My father was a “lifer” on the railroad along with all four of his brothers, so as a child I learned the love and the language of trains and the systems within which they run. I knew the schedules, the sounds and smells and could identify the rail system of any engine or caboose by its colors and insignia.
When our family would plan a vacation, old-fashion steam trains were high on the priority list of things to do. On several memorial occasions we rode behind those smoke belching monsters on short excursions through the countryside. The boys were absolutely at the height of excitement …what could be more fun than a real steam train….the girls were busy brushing the cinders off their dresses wondering if something was going to explode or catch fire.
I remember vividly the sense of awe I felt standing beside the locomotives looking at the enormous steel drive wheels. A little smug in my superior knowledge, I would ask my younger siblings to show me the “ the force that drives this train”, and they would almost always point to those massive wheels. But even as a child I knew better. Inside the cab were the doors to the firebox and the enormous boilers, ……..I had watched as the coal was shoveled into the fire box, and heard the explosive release of steam pressure through relief valves. That big engine could pull the train only because of the fire in its belly.
The prayer offerings of the faithful …, this is the fire that empowers the church and the real source of its effectiveness. The visible machinery of program and public events are only “ministry” in the actual sense of the word if covered and empowered by prayer. Like my young siblings , distracted by impressive machinery, many people will never see or understand what really drives the church.
Friday, October 2, 2009
suited to sail
Some time ago, in order to help another missionary with some government papers, we bumped and rattled several hours north to the coastal city of Cap Haitian. Our business took us to the docks and from a second story vantage point we could see most of the harbor. Looking beyond the calm harbor to the ocean inlet we saw in place of the usually tranquil ocean, angry black swells of ten feet tipped with white caps. A brisk north wind was causing the docked boats within the harbor to tug at their moorings as if impatient to be off on their next voyage.
Because the wheels of bureaucracy grind slowly in Haiti, there was plenty of time to review the scene before us, …. the wait for our papers stretched to nearly six hours. In the entire morning not one boat moved into or out of the inlet, in fact only a dredge and its busy little tender changed positions as we watched. This lack of activity in a usually busy harbor was not really a mystery because the boats tied to the docks were obviously too small or too broken down do brave the menacing swells just outside the inlet. And so they waited at anchor….. balky wooden sailboats used to carry cargo from city to city along the coast, rusty steel freighters, slim pleasure craft. Certainly they were safe from the threatening ocean but quite useless that day as far as any work was concerned.
Often when we pray for a visitation from God on our complacent churches and uncommitted believers, our petitions might lead a listener to believe that somehow God is not keeping up His end of the bargain. Perhaps we ought instead to check our “seaworthiness” as instruments of evangelism and missional activity. Many of our “harbors” appear to be occupied by the saved and safe who lack the desire or the spiritual understanding to evangelize.
I once saw a beautiful poster of a quiet harbor scene under which were written the words, “A ship in the harbor is safe, …but that’s not what ships were made for”
Or as Paul asks so pointedly ( in beautiful Shakespearian English), “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard; and how shall they hear without a preacher?”
Because the wheels of bureaucracy grind slowly in Haiti, there was plenty of time to review the scene before us, …. the wait for our papers stretched to nearly six hours. In the entire morning not one boat moved into or out of the inlet, in fact only a dredge and its busy little tender changed positions as we watched. This lack of activity in a usually busy harbor was not really a mystery because the boats tied to the docks were obviously too small or too broken down do brave the menacing swells just outside the inlet. And so they waited at anchor….. balky wooden sailboats used to carry cargo from city to city along the coast, rusty steel freighters, slim pleasure craft. Certainly they were safe from the threatening ocean but quite useless that day as far as any work was concerned.
Often when we pray for a visitation from God on our complacent churches and uncommitted believers, our petitions might lead a listener to believe that somehow God is not keeping up His end of the bargain. Perhaps we ought instead to check our “seaworthiness” as instruments of evangelism and missional activity. Many of our “harbors” appear to be occupied by the saved and safe who lack the desire or the spiritual understanding to evangelize.
