Today I'd like to begin by commending to you the Lausanne Advance Paper entitled "People at Work: Preparing to be the Whole Church" by Willy Kotiuga. Kotiuga has provided the Church with a stimulating article that highlights an extraordinarily important topic -- namely, what does it mean to be a follower of Christ in the workplace.  This was a particularly helpful read for me as it forced me to think through the kind of discipleship that I should be engaged in as a pastor of Christ-followers who are spending 40+ hours each week in a "secular" work environment.  Thus so much of their faith, their imitation of Christ, their spiritual growth, and their participation in God's mission will take place there. I must confess that the bulk of my discipleship is focused on what happens in the home and in the community. Almost none on the workplace. Somewhat subconsciously, I have set those 40 hours to one side -- as something that is essentially in the way of real life. Kotigua has helped me to recognize anew that such is not the case.  The time Christ-followers spend at work is and ought to be of significant value for God's Kingdom and purposes.  I have a responsibility as leader in the Church to equip God's people to engage fully their workplace with the message of Jesus Christ.

Stages of Discipleship for Christ-followers who are in the Workplace:

Perhaps it is too daunting a task to think in terms of transforming believers who are not missionally engaged at their workplaces into those who are.  It is for me anyway.  In particular, I'm thinking about the many Bhutanese-Nepalis that I pastor who work at various factories and warehouses around the Chicago suburbs.  I recognize that these are mostly new believers who work alongside non-believers from their own cultural background as well as other people from many nations.  To simply tell them to become missional at work is just too far a leap.  I want to suggest instead some rather loose "stages" of discipleship.  When I consider this, it seems much more doable.  Allow me to explain:

1. Non-believer -- Of course, we must begin here. This is simply an individual at a workplace who does not follow Jesus Christ.  My discipleship goal with them is share the message of Jesus with them.

2.  Disconnected Disciple -- This, I think, is where I think a lot of Christians are.  Kotiuga speaks a lot about the fact that many followers of Christ do not make the connection in their minds and hearts between their faith in Christ and their work.  He points out that many see work as a "necessary evil" that essentially gets in the way of their Christian life. He points out a "gap" between theology and praxis and a disassociation between church and work. For those at this stage, I must help them to see that their faith is indeed tremendously relevant to their work.  Think of the role of Mordecai in Esther's life to help her realize that her faith in God was deeply relevant to her role as queen.

3. The Disciple of Christ-like Character -- At this 3rd stage, we see followers of Jesus who have become convinced that their faith is relevant to their work.  As a result, these disciples strongly desire to imitate the character of Christ in the workplace.  My responsibility at this point is to help them to grow in areas of personal integrity, showing love and kindness towards others, being respectful towards those in authority, abstaining from inappropriate behavior that co-workers may commonly engage in, maintaining a good attitude about work, and more.  Think of people like Rebekah (Gen. 24), Boaz (Ruth 2), and Uriah (2 Sam. 11) whose faith in God was manifest in acts of kindness, generosity, self-control, and integrity in their work.

4. The Disciple of Excellence -- As one matures in their imitation of Christ's character in the workplace, very naturally, they will find themselves pursuing excellence in their work.  In the spirit of Joseph in Egypt, they will become increasingly convince that their relationship with God should be reflected in the level of care, dedication, and energy that they put towards their job.  My responsibility at this point is to encourage this as Paul did when he exhorted the Colossians, "Whatever you do, work heartily as to the Lord and not to men" (Col. 3:23).  And, like Joseph, the disciple at this stage cares little about the nature of the work (whether slave, prisoner, or governor), but seeks excellence in each task.

5. Missional Disciple -- Ultimately, spiritual growth will lead to mission.  This, of course, is the goal we started out with.  I want to see followers of Christ whom I pastor to become fully engaged as ambassadors of His in their workplaces.  As it was often in Daniel's case, I think often we will see that the disciple who is strive to imitate Christ and pursue excellence at work will experience natural opportunities to share their faith with others.  However, this may not happen often or at all.  I must disciple people at this stage in their maturity to start thinking and behaving missionally at their workplace.  They must begin to (1) pray for co-workers, supervisors, clients, and others; they must find opportunities to (2) worship and read the Scripture at work; (3) they must enter into authentic relationships with those who don't know Christ and be faithful to share their faith in the context of those friendships; (4) they must seek to "plant" the Church in that workplace in some way.  "Planting" the Church at the workplace can be as simple as praying regularly with another Christ-follower.  In other cases starting a weekly Bible study during a lunch break or actually planting a full-fledged church at the workplace may be more appropriate.  The point is to create communities of faith for Christ-followers at that workplace.  It is important for us to move away from the notion that we must invite our co-workers to "come to our church".  Instead, we recognize that God has sent the Church (i.e. me and you) to them in order to be the Church for them.

Okay, I hope that is as helpful to you as it has been to me.  Practically, I'm thinking through these things as a way to evaluate where specific people in my congregation are and how I can help move them on to the next stage of maturity.  Again, don't forget to check out Kotiuga's article.  And, I'd love to read your comments.  In particular, if you can think of a stage in there that I might be overlooking, please share that in the comment section.

Over the course of the next several Tuesdays, I’ll be posting brief articles related to the topic of contextualization among Hindus.  These articles are intended to provide some introductory thoughts for the reader on this topic. 

Contextualization & Hinduism: Why Contextualize?

     Last week, I stressed the Biblical emphasis of obedience over against pragmatism in our mission methods.  That is, we should prefer to conform to God’s will rather than pursue numerical “success” in missions.  Today, I’d like to very briefly outline several reasons why such a preference should compel us to pursue contextualization in mission.  Now, while my particular area of interest is in contextualization among Hindus, these principles are universal in application.  The question is, “Why should we pursue contextualization in mission?” Let me provide four Biblical reasons.

1.       The Imitation of Christ

     As followers of Jesus, we want to be like him (Rom. 8:29, 1 John 3:2), and the simple fact is that Christ practiced contextualization in his own earthly ministry.  The prologue of John tells us that Jesus, the Word, became flesh and dwelt among us.  The incarnation of Christ consisted of God taking on human flesh, human limitations, human culture, human ethnicity, human context.  And the Lord didn’t go to every culture and every nation at every time in history.  He went to one place, one culture, at one time.  In particular, he went to the Jewish people of Galilee about 2,000 years ago.  Furthermore, he didn’t go as a foreigner.  Rather, he spoke the language, ate the food, wore the clothes, practiced the traditions and customs, knew the songs and dances, celebrated the festivals and in every way lived as a full member of that context.  To be sure, there were elements of the culture and society that Jesus challenged, but always emically – as an insider.

     Mark records a revealing incident (chapter 6) in which Jesus spoke in the Nazareth synagogue.  The critical crowd that listened to him responded to Christ’s convicting speech not as though rejecting an outsider, but, on the contrary, as neighbors shocked at the seemingly audacious remarks of one of their own.  “Is not this the carpenter,” they marveled, “the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” (Mark 6:1-3).  Clearly, the Scripture teaches us that Jesus went “all the way” in contextualizing his self, his method, and his message to his mission field.  Those of us who desire to imitate Christ in our mission praxis must take very seriously the importance of imitating His incarnation.  From this perspective then, the pursuit of contextualization becomes spiritual discipline for the missionary.

