I awoke this morning in Lynchburg, Virgina, having arrived last night. My good friend Dr. Dave Early had picked me up and took me out to eat before dropping me off at the hotel.

As I pulled back the window shades I had a full view of the campus of Liberty University with the Blue Ridge Mountains in the background. It has been many years since I was here, and what is now a major university was not much more than a Bible college when I was last here. In fact, Dr. Early remembers me speaking in chapel when he was a student. I can’t believe I just told you all that!

Liberty has become a truly fine university. I am impressed with what I saw. Dave is Chairman of the Department of Pastoral Ministries and Church Expansion at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary. He had invited me to speak at Ministry Chapel this morning, an event held every Friday for those who are leaning toward some sort of ministry leadership position. Any day when I can speak and interact with students is a good day. So, what do I say to them?

Here’s the deal with ministry chapel. You have 30 minutes to say something that will hopefully impact their lives. That’s a tall order! I went with a single word – strategic. I told them to make their lives strategic, going onto explain what that means. The good thing is we don’t have to come up with a strategy. Jesus already has one! The more we link up with Jesus and his strategy to reach the nations, the more strategic we are. Strategic was the word of the day.

Word number two came later. But first, let me set the background. When I arrived last night at Lynchburg’s tiny airport on one of the tiny 50 passenger turbo-props that fly there, Dave was waiting for me. I was surprised, but pleased to see another friend from years ago. After we exchanged greetings, the other friend, Daniel, said he was there to pick up John. Then he asked if I had been talking with John on the flight. On a small flight, he imagined that everyone had a chance to get to know each other.

I’m sorry, John who? I said.

John MacArthur. You know John, don’t you?

I explained that I certainly know who he is, but have never had the chance to meet him. I even spoke once in chapel at The Master’s College in California, but John was gone that day. About that time, John walked up and I did get to meet him after all these years. Dave and I were invited to join them for dinner, but there were others waiting as well and we thought it best to go off on our own to review things for chapel, catch up with each other and just hang out for a bit.

For those of you who might not know, Dr. John MacArthur is one of the great biblical expositors of the past century. He has long been the teaching pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California. A popular conference speaker and author, he is sort of like the Charles Spurgeon of our time.

While I spoke at ministry chapel, John MacArthur was speaking at what is called Convocation, the massive, three-times-a-week gathering of students at  Liberty. Stiff competition!

When I got to the airport to fly home this afternoon, I figured I would see him again, and I did. Lynchburg’s airport has two gates -that’s two as in 2. There’s not many ways in or out of Lynchburg. Sure enough, there he was, and we chatted for a few minutes before boarding the plane for Charlotte and civilization. He clearly remembered having preached at KCBT in the days of my predecessor, and we talked about that and some other mutual friends.

As we boarded the plane, the gentleman who was traveling with John asked me if I had Slave - John’s latest book. A knowing smile met my negative answer, and I soon had a copy of Slave with a personal dedication from the author. Very cool!

I had a chance to personally thank Dr. MacArthur for the book, but also I thanked him for the personal inspiration that he has been to me during all the years of my ministry. There are not many biblical expositors who are dedicated to teaching sound doctrine these days, but he is certainly at the top of the list. At least he’s at the top of my list!

On the flight home I read most of the book and it was very good. The whole concept of the book is based around the word slave as it is used in the biblical context. He deals with how we have softened the word in English to servant. The Greek word doulos translated servant in most English translations means nothing but slave. There are at least half a dozen words in Greek to mean servant and doulos is not one of them. The point of the book is to explore and explain the implications of that word and our relationship to our God and Master.

Don’t worry. I won’t spoil the punchline or reveal the plot. I recommend you get the book and read it. Or, you might just wait until you bump into the author in an airport.

Perspectives Class #2

Tonight was my second and final class for Perspectives here in San José, Costa Rica, the reason I am here. There are 15 classes in this university level course. I now leave it in the hands of those who will follow me each week. The first week of something can be hard to absorb not knowing what to expect. Last week went well, but this week it seemed that people got a true sense of the magnitude of what they have signed up for. The feedback was electric, both written and verbal. Already people are seeing their perspective on the world begin to change. With constant tweaking since 1982, this course is truly an amazing experience.

