Alone In Africa!

I experienced a shared understanding with this former Peace Corps workers comments about his life in a rural Congo village.

As we live and work with a people speaking an oral language, and being the first foreigners to live in the region, at times we realize we can only integrate so far and we are still seen as 'From Away'.

"Another two days passed and I found myself struck with a fresh pain of loneliness. As if alone in a big city, I was surrounded by people but somehow outside the perimeter of the circle. Never a part of it when I was inside it, and usually outside except when something was wanted from me, my entire world was one of aloneness."
( Things Are Different In Africa. Frederick Pitts. Iuniverse pub. 2004. P 113)

What is Worth Passing On?

"Those holding the baton must own something worth passing along.....Fretting over the merits of those who receive the baton distracts us from asking if our lives offer anything worth passing on......" (
Off-Road Disciplines. Earl Creps, 2006, pg 179,180)

Do Some Older Leaders Want A "Mini Me"? Lack of Trust In Younger Leaders

Gave me something to think about. Certainly does not apply to everyone, but makes one self-examine.

"A middle aged couple approach me in the aisle after a conference presentation wearing earnest expressions and bringing a serious question: 'If the way you describe young adults is accurate, we are concerned about whether we can leave the church (organization) to these people!' During moments like this, I think God, in his wisdom, he created us with a voluntary circuit breaker between our thoughts and our words . In my mind, I shouted back, 'Who do you think you are to write off a whole generation as unfit for duty? I know one of your kids, and I would be proud to have her as the pastor my church!' But out of my mouth came just six quiet words: 'Well.... No one else is coming.'.... Older leaders routinely give lip service to the necessity of developing the younger generation. But when I hear these speeches, I get the sense that we elders often operate from a mental picture of that envisions the new cohort as strikingly similar to ourselves – in other words, a junior version of us." (Off-Road Disciplines. Earl Creps, pg 177, 2006

Sacrifice....Is It Worth Sacrificing For?

"The critical task for organizational leaders involves realizing that their constituents who are sympathetically third culture perspective will indeed opt out if defending the group's identity seems more important than the reason the group exists.....Even an older colleague with a lifetime of service to his fellowship told me with tears, 'If the choice is between the mission and the organization ... I choose mission.' Who could condemn those who decide that their relationship with a certain organization has become the necessary sacrifice if the mission is at stake?

Perhaps at one time mission depended on organization. Today organization depends on mission. Younger leaders need to ask themselves what they will sacrifice for the sake of concerted effort. Order leaders need to ask themselves whether what they represent is worth sacrificing for." (Off Road Disciplines. Earl Creps. 2006' p 172

Too Little Mission -Too Much Division!

"Hundreds of hours of interviewing have convinced me that the majority of doctoral disputes I'm our fellowships represent only symptoms of underlying cultural divisions. Distinctive teachings are a lightning rod for the energy of discontent. Bringing the sides together means raising the profile of mission (not just missions) so that distinctives no longer represent the highest point in the organization, the one attracting all of the energy.
I have seldom met a young leader who wouldn't stick around if this emphasis on mission prevailed enough to achieve practical incomes.....Mission is a powerful adhesive, motivating us to sacrifice preferences in the way that nothing else can. When we demote mission by prioritizing a certain brand of Christian culture, sacrifice dies because no proprietary interpretation of what the church should look like is worth the pain......."

(Off-Road Disciplines. Earl Creps. 2006, p171)

Out of Sync Canadian

I not only get it, I'm living it.....

"This new global citizenship carries the potential for personal confusion. Third-culture people often experience adjustment and identity struggles in their adopted nation and in their homeland, when they returned. Their passport indicates.....citizenship, but their language, perspective, and style all say something else. The greatest challenge often occurs when they return to what is supposed to be there home country, only to feel out of sync in an unrecognizable alien land." (Off-Road Disciplines. Earl Creaps, 2006, p 164)

A Global Vision Worth Seeing

"The unoccupied fields, therefore, are a challenge to all whose lives are unoccupied by that which is highest and best; whose lives are occupied only with the weak things or the base things that do not count. There are eyes that have never been illumined by a great vision...."
Samuel Zwemer

I'm Haunted By An African Banana

I’m Haunted by a Banana. I am not joking. I am literally haunted by a Malian banana from West Africa. Let me share the story.

