African Proverb.......Strangers see nothing!

"The stranger's eyes are wide open, but he does not see anything." 

Supyire people proverb from Sikasso, Mali,  where I love and work.

Love is perfeted with LOOOOONG time...

" I like our story, the dance we perfect over time"

Healthy Short-term Missions? Do it like Jesus.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Healthy Short-term Missions? Do it like Jesus.

Continuing our conversation on the folly of Short-term Missions...

This is how Short-term missions teams are often done:

Invite anybody (who feels like it/can afford it) on a trip to a (safe but adventurous) place. Raise funds, collect loads of supplies, buy matching t-shirts printed with a catchy logo and/or leading question to use as a traveling evangelism tool. Create a detailed packing list. Travel to destination in matching shirts, being sure to strike up at least one conversation at every stop to indicate that you are “serving the Lord, Jesus Christ”. Stay as a group in a dorm, church, hostel, or hotel. “Help” poor people, or the disaster afflicted, by offering unskilled labor, unwanted prayer, and cartoon Bible tracts. Give away some junk. On the last night of the trip, order Pizza because everybody is sick to death of local food. Arrive home, slightly conflicted, burdened for “those less fortunate”, unsure if any actual help occurred, but grateful for all your “Blessings”. Share none of your doubts, but tell family, friends, and especially financial supporters that it was an awesome trip and that you totally saw God at work.

Aaaaaaand...

This is how Jesus sent “short-term teams” in Luke, chapter 10:

“After this the Lord appointed 72 others. He sent them out two by two ahead of him. They went to every town and place where he was about to go.

He told them, "The harvest is huge, but the workers are few. So ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field.

Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals. And don't greet anyone on the road.

When you enter a house, first say, 'May this house be blessed with peace.' If someone there loves peace, your blessing of peace will rest on him. If not, it will return to you. Stay in that house. Eat and drink anything they give you. Workers are worthy of their pay. Do not move around from house to house.

When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set down in front of you. Heal the sick people who are there. Tell them, 'God's kingdom is near you.

… The 72 returned with joy. They said, "Lord, even the demons obey us when we speak in your name."

Soooo.... basically, we do it, like, exactly opposite to the way Jesus did.

Where Jesus appointed, we take volunteers.

Where Jesus sent pairs, we send herds.

Where Jesus admonished for danger and quiet humility along the road, we opt for vacation destinations and loud self-congratulations.

Where Jesus asks to be bringers of peace, we often bring chaos.

Where Jesus designed an opportunity for a disciple to lean into a new family, learn a new culture, and serve under the head of a household (who best knows his own need), we march in with a plan and the resources to git'er'done – completely missing out on the gift of being “a worker worth his wages”.

What if the original picture of “short-term teams” was meant to show us this valuable step in the process of discipleship, where we can learn dependance on God, love for others, and how to serve well?

And what if we've taken that picture and turned it into a billion dollar industry, creating dependance among the poor - not on God - but on the ourselves, damaging Christ's image in the world, and missing the point entirely?

Perhaps the first step to creating healthy short-term missions can be found in stripping them down to their most basic form, creating them to look more like part of the discipleship process. What if we unashamedly refocused the dynamics of a “mission” trip onto the one being sent, and removed pseudo-humanitarian efforts (which are often more harm than good) altogether?

I dunno.

It's just a thought...

I Don't Want to be Your Project for Jesus!

"If there is one thing I’ve learned about loving people in the last five years, it’s that nobody wants to be featured as a prayer point in your newsletter. Nobody wants your unsolicited, but loving Christian counsel. Nobody wants your corny Bible tract. Indeed, nobody wants to be your pet-project for Jesus. People aren’t meant to be projects...............Nobody wants to be your project… but everybody wants to be your friend...It’s a lot harder to make someone your friend than to turn them into your project. But, I’ll tell you the truth, if you know how to be a good friend, then you’re more missionary than a lot of missionaries. 

Love people, not projects. 

. "

Link

I'm in your corner!

"The day won't ever come when I will withdraw love and support from you. I am simply in your corner till the wheels fall off." (Gregory Boyle. Spoken to a gang member in, Tattoos on the Heart pg178

Is it really about us or them?

