Middle East update

This is today's update from our friends who live and minister in the Middle East; in this time of great speculation, they share with us on-the-ground insights each week. Read it and celebrate!

                                                                                                                      

Dear coworkers, 
 
We're living through change in the Arab world that would have seemed unthinkable just two months ago. Tunisia's leader is gone. Egypt's is gone. Tonight Libya is reported on the brink of civil war. And this week the movement jumped from North Africa to the Gulf states as masses mobilized in Bahrain. 

In each case the regime responded to popular protests with violent attempts at repression, which only enraged the people, delegitimized the government, and alienated the armed forces. 

The religious hope all this movement is in their direction. But when Iran's illegitimate president made this claim last week about the Egyptian revolution, the lie was quickly exposed as his own people were being killed in the streets a few days later. 

Here's the truth: legalistic religion itself operates through lies, repression, coercion, and the use of force. The movement in the Arab world is exactly away from all this. It is an outstanding moment in human history, and an enormous opportunity for grace and truth. Liberation is finally coming to many of our longsuffering neighbors.

The fervor has even reached to Kurdistan; thousands marched this week in the streets of Sulaymaniyah.  And in the midst of it all one more little one from this region in northern Iraq reached us this weekend enroute to her heart surgery in Israel. You can meet Dina and check in on the other Kurdish families with us at the Children Now in Israel page, and there is opportunity online now to invest in two more precious, eternal lives who should reach us in the next two weeks. 

For whatever reason we are the ones chosen to be on hand for the birth pangs now convulsing the Arab world. Let's pray and prepare our hearts and be ready when the conductor of this grand symphony nods in our direction. 

Jonathan for the Shevet Achim community in Jerusalem 

 

Chuckles and insights

I've enjoyed Ed Stetzer's talks and blogs for years. He's a Southern Baptist who has striven mightily and with some success in that structure to show the shifting cultural values around us and the continuing practical application of unchanging scriptures to them. AND: he's done it in a good-humored, loving way.

So I got a snicker out of how he used a simple steroid ("roid") prescription to poke a little fun with dogmatism. (Is that even a word? Probably shouldn't be, if it is.) I'll bet he lost a few John MacArthur followers with this one! Enjoy Ed's blog post here, and have a great day.

PS: He also blogged a series of "dogma" jokes that are a fun re-take on denominational jokes.

Take a laugh break; chances are, you need it. :)

 

Why did the Christian cross the road?

To help the wounded traveler. (Not to avoid him. See [1] below for the story in the bible.)

I don't always cross the road. I don't always have my eyes open to see wounded travelers. Sometimes I'm pretty careful to keep my eyes off everything except my immediate objective. Wounded people can be messy and time-consuming. Come to think of it, I'm pretty messy and time-consuming, sometimes.

We met the pastor of Pathways Community Church, Bill Losasso a month ago at an anti-human-trafficking/victim support event. I wasn't surprised that a Christian would be there; I was surprised that a Christian pastor would be there, and not just to do the opening prayer. We chatted briefly after the event, and it quickly became evident that Pathways is not the average Southern Baptist church.

We lunched with Bill last week to learn more. He tells a story of the time when some Baptist leaders came to visit: tour, meet and greet, pray, etc. Later, Bill asked them, "Y'know who you just prayed with?"

"Your ministry leaders, right?"

"Yeah. Several of them are recovered alcoholics. A few more are recovered drug addicts. One served time for attempted murder." He could have added: "And the pastor is an ex-hippie and druggie who's been in jail five times, one of those in Mexico." So much for "perfect people under shiny plastic steeples." (See the Casting Crowns song here.)

Um, not your average Southern Baptist (or any other denomination) church. Bill and the others who planted Pathways wanted a church that could reach people like they had been before they met Jesus: dopers, crooks and general screwups. The truth is, behind every "doper, crook and general screwup" there's a human being, created by God, made in his image, and loved by him. That's the good news; you know, that Good News thing.