I once saw a beautiful poster of a quiet harbor scene under which were written the words, “A ship in the harbor is safe, …but that’s not what ships were made for”
Or as Paul asks so pointedly ( in beautiful Shakespearian English), “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard; and how shall they hear without a preacher?”
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
more good news
I’ve always been a little jealous of the many great Caribbean preachers and evangelists that I have met during my ministry here. Instead of just preaching , they engage in an active conversation with the congregation …when they are really on a roll the congregation is finishing their sentences and chanting the message themes. It’s every preacher’s dream, to have that amazing kind of connection with the listening crowd. Unfortunately, I’ve never really learned to do that,....but I came really close once!
Several months ago I was invited to speak to a little congregation in a squatter's neighborhood in Anse-a-Galet LaGonave. This is altogether a very unimpressive place; the people resident there are humble and poor, (even for Haiti) and their “tabernacle” is a blue tarp stretched between several trees. The little congregation had announced special services and the Pastor was very insistent so I agreed to speak.
I’m certainly no advocate of the “open your mouth and the Lord will fill it” attitude toward sermon preparation but this particular night, the notes that I had prepared eventually went by the wayside. I started down my carefully chosen path by reading several passages that referenced the word “gospel” . The Creole word "L’evangil" relates very close to the Greek expression which literally translated means “good news” I started the message with an explanation that the good news is a response to the bad news …… that because of sin every human being is broken and scarred by the effects of sin, generationally and personally. We exhibit our twisted-ness from infancy and as we grow older, further broken and deeply stained , we rush headlong towards the judgment of a Holy God. But that is exactly where the good news starts, that in the middle of our hopeless thrashing that this same Holy God comes looking for us.
I told that attentive crowd that the good news just gets better… because God is not pursuing us to judge us, but rather to make us an incredible offer. If we will allow him to do for us what we can’t do for ourselves and receive the provision made to us by the offering of his Son that he will restore us to our lost family and to the privileges of sons and heirs.
But there is more good news , I told them that evening…. God wants to begin a process of transformation and restoration in our lives even while we must continue to exist in this soiled place. The New Testament describes a process of new beginnings, sometimes joyous, sometimes painful but by which newly forgiven neophytes become battle hardened and effective warriors for in the kingdom of God. Even while occupying this foreign battleground , marred and marked by sin, God offers to us deliverance from strongholds, fear, pride, anger, unforgiveness, bitterness and ultimately….. victory over the arch enemy, death.
To make the deal even sweeter, God offers us significance, the opportunity to participate with the Eternal God in His work and to do deeds that impact eternity.
Up to this point the congregation was hanging with me. They listened thoughtfully , entranced by the idea that any kind of Supernatural Being could so love them. But it was here, when I reached the last point that the “magic” happened. As I looked at my carefully scripted notes, I realized that my last point in the “good news” list was unsatisfactory, the promise of eternal life. Looking in the faces of those simple people that night and recognizing that they were trusting me to speak truth to them, I realized that I didn’t really understand all that much about heaven. Daring not to create an imaginary place based on, Dante, Gospel songs and western traditions, I quickly decided that safest thing I could do was to tell these suffering people, based on scripture (of course) things that would not be present in the eternal life God is offering. Starting completely off the cuff, the first couple items were obvious. The Bible says there’s no night there, good news for people have lived all their lives tormented by fear things that go “bump in the night”. Frankly in a country where Satan is openly worshipped, it’s unfair to call this kind of fear irrational or superstitious. There is an awesome heaviness to the spiritual oppression that hangs over this country.
Then, gaining a little momentum, we moved on to declare that there is no sickness in our future life. To people who live with pain and disease as part of everyday life this is indeed good news. After announcing each familiar item that would be absent from heaven , I said to them in the Creole vernacular, “li pap la”, (it won’t be there). Before long I was off and running with a spontaneous litany of things not found in Heaven; no hospitals, no police stations, no courthouses, no thieves, no pain, no separation, no injustice, no caskets………And after each announcement the congregation responded “li pap la”, quietly at first but with gradually increasing enthusiasm. With tears streaming I continued to recite the list of present day realities that will not be a part of our future life. For that brief moment we , the believers, the ragtag followers of Jesus, were all caught up together in the hopeful joy and anticipation of that place. Amazing…..that the God of the Universe came looking for us to restore us to fellowship, to make us a new creations, to empower us and entrust us to represent him in this difficult place, Together we will build something of eternal importance and then at the end of the amazing trip, He will take us to a place where we will never again have anything to worry about, forever. What else could we call that if not… good news.
