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African Questions: What About the Poor?

February 2, 2011 by Mark Woodward

Introduction

About a year and a half ago, Sherrylee and I were in Africa for Let’s Start Talking. We were visiting either sites where we regularly send LST teams or new sites that had requested teams, but with whom we had had no personal contact.  It is impossible to tell if a new site is appropriate and/or prepared for LST teams without these personal contacts, so site visits are a regular part of our life.

Though it may sound paradoxical to those only vaguely familiar with missions, Let’s Start Talking has not had much history in Africa.  Two factors have contributed to this: first, LST is an urban ministry and most of the mission work done in Africa by churches of Christ is rural.

The second reason is that most of the missions done by churches of Christ has been in the English-speaking part of Africa, which limits the attraction of LST’s offer to help people with their English—at least, that’s what we thought.

A third reason that probably lies far behind the other two is that much of Africa is already Christian—at least superficially. LST works better where people come who have either little exposure to Christianity (Thailand or China) or they have had so much that they are apathetic toward the Christian message (western Europe).

However, we have tried to be open to where the Lord knows we should go, so when many invitations come from African national evangelists, we visit to see if we are called to work with them.  In the last five or six years, therefore, we have developed some deep relationships with certain national churches in Africa.

However, working in Africa brings a whole new set of questions and experiences for us personally and for LST. I shared some of this on Facebook notes before I started blogging, but I’ve been thinking more about these questions and wanted to share them with you.

 

My First Question About Missions in Africa

In the Gambia, we were told that it cost about $300/year to send a child to school. Many children don’t go to school because their parents do not have that kind of money. We met the same situation in Kenya.

Also the drought/famine in Kenya was heartbreaking. African ministers told about people in their communities who had nothing to feed their children, so they abandon them rather than watching them die.

Almost every day, we were confronted with some situation in which we felt like we should just pull out our wallet and fix somebody’s life–at a rather nominal cost to us personally.

We visited with Larry and Hollye Conway who are part of the “Made In The Street” ministry in Nairobi–a fantastic work btw. They have worked in Africa for about 25 years now. Sherrylee asked Hollye what the hardest part of her work was, and she said it was knowing when to give in love and when to withhold in love.

Jesus did not feed every crowd, raise every person who died, heal every sick person–but sometimes he did. I wonder how he made his choices.  Jesus is the one who said, “The poor you have with you always,” justifying the use of funds for something that seemed frivolous to others in the group.  But I always feel guilty if I am even tempted to quote that verse in any context!!

My experience is that it is often inappropriate for Americans to just walk in and start throwing money at every need they see, whether they are individual, institutional, or social.  But I can’t imagine that ignoring needs in the name of any philosophy of missions is right.

So that’s my question! How can we help the poor and needy, and how do we balance meeting their physical needs with meeting their spiritual needs.

I don’t know the answer, but I do know that it is not either one or the other! Feeding them, housing them, and healing them does not change eternity for them. But not feeding them, housing them, or healing them may change eternity for us.

What are your answers?

 

 

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A Question for Older Church Leaders: Do You Want To Be Mubarak or Mandela?

January 31, 2011 by Mark Woodward

Hosni Mubarak is 82 years old and has been a driving political personality in Egypt since 1975 when he became Vice-President under Anwar Sadat. He assumed the Presidency in 1981 after Sadat’s assassination and is the longest serving Egyptian president in modern history. Today, however, our daily news reports are full of images of dissenting Egyptians in the streets, protesting Mubarak’s government and demanding his overthrow.

Nelson Mandela was elected President of South Africa in 1994 at the age of seventy-five and decided not to run again in 1999 at the age of eighty-one, although he was still immensely popular and surely would have won reelection.  He withdrew from public life in 2004, but continues to be a extraordinarily popular father figure in South Africa. His 90th birthday was a national celebration, and his brief appearance at the closing ceremony of the 2010 FIFA World Cup games was marked by a “rapturous reception,” according to The Guardian.

Mubarak’s situation in Egypt is a classic example of why older church leaders might need to step down—as did Mandela—before they are thrown out.  Older church leaders would do well to look at the reasons Mubarak should step down and why he will not be celebrated like Mandela.

1.            Mubarak made a name for himself as a heroic Air Force pilot and officer during and after the 1967 Arab-Israeli conflict—but nobody cares about that anymore! The glory of former deeds is short-lived when your current actions are out of sync with your people.  Church leaders may have been great missionaries, former preachers, university professors, large contributors, community leaders, and so forth, but all of that is meaningless to church members who don’t remember, never knew, or weren’t around then. God will certainly remember your good works, but your ability to lead must be based on what you can currently do, not what you have done in the past.

