Too Many Church Programs.... Means Little Time For Mission..

"There’s the obvious application here, in that attempting to build any outward facing faith community with believers who are intent on just getting their own needs met just is simply unsustainable. It’s just not going to work. But leaders before we point the finger at all these selfish believers who are stealing all our time and energy from being missionaries to our communities, let it be said: if we develop a church built on serving the saved, then the already blessed people will come wanting more blessings.
It’s just that simple. You will draw the type of people who crave what you’re offering. Only Christians want forty Christian programs to chose from…. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with programs, but the church has a very limited amount of resources, both human and financial. So, if we consume them all for saved people, then we cannot expect our folks to live on mission else where, because they have already spent all of there expendable time and energy on the church campus.
So if we’re drowning in a sea of Christian consumers, we better take a hard look at the scaffolding we have built.” (Jen Hatmaker)

Nothing Looks Romantic From a Banana Truck

Commenting on the town Peace Corps sent him to in 1966 in Ecuador...

"I yelled...."There's my town." But it didn't look romantic even then; the truth is that nothing looks romantic from  a Banana truck."  (Living Poor. A Peace Corps Chronicle. Moritz Thomsen. Pg 28)

So Hungry You Could Cry.

"When you sit down to the table and are given three soda biscuits and a cup of instant coffee for supper, you at first want to break down and cry like a baby and later, if you are strong enough, begin stamping your little feet on the floor in baby rage. What stops you is the knowledge that not only in your village but in villages all over the world there are families who are eating less than you, if they are eating at all."
(Living Poor. A Peace Corps Chronicle. Moritz Thomsen. Pg 84)

When Religion Takes Your Dignity Away!

"I would have left with the others if i'd had the means. We have no dignity. Our dignity was sold off. Because when they beat your wife in front of you, beat your sister in front of you, and you can't say anything. They beat your very own mother in front of you, and you...you can't say a word. You have absolutely no dignity left.  What are you going to do here except leave if you can."

(Seydou Baba Kounta of Timbuktu. Speaking of the horrors of Islamic radicals occupation of the city over the last year.)

The Sufi/Sunni Islams Encounter With Shia Islam In Mali

This shows rather well how most Malians feel about Islam.. Christianty and Islam have lived together in peace in Timbuktu for 50 years. It's issues have not been between the inhabitants of Timbuktu, but rather from the outside Radicals who came in to oppose anything but Islam,  and force Sharia law on all, including the Sufi/ Sunni Muslims there.

"We need to urgently focus on reconciliation. That's what can bring about lasting peace. Because Mali is a big country, a country with a very long history and a wealth of cultural diversity. Its different peoples have lived together,married one another. To say now that they should be separated is wrong. Mali is indivisible. Mali is secular. Mali is democratic. That should be the starting point of dialogue. Not autonomy! If every community demanded autonomy, Mali wouldn't exist anymore." (Abderahmane Ben Essayouti, Inmam of Timbuktu's Grand Mosque.)
("Islam doesn't force anyone to be Muslim."The Imamas, IRIN documentary June 12, 2013)

Wisdom From An Old Man in Timbuktu, Mali

"Whatever happens, we'll always manage to sort it out under the palaver tree or in the hallway." (Old mans Words in Timbuktu Mali)

Millennials have Highly Sensitive BS Meters,

"Despite having one foot in Generation X, I tend to identify most strongly with the attitudes and the ethos of the millennial generation, and because of this, I’m often asked to speak to my fellow evangelical leaders about why millennials are leaving the church.

Armed with the latest surveys, along with personal testimonies from friends and readers, I explain how young adults perceive evangelical Christianity to be too political, too exclusive, old-fashioned, unconcerned with social justice and hostile to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

I point to research that shows young evangelicals often feel they have to choose between their intellectual integrity and their faith, between science and Christianity, between compassion and holiness.

I talk about how the evangelical obsession with sex can make Christian living seem like little more than sticking to a list of rules, and how millennials long for faith communities in which they are safe asking tough questions and wrestling with doubt.

