MissioMishmash and the Mute Button

Sound can be a wonderful thing. Silence can be just as wonderful, especially after long periods of superfluous sound.

The mute button was a lovely invention.

MissioMishmash has been quiet for a while. No big explanation. We've simply pressed the mute button—a temporary blogging pause in favor of some more pressing priorities.

Of course, there's plenty out there waiting to be read about missions.

And even more to be done.

Why Is Language Study So Frustrating?

Here are a few reasons from a Princeton University Professor:

The Best Way To Learn a Language

The best way I know to learn a language is to read the foreign Bible out loud, over and over again. By reading it OUT LOUD, several things happen:

• Your eyes see it.
• Your mind reads it.
• Your mouth forms it (sometimes new languages reveal mouth muscles you never knew you had).
• Your voice sounds it.
• Your ears hear it.
• Your heart gets involved (inasmuch as the Word of God is alive even in the second language).
• You get familiar with the words you will (hopefully) be using most often.

Another great aid is to read it along with a narrator, which really helps you to get a feel for the cadence and pronunciation. Free audio download Bibles are becoming more and more common, for example at FaithComesByHearing and its App site Bible.is. FCBH has over 601 languages now and is a fun resource for families who pray for or "adopt" missionaries, and an extremely helpful resource for those working with illiterate peoples.

So read.

Out loud.

Over and over and over again.

You'll be surprised how quickly you start picking up the language.

The Inefficiencies of Independent Baptist Missions

Pastor Jeremy Wallace has a though-provoking, plain-spoken blog post about why independent Baptist missions is failing. I think the world "failing" is a misleading characterization, but Wallace is excellent in pointing out the inefficiencies in our system which must be addressed. He even gives several ideas for change. It's an important read for American churches.

Here's an excerpt:

The process of deputation is simply too long and too costly. I have heard some say that deputation doesn’t need to be changed because it was the time when God taught them so much and grew their faith. I don’t doubt that at all.  But let’s not put God in a box and say that He can’t teach people and grow their faith in a more effective and beneficial deputation process. It’s like a  member in a church standing up and giving a testimony as to how God has taught them about finances and grown their faith through their bankruptcy, and then the church designing a program to usher people through bankruptcy. After all, God uses that to strengthen people’s faith and teach them about finances. Just because God uses something that does not mean that it is the most beneficial, logical, and prudent process to reach the goal.

HT: my friend Dan Burrell.

How To Encourage or Discourage a Missionary

Chris Anderson over at My Two Cents has a nice Q&A with missionaries about the things churches and pastors have done that were especially encouraging or discouraging. As a pastor, he wants to know what a church should start doing and avoid doing, in order to energize (and not deflate) his missionaries.

Some helpful answers from missionaries are available in the comments section.

Preaching With An Interpreter

Once upon a time, a fiery American preacher went to Mexico to visit his missionary. The preacher began to preach, with his missionary interpreting, and began telling a joke the missionary knew—and knew would flop. The missionary tried to warn the preacher, but he said "Just trust me." As the preacher set up the joke, the missionary began telling the people, "This is an American joke  /  You will not get the punchline  /  But let's not make the preacher feel bad  /  So when I say 'laugh,' laugh as hard as you can!" The Mexicans' chuckles crescendoed as they realized what was going on, and when the preacher let loose on the punchline, the missionary said, "Now laugh!" And the Mexicans did—especially as they saw the satisfied face of the preacher—that glib look of having brought the house down.

Then, the preacher leaned over to the missionary and said, "See, I told you they'd get it!" Then the missionary laughed (and is still laughing).

It is not so easy to speak with an interpreter, but here are some practical tips:

1. Know your audience. Meet them. Hang out with them. Befriend them. My new friend Chris Gardner did this when he came to Albania. He arrived a few days early just to spend time with the believers he would be preaching to. Helped him connect. Don't be a submarine and emerge only for your pulpit time. The people haven't come to hear SermonAudio. They can do that at home. They want to get to know you.
2. Send the interpreter your material in advance on paper or email. The more you can write out in manuscript form, the better. Why? Because there's almost no way for you to know what portions of your message(s) will be problematic or unclear to the interpreter. He will be saved embarrassing moments and therefore be much better if he is confident and can use his mental energies towards expression and emphasis rather than linguistics. Inevitably, the greatest interpreters mis-hear something in the heat of the moment. This week, Chris was talking about someone becoming deaf and the interpreter heard "death" (made the story a tad more tragic!). Other times, he missed something and other English speakers spoke out to correct him. Help your interpreter out.
3. Go over your big moments face-to-face with your interpreter. I would especially want to talk through the introduction and conclusion, and make sure the main points all jive.
4. Remember that alliteration probably won't be alliterated in the target language anyway, so please replace your alliterations with simply the best words available.
5. Avoid American idioms. 
6. If you have an hour long sermon, cut it to 30 minutes, because translation doubles your time.
7. Make it simple. This doesn't mean dumb it down, just make it concise (you have to cut it down anyway, right?).
8. Be aware of your expressions like, "Lead, guide and direct us." In some places, that might translate as "Lead, lead and lead us," because there just aren't so many synonyms.
9. Idioms, expressions, and jokes can be OK, so long as you screen them in advance. Many times, a local joke or expression will both better illustrate your point and relate to the hearers. Give the interpreter a little leeway.
10. Practice your cadence a bit before you go out there. I've seen some guys say entire paragraphs before taking a breath and letting their poor interpreter cut in. I think most speakers, however, over-compensate and say too little in order. Many times, an interpreter needs the second part of a phrase before he can properly formulate the first part (i.e., there is a grammatical need to hear the whole thing first).
11. Don't cut off your interpreter's words. In the first place, you never know when he's "almost done" because you don't understand what he's saying. In the second place, if you top his endings with your new beginnings, you will drown out his endings. Let the guy finish!
12. Learn (well) and say (well) some local words in your introduction. Make sure you nail it.
13. Have fun.