2.       The Desire to Reach the Nations

     With Paul, so many of us can say that the love of Christ constrains us to engage in this ministry of reconciliation that we call world evangelism and missions.  Our hearts are broken for a lost and dying world whose only hope is the risen Christ.  Since this is the case, we must carefully listen to the Holy Spirit speaking through the Scripture on the topic of contextualization.  For it seems clear that the Bible believes that pursuing contextualization is necessary for reaching the lost.  Where do we see this?

     Brian K. Petersen has detailed a number of helpful examples in his article on the subject including God’s covenant with Abraham, the use of circumcision, names of God, and references to Daniel’s cross-cultural ministry (Petersen, 2010).  Any of these, along with a number of New Testament examples could be explored in great detail for their many significant implications for this topic.  However, I want to just focus on Paul’s own explanation for why he engaged in the pursuit of contextualization in mission.  In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes:

     For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.  To the Jews I became a Jew in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law . . . that I might win those under the law.  To those outside the law I became as one outside the law . . . that I might win those outside the law.  To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak.  I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.  I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.  (1 Cor. 9:19-23)

     Why did Paul engage in contextualization?  Very clearly, it was his inspired opinion that doing so would result in winning more people to Christ.  Now, let me say here that it isn’t my intention to contradict last week’s warning against preferring numbers to obedience.  Note here that Paul’s ultimate motivation is to share in the blessings of the Gospel, not simply to achieve numerical success.  Having said that, there is little doubt that Paul believed that contextualization would result in a greater sharing of those blessings as more people would be won to Christ.  In actual fact, there may be something deeper going on here than the accumulation of more converts.  What is clear is that the opinion of the Bible, and thus of the Holy Spirit, is that more people will be won to Christ as His ambassadors imitate His incarnation – the self-emptying, culture-adopting, flesh-crucifying incarnation—as they engage in mission.

I’ll save the next two reasons for contextualization for next week.

Works Cited

Petersen, B. K. (2010). A Brief Investigation of Old Testament Precursors to the Pauline Missiological Model of Cultural Adaptation. Rethinking Hindu Ministry II: Papers from the Rethinking Forum , 14-27.

Over the course of the next several Tuesdays, I’ll be posting brief articles related to the topic of contextualization among Hindus.  These articles are intended to provide some introductory thoughts for the reader on this topic. 

Contextualization & Hinduism: Obedience v. Pragmatism

     Today, the United States has more Hindus than any other non-Asian nation in the world with estimates ranging from just under 1 million to nearly 1.5 million (Wikipedia, 2010) (Adherants, 2005). Canada, similarly, is home to an additional 330+ thousand Hindus (Wikipedia, 2010).  As it has often been noted, the Hindus of North America live, work, study, and worship in every major and midsized city—as well as many of the smaller ones—on the continent; tend to be employed in highly skilled and well-paying professions; and represent many of the least-reached people groups in the world. Surely no missiological consideration of people groups in North America is complete without paying careful attention to such a large, influential, and unreached demographic block.  However, we must note that while, as missiologist H.L. Richard has noted, it has become “geographically easy” for North American followers of Christ to reach out to many Hindus, the particular challenges presented by the Hindu-Christian encounter have rendered us largely ineffective in this endeavor (Richard, 2010).

     In this series of articles, I would like to present a summary of what I have found to be some of the most essential points related to the topic of contextualization of Christian discipleship among Hindus. This is not intended at all to be an exhaustive treatment of all points relevant to this topic nor of the particular points that I will raise here.  Rather, as I have worked as a follower of Christ seeking to make disciples among Hindus in North America for several years, I have become convinced that the proper pursuit of contextualization is indispensible for faithful disciple-making among them.  Let me be very clear, I believe that the pursuit of contextualization is a MUST for Christ-followers who seek to faithfully proclaim His salvation to their Hindu friends and neighbors.  Let me briefly expound on that point.

     There is no shortage of anecdotal evidence provided by Christian opponents of contextualization who may point to story after story of Hindus who decided to follow Christ  even though the gospel was presented in what might be described as very “non-contextual” ways.  I myself have heard such stories – including first-hand testimonies – dozens of times.  And I have often been tempted to respond by seeking to provide counter-testimonies that seem to demonstrate the superior power of contextual methods to create converts.  However, the underlying assumption of this kind of contest – that God prefers those mission methods, whatever they may be, that produce the most results— is false.  While statistical efficiency is a nice thing to see in our mission endeavors, obedience to the Spirit’s leading and conformity to His will are always to be preferred.  Let me devote the remainder of today’s post to a brief defense of this statement.

Obedience v. Pragmatism in Scripture

     A number of Old Testament stories that illustrate this truth come to mind.  One of the first is the account of Abraham and Sarah seeking to fulfill God’s promise of a son (Gen. 15:4-6) by their own devices.  It made practical sense for Sarah to give her servant girl to Abraham as a wife, so that’s exactly what they conspired to do (Gen. 16:1-4).  After all, if Abraham was going to fulfill God’s purpose of becoming the father of a countless people, he would need to start somewhere—and marrying the young and healthy Hagar seemed to be their best bet.  In retrospect, however, we know that God’s desire was produce an heir through Sarah.  And so, Isaac was to be preferred over Ishmael, the child of promise over the child of pragmatism. 

     Later when Abraham was commanded to sacrifice Isaac, it made no practical sense whatsoever.  By that time, however, Abraham had learned his lesson and raised a sharpened knife over his bound son.  Ready to plunge the blade into Isaac’s flesh, Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead and preferred the obedience of faith over pragmatism.

     Other examples from the Old Testament abound.  If we had time we could consider the story of Gideon or the negative example of Jonah.  A particularly poignant illustration of this truth is found in the rejection of King Saul.  We see King Saul rejected because he preferred the pragmatic over the obedient.  Upon his defeat of the Amalekite army, he was to devote to destruction everything that breathed (1 Sam. 15:3).  But Saul reasoned that sparing the Amalekite king and the best of the livestock as a sacrifice to God made much more sense.  Samuel’s pained cry rings through the pages of Scripture, “What is this bleating of sheep in my ears and the lowing of oxen that I hear?” (1 Sam. 15:14) The prophet is clear, God prefers obedience – “to obey is better than sacrifice and to listen than the fat of rams” (1 Sam. 15:22b).  Saul’s pragmatic choice to set aside the best of the livestock for some kind of grand worship service is called “rebellion” and is likened to “divination.”  His presumption is considered as wicked as idolatry (1 Sam. 15:23).

     In the New Testament, there is Jesus who surprisingly and consistently downplays the significance of the masses of people who swarm about him (e.g. Mark 1:38, John 6:26), and instead rejoices in small, seemingly insignificant acts of faithful obedience (e.g. John 6:70, Mark 12:42-43).  This develops into a full-blown pattern in Acts as we seen only passing references to large numbers of people believing (2:41, 2:27, 4:4, 5:14, 6:1, 8:6, 19:10, etc.) which are strategically used by Luke to emphasize the importance of following the Holy Spirit’s leading, direction and timing in mission (Acts 1:4 [thru ch. 8:1], 1:8,  6:1-6, 8:1-4,  8:26-29, 8:39-40, 9:6 & 19-22, 9:10-19,  10:19, 13:1-4, 16:6-10, 18:9-11, 18:21, 19:21-22, 20:22, 27:21-26). 