Pathways is largely composed of rescued people and those who would like to help. When someone saves your life, you don't forget them. I'll never forget Dr. Evan Cohen, who did my heart bypass surgery 13 years ago. I'll never forget Dr. Al Pacifico, aka "El Terrifico," who did Cyndi's heart valve surgery 28 years ago and again 6 years ago.

I'll never forget Jesus. People on a fast train to the bridge-out sign never forget who catches them at the brink. Neither will the other rescues at Pathways. Jesus is what I want to be, maybe a little more each day. Same thing they want. The ground is level at the foot of the cross: each of us crawls up to it with a backpack full of sins and wounds. We all need the same savior, and we all need the significance that only his eyes can bring.

If it's practical stuff for real people in real messes, Pathways seems to be interested in it: Addiction recovery, victim support, and generally welcoming people to Jesus. Imagine that. Bill uses a little point-of-view exercise to remind us, and maybe even himself, of where we stand:

So imagine a visitor walking into the door of your church, workplace, or home. Are they met with a greeting or an inspection?

If it's an inspection, then "lofty glances from lofty people [who] can't see past her scarlet letter" (CC song here), will send her on her way, still alone, and believing yet again that Christians don't care and that God doesn't care. But if it's a greeting and a welcome; well, she'll never, ever forget that either.

Science-fiction writer Greg Bear observed a few years ago, "We can define a culture by what it sees and what it doesn't see." (Slant, 1997) Here's hoping and praying that God will improve our eyesight, and our courage to act on what we see. And thanking God for an example of Christians and a Church who'll cross the road for someone who needs Jesus.


[1] Quite a number of extremely well-educated people challenged Jesus' knowledge of scriptures. It usually didn't go so well for them. One such expert asked Jesus the equivalent of  a 1+1 question, was given the customary return-question "How do you read it?", and gave the standard answer:

"The Scriptures say, `Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.' They also say, `Love your neighbors as much as you love yourself.' "

Then, looking for a way to make himself look good, he asked Jesus, "So just who is my fellow man?" He was looking for a simple answer, I suppose, or another formulaic, all-us-experts-know-this-one answer. He got the parable of the Good Samaritan in return.

The "road" in the story is actually a path cut into a cliffside that runs down from Jerusalem to Jericho, which is ferocious terrain. If someone's lying wounded on the way, you have to squeeze past with a lethal drop on one side and solid rock on the other. The wounded traveler isn't "out of the way," he's in the way. You have to work hard to avoid a ministry opportunity when the devil plants one right in your path. Nonetheless, most of us avoid the obvious.

Why do I need a small group of believers?

A few years ago I skimmed a book written in 2002 by a megachurch pastor, Ted Haggard. Dog Training, Fly Fishing, and Sharing Christ in the 21st Century: Empowering Your Church to Build Community Through Shared Interests was about building small group ministries around people's existing interests rather than topics or age-groups scripted by church staff. I thought it had some really good ideas along that line, but never took the time to really read it. (Still haven't - reading is a luxury!)

I was struck by his words when I skimmed it: "...I believed in [small groups] - I really did. I just didn't have the time to go to one...they never held my interest, or I never connected with the people in the group. It was easy to be too busy to go to a small group when going to a small group was the last thing I wanted to do." Then, as I remember the text, he sped on to how they had organized lots of these things, and some of the staff asked him, "Which one are you in?"

His answer was still, "None, I'm too busy." Of course, he knew that was the wrong answer, and they sort of fixed it with a staff-only small group, which is actually not a functional peer group. But that little vignette beautifully illustrated how easily some things dwell in the mind of a pastors:  I'm too busy, I've got to do it all, and I don't need anyone else except maybe my wife; I've got my eyes fixed on God.

In November 2006, just a few months after my skimming the book, Ted was outed by the male prostitute with whom he'd been sharing sex and drugs. His family, church and nation were shocked (and in some sad cases, gleeful) at his deceptions and hypocrisy. The first thing that came to my mind was, "Well, it wasn't hard for him to get away with it. He wasn't in a decent small group of peers - he said so in his own book. The only groups he was around was people who worked for him, one way or another. This didn't have to happen."