Several months ago I was invited to speak to a little congregation in a squatter's neighborhood in Anse-a-Galet LaGonave. This is altogether a very unimpressive place; the people resident there are humble and poor, (even for Haiti) and their “tabernacle” is a blue tarp stretched between several trees. The little congregation had announced special services and the Pastor was very insistent so I agreed to speak.
I’m certainly no advocate of the “open your mouth and the Lord will fill it” attitude toward sermon preparation but this particular night, the notes that I had prepared eventually went by the wayside. I started down my carefully chosen path by reading several passages that referenced the word “gospel” . The Creole word "L’evangil" relates very close to the Greek expression which literally translated means “good news” I started the message with an explanation that the good news is a response to the bad news …… that because of sin every human being is broken and scarred by the effects of sin, generationally and personally. We exhibit our twisted-ness from infancy and as we grow older, further broken and deeply stained , we rush headlong towards the judgment of a Holy God. But that is exactly where the good news starts, that in the middle of our hopeless thrashing that this same Holy God comes looking for us.
I told that attentive crowd that the good news just gets better… because God is not pursuing us to judge us, but rather to make us an incredible offer. If we will allow him to do for us what we can’t do for ourselves and receive the provision made to us by the offering of his Son that he will restore us to our lost family and to the privileges of sons and heirs.
But there is more good news , I told them that evening…. God wants to begin a process of transformation and restoration in our lives even while we must continue to exist in this soiled place. The New Testament describes a process of new beginnings, sometimes joyous, sometimes painful but by which newly forgiven neophytes become battle hardened and effective warriors for in the kingdom of God. Even while occupying this foreign battleground , marred and marked by sin, God offers to us deliverance from strongholds, fear, pride, anger, unforgiveness, bitterness and ultimately….. victory over the arch enemy, death.
To make the deal even sweeter, God offers us significance, the opportunity to participate with the Eternal God in His work and to do deeds that impact eternity.
Up to this point the congregation was hanging with me. They listened thoughtfully , entranced by the idea that any kind of Supernatural Being could so love them. But it was here, when I reached the last point that the “magic” happened. As I looked at my carefully scripted notes, I realized that my last point in the “good news” list was unsatisfactory, the promise of eternal life. Looking in the faces of those simple people that night and recognizing that they were trusting me to speak truth to them, I realized that I didn’t really understand all that much about heaven. Daring not to create an imaginary place based on, Dante, Gospel songs and western traditions, I quickly decided that safest thing I could do was to tell these suffering people, based on scripture (of course) things that would not be present in the eternal life God is offering. Starting completely off the cuff, the first couple items were obvious. The Bible says there’s no night there, good news for people have lived all their lives tormented by fear things that go “bump in the night”. Frankly in a country where Satan is openly worshipped, it’s unfair to call this kind of fear irrational or superstitious. There is an awesome heaviness to the spiritual oppression that hangs over this country.
Then, gaining a little momentum, we moved on to declare that there is no sickness in our future life. To people who live with pain and disease as part of everyday life this is indeed good news. After announcing each familiar item that would be absent from heaven , I said to them in the Creole vernacular, “li pap la”, (it won’t be there). Before long I was off and running with a spontaneous litany of things not found in Heaven; no hospitals, no police stations, no courthouses, no thieves, no pain, no separation, no injustice, no caskets………And after each announcement the congregation responded “li pap la”, quietly at first but with gradually increasing enthusiasm. With tears streaming I continued to recite the list of present day realities that will not be a part of our future life. For that brief moment we , the believers, the ragtag followers of Jesus, were all caught up together in the hopeful joy and anticipation of that place. Amazing…..that the God of the Universe came looking for us to restore us to fellowship, to make us a new creations, to empower us and entrust us to represent him in this difficult place, Together we will build something of eternal importance and then at the end of the amazing trip, He will take us to a place where we will never again have anything to worry about, forever. What else could we call that if not… good news.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
epiphany
I have attended dozens of seminars and conferences ....mostly for the fellowship and time out of the office ...at church expense… how is that for honesty? Some of them have been helpful, good and timely wisdom for life and ministry. But I must confess that for all the time and money invested, moments of epiphany have been rare. I do, however, remember one moment of emotion so complicated that no single word can describe it. How do you mix fear, dread , confusion, insight and hope.