     Overall, I believe that the emphasis of Scripture is very clear.  God wants His people to obey his voice – to prioritize obedience over against pragmatism.  There will be numbers – seasons of exponential increase that sometimes serve as signs of God’s favor and blessing (this is often the way large numbers are used in Acts).  However, the obedient and faithful path isn’t always the most expedient or statistically impressive.  If we compare Amos’ statistical failure to Jonah’s impressive city-wide revival, we may be surprised to find God preferring the prophet that no one wanted to listen to (Amos 7:12-13).  We must not confuse the greater numbers who followed after Jeroboam as a sign of God’s favor on the northern king’s novel worship system (1 Kings 12:20, 25-33).

     As we begin this series of weekly articles on contextualization, we must from the outset commit ourselves to the obedient path.  What does Scripture compel us to do?  How can we conform our mission to the will of God?  This must be our preference over any question of pragmatism, efficiency, or statistics.

_________________________________________________

Adherants. (2005, April 8). The Largest Hindu Communities. Retrieved May 13, 2010, from Adherants: http://www.adherants.com/largecom/com_hindu.html

Richard, H. (2010). Good News for Hindus in the Neighborhood. Rethinking Hindu Ministry II: Papers from the Rethinking Forum , 32-35.

Wikipedia. (2010, May 11). Hinduism by country. Retrieved May 13, 2010, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism_by_country

Hey everyone! Just wanted to let you all know that the audio files from this year's "Mission At Your Doorstep" conference in Wheaton, IL are now available for free download.  I especially recommend the sessions by Dr. Soong-Chan Rah which were very good.  There's a little something from me available as well.  Enjoy!

http://www.wheatonbible.org/On_Your_Doorstep

   It was almost dawn when they saw it.  It was still quite dark, the wind was still gusting, and the waves were still tossing the boat back and forth, but there it was—in the distance a figure was moving upon the water.  Terror gripped them when they realized that it was a man—a ghost, it seemed.  Funny, here was the same group of men who had just days ago been out in the villages casting out demons.  Their report to Jesus must have included tales of the evil spirits that had fled.  Now, at the end of themselves, they shrieked in terror at the sight of a single spirit. 

     Jesus knew they were afraid.  Here they had been struggling for hours, 12 men at the oars and they had barely made it half-way across the sea.  Jesus, in just a few minutes, strolled upon the sea effortlessly – gaining on them, heck, it seemed at first that he would pass them altogether—the wind and waves seemed to have no affect on Jesus, let alone the fact that you just aren’t supposed to be able to walk on water.  But, as he neared the boat, Jesus took pity on his beloved disciples, shouting, “Take courage, it’s me! Don’t be afraid.”

     The disciples cast skeptical looks at each other while they continued to wrestle with the oars.  “Only one way to find out,” thought the impetuous Peter.  “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” replied the Lord.

     And then, before the disciples fully knew what was going on, there was Peter slowly creeping towards the mysterious figure on the water – walking on the water! The wind was still raging, so perhaps only the seasick tax collector, Matthew, hanging his head over the side of the boat witnessed the whole ordeal.  There was Peter walking towards the ghost.  A moment later he was looking disoriented and panicky at the sight of the wind and waves.  And then he was sinking.  A desperate hand was extended, a cry for help, and then there was Jesus firmly clasping the fisherman’s hand.  Now, the two were making their way back to the boat, now climbing into the hull—Peter, wet and panting, practically falling in. 

     And then there was the Lord.  Standing there in the middle of the boat like a conquering hero.  Quite obviously now to everyone, not a ghost.  And quite clearly no mere man.  The oars were still now, like the sea which had all of the sudden grown strangely calm.  The fierce wind had just as quickly become nothing more than a gentle, whispering breeze as the morning sun began to peak up over the Golan Heights in the distance.  The disciples gaped, then knelt, then gave their spent and broken selves over to worship—“Truly you are the Son of God!” someone said.  That seemed about right.

      For the next few days, I'll be posting a four-part meditation on the feeding of the 5,000 story.   You may be a bit unfamiliar with it.   If so, you can read up on it in Matthew 14, Mark 6, Luke 10, and John 6.   I hope you find this encouraging.  

Please enjoy and freely use the following case study for training purposes.  I'd absolutely love for you to take time to reflect on this and post your "What should Chris do" responses in the comment section.  Let's get a dialogue going!

“Come as you are”

            Chris went to bed on Saturday night reflecting on what a big day it had been for the small Indian church which met at his house.  Chris was an associate pastor of a suburban church which had done a great job of reaching the mostly white, middle class population by allowing people to “come as you are.”  When the church directors noticed that several Indians had started attending regularly, they asked Chris to help form a group that would someday become a sister church.

            It had only been a few months ago that Chris first met with the six Indian believers.  As they shared their testimonies, Chris learned that they were all in their 20s, had been raised as Hindus and had decided to follow Jesus in college or shortly after.  Most were children of immigrants and had lived in the United States all their lives.  When the group expressed a desire to reach out to the Hindu community (a significant minority), Chris’s suggestion of starting a house church was met with enthusiasm.  Chris was to lead until God raised up a pastor among the Indians.  After some discussion, every other Saturday afternoon at Chris’s house seemed to be the best time and place for the group.

            The reason for excitement on this particular Saturday was that it had been the first time Hindu visitors had come.  Hari, who had been a believer for four months, was the only one of the group whose family lived nearby.  Hari’s parents were tolerant of their son’s new faith and wanted to visit his church.  Chris thought their visit had gone well overall, although they seemed to be confused when Chris told them they did not need to take off their shoes or that the fruit and flowers which they had brought were not appropriate on the altar.  Well, Chris reflected, Hari’s parents did not leave as Christians but they had witnessed true worship for the first time.  Perhaps on their next visit they might even realize that they did not need to wear fancy clothes to impress God.

            The next night, Chris received a frantic call from Hari, asking that they meet as soon as possible.  Chris and Hari met over coffee the next morning.  Before Chris could share his excitement about Saturday, Hari blurted out, “My parents were so offended by their visit that they are demanding that I stop coming.  In fact, they want me to stop being a Christian completely if all churches are like ours.”

            Hari went on: “They asked so many questions I couldn’t answer.  Why do we meet every other Saturday when there’s nothing special about Saturdays and if there is, why do we only meet every other week?  Why do we meet at a house instead of a holy temple of God?  Why do we dress so casually when God wants our best?  Why do we leave on our shoes when they bring in dirt and make things unclean and impure?  What was wrong with the gift of fruit and flowers my parents brought to God?  Why don’t the rest of us bring offerings to God other than money?  My parents think God does not accept our worship since we ignore these simple things.  They think God will be more pleased with me if I worship him the Hindu way.”

            After a moment, Hari said, “I still want to be a Christian and I still want to go to church, but I want to worship God in a respectful and honoring way.  Is there any way we can make our church look more Hindu?”  Chris replied. . .

Please enjoy and freely use the following case study for training purposes.  I'd absolutely love for you to take time to reflect on this and post your "What should Chris do" responses in the comment section.  Let's get a dialogue going!

“Come as you are”

            Chris went to bed on Saturday night reflecting on what a big day it had been for the small Indian church which met at his house.  Chris was an associate pastor of a suburban church which had done a great job of reaching the mostly white, middle class population by allowing people to “come as you are.”  When the church directors noticed that several Indians had started attending regularly, they asked Chris to help form a group that would someday become a sister church.

            It had only been a few months ago that Chris first met with the six Indian believers.  As they shared their testimonies, Chris learned that they were all in their 20s, had been raised as Hindus and had decided to follow Jesus in college or shortly after.  Most were children of immigrants and had lived in the United States all their lives.  When the group expressed a desire to reach out to the Hindu community (a significant minority), Chris’s suggestion of starting a house church was met with enthusiasm.  Chris was to lead until God raised up a pastor among the Indians.  After some discussion, every other Saturday afternoon at Chris’s house seemed to be the best time and place for the group.

