Back Again

I have not posted in a while, y'all probably think I don't love you. I'd like to say it's because I have been so busy. That's only partially true. Most of it is I have not had much to say.




It has been a fruitful time in a lot of ways. I have been part of a small learning group called Future Travelers. We met in Tacoma in February (I think!) and then Exponential was two weeks ago and next week is the last meeting with the Future Travelers. It has been really fruitful to be around some of the best church planters and practitioners of discipleship and evangelism.

A really good book I can recommend: Missionary Methods: St Paul's or Ours? By Roland Allen. Written in 1912, it still has amazing insight. That's not surprising, he is gleaning insight from the Bible, which is always relevant. Because America is a huge mission field, what he has to say about mission work is applicable to us.

Some leading edges: partnering with “networks” to plant new churches. A church planting network is a group of... what? Churches, planters, theologians, mentors who come together to help plant churches. It's a tougher job than people imagine. The networks are becoming much more diffuse. That is, instead of being “institutional,” they can do work on a case-by-case basis in many contexts with many kinds of planters. So, at one time there was a sense that you planted one kind of church one kind of way. Now the work is more “well-known” and there are broader, scriptural principles put to work in a variety of places. My great hope is that not only will the Kentucky Conference partner with a network—to either plant our churches or to teach us how to become our own network. And even moreso, I think that individual churches interested in church planting could work with these established networks to be fruitful in church planting.

And always-- who have you told about Jesus today?

Calves, Worms, and Evangelism

So yesterday, we got John's calf. We travelled out to a beautiful hilltop farm in Elliott County. John is working with Charlie Derrickson to learn about taking care of cattle. Mike King drove us out there because he had the only vehicle to get us out to farm if it was really wet.

This morning, John and I got up and went out to Charlie's farm to feed and water the calf (named “Buck.” I said we should name him T-Bone...) and also to let the calf get used to John working with it. I was surprised at how quickly John was able to get hold of the halter and put his hands on the calf. As we were leaving, John prayed a great prayer of thanks for getting his calf.

Thursday there was a really strong downpour. I was walking to the church and noticed in the gutter that a lot of worms were being tumbled along in the flow of water. I wondered if they were dead and just got swept up. When I came to a driveway, and the water spread out a bit before being forced back along the curb, I saw some worms crawling out of the water. No idea where they thougth they were headed.

But I was reminded of something my friend Starr Clay said one time, that has great wisdom and encouragement for evangelism. She said when she was a little girl that she always tried to save the worms that were stuck on pavement drying out after rain. She found out that you couldn't save all the worms.

This is definitely true in evangelism. First, a broken heart is cultivated in us for the people who do not know Christ, who will perish in everlasting fire without Him. And then, we set about sharing the life-saving knowledge of Jesus' atoning death and resurrection.

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:12) and “Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction” (Matthew 7:13).

But we face problems. No one seems to listen or care. They may not even appreciate the danger of a life lived apart from Christ. (This baffles us, because even the worms know to swim out of the gutter!) Or we find that if people do listen, no one is converted.

It can be discouraging. But if you went into it thinking you could save all the worms... We have to remember Jesus' words: “Small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and few find it.”

So we do not lose heart. We do everything we can so that we might save some.

Apostles

Back in 2004, I was in Vegas for my brother's wedding. There was a lull in the activities, so while John napped, I did some research.

I had taken some grief from someone in my church about saying that Jesus is the only way to salvation. So I sat down to read the Gospels and see what it said, with an eye towards understanding Jesus's self-understanding as the only way to salvation.

Short version: it's everywhere, and if you take it away, Jesus doesn't have much to say. Jesus just is-- whether we like it or not, seems nice to us or not-- the only way to salvation.

Well, in our Future Traveler's meeting last week in Tacoma, Alan Hirsch was talking about the apostolic gift in the church. He said something like you can find out what an apostle is by what they say about themselves, or is said about them. You have to go there because there is not really a definition of apostle given in one place.




So, today I took a cursory look at what Acts and the epistles say about apostles. Too cursory to say much, except that it is a terrible job description. You'd never take it if you knew what it meant going in. The key verse sticking out at the moment is 2 Corinthians 2:16: “who is equal to such a task?”

I will be working on this off and on for a while I bet, and I will try to keep you updated.

Some of where this is going is that Ephesians 4:11 lays out 5 gifts for the church, Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor, Teacher. But churches ordain pastors. And pastors do some teaching. We don't really know what to do with the evangelistic function, so we wish they'd shut up. We have reduced prophets to people who speak out about political/cultural issues, and we only like them if they are in our party. And apostles, well...these guys have the task of guarding the doctrine and “sentness” of the Church, and they just won't let us do whatever we want to do.

There is a lot of inertia to overcome... 1700 years of the church looking for pastors and teachers. In some sick way, we have done ok functioning on 40% of the gifting the Spirit has for us!

Funerals

It's been a long week. A good week, but a long one. And I say a good week, even though there were two funerals. A funeral is an excellent time for a kind of evangelism, “apologetics.” As we become more and more secular, death is seen as some kind of anomaly. The secular mind tends to fear death, to disbelieve it. It happens only to old people who are carefully secluded away so it won't scare children... or adults. And even then, death is seen as an injustice, evidence that God does not exist or does not care. So, on that level, if people thinking that way come to a funeral (and sometimes they do, to honor the person being memorialized), there is a chance to present the claims of the Gospel, the reason for the hope the deceased had in Christ. It's not an easy thing for the unbeliever-- they are alternately attracted and repulsed. From the vantage point of a preacher, you see indifference, surprise, comfort, hostility. But the point is to acknowledge death as the consequence of sin and death and to acknowledge eternal life as the reward of faith in Jesus Christ.