It was sun rise in Sikasso and I was glad to get on the bus heading back to Bamako, the capital city of Mali. I was ecstatic to have a front seat this time,(The story of the bus trip at night, stuck in the back seat comes later) and by now I had tunnel vision because I was officially beginning my long three day journey home to be with Lynn and the boys. As Dr Phil would say; “I needed a soft place to land”. By the end of my research in rural Mali (and 3.5 weeks in Ivory Coast before hand), I was certainly having difficulty processing more information.

The Scenery on the Savanah was nice, though vegetation and people were sparse compared to Ivory Coast. In each village the bus picked up a woman with a chicken under her arm here, a few men with sacks of manioc there. Each village stop also produced dozens of young women and children who filled the windows and bus aisle shouting loudly to drown out the competition so they could sell the most munchies to us ravenous travelers. Actually, it is a great service, the only way to eat on the journey. I bought a small sack of peanuts and four bananas from one smiling and pleased young lady.

As I prepared to eat, I broke off one of the bananas from the bunch, and the tip opened up to expose the tasty snack inside, but it slipped, and I dropped it on to the aisle floor. The very aisle where chickens were sitting; where there was goat and sheep droppings carried in on shoes from every village. The isle was red with dirt and this “other debris” and the red dirt illuminated my yellow banana quite well. I picked up my banana, and sure enough, the exposed tip was covered with a surprise candy coating, compliments of the aisle floor.

What do I do with this banana now I thought? The people of Mali are the poorest people in the world. I looked at the dirty flesh of the banana, looked around to see eight pairs of eyes watching for the resolution to the “White Man Banana Show”. Should I throw the banana out entirely as I wanted to, or just break the dirty part off? I could not bring myself to throw out the whole banana, so I broke the dirty tip off and tossed it out the window on to the road. I looked around at the sets of eyes and knew instantly I had made the right choice. I could see all eight sets of eyes diverting their gaze into the village outside, now distracted by something more interesting.

So I sat back and began to enjoy my bananas. As I ate, I stared off into the sights of the village. I noticed an older man weaving between mud huts in his long robe. He climbed up the side of the road and continued to walk by the bus, but he unexpectedly stopped in his tracks. He noticed something on the road and bent down, picked it up, looked it over, and then put it in his mouth, and disappeared into the village. My jaw dropped open……. The old man just picked up my dirty little lump of banana off the road and eaten it. In all my years in Africa, I had never seen anything like this happen.

Poor- We can’t process the word poor, because we are the top 4% of the world in income. Mali is the bottom 1%. I began my day craving a soft place to land; I have a soft place to land. However, soft is not a word I would use to describe the life of any Malian I know, because they do not have any soft place.

To this day, every time I see a banana I am haunted by the image of what happened to my banana on my journey to my soft place. Just when I thought it was impossible to ram one more memory into my congested brain, God arranged room for one more essential memory of a Malian man and a banana.

I wish I had thrown the whole banana out the window. No! I wish I had thrown out the whole bunch.

Thank you for reminding me of why I am to love as Jesus loved. I’m afraid that this west African banana may continue to haunt me for the rest of my life, and it should.

When Leaving Hurts.

Commenting about her approaching end of service.

"In some ways, I cant believe I keep putting myself through this. I put myself in these situations with an expiration date and then complain as I suffer through the countdown. I guess my fear of commitment comes from somewhere in my heart though, where I know there is more world and there are more people that I want to love so much that it pains me to say good bye."

(Kristin Richards. Peace Corps worker in Mali. July 31, 2011:
http://kristinrichards.blogspot.com/2011/07/saying-good-bye-part-1.html)

Legal Wife Limits.

"'Kokoko', someone called at my door the Lengala equivalent of 'knock knock'.