I can not remember the speaker’s name but more than ten years later I can remember his passionate appeal and some of his words reverberate in my mind to this day. He said something like this ....., In very important ways our children will not be like us...... They will have different values , different preferences, and they will not share our loyalties to institutions and traditions. They are being shaped by cataclysmic sociological and philosophical forces and it will be our ultimate challenge to transmit to them the absolute essentials of our Christian faith. In response to his words, I remember the weird mixture of relief and fear. Fear that those troubling words could define the future (demise) of the North American Church but also glad that a personal devil, finally had a name. For years I had been wrestling with a growing awareness that for whatever reason we were not effectively ministering to an entire generation now called ”postmodern” . The old gospel presentations, appeals to logic , four spiritual laws etc. met with blank stares, a language not understood.
A lot of people attending the seminar that day left shaking their heads at the alarmist rhetoric. But the speaker was right all those years ago. His words have proven to be prophetic and the church is still attemting to deal with the implications of the future reality he described, now present.
I can not remember the speaker’s name but more than ten years later I can remember his passionate appeal and some of his words reverberate in my mind to this day. He said something like this ....., In very important ways our children will not be like us...... They will have different values , different preferences, and they will not share our loyalties to institutions and traditions. They are being shaped by cataclysmic sociological and philosophical forces and it will be our ultimate challenge to transmit to them the absolute essentials of our Christian faith. In response to his words, I remember the weird mixture of relief and fear. Fear that those troubling words could define the future (demise) of the North American Church but also glad that a personal devil, finally had a name. For years I had been wrestling with a growing awareness that for whatever reason we were not effectively ministering to an entire generation now called ”postmodern” . The old gospel presentations, appeals to logic , four spiritual laws etc. met with blank stares, a language not understood.
A lot of people attending the seminar that day left shaking their heads at the alarmist rhetoric. But the speaker was right all those years ago. His words have proven to be prophetic and the church is still attemting to deal with the implications of the future reality he described, now present.
that's good news
She appears a little on the tough side, hair too blond, nails too red, with that wary look of one too conscious her reputation. In a little town like this, every one knows about her "checkered past". She slips into the pew and it takes a moment for her to leave the difficult world of the outside, for her spirit to thaw in the warmth of worship. You can tell she feels like she belongs here though, the frail old gentleman next to her gave her a warm welcoming smile as she entered the pew and she held his hand during prayer. There were some less warm, not exactly sure how far God’s grace extends. But most of the worshipers show at least the courtesy due one who is “headed in the right direction”.
She probably could not articulate her hope using the familiar language of the Church. Theological terms like justification, regeneration and propitiation are a foreign tongue her. But her tears clearly measure her deep response to ancient words from Zechariah 13:1 put to music in the last century , "There is a Fountan filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuels veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains."
There are some who would tell us that “old songs" like that don’t speak to this post-modern world but the songs of the redeemed have a power that transcends culture and history. This battered soul hears loudly and clearly ....the good news.... that God is a God of forgiveness, healing and new beginnings. Sinners are welcome , the song says, and transforming, healing power is available from the One who created mercy in the first place.
She probably could not articulate her hope using the familiar language of the Church. Theological terms like justification, regeneration and propitiation are a foreign tongue her. But her tears clearly measure her deep response to ancient words from Zechariah 13:1 put to music in the last century , "There is a Fountan filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuels veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains."
There are some who would tell us that “old songs" like that don’t speak to this post-modern world but the songs of the redeemed have a power that transcends culture and history. This battered soul hears loudly and clearly ....the good news.... that God is a God of forgiveness, healing and new beginnings. Sinners are welcome , the song says, and transforming, healing power is available from the One who created mercy in the first place.
simple faith
His smile was dazzling! It also had that “not quite right” look to it , ....kind of like .......nobody can be that happy.