            The reason for excitement on this particular Saturday was that it had been the first time Hindu visitors had come.  Hari, who had been a believer for four months, was the only one of the group whose family lived nearby.  Hari’s parents were tolerant of their son’s new faith and wanted to visit his church.  Chris thought their visit had gone well overall, although they seemed to be confused when Chris told them they did not need to take off their shoes or that the fruit and flowers which they had brought were not appropriate on the altar.  Well, Chris reflected, Hari’s parents did not leave as Christians but they had witnessed true worship for the first time.  Perhaps on their next visit they might even realize that they did not need to wear fancy clothes to impress God.

            The next night, Chris received a frantic call from Hari, asking that they meet as soon as possible.  Chris and Hari met over coffee the next morning.  Before Chris could share his excitement about Saturday, Hari blurted out, “My parents were so offended by their visit that they are demanding that I stop coming.  In fact, they want me to stop being a Christian completely if all churches are like ours.”

            Hari went on: “They asked so many questions I couldn’t answer.  Why do we meet every other Saturday when there’s nothing special about Saturdays and if there is, why do we only meet every other week?  Why do we meet at a house instead of a holy temple of God?  Why do we dress so casually when God wants our best?  Why do we leave on our shoes when they bring in dirt and make things unclean and impure?  What was wrong with the gift of fruit and flowers my parents brought to God?  Why don’t the rest of us bring offerings to God other than money?  My parents think God does not accept our worship since we ignore these simple things.  They think God will be more pleased with me if I worship him the Hindu way.”

            After a moment, Hari said, “I still want to be a Christian and I still want to go to church, but I want to worship God in a respectful and honoring way.  Is there any way we can make our church look more Hindu?”  Chris replied. . .

Here's an article that highlights several church starting efforts in Illinois, including that of TIBM.  It appeared in the Illinois Baptist in November 2009.

Here's an article that appeared in the Illinois Baptist back in May 2008.

Take the 5-Point TIBM-Cape Town Challenge!

      Fresh back from my trip to the US-Lausanne pre-congress meeting, I had a chance to offer a report, words of encouragement, and set of challenges to the TIBM family this past Sunday night in our house church gathering.  I’ll admit that in my excitement, it was difficult to present things in an organized fashion, but I think that most people got the idea.  Well, I won’t rehash the whole report here, but I did want to outline the five-point “TIBM-Cape Town Challenge” that our team/church is taking on in 2010.  This is our way of preparing for the 3^rd Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization and engaging in a work that we feel may be the defining Kingdom-work of our generation.

     Wow, I’m really tempted to just go on and on here, but I’ll restrain myself.  Let me get right into the challenge and ask you to join us in this.

1.      Read, study, teach, and memorize the book of Ephesians

All 4,000 on-site participants are being challenged by the Lausanne leadership to soak in Ephesians in the months leading up to Cape Town.  We are also being asked to teach it and preach from it in our various mission contexts and even to memorize it.  The official Cape Town 2010 study guide for Ephesians is simple and helpful.  You can download a pdf for free here.  At Trinity, we just finished a multi-year study of spiritual warfare that had us focused a lot on Ephesians 6.  Nevertheless, we’ll take up this challenge and take a significant amount of time in the book this year.

2.      Prayer for and memorization of all nations

The 3^rd congress will be the most diverse gathering of Christians the world has ever seen.  Some 4,000 delegates from 200 nations will come together to pray, worship, commune, and discuss the most critical issues of our time.  The leadership of the US delegation has specifically asked us to pray for all these nations and to memorize their geographical locations on the earth.  This challenge was quickly amended in the recent Dallas meeting to, “Well, just do all the nations.”  So, I’ve begun to do so and invite you as well.  To pray, I am using a tried and true resource called Operation World that, fantastically, is available online for free.  Just go there and click on “pray today.”  Do it every day.  To memorize the locations of all the world’s nations, I’ve been using a geography quiz site that works well, is free, and is actually helping me.  You can check it out here.  Again, try doing one quiz every day.

3.      Study the Lausanne Covenant

The Lausanne Covenant is a document that resulted from the 1^st Lausanne congress in 1974 and has served as a “rallying point” for evangelical Christians the world over who are passionate about the “whole Church taking the whole gospel to the whole world.”  It is something of a statement of faith, but one that is fundamentally grounded in the missional calling and nature of God’s people.  One of the most influential documents in the history of evangelical Christianity, it is something that I want to lead my team in studying, understanding, and interacting with.  There are some terrific resources available for free on the covenant including the actual text itself as well as a study guide entitled For the Lord we Love by John Stott that can be helpful in an individual and group context.  I plan to do personal study as well as to lead TIBM in corporate study of the covenant.

4.      Fully engage the 6 crucial issues of the congress

The 3^rd Lausanne Congress is not being convened simply because we haven’t done it in a while, but in response to a global outcry from Christians who see that God’s Church is facing a number of extraordinarily difficult challenges.  AIDS, postmodernism, Islamic fundamentalism, the southern shift of the church, and other weighty issues are matters that simply cannot be ignored. The passion of Lausanne 3 is to gather the leaders of God’s worldwide church to earnestly seek the will of Christ through prayer, repentance, worship, communion, study, and conversation.  Our hope is to come away from the congress with an Acts 15 kind of declaration, “It seems good to us and to the Holy Spirit that the Church . . .”  In particular, through a multi-year process of prayerful and informed discernment, six crucial issues have been put before us.  These are:

·         How do we make a case for truth and the uniqueness of Christ in a postmodern, pluralistic world?

·         How do we articulate and demonstrate the power of the gospel in the midst of suffering and strife?

·         How do we respond redemptively to religious fundamentalism – Islam and Hinduism in particular?

·         What should be our priorities with respect to the unfinished task of world evangelization?

·         What are obstacles to world evangelization within the church and how can those be addressed?

·         How should the Church in the US partner with the Church in the rest of the world?

So then, the challenge is to prayerfully and studiously, thoughtfully and actively, locally and globally engage these six critical issues.  I believe that any local church or Christian organization in the world today that has a truly global vision will be able to find significant points of intersection between these issues and their local ministry.  So, I have decided to seek to make the work of Lausanne 3 the work of TIBM.  Here are a couple concrete ways we plan to engage these challenges.  First, I am calling upon the TIBM family to engage in the growing global conversation around these issues that is being hosted online by Lausanne and Christianity Today.  You can do that too by going directly to this site. I believe that God may have tremendous plans for this site.  Engage now.  Secondly, TIBM will be using a number of our Sunday night house church gatherings to focus on these issues.  We’ll take time to unpack each of the 6 issues and then prayerfully discuss them in our group.  In particular, we’ll frame our discussion with these questions:

 ·         How does this global issue impact and intersect with our local ministry?

·         How is God calling us to engage in this issue globally? How is God calling us to engage in partnerships around this issue?

·         What things make our involvement challenging?  Hopeful?

·         What resources do we have for the wider church and what resources do we need from the wider church concerning this issue?

·         What concerns should we bring before the Lord regarding this issue?