Free Language Lessons

There are probably many free programs out there, but here's one that my friend Norm Brewer recommended to me. I thought the Albanian version was good for beginners. If nothing else it is a fun family activity around the dinner table ... listen to the words and try to repeat them.

http://www.goethe-verlag.com/book2/EN/index.htm

What Do You See At Chick-fil-A?

Recently while driving down a busy highway engrossed in a deep discussion with my daughter, we were both overcome with the thought: everyone in the passing cars has a complicated story too, and every one of them needs Christ and His Word. 

This training video for Chick-fil-A employees is a graphic reminder of the above concept. A reminder to see people everywhere with eyes of compassion and prayer

HT: Andy Naselli

Language Study for Missionaries: Keep Going

Missionaries, don't give up on your language study, and do not quit learning even if you feel yourself able to "function." Language learning is a marathon. Many have completed "language school" or survived a few books, and think they can move on with life and improve their language by osmosis. Doesn't happen. It takes effort. Continued effort.

Unless, of course, to sound you want like does this sentence. How people will the Gospel understand if sentences of you come across this like in their nativity tonguages?

Dr. Peter Pikkert has some fantastic tips on his site. Here is a large sample.

• Decide that language and culture learning will be on your mind all the time
• You must have the mindset that you are never done with language acquisition/culture learning.   
• Take further language courses if you have not mastered advanced grammatical structures. It is better to take the time to finish learning foundational grammar at this stage than to leave it until later on, when it will be much harder to get back into formal language study.
• Continue sessions with language helpers, or recruit 1 or 2 native speakers (close friends) who will take some responsibility to think of categories of things that you need to delve deeper into.
• Carry a notebook all the time. 
• Start talking! Develop your conversation practice.
• Look for clubs, interest groups, associations, choirs, etc. that you could join.
• Our reason for being here is all about getting to know people and spending time with them. It is therefore obvious that regular conversation with both believing and unbelieving nationals be an important part of both ministry and ongoing language development. 
• Being a good conversationalist is a skill. When meeting new people, the usual topics about country of origin, jobs, family, and impressions of the host country are likely to come up. However, as relationships develop, expect conversations to broaden. This means that your language level should get stretched and opportunities for sharing aspects of the Gospel in the context of the subject under discussion will increase.
• Unite language and culture learning more and more. At the beginning, language (articulation, expression, communication, comprehension, correctness) and culture (customs, values, social conduct) are separate foci. Stop seeing them as two separate things. What you investigate in language has cultural overtones—and you can't investigate cultural issues without language. To do this you must be aware of what is going on in the host country and the rest of the world. Watch a local soap opera, as well as the news on a regular basis. Read a newspaper. Some subjects are risky but more likely to lead to deeper discussions, e.g. current political events, involvement in wars, etc. One of the incentives for improving language is to develop the skill of contributing to such conversations in an appropriate way as well as being able to gently steer people to another topic when necessary!
• Presumably you will have already learned some proverbs. Continue to learn more from national friends as well as from books. Get to know how and when they are used. Start a collection of idioms and sayings. Jokes and riddles lighten conversations when things get too heavy or stagnate.
• Broaden your reading. Reading in the target language is one of the best ways to reinforce grammar already learnt and increase vocabulary. As well as reading a favourite section of the newspaper, become familiar with well-known national literature heroes. Read, read, read. Underline or star things you don't comprehend. Use a local language dictionary as well as non-English speaking nationals to explain things to you.
• Try to have minimal involvement with other expatriates, particularly during your first year overseas.
• Be careful about making yourself self-sufficient. Becoming a part of the culture includes learning how to give and receive. Learn to ask for favors and how to receive from others. Learn how reciprocity functions. If you are perceived as self-sufficient you deprive people of an opportunity to fulfill one of the basic ingredients to friendship-making: the meeting of needs. 
• Find out from those considered good language learners what they have found helpful. 
• Investigate the possibility of living with a national family. 
• Continue exploring. When did you last ride a random city bus to the end of the line?
• Plan a cultural event monthly—museum, festival, sports event, art exhibit, concert. Investigate joining a community club. Get involved in a sport or craft and learn the specialized terms.
• Beware of regular trips back home. Don’t welcome too many visitors from home either—both are distractions.
• Buy and look at a newspaper daily, concentrating on 1 or 2 topics—e.g., sports, accidents, comics. Make reading the paper a project with your language helper.
• Record a news broadcast and go over it with your helper.
• Record people telling their favorite stories or childhood experiences.
• Learn some Christian songs and choruses.
• Memorize a Bible verse a week. Start with shorter verses and work up to John 3:16. Learn simple statements to explain these verses.
• Memorize a proper prayer before meals, a simple prayer for a church service and a prayer for God's blessing on a friend.
• Work out a monologue on how trusting God resulted in specific things taking place (e.g., specific answers to prayer).
• Work out your testimony with your helper (short version to be expanded later). Have him/her record it, then memorize it.

