Is it God's money or our money?

Imagine if next week the IMB-SBC were to receive notification that our Korean brothers and sisters in Christ had felt led of the Lord to donate to their USA brothers $47-million to help cover current missions giving short-falls, and to help finance the sending of dozens of new missionaries to the field.

Added to this imaginary scenario, our Chinese, African, Indian and South American brothers committed to jointly raising another $10-million/month for at least the next five years, and send this directly to the IMB as well. On top of this, Christians all over the USA got wind of what their global brothers were doing and, themselves, started sending their tithes and offerings directly to missionaries and ministries they know and trust...funds that up until that time went exclusively to their local church. I know all of this is ludicrous, but stay with me a bit longer...

Would we not humbly and gratefully accept these expressions of love and solidarity in our joint global missions task of making disciples of the nations? Or would we view this as an unhealthy dependency issue? "Thanks, but no thanks. We don't want to become dependent upon these monies coming in that are unsustainable over the long haul. After all, if we begin to accept your money now, we will start depending upon it, and the day you guys decide to not send us the funds any more we are back to where we find ourselves now."

I may be wrong, but I think most of us would prayerfully and humbly accept the gifts and put them to good use.

My point is, ALL RESOURCES BELONG TO GOD, not to us as individuals, or churches, or denominations, or missions/ministry organizations. If the Head of the Church, Jesus, wants to move resources from China to the USA, what is wrong with that? He is Lord. He owns all the cattle on a thousand hills. Can he not appropriate from one hill in his Kingdom and move that over to another hill?

In theory, we say, "of course He can", but in practice, "that would be creating a dependency issue and we don't want to go there..."

One of the paradigms I would like to see disappear is the one where we think we have to be the ones to control the purse strings of God's Kingdom. We are terrified to think what might happen if we just allowed King Jesus to run the financial side of Kingdom business rather than ourselves! The bottom line seems to me to be, we trust the Lord for grace, salvation, etc. but not when it comes to money and the way money is handled. We have created all kinds of extra-biblical rules, guidelines, and policies for handling Kingdom finances.

But do we find these kinds of things in Acts, or Paul's Epistles? In Acts all money was laid at the feet of the apostles (scary thing, but that's what they did!) Today we have so many rules, regulations and forms to fill out for money matters my head swims.

So what am I actually proposing?

Kingdom money needs to flow at the discretion of the King. "Seek first the Kingdom of God..." includes our wallet! At first it might seem we are opening up ourselves to mass chaos, but chaos has a way of ordering itself (I am actually reading a book on this subject right now!)

If we believe Jesus is truly King, we have to believe He will make sure money flows to where it needs to go. Can this be any more chaotic or unbiblical than the current accepted way we handle money issues where churches/denominations, etc. keep 95%+ for themselves and send their left-over change for Kingdom causes outside their jurisdiction? Is it God's money we are talking about, or our money?

I await your flaming arrows. Bring them on!

The prevenience model of church

...from an email received from John White (Denver, CO)...

I first learned the word "prevenience" from Eugene Peterson in his book "The Contemplative Pastor". I was struck by what he had to say because it was immediately obvious to me that he was right. However, it was exactly the opposite of what I had been taught.

I knew how to be proactive. I knew how to "run the church" and get things done. I knew how to "make it happen". I had a lot of unlearning to do (I'm a recovering control addict).

Here's what Peterson has to say (with a few of John's comments in italics):

"In running the church (or the house church), I seize the initiative. I take charge. I take responsibility for motivation and recruitment, for showing the way, for getting things started. If I don't, things drift. I am aware of the tendency to apathy, the human susceptibility to indolence, and I use my leadership to counter it. (Isn't that what we have been taught that leadership is? If it isn't this, what is it?)

By contrast, the cure of souls (he means here the true work of a pastor or leader of a church as an organism) is a cultivated awareness that God has already seized the initiative. The traditional doctrine defining this truth is prevenience: God everywhere and always seizing the initiative. He gets thing going. He had and continues to have the first word. Prevenience is the conviction that God has been working diligently, redemptively, and strategically before I appeared on the scene, before I was aware there was something here for me to do.

