Saturday, February 4, 2012
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Bangladesh Mission Trip 2012
How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news! Romans 10:15 NLT
A and M A are the EFM National Leaders in Bangladesh. They've been working with EFM since 2005. They are such effective, wise, and powerful leaders, and are carefully and patiently leading an indigenous Friends Church planting movement in Bangladesh. Albert says one of his goals is to one day have a Friends Church in every one of the 64 provinces of Bangladesh. Albert and Metali continue to impress and challenge me with their radical commitment to the gospel and ministry of Jesus Christ. They are so, so faithful to the ministry God has called them to and live out faithfully the disturbing words of Jesus in Luke 14:26-27 & 33 so well!
The 2012 prayer, encouragement, and exposure mission trip to Bangladesh was a great success! Team members consisted of Kevin Johnson (Crossroads Worship Leader), Lisa Leslie (Crossroads Elder and Mission Team Leader), Matt Macy, myself, and Dana Quigley, all from Crossroads. This is Crossroads 5th annual trip and my 4th> to be a part of. I believe this trip may have been one that will have some of the greatest impact on me, my teammates who went, and on my church (and hopefully even Mid America as well).
There are so many new Christians and new churches popping up and so many new ministry sites where new Christians are taking the gospel to new places. With only a few exceptions, in my four trips to Bangladesh, we have visited new sites (whether churches or ‘preaching points’ or ministry outreach sites) almost every time. This shows how fast the church is growing and how quickly new disciples are making new disciples.
On this trip, we very intentionally continued our deep friendship between the Bangladesh mission and Crossroads Friends. We presented our greetings and gifts (pictures and other tokens of love and reminders of our care as a church). The Bangladesh Christians send back their greetings! We also were able to hand-deliver greeting cards handmade by Crossroads Kids, church people and especially meaningful were the cards from Crossroads Friends Women.
Our ministry consisted of Bible teachings, impromptu messages of encouragement and discipleship to people who are new Christians or who are newly exploring the Christian faith and know almost nothing about the Bible. We visited a dozen different villages, some with newly baptized Christians and some that are preaching points where the gospel was newly being shared. In every occasion, our ministry of presence and our words of testimony were an important encouragement to the Bangladeshi believers, many of whom have endured significant persecution for making their important decision to follow Christ. Each group we visited offered us very kind hospitality (tea and a snack, like fruit from a nearby tree and crackers) and was very eager to hear our words, demonstrating a spiritual hunger and desire to learn and grow.
Other Trip Highlights:
The Beautiful Women’s Movement that was born in the Fall 2011 women’s retreat has been having a powerful impact on us and some very practical implications for our family and church, and possibly even some other areas in the Friends Church. We are thinking about how to apply it to Crossroads, probably calling it the Beautiful Feet Movement, based on Romans 10 passage which states, “beautiful are the feet that take the good news.” Disciples make disciples and have beautiful feet that serve and sacrifice for others.
We washed feet on our last morning and it was quite the experience. We washed the feet of Kanok, the persecuted Christian and Depali, the hero apostolic gospel-preaching woman worker, and of course A/M as well as our team. And they also washed our feet. And the most moving thing to me was that they washed each other’s feet, with much weeping, and they just kept doing it over and over. It was a sort of commissioning as we consider feet washing to commission more at Crossroads to live as sent people.
Albert challenged us with the clarity of his passion and strategy that he is called not to be in the office but to be “in the field”. They had ministry months in November and December, which means they said no to everything except taking the gospel to people. They produced great fruit because of that focus. We are so challenged by this and realize it speaks to our condition at Crossroads…less ‘office work’ and less ‘in the church walls’ work and more getting into the neighborhood and entering people’s lives.
We enjoyed riding in the EFM car that we raised the money for. It was perfect size for 7 and sometimes 8 of us. So it was different this year not riding public transportation as much.
We did not stay in the hotel down in Khulna, as we have done every year in the past, but rather stayed in A and M's home, which they were so afraid of because they don’t have hot water or soft beds or toilets (just squatties) or even a door on the bedroom us guys stayed in, but it ended up being a great blessing to us. We had such a wonderful time of fellowship with them over the three nights there. The meals and time with them was invaluable. Some of the best conversations were during morning and night times that we wouldn’t have been present for if we had gone back to the hotel.
