Most Leaders Are Starting With The Wrong Questions

I once played with string at a leaders meeting, because, frankly, it was more interesting than the discussion at hand. I've felt that way about the majority of the meetings I've participated in over my ministry time in Canada over the years. Very few of the discussions were pivital in my mind.

Always the same subjects, from the same perspective, and we go home with some busy work to make some cosmetic adjustments; But really, still doing the same thing. What can we do to make it better to "Attract" to "Draw", to "Lure" to "Appeal". I have come to really dislike this kind of discussion.

I've discovered that we can't lure people to church with a carrot. When it comes to church, everyone we speak to always knows our end goal, to "Get them to church". Do we think they don't know that we will be slipping in the gospel too? Of course they know that. If they come, it's not because of the music etc, it's because they are ready to hear a little of the gospel. So don't pat ourselves on the back for having found the right program or method. The dynamics are more complicated than that. Usually they come out of respect for you. So the real core is relational.

Here is a great summary the wrong Questions We discuss: I don't go to meetings like this anymore. Don't want to waste my time, that is why I'm so glad to be serving outside a paid traditional minister role these days. They have the hardest job in the world - Hats off to those who still do that.
This quite resonates with me deeply, as a former, current, and continuing missionary, be it in Africa or in the community where I'm involved in a new church plant. I believe if we approached every place like a missionary, with a missional mindset, it would be very good.

We would agree in principle that we are missioanries to this place. Truth is we are not applying much of the wisdom that our missionaries are using to engage people, and understand and enter new cultures, as insiders.

"USUALLY, WHEN LEADERS START to think about the call of missionality and to personal and corporate change, they begin in the. church parking lot asking questions like these;

• Why is the church failing?
• How should we do church?
• Should church be small or big?
• Mega-church or house church?
• What types of changes can we make to our programs or our presentation on Sunday?
• Should we build or buy a building?
• How can we increase funding so we can continue at the level we are now?
• What type of staff do we need?

Starting with any of these questions is the wrong place to start. Pastors, denominational leaders, theologians, and lay leaders usually begin here.

A missionary starts somewhere else.

Where Missionaries Begin: We must start with people like Fiona (from Chapter One) in mind—she and the millions like her who represent our mission field. We start with their assumptions, their experiences, their worldviews, their emotions. When we start there, everything changes: our posture with people, our livelihood, what we do with our spare time, who we spend our time with, how we structure the fabric of our lives, Yes, church is what we’re concerned about because we’re deeply entrenched in its minutia, but we can’t make transformative adjustments if we start there and work outward. We must go out and then let the church reemerge as a reflection and the natural outgrowth of our missional way of life.

Missional at its essence means “sent.” The idea is the exact opposite of waiting for the Fionas and their friends to come to us. It’s the antithesis of trying to “attract” them to us, our programs, our buildings, or our gatherings"

(Tangible Kingdom. Hugh Halter, pg 38, 2008, Jossey-Bass)

Canadian Church Is Taking A Year Off!

Where transfer growth is not so common, or rather on a much smaller scale, like in most rural churches, the frustration level can get elevated. As we try and try “New Thing” to attract people, with little results. This is what we have been taught to do, so we plan and organize more programs, exhausting ourselves in the process, while seeing no flocks of people coming. It’s because we are spending too much time on planning and supporting the programs and not enough time with people. Our core church people are tired. If you don’t believe me, ask them. They are tired of running, and running, and seeing few people unbeliever come to Christ, or too church for that matter. Its’ an exhausting treadmill. Here is a great Article from the chronicle Herald where a church decided to stop running.

Mennonite church takes a sabbatical

By JOHN LONGHURST Winnipeg Free Press
Sat, Aug 7 - 4:54 AM

WINNIPEG — It’s common for clergy to take sabbaticals — time off for rest and rejuvenation. But can a whole church take one, too?

That’s what the Whitewater Mennonite Church in Boissevain, southwest of Winnipeg, is doing. Starting in September 2009, the congregation suspended all its committees and committee work for a year.

"It’s been a year of letting go of the assumptions of how we do church," says lead pastor Judith Doell. "We’re not sure why we exist anymore. We know the church is changing. This is a way to try to figure that out."

The congregation still meets on Sundays, of course, and members also meet in small groups during the week.

"The point is to rest and get to know each other," Doell says, adding the congregation also gave itself the goal of reading through the Bible.

Church members also meet monthly to deal with any pressing decisions that need to be made. But if somebody comes up with an idea for a new project, and nobody volunteers, it doesn’t happen.

The church decided to take a year off because the way they were structured had become a burden for the small number of people who call it home.