That's still my attitude. Of course he has flaws; who doesn't? Of course everyone needs strong, Godly peer relationships to encourage their features and help remediate those flaws. And in America today, of course, almost no one has them.

As a cautionary tale for us all, Pastor Ted (as he was known) has given us all a light for our way: If you're walking alone in the Christian life, it's pretty easy to end up far away from Christ and everyone else. But if you're walking with a few others, it's a whole lot easier to trend closer to them and to Jesus, day by day. Lord, let it be so for us.
 

Coupon blessings

We walked into the restaurant and picked up trays and plates, eyes on the long salad, pasta, and soup bars in front of us. I felt a tap on my arm.

"Here's a coupon; it'll save you some money." The man's wife was busily tearing off a coupon as he spoke. (Why do those things never tear off cleanly?) She handed it to him, and he to me.

Well, this was a new experience for me. "Thank you; do you do this all the time, or is it just my lucky day?"

"Yeah, we do this all the time." He lowered his voice and leaned toward me with conspiracy in his eye; "Sometimes she pulls them out of the garbage!" (I'm thinking that means the recycling bins that are common here.)

We chat a few moments going through the bars and checkout, then separate.

On the way out, we stop off at their table to drop off a Misfitchristian business card and tell them I see a blog post coming out of this. We talk a little while about churches, schools, kids and such. They don't have any magical or evangelical agenda; they aren't waiting in ambush with A Tract or A Survey or anything. They just like sharing a little blessing when they go out; "We all need to help each other," she said. (Lest you evangelical folks like me get worried, yes, they're quite willing and able to tell people about Jesus if conversations open that door.)

Somehow I think they'll shine a lot of Jesus' light while they're going along (the literal sense of the Great Commission in Matt 28:19), prepared to give every man an answer (1 Peter 3:15-16). They make God look good, and enjoy being a blessing in the marketplace. In this case, the salad bar.

Need an icebreaker with people? Try coupon-blessing them; it's as good as a pet for meeting a new friend. It's even free!
 

Irresistible Revolution, part 1

What is it in your life that’s worth doing, so much that it’s worth ruining your life or costing your life, and maybe even the lives of those close to you? Three Auburn students (David, Brandon, & Will) helped ruin my life by sending me to Shane Claiborne’s book a few years ago. I’m re-reading it now, and here’s a quote that fits right in here. From The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical:

“Mother Teresa always said, ‘Calcuttas are everywhere if only we have eyes to see. Find your Calcutta.’ I was ready to come home. I knew that my Calcutta was the United States, for I knew that we could not end poverty until we took a careful look at wealth. I was to battle the beast from within the belly. I learned from the lepers that leprosy is a disease of numbness. The contagion numbs the skin, and the nerves can no longer feel as the body wastes away. In fact, the way it was detected was by rubbing a feather across the skin, and if the person could not feel it, they were diagnosed with the illness. To treat it, we would dig out or dissect the scarred tissue until the person could feel again. As I left Calcutta, it occurred to me that I was returning to a land of lepers, a land of people who had forgotten how to feel, to laugh, to cry, a land haunted by numbness. Could we learn to feel again?”

I'm highly opposed to war-metaphors for the Christian life and writing in general, but here's one in particular. Carl von Clausewitz said, "Everything in war is simple, but the simplest thing is difficult...So in War, through the influence of an infinity of petty circumstances, which cannot properly be described on paper, things disappoint us, and we fall short of the mark." [1]

Yes; exactly. The struggle for sight and feeling for our Calcuttas is a war for our hearts. God woos us; Satan threatens us; petty circumstances encompass us. It's the simplest thing to find my Calcutta, and equally difficult.

Praying that you'll see your Calcutta today.

[1] On War, Book I, Chapter VII, "Friction in War," Carl von Clausewitz.