Our small missionary team was such that we were on maximum silliness much of the time, so we were plenty goofy and laughed plenty hard. Kevin Johnson was a tremendous blessing and so smoothly and easily participated in the ministry and interactions with people/kids (his first mission trip). Dana Quigley’s ministry of presence was super good and her gifting in offering very timely words of encouragement was a blessing. Lisa Leslie, aka “missionary Lisa”, has that chemistry that even when in a totally cross-cultural environment, puts people at ease with her smile. Thanks for your faithfulness to send, support, and pray. Personally I am grateful and I believe whole-heartedly that the Church is blessed and advanced because of it!
Adam Monaghan
Link to Kevin Johnson's blog report: http://kevinjohnsonhasablog.blogspot.com/2012/02/bangladesh-2012-trip-report.html?spref=fb.
From Lisa Leslie: trip was amazing... told cal that i didn't want to come home, just wished he could get on a plane with the kids and meet me there. my heart has melted for these people who so want and need the good news. i'm anxious ...to be back with them. i know it's God because it was not an easy vacation of a trip! so many crazy things that i would almost always shrink from...food, squatties, buses/trucks/bikes/motorbikes/ricksaws coming at you at unknown speeds with really no traffic laws, people staring all the time, etc... so many good things and watching God work makes all of that seem like nothing. they are church planting fools! taking the good news to hindus and muslims like crazy. there is lots of persecution, so when they accept Jesus, it's no walk in the park easy thing. we live like kings and can choose to act like a christian or not, eat whatever we want whenever we want, buy whatever we want, move to another part of the country at a whim, be wasteful, etc... my life has been changed for the better. i want to have the "beautiful feet who bring the good news." but how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? and how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? and how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? and how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? as those who love Jesus, we are all sent out. who are you sent to?
From Matt Macy: We are addicted to hanging out with the unreached peoples that God desperately pursues, telling the beautiful story of Good News, and becoming better disciples of Christ while rubbing shoulders with the persecuted church.
As they traveled from town to town…the churches were strengthened in the faith…they met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them...Then they left Acts 16:4-5
Out life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work of telling others the Good News about God’s mighty kindness and love. Acts 20:24
When he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. Acts 11:23
A and M A are the EFM National Leaders in Bangladesh. They've been working with EFM since 2005. They are such effective, wise, and powerful leaders, and are carefully and patiently leading an indigenous Friends Church planting movement in Bangladesh. Albert says one of his goals is to one day have a Friends Church in every one of the 64 provinces of Bangladesh. Albert and Metali continue to impress and challenge me with their radical commitment to the gospel and ministry of Jesus Christ. They are so, so faithful to the ministry God has called them to and live out faithfully the disturbing words of Jesus in Luke 14:26-27 & 33 so well!
The 2012 prayer, encouragement, and exposure mission trip to Bangladesh was a great success! Team members consisted of Kevin Johnson (Crossroads Worship Leader), Lisa Leslie (Crossroads Elder and Mission Team Leader), Matt Macy, myself, and Dana Quigley, all from Crossroads. This is Crossroads 5th annual trip and my 4th> to be a part of. I believe this trip may have been one that will have some of the greatest impact on me, my teammates who went, and on my church (and hopefully even Mid America as well).
There are so many new Christians and new churches popping up and so many new ministry sites where new Christians are taking the gospel to new places. With only a few exceptions, in my four trips to Bangladesh, we have visited new sites (whether churches or ‘preaching points’ or ministry outreach sites) almost every time. This shows how fast the church is growing and how quickly new disciples are making new disciples.
On this trip, we very intentionally continued our deep friendship between the Bangladesh mission and Crossroads Friends. We presented our greetings and gifts (pictures and other tokens of love and reminders of our care as a church). The Bangladesh Christians send back their greetings! We also were able to hand-deliver greeting cards handmade by Crossroads Kids, church people and especially meaningful were the cards from Crossroads Friends Women.
Our ministry consisted of Bible teachings, impromptu messages of encouragement and discipleship to people who are new Christians or who are newly exploring the Christian faith and know almost nothing about the Bible. We visited a dozen different villages, some with newly baptized Christians and some that are preaching points where the gospel was newly being shared. In every occasion, our ministry of presence and our words of testimony were an important encouragement to the Bangladeshi believers, many of whom have endured significant persecution for making their important decision to follow Christ. Each group we visited offered us very kind hospitality (tea and a snack, like fruit from a nearby tree and crackers) and was very eager to hear our words, demonstrating a spiritual hunger and desire to learn and grow.
Other Trip Highlights:
The Beautiful Women’s Movement that was born in the Fall 2011 women’s retreat has been having a powerful impact on us and some very practical implications for our family and church, and possibly even some other areas in the Friends Church. We are thinking about how to apply it to Crossroads, probably calling it the Beautiful Feet Movement, based on Romans 10 passage which states, “beautiful are the feet that take the good news.” Disciples make disciples and have beautiful feet that serve and sacrifice for others.