Although the church can seat 300, only about 70 people attend on an average Sunday morning — and many of those are seniors.

"We needed to evaluate why and what we were doing, and we needed to pare down our structures," Doell says, noting that the church was finding it hard to fill all the committee positions.

Whitewater’s situation is not unique, she notes; many small-town churches are struggling to find people to run programs due to rural depopulation. "We were finding it harder to find volunteers," she says.

In deciding to take a year off, the church drew inspiration from the Book of Leviticus, where the Israelites were instructed to take a "year of Jubilee" every 50 years.

During that year they were supposed to let the soil lie fallow, give property back to those who had been forced to sell it due to financial hardship and free all the slaves — basically stop their regular work and release themselves from regular activities.

The church also took heart from the story of Mary and Martha in the Book of Luke, where Jesus praises Mary for taking time to sit and listen.

"We are trying to learn what it means to sit at the Lord’s feet," says Doell, adding that the year off is a time for members to "to stop our regular church work and seek a new sense of freedom and release in our life together."

And how’s it going so far? "It’s been challenging," she acknowledges. "We are such a doing society. It’s hard to stop and ask who we are, why we are here."

But one thing is already clear to Doell: "Not as much is required (of a church) as we think," she says. "Much of our busyness is just that — busyness," she says.

Plus, she adds, "much of Jesus’s ministry was just hanging out with people."

Organizational guru Peter Drucker liked to say that every business or organization should ask itself periodically: "If we weren’t doing what we now do, would we want to start doing it?" If the answer was probably not, he said, "then maybe it isn’t the right thing to do anymore."

‘Much of Jesus’s ministry was just hanging out with people.’

PastorJUDITH DOELL. [1]

---

[1] Mennonite church takes a sabbatical. By JOHN LONGHURST Winnipeg Free Press, Sat, Aug 7 - 4:54 AM. Accessed July 8, 2010 http://thechronicleherald.ca/Religion/1195671.html

Too Weak To Be Missional

This sounds a lot like how fundamentalist Christians view relationships. Have to avoid hanging out with people who might contaminate me. It's juvenile and immature to live within this fear. They have forgotten that we are to live as missionaries to the people and places around us. What kind of Faith do we have if it's in jeopardy of being lost by simply being with people, the kind Jesus want's us to love. We are playing the "weak" card too much.

"......he (Jesus) was not you ordinary evangelical guy. He was notorious (yes, that`s the right word) for hanging out with the wrong types. In contrast with today when so much of our Christianity is being with the right people in the right places at the right times, Jesus was always in the wrong places, with the wrong people, at the wrong times, according to the religious establishment."

>
(The Shaping If Things To Come. Michael Frost & Alan Hirsch. Hendrickson, 2003, Pg 114)

Courageous New Breed of Canadian Church Planters

Dad You Suck! Are We Bad News for our Wife & Kids?

"I put pressure on myself to live in such a way that people want to be with me.........During our first church plant in Portland, I came home from a normal ministry day, and while I was having a cup of coffee with my wife, she began to challenge me on my crankiness. It wasn’t just about me being an ogre that day. She seemed to be saying that there was a deeper problem with my level of stress and how it was being played out in our family and marriage. Adding to her list of concerns, she mentioned that my oldest daughter, who was six at the time, had said, “Dad sucks!” Now, I know where the word comes from, and how it’s been generalized down to simply mean “Dad’s no fun,” but it still seemed a bit overstated. So I called all the kids in for a family meeting. I asked them, “Mom says that you guys think I suck. Am I really that bad?” They all nodded and four-year-old McKenna said, “Yep, you suck.”

Cheryl later communicated that she married me because I used to be the “fun guy.” But that since we had been in pastoral ministry, I didn’t really turn her crank any more. She said, “I’m not going to divorce you, but just so you know, I’m not really enjoying living with you.”

As a pastor and a parent, I know the stats are stacked against my kids wanting to follow my faith. Somehow the leaders of the good news have become consistently bad news to their spouses and children, and I feel the most pressure to model the Kingdom from within my own house. If I’m not an inspiring person, I may not even influence my own family, let alone people outside the church. So what did I do? I began to “model up” and change. (Still working on it, by the way.)"

(Tangible Kingdom. Hugh Halter, pg 77. 2008, Jossey-Bass)

I've heard leaders that talk about how many "Hours" they put in. Also listened to church Elders criticizing their hired staff for what they perceived as a lack of "Sacrifice".
These guys talk about how, "I work full time and do all this church stuff after Hours" so why do they expect.... la.... de.... da...!

One church leader was singing this very song to me one day, and I bit my tongue. All I did was listen and watched his body language as he went on. He was not smiling about his service, was obviously tired and "burnt out" himself, and it was clear to me his "Sacrifice" was giving him little joy in the journey.