Because my guest was another stranger, I braced myself for another dose of Congolese culture and went grudgingly out to greet him. He was a fiftyish man who announced that he had five young daughters who would make fine wives and he wanted me to go with him across town to meet them. I could pick up to four them, he explained, because that was the legal limit. 'Legal limit', I thought. Back home that would refer to deer hunting or snapper fishing. Thank goodness for limits in central Africa. "

(Things Are Different in Africa. Frederick Pitts. 2004, p 29)

Mali & Moringa

The moringa tree originates from India but is widely promoted in Malian development for its tolerance for arid conditions and high nutritional value.

A hundred grams of its leaves has more Vitamin C than 7 oranges, more Vitamin A than 4 carrots, more Potassium than 4 bananas, and more Calcium and Protein than 4 glasses of milk!

Also, it’s seeds and pods are strong in fiber and can help with intestinal troubles, including bacterial infections and worms. Moreover, its deep taproot and little use of lateral roots means it can be planted in farmer’s fields without interfering with the topsoil needed for crops.

Good Night In Mali

"Allah k'an kelen kelen wuli."

May we rise one by one. Blessing said before you go to bed in Mali.

About Needing Change

"One day in 1992, fed up with the pressure and the lack of personal satisfaction from my achievements, I made a profound decision. I decided to give everything I owned to my three children and then I traded my comfortable lifestyle for a two-year hitch in equatorial Africa.....I needed the change." (Things Are Different in Africa. Frederick Pitts. 2004, p 1)

It's more than just needing change. There is a purpose to go greater than ourselves. However, to a certain degree we can relate to the sentiment. We have come to believe that our rutines and luxury are the goal, the right of all good sensible folk. I'm tired of managing "stuff", both my own and that of others.
Give me no roof, but real relationships, any day.
I'm glad there is a greater purpose to bring us to Africa, than simply 'we require change.' But I must admit, I like the change too.

African Transport Deja Vu

"Every vehicle in the country that could move, and many that couldn't, was on the road, carrying a full load - there were cars literally held together by string. If you popped their hoods, what you saw made you believe in miracles."​
(The Unheard: A memoir Of Deafness and Africa. Josh Swiller, pg 51)

With Full Understanding I Read..... Africa in 5 Second Bites

"I lived in Africa almost half a lifetime ago. I was very young when I went, not just in years, and I return home feeling prematurely aged. For months after coming back, like the ancient mariner with his gray beard and glittering eyes, I cornered anyone half willing to listen and try to describe what I had seen and done and been over there. I would tell the story......and the sympathetic nods would last about 5 min. before my quarry's eyes shifted toward the exit......the experience proved as incommunicable as the need to explain was urgent.

Family and friends waited for me to resume normal life, but I seemed unable to complete the trip back. Part of me remains stuck in Africa,..... I missed the intensity, the surprise, the sense that life was real and heard and lovely. Nothing in America made me feel as alive as I felt in Africa..... And yet I can't shake the sense of having left behind Africa and obligations I can neither fulfill nor escape...... The book was supposed to provide a resolution, but in some fundamental way my time in Africa remains unresolved. And, of course, Africa itself is unresolved,....."
( The Village Of Waiting. George Packer. Farrar, Strauss, & Giroux, 2001, pg 317-318)

An Old Man And Memories of War!

"What is your name Kanei asked the old man. He smiled as if he knew that one of us would ask this question. 'There is no need to know my name. Just referred to me as the old man who got left behind when you get to the next village.' He looked at all our faces and spoke softly, with no sadness in this voice. 'I will not be alive to see the end of this war. So, to save the place in your memories for other things, I won't tell you my name. If you survive this war, just remember me as the old man you met. You boys should be on your way'..... Before the village disappeared from our sight, I turned around to take one last look at the old man. His head was down and he had both hands on his staff. It was clear to me that he knew his days would soon be over, and he didn't bother to be afraid for himself. But he was for us."

(A Long Way Gone: A Memoir of A Child Soldier. Ishmael Beah. Pg 56,57, 2007)

Burnout Is Not From Too Much Work???