The ideas are really endless, but Dr. Pikkert's are a great combo.

Don't Relieve Poverty By Stirring Discontent

I admit that I'm a skimmer. I rarely read anything word for word (I even skim films). Unless, that is, something is so good that I find myself hanging on every word. This article about our skewed perceptions of poverty and contentment is one of those gems. Thanks to Jonathan Biddle for the tip posted on my friend Mark Vowels' Facebook missions group. Here's a good sample:

Giving handouts creates more problems than it solves. It is like casting out demons with long leases. Break the lease or they will come back and bring more roommates (Lk 11:24–26). Where the Church is being established among people that perceive themselves as powerless, there is a great need for deep discipleship, wrestling with the roots of poverty at the community level rather than concentrating on the individual.

Financial help that does not develop sustainable, local, financial self-sufficiency is much more likely to create poverty than it is to meet real needs. Until we realize that we can’t overcome poverty with handouts, we will never be much help in completing Christ’s Great Commission.

As followers of Christ we must fight poverty through discipleship rather than covering it with spiritual frosting. Either we do God’s will God’s way or we aren’t doing His will at all. Discipleship means teaching others what we have learned so they can teach others to care for their community’s physical, economic, emotional and spiritual needs on a sustainable basis! (2 Tim 2:2, Mt 28:19–20)

Professor Vowels added this helpful note: "One book that I found to be very enlightening regarding dealing with poverty is When Helping Hurts by Fikkert and Corbett."

Here is a video of Steve Saint, son of Through Gates of Splendor missionary Nate Saint and author of the article I recommended above. He has helpful thoughts about planting indigenous works, whether church planting or doing humanitarian work.

Apple's Unwitting Contribution to World Missions

Steve Jobs has resigned as CEO of Apple due to health reasons (cancer). He has an interesting story, being fired from the company he started, then starting NeXT, which was subsequently bought by Apple. He also acquired Pixar, which was bought by Disney. Jobs is responsible for the personal computer as we know it, beautiful fonts, the ipod, the iphone, the ipad, and tons of other techie stuff I don't understand.

He is apparently not a Christian believer; in a speech at Stanford several years ago entitled "How To Live Before You Die," he said "You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever." However, his technology is being used for the advance of the Gospel.

Those who like missions and/or technology and who understand (or who can tolerate) terminology like MP4/H.264, microSD, EPUB, and HTML5 might be interested in reading this article to know how Jobs changed the face of Bible smuggling and the distribution of Bible teaching.

How To Know If God Wants You To Go

In 1915, twenty-eight men were alone, trapped in the ice-covered waters of Antarctica's treacherous seas. "Frozen," as one man put it, "like an almond in the middle of a chocolate bar." These were the men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition in the coldest climate on earth. They suffered frostbite, gangrene, hysteria, starvation, all for the glory of being the first ones to cross the Antarctic continent from sea to sea, the greatest polar journey ever attempted to date. The leader of the expedition, Sir Ernest Shackleton, had put an ad in the newspaper that read:

"Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages. Bitter cold. Long months of complete darkness. Constant danger. Safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success. Ernest Shackleton."

And 5000 people applied.

Why?

They wanted some great purpose and passion in their boring lives. Samuel Zwemer said that “so many young people’s minds and hearts are occupied by weak things, by inconsequential things. Their eyes have never been illumined by a great vision, their mind has never been gripped by unselfish thoughts, their hearts have never been thrilled with the passion for the lost, their hands have never grown weary and strong in the lifting of a great burden.”

If you want to be gripped by a cause greater than yourself and the toys you can gather in suburban America, I present you with the cause of the Christless millions and the call to leave houses and lands and family and friends and the Olive Garden restaurant, and find some pocket of people who haven’t heard the Gospel, like gypsie nomads, urban businessmen, or isolated mountaineers.

But how do you know if God wants YOU to go? I recognize that there some is some debate and discussion about this: some say “make sure you are called before you storm the beaches of a demon-possessed land.” Others say “Why do we need a call when we have a clear command?” I agree with both, but offer a little filter for those considering this high calling.  

1. You must be surrendered to go. This answers the question, "Would I go?" All believers ought to say "yes" but deep down, most people are saying "no." Some believers say "yes" but do not live with any level of faithfulness and surrender to God where they live now, so the net answer is still "no." I don't see much difference between being surrendered to GOD and being surrendered to GO (just one letter in fact). Anyone surrendered to God would say, "Here am I, send me" (Isaiah 6:8).

2. You must have a desire to go. This answers the question, "Do I want to go?" Paul said, “Necessity is laid on me, yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel.” One of the evidences of a call of God on a man to preach is what 1 Timothy 3:1 calls a desire for the work. The Bible teaches that as we delight in the Lord He fills our heart with His desires, as a branch fills up with the life of the vine. If your thoughts fly to the foreign fields and if your heart goes after the poor and needy, this is not devil-work; it is Divine desire. Why not verify this desire by spending a few years serving in some needy outpost. It really isn't all that difficult to find a short-term opportunity, you know.  