5.      Develop a Strategy for Mobilization and Prophetic Leadership

Cape Town 2010 is not an end in itself.  It is, Lord willing, the beginning of renewal, reformation, and recommitment for the global Church.  Those who engage in the work of Lausanne 3, have the responsibility to mobilize, equip, call, and lead the whole church to take the whole gospel to the whole world.  As the Lord speaks to us in global community about these 6 critical issues, we then must speak to those in our spheres of influence.  We don’t know now what that will need to look like.  However, we know enough to pray and prepare ourselves for a work that will continue long after the Cape Town delegates have gone back home.  So, pray now.  And consider now how God may be calling you in leadership and in service around this work.  How should your gifts (teaching, giving, prayer, administration, service, mercy, etc.) be put to use to support the work of Lausanne right now?

Here's a recent article about TIBM as it appeared in the Baptist Press in 2009.

Can a person be a follower of Jesus and a Muslim at the same time?  That is the question that is right now being discussed by Lausaane Congress participants around the world.  Before I provide my own response to this issue, I'd like to provide you with the background information you will need to join the global conversation.  First, you can find the article by Joseph Cumming that prompted this discussion by clicking here. There is also a very nice video on the subject that you can view below:

Following Jesus from The Global Conversation on Vimeo.

Now, on to my own response to the question.  I'd like to respond by dealing with what I feel is a faulty premise upon which this particular debate is built.

There is a premise to this discussion that I feel must be examined and, perhaps, rejected. That premise is behind the question, "The gospel must be contextualized, but how far can contextualization go without violating the gospel?" This question assumes that contextualization can go "too far." That is, it is assumed there is a kind of contextualization continuum that on one extreme features non-contexualized "normal" Christian expression and on the other full-blown syncretism. The points in the middle consist of increasingly dangerous experiments in contextualization. The debate is couched in language that presumes the legitimacy of non-contextualized Christian expression and presumes that contextual methodology is nice but fundamentally risky.
Instead, I propose that the only truly Biblical methodology for mission, discipleship, evangelism, and church planting is one that pursues contextualization as an essential spiritual discipline. One that considers the incarnation of Jesus Christ as something of a communicable attribute of deity to be imitated by all those who would be Christ-like. I believe that the comparatively similar language of the Carmen Christi (Phil 2:5-11) and Paul's defense of his own contextualized methods (1 Cor. 9:19-23) suggests that Paul himself considered the incarnation to be an example to strive for. As Christ-followers pursue holiness, power, obedience, peace, faith, love, etc. as essential elements of Christ-likeness never to be perfectly attained in this world but always to be sought so, I believe, we ought to be pursuing the incarnational life - the life that "enfleshens" the Word among all peoples, languages, tribes, and tongues.
It isn't that I oppose debate related to the legitimacy of specific forms and practices in Christian worship, discipleship, evangelism, etc. Such debate is healthy. However, one should not assume that the so-called C1 - C3 communities that are not actively pursuing an imitation of the incarnational life of Christ are automatically legitimate. That, for example, singing "Amazing Grace" in Hindi is automatically more legitimate than chanting a Christocentric version of the "Gaytri Mantra." Why, after all, is there no debate as to the legitimacy of C1 or C2 communities? Such communities essentially deny the reality of the incarnation by their behavior (at least denying that it has any bearing on how a Christ-follower should live), reject the legitimacy of Pauline mission methodology, and often refuse to be identified with C4-C6 believers (at least as much as C4-C6 believers refuse to be identified with them). Let me suggest that believers who uncritically accept non-contextualized forms of Christian expression are not moving closer to Biblical Christianity but rather farther away from the example of Christ's own mission. C1-3 communities that are complacent and content with their status as non-incarnate, non-communicators are not following Christ as fully as they could be. The ongoing pursuit of Christlikeness requires a critical, on-going pursuit of the incarnational life. Certainly there will be disagreement as to what that means and perils (such as syncretism) along the way, but that should not dissuade us from the goal. The C1-6 scale is fatally flawed in this regard as it seems to suggest that more and more contextualization leads inevitably to syncretism and secret believers. A new contextualization scale should be created that recognizes Christlikeness as the ultimate goal of all contextualization. On one extreme are those who simply aren't pursuing Christ in this regard. On the other is full-blown, word-made-flesh incarnational ministry.

     Greetings to you in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ!  Today, I want to begin to introduce you to Cape Town 2010 and the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization which is coming up in just under a year.  This congress will be a meeting of a select group of 4,000 Christian leaders from 200 nations with the purpose of confronting the most critical issues of our time so that God's church can more faithfully take the whole Gospel to the whole world.

     In God's mysterious wisdom, TIBM has been given a seat at the table for Lausanne III and, God willing, I (Cody) will be in Cape Town as an on-site participant.  While this is a tremendous and befuddling honor, it is also a great responsibility.  Will I just be an ineffectual mass of flesh at this conference, or will the Lord use me to really contribute to His Church and Kingdom through the congress?  Clearly, I need your fervent prayer.

     Over the next several months, I'll begin doing several things to prepare for and engage in the work of Cape Town 2010.  First, I'll begin raising financial support to cover the cost of travel, lodging, food, etc.  My goal is to raise $5,000 for this trip--a very insignificant amount for Yahweh Yireh, our provider.  Secondly (or perhaps simultaneously), I'll be seeking to mobilize a base of prayer supporters that will intercede on my behalf with the Father related to this congress.  Finally, I'll begin to participate in the global conversation of Lausanne III.  This will be a largely on-line process of reading, writing, and otherwise dialoguing with believers around the world.  As a matter of fact, this post itself serves as my official entrance into the conversation. 

     Now, if you are ready to dig in deeper into the purpose and work of Lausanne III, please check out the links in this article and the video below.  I find this clip to be a nice introducation to the work of Cape Town 2010, it features John Stott.  I'll also be creating a number of future blog posts related to the congress and trying to add some features right here on TIBM.org that will help you begin to participate in the work of taking the whole gospel to the whole world.

 

By Special Guest Blogger: Katherine Lorance

    

     Let me first share about the wonderful opportunity I had to visit Egypt several years ago.  Although I saw the Sphinx and snorkeled in the Red Sea, I mostly remember the times spent far from the usual tourist attractions.  My hosts, American ex-pat friends of friends, allowed me to tag along as they visited friends in small, sometimes remote villages.  On one occasion, we wound up trying to visit a sheikh who was a friend of a friend.

     We walked up to a local cafe and asked if the server knew where the sheikh lived.  He insisted we stay and have some Fantas first.  I thought this was just his way of trying to get some money in exchange for his information.  As I sipped my carbonated beverage, I noticed several men were watching Face Off with Nicholas Cage and John Travolta, dubbed in Arabic.  Yes, Hollywood and soft drink companies have made it to the ends of the earth.  After a while, the owner told us exactly where the sheikh lived, a stone’s throw away.  And he refused to take any money for our drinks.

     Hospitality is an important part of that man’s culture.  Visitors, even strangers, may drop by a home unannounced and be welcomed with tea and lots of coffee.  Later the ex-pats told me that people consider it a great honor to host foreigners.  It’s like a status symbol to be able to say, “Yeah, I served drinks to those people.”

     I cringe to think about the reception that café worker and his friends might receive if they arrived in the States.  Would they be greeted with caution and distrust in small towns?  Would they be greeted (or even noticed) at all in my Chicagoland suburb?  Upon returning to Egypt, would they fondly recall the warm hospitality of Americans?

     Followers of Jesus, we are told to “seek to show hospitality” (Romans 12:13).  Our guests are here.  Let us consider it a great honor to serve those who are far from home.  Let us offer a cup of cold water (or sweet tea or Dr Pepper or café latte) to the strangers who might be thirsty (Matthew 25:35).