"After ten years he burned out. People say, 'Well he wasn't fit for the job'. The reason the guy burned out is not because it's too much work. You burn out because it's too much work that runs counter to your conscience. I'm doing stuff I'm required to do, but that doesn't seem to be helping the people I'm with."
(Wayne Jacobsen, The God Journey.)

The Removal of Our Blindness

"There was a blind girl who hated herself because she was blind. She hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend. He was always there for her. She told her boyfriend, “If I could only see the world, I will marry you.”

One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her. When the bandages came off, she was able to see everything, including her boyfriend.

He asked her, “Now that you can see the world, will you marry me?” The girl looked at her boyfriend and saw that he was blind. The sight of his closed eyelids shocked her. She hadn’t expected that. The thought of looking at them for the rest of her life led her to refuse to marry him.

Her boyfriend left in tears. Days later he wrote a note to her saying: “Take good care of your eyes, my dear, for before they were yours, they were mine.”

(Frank Viola)

Who Believes the Truth Of War When It's So Horrific?

"There were all kinds of stories told about the war that made it sound as if it was happening in a far away and different land. It wasn't until refugee started passing through our town that we began to see that it was actually taking place in our country. Families with walk hundreds of miles told how relatives have been killed and their houses burned. Some felt sorry for them and offered them places to stay, but most of the refugees refused, because they said the war would eventually reach our town. The children of these families wouldn't look at us, and they jumped at the sound of chopping wood or as stones landed on the tin roofs flung by children hunting birds with slingshots. The adults among these children from the war zones would be lost in their thoughts during conversations with the elders of my town. Apart from their fatigue and malnourishment, it was evident they had seen something that plagued their minds, something that we would refuse to accept if they told us all of it. At times I thought that some of the stories the passersby told were exaggerated. The only wars I knew of where those that I had read about in books or seen in movies...."
(A Long Way Gone:A memoir of a boy Soldier. Ishmael Beah, 2007, pg 5)

The Child Soldier Trap.

"But we knew we had no choice, we had to make it across the clearing because, as young boys, the risk of staying in town was greater for us than trying to escape. Young boys were immediately recruited, and the initials RUF were carved wherever it please the rebels, with a hot bayonet. This not only meant that you were scared for life but that you could never escape from them, because escaping with the carving of the rebels' initials was asking for death, as soldiers would kill you without any questions and militant civilians would do the same."
(A Long Way: Memoir of a boy soldier. Ishmael Beah. 2007, pg 24)

The Unheard :A Memoir of Defness and Africa - Must Read for African Visitors.

Unheard: A Memoir of Deafness and Africa by Josh Swiller

 I have years of experience in the African bush. Seen and experienced my share of shocking revelations, and harrowing experiences. This book is well written, easy to read, captivating, and riveting. The encounter in the prologue alone makes one have to read the book to find out what happened. All we know he was not actually killed, as he wrote a book after.....


I oscillated between shaking my head at what seemed like immature stupidity, yet impressed at the depth of insight gained from the experiences and encounters. But in the end left asking myself, "Would you want to conduct yourself like that if you had a do-over?"

However, from Josh's encounters we will learn how secular western values clash deeply with much of East African culture. Conflicting values about sex, marriage, life, death, suffering, male/female relations, women's issues - are all broached. 

Going to Africa? I would hand every person this book, simply to wake naive travelers up to the possible consequences their daily actions, lived through modern secular values,  can have in Africa. 

Shocking, Engaging, Informative. It will make you reflect, and you will not be able to put it down. 

How We Use Money Matters.

"I wasn't enjoying being a killjoy and I understand why he wanted to pay workers - for almost a year I been trying to convince villagers to dig wells without pay and I got nowhere, but paying people would mean going against everything I have been taught in training - community development, self-reliance, sustainability, all those things. It would just foster more dependency."