3. You must have the qualifications to go. This answers the question, "Should I go?" You see, you may want to fly fighter jets, but if you do not have perfect eyes, you won’t fly F-16s. You need qualifications. Young Timothy joined Paul in the mission because he showed the signs of being qualified. There is nothing about foreign geography which makes a missionary spiritual. If you don’t walk with God now, you won’t on the field. Timbuktu will not make you holy, and unfortunately, many who want to go are simply not going to pass the tests of faithfuless that God requires of his stewards. By the way, how would you know if you are spiritually qualified? Ask your local church--the institution/organism God ordained to ordain missionaries! Ask your pastors and other church leaders where you need to improve your character and gain skills. Ask them to be honest! And if you are lacking in your qualifications, start now. Grow your soul.  

4. You must have the opportunity to go. This answers the question, "Could I go?" Avoid things which will stifle your opportunities: financial debt, a wife or husband not interested, etc., and then look for the opportunities to get to a foreign field! If the Red Sea of opportunity parts for you, don't stand around thinking "Uuuh, is this God? Should I cross?" Of course you should get counsel before seizing an opportunity, but remember that over-analysis can cause paralysis. As Matt Recker preaches, "Sometimes you have to get going in the wrong direction in order to arrive in the right direction" (Acts 16:6-10). And as my pastor (Dr. Bud Calvert) preached, "If you go to the field and plant a bunch of churches, go to Heaven and discover it wasn't God's will, He'll probably forgive you." I'm not advocating a spin-the-globe kind of decision-making here, but my hunch is that we're off balance to the side of strategizing and planning missions, not on the side of boldly doing missions. When you're surrendered and have the desire and qualifications, God sends an open door.

Would you go? Do you want to go? Should you go? Could you go?

Improve Your Presentations

Someone has said that resources flow towards vision. I would add that resources flow when there is a coherent and passionate presentation of vision. I have blogged before about missionary presentations, here and here, for example, but again the folks at Duarte hit on some really good thoughts that can help you organize and present your vision as a missionary. Please note that this is slanted towards the business world and sales—so cut me some slack when some ideas here come across as worldly—but there's no excuse for a sloppy presentation when presenting the greatest cause in the world, world evangelism! You don't need to have slick graphics or spend lots of money to implement some good design and communication principles found here. Worth a look if you are making presentations.

 

Health Insurance for Missionaries

Missionaries who serve with mission boards or as members of large organizations often have no choices in health insurance—they are part of the organization's group plan, usually a good enough plan with good rates. The bigger the organization, the better the plan. That's simple enough and eliminates significant efforts to find the right insurance policy.

But what do the independent missionaries do? The ones being sent out directly from their home churches without a middle manager? Or what about newer, smaller organizations with small teams in diverse fields? What options are available for those groups who don't have enough numerical strength to sweet talk the actuaries into issuing a good policy?

Unfortunately, there are no easy solutions. Health insurance is what it is—expensive. And you get what you pay for — unless you get swindled.

I aim for two things in this post: 1) to report what I've learned through my family's process of shopping, and 2) to refer you to my agent, ASA.

 
The latter first: ASA has been our agent since 1997. The Cornejo family runs this out of Phoenix. They have been impeccably honest, capable, hard-working on our behalf, even going to battle for us when the insurance company made a four-figure mistake. They are experts on international insurance. I strongly urge any missionary to use an agent like ASA instead of dealing directly with an insurance company—it does not cost you anything extra to use them. And I can give the Cornejos an A+++ recommendation based on a 15-year relationship. If you tell them that David Hosaflook referred you, I will get a referral bonus (at no extra cost to you).  Pretty please? 

Now about our discoveries. Like everywhere, we have been astonished by the rising costs of health insurance. In our search to get a lower rate, we were thrilled to learn about some similar policies for half the cost of our current plan! We were all over it and ready to go through a new underwriting process. But then we discovered a crucial difference! The cheaper plans will drop you if you return to the USA and stay a day over six months (or three or nine months, depending on the plan). So, let's say someone in our family gets cancer and we choose to return to the USA for long-term treatment. After six months, we're dropped like a hot potato. So we must get a new insurance policy, right? Well, there are two major problems with that notion:

One, most insurance companies would never take on this "pre-existing condition." (Get this … the cheaper company we were dealing with wanted us to sign a waiver that it was forever exempt from covering anything remotely connected to allergies in one my kids, simply because we were honest enough to report that he had had some allergies in infancy —!— that he has long since recovered from. So do you think they would cover a pre-existing cancer? Not a chance.)

Next, I've heard from two reputable insurance agents that US insurance companies will deny covering you for up to 18 months after you've been serving abroad, to make sure all the foreign diseases are out of your system before taking you on to their risk load. So even if you come home for a non-medical reason, you could be without insurance for 12 months.

We have always viewed medical insurance as a way to take care of long-term, expensive, and significant medical problems without presuming upon supporters to cover gargantuan costs in an emergency. Many of these kinds of problems might bring us back to the USA for treatment, not just because our healthcare is excellent, but also because we might need to be nearby our support structures.

Therefore, the cheaper policy we looked into was not really insurance at all, at least as we define it. Your policy is not truly international unless it covers you in America. And that is why our current plan is twice the cost. It covers us anywhere, guaranteed, for life (cheaper plans kick you out at age 75). I encourage any short-term or long-term overseas worker to contact our reputable agent to find the best policy to meet your needs:

ASA, Inc.
http://www.asaincor.com
1-888-272-8288
Please tell them David Hosaflook referred you!


