Category: Ministry Musings
Under Construction!
I just got back from teaching the Spanish Bible study this evening. My throat hurts and my eyes are watering. No, I’m not coming down with something; the auditorium is under construction. Dust from cut-up cement blocks lay on the stage floor and permeated the air. Speaking off the air, it was carrying all sorts of funky, contruction-like smells that made me want to sneeze, or cough, or burp, or … or, maybe all at the same time.
Don’t worry! I’m sure things will be fairly well cleaned up for Sunday, but you will definitely be able to tell that we are under construction. The rest of our facility has been worked over to match the new wing, but the auditorium is the final frontier.
I can remember years ago when our pews were a hideous yellow. I felt like I was preaching to a bunch of hot dogs. God bless the 70′s! Then we mellowed out with blues and whites. The day came when the choir loft went. We made other changes. A black stage spoke of contemporary; the ceiling spoke of oak and the 70′s; the pews were still shades of blue; the flags spoke of our multi-cultural congregation; the colonial walls with gilded gold tape spoke of Benny Hinn or TBN and the giant speaker cluster hovered overhead like an egg of the mythical Phoenix bird ready to break over our heads in an explosion of Holy Ghost goo. We woke up one day and thought, “How in the world did THIS happen?”
So, the decision was made to bring the auditorium into the 21st century at last. Hallelujah! It was about time.
How long will things be a mess? Until around the end of May.
What are we changing? Just about everything.
What are we going to do meanwhile? I have no idea, but it will all work out just fine. We might even have fun. In May we’ll have to have at least a couple of Sundays in the gym or whatever. Cool! We’ll be fine. In the end it will be well worth it.
Have you noticed something? When something is going on, it seems like things are constantly in a state of construction. There’s mess and noise and occasional inconvenience.
Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, the famous British physician and pastor said years ago, “When the Holy Spirit is at work, things are always a little messy.”
Our lives are like that. If we are growing, we always seem to be under construction, and things are always a bit messy.
How long will it last? As long as we live.
What is changing? Just about everything.
Will we be OK. Yeah. It will all be fine. And, in the end it will all be well worth it.
The Google Gospel?
Wikipedia defines minimalism as movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is stripped down to its most fundamental features … The term “minimalist” is often applied colloquially to designate anything which is spare or stripped to its essentials.
Google’s omnipresent clean, simple design of a few bright colors on a lot of white open space is a classic example of applied minimalism.
I’ve been thinking lately about what constitutes the bare essence of the gospel. This morning I mentioned how we share the tendency to create our own “Christian” culture. While there is nothing wrong with tradition, forms and cultural preferences, over time we often keep piling on until we lose the ability to separate biblical truth from our created culture.
Last month I spoke to students at both a university and a college about making our lives strategic. To do that we must understand what is important and what are the optional add-on’s. I gave an example from Luke 24 where Jesus appeared to a couple of his disciples returning to Emmaus late in the afternoon on Resurrection Sunday. Revealing his identity to his startled disciples, Jesus then began at Moses and all the prophets, expounding to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
Can you imagine that? He went through all the scriptures explaining the essence of his story. After dinner in Emmaus, Jesus disappeared from among them and they still had time to travel back to Jerusalem that night to report to the Twelve. Calculating the time, this means that Jesus was able to explain the Old Testament in probably two or three hours at the most.
Obviously this was a minimalistic, strategic overview, skipping many of the wonderful details that delight us so. Could you give such a concise survey? The Bible is infinitely deep and there are indeed riches in the details. Often, though, we fulfill the old adage of not being able to see the forest for the trees. A good mental exercise would be to see if you could explain the essence of the Old Testament in an hour or two without sacrificing any of the essential elements.
In the Perspectives class last week, one of the teachers was explaining her participation in what missiologists call a church planting movement, a spontaneous and indigenous movement of churches reproducing themselves through multiplication rather than addition. These types of movements are fueled by the Holy Spirit and move so quickly, there is no time for workers to be in every church. Instead, they work to train leaders in the essence of the gospel.
Several missiological workers have taken all the commands of Jesus and categorized them into seven. Several groups use this or a similar summary to keep themselves on track. Her group requires its workers to memorize and fully understand the following seven commands of Jesus: Believe for repentance, be baptized, break bread, love, pray, give, go.
Think about it. You could add a zillion details, but that’s a pretty fair summary of what it means to follow Jesus. I’ve known many people who can recite fascinating biblical details and curiosities, but have gaping holes in one of the seven basic commands listed above.
Haven’t you seen a ton of websites with swirling doo-dads, thing-a-ma-jigs, and all sorts of links, colors, and details that turn out to be so beautifully complex as to be totally worthless? I fear that’s a bit like many of our forms of cultural Christianity. It makes perfect sense to those of us on the inside, but is so complex and convoluted as to keep others from entering in.
Google’s simple design is the portal to a vast world of information and connectivity. I’d sure like to think of my life as being simple, open and inviting as to be merely a portal to the eternal riches and glory of God. Maybe we could call that the Gospel according to Google.