(The Unheard: a memoir of deafness and Africa. Josh Swiller, page 165. Holt pub, 2007)

When Charity Destroys Dignity: Overcoming Unhealthy Dependency in the Christian Movemen.  Glenn Schwartz

This is a must read for modern workers, many of whom have no idea that local resources can support a work, without outside funding.

Inverted Homesickness!

"Who would naturally prefer to leave the warmth and comfort of hearth and home and the love of the family circle to go after a lost sheep, whose cry we have faintly heard in the howling of the tempest? Yet such is the glory of the task that neither home ties nor home needs can hold back those who have caught the vision and the spirit of the Great Shepherd. Be-cause the lost ones are His sheep, and He has made us His shepherds and not His hirelings, we must bring them back."

Perspectives 4th Ed, Pg 330

What of Expectations?

"While the rest of the world had it's hot wars and cold wars the space races and booms and busts, In Mununga the only really important measure of a life was how full your stomach was at sundown."
(Unheard: a memoir of deafness and Africa. Josh's Swiller. Holt pub. Page 63)

String

"Every vehicle in the country that could move, and many that couldn't, was on the road, carrying a full load - there were cars literally held together by string. If you popped their hoods, what you saw made you believe in miracles." (The Unheard: A memoir Of Deafness and Africa. Josh Swiller, pg 51)

Words Taken Right Out Of My Mouth

Those of you who have served overseas share this experience, some to a great, other to a lesser, degree.

"I lived in Africa almost half a lifetime ago. I was very young when I went, not just in years, and I return home feeling prematurely aged. For months after coming back, like the ancient mariner with his gray beard and glittering eyes, I cornered anyone half willing to listen and try to describe what I had seen and done and been over there. I would tell the story......and the sympathetic nods would last about 5 min. before my quarry's eyes shifted toward the exit......the experience proved as incommunicable as the need to explain was urgent.
Family and friends waited for me to resume normal life, but I seemed unable to complete the trip back. Part of me remains stuck in Africa,..... I missed the intensity, the surprise, the sense that life was real and heard and lovely. Nothing in America made me feel as alive as I felt in Africa..... And yet I can't shake the sense of having left behind Africa and obligations I can neither fulfill nor escape...... The book was supposed to provide a resolution, but in some fundamental way my time in Africa remains unresolved. And, of course, African itself is unresolved,....."
( The Village Of Waiting. George Packer. Farrar, Strauss, & Giroux, 2001, pg 317-318)

A Common Experience

I've never been in Peace Corps, being a Canadian. However, they have a common shared international work experience.  This was cracking us up at our house.


http://youtu.be/koUWaAr-itY

The Life of 1 Billion People!

“One Saturday morning I hiked with Christine, Claudie, Markie, and Mawuli three kilometers up a steep rise of the plateau. Christine kept her field separate from Benjamin’s because, she said, hers would produce more since she tended it better. She gave the children and me a handful of seeds each. We all bent over and shuffled along the slope, scooping out small holes a few feet apart with one hand and tossing in a couple of seeds with the other. Christine worked with Aku on her back. It seemed easy enough at first, but after two hours my back and legs ached from crouching and my hands were filthy with mud. Standing up to stretch, I noticed that Christine had covered twice as much soil as I; even eight-year-old Markie had done more. The next day my entire body was sore from having done this fraction of the work they did week after week.
I would watch the farmers wandering back at night, ..., singing in their pleasantly gravelly voices, and wonder how many millions or billions of people were doing the same work all over the world, and had been doing it, in ways that couldn’t have been much different from this, throughout human history. It has been the lot for all but a tiny portion of humanity until very recently, and still is for the majority. Yet to that privileged minority, the work and the workers are invisible, don’t exist. I would have never given them a real thought if I hadn’t been living in their midst.”

(The Village of Waiting. George Packer, Farra, Straus and Giroux Pub, New York, 2001, pg 164)

We Can Wait!