Disclaimer: I offer this advice as a long-time, satisfied consumer, not a professional. Feel free to add other suggestions in the comments below.

Growth By Theft — When Missions Hinders Missions

There is a grave danger threatening world missions and the health of the church worldwide. It is the danger of American church planting groups infiltrating foreign fields.

Though it's as old as the apostles, "church planting" is a popular buzz in American Christianity, like an old fad rediscovered. My pastor Dr. Bud Calvert, who has been harping on church planting for decades, told me recently how he is aware of this heightened buzz, but disappointed in its non-global focus.

Ed Stetzer recently wrote about the emergence of church planting networks and also noted the exclusively local focus, saying:

Since some of those networks … are non-denominational, they often do not have a global "arm" with which to cooperate for international missions. So, it is often easier to just say, "well, we are just planting here." But, I say you are missing out on God's global mission. So, I am encouraged when I see some groups take initial steps toward global mission engagement.

So far, so good. I like hearing more about church planting in the USA. And I like hearing more about church planting globally. But what are those "initial steps towards global mission engagement"?

I know nothing of the groups Mr. Stetzer is associated with, so this is not a critique of his connections. But for two decades, I've observed how western para-church organizations and church planters function in foreign fields. I've also had the chance to observe church planting operations in the United States. 

Some church planting is thrilling—with growth by new conversions. This usually happens intentionally, when we aim for the lost and non-churched (we usually get what we aim for).

Most church planting, however, is disappointing, with a seemingly intentional strategy of aiming for membership transplants by emphasizing internal programs over outreach, aquarium decor over fishing for men. One pastor said, "If I had the best children's program and the best music program, I'd have the highest attendance of any church in the area." Some churches even have a marketing tagline that labels themselves "The Cure for the Common Church" (the implication being that "our cool, new church is better than your dumb, old church").

Please don't export that tripe to the foreign field.  If you're going to do church planting globally, then go plant churches globally. Find an unseeded field. Seek the lost. Plant the seed. And grow your own work.

Ah, but that takes work. And time. And suffering. And learning languages. And navigating cultures. And risking failure. Winning new people to Christ and discipling them is harder than winning an already saved and committed Christian to your programs.

Do it anyway. Stop building upon another man's foundation (Romans 15:20).

One of our converts recently told me that in my field of service, a BIG name in American church planting has come in, not to learn the language and culture and win new converts, but to gather a group of believers to plant churches. They are each to seek out 5-10 families with which to plant new churches. My guy, ever discerning, said, "And where, pray tell, will you find those ten families? FROM OTHER CHURCHES!"

This is happening all the time on the foreign fields. I call it growth by theft.

Instead, please follow the Biblical model for global Gospel engagement—don't look to the old American model, or to any of the many new American models, or even to models that are sweeping the East. Look to the Scriptures. You will discover that it will be hard to give a better definition of Scriptural missions than Peters gave in A Biblical Theology of Missions. It is the most succinct and cogent formulation I have found:

Missions is the sending forth of authorized persons beyond the borders of the New Testament church and her immediate gospel influence to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ in Gospel-destitute areas, to win converts from other faiths and non-faiths to Jesus Christ, and to establish functioning, multiplying local congregations who will bear the fruit of Christianity in that community and to that country.

So find a "Gospel-destitute area" and go do that. That's a great "initial step towards global mission engagement." The call to missions is not to win converts from other Christian groups to your dazzling vision or to your niche of theologia. It is not a call to revitalize other people's ministries with your fresh methodology. It is not about expanding your network or movement. It is to win converts from other faiths and non-faiths to Jesus Christ. Then train them up until your heart's content.

So many mission organizations and big shot pastors swoop down into a foreign culture like Big Business seeking mergers and acquisitions. Who can we tap into to promote our movement and publish our materials? Under the feigned humility of "working with the national leaders because they know the culture better" they use (and often pay) national leaders to expand their networks and push the missiological method de jour. Then they return home with a nice batch of photos and boast of how many countries their network has reached and how many languages their materials are published into. A new flag goes up on the wall. A new nicknack displays on the bookshelf. More frequent flyer miles accrue. More missions money is spent.

And more indigenous movements are stifled.

They didn't mean to do it. They thought they were helping. Their intentions were as pure as they could be, perhaps. They didn't mean to destroy a movement with their money. But they imposed their vision and took a short-cut to global missions engagement. They were sold on their program and so they sold the people on it, too. Over the short-term, it looked awesome. But over the long-haul, it merely gave some existing churches a facelift.

That's not missions.
  
I am not against all partnerships and training. But please don't go in to see how many churches you can integrate into your network. Go build your own network with people you win to Christ yourself (and by extension, with those that they win).

We are not called to seek ecclesiastical mergers, but rather to seek the lost in places where the Gospel has not yet been proclaimed (Romans 15:20).

Beautiful Conversion Story

This reminds me that no one is too old, famous, or sinful to share the Gospel. I need to open my eyes and my mouth.

Coloring Outside the Lines | Flowers are Red

In honor of school starting, here's an old song text by Harry Chapin called "Flowers are Red." I first heard it on tape, performed in 1991 by the Scottish singer, Iain Mackintosh.

(This post is definitely in the "mishmash" part of "Missiomishmash.")

