Monday, January 22, 2007 at 2:31PM Humility is often a missing characteristic in my life. I think I’m right and can’t understand how you could be so wrong! Jesus is slowly helping me be more open and willing to listen to others without compromising what I believe about Scripture and truth.
This article from Ed Stetzer about a “Humble Missiology” is outstanding. I hope you will take the time to read it.
Monday, January 22, 2007 at 9:15AM I am concerned that some in Southern Baptist life want us to work in isolation from other believers, mission groups, and national Baptist organizations. My hope is that this line of discussion will encourage you to think deeply about what you believe.
I have a confession: I enjoy working with people, churches and Baptist Unions that don’t believe like Southern Baptists do. As I have the joy of working with others, I am forced to examine again and again what the Bible teaches. I find it refreshing and strengthening to hear other points of view, not challenging or confrontational.
Part of this stems from the fact that I am not who I was and Southern Baptists are not who they were. When conformity is demanded, we negate the time God uses to work in people’s hearts. God brings change at His pace. That pace is not instantaneous. I love being part of the process; this is true both personally and within the churches I am honored to serve.
The other part has to do with my understanding of John 17 and the prayer of Jesus for our unity to be like that of He and the Father. While that will never be fully realized this side of heaven, I believe that we are to get a taste of it here. I also believe this means we are to find His unity in diversity, not similarity.
Historically, I find it interesting to note that Lottie Moon would make BMI but would probably now be fired by some from our seminaries for teaching men and maybe by some others from our organization for improper baptisms. History of the IMB would teach us that she would not be alone in a job search. In fact, I sometimes think that for some we could not bring Southern Baptists from any era who would find us willing to cooperate with them.
Where did we get the idea that everyone must agree with me for there to be unity and cooperation? That spirit, demanding conformity to my beliefs, has lead to a new definition of cooperation: you cope, I operate.
Thankfully, I believe Southern Baptists want IMB missionaries to be part of unity, fellowship, and cooperation. Of course, there needs to be guidelines and policies about how we do this. My organization blesses me with such guidance and I am thankful for the direction. Cooperating is not easy. Working together is never without difficulty; however, I believe it is worth the effort to work as closely together as possible on this side of eternity with those whom we will on the other.
Monday, January 22, 2007 at 8:27AM First, please pray for our pastor, Peter McKenzie. If the name does not sound Croatian, that is because he is an Englishman who has been ministering here since the 1970’s. He is having some tests done this week for some quite serious health concerns. Please pray.
Second, pray for Darko. He is new to our men’s group, is 20 years old and is seeking truth. He is engaged to Sarah, who is in school in Boston. The plan is for him to move to the USA this summer.
Next, there is a funny article on Jeff Dunson’s blog today. With all the talk about fasting and different types of fasts, he suggests a John the Baptist fast.
His wife, Cam, has a more serious look at fasting. If you are interested it is worth your time to look at her past articles.
Guy Muse, a colleague in South America, has written a well done article on the most recent of our controversies. Most of you are like me: please, no more controversy. However, discussion around interpretation of the Bible is important and I think it can force us to dig deeper. Guy helps us do that in this article.
Last, David Rogers once again hits the nail on the head. If you are interested in thinking through the theological and missiological issues facing Southern Baptists and the IMB, this man is worth checking on every day.
Next, why I love to work with people, churches, and Baptist Unions that are not like me.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 7:09AM I returned Monday evening from my meeting in Greece over the weekend. It was great to see Thessalonica, even if it was only through the windows cars and buses. I did manage to walk each morning I was there and got to see a little bit more.
Sunday, I had the joy of worshipping with Glad Tiding International Fellowship. It was a great joy to get at least a taste of what heaven will be like. There were so many different people from different places speaking different languages. I sat next to Festus from Nigeria and to a Greek family who spoke a little English. It was a joy to meet these brothers and sisters on this side of eternity. Though I will probably never seem them again before heaven, we will be reunited one day and we will have time to worship the Lord again.
Our experience in the Chicago airport left me doubting the airline company plan for using central hubs. The primary purpose that almost every airline in America and Europe has for going to the central hub concept is to save money. I have no doubt that somewhere there is a slick promotion and expensive study that this is true, but… keep in mind the airline industry in the USA appears to need non-profit status.