He stood behind the lectern and read the scripture passage slowly, with exaggerated enunciation signifying the great effort with which his task was being performed. At the end of the reading he favored everyone again with his unbelievable grin and every one returned the smile, all relieved that he had successfully navigated what was for him, a challenging assignment.
None of us really want to live his life , to face every day the realities of his mental handicaps that make almost every aspect of his life a challenge. No one would really want to trade places with him ......but some admit to a little twing of jealousy at times . His joy and simple faith are infectous, his guileless transparency apparent in his open face and manner. He really believes that God loves him ......not in the general sense ( God loves everyone), but more in the sense of...." God loves everyone but I'm his favorite ". He has in his own way accepted that his loving heavenly Father intentionally created him frailties and all and that circumstances beyond his control are simply not his problem.
Ok ...I am a lot jealous at times.....
He stood behind the lectern and read the scripture passage slowly, with exaggerated enunciation signifying the great effort with which his task was being performed. At the end of the reading he favored everyone again with his unbelievable grin and every one returned the smile, all relieved that he had successfully navigated what was for him, a challenging assignment.
None of us really want to live his life , to face every day the realities of his mental handicaps that make almost every aspect of his life a challenge. No one would really want to trade places with him ......but some admit to a little twing of jealousy at times . His joy and simple faith are infectous, his guileless transparency apparent in his open face and manner. He really believes that God loves him ......not in the general sense ( God loves everyone), but more in the sense of...." God loves everyone but I'm his favorite ". He has in his own way accepted that his loving heavenly Father intentionally created him frailties and all and that circumstances beyond his control are simply not his problem.
Ok ...I am a lot jealous at times.....
Does God still heal people?
This is not a story some one told me ..about a friend… who had a friend… like one of those stories that are touching ....but impossible to verify. I was physically present when all of the important elements of this story took place.
She was a new believer, young mother , a university student struggling with all the normal things common to that period of life. She was trying to balance marriage, baby, and studies, but she had also been diagnosed with a dangerous physical condition that required two or more treatments a week. Her life was an endless cycle of… good day.. bad day.. treatment day… OK day …and the prognosis was that she would probably live this way for life unless some new treatment method was discovered.
One Sunday evening at the close of service, an invitation was given for anyone needing special prayer to come forward. She came ...with all of the emotions of her roller coaster life playing on her face. Without hesitation she specifically asked for prayer to be healed of her condition. Following the custon of our church she knelt at an altar rail, one of the ministry staff made the sign of the cross in anointing oil on her forehead while the ministry staff present and elders placed their hands on her head and shoulders and prayed for her. I was there but I don’t remember who lead the prayers , neither do I remember any particular or dramatic words spoken. Our offerings were simply the heart-felt expressions of brothers and sisters sensing the pain of a suffering loved one . We prayed for her husband , child , university studies, and that God would have mercy on her and heal her physical infirmity.
At the end of the prayer she rose with tears, gratitude and new found hope We continued to pray for other needs and eventually went home. Nothing particularly remarkable about that event, I have witnessed and participated in this ritual many times.
A few days later I recieved an excited, hopeful phone call about a missed treatment .....then a week without.... stretched into months until it was obvious to all but the most jaded..... that God had stretched out his hand in a miraculous way that night. We had witnessed ..a healing .. like in the Bible ….like Jesus used to do …right in our church!
Why her? Was she believing in just the right way? Why that prayer .....did someone get all the words in the just right order?
Or does the sovereign God, in his own time, and for his own purposes, sometimes send us a special gift...a reminder of his extravagant love and absolute power over the material and spiritual worlds..... a faith building object lesson just for us!
She was a new believer, young mother , a university student struggling with all the normal things common to that period of life. She was trying to balance marriage, baby, and studies, but she had also been diagnosed with a dangerous physical condition that required two or more treatments a week. Her life was an endless cycle of… good day.. bad day.. treatment day… OK day …and the prognosis was that she would probably live this way for life unless some new treatment method was discovered.
