Category: Social Commentary
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.
- This offering taught the church that there were needs beyond their own community for which they were responsible. Talk about a challenge to their world view!
- This offering taught the church in Antioch to be a generous church. Giving is merely an act by which God begins to teach us to be generous people by nature.
- The offering taught the Antioch church that the “church” was much greater than their own congregation. They began to appreciate that they had brothers and sisters in other places and totally different cultures.
Japan has been devastated beyond comprehension. The Antioch church did not respond to every need in the world, nor can we. But we can be sensitive to the leadership of God’s Spirit. Just days before the quake, we ordained a young Japanese man named Elisha in the presence of his senior pastor, head deacon and two friends from the Takiyama church in Japan. They traveled all the way from Japan to share this moment with us. Now, it is our turn to stand with them.
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?
- There are needs beyond our local assembly. We are a globally focused church whose outreach begins in our own community and stretches to the most remote places on earth.
- Every member should be generous. No exceptions. We should be generous givers both individually and corporately.
- We also have brothers and sisters all over the planet with whom we are organically related in Christ. As we are diligent to give, we advance the kingdom. Everyone who is a giver at KCBT is part of this relief gift to the Takiyama family of believers.
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!
Are you watching?
“What can we do to help in Japan?”
Great question! I just got an email from a local mission organization asking how our church was responding to the mega-disaster in Japan. It’s a question I ask myself.
First and foremost, we can pray. My past two posts have focused on the need for prayer. In our third service this morning we had a special time of corporate prayer for Japan. Sometimes I think we don’t give prayer its proper due, treating it as an obligation, something we do while gearing up to really DO something.
This morning I sp0ke from Psalm 119 about the power of remembering. Let me call our KCBT community to remember how we began our focus on the K people. We simply prayed, not knowing what else to do. Remember that I told you not to ask when we would go or what we could do. We set aside an entire year to just pray. This is not the space or time to go into this, but we have been amazed at what God has done in these past couple of years. Enough to reconfirm that prayer is the first, not the last resort.
In the first post on Japan early Friday morning Kansas City time, I shared some thoughts about prayer from Colossians 4:2-4 that we used for a guide in last Tuesday’s prayer ministry. There is an aspect of Paul’s instruction there that continues to burn in me. He tells us not only to pray, but to watch in prayer.
Have you noticed how many times this theme of watching in prayer comes up in the scriptures? You find that in both Old and New Testaments. Jesus talked about watching and praying. I find this fascinating and wish that I better understood all that God means.
So, in response to the question, “What can I do,” I respond with a question of my own, “Are you watching?”
To watch in prayer implies a continued effort. This situation in Japan is very fluid and will not be over for a long time to come. Our attention span is short. We should watch in prayer.
To watch in prayer also speaks to me of watching to see what God is doing. I think this is one of the most important facets of our response to the tragedy in Japan. How will God use this event to advance his kingdom?
While watching, are you watching what God is doing in the Middle East and North Africa? How about the continued crisis in Ivory Coast? Not that long ago I was saying that what is happening in North Africa and the Middle East is one of the most significant events of my life time. I still believe that. We are all consumed with compassion for the Japanese, but let’s not stop watching what God is doing in that amazing situation in the Islamic world. In Libya, for example, rebels have been badly beat back these past couple of days. Will God give us an open door for the good news in these situations? Let’s watch!
Having said all this about prayer, we still pray to know what God would have us to do in a tangible way. We have some guiding principles as a church community in circumstances like these. We could easily spend all of our time and resources reacting impulsively to every need that comes along. Unfortunately, there is no shortage of tragedy and natural disaster in this fallen world. Therefore, we choose to reserve our best efforts for those times God opens a very clear door of opportunity to work with fellow believers on the ground.
In Japan, our best contact is the Takiyama church where Elisha ministers alongside Pastor Oki. You can see some of Elisha’s updates in comments on the past two posts. They are outside of the zones of greatest damage and just outside one of the areas evacuated because of the concern for the nuclear power stations. Their members have family and friends in the northeast area that bore the brunt of the devastating tsunami. They are also asking God for wisdom in how they might help. As they determine what practical steps they need to take, perhaps the opportunity to help them in some way might arise. You can be sure I’ll let you know if that does develop.
Meanwhile, if you are led to give, I suggest you stick with a group you know and can trust. The American Red Cross and Salvation Army come immediately to mind because they are well-equipped for immediate response, but there are others. Beware of groups that don’t have a proven track record, even Christian organizations. There are always those who rush to the battle without a clear battle plan, necessary contacts, expertise and experience to make a dent in the task. Japan is one of the most ordered societies on earth and as well-prepared to handle situations like this as any other nation. They don’t need a lot of ”loose canons” running around and getting in the way of the larger, coordinated efforts at this stage.
Looking for ministry partners in Japan is difficult because the footprint of the church there is very small. There just aren’t that many evangelical believers. We are fortunate to have an ongoing relationship with the Takiyama church, one of the more significant works with which we could possibly team up.
Again, as always, feel free to share your own thoughts and ideas. Above all, we continue to watch and pray.