The little boy went first day of school
He got some crayons and started to draw
He put colors all over the paper
For colors was what he saw
And the teacher said, "What you doin' young man?"
—I'm paintin' flowers he said
She said, "It's not the time for art young man
And anyway flowers are green and red
There's a time for everything young man
And a way it should be done
You've got to show concern for everyone else
For you're not the only one"

And she said,
Flowers are red young man
Green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than they way they always have been seen

But the little boy said,
"There are so many colors in the rainbow
So many colors in the morning sun
So many colors in the flower and I see every one"

Well the teacher said, "You're sassy
There's ways that things should be
And you'll paint flowers the way they are
So repeat after me …"

And she said,
"Flowers are red young man
Green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than they way they always have been seen"

But the little boy said,
"There are so many colors in the rainbow
So many colors in the morning sun
So many colors in the flower and I see every one."

The teacher put him in a corner
She said, "It's for your own good..
And you won't come out 'til you get it right
And are responding like you should."
Well finally he got lonely
Frightened thoughts filled his head
And he went up to the teacher
And this is what he said ...

"Flowers are red, green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than the way they always have been seen."

Time went by like it always does
And they moved to another town
And the little boy went to another school
And this is what he found
The teacher there was smilin'
She said, "Painting should be fun
And there are so many colors in a flower
So let's use every one."

But that little boy painted flowers
In neat rows of green and red
And when the teacher asked him why
This is what he said,

"Flowers are red, green leaves are green
There's no need to see flowers any other way
Than the way they always have been seen."

I Want My Money!

by Kristi Hosaflook in 2003

Mrs. Lawson is my three-year old’s favorite Sunday School teacher—not only is she is a terrific teacher, but she is also the only teacher to have taught my son for six Sundays (five Sundays more than any other teacher he had on our four-month furlough to 30 churches in 11 states). Near the end of our time in the USA, she and the class presented him with forty dollars to spend on toys or books or whatever he needed for his trip back to the mission field.

The next Sunday, I laid out forty dollars on the table and explained about tithing.  “Four of these dollars,” I said, “goes to God. You can spend the rest on toys.” Perplexed, the greedy little pagan objected and demanded to know why. “Because God will bless you if you honor Him first,” I replied.  Begrudgingly, he agreed to put four of the dollars into his shirt pocket for the offering basket.

A few minutes after the service began, I went to check up on him and his tithe.  As I suspected, it was still a bulge in his pocket.  I said, “Son, you need to give your tithe to the Lord.”  Immediately, he clenched his hands tightly over his pocket and cried, “I don’t want God to bless me! I want my money!!!”

I wonder how many of us say the same thing deep down in our hearts. We are well taught in our churchianity, so we know we should never say anything like that during the offeratory! But we sense that our flesh would rather have our well-decorated dream homes than the blessing of God communicated to us when we give and serve. Our houses can so easily become personal museums filled with knick-knack displays and Sharper Image comforts, while millions around the world earn less each month than we spend in one night at the Outback steakhouse. Worse, many of them will die without having heard a clear proclamation of the Gospel.

Perhaps it would actually help us to clench our wallets and scream “God, I want my money!” during the offeratory—it might help us understand the true folly of the way we make silly excuses to soothe our consciences for doing less than we could or ought.

On reading [or] Viral Churches

I'm not a casual reader. I approach books like a surgeon at the operating table (or a like butcher at his block--take your pick). I use instruments. I carve and poke. I gut stuff and get bloody. I mark books up and scribble in the margins. I argue, scribble, interject, and shout.

I love reading so much that I get in danger of neglecting doing. So it's important to choose what to read judiciously.

With so little time, it's better to read great books than good books.

But I also hate throwing out the good books for fear of missing some great stuff inside. That's why I like services like Tom Law's book review page that serve as "cliffnotes" for some good books.

His newest is here, on Viral Churches: Helping Church Planters Become Movement Makers by Ed Stetzer and Warren Bird. I don't think this is one of the "great" books out there. But insofar as it reminds me of the need to multiply and keep structures reproducible, I think it's plenty worthy of a cliffnote's cliffnote here--so here are good to-think-about points.

We believe that we are on the edge of seeing an exponential multiplication movement in the United States.

We are absolutely convinced that a huge influx of new churches is required in this country, an influx that will not happen unless present patterns change. We believe church planting is the best way to take the church to the people it needs to serve.

The single most effective evangelistic methodology under heaven is planting new churches who in turn reproduce themselves. … Church planting is the dominant method of evangelism in the book of Acts, and the key to spreading the Gospel to every people group or population segment, large or small, in every corner of the planet.

Mission drift occurs as a church is established and new ministries are formed that serve the needs within the congregation. Typical church programming often steals energy and time from the original mission focus of the church, which is to see lives changed through the Gospel. 

Our “viral church” idea is about falling in love with multiplication and abandoning what seems to be an addiction to addition. Any church that focuses on disciplemaking is by definition going to be a more authentic church. … Many congregations and pastors measure their health by whether their church is growing. The better measurement is whether their people are learning to reproduce themselves. It represents a profound shift in ministry, one that few churches and even fewer church plants have made. 

As we watch churches who are initiating multiplying movements, they are, if nothing else, aggressive in reaching out to new people. … Multiplying movements are born from the impulse of the missionary, not the monastic.

If you are interested in leading a movement from an established church, then help your people see the possibilities that lie ahead. … Ultimately, we need far more churches than we currently have in order to reach our ever-expanding and diversifying culture.