And the deep mourning of the family is also something that a strong, Christ-centered funeral addresses. I remember a funeral that Howard Willen took me to. He was the pastor at First Methodist in Lexington, who helped me immensely, not the least way was helping me discern a call into ministry. Because I was going into ministry, he took me along to things like meetings, hospital calls, nursing home visits... and funerals. So at the first one...

It was interesting. I knew I was going to have to get used to funeral homes. Caskets. Mourning. Death. And constant reminders of death. What a weird job pastors have, I remember thinking. Most people would actively try to avoid going to a funeral home. And yet, we go, and will be with the people as they are dying, perhaps when they die. I won't lie, it's tough. But you get to go with Jesus, and occasionally you see some signs and wonders.

Well, Howard and I were headed into Kerr Bros. funeral home, the one downtown. It was a cold day, maybe winter. Howard had said he would call me if there were a funeral so that I could see how they were done. As we went in-- I will never forget this-- he said, “Let's kick the devil around.”

How? Death is his turf. Mourning and hopelessness is his game. But the Gospel is preached in the face of death. And the death of the believer's physical body is the first step to resurrection to eternal life.

So I am always ready to roll at a funeral. I've got Good News. How good it is to be able to offer the consolation of the Lord!

I wrote some of this in the middle of the night. Nadia had a nightmare, I got her and brought her into bed with Jessie and me. And then Nadia ran me out. Three episodes of Burn Notice later and I was still wide awake.

Now it is Saturday evening, a bit of snow coming down. I had a great Sabbath. Slow morning to go over the sermon. Great lunch with our DS Terry Reffett—we chewed some of the same dirt in Clark County. Good, slow day with the family. Right now a fire in the fireplace. Going to read a few more chapters of My Side of the Mountain with the boys. Thinking back to how Dr. Willen scooped me up out of the gutter, and how good the Methodists have been to me and my family.

What's The Scorecard?

A few years back, I was visiting with some parishioners in Lexington.  The wife was a Methodist pastor's daughter.  She said something that has really stuck with me.  She remembers her dad coming home one day (I think this was the 50s).  He had been at some kind of denominational meeting. She said he sat down at the kitchen table and was weeping.

The powers-that-be had decided to strike a statistic from the reports pastors make: "evangelistic contacts."  He said it would mean terrible things for the church because we no longer valued the important work of reaching out to people who did not know Jesus, and getting out of the church office.

I have heard about this statistic.  But I have never been asked about it in my ministry.  We are asked about money and property and insurance.  And, indeed, we report on worship attendance, professions of faith.  But at some point I can't help but think my parishioner's weeping father was right.

The simple fact is that what you celebrate gets repeated, what you measure is worked towards.  As Methodists, the two things we should value most: people coming to saving faith in Jesus Christ (Justification), and their continued growth in grace (Sanctification).  Put another away, Evangelism and Discipleship.  From my perspective we seem to think you can make unconverted disciples-- never talk about Jesus, just do good things and be a nice guy.  That's works righteousness, and no one has ever seen God that way.

Long Nights

One of my best friends has about 15 years of sobriety in. He told me something about Christmas that really struck a chord in me. Christmas was on a Wednesday, a day he usually chairs an AA meeting. He mentioned that he was still going to chair the evening meeting, even though it was Christmas, because someone may be coming in needing help. It's a bad time of year he says.

I can agree to that. I have found that Christmas-New Year's Eve is a good time to do evangelism. The Christmas-New Year's season reminds people about the past year and the New Year. And for folks who have had a hard year, remembrance is a bad thing. And if there is no hope that the New Year will be any better... I remember a terribly sad evening, visiting a young man in jail. As I was coming out, I noticed that his mother was there, but she was being booked... she had come to visit him, but she had come in drunk. I could not imagine the sadness in that moment.

We have so many opportunities to speak to people. Some times if we speak to them, it is a word in season, something that can bring hope and joy. I wonder if we can think of ourselves the same way my friend thinks of AA, being ready with the word of peace in Jesus' name.

Christmas Caroling

Wednesday evening, groups went out caroling.  One group went to the nursing home and another group sang to some of the shut-ins right around the church. It was a very moving time.  I am not sure what made it different from last year?  Maybe the intersection of our lives now, after three Christmas seasons here? Maybe that we had a huge group of youth and children?

For me, one house in particular meant so much.  We stopped at a widow's house; I had her husband's funeral this summer.  As we sang "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," there was both joy and grief as we came to the verse, "Mild He lays His glory by, born that we no more may die, born to raise us from the earth, born to give us second birth."

One of the adults with us was a fellow who has been investigating the faith.  He was greatly moved by the tears and responses of some of the people we visited.  He said, "We should do this more often..."

Indeed. It could be a great way to give people an invitation to church if you went throughout a neighborhood.  Sometimes in evangelism, people will say when they felt a need to come to church, they felt "invited" because someone stopped by, even if it was years before.
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In this Christmas season, I was struck hard by something Alex Absalom wrote: "it is easy for the poor to sacrifice, but hard for them to be generous.  It is easy for the rich to be generous, but hard for them to sacrifice." This rings true in my life, as one who is very rich.  I can easily be self-satisfied with my off-hand generosity.  And as much as I am blessed to tithe, I cannot say that I have sacrificed much. 

And what seems important in all this is how much the Lord blesses and works through sacrificial giving.  Mary and Joseph gave us Jesus.  The Father gave us the Son. Christ gave his very life.  I can never repay that, and the Gospel of Grace means that we do not even try.  We take it as a gift and bathe in the love of the Giver.  The question is, what is the overflow of our hearts?