"Our great honour lies in being just what Jesus was and is. To be accepted by those who accept HIm, rejected by all who reject him, loved by those who love him and hated by everyone that hates him. What greater glory could come to any man? We can afford to follow Him to failure. Faith dares to fail. The resurrection and the judgement will demonstrate before all worlds who won and who lost. We can wait."
AW Tozer

Fighting Natural Instinct

"Who would naturally prefer to leave the warmth and comfort of hearth and home and the love of the family circle to go after a lost sheep, whose cry we have faintly heard in the howling of the tempest? Yet such is the glory of the task that neither home ties nor home needs can hold back those who have caught the vision and the spirit of the Great Shepherd. Be-cause the lost ones are His sheep, and He has made us His shepherds and not His hirelings, we must bring them back."

Samuel Zwemer

Amazing Church Stastics!

"The only statistic I ever remember is that if all the people who go to sleep 'in' church were laid end to end they would be a lot more comfortable." Attributed to Queen Victoria

Bumper Sticker Wisdom

Bumper Sticker read as follows;

"God, deliver me from your followers."

Ever feel like that? :-)

Does It Look Like We Have Truth?

"May they be brought to complete unity, to let the world know that you sent me and have love them even as you have loved me.


Jesus asks the father to bring us together so that those in need of good news might believe it can be found among Christians."

( Earl creeps. Off-road disciplines. Jossy Bass publishing. 2006. Page 115)

Lay aside Non Essentials

"The more of our non-essentials we offer as a living sacrifice, the more our essentials occupy an appropriate position." (Off-Road Disciplines. Earl Kreps. 2006, Jossey Bass pub, page 121

Ah, You're Paid To Pretend You Love Us!

When I was in ministry, I got that vibe too. Your here because you have to be, it's your job. And really were they wrong? Ministers "Have to be" with some people, maybe not you, but somebody or they loose their job, right? But the truth is you were chosen to be with, and that says a little. Are we willing to enter peoples culture to bring kingdom light? Or are we only willing to enter the not so dark places, the places with people like us, who already have some light?
Some interesting comments made in this quote. It sounds like what we have been taight, live and practice in africa. However, these men are speaking to Westerners who need to realize they are missionaries to their own culture now, for the church as we know it now is very foreign to the community.

"Urban Neighbours of Hope (UNOH) in Melbourne and the InnerChange workers in San Francisco, identification with the poor is an absolutely fundamental principle to their mission among the poor. All the missionaries and workers in these two missionary orders voluntarily live under the poverty line and refuse to be paid by their organizations for their work among the poor lest the people say, “you are paid to be kind to us.” They choose to live like the people with all the struggles and problems that poverty creates for people without power and resources. This incarnational act not only creates credibility for the missionaries, but it thus creates the relational- social context within which they can meaningfully and humanly share their faith. Because it means that for all intents and purposes, they have actually become part of the people group that they are trying to reach and have thereby overcome a very significant cultural barrier to the communication of the gospel. To identify incarnationally with a people will mean that we must try to enter into something of the cultural life of a “people’; to seek to understand their perspectives, their grievances and causes, in other words their real existence, in such a way as to genuinely reflect the act of identification that God made with us in Jesus.........................


"......incarnational mission implies a real and abiding incarnational presence among a group of people. Quite simply, it means that if you want to reach the local gangstas, you are going to have to live where they live and hang out where they hang out. Or it might mean that if you want to plant a church in a given suburb, you should really think about living there. Why? Because you cannot become part of the organic life of a given community if you are not present to it and do not experience its cultural rhythms, its life, and its geography. ................This is true whether they are the local ravers or members of bohemian art cooperatives, sports dubs, common interest groups, or parent groups—we need to identify a whole lot more before we can expect to really share Jesus in a meaningful way with them."

(The Shape Of Things To Come: Innovation and Mission For The 21st- Century Church. Michael Frost & Aln Hirsch, Hendrickson, 2003. pp 38,39)

"In the process of individual or mutual apology, personal power is diminished. I put myself essentially at the mercy of the other, making her or him my judge with the right either to acquit or to convict me. In a sense, the wounded party becomes Gods partner in the exchange, representing what we deserve ... I humble myself, relinquishing my illusionary hold on personal power to receive something much better in exchange: the fruit of the spear. " Earl Creps. Off-Road disciplines, Josie Bass, page 80

Love hurts- but is worth it!

