Archive October 2008
Why Do These Things Keep Happening to Me?
Several times recently I have written about those amazing “coincidences” that seem to happen to me with some frequency. Running into people I know in the strangest places, and things like that. I think a better word is “providence.” First, let me bring you up to date.
We made it to Madrid safe and sound early this morning. Tony and I met up in Newark and landed in Madrid a few minutes before 0900. Ricardo, having flown from Mexico City through Atlanta, was waiting for us. One of Tony’s friends met us and took us to the hostal where we are spending the night. It’s called the Hostal de la Hermanas del Amor de Dios” – Hostal the Sisters of God’s Love. This is a Catholic guest house in the heart of Madrid, but it is directly across from the First Baptist Church where Tony attends, and they have a good relationship with the nuns who run the hostal. Normally, it is for Catholics only, but here we are. Cheap, clean and centrally located. What more could we ask for. Not to mention that the ladies who run the place are exceedingly nice, hospitable and a lot of fun.
After dropping off our bags we decided to go down the street to a little bar to get a cup of coffee. Along the way Tony was telling us about a friend his named Miguel, a Mexican who is starting a church here in Madrid. We had only been sitting down short while when the door opened, and guess who walked in? Right! Miguel! He was amazed, and we were amazed. What a small world. Not only that, he had with him a Bolivian pastor that I have run into almost every time I come to Madrid.
Mid afternoon, we met for lunch with two missionaries who are involved in two different types of church plants, but who do a great job of cooperating together. It was great to hear their ideas and dreams.
We rested for just a little while, and then we met another friend of ours, one of the deacons from the church across the street who is a bodyguard for the Korean ambassador. What a great guy! He took us down the block for some delicious Chinese food. Afterward, we took Ricardo on a brief tour of the center of Madrid.
Here’s a great thought that Miguel shared with us. What did Jesus tell his disciples in Matthew 16 that he would do? That’s right. He told that he would build his church. Then, what did Jesus tell his disciples to do in Matthew 28? Right again. He told them to make disciples. So what do we do? We often spend our time building churches and asking God to make disciples. Maybe we have this thing reversed. Do you think? I love to have discussions like this!!!! What a great privilege to be able to met and talk with some of God’s choice servants in so many different places.
I was happy to be able to hook up to the Internet tonight. This may be the last time you hear from me until we come back to Europe from North Affrica. We flly out tomorrow and return on next Wednesday. Pray for us to be a blessing to the 50 or so Latin American workers who have signed up for this mini-retreat. They are among approximately 200 Latin Americans working in this one country alone. You know, the one Bogart made famous in the movies. See you soon!
The Intentional Traveler
I love meeting new people and learning together how to be better students of Jesus Christ. This is our mission – to go and make disciples among all ethnic groups wherever they are found. We go in the delegated authority from our Lord Jesus Christ and by baptize into the church those whose lives are transformed by having put their faith in Jesus Christ. We teach them to live by all that Jesus taught.
The other day I used a phrase – the church as the missionary. The purpose of a church is not invent a bunch of programs to keep people busy building a bigger and better church. Our purpose is to make radical disciples of Jesus Christ, willing to offer their bodies as living sacrifices to him (Romans 12:1-2). Radical disciples make for a radical church that sees it mission as far beyond the four walls and extending to the ends of the earth. Radical disciples should normally result in a growing church and an increasing outreach that impacts the community and the world around us. Our church should see itself as the missionary with every member using his or her gifts to engage in this global process.
Last Year in Madrid
When I go through a spurt of heavy travel like this – five countries, four continents in four weeks – it is important to me to communciate that I am representing the church. The church’s investment in me multiplies our ability to carry out our mission. For whatever reason God has given me the opportunity to minister in over 50 countries and to minister effectively in various cultural settings. He has gifted to me to preach fluently in English and Spanish. Good stweardship requires that we leverage my gifts along with the gifts of the entire body to go through the doors God opens for us to make disciples. Thanks for your prayers and your partnership in this ministry. Usually, someone is going with me to learn, share and minister in partnership with others.
Here is what I will be doing for the next couple of weeks:
- October 29-30: Fly to Madrid, Spain with Tony Vasquez and meet Mexican Pastor Ricardo Zavala who arrives just minutes before we do. We spend Thursday night in Madrid. Ricardo represents that group of Mexican leaders with whom we have been ministering the past several years and that is now beginning to see significant fruit as they send out cross-cultural missionaries to other groups of people.
- October 31-November 4: The three of us fly to northern Africa to minister to a group of Latin Americans who labor there. I will be taking them through the book of Titus and discussing the same themes I mentioned above. Pray it will be a time of enlightenment and encouragement for them.
- November 5: After a few days in Madrid, Tony returns to Philadelphia where he is spending a couple of months with his family. Ricardo and I head to Amsterdam.
- November 7 – our Amsterdam seminar group arrives (Cheryl among them). We have two purposes. The first is to teach culture, history and missions. Second to encourage and network with our key contacts in Europe. This is always a great time for networking, sharing, nurturing and growing together.
- November 14 – Return to Kansas City.