 

Helping people find their voice

Lovely writeup of The King's Speech and what it has to do with us, God's chosen people, this priesthood of believers. Here's part of Joel Mayward's take:

"In the world of ministry, we are called to help people find their voice. It is not enough to only address the stammers; we are to minister to the whole person and address deep issues of the heart. We are to fully enter into people's worlds, loving them in such a way that our stories become intertwined, woven together by a growing affection and trust. We are to give one another patience and grace as we work through our pains and find redemption in our Father."

Read the whole writeup here on the Youth Specialties website.

God bless,

JC

Metropolitan Ministries, Tampa

Haiti is a land who lunges into our headlines with momentary tragedies, but whose enduring tragedy can't compete with Kardashians and coups, ambitions and avarice. Rose knew nothing but anarchy, capricious violence, and scant comfort.

She came here.

She came to Metropolitan Ministries five or six years ago, and now she's now a married citizen with a nursing degree and a new house.

My wife and I walked around Met Min's buildings Wednesday with Ana Mendez, who participated in and told us Rose's story (details and Rose's video story here). Hundreds of stories like Rose's keep Met Min people coming to work every day. Chef Cliff says it's a God thing; he's living his dream. Miss Ginny says her GED students sometimes come in jumping and screaming, "I passed! I passed!"

Met Min has multiple programs to "break the cycle of poverty." I asked what that meant for them, in this inner-city part of Tampa. The cycle they refer to is the intergenerational one: poor people whose parents were poor, who can't see what an escape to "not-poor" looks like. Practically, some of their emphases are:

• Education (Head Start, after-school programs, K-5 school, GED training, tutoring, parenting skills, close partnering with Brewster adult-ed tech school right across the street, teen programs, counseling, etc.)
• Housing (residential, temporary assistance, mentored, etc.)
• Employment (resume & interview training, job-finding, computer and telephone access, etc.)
• Food (for residents and a number of food-assistance programs, including a no-kidding, run-like-a-business catering service, Inside the Box, where people can learn how to work in the food business)

The problem with a list like that is that is misses all the relational connections between them. But Met Min isn't too big to make those connections, which keeps it a ministry and saves it from being simply another social services agency. Ana's smile isn't the "Yep, job well done" kind when she talks about Rose; it's the softer, "she's my friend" kind of smile. Lovely. She isn't the only one; they have about a hundred paid staff and 12,000 volunteers who are involved with the ministry. Whew! Imagine being able to change a life for the better, every week.

Met Min started out as a cooperative venture between 13 downtown churches, which is actually quite a statement in itself. That sort of thing still goes on quite a bit. One measure is that 95% of their donations are from local community and church groups. Another is area-wide partnerships, best seen with this map, with more info at the link here. It's a silent testimony to Jesus when so many people agree to touch "the last, the least and the lost," from the inner cities of Tampa and St. Pete to the migrant workers of Plant City.

Rose is a rare escapee from Haiti, whose inmates are sentenced before birth. But Haiti isn't the only Alcatraz in the Caribbean. There are plenty of Alcatrazes in our backyards, where tropical paradise blends with human cruelty. Our prayer is that the staff of Met Min will find all the encouragement and refreshing they need (and they need a lot) to serve in joy. May they be blessed, that they would be a blessing. (Like God's blessing of Abram, so that Abram would in turn be a blessing, here.)

Book update: Kindle version is online; Nook coming soon!

The Kindle version of Between the Lines: Christianity for Misfit Christians ($4.99) is now available along with the paperback version ($9.00) on Amazon.com.

The Nook version should be up very soon; it already works on the Nook for PC software. Just a register/upload cycle away from Barnes and Noble!

For those of you with other eReaders, I have an ePub version (which is what Nook uses) that I need someone to try out. Volunteers?

The Dream Giver

I've been itching to write this for a month, and a thoughtful email from a friend pushed me over the edge. This book gave tongue to the words in my heart in 2003, and still re-inspires my convictions that God, the Dream-Giver, has placed in each of us a Big Dream. That dream, and the passion that comes with it, come straight from his own heart.

I'm not likely to improve on the back cover of the book, so here it is:

"Welcome to a little story about a very big idea. This compelling modern-day parable tells the story of Ordinary, who dares to leave the land of Familiar to pursue his Big Dream."