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrong and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one...." C. S. Lewis

Pretending We know So Much!

"There is so much less to remember when I don't know much, and so much less pressure if I don't feel the need to know more than every other person in the room..... Perhaps our problems revolve not so much around knowing too little as around the perception that we know so much... People with a high sense of felt power tend not to hide it in conversation, a trait painfully obvious to others but apparently unknown to them." Earl Creps "Off Road Disciplines" pg 75 Jossey Bass, 2006

Interesting

"If you are going through hell, keep going." Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

Just Do It?

When we are measuring success by who shows up and how often, transformation measuring takes the back burner.
I would have to say that this statement is true. After 22 yrs of monistry I've never had a brother or sister ask me how I was doing Spiritually.

"The performers perform, and the congregation watches, regardless of eithers spiritual condition."

(Finding Organic Church. Frank Viola. David C. Cook, 2010. Page 271)

Annihilate Other Nations and Praise God We Don't Have To Go!

"Then I told them about ministry opportunities God had recently given me around the world. I told them about people's receptivity to the gospel in places that are traditionally hostile to Christianity. I told them that, whether in the inner city or overseas, God was drawing people to himself in some of the toughest areas of the world.
Expecting them to share in my excitement, I paused to listen for their response. After an awkward silence, one of the deacons leaned forward in his chair, looked at me, and said, "David, I think it's great you are going to those places. But if you ask me, I would just as soon God annihilate all those people and send them to hell." That's exactly what he said. I was shocked and speechless. I had no idea what to say in response. ! wish ! had said something, but I'm still not sure what ! would have said. Annihilate them? Send them to hell? After a moment of silence, the rest of the room resumed conversation as if nothing out of the ordinary had just happened.
It got worse.
The next morning we arrived at the church building, and the worship service began. The pastor rose to welcome everyone, and during his introductory remarks he began talking about how thankful he was to be living in the United States. I am not sure what sparked the rousing patriotic address that followed, but for the next few minutes he told the church that there was no chance he would ever live anywhere else in the world. Amens were firing left and right from the crowd. Engulfed in nationalistic zeal, I was just waiting for Lee Greenwood to burst into song in the background.
Minutes later I got up to preach on going to all nations with the gospel.
When I finished, I walked down to the front while the pastor got up to close the service. These were his words: "Brother David, we are so excited about all that God is doing in New Orleans and in all nations, and we are excited that you are serving there." He continued, "And, brother, we promise that we will continue to send you a check so we don't have to go there ourselves."
He wasn't finished.
"I remember a time at my last congregation when a missionary from Japan came to speak," he said. "1 told that church that if they didn't give financial support to this missionary, I was going to pray that God would send their kids to Japan to serve with that missionary."
Wow.
Did the pastor just threaten his congregation with the punishment of going to the world?
He continued, "And my church gave that man a laptop and a whole lot of money."
Apparently the threat worked.
The service was dismissed, and my wife and I climbed into the car to drive home. I could hardly believe the things I had heard. A range of emotions consumed me--anger, sadness, disappointment, confusion.
But as I began to process what had happened over the last twenty-four hours, I was struck by a frightening realization.
Could it be that this deacon and this pastor expressed what most professing Christians in America today believe but are not bold enough to say? This may sound a bit harsh, but consider the reality."

(Radical, David Platt. Kindle line 877)

Sacred Places!

I found this an interesting statement. Biblically true. But today we talk of church buildings as "God's House", the "sanctuary" as a place where we "come into the presence of God."
Nothing inherently sinful or wrongwith a building, nor is meeting in a home a solution. The problem is this belief itself, no matter what form we practice our faith in.

Yes, we have, in some ways thrown away the freedom, to become a religion.