...there is a disciplined, determined conviction that everything (and I mean, precisely everything) we do is a response to God's first work, his initiating act. We learn to be attentive to the divine action already in process so that the previously unheard word of God is heard, the previously unattended act of God is noticed?

What has God been doing here?
What traces of grace can I discern in this life?
What history of love can I read in this group?
What has God set in motion that I can get in on?"

I call these "the prevenience questions". Learning to ask/answer these questions is the starting place for the church each time she meets. This is the "prevenience model" of church.

With apologies to Steven Covey, we Christians were never called to be "proactive". We are called to be "reactive" to God. (Or, perhaps "responsive" to God is better.)

I wlil bilud my cuhcrh

Can you read the following lines...

And I tlel you taht you are Pteer, and on tihs rcok I wlil bilud my cuhcrh, and the geats of Heads wlil not oevrcmoe it. I wlil gvie you the kyes of the konigdm of hvaeen; wahveter you bnid on etarh wlil be buond in haveen, and wethaver you losoe on eatrh wlil be losoed in heevan.

Even with the atrocious spelling, I am fairly certain that most were able to read and understand the message. Why?

1) you had a pretty good understanding of the general context of the message.

2) the first and last letters of each word are correct; the mind reorders the middle letters to their proper place.

This is too often what our church planting looks. It appears as a jumbled mess. Yet, time and time again, God breaks through and does something beautiful to rearrange the letters into something intelligible.

The three most important words in church planting are...

Prayer
Passion
Perseverance

Prayer is the most important ingredient for a church planter. Prayer gives us the needed guidance and context for understanding God's ways. Prayer keeps us on course even though we may make a huge mess of things between steps in the church plant.

The second most important words for the church planter are passion and perseverance.

If the first and last letters are needed to make sense of a word, passion and perseverance are the equivalents needed to see churches planted. When passion and perseverance are on the ends of each church planting step, a lot can go wrong in between and still come out OK.

I find it reassuring to know that if I will focus upon prayer at the center of my life and ministry, asking the Spirit to fan the flames of passion within, and persevere regardless of the ups and downs along the way, God will do what He said he would do 2000 years ago...I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH!

The most controversial biblical passage we use in our training

Then Jesus came to them and said,

"All authority in heaven and on earth
has been given to me.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and

teaching them to obey everything
I have commanded you.

And surely I am with you always,
to the very end of the age."

(Mat 28:18-20)

The Great Commission is by far the most controversial passage that we teach in our discipleship/church planting training. We usually get into the Great Commission during our second week of training. After that session, usually about half of those coming drop out, never to return.

Why?

Because of its familiarity, most of us assume what we and our church currently do is fulfilling the Great Commission.

But are we?

The reason this passage is so controversial is that we say and believe these words, but practice something entirely different from what Jesus commanded. We read these verses one way, but live them another.

Jesus gives us four specific instructions (commands). Here is how most believers in our Ecuadorian evangelical context interpret Jesus' words...

JESUS SAID: All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
OUR INTERPRETATION? All authority has been given to to our pastor/denomination/church. These are our spiritual guides (covering). What these have to say weighs more in what we do (or not do), than what Jesus commanded. Permission to engage in the GC must first come from our leaders. Jesus is not sufficiently authoritative by himself.

JESUS SAID: Therefore, GO...
OUR INTERPRETATION? We understand "go" to mean come. Come to our church, youth group, event, concert, etc. Come is a lot more convenient for us than actually trying to find the time to go and engage relationally those who are lost and need the Good News. We go on mission trips, go to camp, go to conferences and concerts with high-profile Christian mega-stars, etc. The lost are expected to somehow find their way to us. They are supposed to come to our meetings and events planned for them. For the occasional permission granted to actually GO, those going are expected to bring home with them any who might respond. We can't have believers out there "doing their own thing" and starting "splinter churches." Real church is "mama church."

JESUS SAID: MAKE DISCIPLES of all nations...
OUR INTERPRETATION? Since we really do not know how to make disciples, we believe that what this means is that they need to hear the Gospel. Therefore, we focus on evangelistic events and invite people to pray and receive Christ. Church sports activities, Fall Festivals, youth car washes, Christmas pageants, and musical concerts are understood to be the appropriate means to reach people. Those handful who might raise their hand at one of our events are given an envelope of church literature. But "make disciples" is understood to be that they will now start coming to our church. There they will meet other believers, and hopefully learn more about God's Word and somewhere along the path turn into disciples (whatever that is).