When all is said and done it looks like right at 50 people will be enrolled. The cutoff is tomorrow morning. This is far more than I personally expected and the quality of students is impressive. It was announced tonight that we are offering the intensive version at KCBT in conjunction with The Summit next month and already two people are seriously interested in coming. One lady is already shopping plane tickets and another was getting very serious about it this evening. It’s a pretty powerful thing. Really. If you want to know more, hop over to kcbt.org.

So, around noon tomorrow I begin my journey home. Back to winter. I have been spoiled while here and loved every minute of it! Daily Coffee Tours with Montse have been a blast. Her mom is an amazing cook and they have made me feel like family. Thanks for coming along with here and I hope that I was able to provide a little cyber warmth to get you through the cold, those of you who have been shivering in Kansas City.  See you soon!

First lesson, first ever full version of Perspectives in Spanish

It’s Tuesday noon in San José, Costa Rica and I am quietly reflecting on what happened here last night. I arrived yesterday to teach the first lesson of Perspectives, a 15 week course being offered in Spanish for the first time in its complete version.

This is the same Perspectives course that will be offered in its intensive (8 day) version at KCBT during The Summit this year. First published in 1982 in conjunction with the US Center for World Missions in Pasadena, CA, Perspectives has become the gold standard of teaching on the world Christian movement. This is not necessarily a class for the masses, as it is truly a high level university course and it is not cheap to enroll. Those who desire can get college credit on a bachelor or masters level. Even this first time in Costa Rica, some local institutions are offering full college credit. Time does not permit sharing some of the many fabulous testimony of lives turned upside down by this course. Suffice it to say that it lives up to it title and those who persevere will emerge after 15 weeks with a transformed set of perspectives about what God is doing in the world.

I really had no idea what to expect except that I have full confidence in Montserrat Antillón who is the certified coordinator for the course. In fact, she obtained her certification in a special training course offered last summer in Kansas City. Earlier, she was herself a student in the 15 week course in a venue in Pennsylvania. Montse is an impressive young woman and has done a great job in assembling a local team to work together to make this happen. A 5 week version of the course has been offered in Spanish for years, but Montse had the burning vision that it was time to pull out the stops and offer the full course.

The English-speaking International Baptist Church has a beautiful facility here and agreed to host the event. Pastor Paul, originally from Oklahoma, is very familiar with Perspectives and its laudable heritage, but has never had the chance to be a student himself. I was thrilled to see him enrolled.  There were 39 students officially enrolled last night and 10 to 15 visitors, some of whom will be back next week to enroll. There were a few others who could not be present last night, but will be in attendance for the rest of the course.

A 15-week course that costs around $200 is not a small commitment for someone in the US and the same can be said here. Actually, the course normally costs about twice that in the US. Montse has used her creativity to keep costs down here. For example, faithful KCBT giving makes if possible for the global mission budget to take care of my plane ticket to be the first professor. Those of you from KCBT need to know that your investment is appreciated and publicly acknowledged here. To save costs, I am staying through next Monday night so that they get a two-for-one deal. Some other professors will do the same. There is an amazing lineup of teachers scheduled to come in the following weeks.

One of the things that impressed me last night was the quality of students. Several other local pastors are students, besides Pastor Paul I already mentioned. The balance of age groups is good, with both young and older. Most all of the students, if not pastors, are professionals, highly educated and people who occupy positions of great influence in this country. To see them respond to God’s global mission is heartening to say the least Some of these young professionals are actively seeking God’s guidance as to how and where in the world they fit into God’s purpose.

Here is an excerpt from an email Montse sent out this morning to her local team and mission leaders in other countries who have supported her in this ambitious project.

WOW! No words to describe last night… Every single evaluation that the participants turned in seemed to have gotten the point: This is for God’s Glory… His purpose is higher, deeper and greater in every way than my own. The class was challenged and open-minded. Nobody complained about being tricked into a missions class (which honestly was my only fear since we never mentioned the word missions in our recruiting).
A room full of leaders, young leaders, mature leaders, pastors…   I didn’t get a real head count, sorry. But we only had one book left at the end of the night, so 39 people are fully signed up and we have 10 – 15 visitors, maybe…  This are my numbers, which in any case don’t really matter that much. But I wanted you to understand the impact of what is just starting…

I was going to give you an update last night, but I wimped out. I had to get up at 3:30 in the morning to catch my flight. By the time the dust settled last night, it was around midnight before I was able to get to bed. I thought I would put this off until today and glad I did. It might even make a bit of sense today!