"If our primary concern is results, we will choose to work only with those who give us good results." (G.Boyle Tattoos on the heart. P178)

You Don't Work With The Poor

"Sr. Elaine Roulette, the founder of My Mother's House in New York, was asked, 'How do you work with the poor.' She answered, 'You don't. You share your life with the poor' It's as basic as crying together. It is about 'casting your lot before it ever becomes about 'changing their lot." (Tattoos on the Heart) pg172

Who you standing With?

"All Jesus asks is, where are you standing?' And after chilling defeat and soul-numbing failure, He asks again, 'Are you still standing there?"  (Gregory Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart, p173

Close Your Eyes and See With The Other One

"Close both eyes; see with the other one. Then, we are no longer saddled with the burden of our persistent judgements, our careless withholding, our constant exclusion. Our sphere has widened, and we find ourselves, quite unexpectedly, in a new, expansive location, in a place of endless acceptance and endless love." (Tattoos on the Heart. G Boyle, pg145)

Distorted Rebuilding

Speaking about New York, and its contamination of the eco system..... but it sounds like much of life as we cry indignity, but do little to change how we live anyway.

"Most of its history is one of greedily grabbing beautiful things, destroying them, being outraged about the conditions, tearing them down, then building something else even further from nature's intention in their place. " ( The Big Oyster: History of the Half Shell, Mark Kurlansky)

Your Preachers Will Be Forgotten

"When all your favorite preachers are gone, and all their books forgotten, you will have your Bible. Master it. Master it." --- John Piper

Church Like A Gang?

This so describes how I see people treated in church if they don't tow the line, parrot the accepted values, doctrines, or practices of this particular church gang. I was once blindly part of that process, you know- guarding the doctrine and life of the church. But it was to help them come to the truth, more often it was truth according to this groups perception, including biblical AND human teachings. But all it does is push underground the real questions and issues people struggle with. Oh, we will be patient for a time, if we see 'progress' towards them accepting what we expect them to be/believe.....but the moment we see that stalling, there can be a swift response, and we always feel justified.

Anyway, conditional love about some it up, as most of us are really governed by a worldly kind of Love, not the Godly kind of love. I never realized how destructive this 'invisible', yet engraved on our hearts, kind of practice damages and marginalizes so many people. Forgive me for my stupidity. It was only when I started to ask hard questions myself, l think I might have gotten the 'no good' status, and yes it's hard to recover from this.....We don't easily let them back in, and they are usually too hurt to bother trying.

Anyway, this quote is almost a picture, a reality show, of church life.....We cry love....but we bleed little of it for those who will not mould to our vision, especially it not at a 'reasonable' pace. We have a lot of growing up to do, at least I do. Yes, there would be some churches exceptions to this, but most Christians I know would think theirs is the exception, and therefore none are really at fault. Tell me that you have rarely seen this........and I'll simply think you have your head in the sand. It's all about conformity....

"Gangs are bastions of conditional love- one false move, and you find yourself outside. Slights are remembered, errors in judgement held against you forever. If a homie doesn't step up to the plate, perform the required duty, he can be relegated to 'no good' status. This is a state which is hard to recover." (Tattoos on the Heart, G Boyle, pg94)

My First Given Prayer!

Saw Stephen Cousins, from Mount Stuart, PEI. He just returned from a month in the Congo, and us five months in Mali. His first words to me were this. "Andy, I have been praying deeply for you and Lynn this past week, when I thought of you coming home to this place, the Lord put a prayer on my heart to pray repeatedly for you and Lynn...." And Stephen gave us this prayer. "May the Lord help you support the heavy burden of returning to an indifferent people, who will never ask you to tell them the story of what happened in Africa." ...................I cried...........he understood why.

Teach People Their Lovliness

"Sometimes it's necessary to reteach a thing its loveliness." 
Poet Galway Kinnell. 

Please teach it to your wives, husbands, kids, an community... please, please

Church as a Building!

An interesting Truth, that no one will deny, but it sure puts the blood pressure up on fundamentalists a evangelicals, as we don't like the implications of the freedom.Church is bigger than your building, and I am very grateful for the fact. Interesting read in this article.