Invariably, after I’ve finished my presentation and opened the floor to questions, a pastor raises his hand and says, “So what you’re saying is we need hipper worship bands. …”

And I proceed to bang my head against the podium.

Time and again, the assumption among Christian leaders, and evangelical leaders in particular, is that the key to drawing twenty-somethings back to church is simply to make a few style updates – edgier music, more casual services, a coffee shop in the fellowship hall, a pastor who wears skinny jeans, an updated Web site that includes online giving.

But here’s the thing: Having been advertised to our whole lives, we millennials have highly sensitive BS meters, and we’re not easily impressed with consumerism or performances.

In fact, I would argue that church-as-performance is just one more thing driving us away from the church, and evangelicalism in particular.

Many of us, myself included, are finding ourselves increasingly drawn to high church traditions – Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, the Episcopal Church, etc. – precisely because the ancient forms of liturgy seem so unpretentious, so unconcerned with being “cool,” and we find that refreshingly authentic.

What millennials really want from the church is not a change in style but a change in substance.

We want an end to the culture wars. We want a truce between science and faith. We want to be known for what we stand for, not what we are against.

We want to ask questions that don’t have predetermined answers.

We want churches that emphasize an allegiance to the kingdom of God over an allegiance to a single political party or a single nation.

We want our LGBT friends to feel truly welcome in our faith communities.

We want to be challenged to live lives of holiness, not only when it comes to sex, but also when it comes to living simply, caring for the poor and oppressed, pursuing reconciliation, engaging in creation care and becoming peacemakers.

You can’t hand us a latte and then go about business as usual and expect us to stick around. We’re not leaving the church because we don’t find the cool factor there; we’re leaving the church because we don’t find Jesus there.

Like every generation before ours and every generation after, deep down, we long for Jesus"
(Rachel Held Evans, Special to CNN. CNN Belief Blog. July 27, 2013.)

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/27/why-millennials-are-leaving-the-church/?sr=sharebar_facebook

William Carey's Departing Words To His Church.

William Carey… told his church prior to departing for Calcutta (India), “You hold the rope and I will climb down into the pit.” Here's the full story....

"Understanding the plight, the desperation, the urgency of the need for gospel proclamation to the unevangelized peoples of the earth is one of the greatest needs of every believer in every age.  Here’s how the “father of modern missions” sought to develop such a vision in the believers of his generation.

As the picnickers frolicked on the bank of the river rapids, a shout rang out, “A child fell in the river!”

A crowd quickly gathered, and anxious eyes searched the rushing water for a glimpse of the child.  Thinking quickly, the captain of the high school swim team grabbed a nearby “tug of war” rope and tied it around his body.  He tossed the other end to the crowd and dove into the rapids.  The crowd watched nervously as the high school hero struggled to reach the child.  As he grabbed the child and struggled to stay afloat, he shouted over the roaring rapids, “Pull the rope!”  The onlookers glanced among each other and asked, “Whose holding the rope?”  In the excitement of watching the rescue, no one had grabbed the rope.  By then, the rope had slid into the rapids and was well out of reach.  Helpless, the crowd watched as the two figures in the water disappeared.

William Carey… told his church prior to departing for Calcutta (India), “You hold the rope and I will climb down into the pit.”  Oswald Chambers reminds us, “Prayer is the greater work.”

Don't Expect Best Friends Everywhere?

"I think I’m finally accepting that you can’t have a best friend everywhere you go. Maybe some special, extroverted, grace-filled person can – but I can’t. “Clicking” is such a mysterious, unpredictable phenomenon. A whole lot of people have been nice to us in Canada, people that we now consider friends, but only one really clickable couple has given us the space to just freaking relax when we hang out. And I think that average is about as good as it gets.

It’s about finding the right people. It just works or it doesn’t. It’s not right or wrong. It just is." (Jessica Bowman)

Do You Think?