I wanted to ask him, "How's that working for you?" Would you really want to serve the same poison to your minister so he can be as burned out and joyless as you are about service? Boy, his wife and kids will thank you for that. Did you know that when church leaders kids leave home, ministers kids are more likely to be not involved in church than the average church kid.

The sure biblical Joy, and the occasional fickle fun, has been sucked right out of ministry and leadership for far to many today.
What's up with that?

Spontaneous Church

Some "Clergy" Are Just Crazy! This is Too Funny!

"In the past, I once enjoyed a season in a charismatic denomination. My spiritual formation was greatly enhanced by the denomination’s belief in the supernatural and their determination to “get their miracle.” If you’ve grown up in that environment, you’ll remember that at the end of every service you had an altar time. That’s when you let the Holy Spirit have his way over the people who went forward for prayer, healing, and so on.

Once, during a leadership conference, the speaker asked every minister to come forward, and he told us that God was going to slay us in the Spirit. I’d been open to this in the past, but for whatever reason, God seemed to always pass over me. As the speaker had warned, everyone fell over, except me. I was like the ten-pin that just wouldn’t go down. The minister looked perplexed and came over to me and gave it one more shot, but I just stood there, now smiling. He didn’t think it was funny and applied a bit of “unnatural” pressure to my forehead and then gave me a pretty good nudge. Still no response, except I was starting to get a little ticked off. Then he whispered in my ear.
“Son, your lack of faith is keeping you from God’s blessing.”

I whispered back, “Maybe God’s got bigger fish to fry than blessing a bunch of people who have been blessed their whole lives.” I was out of there in a hurry and spent the evening at a local pub enjoying the company of the unblessed.

I’m not sure how we got where we are, but it’s amazing that we think our most powerful times, our most intimate spiritual experiences, are supposed to happen within the comfortable confines of our church services. The biblical evidence is overwhelming and is crystal clear that God’s power is most naturally meant to happen “out there”!

The early church did meet in secret; the church has done so in times of persecution throughout the world, and many still do to this day. Jesus also pulled his disciples away at times to give them a break and to debrief. That’s okay, too. We’re not saying that we shouldn’t have private times with believers, but in early church times, the majority of the Christian activities were clearly done in plain view and for the benefit of the onlooking culture. They did meet privately, not out of separation theology, but because they had to. If God’s church is to regain its influence in the world, we will have to get much more comfortable doing “our stuff” out there again."

(Tangible Kingdom. Hugh Halter, pg 128-129. 2008, Jossey-Bass)

Mali, West Africa is Hurting!

72.8% the number of people living on less than $1 a day. And you wonder why we are launching work in 2011. Community and people transformation is needed.

God Uses Persecution To Spread The Gospel

"On one occasion he (Samuel Zwemer) was forced to leave Cairo on the grounds that he had illegally distributed tracts among university students, but the incident contributed to the conversion of one of those students. In front of his class, an infuriated professor tore to bits one of Zwemer’s tracts, and a student, curious as to why a small leaflet should create such an outrage, later picked up the fragments, pieced them together, and subsequently was converted Christianity."
(Encournering the World of Islam. (Kindle edition line 6454) Caleb project

No Imagination For Our Culture?

"While in reality we are in a post-Christian context. The Western church still operates for the most part in a Christendom mode. Constantine, it seems, is still the emperor of our imaginations."

(The Shape Of Things To Come. Michale Frost, Alan Hirsch. Hendrickson, 2003. pg 9)

Much Work To Do About Slavery!

After reading this note, from a confidential source I can't name, it makes one realize that slavery is not only an issue for the rich, but also about slavery of the mind too. This is for real!

"Senegalese people are obsessed with wanting to go to America.  They think we’re all super rich, and that by coming here, they can be super rich too.  Recently one of my friends was talking with his family about slavery in America.  His description was somewhat as follows: “yeah, boats would come to Africa, and fill up with Africans that were to go to America to work.”  Well his family was so keen on the idea that they asked him if boats like this still existed, and if so, how they could get on one."

My Dream Church

Is there more people like this? I want to walk with you. I would even consider ministry full time for a church people with this desire.

"(missional)..... Such a church makes it's mission its priority and perpetually asks itself, 'What has God called us to be and do in our current cultural context?' ... the missional church shapes itself to fit the context in order to transform it for the sake of the kingdom of God....missional church is always outward looking, always changing (as culture continues to change), and always faithful to the Word of God. In many places it is so radical it barely resembles church as we know it. In other cases it might appear conventional but is in fact incarnating itself into its community in surprising and exciting ways."

