innovation and independence” in comparison to structure, production and teamwork.

So what is church, in a speed-innovation-independence framework? How does the Ancient Text marry the contemporary setting? These are super critical questions as I seek to minister to a congregation which is already a mix of 13 denominations and at least five different nationalities, just after the first week! And of course everyone has an idea of what this congregation should look like and be like . . . and none of them agree . . . so what does the church look like in a liquid modern culture? A liquid church?

God doesn't sell well

God as a product does not work. We present God as a product and He isn’t. We sell that God loves us and thus He must want what we want. This merchandising of God has invaded the entire church. Advertising is about image far more than content. The advertising agency wants you to use their brands and to be committed to their brands. And thus they all try to convince me that if I chew a certain chewing gum, that I will be thin, handsome and that pretty girls will be attracted to me. That is so not real. That is so much an advertising campaign. We do this with God all the time.

We polish up God and try to make Him all kinds of things that He isn’t. God isn’t into happiness for instance, but much of the talk I hear and read in Christian circles makes me think that God is fairly consumed with my happiness quotient, much as I am. God isn’t into materialism like we say He is . . . in fact He was pretty hard on the rich in general throughout most of Scripture. God isn’t into investing in people to get more out of them (but He is interested in them as a person). God isn’t overly interested in human physical health like we are . . . I mean what is a puny 80 years in a worn-out physical body compared to eternity? I actually do not think we believe in eternity too much either, but that subject will probably be its own blog eventually . We spend incredible resources in keeping our physical bodies as pain-free as possible, and alive as long as possible. Like I said, I don’t think God is concerned about these things. These are not the themes in Scripture.

It seems much more honest if we would stick with the biblical themes rather than the cultural obsessions. We should ask God to Father us, not give us what we want (I think Miller said it this way). Then I think God would be as responsive as any father worth his weight in salt would be. I am a very responsive father, yet compared to God, I am a terrible father. While my three teenagers think I am a “way cool daddio” (to quote one of them), I am not in the same league as God. “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”

Now that is a God we don’t have to sell.

metrosexual

Forget the Marlboro Man and the Macho Man, these days it is the Metrosexual Man. He (Mr Metrosexual) is not defined by his sexual orientation, but rather he spends an inordinate amount of money, time and attention on his looks . . . and style. Mark Simpson calls this form of masculinity “mediated masculinity” e.g. narcissism. Today the subject came up at meeting . . . metrosexualism . . . and I have to admit that I had NO idea whatsoever about what they were talking about. This blog is not about metrosexuals, its about communication.

Communication is a dastardly tricky icky sticky cultural challenge. There are literally thousands of generational-specific subtle nuances in language. My parents were definitely the Mayberry-Lawerence Welk variety. I am much more the Hotel California/Life in the Fast Lane -Sanford and Son/The Six Million Dollar Man variety. My children have no idea what I am talking about with any of the above information (apart from the Eagles). So I spent myself recklessly today attempting to coach a group of people that I am organizing to become a Preaching Team. The challenge is in explaining to a diverse group of potential preachers, the difficulty of communicating to a much more diverse congregation of attenders, the eternal Truth of God’s Word.

My co-worker Mark appropriately warned the preaching team not to get locked into their Americanism, because many people coming to the English service are not Americans. I don’t think my group of potential preachers are taking Mark’s challenge very seriously. Thankfully this metrosexual thing came up and I was able to confess to my complete ignorance, but also show them that even I as an American was not aware, or in the loop on this metrosexual language.

Communicating scriptural truth is seen as a high and significant calling in the CMA, and today I was thrilled to be in our camp. That is not my experience every day, but it certainly was today. I was pleased beyond words to see the differences in our personnel. I was so happy to see that our people are far better trained than many of the folks from other organizations. I even met one guy this week who told me he had purchased his ordination! While I am no big fan of ordination as a concept, I was flabbergasted that you could buy it! Don’t worry, I did not invite that guy into our preaching team . . .but I might in the future. Communication is a life long learning experience, but in the end, if God don’t show up, ain’t nothing going to happen anyways.

I swallowed a bug!

If you happen to be inhaling at the moment when the bug is entering your mouth, that is the absolute worse, because they get stuck in your pharynx (more technically the laryngopharynx). That is that little tube beyond the back of your throat that leads to your lungs and it is that soft sticky tube where bugs love to get stuck. This one got stuck.

When this type of bug encounter happens, you don’t know if you need to hurl, or sneeze, or cough, or blow yourself up, and your body threatens to do all four at the same time. The real problem is that I am on a bicycle, clamped to the pedals, moving at 17 miles an hour, so doing any of the above is super challenging. So I spend the next 15 miles trying to dislodge this insect from behind my epiglottis, but seems to have locked it’s toenails in really deep and thus I have this nearly impossible-to-resist urge to claw my throat out and eject this bug . . . I almost crashed the bike about 14 times as I attempted to remove this intruder who was so unwilling to go.

I finally got him/her out . . . or in . . . I am not really sure. Either I finally spit him out or swallowed him completely, but eventually I no longer felt him crawling around in there. But he certainly got me to thinking and he certainly got my attention.