I leave in the morning and have no idea when I will be able to make the next post. I will probably not be able to do so while in Africa for a number of reasons. But, who knows? When I make it Amsterdam I will let you know. So, keep checking back and I’ll let you hear something as soon as I can. On November 9 I’ll be addressing the church from Amsterdam.
Life in the Fast Lane!
Wow! These past few days have been a blur. Got back from Mexico City late Thursday night. Friday was occupied by running some necessary errands with Cheryl. Saturday, I taught my class in Shepherd School and then took our guest speaker, Dr. Bill Thomas, out to lunch with some members of our student mission council. Sunday was a great day as Bill Thomas shared his heart with us through ministry of the word.
I have been preaching from Acts 9 on the theme of Building World Changes, using the example of the transformation of the Saul the Pharisee into Paul the Apostle. Bill is a wonderful example of a world changer. A man who overcame all the odds to make the right choices and be mightily used of God.
Here’s a brief summary of the Bill Thomas story. He was born to a humble African-American home in South Carolina. His mother died when he was young and he moved with some of his siblings to New York City, specifically East Harlem. He came to faith in Christ at the age of ten in 1946. While some of his siblings made some unwise choices, Bill decided that he would give his life to Christ and prepare himself as best he could.
His quest for education took him through several colleges, universities and seminaries in several countries, culminating with a Th.D. Before he left East Harlem, he had taught himself Spanish and was working on French. His interest in languages served him well in his academic track and his later career as pastor, theologian and evangelist. He has lived in several countries, speaks five languages and preaches fluently in English, French and Spanish. He has been associated closely with Luis Palau since the 1960′s. For much of his adult life he has resided in Strasbourg, France where he still lives with this English wife. Their two grown children also reside in Europe, in England and France. What a blessing to sit under his teaching this past Sunday! He is a gentleman of rich wisdom and insight and communicates with power.
Today, was a flurry of meetings and trying to catch up and patch up after being out of the office most of the past two weeks. I deposited Dr. Thomas at Midwestern Baptist Seminary after lunch where he will spend the rest of this week. Tonight, I began to pack to leave yet again on Wednesday, heading for Spain, North Africa and The Netherlands. Tomorrow night, I’ll try to give you a quick idea of what I will be doing.
La Iglesia Como Misionera
The church as the missionary. This is a concept I threw out on this blog recently and have mentioned several times in preaching. Go here to see my recent comments. Today, I threw this concept out to the approximately 150 pastors and leaders here in Mexico City with whom I have been ministering these past couple of days. Facial expressions revealed that some lights were going on as we discussed ways for all of us to partner together to engage the Latin American church more fully in making disciples on a global level.
This was the conclusion of our conference and I am looking forward to heading home tomorrow. We’ll be arriving at MCI a bit before 10:00pm tomorrow assuming that flights are on time.
Last week I told you here about a providential meeting outside the air terminal in Lima, Peru where we were able to get copies of the Directions book that has just come off the press in Argentina and will be out next week in Peru. I just got a photo to document this amazing event, and I thought I would share it with you.
From left to right: Thomas Vogelin, Founder/Director of el CEC, Argentine-based youth ministry; Andrés Stäubli, CEC Staff from Argentina; Your Truly; Marco Castro; Rubén Bonilla, Peruvian video genius; Daniel Borer, Lima Director of CEC
Thoughts from Mexico City
The conference began today. For the past three years we have been working with a group of pastors and leaders here in Mexico City. The Mexican evangelical church is pushing right on toward maturity, and one of the measures of a mature church is understanding the big picture of God’s mission. Maturity is the realization that it’s not about building a nice little church and getting some people to come. It’s about making disciples of the most biblical and radical kind who naturally and normally reproduce themselves. The resulting church carries the same DNA and simply cannot resist total engagement in God’s mission.
Watching these leaders mature has been most gratifying. Many are making great strides. Several of these pastors have now been on exploratory trips to various places around the world. Several missionaries representing this group are now in places as far away as India, China, North Africa and the Middle East. I said this “group,” but this is a group without membership, without officers, a name or a constitution. We represent several denominations and backgrounds. What we have in common is a growing passion to make disciples of Jesus Christ from every ethnic group on this planet.
One of our KCBT board members, Mike Perry, is teaching leadership in the morning sessions. Mike has been an executive with Hallmark in Kansas City and has just been promoted to be CEO of the Hallmark-owned Crayola company in Pennsylvania. We hate to lose Mike, but I know that we will be seeing more of him. He’s hooked! He’s got the DNA and can’t stop. We are excited for him to have this wonderful opportunity.
In the later sessions I am teaching a ten-element planning model for the development of missionaries. The interaction, questions and discussion has been very solid and insightful. What a privilege to work with these folks!
Before I sign off for the night, I invite you to check out a great post I read earlier today on Bob Robert’s web site. Bob pastors a glocal church in Texas and I love to read his blog every chance I get. He has some great thoughts and insight. When you have heard me use the term glocal, it’s because he has corrupted that part of my vocabulary. Anyway, he wrote today asking the question Why Do We Start Churches? I loved it! Check it out here.