"You, too, have been given a Big Dream. One that can change your life. One that the Dream Giver wants you to achieve. Does your Big Dream seem hopelessly out of reach? Are you waiting for something to someone to make your dream happen?"
 

Unfortunately, Dream Giver came out just as Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life was really getting up steam, ultimately selling 30M+ copies. "Purpose Driven" was on every church marquee in the country, it seemed. It completely overshadowed everything else at the time. Very driven, very get-it-done, and opposite my conviction that God is calling his children into his dreams, not driving his children like cattle to market-purpose. ("Purpose" is a great "planning" book, and way too many million people have had their lives changed for the better for me to bash it. But there's this other piece that sustains our purposes, the Dream, and that's my focus here.)

Our God is calling out the beauty he placed in each of us before the Creation, so that his "Word," us, will return to him having fulfilled his purposes for it and us. He's journeying with us in that return to the heaven-land from which we were conceived, through the joys and trials, always offering light and  companionship. When we pursue our dreams, there often comes a time when he says, "Let me show you something new. There's more. The best is yet to come." Dream Giver is a wonderful reminder of the One who will take you to your dreams and places beyond.

The Navigators, making disciples

I had an insane amount of great discipling over the years. Graduate classes, short training courses, residential months-long courses, extended real-world projects with gifted mentors. Of course, all that was from my employer, in the business of engineering and leadership. In my Christian walk, 20 years now...not so much.

There are bright spots. Many churches have great classes, and the internet has made more teaching available to more people than ever before in history. But you can't do the "field work" of training with your instructor over the internet, you can't do Christianity alone, and true mentors are harder than ever to find anywhere in our secular and sacred cultures.

The Navigators at the University of South Florida (USF) over in Tampa seeks to be a bright spot for making disciples. I lunched with Chris Gatlyn this week. Chris encountered Navigators while he was a student at the University of Florida (in Gainesville). There, a Navigator guy named Andy befriended Chris and showed him in words and actions what it meant to love Jesus, to learn The Story from the bible, and how to make more disciples.

Chris and his wife Jana have ministered with the Navigators ministry at USF now for six years, after a few years working in business and teaching. For the last four years, they've led it. They're all about teaching students how to love Jesus...and how to make other disciples.

If each Christian simply recruits his replacement, so to speak, then Christianity never grows. In fact, if the replacement doesn't know how to recruit his own replacement, the whole movement is dead after two generations. But if each Christian recruits two new people who also learn to recruit two new people, then you have a movement which is self-sustaining; in fact, it's an explosive geometric progression.

Jesus said, "Make disciples." "Disciple" (mathetes) means "learner" in Greek. [1] Jesus lived with his disciples for three years, and 11 learners learned how to make more learners. (Follow that?) Is that what we usually do? I don't think so, because "education" isn't the same thing as "motivation." Learners are self-motivated; no one has to tell them to get up in the morning. People who learn to be like Jesus also become learner-makers. Why? Because he was, and is. And we become like the ones we admire.

Chris and Jana are livin' the dream. Why so passionate about investing in the lives of students? First, God made 'em that way. But second, along came a disciple-maker who understood that his mission from God wasn't just to teach, but to walk alongside people, life-on-life. Together, those ingredients multiply every investment that Andy and Chris and Jana make in the lives of those around them.  Please pray for them as they learn and prosper in this brilliant spot of light that God is shining down on this new generation.

[1] Run, don't walk, to the bookstore, church library or internet and order Ray van der Laan's video series In the Dust of the Rabbi, which can wonderfully change your life as a disciple of Jesus. Here in the West, we have no clue just how loaded that word "disciple" is - and Ray unpacks the culture and scriptures to show us the vistas and challenges God has put before us. (More on RVL in my blog post here.)

The other thing about this video is that it demonstrates how to study the bible on your own - look at what was said, by whom, when, citing what other scriptures. In that, it also gives you a glimpse of Navigators bible study, which is deep on practicing full-context bible study.