BySpecial Guest Blogger: Katherine Lorance

 Oneof my hopes for this website is that it will be a good resource to equip andmobilize followers of Jesus to share the good news with people of othernations.  I had started to write somethoughts about glocalization (isn’t that a clever word?), which made me thinkabout how people groups are ignored if no one cares about them, which made mereflect on when I started caring about the nations.  I grew up having many friends from diversecultural and religious backgrounds and had travelled to Europe and Asia by theend of high school, but I didn’t care about the nations.  Here is a verbal slideshow of the fourmemories that were turning points for me:

 The summer after my freshman year in college, in a bathroomstall at a church family retreat center, I cried my eyes out and committedmyself to following Jesus.  The decisionto live with Jesus as my Lord (Boss, Master, etc.) was probably the mostimportant one in my life

 Less than a year later, in a dorm room Bible study, I criedas I realized that trying to tell my friend about Jesus was more important thantrying to stay friends without rocking the boat.  The more I knew Jesus, the more I realizedhow much others needed to know Him. Although I was (and still am) selfish, frightened and insecure, I began tosee myself as an ambassador for Christ.

 Sometime later during college, a pastor offered a free copyof a book, Praying through the Window,if we committed to pray through the book -- I took one.  As I began to pray regularly for peoplegroups around the world, I began to care more about the nations.  I learned what people groups were and what“unreached” implied.  I learned thathaving my own copy of the Bible in my heart language was a precious gift not tobe taken for granted.  I learned aboutpersecution.

 In 2003, in our blue Lazy-Boy recliner, I started reading Anthropological Insights for Missionaries.  (I bought it on sale on total impulse intotal ignorance.)  Although I have navigatedcross-cultural relationships most of my life, this book gave me so many “wow”and “aha” moments.  I began to see how myculture has influenced my understanding and sharing of the good news and howother cultures capture the good news in ways mine does not.  I finally started to truly appreciatecultural differences and what it means for the “wealth of the nations” to bebrought before the Lord.

 How about you?  Whatare some of your defining moments in learning to care for the nations?

     Well, here it is.  The final installment of our discussion of missions.  In case you are just joining us, what I'm trying to do is answer the question, "Why should we Jesus-followers continue to engage in missions by fervent prayer, sacrificial giving, and personal going?"  I’ve given two answers to that question already, so now it’s on to the third:

Mission is, fundamentally, an attribute of God and, thus, true “Godliness” necessitates a missional life.

     Now, I have to admit, this is one of my favorite reasons to talk about because it is one of the hardest for me to understand.  Does that sound weird?  Well, it's just that I really like it when a theological concept just sort of puts me in my place.  Thoughts about the bigness of God just really excite and awe me.  So here's the deal--our participation in mission is related to the imitation of God.  Let me explain.

     In Ephesians 5:1, Paul calls on believers to be “imitators of God.” As you read the Bible, you will at times come across this idea.  A writer in speaking about how we, as Christians, should live will found commands upon the very nature and attributes of God.  For example, John tells us to love one another because God is love (1 Jn. 4:7-8).  Elsewhere, we are told by Peter to “be holy” because God is holy (1 Pet. 1:16).  There are other places like this too.

     Now, throughout the New Testament we see very clearly that God’s goal for us is to make us like Jesus.  For example:

·             2 Cor. 3:18 (God is transforming us into the image of the Lord Jesus from one degree of glory to another.)

·             1 Jn. 3:1-3 (This teaches that our ultimate hope is that we will become like Jesus and that even now that hope stimulates the transformation process.)

·             Lk. 6:40 (Jesus says that the goal and result of discipleship is to become like the Teacher—Him.)

     We know that as humans we have been created in the image of God, but sin has damaged that image.  God’s plan of salvation and sanctification is to restore the image and reflection of God’s glory in our lives.  This restoration is both the promise of salvation and the outworking of it.  We have the firm hope that we will one day be like Him.  And we have the charge to imitate Him right now.

     So this is the first of three parts of a basic argument for the third answer to the question, "Why mission?"  It is the truth—we should be imitators of God.  Now, keep that in mind as I talk about the second part which has to do with "attributeness."

     Because we, as Jesus-followers, desire to imitate God, we’ve learned to behold Him—to look at and watch God.  We study Him to see what He's like and what He does.  With John, we look and see that God is love.  Not just that God is loving, but that He is the very definition of love.  Love is not some abstract principle that exists apart from the person and nature of God.  Love is a concept that is originally derived from who God is.  John is so convinced of this that he goes as far as to say that anyone who really loves must be born of God and that no one who lacks love can really claim to have any knowledge of God, “For God is love.”

     Well, that is what it means for something to be an attribute of God.  An attribute of God is an attribute of God not because it is a concept or principle that God conforms to, but because it is originally, ultimately, and perfectly found only in God.  And like John, our meditations upon these attributes of God very often lead to applications in our personal lives.  I’ve been talking about 1 John 4:7-8, so let's just read it:

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

     For John, the desire to be like God, is a given.  But what I want to talk about is mission.  I said that mission is, fundamentally, an attribute of God and I intend to prove it very simply.  Let's look a few verses:

Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. (Joh 8:42)

So, the Father sent the Son.

"But when the Helper comes, whom I (Jesus) will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me." (Joh 15:26)

So, the Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit. And now, lastly, a series of verses from Luke:

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness . . . . And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. . . . On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal.  (Luke 4:1, 14, 18, 5:17)

     This may be the weirdest part, but the Bible testifies to the fact that Jesus Christ, in His humanity, found the power and direction (in essence, the support) He needed to perform His mission on the earth from God the Father, through the Spirit. 

     Now these are some relatively new thoughts for me, but at this point I’m simply in awe as I consider the glorious doctrine of the Trinity which may well be the most missional doctrine of them all.  For in it, we see that mission is an attribute of the Triune God.  We see here, God sending, God being sent, and God the Sender supporting God the Sent.  And keep in mind that the word “sent” in the Bible is the Greek “apostollo” which is translated in Latin as “missio” from which we get our English word, “mission.” Some call this, the Missio Dei—the sending of God.

     Think about it.  Before any of us came along, before we ever commissioned anyone to go to any place, before anyone ever came to tell us about Jesus, before there was a knowledge of Christ in any human being, before there where human beings—there was a Triune God who was, by His very nature, missional.  And if tomorrow there were all of the sudden no more Christians and no more churches there would still be mission because there would still be God and mission comes from and is perfected in God.

     So the all three parts of my argument goes like this:  We should imitate God.  God is missional by nature.  Therefore, we should be engaged in mission.  Let's think for a moment about this third piece.

     This Missionary God—this God who sends God, this God who is sent by God, and this God who supports God in mission—sends us.  Take all that stuff I just said about the Trinity and attributeness and the imitation of God and pour it into this huge saying of Jesus:

"As the Father sent me, even so, I am sending you."  (John 20:21)

     It makes sense.  We are, after all, His children.  We should resemble Him.  We should have His eyes and smile.  His laugh.  His walk.  His passions.  His heart.  We should even take up the family business.  I remember growing up with my dad running a gas station in Shawnee, Oklahoma.  Some of my best days and fondest memories were of going to work with my dad.  Pumping gas, washing windows, running the cash register, helping him fix flat tires and change oil.  There was always something quite special about just being with dad and doing what he did.  That, my friends, is exactly what mission is – an invitation by our Father to go to work with Him.  Today, tomorrow, and every subsequent day until Jesus returns are all “take-you-kid-to-work day,” and our Father is eager to show you what He does all day.