(The Shape Of Things To Come. Michale Frost, Alan Hirsch. Hendrickson, 2003. pg 7)

Why Would They Choose You?

I have found this to be true.

".....the best and most natural way to win someone’s heart is to model a way of life that’s attractive to them.

In old Christendom, leaders got to pick their followers. In the post-everything, no-authority world, followers now choose their leaders. They won’t be picking leaders based on the leaders’ ability to preach or organize a religious institution. They will be following people they want to be with and live like."

(Tangible Kingdom. Hugh Halter, pg 78. 2008, Jossey-Bass)

Oh Come, Come, Come, ........What's Up With That?

I really, really, despise that song.

First for the very unbiblical usage of the word "Church". Church is not a building its the people of God in the NT. The church never had Church Buildings" for the first 300 years.
Secondly, it bothers me because Church is about "coming", coming to a brown building, for an event, more than it is about "being" in relationship with others while on a journey or mission of the kingdom.

The hymn reflects the "Attractional Model" we have been using for some time now. Come to us! Come to Where We are! When its suppose to be come to Jesus, and discover what we have discovered in Him.

"The danger we speak of regarding the paradigms of the contemporary church isn’t that we’ve lost our heart for the world or that we do bad church. The problem is that our present evangelical “Come to us” paradigm of church has not been an appropriate missiological response to the paradigms that exist in our world."
(Tangible Kingdom. Hugh Halter, pg 62. 2008, Jossey-Bass)

"The Gospel says, "Go," but our church buildings say, "Stay."

The Gospel says "Seek the lost," but our churches say, "Let the lost seek the church." (Howard Snyder "The Problem of Wineskins")

"...the disobedient Jonah sleeps in the bottom of the boat, oblivious of the fact that the storm is directed at him. At times the Church, too, sleeps right through the storm of God’s judgment passing over the world, assuring herself that the wind outside has nothing to do with her."

(Verkuyl. Pg 46. Perspectives. 2009, William Carey Library

"Jonah is lesson in educating person to be a missionary: it reveals the need for radical conversion of one's natural tendencies and complete restructuring of his life to make it serviceable for mission......The author of Jonah warns his readers against this intolerant attitude and sets before each of them the question of whether he or she is willing to be transformed into servant who works to accomplish the mandates of God."

(Verkuyl. Pg 45. Perspectives. 2009, William Carey Library)

Life Choices For The Poor!

Statistics show that by the end of grade 4 in Mali, only 23% of boys and 10% of girls can read a simple sentence in French. Mali ranks at the bottom of the United Nation's literacy rankings. .....Can you imagine sacrificing an extra pair of able hands on your farm and paying for your child's education only to have them come home having learned nothing? That's what happens in Mali.

God is Great! Beer is Good!

Chorus to a Song on the Radio today.

GOD is Great!

BEER is Good!

And people are crazy!

Song "People Are Crazy"by BILLY CURRINGTON

There have been days where I might have "amen-ed" this. But, my I really can't get into country music.

No Results!

"It just flat hurts when you've given generously of your time, money, and emotional energy to missional efforts without seeing results."

(Hugh Halter "Tangible Kingdom"Jossey-Bass, 2008. pg 16)

Why Plant your feet in Africa?

"It is the responsibility of your feet to take you places it was not obvious to your heart that it should go."

Tuareg Proverb

Are People Reached?

Missional or Attractional is not the issue, are people reached......

"I hope my perception based on my interaction with the missional movement is wrong. But for now, I would rather be part of a Christ-centered megachurch full of programs where people are coming to know Jesus as Savior, than part of a church of any size where they are not."

Missional Misgivings, Dan Kimball
http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2008/fall/14.112.html

Missional Means?

"A missional theology is not content with mission being a church-based work. Rather, it applies to the whole life of every believer. Every disciple is to be an agent of the kingdom of God, and every disciple is to carry the mission of God into every sphere of life. We are all missionaries sent into a non-Christian culture. Missional represents a significant shift in the way we think about the church. As the people of a missionary God, we ought to engage the world the same way he does—by going out rather than just reaching out. To obstruct this movement is to block God's purposes in and through his people. When the church is in mission, it is the true church.

"

Alan Hirsch. "Defining Missional" http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2008/fall/17.20.html

Church Planting Is Planting What?

Do you see the difference?


"In fact, it's more often than not been the case that Sunday services are planted rather than missional Jesus communities."

(The Shape Of Things To Come. Michale Frost, Alan Hirsch. Hendrickson, 2003. pg 18)

Where There Is No Doctor!

Getting ready for NGO community development & Church planting work among an Islamic group of people in Mali, West Africa.