“Faith is much better than belief. Belief is when someone else does the thinking.” (Buckminster Fuller)

What to "GIVE UP" Is A More Difficult Decision Than Deciding What to Do

“It’s not hard to decide what you want your life to be about. What’s hard, is figuring out what you’re willing to give up in order to do the things you really care about.” (Bittersweet. Shauna Niequist) 

WOW..... what a mouth full this quote is. 
I remember wrestling with that very issue between 2003-2005. 2005 was when the hard choice was finally made to step off all the boards, committees, events and other many normal western things considered service (Most of which were truly "Good" things - an odd had been truly a waste of time) in order to make room in our lives for Africa. 

Stepping out of "good things" brings criticism, and misunderstanding too, because you let a lot of people down on those "Teams". You leave holes and gaps to be filled and that is inconvenient to those people. They were , "counting on you". You are no longer a good "team player" because you walked away. Frankly what you really care about, may not be what others care about. 

The "giving up" years were the hardest three or four years of my life, and i'm not certain I'll ever be the same again.  What we need to begin is the easy decision. What to "give up" are the real tough ones.

"Giving up" things really highlights the nature of relationships and friends you really have too. Some people genuinely will miss you, wish you well, even wish to help you in some way. Others get hostile because you are dropping the most essential, life changing, church restoring, kingdom thing in the world. Others you simply never hear from again, because you were not really in a relationship, you interacted (As courteous, enjoyable and delightful as those interactions may have been) only because you were a cog in the machine beside them, or for them. Once you are no longer serving the machines purpose, they no longer have the time of day for you.  The only connection we really had was the job.  

"Giving up", bring about an insightful and needed lesson about relationships, one we need to experience I think. I think everyone needs to "give up" and change gears once or twice in their life time.
AJ
The Wandering Nomad!   

War Words Of A Veteran!

"War is organized murder, and nothing else."

(Harry Patch. Last surviving soldier of World War 1)

Simple Church Can Easily Reproduce.

Neil Cole, Organic Church...from page 26-27:

“These churches we were starting were small (avg. 16) and simple. …we valued a simple life of following our Lord and avoiding many of the complexities of the conventional church. Complex things break down and do not get passed on, but simple things are strong and easily reproduced. Ordinary Christians were able to do the extraordinary work of starting and leading churches because the work was simple, the results powerful.…’We want to lower the bar of how church is done and raise the bar of what it means to be a disciple.’ If church is simple enough that everyone can do it and is made up of people who take up their cross and follow Jesus at any cost, the result will be churches that empower the common Christian to do the uncommon works of God. Churches will become healthy, fertile, and reproductive.The conventional church has become so complicated and difficult to pull off that only a rare person who is a professional can do it every week. Many people feel that to lower the bar of how church is done is close to blasphemous because the Church is Jesus’ expression of the Kingdom on earth. Because church is not a once-a-week service but the people of God’s family, what they have actually done is the opposite of their intention. When church is so complicated, its function is taken out of the hands of the common Christian and placed in the hands of a few talented professionals. This results in a passive church whose members come and act more like spectators than empowered agents of God’s kingdom.”

Why Leave Life to Go To Church!

"We believe that church should happen wherever life happens. You shouldn't have to leave life to go to church.” (Neil Cole, Organic Church)

Free Aid Decimates Local African Mosquito Net Business!

Here is a typical problem of free aid.....local businesses are bankrupted because aid projects come in and offer it free. How can local business thrive i we do not support the local markets and mechanisms? 

"There's a mosquito net maker in Africa. He manufactures around 500 nets a week. He employs ten people, who (as with many African countries) each have to support upwards of fifteen relatives. However hard they work, they can't make enough nets to combat the malaria-carrying mosquito.Enter vociferous Hollywood movie star who rallies the masses, and goads Western governments to collect and send 100,000 mosquito nets to the afflicted region, at a cost of a million dollars. The nets arrive, the nets are distributed, and a 'good' deed is done. 

With the market flooded with foreign nets, however, our mosquito net maker is promptly put out of business. His ten workers can no longer support their 150 dependents (who are now forced to depend on handouts), and one mustn't forget that in a maximum of five years the majority of the imported nets will be torn, damaged and of no further use. 