2.            For many years now, Mubarak has been intolerant towards his critics and his opposition! A feeling that one is above being criticized is a sure sign that it is time for you to step down. No leader is above criticism. If you feel in anyway exempt from or entitled to a free pass from criticism, then you are showing signs of staying in leadership too long.

3.            Age itself can expose an inability to keep up with inevitable changes. Both Mubarak and the recently overthrown dictator in Tunesia Zine El Abidine Ben Ali ignored—or at least underestimated—the power of social media like Facebook and Twitter until it was too late for them to survive as leaders. Older church leaders should ask themselves if they are in touch with what their flock is watching, listening to, thinking about, even twittering about?? If you don’t know—or worse, don’t care—then you should consider stepping down before you are overthrown!

4.            Age-related physical weakness affects your ability to lead others. We laugh about “senior moments.” We sit around the table talking about surgeries, arthritis pains, and friends who have recently died.  I was with an older church leader just the other day who listed off ten of his family members that died in a ten-year period, and I thought to myself, why did that surprise him? He was 78 and his family members and close friends were all slightly older or slightly younger. This particular Christian was very much alive and very spry, but many church leaders get to a point where they are physically unable to be a leader. Mandela had reached that point after the abuse his body took under apartheid, but he stepped away before it inhibited his ability to lead—so he continues to have great influence!

5.            Mubarak has dismissed his government in an attempt to appease his critics; he has also imposed curfew to control the protesters. Both these defensive and offensive orders have been ignored by the people! When no one is following you, you are no longer a leader—regardless of the title that you wear.  When older church leaders can no longer effect change without resorting to their office as the sole reason for demanding obedience, they have remained a church leader too long. If you have ever said, “We are the elders and we will decide, not you!” then you should resign immediately. Power can be exercised long after leadership has evaporated, but church leaders  are given the gift of leadership from God, not power!

6.            The 86-year-old Saudi king came out strongly backing Mubarak. If only people your age are backing you, if only people in your generation agree with you, if only people in your family are following you, then it is time to step down.

Good News for Older Church Leaders

The good news is that many great leaders do recognize that it is better to step down than to be a top-level leader too long! More good news is that stepping down does not mean the same thing as becoming non-productive or losing one’s influence.  In fact, one’s influence probably grows because you show such vintage wisdom!

What stepping down does mean is usually giving up power!  And power is the opiate from which it is so difficult to withdraw!  If we could only realize that losing power is inevitable–almost no Mubarak-type leaders avoid eventually being thrown out.

Churches don’t have demonstrations. We might sometimes see mild protests, but no riots in our churches against older church leaders who should but don’t step down. We just have mass frustration and mass exodus!

So do you want to be a Mubarak or a Mandela?

 

 

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Deadly Diseases in Churches#2 — Silent Killers!

January 29, 2011 by Mark Woodward

Sherrylee and I were just sitting with some friends in Nashville today talking about church. Our friends told us about a church in Georgia that had just expanded and doubled the size of their usable space. To encourage one of the church leaders, she commented, “Just think, with God’s help you will soon outgrow this new space as well!”  He replied, “Well, we don’t want to grow too fast! You know, you don’t want just anyone in your church.”

That’s a pretty good illustration to introduce a conversation about church diseases that are silent killers—those insidious ideas or actions that, if not reversed, will certainly lead to congregational death. Here’s my list. It’s probably just a good start, so please add to it through your comments!

Vision Deficiency

The church leader in the above conversation had pretty severe vision problems. First, he didn’t see the same people that God sees. He probably only saw people like himself–and probably only people who were already some kind of Christian. A church that is happy simply being a nice club for nice people suffers with very narrow tunnel vision, not seeing many at all of all those God loves! If this church does not get new eyes, it will die.

Then there are those church leaders that see as far ahead as the next contribution, or the next capital drive, or the next new minister. These leaders are so short-sighted that they only see what they can do and have no vision of all that lies beyond that God can do! When “we” get tired or external challenges reduce visibility to zero, then this church will become virtually blind and definitely endangered!

Leadership Deficiency

No one doubts that lack of leadership in a church will hasten its demise, but perhaps it is not the lack of leadership that is the biggest problem, but the wrong leaders that is the silent killer in dying churches.  God has promised to bless His church with the gift of leadership (Romans 12:8).

Unfortunately, instead of looking for those that God has given the gift to, we look for those who are recognized by the business world or by society as leaders. So churches suffer under a lack of spiritual leadership as well as an overabundance of “gentile” leadership—as the world leads. Such churches are much more ill than they often realize.

Generosity Deficiency

Love is meant to be given away. Mercy is meant to be given away. Blessings are meant to be given away. Grace is meant to be given away. Forgiveness is meant to be given away. Hope, kindness, encouragement are meant to be given away. Wealth is meant to be given away. Time, Energy, really Life itself is meant to be given away.