We washed feet on our last morning and it was quite the experience. We washed the feet of Kanok, the persecuted Christian and Depali, the hero apostolic gospel-preaching woman worker, and of course A/M as well as our team. And they also washed our feet. And the most moving thing to me was that they washed each other’s feet, with much weeping, and they just kept doing it over and over. It was a sort of commissioning as we consider feet washing to commission more at Crossroads to live as sent people.
Albert challenged us with the clarity of his passion and strategy that he is called not to be in the office but to be “in the field”. They had ministry months in November and December, which means they said no to everything except taking the gospel to people. They produced great fruit because of that focus. We are so challenged by this and realize it speaks to our condition at Crossroads…less ‘office work’ and less ‘in the church walls’ work and more getting into the neighborhood and entering people’s lives.
We enjoyed riding in the EFM car that we raised the money for. It was perfect size for 7 and sometimes 8 of us. So it was different this year not riding public transportation as much.
We did not stay in the hotel down in Khulna, as we have done every year in the past, but rather stayed in A and M's home, which they were so afraid of because they don’t have hot water or soft beds or toilets (just squatties) or even a door on the bedroom us guys stayed in, but it ended up being a great blessing to us. We had such a wonderful time of fellowship with them over the three nights there. The meals and time with them was invaluable. Some of the best conversations were during morning and night times that we wouldn’t have been present for if we had gone back to the hotel.
Our small missionary team was such that we were on maximum silliness much of the time, so we were plenty goofy and laughed plenty hard. Kevin Johnson was a tremendous blessing and so smoothly and easily participated in the ministry and interactions with people/kids (his first mission trip). Dana Quigley’s ministry of presence was super good and her gifting in offering very timely words of encouragement was a blessing. Lisa Leslie, aka “missionary Lisa”, has that chemistry that even when in a totally cross-cultural environment, puts people at ease with her smile. Thanks for your faithfulness to send, support, and pray. Personally I am grateful and I believe whole-heartedly that the Church is blessed and advanced because of it!
Adam Monaghan
Link to Kevin Johnson's blog report: http://kevinjohnsonhasablog.blogspot.com/2012/02/bangladesh-2012-trip-report.html?spref=fb.
From Lisa Leslie: trip was amazing... told cal that i didn't want to come home, just wished he could get on a plane with the kids and meet me there. my heart has melted for these people who so want and need the good news. i'm anxious ...to be back with them. i know it's God because it was not an easy vacation of a trip! so many crazy things that i would almost always shrink from...food, squatties, buses/trucks/bikes/motorbikes/ricksaws coming at you at unknown speeds with really no traffic laws, people staring all the time, etc... so many good things and watching God work makes all of that seem like nothing. they are church planting fools! taking the good news to hindus and muslims like crazy. there is lots of persecution, so when they accept Jesus, it's no walk in the park easy thing. we live like kings and can choose to act like a christian or not, eat whatever we want whenever we want, buy whatever we want, move to another part of the country at a whim, be wasteful, etc... my life has been changed for the better. i want to have the "beautiful feet who bring the good news." but how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? and how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? and how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? and how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? as those who love Jesus, we are all sent out. who are you sent to?
From Matt Macy: We are addicted to hanging out with the unreached peoples that God desperately pursues, telling the beautiful story of Good News, and becoming better disciples of Christ while rubbing shoulders with the persecuted church.
As they traveled from town to town…the churches were strengthened in the faith…they met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them...Then they left Acts 16:4-5
Out life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work of telling others the Good News about God’s mighty kindness and love. Acts 20:24
When he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. Acts 11:23
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Everything Must Change
“Everything Must Change: When The World’s Biggest Problems And Jesus’ Good News Collide” by Brian D. McLaren
I finished Everything Must Change by McLaren on the trip to Bangladesh this past week. I have loved most everything McLaren has ever written and considered it music to my soul and speaking the language of my heart. This book, however, was a little harder to read than his others. It was more academic and at times, esoteric. But I agree with the heart and core of the message of the book – that the coming of the kingdom of God (heaven on earth) is so much more than just individual, personal salvation but salvation/redemption/hope/change in our relationship (not just to God but to the world (earth), others, and to ourselves. This has been a common reading in a lot of the books I’ve read in the past year, including When Helping Hurts.