This is the micro-macro paradox. A short-term efficacious intervention may have few discern able, sustainable long-term benefits  Worse still,it can unintentionally undermine whatever fragile chance for sustainable development may already be in play......In terms of the mosquito net example, instead of giving malaria nets, donors could buy from local producers of malaria nets then sell the nets on or donate them locally. There needs to be much more of this type of thinking."

 (Dead Aid. Dambisa Moyo. 2009, pg44)

If Someone Else Kissed Me.....

Life, and love, can be brutal on the heart and soul.

"In 110°, I bike miles everyday to find rice. In front of an empty mailbox, there are no tears, only triumphing beads of sweat raining into the sand......And exhaustion, not love, made me curl up next to Charles when he visited, so when he said he didn't care if someone else kissed me, I laugh - until he left the village. Then on my straw mat, with sweaty legs curled up to my chin, I wept."

(Last Moon Dancing: A Memoir of Love and Real Life in Africa. Monique Maria Schmidt) Peace Corps worker - Benin

16 Year Old Girl Shot For Demanding Education

But not before she spoke to the world......

"We realized the importance of pens and books when we saw the guns. The extremists are afraid of books and pens." 

(16 yr old Malala Yousafzai in a speech at the UN in New York, the Pakistani schoolgirl was shot in the head in October 2012 for speaking out about her right to education.)


Other things she said in her speech:

"This is what my soul is telling me: Be peaceful and love everyone."

"There was a time when women social activists asked men to stand up for their rights, but this time we will do it by ourselves." 


"We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back."

[Extremists] are afraid of change, afraid of the equality that we will bring into our society."

"One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world. Education is the only solution. Education first."

"Let us shield ourselves with unity and togetherness."

Difficult to Plant A Church!

“It’s difficult to ‘plant’ a normal church in today’s culture. You have to ‘ramp-up’ so fast to make it financially viable that it is silly,” Cecil said, alluding to the benefit of the low overhead in house churches.......Although appealing to many because of this back-to-basics approach, house churches share their own host of problems. “House churches can be messy,” White admits. They’re more vulnerable (easy to start, easy to die), and people miss the ‘bigness’ of traditional church.” From Cecil’s perspective, it seems that people’s “expectations of church as a vendor are still strong,” and this can make a member’s transition to a house church difficult. White notes, "House churches can be ingrown like any other church,” but he sees unique outreach possibilities in this model. “House churches have the potential of everyone owning outreach—of everyone reaching out and folding in new people through relationships. It’s hard to get lost in a house church.”

http://www.churchleaders.com/?news=139522/

It's More Than About Where We Park Our Ass On Sunday! What Does It mean To Be a Theologian or Christain?

"If you pray truly, you are a theologian." (Evagrius Pontus).

 For Evagrius Pontus, to be a theologian is to "know" God not just know doctrines about him. 

I wonder how our measuring metrics need to change for the word Christian too? I think that for the vast majority a Christian is a person who goes to church. 

What if being a Christian were simply defined as someone who "Knows" and follows Jesus? I think that is Jesus' point. He said follow him.... But we measure "Following him" by so many other things, other than following him. 

I remember when I was making the transition out of Traditional Church in a building...to simple church movement (I was a paid preacher, minster, pastor, and missionary to Africa for 20 yrs). There was a time I had been part of a smaller church gathering outside the building for several months and my Mother came over and blasted me... "You are supposed to be a Christian.You should be ashamed of yourself for not taking your wife and kids (all out of high school) to church". 

Many simply can not accept this other stuff as proper church.... it's too invisible for them... they do not know how to "measure".... "it". (My mom gets it.... and we have a great relationship. But from time to time she falls into the box... because she still attends that stuff.. and she says something. And more and more people are starting to embrace that church can be something else now)

However, I had been studying the word and praying on average 3-4 hours a day each week, all week. Not because I had to, because I wanted to. That is just me.  Not to mention that this conversation came only two months after my wife and I just returned from working (The only workers -we go every year for 4-6 months) among an unreached Islamic group in North West Africa, with no believers among them. A region so hard no one else will work there. We went there to bring Jesus, and to love the people, and it's working, and yes, it's the hardest, but most rewarding Africa work we have ever done. 