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.  (1 John 3:1)

Peace.

     Reason number two for why Christ-followers need to continue to engage in mission through personal going, sacrificial giving, and fervent praying is:

“Mission remains the only answer for humanity’s greatest and most urgent problem—it’s lostness.”

Why Mission? Humanity’s Only Hope.

Let’s be reminded of a few fundamental theological truths . . .

1.       Sin is universal.

Lest we forget, we are all sinners.  Now, what that means, to put it simply, is that none of us is perfect, we all fail.  Fact is, if we are honest, we will admit to great tendencies towards selfishness, hatred, pride, lust, envy, greed, and more.  I won’t even begin to talk about the good we fail to do out of our own self-centeredness. The Bible is clear and correct, “all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory” (Rom. 3:23).

2.       Hell is real.

No, I’m not going to try to demonstrate empirically the reality of Hell.  I’ll leave that to others.  In various places in the Bible however, the fact is made clear that those who choose to live separated from their Creator in this life will continue to be separated from Him into eternity.  In particular, “They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his might” (2Thes. 1:9).  Of course, I know that a lot of people hate this doctrine.  That’s fine, we can talk about it.  But we should all acknowledge that the doctrine is thoroughly Biblical.  Thus, if you want to believe the Bible, you’ve got to take Hell seriously.

3.       Jesus is the only way.

I know I’m getting really controversial now, but I’ll take my chances.  Besides, Jesus said it himself.  In His words, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).   Some of His earliest followers said this about Him, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name given to humanity by which we may be saved” (Acts 4:12).  I like that phrase, “Salvation is found is no one else.”  It’s almost like a challenge.  Go ahead and look.  Knock yourself out!  You won’t find salvation anywhere else.

4.       Proclaiming the message of Jesus is key.

The Apostle Paul asked, “How can they believe in whom they have not heard?  And how can they hear unless someone preaches to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?” (Rom. 10:13-15).  Sounds so simple, I know.  The fact remains, God could have chosen any number of ways to get the message of Jesus out.  He could have written it in the sky, sent angelic messengers, or tattooed it on your chest.  Instead, he chose to spread the message through word-of-mouth.  He sent people like us.  He continues to send people like us.

5.       Missional living is commanded not suggested.

The final theological truth to consider here is that Jesus didn’t simply suggest that we engage in mission.  He commanded it.  The “Great Commission” (Matt. 28:18-20) is a command.  Christ commands us to “go into all the world and make disciples of all nations.”

Of course, it’s one thing to say and affirm these Biblical truths, it is quite another to obey them and really care about those who don’t know Jesus Christ in a personal and saving way.  And since this post is already getting a bit long, I’ll leave that for another time.

    I was once asked to speak at a church on the subject of missions.  Specifically, I was asked to talk about why the Church should be involved in mission in the first place.  Why should we go and proclaim to others the message of Jesus Christ?  Why should we pray for those who do?  Why should we give financially to the cause of global evangelism?  In short, why should we pray, give, and go?

     Over the next several days, I want to take time to reflect on this critical question.  What follows is part 1: 

Why Mission? A Passion for God’s Glory

     A couple of years ago, I studied the topic of prayer in the Bible.  What I wanted to do was to look at everything the Bible had to say about prayer, bit by bit.  As I went along, one thing I looked at was all the recorded prayers of the Bible.  I asked, “What do the pray-ers of the Bible pray about?”  A number of things stood out, but I’ll mention one that is particularly relevant here.  It seems that many of the people of prayer in the Old Testament had a definite preoccupation with the glory and fame of God among all nations.  Let me refer you to an example:

Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD and spread it before the LORD. And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said: "O LORD, the God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. So now, O LORD our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O LORD, are God alone."

(2Ki 19:14-19)

     The background to this passage is complex so I’ll just summarize it.  Hezekiah, the King of Judah, has a big problem.  His kingdom and people are being threatened with annihilation at the hands of King Sennacherib and the Assyrian army.  The Assyrians are no posers, they’ve successfully wiped the floor with quite a few kingdoms before getting around to Judah.  So, Hezekiah, as a man of tremendous passion for Yahweh, the God of Israel, prays.  Hezekiah prays what any of us would pray—“Save us.”  But it is his motive that strikes me.  Of course, he wants God to intervene so that the people won’t perish, so the children won’t be sold into slavery, so the women won’t be raped, so the city won’t be burned to the ground.  But Hezekiah doesn’t mention any of that.  He has a distinct preoccupation with God’s glory.  He basically says, “God, save us, so the nations will know that you are not like other gods.  If you save us, they will know that you really are the Living God.”

     This preoccupation with God’s glory among the nations strikes me as one of the perennial distinctions of the God’s covenant people.  Psalm 67 gives utterance to what should be the passion of all of our hearts:

May God be gracious to us and bless us

and make his face to shine upon us,

that your way may be known on earth,

your saving power among all nations.

(Psa 67:1-2)

     Several years ago I had the opportunity to play in a Christian band (harmonica & vocals, thanks for asking).  One of the coolest things I’ve ever done in my life was traveling with that band to Paris, France for a month of mini-concerts in the Paris subway stations.  We’d set up and play for a few hours as thousands of people passed us on their way to work, home, play, or whatever.  The only songs we knew were about Jesus, so we went with it.  Some people stopped, some people looked, some people ignored us, some came and talked.  It was really a pretty unique experience.

     There was a thought that came to me in that time that lingers in my heart to this day.  The thought of worshipping Jesus Christ in a place where ordinarily, He just simply wouldn’t be worshipped.  I say it lingers with me because still I feel a deep desire to worship Jesus in places where He is usually forsaken, forgotten, or worse.  I believe very strongly in His immeasurable worth.   Jesus should be worshipped at your school, at your workplace, in your home, in your neighborhood, and in every other place.  Is there a place on the planet where Christ is not worthy to be lifted up above all other names?

     Yes, I know, at this point many may disagree with me.  But, I hope not those of you who are disciples of Jesus.  What defines us as followers of Jesus should be this unquenchable passion for His glory, his fame, and the magnification of His name in all the earth.  And as long as a nation, a city, a village, a neighborhood, a home, a heart – as long as there is any place on this planet where Jesus Christ is not magnified above all other names, we should, with every fiber of our being, by every resource at our disposal, in every prayer we can utter passionately pursue the everlasting glory of the Living God in that place.

     And that conviction, inevitably leads to mission.

     Why mission?  Mission is the inevitable outcome of a passionate preoccupation with the promotion of the glory of Lord Jesus Christ among all nations.  So, here is a principle.  There is a direct correlation between the degree to which you value the glory and fame of the Lord Jesus Christ and the degree to which you are personally engaged in global missions.  To wit, the more you care about God’s glory, the more you will pray, give, and go for the cause of missions. 

     So, yeah.  I’ll stop there.  Thoughts?  Comments?  Slanderous accusations? Mindless trivia?

Here's the latest update to our . . .

Catechetical Training Questions for Cross-cultural Use

A series of questions reflecting basic systematic theological categories for training of new believers in a cross-cultural setting.

Doctrine of Scripture

1.        What is the Bible?

a.       God’s Word

2.       How much of the Bible is God’s Word?

a.       All of it.

Doctrine of the Trinity

3.       How many gods are there?

a.       Only one

4.      What is God in Himself?

a.       God is a Trinity.