One Sunday evening at the close of service, an invitation was given for anyone needing special prayer to come forward. She came ...with all of the emotions of her roller coaster life playing on her face. Without hesitation she specifically asked for prayer to be healed of her condition. Following the custon of our church she knelt at an altar rail, one of the ministry staff made the sign of the cross in anointing oil on her forehead while the ministry staff present and elders placed their hands on her head and shoulders and prayed for her. I was there but I don’t remember who lead the prayers , neither do I remember any particular or dramatic words spoken. Our offerings were simply the heart-felt expressions of brothers and sisters sensing the pain of a suffering loved one . We prayed for her husband , child , university studies, and that God would have mercy on her and heal her physical infirmity.
At the end of the prayer she rose with tears, gratitude and new found hope We continued to pray for other needs and eventually went home. Nothing particularly remarkable about that event, I have witnessed and participated in this ritual many times.
A few days later I recieved an excited, hopeful phone call about a missed treatment .....then a week without.... stretched into months until it was obvious to all but the most jaded..... that God had stretched out his hand in a miraculous way that night. We had witnessed ..a healing .. like in the Bible ….like Jesus used to do …right in our church!
Why her? Was she believing in just the right way? Why that prayer .....did someone get all the words in the just right order?
Or does the sovereign God, in his own time, and for his own purposes, sometimes send us a special gift...a reminder of his extravagant love and absolute power over the material and spiritual worlds..... a faith building object lesson just for us!
courage my good friend
A young pastor friend of mine just called.....to be honest , when I saw his name come up in the caller ID... I didn't want to take the call. I hate to talk on the phone in general but calls from good friends are welcome, and then there are some whose calls are a special treat. We are fellow warriors, this friend and I, and we enjoy the camaraderie that comes from shared sorrows and celebrations. I cringed just a little, however, because I knew that this call would be difficult and would leave me angry ....again. He is currently sheparding a tough church , some have called it a "Pastor Killer". Each time he calls lately,there is a new story of another painful attack , stinging, personal, profoundly unfair. I have felt that pain and know that in these times it is impossible to dream, hard work to smile,difficult to remember why we ever felt compelled to accept this life-calling.
Not all the "sheep" there are mean .... many are genuinely salt-of-the-earth kind of people.
Interesting that this church would never tolerate in its leadership, one who was unfaithful to marriage vows, party to shady financial dealings, or lacking in accountability…..
Why is it then that they openly permit the grievous sin of divisiveness to flourish in this church, treating the worst offenders as victims, deserving a place at the table to air imagined grievences.
There are just a few such individuals , but their shameless gossip , manipulation, and complete lack of respect for the pastoral office, will color and contaminate the enviroment of worship gatherings , and ministry efforts.
When are we going to have the courage to call this grevious sin by the proper name? How long are we going to ignore the clear principles of Matthew 18 …… and fail to insist that this powerful teaching of our Lord be our "normal" .... the way business is done in the Church. There is a terrible toll being paid in our churches, spiritual carnage caused by our disobediance. Until we repent ....we will also suffer the unneccessary loss of many gifted and able warriors, shot in the back by the most dangerous enemies of the church.
Not all the "sheep" there are mean .... many are genuinely salt-of-the-earth kind of people.
Interesting that this church would never tolerate in its leadership, one who was unfaithful to marriage vows, party to shady financial dealings, or lacking in accountability…..
Why is it then that they openly permit the grievous sin of divisiveness to flourish in this church, treating the worst offenders as victims, deserving a place at the table to air imagined grievences.
There are just a few such individuals , but their shameless gossip , manipulation, and complete lack of respect for the pastoral office, will color and contaminate the enviroment of worship gatherings , and ministry efforts.
When are we going to have the courage to call this grevious sin by the proper name? How long are we going to ignore the clear principles of Matthew 18 …… and fail to insist that this powerful teaching of our Lord be our "normal" .... the way business is done in the Church. There is a terrible toll being paid in our churches, spiritual carnage caused by our disobediance. Until we repent ....we will also suffer the unneccessary loss of many gifted and able warriors, shot in the back by the most dangerous enemies of the church.
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