Some of my favorite exerpts from this book:
Jesus’ message is not actually about escaping this troubled world for heaven’s blissful shores, as is popularly assumed, but instead is about God’s will being done on this troubled earth as it is in heaven. 4
…It’s about changing this world, not just escaping it and retreating into our churches. If Jesus’ message of the kingdom of God is true, then everything must change. 23
So we must carefully seek to determine not just what Jesus said, but what he meant, and how he would have been heard by his original hearers. Only then can we venture to explore what his original meaning would mean for us today, and even then, we must do so with great humility and awareness of our amazing human capacity to be wrong. This process is far more complex than simply marshaling quotes, and it is also more fruitful. It requires more than an ability to lift quotations out of context and fire them at an opponent like a missile. It requires the ability to get a sense for the shape, feel, and direction of Jesus’ life and words, in the swirl and spin of his times, and find patterns of resonance with our own. It is from start to finish a matter of interpretation, which, like reading itself, is as much art as science. 121-122
The phrase “the Second Coming of Christ” never actually appears in the Bible. Whether or not the doctrine to which the phrase refers deserves rethinking, a popular abuse of it certainly needs to be named and rejected. If we believe that Jesus came in peace the first time, but that wasn’t his “real” and decisive coming—it was just a kind of warm-up for the real thing—then we leave the door open to envisioning a second coming that will be characterized by violence, killing, domination, and eternal torture…This eschatological understanding of a violent second coming leads us to believe (as we’ve said before) that in the end, even God finds it impossible to fix the world apart from violence and coercion; no one should be surprised when those shaped by this theology behave accordingly. 144
Mohandas Gandhi, who said, “The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems. 146
In defending the American “war on terror,” former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld summed up his, and the US government’s, security strategy: “We have a choice, either to change the way we live, which is unacceptable, or to change the way they live, and we choose the latter.” In light of the security policy of Jesus, I would say it slightly differently: “We have a choice, either to change the unacceptable way we live, or to change the unacceptable way they live, which is impossible to do against their will—without stooping to ethnic cleansing so they don’t live at all. So, we choose the former, in the confidence that a voluntary change in our behavior will precipitate an unexpected change in their behavior.” The key, then is to change the way we live not in capitulation to “them,” not in fear or intimidation or surrender to “them,” but in adjustment to the ways of God and the kingdom of God. What would it look like to “change the way we live”—which, by the way, is another decent definition of the word repentance? What would it mean to trade the love of power for the power of love? Discovering good answers to these questions is not made easier by popular preachers who call for a violent strain of the Christian religion. 183-184
[quoting Watson & Meeks] …As long as evangelism presents a gospel centered on the need for personal salvation, individuals will acquire a faith that focuses on maximum benefits with minimal obligations, and we will change the costly work of Christ’s atonement into the pragmatic transaction of a salvific contract…The sanctifying grace of God in Jesus Christ is meant not just for the sinner but also for a society beset by structural sin. 24.
Sadly, in too many quarters we continue to reduce the scope of the gospel to the individual soul and the nuclear family, framing it in a comfortable, personalized format—it’s all about personal devotions, personal holiness, and a personal Savior. This domesticated gospel will neither rock and boats nor step out of them into stormy waters. We have in many ways responded to the big global crises of our day with an incredible, shrinking Gospel. The world has said, “No thanks.” 244
The hard work of rebuilding community and family is essential—through community organizing, through moral instruction in local churches, through support for women and children through community centers and health clinics and schools, through micro-enterprise projects and drug rehabilitation programs to help people development employment or become employable. 264
While most of us won’t be called to sacrifice our physical lives (but many may), having faith in Jesus and sharing the faith of Jesus will lead us to make what an early disciple called “a living sacrifice.” We will give up the life we could have lived, the live we would have lived—pursuing pleasure, leasure, treasure, security, whatever. And instead, we will live a life dedicated to replacing the suicide machine with a sacred ecosystem, a beautiful community, an insurgency of healing and peace, a creative global family, and unterror movement of faith, hope and love. 277
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Friday, December 16, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Christmas Run
Gabe Hancock and I went for a Christmas run this morning dressed as the Grinch and Santa. It was rainy and cool and we had a lot of fun running in costume (first time I've ever done anything like that) for 11 miles. I smiled too much to be a good Grinch, though.