Summit Summation
Greg Livingstone was one of the keynote speakers for our first World Outreach Celebration back in 1985, and he was our keynote speaker today for the final day of The Summit, all the way from the UK. Greg was one of the original OM guys along with George Verwer and others. He also founded Frontiers. His influence on the world Christian movement is incalculable. We were blessed to hear him once again.
Tonight was over the top. In spite of the gloomy weather there was no doom and gloom in the room! The praise was electric, literally and figuratively. Any given Sunday brings together people from around the world, but today it was a bit more than usual. The kingdom of Bhutan is one of the least evangelized countries on earth and the few believers there have been severely restricted and persecuted. Tonight we had two bus loads of Bhutanese believers. If we were bird watchers, that would be the equivalent of spotting two bus loads of Mongolian yellow-speckled, purple-billed, four-footed, left-handed woodpeckers.
Then there was the Japanese drum corps from Olathe. You couldn’t miss that one! The Japanese thing was to set the context for the ordination of Elisha Katamura. Some years ago a team from KCBT was in Mexico doing some disciple making training, and a pastor from Japan was present. I know, that doesn’t make much sense, but stick with me. A relationship ensued between KCBT and this Japanese church. Consequently, Elisha came to Kansas City to study in our Shepherd School. Since we did not qualify to get him a student visa, he also enrolled in Calvary Bible College, graduating from both at the same time.
Back in Japan, Elisha was invited to be an associate pastor in his home church. They voted to ask KCBT to ordain him. So, Elisha came back and with him came the senior pastor, the head deacon and two of Elisha’s buddies. As we gathered around to lay our hands on him and pray, Elisha won first prize for the most ethnically diversified ordination council. Praying for Elisha on the platform tonight were Pastor Oki from Japan, the Bhutanese pastor, an Egyptian pastor, a Costa Rican pastor, a couple of African American pastors, a Mandarin-speaking pastor, and some assorted Anglo guys. That was very cool.
As I got up to introduce Greg, a KCBT flash mob broke out. Then Greg spoke and poured out his heart for the kingdom. We finished in praise and nobody wanted to go home. So, a praise encore resulted. Great day!
Tomorrow, it’s back to the grind with the final two days of the Perspectives Intensive. We have all been challenged by what we have received even though it’s been exhausting.
They really meant “intensive!”
OK, now I see what they call this Perspectives Intensive. Whew! We hit the halfway mark today, and it has been all day every day since Tuesday. We get Sunday off for classes and then we’ll be back at it Monday and Tuesday. But it has been great! The speakers have been wonderful, but the most enjoyable for me has been to watch everyone’s perspectives change.
The evening service of The Summit was fabulous tonight. All I can say is that from Bhutanese singing to Kurdish yogurt and flat bread it was a night to remember. Bob Sjogren spoke on the glory of God and it was indeed glorious. Wow!
The only down side is that I am in need of sleep. So, I will sign off for now and look to see as many of you as I can tomorrow evening at 6:00pm. You’ll get to hear an amazing speaker followed by concert. I’m looking forward to it!
Japan – Looking Beyond Ourselves
Agabus the Prophet
Long ago in a world far removed from our reality, long before cable TV and the Internet, before FaceBook could spawn revolutions and when only birds could tweet, a prophet named Agabus stood in the power of God’s Spirit to announce that a great famine would grip the Mediterranean basin. And, it was so.
The famine was especially severe in Jerusalem and the larger area of Judea. In those days not long after the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah, the gospel had just arrived in the predominately gentile city of Antioch of Syria. In compassionate response to this humanitarian need, the disciples in Antioch determined that every one of them according to their ability would send relief to their brothers in Judea by the hands of the apostles Paul and Barnabas (Acts 11:28-30).
This benevolent offering actually occupies quite a prominent place in Acts, Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians. Not only did it meet a very real physical and social need, God used it to bond both gentile and Jewish believers together in a time of considerable tension between them. Think for a minute of the lessons that God taught the Antioch church (and others) through their participation in this gift.
Over the past few days we have been in communication with Elisha and others. The Takiyama church members are fine physically, though the entire nation is affected by the tragedy. Food, gasoline, medicine and other basic items are becoming scarce and expensive. We have learned that some church members have family and friends in the areas of greatest need that are missing or affected. Right now they are working to assess needs and opportunities to help.
Today, KCBT began processing an immediate gift of $10,000 to the Takiyama church to use in the relief effort to their family, friends, other churches and other needs as they see fit. We can do this because our people have been faithful to give their tithes and offerings on a regular basis. No special offering is necessary because you have been faithful all along. While anyone can, of course, give above their tithes and offerings to specific missionaries and projects, at KCBT a good portion of the regular giving every week goes beyond ourselves.
What can KCBT learn from this?
Still hanging around the back wall? Come! Join with us. Together we have a synergy far beyond what we can do as individuals. A grudging act of giving feels like a heavy obligation; becoming a generous person is liberating and can result in global significance!