JESUS SAID: BAPTIZING them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit...
OUR INTERPRETATION? This certainly does not mean I should be the one to baptize the new believer. If someone makes a profession of faith, it is my responsibility to make an appointment and introduce them to the pastor of the church. There they will be, 1) warmly received, 2) invited to participate in a new believer's class to prepare them for baptism, 3) when there are enough ready to be baptized and there are no circumstances which would prevent them from being baptized, 4) schedule a date on the church calendar, and 5) watch as the pastor baptizes them as part of one of our regular scheduled church services.

JESUS SAID: TEACHING THEM TO OBEY everything I have commanded you...
OUR INTERPRETATION? The newly baptized believer is then expected to begin attending church on a regular basis. There they observe how other Christians look, talk, and act. "Church Culture" is quickly assimilated about what is acceptable, and not acceptable. Basically it is understood that the new believer will learn God's Word through the listening of the weekly preaching of the pastor, and maybe if we can get them up early enough, a Sunday School class.

With this understanding of the Great Commission, is it any wonder people think we are controversial in our teaching? But I ask--JUST AS WE ASK THOSE WE TRAIN--did Jesus really mean what he said? Or is the truth closer to the below cartoon...

Copyright © 1999 Bob West. All rights reserved.

Things I like about living in Ecuador

1. Summer weather year round. After living in summer type weather for over twenty straight years, I simply cannot tolerate cold weather. While it is nice to BRIEFLY experience cooler weather, I am always eager to get back to the warm coast of Guayaquil. Our weather here is either hot and humid, or hot and dry. From June-October we even have some nice breezes to help cool things down a bit. Fans and window unit A/C are some of our most valued material possessions. I'm embarrased to say it, but in our bedroom we have five fans and an A/C. And they are often all running at the same time! If we're going to live in the hot, we want the bedroom, at least, to be cool and comfortable as a haven of rest!

2. Ecuadorian foods. Living here, we miss the Stateside foods. But when we are Stateside we crave the good Ecuadorian foods we have learned to love. The cebiches, humitas, arroz con menestra y carne asada, fresh sea food, and the wide variety of fresh fruits not readily available Stateside: naranjilla, maracuya, tamarindo, guanabana, tomatillo, guayaba, mora, papaya, granadilla, etc. One of our families favorites are patacones. These are green plantains which have been crushed into flat cakes and twice fried with salt sprinkled on top. When eaten with fresh white cheese one cannot imagine life getting any better!

3. Friendly people. At first they can appear to be a bit intimidating, rude, indifferent, and even frightening as to their outward semblance and mannerisms. But as soon as you begin to talk and spend even a short amount of time with them, one discovers how friendly and open they are. They really make you feel like they want to be your friend. They are easy to get along with and really fun people.

4. Having a maid and gardener. While we aren't rich, the wages of those who work these service jobs are affordable and within our range--even on a missionary salary. If you could have your house cleaned from top to bottom daily, including washing/ironing clothes, food preparation, bathrooms scrubbed, windows cleaned, beds made, etc. and do so about the same cost as it is for a burger and coke at the local fast food restaurant, wouldn't you do the same? The only down side to having people do this for you day in and day out, is that one gets mighty spoiled!

5. An openness to the Gospel. We live in a "harvest field" that is ripe and ready for harvesting. While other parts of the world are cold and non-receptive to the Gospel message, here there is an open window of opportunity to bring in the harvest. Even amongst the non-born again, one will still hear in their language and belief systems a fear of God. Listening in on conversations one will hear statements like, "by the mercy of God..., God saved/healed/rescued me..." Expressing belief or faith in God is not taboo here, and people are quite open to talking about spiritual matters. I truly believe that in ten years this country (along with other Latin American countries) will be centers of Christianity, taking the place of the USA.

6. Living on the coast. I love the sand, sea, and sun which are found within an hour's drive of the city. One of my greatest regrets is not being able to spend as much time on the coast as we would like. It is always relaxing and refreshing to get out of the city to the beach. Also related to living on the coast in a port city is my appreciation for the improvements continually going on to make Guayaquil a more attractive city. Since 2000 there has been a massive city-wide effort to beautify the city. The results are quite impressive. Come visit us, and you can see for yourself!