Update on situation in Japan
I realize you are surrounded by continuous news about the tragic situation in Japan. There is certainly no need for me to simply repeat what you have already heard. However, I do think there is value in links to common friends and acquaintances to disseminate information you won’t get on the standard news outlets. Despite all the many issues, times like these remind us of the power of the Internet, blogs and all forms of social networking. Let me try to pass on what I can.
In the wee hours of yesterday morning, my last post reflected my thoughts as in stunned terror I watched the tsunami live. Included in the post were some thoughts about how we might be praying. I also asked anyone to share whatever information they may have about people we know. Within minutes people began to post and I am very grateful to those of you who did. If you missed that, you might want to read yesterday’s post before finishing this one. Don’t forget to read the comments. Monica’s comment there from earlier this morning is an update on what’s happening with our friend Elisha and his church in Takiyama.
Monica also passed on to me some prayer requests from the friend of a friend, both active with Campus Crusade in Japan where they are grad students. These comments seemed to be particularly informative and also offer great prayer thoughts. Here there are!
… a former teammate just sent me a list of specific prayer requests. I thought it might help:
Many of you are wondering how you can be praying specifically for Japan. We just had a prayer meeting today to pray for the situation in Japan. I want to share them with you so you can know how to specifically lift up Japan.
1. Praise God. We know that God is sovereign and in control if this situation. We want to thank God for the protection for all of us in Tokyo.
2. Please pray for the people waiting to be rescued.
3. Please pray for the people who are suffering and who has lost houses. There are over 1,300 dead or missing and the number continues to rise.
4. Please pray for protection from the aftershock, fire, tsunami, disease, or any other side effects of the earthquake. We still feel the aftershocks (right as I’m typing this, I’m experiencing an aftershock). Although they weren’t as hard as the initial earthquake, it has still been knocking things over here in Tokyo, which means it’s hitting harder in Miyagi. Every grocery store I’ve seen in Tokyo has been all bought out of bottled water and most produce is gone. Please pray that God will provide physical nourishment to people in Miyagi. Also, a nuclear plant just exploded this afternoon. Please pray that no harmful gases will result from this.
5. Please pray for the rescuers, self defense, firemen, and the people who are helping.
6. Please pray for wisdom upon the Prime minister and other leaders.
7. Please pray for wisdom upon Japan Campus Crusade for Christ and how to respond to this crisis. Also, we are having the “Change” student conference in two days. The conference center we reserved had their boiler broken as well as other things. Please pray for wisdom for God’s will regarding the conference.
8. Please pray for Francis, an ex-staff who is living in Sendai (the capital of Miyagi). She is pregnant and there is no electricity in the entire city. Please pray for her protection.
9. Please pray that the country of Japan will turn their hearts to God during this time of crisis.
Thank you SO much for your constant prayer for Japan.
Love In Christ,
Michael Chan
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. Psalm 46:1-3
Super? Bowl
OK, it’s the Super Bowl, a national holiday right up there with Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter and the 4th of July. Right? I mean, who in their right mind would plan anything else for Super Bowl evening?
I sit here watching the Super Bowl, but must confess that I am not a super fan. Now, if the Chiefs were there I would be watching with much more interest. I guess I would. But, then again, that’s purely theory, right? At least it’s not a blow out but a fairly interesting game.
Here’s what I can’t figure out. It’s this thing the players do whenever they score a touchdown or make a huge play. They do something hip and goofy – like bump each other or dance a little jig. Then, they point to Heaven and/or drop to a knee as though in prayer. Do they actually teach this in training? They all seem to do it – even the ones who live outrageous lives. Is this what makes everything OK? I’m not sure what to make of this. Brett Farve is a recent example of a great football player who doesn’t do real live too well.
Tonight a player fell to the ground in celebration after making a touchdown and was penalized for 15 yards on the following kickoff. So, you can’t fall to the ground or jump into the stands, but you can point to Heaven or drop to a knee in prayer posture. But, God forbid we do a public Nativity display at Christmas time! Oh, excuse me – Winter Holiday. And, if you leave a Bible on your desk at work, you might offend someone. But, an obscenely-paid professional athlete can “give thanks and glory to God” and that’s all fine. Is this a double standard, or no standard, or what?
I have known a number of wonderful, genuine, authentic professional football players through the years. I have nothing but respect for them. I have also known some who were completely messed up, yet never failed to point to Heaven in thanks to God. I’m just wondering. Could there be a more effective way to “witness” for those who truly do love God?
Those of us who aren’t professional athletes, do we have our own patented little ways to “witness” that may have long outlived their shelf life? Do we say and do things that cause people to look at us and think, “what’s up with that?” Are some of our witnessing methods more about what we’ve seen others do, or what makes us feel better, than about what is really effective and brings glory to God. I don’t know. I’m just thinking.
Oh, and Green Bay just won the Super Bowl. Congratulations! Does that mean God love them more, or that they prayed harder in the pre-game chapel service? (I’ve done some pre-game chapels for pro teams and always feel a bit awkward in knowing how to pray. Do I ask God to help them win, or just keep them from killing each other?).