"When Christianity was born, it was the only religion on the planet that had no sacred objects, no sacred persons, and no sacred places."
(Pagan Christianity. Frank Viola, George Barna. Tyndale Publishing. Page 14, 2005)

"In the process of replacing the old religions, Christianity became a religion."
(Alexander Schmemann. 20 century Easter eastern orthodox priest, teacher, and writer.)

One Hole Shower!

Neil Cole posted this on FaceBook

"A church meeting where only 1 person shares the Word is like a shower nozzle with only 1 hole. @CSteveSimms #organicchurch

It's Not Just You!

The frustration is real and shared by many. Not defeated or 'negative' people as often labeled. People are not showing up any more and most have no idea why. It's going to require more than modify programs.

"For far too many of us, when we hear the word church , our eyes teat up, turn bloodshot, or glaze over, with emotions that represent the irrelevance of our communal expressions, or because we don't know what to think anymore. Our faith and loyalty used to keep us on board, bit now reality is beginning to curl over both like a 20-foot wave. ...
If you're like the authors of this book, you've gone down with a ship or two trying to make the Kingdom story tangible. You may have tried a few different churches, methods, programs, leaders, teachers, styles and sizes only to find yourself stuck on a ship that seems to be attracting no one and can barely hold your interest.... We want let you know that the unsettling feelings you are experiencing are ones that hundreds of thousands of people are also working throughout."

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

Up Hill Struggle For Change!

"The real trouble is not in fact that the church is too rich, but that it has become heavily institutionalized, with a crushing investment in maintenance...... It is saddled with a plan and programme beyond its means, so that it is absorbed in problems of supply and preoccupied with survival. The inertia of the machine is such that the financial allocations, the legalities, the channels of organization, the attitudes of mind, are all set in the direction of continuing and enhancing the status quo. If one wants to pursue a course which cuts across these channels, Then most of one's energies are exhausted before one ever reaches the enemy lines."
John A.T. Robinson

(Finding Organic Church. Frank Viola, David C Cook, 2010, page 171)

Tuning!

"Every tuning fork needs to be struck to be heard."
Leonard Sweet & Frank Viola, Jesus Manifesto, Thomas Nelson, 2010, pg 15)

Pope Training!

"I majored in Bible in college. I went to the seminary and I majored in the only thing they teach there: the professional ministry. When I graduated, I realized that I could speak Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and the only thing on earth I was qualified for was to be Pope. But someone else had the job."

Anonymous pastor quoted in ("Pagan Christianity". Frank Viola, George Barna. Tyndale publishing. 2005, page 105)

Is My Life Worth a Story Or Two?

"Example is not the main thing in influencing others; it is the only thing." Albert Schweitzer

"If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading or do things worth the writing." Benjamin Franklin

Leadership is more than a mind game!

"To lead people, walk beside them...
As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence.
The next best, the people honor and praise.
The next, the people fear;
and the next, the people hate...
When the best leaders work is done the people say, we did it ourselves"
Lao-tzu

The West is Best? Hardly!

"I once heard some young Christians from the United States talking about some outreach they were doing in Calcutta. They had genuine tears of brokenness in their eyes as they talked about the people worshiping dead idols in temples, yet these young people did not recognize the idols of sports, music, and television being worshiped in their own country. They had broken hearts over the abject poverty in Calcutta, but they did not see the spiritual and emotional poverty of the countless millions suffering from loneliness and meaninglessness in the United States. While they could not believe that people sacrifice flowers and even animals to their gods, they overlooked the fact that many of us sacrifice children and whole families on the altar of success every day. They marveled at the smoke and incense offerings made to pagan gods but failed to see the smog caused by cars, industry; and cigarette smokers in their own country; They said, “These children here are so dirty!” yet they did not realize that most children in their own country regularly use unbelievably dirty language.

In short, they saw and judged the outside but could not see inside. They were shocked by the culture, but not by the spirit behind it, and they failed to see that it is no better at home than in Asia. Humankind’s fallen and sinful nature only takes on a different outward appearance in different cultures and places; its quality is essentially the same everywhere.

(The House Church Book. Wolfgang Simson. Barna, 2009, pg 134-135)