7. The great desire of the people to learn and a high appreciation for education. Offer a training course, seminar, or study and people will flock to it in response. I love that the people here value learning and will make every effort to participate in educational events when they are offered an opportunity to study. What truly humbles me is that people will ride buses for hours just to attend a training event. Many times they will not get home until late at night, but won't miss a class.

8. Able to purchase the medications you need without a prescription. I love being able to walk to the corner drug store and get what you need for whatever is ailing, without having to first go a doctor. There are so many times you know what you need for an ailment, and can just go get it without having a prescription. I get terribly frustrated in the USA at not being able to do the same thing! I remember one time in Texas getting a migraine and having to go the ER where they ran several tests on me. I ended up spending three hours and paying a $1050 bill when all I needed was an a $3 pill available from the corner drugstore in Ecuador!

9. Ease and facility of the medical system. Related to #8 above is the easy access to good doctors, medical facilities, etc. at only a fraction of what they cost in the USA. Rarely do we have to wait more than a day to get in to see the top medical specialists. Usually one gets an appointment the same day. Without a doubt one of the most frustrating things we encounter about Stateside furloughs is getting in to see the needed doctors. Our experience is having to use approved HMO doctors on the list we are given. Of these 2 out of 3 aren't accepting new patients, and the remaining MD. doesn't have an opening for three months! I am not exagerating on this point. There are plenty of good doctors, but it is so hard to get in to see them, not to mention the extremely high medical costs Stateside. Locally, we use the best doctors, specialists, and labs in the country and pay about a fifth of what one pays for the same services in the States.

10. People here are very social and people-oriented. They love to party and will use any excuse/reason to get people together. Unlike the USA where you have events scheduled from, say, 4pm-6pm, where everyone goes home promptly at 6pm, here they will arrive at that same function anywhere from 30-minutes to 2 hours late, but they will stay till past midnight! Here there is a lot less of people getting up, going to work, coming home, watching TV, and going bed type-of-routine. They are open, friendly and a lot more social finding ways to spend time with other people. Night life is BIG here, much more than we ever experience in the USA.

Ever wonder why...

...if there really is only One Body of Christ, we persist in separating ourselves from one another and clinging to our denominational distinctives?

...we don't ever hear any sermons on 1 Corinthians 12:28ff "And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues..."?

...our churches aren't structured according to Paul's above order, rather than the way we do so today with extra-biblical Senior Pastors leading the list? Are pastors even mentioned in the 1 Cor. 12:28 list?

...we delay baptizing new believers when every instance recorded in the Book of Acts indicates immediate baptism upon profession of faith?

...we program our gatherings into hour-long meetings rather than allowing the Head of the Church (Jesus) to lead and move among us as He desires?

...Paul never addresses his letters to the pastor or leadership of the churches he writes like we would do today?

Ever wonder who the Ephesian 4:11 apostles, prophets, and evangelists are amongst us? Can you name any in your church today? What happened to these folks? Have their roles been absorbed by the pastor-teachers in our midst? If so, is this what the Holy Spirit intended when he gave these functions to the church?

Ever wonder if Paul's epistles were written to individual local house churches in Corinth, Ephesus, Thessalonica, etc. or to ALL of the Church in each of these cities (house churches-plural?)

Ever wonder where we get the idea that listening to a prepared sermon is an essential part of believers gatherings?

Ever wonder how small can a church be and still be a church? Does the Bible say anything about how big is too big for a church to be?

Ever wonder when a group meeting together becomes a church? What is a church? What is the Scriptural support for your answer?

Ever wonder where in the Bible it refers to believers as members of a local church?

Ever wonder if believers can be part of more than one local church at the same time? (eg. a member at FBC-Dallas, Faith Bible Church, and Misión Evangélica Sión all at the same time) Why or why not?

Ever wonder whether a seminary education helps or hinders those seeking to multiply new church starts?

Ever wonder about what happened to celebrating the Lord's Supper as a meal? When did we begin substituting the Lord's SUPPER (meal) for a tiny cracker and sip of grape juice?