5.       Who is God?

a.       The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit

6.      Are the Father, Son and Holy Spirit the same person?

a.       No, they are three persons, but one God.

Attributes of God

7.       Can we know God?

a.       Yes, because Jesus Christ has made God known to us

8.      How can we know God?

a.       Through faith in Jesus Christ.

9.      What are two of the best things we can do to know God more?

a.       Prayer and Bible Study

Christology

10.    Who is Jesus?

a.       The one and only Son of God, the Savior and Lord of the whole world

11.     What did Jesus do for you?

a.       He died on the cross to take away my sin.

12.    How can you live forever with Jesus Christ in Heaven?

a.       We must trust in Jesus and ask Him to save us.

Doctrine of Creation

13.    Where did the world we live in come from?

a.       In the beginning, God created the whole universe.

14.    When was God created?

a.       God has always existed.  He has no beginning or end.

15.    What is the Creator doing now?

a.       God rules over the universe as Lord of Lords and King of Kings.  God is in control of all things.

16.    How are human beings like God and different than everything else in creation?

b.      We were made in the image of God.

     Well, happy Boxing Day.  Yeah, I don’t know what it’s about either.  I suppose I could look it up.  Does it have something to do with the Boxer Rebellion?  Most of us probably associate it with the empty boxes and trash that make up the day-after-Christmas carnage.  There certainly isn’t any good boxing matches on T.V.  Maybe Boxing Day for you means going to the mall, returning home from your Christmas travels, or doing what I did this morning – helping the kids assemble their new toys  (I don’t know if anyone else has noticed, but it seems to me that toy makers have stopped even trying to make instructions easy to follow). 

     Actually, for me , my first association with Boxing Day is that today is the anniversary of one of the worst disasters in history.  I’ve actually been cringing a little bit inside each time I’ve heard the phrase (and, yes, I have heard it), “Happy Boxing Day!”  And it is a bit sad that most of you when reading this won’t immediately know what I’m talking about.  It was four years ago today that about a quarter-of-a-million people in 11 countries lost their lives due to a devastating earthquake and tsunami.  That’s more than 200 Hurricane Katrinas, and the only reason that we don’t so much as observe a moment of silence is that none of those 11 countries affected was the United States.  I don’t even want to begin to speculate how many of the 220,000+ people killed by the earthquake/tsunami didn’t know Jesus Christ.  When one considers the nations impacted (including Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Maldives, Somalia, Myanmar, Malaysia, and Seychelles), it just doesn’t look good. 

     So, yeah, it just seems kind of sad.

     You know, this is the time of the year when a lot of people are making New Year’s resolutions, and I suspect that many of you reading this blog are in positions of leadership and influence in your church.  Perhaps many of your churches consider themselves to be “missional” or “Great Commission Churches.”  Well, just imagine if you were to survey your congregation next Sunday asking how many of them could name the great disaster that took place four years ago on Boxing Day.  People in your pews have strong positions about how good or bad a job FEMA did following Katrina, but haven’t a clue where Myanmar even is.  They don’t know that Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world.  They are unaware that Sri Lanka was virtually swallowed by a tsunami four years ago.  They haven’t even heard of the huge numbers of children that were kidnapped and sold into slavery following the chaotic aftermath of the 2004 tragedy.  Is your church really serious about the nations?  Are you?  Why not resolve to lead your church, small group, or family in the coming year to become truly aware of and actively engaged in what is happening around the world – even in forgotten places like Maldives.

     One thing I’m curious about, how many of you can remember where you were when you first heard about the 2004 Boxing Day disaster?  Please leave your response in the comment section.

Peace.

     There is a trendy new buzzword floating around our mission and church-planting circles these days that I hope is more than just a trend.  As you probably guessed from the title of this article, the word is “contextualization” and it is often misunderstood. 

     Opinions about contextualization range from those Christians who criticize it as nothing more than a selling out of the Gospel through cultural conformity to those who are all too eager to jump on the contextualization bandwagon because to them it represents the “cutting edge” of church growth and missions.  In reality, contextualization should not be simply equated with the notion of “seeker-sensitivity” and it unwise to blindly reject it is under the label “worldly compromise.”

     A deeper understanding of the concept of contextualization is needed if we are truly to appreciate its value to church-planting missions and embrace it in our mission fields.  It is not just about how we do outreach or how we package Christian spirituality.  Rather, contextualization is profoundly connected to God’s plan to receive eternal glory through His redeemed Church.

What is Contextualization?

     Missiologist Dean Gilliland says that the goal of contextualization “is to enable, insofar as it is humanly possible, an understanding of what it means that Jesus Christ, the Word, is authentically experienced in each and every human situation” (2000, p. 225).  Alluding to John’s Gospel, chapter one, he goes on to explain that the “Word must dwell among all families of humankind today as truly as Jesus lived among his own kin.”  The question we must ask as church-planting missionaries is what would Jesus look like if He were incarnated in our mission fields?  What would His first followers be like?  The earliest first century churches tended to bear a strong resemblance to Jewish synagogues; if Jesus had started the Church in your neighborhood, what would it have looked like?

     Of course, incarnating Christ and Christianity in your mission field is more than just a matter of external packaging or style.  Not only the form but also the content and practice of Christian spirituality must be shaped by church-planting missionaries and new local believers into a truly indigenous, or “home-grown”, expression of Jesus Christ, His Church and His message.  Writes Gilliland,

The gospel is Good News when it provides answers for a particular people living in a particular place at a particular time.  This means the worldview of that people provides the framework for communication, the questions and needs of that people are a guide to the emphasis of the message, and the cultural gifts of that people become the medium of expression.

     Who is your mission field?  Are you trying to reach African-American youth, new Hispanic immigrants, postmodern young adults, white-collar professionals, Hindus, Buddhists, or Muslims?  What are the questions they are asking?  What would they say are their deepest needs?  How do you see the image of God uniquely reflected in their lives and culture right now?  How can you help them to understand the Gospel as truly Good News in light of their situations?  What should it look like for these people to follow Jesus, the Word made flesh?

     In short, contextualization is about making Christianity the spiritual heritage of a particular people.  In some sense, the Christ-follower is always a foreigner (Phil. 3:20), but too often non-believers view Christianity as simply not for people like them.  In my own mission field, which is made up primarily of South Asian Hindus and Muslims, Christianity is seen as the religion of the West.  Indians or Pakistanis who become Christians are often thought of as betraying or turning their backs on their cultures and families.  This, of course, presents one of the greatest unnecessary barriers to reaching the unreached anywhere.  To be sure, the new believer should turn away from sin and false gods and turn to the Lord Jesus, but as a church-planting missionary I believe that one of my divine mandates is to demonstrate that a person can be truly Christian and truly Indian or Pakistani. 

     As we work in the Lord’s harvest field, our prayer should be to see whole cultures and peoples coming to Christ and reflecting His glory in their own unique way.  Christianity is not a product of 20^th century suburban-America or post-reformation Europe or even of first century Palestine.  Christianity is the result of the eternal Word taking on flesh and dwelling amongst us.  Today, Jesus longs to make His dwelling among every people and nation, tribe and tongue (Rev. 5:9).  He longs to take on flesh in your mission field.  This is the business of contextualization, and contextualization is the business of church-planting missionaries.

References:

Gilliland, Dean.  “Contextualization.” In The Evangelical Dictionary of World Missions, edited by A. Scott Moreau.  Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2000.