Health in the bush 8 hours & 500 miles from adequate health care is a reality. What do you do of you get very sick. A sickness in the bush is a real possibility, and concern , as locals are not always able to get you on a transport quickly.

So we have some good bush medical guides for tropical African diagnosis and treatment in the bush. One classic is " Where There Is No Doctor" which I am re-reading right now in preparation for going back to my second home, Africa.

There are about a dozen top notch free books to help people in rural areas isolated from health care.
Get these books for free.

http://www.hesperian.org/publications_download.php

Get Out Of Church, Or The World Gets Nothing

John Bowen, director of the Institute of Evangelism at Wycliffe College in Toronto says,

"We need to recognize there are a lot of people who will only encounter the gospel if Christians go to them."

The need to go missional. Sept 1, 2010. http://www.christianweek.org/stories.php?id=1040&cat=vitalsigns

Here we sit in our churches trying to get people to come to us. Mission (going) is actually easier, and more fruitful, than attraction (come to us). We are killing ourselves doing it the hard way.
The most fruitful times in my ministey life have been those times I was operating outside the local church ministry structure. Basically, when living like a missionary in stead of preacher. It's too much about what happens inside the church.

The Best Satan Video Ever!

We need to read this.

So Sad! Work first Family Second!

This was written by a Peace Corps Worker in Mali,West Africa

"Peace Corps staff, all Malian, get training on American work values so that the office can be more efficient, punctual, and reflective of an American office. I was once in the office of a certain staff member, and noticed a small-typed list hanging behind his desk: 50 Successful Tips for Working in an American office. There was one highlighted. I leaned over the desk and squinted to read it. "Work first. Family Second." My heart fell. I pitied him, and in doing so, pitied myself, and the millions of Americans who have internalized that."

Work First, Family Second!

I thought this was well written. Peace Corp Worker in Mali, Aug 2010

As an American, I value achievement, intellect, individuality.....Amidst the constraints of poverty and the lack of access to opportunity, Malians have developed a strong values system. So if not competition and education, what are Malian values? Practicing utmost respect for people. Taking an interest in other people's affairs and endeavors. Sharing everything you have and not taking anything for yourself unless there's some left over. Stopping to help everyone you pass who may need a hand, not thinking twice about if it will make you "late" or if it's "not your problem." And though I've been annoyed with people persistently insisting on helping when I can clearly draw my own water or change my own bike tire, people stopping me to give an unending string of blessings and greetings, people constantly inquiring about my comings and goings or dismissing my polite declines to ask me to eat toh with them for the fourth time in a row, I know now, they just care about me. They give everything, which is nothing in our sense. But blessings, care, small acts of generosity, is all they have. And they have been offering it to me from the day I arrived. They are putting their values into practice and in doing so, show me that maybe the way I do things isn't necessarily right. I'm that girl who whizzes by on her bike because stopping to great a group of 10 women on the way to the market would take up way too much of my precious time. I'm the girl that has nice food and medicines in her home that she hides from the rest of the village. And how many nights have I dismissed someone who wanted to chat because I'd rather have my head in a book? What really gets me- is the individualism. I'm catching myself- my thoughts. Self-centered, so often about me. When I peer into the brain of my fellow Malian, who could be resting but instead goes over to help her neighbor wash clothes, I see her thoughts of society, and love for others suppressing that "me! me! me!" voice that is always trying to scream the loudest in our minds. Mali peace corps worker ...............
Peace Corps staff, all Malian, get training on American work values so that the office can be more efficient, punctual, and reflective of an American office. I was once in the office of a certain staff member, and noticed a small-typed list hanging behind his desk: 50 Successful Tips for Working in an American office. There was one highlighted. I leaned over the desk and squinted to read it. "Work first. Family Second."

My heart fell. I pitied him, and in doing so, pitied myself, and the millions of Americans who have internalized that."

Malian Proverb

"No matter how long a log sits in the stream, it will never become a crocodile."

Malian proverb meaning, ultimately, you are what you really are in any environment.

Some Fights Are Worth It!

"While women weep, as they do now, I'll fight; while children go hungry, as they do now, I'll fight; while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I'll fight; while there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, while there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I'll fight - I'll fight to the very end!" William Booth

Too Small To Be Church!

Was reflecting on how difficult it was for the Jews to accept Jesus, and I tried to place myself in the routine of daily Jewish life and routine to understand why that might be. Well, you know, just about every structure and habit I had associated with my worship, and my place in that stricture would have been ripped away from under me.

Jesus was the end of the priesthood. Now everyone was to come to God, and live as an ambassador.

Jesus was the end of Animal Sacrifice. No more specialists required to worship God.