Questions keep coming to my mind, like…If central hubs save so much money, why is Southwest, which does not rely solely on a central hub concept, the only financially stable US airline company? Does it really make sense to fly two hours north in order to arrive at a destination that is two hours south? How can it save money for adverse weather in one location to shut down an airline’s schedule across the entire nation?
Economically, central hubs make sense, as well as profit, when there is stability and consistency in ability to produce whatever the hub is designed to do. Wal-Mart, with its profit-making system of inventory control, warehousing through central distribution centers and trucking has made cheap products available to each of us. Airlines rely on weather to keep their central hubs open. Not necessarily consistent or stable. At least, that is part of the reasoning Southwest has for not relying exclusively on this system.
What does this have to do with anything? I think it can go deeper than the advice to buy at Wal-Mart or to fly Southwest or to avoid airport prone to adverse weather. Many people, if fact all of us, base our life on some central concept. The difficulty is that only one is stable and consistent. It affects us in ways we not normally think of.
Many believers have had their faith shipwrecked due to the moral failure of a pastor or spiritual leader. Many marriages within the evangelical church have failed due to irreconcilable differences. Many missionaries become discouraged and go home because their leaders somehow let them down. Many go home because the ground is hard and results are slow.
People will always fail us at some point down the road. This is true within churches, marriages, mission organizations and mission work. It is true in every aspect of life and culture.
The strength of our faith must be found in Christ and Him alone. The strength of my marriage is found in our mutual realization that we will not be able to meet every need the other has. Only Christ can do that. The way to move on when leaders disappoint is that the only reasonable expectation is for others to be imperfect. The only way to stay in an unresponsive place is to rely on God’s call and not the results.
Friday, January 12, 2007 at 7:55AM Chicago is a great city. Chicago’s O’Hare airport is a nightmare in the winter. My last two trips through O’Hare have found the airport shutdown due to adverse weather in other cities!
Hallways were so crowded this past December 21st that we could barely make our way through as we went from stand-by at one gate to another. The blizzard in Denver stranded thousands of passengers in several US cities, some for days. Tempers were short and the ticket agents were at their limit. I began to suspect that Oklahoma City was a dream, at least for the next few days.
I briefly considered renting a car in Chicago and driving 20 hours to Weatherford, Oklahoma, where my mom and dad live. Quickly, I realized I was too tired for that; however, I thought a five hour drive might be possible. Thankfully, the passenger in front of me blew a gasket while talking to the United travel agent.
Why was I thankful? Well, I was in a very patient and encouraging state of mind. This was only God’s grace and I was thankful for it at that moment. I told the travel agent, who was quite upset by the previous passenger, that I was going to be the kindest passenger she would have that day. Though she was not supposed to let me know how far down the stand by list I was, she did. I was at least two days out.
I asked her to put me on stand by to Tulsa or Wichita or Dallas or Kansas City or St. Louis or….you get the idea. Take me south and within 5 - 8 hours of Weatherford, Oklahoma. Our expected arrival to Oklahoma City was 7 PM. We arrive at Dallas/Fort Worth airport at midnight. Both Elise and I slept during the entire flight. When we woke up, due to the time difference, it was just like getting up in the morning.
An added bonus was that my brother met us there. I have not seen him in two and a half years. It was a great joy to give him a big hug and realize we had some help and were not stranded. He took us to the rental car facility and one company had a one-day, one-way rental to Oklahoma City available. We took off and arrived in Weatherford at 4:30 AM.
My new rule-of-thumb concerning airport travel is to never fly through Chicago from November – March. I want to avoid what seems to be probable travel disaster. My second thought is that if travel has to take me there, to flee upon the first sign of travel delay. Two days in that airport would have put me in the loony bin. Plus, we would have missed family and an NBA game on the evening of December 22nd dad bought tickets for (it was a great OT game by the way and was the first one any of us had been to).
Spiritual application is quite easy and obvious: avoid evil and temptation whenever and wherever possible and when confronted with it, the best option in many cases is to flee.