Ever wonder about where we get the idea of paid/salaried pastors and church staff when 1 Corinthians 9 is clearly referring to itinerant apostolic workers?

Ever wonder where we get the idea that "double honor" in 1 Timothy 5:17 for elders refers to a monthly salary and benefits package?

Just wondering.

While listening yesterday to a John Eldredge podcast I was struck with his statement that, "The biggest enemy of the Gospel is not paganism, but religion." I agree.

Galapagos Islands trip

Last week, February 16-22, three others and myself traveled from the Ecuadorian mainland to the island of Sta. Cruz in the Galapagos Islands. We had been invited by a couple of new believers to come teach, share, and help them start a house church.

Our plan was to disciple and train the 3-4 known believers living in Puerto Ayora (the largest town) and hopefully, by week's end, leave behind a house church which will continue to make new disciples and multiply.

By the end of our week-long stay, by God's grace, we left Puerto Ayora having baptized two of the new believers (two others having already been baptized.) The last night we laid hands on two of them as shepherd/elders of the newly planted gathering of believers. Everyday, for several hours, we met with the handful of believers and a few "almost-believers" for discipleship/training.

Most of our time was spent doing church and sharing with one another, rather than trying to classroom-teach how it should be done. It is easier to just do church, than to try and explain it all. My heart was warmed at the hunger for God and keen desire to learn and gather with other believers.

The Galapagos are truly an amazing place on planet earth. Pristine, natural, raw, organic, and rugged are a few words that come to mind in trying to describe the unique contrasts between God's original designs and mankind's "improvements."

Puerto Ayora (population 10,000+) represents the latter "improvements." The town is built around satisfying the visiting tourists coming from every corner of the globe. Bars, discotheques, hotels, restaurants, souvenir shops, cyber cafes, and chartered tour agencies are every where. It seems the entire town is out to make a profit from the islands made famous by Charles Darwin.

Outside of Puerto Ayora, one immediately experiences what our planet must have felt like before man's improvements on God's original designs. The Galapagos are truly one of the few places left on earth virtually unspoiled by mankind. It is hard to describe the wonder of the sea life, the vegetation, the freely roaming wild life, magnificently painted landscapes, the rich colors, and the pristineness of the place.

For me personally, though, the Galapagos was more a lesson in slowing down. The details and wonder of God's creation call for us to pause and admire the wonder of God's amazing creation.

So much of my life is cluttered with things that simply do not matter. I expend vasts amounts of energy trying to control my world and what happens around me. All of that seems so senseless in a place like the Galapagos. There, one experiences wonder, and there is an undefined mystery to the cosmos. As Don Miller writes in his book, Through Painted Deserts, we find ourselves in a place where the why questions are so much more important than the how questions. Why are we here? What really matters in life? Why do we do the things we do, and act the way we act? And realize all our how questions (how do I pay this month's bills, how do I lose this excess weight, how do I get this job done, how can I be better known and respected, etc.) are all truly irrelevant questions in the bigger picture of life.

I have often thought life is just one continuous lesson in teaching us gratitude. Gratitude for the little things. Awareness of how good God really is. Life doesn't get any better than having a cold bottle of water to relieve one's thirst, or shade from the intense equatorial sun. Or a good's night's rest, and meaningful conversation with friends.

So even though we accomplished our mission of planting a church in the Galapagos, I think God accomplished his own mission this past week. Once again, I have been reminded, life is more about those things I tend to give little attention to, and less about those things that tend to absorb most of my time and attention. Will I ever learn?

To see photos click here.

The news that didn't make the news

An example for the nations of the world to imitate.

Imagine what kinds of things God would begin to unleash upon the earth if all the nations followed Haiti's example of 1-million people setting aside three days for prayer and fasting? I believe this action by a desperate nation will not go unseen or unheard by the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The "rest of the story" in Haiti has yet to be told.

When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain,
or command locusts to devour the land
or send a plague among my people,
if my people, who are called by my name,
will humble themselves and pray and seek my face
and turn from their wicked ways,
then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin
and will heal their land.
Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive
to the prayers offered in this place.
(2 Chron. 7:13-15)

It is amazing to me that practically none of the major media outlets picked up on this story, and yet something very big took place as a nation humbled themselves before God and sought his forgiveness and healing.