Jesus was the end of the Temple. God does no live in Temples built by human hands.

The synagogue was no longer needed. The river, the home, any place was ok to worship now. Many say church today is similar to synagogue structure. Oh my no. It is today but should not be. Because temple like places like synagogue are not required.
Jesus said not to go and hang out with the 99. He said to go seek lost sheep, and when you find him bring him to meet the ready of the family. Go to the ditch to pull out lost sheep. He never said that for our own health you need to be with the 99.

Jesus did away with Gathering size. Synagogues required 10 males to be formed. So it would have to involve at least 30 to 40 family members minimum. Jesus said where two or three gather in my name, I am there. But most Christians think its a false doctrine or only rebels or loons who actually practice it. Just about anyone is thought to be so. Never heard an exception yet.

You know, after thinking about it, If Jesus came to my church and said the same things
1. You are all priests, live like it. Stop waiting for "leaders" to do it for you. The Gospel has given you a ministry to do do it, there is nothing to figure out.
2. You don't need a building to meet with God, gather people anywhere and everywhere. "Jesus says go, but our church building says stay. Jesus says to seek the lost & we say let the lost seek the church." The Problem With Wine Skins
3. A good church is not measured by numbers, but faithfulness of those gathered. Two or three IS a church and could be a health on too....

I'm not so certain how many would hear it today. Would not be asked to come back and preach. There is much of the simplicity of the first century church we will not look at.

It's Just Life For Most

"Many of the crisis problems which are considered disasters in the United States would only be normal, everyday living conditions in most of Asia."

-K.P. Yohannan, Revolution in World Missions

Too Much Of Our "Stuff" With Gospel!

"Have Asians rejected Christ? Not really. In most cases they have rejected only the trappings of Western culture that have fastened themselves onto the Gospel."

-K.P. Yohannan, Revolution in World Missions

The African Generosity!

Was reading another Mali, west African Peace Corps workers blog this week. If you are planning to work overseas, spend 50 hours reading Peace Corps journals for the country you are going to (if PC is there), AND the surrounding countries too!

The insight you gain into the life and adjustments of living in that country is good. Take them with a grain of salt, but they live in rural villages very simply. (www.peacecorpjournals.com or get the free iPhone/IPod/IPad app "peacecorpsjournals"

This article expressed how I often felt in Africa too. I'm sure people with a lack of understanding envision us going in as "know-it-alls". Oh my, sigh....! No, always humbled by the acceptance of a poor, yet precious people!

“It’s amazing,” I said the night before my departure to a crowd of my friends and coworkers who had came to visit, “that you people can welcome and accept someone from a far off land who doesn’t speak your language, and learn to live and work alongside of them. That is a bigger accomplishment than all the wells we built......And it really is. I noticed that when Shawna, the young college grad from Orgeon, came to Dombila to visit for a week. Site visit. I remember mine. The worst week of my life. I took extra care to make sure Dombila’s new volunteer would be well acquainted, informed, and comfortable upon her arrival, but there’s no getting around it: adjustment is hard. Shawna was polite and warm to the people of Dombila, but trying to take it all in, imagining herself there for the next two years, she couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed.......

But seeing her, and the way my host family and all of the people at the CSCOM interacted with her, reminded me of my first few months. It was so hard for me, but I never really realized, it was so hard for them too. The way they took Shawna in as their own and looked after her was so endearing, and I began to realize that I have thus far underestimated all they have done for me. Peace Corps always said volunteers come out of service having gained more than they feel like they have given. It’s personal development, but it’s also valuing the gifts of others, no matter how small. They’ve giving me so much, the people of this town. All the pomegranates from the pomegranate tree, all of the eggplants from the garden, the only peanuts left in the house, the prize chicken, and all of the blessings imaginable. And a home. The last few months I’ve felt like I could finally let down my guard and be myself in Dombila. I wasn’t hiding who I was, nor was I struggling to express it. I was so comfortable, content, and so me.

http://em-mali.blogspot.com/2010/08/home.html

I'm Not Honking Because I love Jesus!

"I remember sitting out at a local Starbucks one day and hearing a guy honking profusely at someone who took his parking spot. It got so bad, I walked over to him and suggested he chill out. It got even worse when I saw his bumper sticker that read, “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven.” I, of course, referenced the dichotomy between his words and his actions, but he blurted out, “This is my wife’s car!”


(Tangible Kingdom. Hugh Halter, pg 40, 2008, Jossey-Bass)

Why Blame God? What Do I Do About Poverty?

"Sometimes I'd like to ask God why He allows poverty, famine and injustice when He could do something about it. But I'm afraid God might ask me the same question." Amy Campbell

Ethnocentricism!