Christianity Questions: Do I have to go to church?

 “I don’t have to go to church to be a Christian!”I’ve heard this exclaimed quite a few times in my life, always defensively.  So, is there truth to it?  Do you have to go to church if you’re a Christian?

If only the question was that simple.  Unfortunately, the whole issue seems to come from a place of extremely misunderstanding what a church is.  Now, if you want to ask, “Do I have to go to one of those buildings that people call churches if I’m a Christian?” I could make the answer very simple: Nope.  Not at all.

You know why?  Because it’s not a church.  It’s a building.  Made up of the same materials as your bathroom at home, and no holier.  It is not God’s house, the house of the Lord, or God’s holy sanctuary.  It. Is. A. Building.

Leaving Institutional Church?

A friend of mine posted this as a response to a blog post...

"This so hits home for me. My husband was an elder at our local congregation up until 2 months ago. Then, because the congregation didn’t agree with some of the (biblical) decisions the elders made, they were all asked to step down. So, after years of pushing and struggling to get the congregation to wake up to the lost world around us, a large group of us left and began a new fellowship. But my heart just isn’t in it anymore. My trust-meter has expired and I just want to sit and listen to God"

 Some reading this will just assume I am promoting they leave institutional church. That is not the case. However, having said this, this ladies story is worth hearing and reading as she articulates it well. She expresses well what I hear a significant number of people expressing in private. They will never express it in public, as that comes at a very heavy price in church. Enjoy the challenge.


It's a 5 part series...With a sneak peak at each:

Leaving the Church. {Part 1}

First some clarification.  I’m not disowning the true church, the body of Christ, the ekklesia (the gathering of other believers who desire authentic community and to pursue the purposes of Christ).
What I am leaving behind is the business of church – the institutional church.  The buildings, and the committees, and the budgets, and the forced hierarchy, and the one-sided sermons, and the “services” that don’t really serve anyone.

The Church Almost Killed My Faith {Leaving the Church – Part 2}

The church has caused me to doubt the power and goodness of the Christian God.  The church has caused me to doubt that a transforming power really exists in Christianity.

 

Why it took us so long to leave. {Leaving the church – Part 3}

So we stayed much longer than we should have.  Afraid of not fulfilling our calling, afraid of what people would say, afraid of what people would think, afraid of people’s disapproval, afraid of being deemed rebels or bad attitudes, or unfit for ministry.

 But in the end, staying didn’t do us any favors.  I think people tended to give us those labels from within the institution anyway (even if not to our face).

On Negative, Naked Writing. {Leaving the church – Part 4}

I’ve been contacted by a small number of people concerned about the message I’m putting out there about the institutional church.  I think mostly they want me to understand that there are good people in institutions, and that some institutions are much better than others.  And I do understand that.

I’ve also recently seen a couple of people stress that we should focus on how we can make things right instead of focusing on what’s wrong.  I understand that, also.  I know that you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar, I do.

But I don’t know how to do that.  That message seems unbalanced (and sort of lying) to me.  I don’t know how to talk about how we can fix God’s church without also talking about what’s terribly terribly wrong with it.

So What Do We Do in House Church? {Leaving the church – Part 5}

On Friday nights people start arriving at around 5:00 and often times don’t leave until 10:00 or later.  We all pitch in to bring food, we hang out,  we play board games, we play video games, we play music, and we share passages from the Bible that we’ve recently read or we think need to be heard at our gathering.  Often times someone comes with a stressful situation that they’ve been dealing with and we all sit around scripture and find comfort and guidance for them in The Book. Truthfully we’ve been meeting on Friday nights for probably more than 2 years now, we just didn’t have the freedom to call it “church” yet. Sundays are similar to Fridays, except longer.  People start showing up around 10:00 or 11:00 and “church” lasts all day.  People come and go as they are able.  Some people stay until dark (or well after).  Some people go home and take a nap and then come back again.  Some people come after they’ve left their Institutional Church.  We spend the whole day together just trying to be a family in Christ and build each other up, learn from each other.