I have already described the attention side . . . so what about the thinking side? Well, this bug problem reminds me of the passage in James 1, where when the lusts of our hearts creates a temptation, and when lust has conceived it gives birth to sin, and when sin is accomplished it brings forth death. The tenacity of the lust - sin - death cycle is just like a bug flying down your throat as you are sailing along on your bike. First of all it is sudden. You are happily sailing along when WHAM! One of these flying critters is squeezing past your ivories and heading for the soft tissues. Second of all it immediately latches on. It digs it’s toenails in deep and does not want to leave. My bug was certainly latched on to me. Thirdly comes death in some form. Either the bug dies or I do. Either the temptation is killed or it delivers it’s sin-sting and results in my death.

I think I need a netting covering my face while sailing along on my bike here, just like I need the full armor of God to protect me spiritually as I sail through life.

Identity garments

Inside the malls of America, we can find contemporary culture defined. You can choose to be cool. You can choose to be Republican. You can choose to be wild. You can choose to be a Democrat. You can choose to be subdued. You can choose to be conservative. You can choose to be sexy. You can choose to be gothic. You can choose to be s8rboi (or girl). You can choose to be bold. You can choose to be an iZod or Docker poster child, and on and on I could obviously go. We become billboards for the fashion world and we make a statement, or better said - we define ourselves with our garment choices. There are labels on our all of our clothes. You cannot find a single piece of clothing in your closet that does not have a label, unless you made it yourself! You are labeled! You wear identity garments! This is where malls in America give us the option of choosing a pre-set group of clothing, whereby we can choose our identity. This identity that we will choose will be a life-style choice that we make.

Steve Taylor comments that . . . “you pick and mix your lifestyle” at the mall. He continues on and points out that the “selection is not as individual as it sounds. The choices are still pre-selected by powers outside of our control.” In the christian organizational world, we have identity garments as well. The CMA is wonderfully relaxed about an actual dress code (Thank you Jesus!) but we have other identifiers. But in the world that I grew up in as a kid, a pastor could never, ever, ever wear shorts for instance. He could not preach without a tie (do I even own a tie?). In the world I grew up in, we added to the bible all the time. Communion for instance. We decided that Jesus turned the water into grape juice and that now we were supposed to use grape juice in communion. No serious biblical scholar in the world holds that position, but I’ll be a monkey’s uncle (is that too evolutionary for you?) if we don’t all use grape juice in communion! (Only in North America I think . . . here we use wine, which of course we aren’t suppose to drink) What is wrong with us? Why has the temperance movement of the early 1800’s still having such an influence in our churches today? I think it simply became one of the identity garments for religious folks. It has no biblical basis. You think I am having a fantasy about religious garments? Oh no, my African-born wife will tell you that it is not permissible for an African pastor to preach without a suit! (Hopefully this is changing since my wife was a kid there). And we have our religious identity garments in the CMA too.

All of this brought me around to the place where I am doing some soul searching and trying to see which identity garments I am wearing; clothes or religiosity. Where I have added to the scriptures in my life? Why do denominations have rules about holiness? Doesn’t making a rule, automatically nullify any possible element of holiness about the proposed action or behavior? Isn’t holiness something that springs from the heart, not a set of things I don’t do? (1 Samuel 16:7?) It seems to me if we are legislating holiness (which then could only be the appearance of holiness), then we surely must have an adolescent clergy. Because no one frequents the malls and purchases their identity garments more than teens.

The distraction of life

I the reason I wrote this blog is because the darn lady behind the counter keeps getting distracted with other customers and she won’t finish my transaction and I have so much I need to be doing and I am impatient and arrogant and in a hurry. And let’s be frank, I was here FIRST! But she is just cluelessly distracted and flits from one customer to the next; I guess thinking that she is keeping us all happy with her sometime attentions. I started thinking that most of life was just one big distraction, but there are all kinds of levels of distractions.

The first REAL distraction in life is this big one; how long it takes to live. This is a biggie, depending on where you live in the world. For instance, living in Russia took a good half of every day. Friends of ours in Africa tell us it still takes half of every day just to live, to gather food, to prepare it, to travel to work and back etc, etc. Here in Macedonia, it takes longer to live than it does in American, but less time than it did in Russia.

The second issue of the distraction of life is how much you expect to get accomplished in an hour, in a day etc, etc. The more you expect to get accomplished and how much you actually can, seems to me to be a center pin of how successful you view your cruise through life. I long ago scaled back in a very significant way, how much I expect to actually get accomplished per day on this side of the ocean. It is the only way to not scream in frustration. Today was a PERFECT example. We arrived with our Short Term Team at the church, and was told by the pastor that in 15 minutes, at the maximum, he would be ready to go to the property with us. That was doable since we had an appointment in another city at a certain time that we needed to leave toward.

One hour and 20 minutes later, we were getting under way. Ten years ago I would have been pacing and steaming. Today I sat down in a chair and promptly fell asleep. Now personally I think that was a healthy way to handle a distraction of life that is beyond my ability to control. On the other hand, the way I was feeling in the first paragraph above was fairly unhealthy. What was the difference? I think the difference between today and Saturday was perspective. It is the same thing James is talking about in chapter one, you know asking for wisdom and God giving it generously . . . and I need to ask every day and clearly there are days that I don’t remember to ask. But I need that perspective . . . to put the moment into the eternal . . . and then the proper action becomes clear.