Multiplication is “not safe, predictable, or manageable. It’s risky, spontaneous, and seemingly out of control.” It is essential that people be given permission to plant churches. We have found that this effort requires systems to increase survivability. … The likelihood of survivability increases by over 400% when the church planter has a “realistic” understanding and expectations of the church planting experience. The likelihood of church survivability increases by over 250% when the church offers leadership development training to new church members. 

It will … require us to open up some new ways to plant churches. Global church planting movements are generally unencumbered by buildings, paid clergy, and denominational credentialing processes.

This book proposes that the future of the church in America is not invested so much in big churches growing bigger and better, but in a massive multiplication movement of new church planting. Most new ventures in the United States need and acquire various levels of financial support. Without exterior funding, very little church planting would be accomplished outside of organic church models. 

Resources always follow vision. Church planters must become very skilled at communicating vision. Also, people give to people; more than anything else, fund-raising is about relationships. Aggressive and highly effective church planters tend to be entrepreneurial and able to find creative means of funding the plant other than with direct assistance from denominational or church planting agencies.

Churches won’t multiply churches until they have multiplied believers, leaders, and ministries. Then multiplication is natural and expected even at the church level.

Movements occur only when the disempowered are given the freedom and responsibility to lead, along with the accountability to make it happen. In western culture, the clergification of the church has marginalized those that God has called to be members of the body of Christ. True reproduction occurs when people are given permission to function as God has gifted and directed.

Movements do not normally occur through large frameworks such as big budgets, big plans, big teams, or big organizations. Movements occur through small units that are readily reproducible.

The best antidote to potential heresy is to drive people deeply into the authority of the Word of God.

The widespread expectation that people will be sent out must become normal rather than exceptional. Movement leaders need to engender this attitude into the greater life of the church today. Church multiplication will become inherent in the DNA of our churches only as far as it is inherent in the DNA of our leaders. 

This book can be summarized in two words: multiply everything. That means to build environments where disciples, leader groups and churches spend most of their time reproducing themselves, and to use structures that readily lend to being replicated. We teach what we know, but we reproduce what we are.

(A Book Summary prepared by Thomas L. Law, III of Viral Churches: Helping Church Planters Become Movement Makers by Ed Stetzer and Warren Bird, published by Jossey-Bass, 2010. Quoted material used by permission at http://booksummaries.tomlaw.org/.) 

What if Church Looked More Like THIS?

I've heard a lot about our gargantuan national debt in America. To solve the problem, our government leaders are going to have to make spending cuts. But no one wants to cut THEIR pet programs. Perhaps churches are the same way ... we have a lot of great programs that seem impossible to cut, but we're amassing a great spiritual debt to the lost as we have less and less time available for outreach (cf. Romans 1:14-16). If we mean business, we may need to make big changes in how we "do" church so that we can become fishers of men, not keepers of aquariums. I saw this video graphic on someone's Facebook status and liked it.

What Drives You?

Hendrik Coetzee was a South African explorer who spent much of his life in a kayak. On December 7, 2010, he perished on the Lukuga River in eastern Congo when a fifteen-foot crocodile overpowered him in a sneak attack from behind. His body was never recovered. Coetzee was aware of the perils of exploration. The Economist magazine reports that “people usually called him brave, even reckless. He didn’t agree. He was impelled to launch himself into unspoiled rivers simply out of love and compulsion, and because, ever since he had first sat in a kayak, picked up a paddle and found himself alone in wild nature, he didn’t want to do anything else quite as badly” (The Economist, January 1, 2011, “Hendrik Coetzee”).

Did you get that? Coetzee was not driven by duty, but by “love and compulsion.” Something inside compelled him to keep pursuing his pursuits. He loved it.

What drives you?

What the world needs is more people who pursue God and love sharing the Good News. Jesus said that His food was doing the will of God (which, in context, was making disciples) (John 4:34). Paul said “Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:16). When Peter and John were threatened and charged to stop talking about Jesus, they replied, “We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20).

Where do you get this drive? Only at the cross.

How can you sustain this drive? By staying near the cross.

How do you lose this drive? By ignoring the cross.

Relentless Love

A new hymn has come out called "Relentless Love."  Hymns touch different people differently, but this one is hard for me to get through without moist eyes a downpour of tears. The music is well-written and sings beautifully. I recommend you introduce yourself to this hymn by first clicking on the mp3 track here, then read through the text below to the music. Then sing it through a time or twenty.

Relentless love embraced my soul in ages past—
Love undeserved, unknown, yet deep and vast.
God set His love on me—on me, in spite of me!
Salvation’s work is His from first to last.

Chorus
Unbounded love, unfailing love,
Love raised upon a tree;
Unending love, prevailing love—
My Savior’s sovereign love for me.

Relentless love pursued my heart, though I would hide—
Love unreturned, yet undeterred by pride.
Till by a grace unsought, my rebel soul was caught—
Redeemed by love that would not be denied.

Relentless love preserves my life from unbelief—
Sustains me through my sin, my doubt, my grief.
Since Christ has done it all, though feeble, I’ll not fall,
His wounded hands hold me, the sinners’ chief.

Relentless love transforms my soul and its delights—
Exceeds the fleeting joys which once sufficed.
Held by His love for me—a hold which sets me free!—
I have my heart’s desire, and that is Christ.

The author is my friend Chris Anderson, author of the My Two Cents blog (I think now is a good time to grant him permission to call his blog "My At-Least-Three Cents"). He teams with Greg Habegger; they've written many great hymns, including this missionary hymn.