Or, is football just a game that grown men play and some of them from time to time happen to be good Christians? Do those good Christians have to point to Heaven when they score in order to maintain a good testimony? Or, is there another way they might give glory to God? Is there a way for God to win? Or – here’s a radical thought – can we just watch and enjoy the Super Bowl for what it is – a big football game – enjoy the snacks, enjoy the commercials and enjoy our friends and family? Period.
How do I talk to thee? Let me count the ways
My apologies to Elizabeth Barret Browning for completely ripping off this title line from her famous nineteenth century sonnet. How do I talk to thee? Let me count the ways – this line came to mind today as I read a report by Chris Pirillo about the many ways we have to communicate with each other. It’s all quite overwhelming. So, this must be a record! Here I am ripping off two different authors in the same blog post – Browning and Pirillo. Sorry.
Think about the communications options available. We can email, tweet, chat, Instant Message (IM), send messages via social networks like FaceBook, use a land line, cell phone, Skype, text, or even send a letter or card by snail mail. I’m missing some, right?
In the article I was reading (online), Chris Pirillo said,
It can get crazy, can’t it? Last Friday I was with Cheryl negotiating to get her a car. As I was talking with the salesperson, my Android was buzzing and I was texting two or three different people multiple times about separate but very important issues. Alarms were going off to a couple of different email accounts that I felt obligated to check in case something important and urgent was coming in. In this process I was interrupted a couple of times by old fashioned calls to my cell phone. This is so stupid! It made it difficult to open my mouth to communicate with the human person sitting across the table from me. I’ve got to get this under control.
I know. Leave the cell phone at home. Turn it off. Put it on silent or vibrate and just ignore it until I am ready to deal with all that. Yeah, great advice, and I really don’t have a problem doing that. It’s just that on that particular afternoon I was dealing with a couple of important and urgent issues.
Over the past few years I have struggled to resist the latest methods of communication. I didn’t really start texting until my current assistant turned out to be a texter about the same time both of my daughters turned to texting as their first preference for communicating. Have you noticed that many people have a preferred method of communication? Some are texters, others are emailers and still others only do cell phones. I can do all that, but I just haven’t figured out what to do with people who want to communicate by spoken word while looking into my eyes.
I dodged chatting, until the same assistant used the local office Google chat to run things by me. Here’s how this sometimes works – my little chat box pops up and she asks me a question. I respond by raising my voice a tad and speaking verbally to her at her desk all of about twelve feet away. Then, getting the hang of it, I sometimes notice that she is online while I am in the middle of the Iraqi desert or some weird place and I chat with her for a few minutes to touch base on things. So, I see the good, bad and the ridiculous.
Once I got the hang of chatting, I was careful not to have anyone on my list except my assistant. At least she knows when I am in the office and busy or not. Then, my youngest granddaughter got a netbook with a video cam and send me a request via email to accept her invitation to be on her video chat list. How do you say no to an eleven-year-old granddaughter? At first, it was fun to see her little face on my computer screen. Then, the buzzer would inevitably go off wanting to chat while I was in important meetings, just about the time she was getting home from school. Oh, well!
Several times a week, or even several times a day, I get requests to be put on someone’s list to share photos on some web-based site, or someone’s chat list on one of many different options like Google or Yahoo or MSN or … you name it. Nothing personal, but all those requests go straight into my cyber trash can.
For some time now I have built up a fairly large network on LinkedIn. In a couple of years, I think I have received maybe one message via LinkedIn. I’m not sure what good it does me to be LinkedIn, but I sure am! I think I have figured out that the purpose of LinkedIn is not really to be linked to people in some form of communication, but to put on your website that you have a larger LinkedIn network than the next person.
Checking email in the Asian sector of Istanbul
So, what’s your preferred form of communication? I’m an email guy because that’s easier for me to control. Phone call? Good luck! For the same reason of my crazy schedule, I only Skype on occasions that are important enough to raise the Homeland Security level to red. I can ignore email for a period of time until I have an opening to sit down and try to catch up. Does that sound stuck up, or that I try to keep people at arm’s length? That’s really not really what I am trying to say; I just can’t keep up with all the communication options available to simplify our lives.
Recently, I was at a meeting with one of the pastors on our team. He sat down at the table with me and carefully placed in front of himself, his smartphone, his Ipad and his netbook computer. What???? Yes, all three. I couldn’t tell if he had something else strapped to his ankle or taped under his arm. Is this the simple life of instant communication and total accessibility? I would tell you who this was, but I don’t want to embarrass Tim for anything.
And while we’re at it, what’s really the deal with SPAM? With all the hundreds of thousands and millions of SPAM messages and advertisements, you would think that someone, somewhere is making lots of money off of ignorant people who don’t know what SPAM is. Really? Have you seriously ever personally known someone who, for example, has actually bought Viagra or penis or breast enlargement pills, or a Rolex watch or ANYTHING in response to SPAM? I really want to know this. Has anyone in the history of Planet Earth ever bought something from a SPAMMER? If you ARE that person, I know you wouldn’t want to admit it, so you could just say that you knew someone who had a friend who …