However, all this is not measured by my Mother.... and the majority of people in the institutional church (I know because I was a leader of growing churches) because the real measurement we have for success... for a "good Christian" is... I showed up at building church faithfully. It's hard to measure transformation, one has to look differently.

The 95% of people who go to church, and then go home and never pray, crack a bible, who have Jesus as just a rare distance thought, not a real person I know or follow or even like....are all better Christians than me..... because they are going to a "building church" every week.  So that is how we measure is it?

It sickens me that we have reduced "Knowing" Jesus to this.... 
I'll say it again.... you have to gather with other believers... I want to, love it, and do.... Just not in a building with pews, a parking lot, and a shingle out front. Sometimes I do.... but lately I mostly don't..... Get over it... 

I'm not going to be a cog in the "churchy program machine" like I was before.... like I made others to be as a church leader. I'll fellowship, I'll teach, I'll discuss.... But I'm not managing events and shows... and I am not studying 30 hrs a week so people can go home and not.....Which is what we have in church now.  I'm walking and working with people who stand up and wish to take the journey of "knowing" Jesus. 

The best advice I ever received was from my Sister-In-Law Laura (Not a believer as we know it). who, from the outside of church,  could see how church leadership was sucking the life out of me, and her "Double Masters in Mission and Church Planting" brother. 

She said... "Andy, you can't work hard enough to compensate for other peoples lack of interest or inertia." 

That hit me like a ton of Bricks.... I'm afraid that this faulty idea IS the basis of all that we do in institutional church... It was the unspoken thought process driving every meeting about growing or revitalizing church for my twenty years of ministry. 

If I could only....(be a better preacher, better stories, illustrations)  If we could just do this better, longer, slicker, flashier, ..... they will come and eventually they will get it... If I work harder, and harder, and harder.... and do more for them... offer them more opportunities....the coddled attendees will change an get on fire for Jesus.... Ah....no! That is the cycle that burned us all out over and over again.The problem with church attenders is not a lack of opportunity.... it's a lack of interest and inertia.
Their Christianity is "Going to church". Only they can transition their Christianity to become "knowing" Jesus. We can't begin that process for them. It is not shoved in from the outside (though it's how we operate as church), this can only comes from deep inside of a person as they listen to and permit the Spirit to Work. We can "deny" or "try" that any time. Our choice.

This is why all the people who gather in our "simple" church groups must follow along in the HOME bible reading of the groups choice that consists of 4-5 chapters a week.   and EVERYONE (Even older elementary kids) is to share what THEY learned in THEIR study, how it impacted them, and how they see Jesus moving them through it,  and then ask any questions about things they did not understand.  We are all studying the word...This has been a healthy, refreshing, and fun transition. Now church is a gathering of people on the journey to "know" Jesus. 

No matter where we park our ass on Sunday, if we are not on that journey of "Knowing" Jesus.... we are not really part of (being) the "church" anyway... 

Faith Is More Primal Than Love

I found this precision rather insightful. There is a fuel that has to drive it, and faith in God is it.

"The world at large views love as life's prime virtue.... But for the Christian love may be primary- "the greatest of these"—but faith is the primal Christian virtue. Why faith and not love? Because agape love—the love of God— is formed in us by grace through faith. Christian love is a form of plagiarism: We repeat and copy God's love. In fact, our loving is based on faith in God's first loving us."

(What Matters Most. Leonard Sweet. Pg 23, 24)

Loneliness When Leaving The Herd.

 "We all know one of the severest costs of choosing to walk your own path towards your own independence is experiencing loneliness. To find your own land and stake your own claim requires you to become a pioneer. And pioneers know loneliness. Pioneers simply understand that in order to enjoy their own lives to the full they are going to have to leave the herd.

Read any of the accounts of pioneers, such as the fascinating Canadian explorer, David Thompson, and you will read the story of courageous people who experienced loneliness. The further they got away from home the fewer their companions became.

For many it just isn’t worth it. Comfort is better than change. Safety is better than freedom. Are you at the crossroads now? Will you forge forward?

(“i might be alone for now” by nakedpastor, David Hayward)

Feeding People Rice Decimated Regions... Is Not Actually Feeding People!