Monday, December 12, 2011
The Great Awakening, Leeland
One man wakes, awakens another
Second one wakes his next door brother
Three awake can rouse a town
And turn the whole place upside down
Many awake will cause such a fuss
It finally awakes all of us
One man wakes with dawn in his eyes
Surely then it multiplies
Surely then it multiplies
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Sacrilege: Finding Life In The Unorthodox Ways Of Jesus
Sacrilege: Finding Life In The Unorthodox Ways Of Jesus
By Hugh Halter
I just finished Sacrilege by Hugh Halter. I definitely loved the book, just as I have loved everything I have read by him so far. Halter tries to answer the question "what does it really mean to be like Jesus?" He addresses the gospels and the "ways of Jesus" by taking a fresh look at the beatitudes. He words are provocative, challenging, helpful, and formative for the church to be what God intends. This book does not address models of church ministry like his other books. Actually I don't think it hardly ever uses the words "missional" or "incarnational". And while some of the things he proposes are a "new way of thinking", he makes a good case for the possibility that they are really an "old way of thinking". A few of my favorite quotes:
...followership, instead of true discipleship, has been the norm, and thus we Christians have produced a lot more people that are like us than people who are like Jesus. p44
Wrought with legalism, the Pharisees could have made the elder board in most US churches. Great behavior, few scandals...what more would any good pastor want? Ironic, isn't it, that it was these very well-behaved religious men who ended up being a hurdle rather than a bridge to bringing others into a real relationship with God? p48
You know what? God and this thing called faith are so beyond my grasp that I am empty of the ability to know absolute truth. I know absolute truth exists. But I also know that I am a human of very small brain compared to God, and I have no problem admitting that I may be wrong about many things and you may be right. Only God Himself knows it all. p67
Our perceived ideas or interpretations of "truth" have started religious wars. "Truth" has construed private piety to be more important than taking care of orphans and widows. "Truth" has taught us to blindly support whatever Israel wants. "Truth" has casually brushed aside any thought of actually loving Muslims as a path to peace and change. In other words, under the banner of "truth" many have missed the truth that Jesus preached. In many cases, simple faith and humble learning have been replaced by a mountain-sized pile of ill-begotten ideas that encourage Christians to feel like they have arrived. p70
Absolute truth is absolute. God is truth and his Word is truth...There is however, one glaring problem with absolute truth, and that is that we, being humans, have a tendency to be...well, human. And that means that we are biased, short-sighted, and very often wrong. p73
What do you think about letting God help you become a place of belonging for others instead of you just looking for another place to belong? p91
This isn't about a duty to be performed; it is about a relationship to be explored. p108
...Fervency in a slightly immature direction is better than apathy in the right direction. p113
By Hugh Halter
I just finished Sacrilege by Hugh Halter. I definitely loved the book, just as I have loved everything I have read by him so far. Halter tries to answer the question "what does it really mean to be like Jesus?" He addresses the gospels and the "ways of Jesus" by taking a fresh look at the beatitudes. He words are provocative, challenging, helpful, and formative for the church to be what God intends. This book does not address models of church ministry like his other books. Actually I don't think it hardly ever uses the words "missional" or "incarnational". And while some of the things he proposes are a "new way of thinking", he makes a good case for the possibility that they are really an "old way of thinking". A few of my favorite quotes:
...followership, instead of true discipleship, has been the norm, and thus we Christians have produced a lot more people that are like us than people who are like Jesus. p44
Wrought with legalism, the Pharisees could have made the elder board in most US churches. Great behavior, few scandals...what more would any good pastor want? Ironic, isn't it, that it was these very well-behaved religious men who ended up being a hurdle rather than a bridge to bringing others into a real relationship with God? p48
You know what? God and this thing called faith are so beyond my grasp that I am empty of the ability to know absolute truth. I know absolute truth exists. But I also know that I am a human of very small brain compared to God, and I have no problem admitting that I may be wrong about many things and you may be right. Only God Himself knows it all. p67
Our perceived ideas or interpretations of "truth" have started religious wars. "Truth" has construed private piety to be more important than taking care of orphans and widows. "Truth" has taught us to blindly support whatever Israel wants. "Truth" has casually brushed aside any thought of actually loving Muslims as a path to peace and change. In other words, under the banner of "truth" many have missed the truth that Jesus preached. In many cases, simple faith and humble learning have been replaced by a mountain-sized pile of ill-begotten ideas that encourage Christians to feel like they have arrived. p70
Absolute truth is absolute. God is truth and his Word is truth...There is however, one glaring problem with absolute truth, and that is that we, being humans, have a tendency to be...well, human. And that means that we are biased, short-sighted, and very often wrong. p73
What do you think about letting God help you become a place of belonging for others instead of you just looking for another place to belong? p91
This isn't about a duty to be performed; it is about a relationship to be explored. p108
...Fervency in a slightly immature direction is better than apathy in the right direction. p113
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