Thanks, Chris and Greg.

Sacrificing For What Matters Least

Here are some thoughts on sacrifice ...

Sacrifice means that no matter what the cost, I’m willing to pay that price ... the destruction or surrender of one thing for another of greater value ...

Sacrifice is willing to do what others are not ... willing to give what others are not.

Sacrifice is putting aside what’s important now for something that’s more important down the road, the giving of the individual for the better of a team.

You’re fatigued, you’re hurt, and you put that aside ...

Being your brother’s keeper--that’s a sacrifice ...

I think the biggest sacrifice ... is giving up your body ... The definition of bravery and courage is not someone who’s willing to go into harm’s way, but someone who knows they’re going to have to pay the price, and still be willing to go into harm’s way ...

The most taxing sacrifice isn’t the physical or the mental, but ... [being away from] family. That’s the biggest sacrifice.

Blood, sweat, and tears are shed week in and week out, with the hope that the price paid and the sacrifice made by the individual will lead to the collective success of the many.

You'd think this hard-hitting commentary came from missionaries or soldiers ... from men and women fighting for something eternal. But alas, all these are quotations from NFL players about the sacrifice of being a professional football player.* I like football, but really? 

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

*from "Sacrifice" video on www.nfl.com.

Monday Mishmash 6/20/11

Geography Games

They weren't games when I was a missions major ... they were tests. But I think they're fun now. Weird. My good friend Pepper Horn writes: "I know you are training young champions (children and grandchildren) and I saw this website that helps with geography and other topics. Here's the link. Just select a game and hit the orange arrow to start.  A new page will come up on the screen and you hit the start button." 

My son Corban (5) on the Garden of Eden

"If I had been in the Garden and the snake was tempting me, I would have climbed up that tree and taken the good-and-evil berries and thrown them into the sea. But, hmmm, then the fish might've eaten 'em ..."

C.S. Lewis on Christian publishing

In what was published as his last interview, C.S. Lewis--with whom I share a birthday--gave what could have been a prescient commentary on some recent Christian best-sellers.

A surplice

Wirt: What is your opinion of the kind of writing being done within the Christian church today?

Lewis: A great deal of what is being published by writers in the religious tradition is a scandal and is actually turning people away from the church. The liberal writers who are continually accommodating and whittling down the truth of the Gospel are responsible. I cannot understand how a man can appear in print claiming to disbelieve everything that he presupposes when he puts on the surplice. I feel it is a form of prostitution.

Of course, not everything in print is "a scandal"
I can recommend anything my friend Phil Hunt (Zambia) would recommend (we were roommates at a Student Global Impact conference). He's just recommended Reaching and Teaching: A Call to Great Comission Obedience by David Sills. The chapters look intriguing and Sills talks about his book here.

Incredibly Cute Photos of 103-year old man with his 92-year old wife
Enjoy these photos and this video (in Albanian) of a Kosovar man and his wife. He credits his vitality to cornbread, sheep milk, and fli kosove ... may my relationship with my wife be as sweet when we are that old ... and now, imagine this is Abraham and Sarah.

His Word Runs Very Swiftly

Psalm 147:15 -- "He sendeth forth his commandment [upon] earth: his word runneth very swiftly."

Sometimes pastors and missionaries experience unbelievable fruitfulness; other times they beat the soil for years with little results. Sometimes they experience both fruitfulness and dryness in one year, one term, or one lifetime, as dramatic as Joseph's years of plenty and famine in Egypt. Some faithful evangelists seem to only experience famine, despite their faithfulness. Why? Because sometimes the Word of God "runs" and other times it does not. Some places are like a spiritual rainforest, while others are like a spiritual wilderness. Windows of Gospel opportunities seem to open and close at God's command. Phenomenal results are sometimes a matter of a faithful servant of God being at the right place at the right time in God's sovereignty.

This ebb and flow is well-illustrated by the experience of Dafydd Morgan (1814-1883), a Welsh pastor who was used greatly in the Welsh revival of 1858-1860. He began to preach when he was 28 and was ordained at 43. In 1858, he woke up and realized that something dramatic had happened to him--he felt great power, saying, "I went to bed a lamb and woke up a lion." Over the next two years or so he journeyed through every part of Wales, preaching the Gospel, often holding three or four services a day and in the process saw a multitude of people come to Christ. Approximately 100,000 people were brought to Christ during the revival in Wales.

On the last day of 1858 he had been preaching at a remote chapel in the hills above Tregaron and afterwards spent several hours on the mountain experiencing something he described as so glorious that he wasn’t sure whether he was in the body or out of it. When he returned home he was hardly recognizable with his clothes dishevelled and an unusual expression on his face. When asked what had happened he simply replied that he had wrestled for a blessing and had received it. When he preached the next day it was said that his words were so like fire as to create terrible convictions.

After the crest of the revival had passed, he returned to normal pastoral duties again. He went to bed one night and "the lion" became "a lamb" once again. It was, he said, as if his locks had been shaven, although in his case there was no Delilah in his life! He continued for fifteen more years as a faithful preacher of the gospel with more "normal" and "ordinary" results.

We should be faithful to throw the seed. God will take care of the increase.

[Illustration first heard and connected to Psalm 147:15 by Dr. Stuart Olyott; story adapted from http://www.1859.org.uk/Dafydd Morgan.htm]