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime." - Mark Twain

Living Community, A Real Interacting Community!

Since the redeemed no longer belong to themselves, they adopt a corporate—rather than a private and individualistic—lifestyle. .....churches emerge when truly converted people stop living their own lives for their own ends, and begin living a community life according to the values of the Kingdom of God, sharing their lives and resources with those Christians and not-yet- Christians around them.

(The House Church Book. Wolfgang Simson. Barna, 2009, pg 31)

The Motivation Is...........?

"What is the point of all of this? To destroy a man who seeks the truth or to destroy the truth so no man can seek it."

Agent Rheas, X Files , "The Truth" Season 9, Episode 19, 20, 2003, Time 53.25

Alone, Degrees Of Alone!

"When you're on your own in the desert, you are completely on your own."

Somali Grandmother

(Infidel. Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Free press, 2007, Line 477 (kindle)

Release The Church From the People Who Shakkle It!

"Christianity has been buried inside the walls of churches and secured with the shackles of dogmatism. Let is be liberated to come into the midst of us and teach us freedom, equality and love". - Minna Canth

Experiencing Other Cultures Opens Eyes

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime." - Mark Twain

Forging A New Path!

"........we need to consider new ways of initiating the spiritually younger generations into their next phases and support their growth in stature in Christ. In the absence of Christian initiations, many Christians take role models from the world and imitate them. And so whole generations are initiated by MT’. sports, and sometimes even by cults or satanic groups who know very well the power of initiation.

How does a young girl of thirteen grow up into a mature mother in Christ if she is never initiated into motherhood? How many of us complain of how many girls are embracing pop-star role models, becoming initiated into this value system in concerts and clubs and ending up as more sad copies of dancing Barbie dolls? Similarly, many boys never meet a truly dedicated and dangerous Christian man but are familiar only with predictable, boring names on church membership roles. Once they run into a drug dealer, a freak, or a recruiter for any organization that smells of adventure, off they go, swept off their feet by the promise of more meaningful and adventurous lives and a chance to change the world. Many of God’s best and most influential men and women in history come from rough, rather than overprotected, backgrounds: fishermen, prostitutes, zealots, orphans, drug dealers, mafia members, political extremists, and even former jihadists and near-terrorists. Few come from reputable Bible schools or predictable middle-class churches where no one has given them a cause to die for, challenged them to the core, or forced them to embrace the challenge and find something to live for.

Consider the way that Israeli soldiers are routinely brought through the initiation process. They are led to visit Masada or Holocaust memorial sites like Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. Faced with the terrors of the Holocaust and the past wars, they are told: “You soldiers are the last line of defense between such an enemy that is still out there and the safety of our land and your family. What will be your resolve?” Often enough, with tears in their eyes, something clicks in the young men and women, and they understand that if they don’t give their lives for this, their country will be lost. And it transforms them from dreamy teenagers, waiting to watch one more movie, into soldiers who take responsibility. It wakes them up, challenges them, and initiates them as disciples for their cause, those who are no longer waiting for others to take initiative while they enjoy the good life, but who are instead willing to leave their former lives and enter into a new kind of existence.

(The House Church Book. Wolfgang Simson. Barna, 2009, pg 149-151)

50 - 50 What's In It For me?

"As Adullam began to grow and Christians started to find us, we felt quite a bit of pressure to make sure people were introduced to our values, particularly our values related to being a “sent” community. I set a “two-visit” rule. That is, if someone came to check us out and I knew they came from another church, I’d invite them out and have what has become affectionately known as “the talk.” During the talk, I’d make sure I mentioned a few things. Here’s a sampling:

“I just want you to know that we’re not a church, we’re a mission to Denver, I don't feel and compulsion to feed you spiritually, but I will look after your spiritual formation. I believe you won’t grow unless you live like Jesus lived and try to do what he did with people.This mission probably has nothing to offer you. However, I’m interested in finding out if God brought you to us, and what your part in serving this city might be.” I go on to suggest that they won’t fit with us unless they are willing to open up their homes and lives to Sojourners and participate in a missional community within the city.

As you would expect, about 50 percent of the people who get “the talk” don’t come back."

(Tangible Kingdom. Hugh Halter, pg 54. 2008, Jossey-Bass)

Some Things Never Changer!

“No matter how long you look at it, a tree stump will never turn into a crocodile”, Proverb in the Bambara language means that some things just don’t change.

House Church Skepticism! Are They legal! Are the Sane!

My oh my how things have changed. The Church of 30AD to about 250 AD were all house churches. There are few, if any known "Church" buildings.