When you see kids eating rice.... remember this... It's nutrient-less food.  You read that correct... Unless rice is served ith sufficent sauce ith protine, and vegetables in it.... it fills a belly, but provides neglable nutrient value to a humans diet.

The article comments... "even if their bellies are full every day".... I can assure you that most children rarely ever get a belly full of rice. I see children being served in a communal bowl, the equlivant of about 1/2- 3/4 of a cup a rice per person in a bowl. The sauce is little, and rarely contains much more than a few pieces of onion and a little tomato(Paste) in the sauce as the base. A sack of rice keeps people alive, but that is about it. "Malo" is the Bambara word for Rice. This is an interesting article.

 "We learned white rice is not healthy and we strip away a lot of the vitamins and nutrients during the processing. So countries like Mali that have people who depend heavily on white rice, and don't have access to meat or vegetables or other sources or nutrition, have serious nutritional problems, even if their bellies are full every day. (Salif Romano Niang.Co-fouder of "Malo") 

Love has no Agenda

"Love changes people, but it doesn’t intend to. If you get a sniff of an agenda in what’s being called love, run in the other direction please. Because that’s not love."

(David Hayward. NakedPastor)

International Worker On Emotional Overload!

I have never experienced anything this drastic. However, there are days you just go to your room and shut the door, and pretend that Africa is not out side that closed door.

"I didn't give a damn how many French government workers stared at me as I dragged my blue plaid rice bag up to the counter and set my moto helmet down loudly on the shiny white formica, next to an arrangement of roses. I needed a vacuum zone. A place where Africa didn't exist. I arrived on Friday afternoon. During the weekend, I gave my bed ten minute periods of rest when I left it to shower or
pee or open the door for pizza. That was it. The rest of the  time, I hugged that bed, trying to salvage my nerve endings  in an atmosphere of clean and comfort and blankets. With the air-conditioning on high, I piled blankets on me and assumed the fetal position. I pretended I had checked into a ski lodge in Colorado.

From my side, I looked at the phone. The thought of dialing all the access numbers made my hands tired. I didn't call home. What would 1 say? "Hey, Mom and Dad...how's it going? I just about lost my shit today." What could they do? And I  didn't want to hear about gardening or complaints about finding parking at the mall. Sometimes when I talked with people in America, I could feel my soul trying to stuff itself into the coils of the phone cord to escape, leaving me alone, a carcass."

(Last Moon Dancing. Monique Maria Schmidt. Former Peace Corps Worker in Benin)

Forceful Propositional Adherence...Weak Transformational Practice.

"One of the problems of the church is its forceful insistence on intellectual adherence to certain beliefs, in the relative absence of a holy passion for the incarnational practice of those same beliefs.
The purpose of Christianity is to help people come to faith, which means to establish a relationship with God. Faith is not salvation per se, or liberation per se, or correct belief about the Godhead per se. Faith is the willing acceptance of Jesus s invitation, "Follow me." As a result, it is kinetic and interpersonal. It is transformational, not status quo. It is not satisfied with simply trading one set of convictions for a different, more orthodox set."
(What Matters Most. Leonard Sweet. Pg 23)

Whipped Spirituality Is Not True Spirituality

"It is not our rule-following behavior but our actual identity that needs to be radically changed. This is a major change of position and vantage point. You do things because they are true, not because you have to or you are afraid of punishment. Henceforth you are not so much driven from without (the False Self method) as you are drawn from within (the True Self method). The generating motor is inside you now instead of a whip or a threat outside.
(Richard Rohr. Immortal Diamond)

Religious Ideology Well Summarized

I thought it summarized it quite well :-) Lets Add

The Skeptic: What is this shit?
The Agnostic: I don't give a shit.
The Nihilist: F this shit!
Libertarian: Stop messing with my shit.
Legalist..... My shit needs to be your shit...or I'll give you shit.
Pacifist... I don't want any part of this shit.
Satanist....Do whatever the shit you want. Your shit is your shit....do whatever.
Evangelical: I'm offended by this shit.