"......in AD 380 bishops Theodosius and Gratian ordered that there should be only one state-recognized Catholic Church, and one rule-set of faith—the orthodox dogma. Each Roman citizen was forced to become a member of the Catholic Church and was made to adopt the lex fidei, the law of faith. Other groups and movements—including those meeting in homes—were forbidden. That meant the legal end of the house church. This law turned the rules upside down.

Until the rule of Severus around AD 222—35, church buildings had not even been allowed by the government, and house churches were the only way for Christians to meet. But from AD 380 on, those involved with starting a house church were breaking the law and viewed as criminals. Thus began a new era: the persecution of the church in the name of the “church.” The Inquisition, a religious-political joint venture in the form of a Christian “faith police,” had lifted its bloody head, killing millions of followers of Christ in the name of organized Christian religion.

(The House Church Book. Wolfgang Simson. Barna, 2009, pg 20)

Malian Cultural Issues

Dos and Don’ts of Malian Culture. Let me share simple insights.

1. It is not necessary to talk during a meal.
2. Don’t wait to be invited to go visit someone, you are always welcome.
3. Eye contact can be seen as aggressive, so you do not look your elders in the eyes.
4. Do not speak while in the bathroom, and if someone is coming you have to make a noise to let them know the bathroom is occupied.
5. Females should not smoke in public, if they do they could be mistaken for a prostitute
6. In the morning do not greet someone until after you and they have washed their face.
7. It is acceptable for people of the same sex to hold hands, and 8. It is not appropriate for women to whistle.
9. Also women should never wash or hang their underwear in public, women do that inside or at night.
10. Women also wear this like belly chain bead thing called Baya beads, and to them theyre basically like a thong. Theyre supposed to be really sexy, and you wear them under your clothes and you're not supposed to let guys see them. They're supposed to be for your husband.
11. Volunteers call the icky finger. This happens when shaking hands; a guy uses his middle finger to rub the palm of girls hand, and this is a sexual advance. If this happens to a lady they're supposed to immediately pull back the hand and give the dude a death.
12. Never eat, greet, pay money, handle, receive something handed to you, hand something to others,or gesture with the left hand. The "dirty hand". With no Toilet paper they wipe with the left hand and rinse with a plastic tea shaped water kettle, but they do not generally clean the hand with soap. Basically, because of this you never do anything with your left hand. In Mali it is seen as disrespectful to hand people things with your left hand, to shake hands with your left hand, basically anything with your left hand. Just so you all know, I WILL have toilet paper on me at all times

13. Three course tea time is very important. Tea is a really big thing here, and a tea session will take hours. There are usually 3 cycles, the first cycle is really bitter but still good, and then the next two cycles get less bitter and more sweet. They also add mint. I really liked it. The whole purpose of a tea session is to hang out and talk, that's why it takes hours.

Personal Safety: pneumonic AVMDED to remember it we say, All Volunteers Must Do it Every Day), and this stands for Awareness,
Vigilance,
Mitigation,
Diffusion,
Escape and
Defense.

Freedom Is Never Free

"………….. and there in that pleasant corner of the world they plied their well-ordered business of living, and they heeded less and less the world outside where dark things moved, until they came to think that peace and plenty were the rule in Middle-earth and the right of all sensible folk. They forgot or ignored what little they had ever known of the Guardians, and of the labours of those that made possible the long peace of the Shire. They were, in fact, sheltered, but they had ceased to remember it."


J. R.R. Tolkien "The Fellowship of the Ring" , 1985, George & Allen & Urwin Pub LTD(Page 22-23 prologue)

Talking About Africa Too Much!

During a "re-entry" Session for Peace Corp workers returning to the USA, after 2 years of rural development work in poor countries, the instructor,.....

"......he did explain some of the challenges we will experience during our re-entering phase of service.You shouldn’t be surprised if friends have moved on, or get a glazed over look after just five minutes of stories we tell about our time abroad"

This summer I have been graced with several opportunites to spend time with a dear Christian brother now living in Edmonton. We worked together in Africa and we formed an inseparable bond there. We talked Africa all day today, and all day & night a few weeks ago. Mission is in our heart, and minds, but we rarely ever get to share our stories. On the rare times we get to be in the same province, it pours out.

Refreshing to dream of our other love.

Who's the Tough Guy!

Forgive the language, but I think he's correct as far as NGO, and spiritual work in places such as Africa. Need to know who's the barrier to your work. Get to know him!

"Last year in one of my grad school classes that was specifically designed to prepare for PC my professor walked into the room, turned on the projector, and put up a slide that said,

• Every village has a son of a bitch. Your job is to find out who that person is."

Peace Corp Worker