A church that hoards any of the above will suffer spiritual bloat! If it doesn’t love, nobody will even know that they are Christians. If they are not merciful,  if they are not forgiving, if they are not kind, if they are not full of grace, that church is dying a pitiful death!

A simple blood test will help you diagnose this illness: ask yourself, if Jesus had not emptied himself and poured out His blood, would I have any hope of Life?  If I don’t empty myself, if my church doesn’t empty itself, is it really imitating Jesus? And if we are not imitating Jesus, are we really alive?

Mission Deficiency

Let me suggest you ask your church leaders what the basic raison d’etre for your congregation is. Why should you not join the larger more successful church down the street?  What would the kingdom of God be missing if you closed your doors?  For that matter, what would your community miss?

Having no unique reason for existence steals the strength of a church—as well as its future!

Identity Deficiency

We are in a time of identity breakdown! Established churches are abandoning their denominational names, traditional churches are becoming untraditional, liturgical churches have brought in evangelical praise bands. Someday some scholar will show us that there is a correlation between a church knowing who they are and their ability to thrive and persevere!

We may have created a Jekyll and Hyde situation, i.e., a false dichotomy between that which we have always been and that which we believe we need to be in order to live  I fear that most of our identity crisis is the result of observing the world around us and trying to adapt to what we see out there!  If our mission is clear, if our theology is alive, then changes will happen, but they will happen from the inside out, not from the outside in!

Prayer Deficiency

If your church leaders meetings do not begin and end in prayer, then your church may suffer severe loss of vitality! If your ministers do not lead the church in prayer, your church is ill. Jesus taught us to pray, not because God needs our words in order to know our hearts, but because we need to pray. Not going to the throne of God is avoidance of the Great Physician.

The Doctor’s Advice

People hate doctors. Some even refuse to go, saying that doctors just make you sick!  Jesus spoke to a group like this once, saying, “It’s not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick” (Matthew 9:12)–but don’t miss the irony. His words were condemnation to those who rejected His offer to heal.

These are words of hope for churches/church leaders who recognize their illness and turn to the One who heals!  Jesus may be asking you as he did the Centurion in Matthew 8: Shall I come and heal you?

 

 

 

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Deadly Diseases in Churches #1 – Diseases With Obvious Symptoms!

January 27, 2011 by Mark Woodward

Some life-threatening diseases have obvious symptoms that send us immediately to the doctor. Other illnesses are what media sometimes refer to as “silent killers.” Hypertension, diabetes, obstructive sleep apnea, as well as colon cancer and heart disease are examples of diseases that present only mildly, if at all, in their early stages.

The best chance for treating and surviving any of these silent killers is early diagnosis, usually as the result of regular physical checkups! I suspect that the health of a congregation also depends on early diagnosis as the result of regular spiritual checkups.

Let’s look at some of the diseases from which congregations/churches may die, differentiating between those that are symptomatic and those that are silent.

Church Diseases With Obvious Symptoms

Heresy: I’m not talking about disagreements over worship styles. I have listened in classes where the exclusive claim of Jesus as Savior has been denied. I have heard apocryphal literature read as Scripture. I have sat in churches where the only resurrection offered was the memory of deceased loved ones that lives in our hearts.

True heresy denies the divinity of Jesus, the inspiration of Scripture, the Atonement, the Resurrection, and/or the sovereignty of God. (It’s dangerous to even start such a list because one almost immediately feels the need to include more and define each item, i.e., create a creedal statement. A blog is a poor instrument, however,  for writing creeds.)

I myself find a wonderful list of non-negotiables in Ephesians 4:  one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one Body, one Spirit, and one God and Father of us all. Christians do argue over the full understanding of each of these, but that in no way for me detracts from their unity and essentiality.

Immorality: If you have been a Christian very long, you know of churches destroyed quickly by immorality, often committed by church leaders—but not exclusively!  When church leaders do not address perversion and corruption among their flock, they endanger the entire church because “they know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too” (Romans 1:32).

Immorality is not exclusively sexual. The entire list from Revelation 21 could be included:  8 “But cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshipers, and all liars—their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. I know that’s strong language, but we are talking about people who destroy the body of Christ!

Apathy: Many churches meet out of habit or tradition. Their leaders continue to lead worship, celebrate communion, and present a homily because that’s what church leaders are paid to do. A few members attend because . . . they themselves are not yet dead! The Messenger to one church said:  “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! 16 But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! (Revelation 3:15-16)

If your church just really doesn’t even care if it is alive or dead, that is the definition of apathy. If your church refuses to even ask the question or take the pulse of the church, that is apathy.  If your church has no ears to hear those who warn them, that is apathy!

An Inevitable Outcome?

The angel’s warning to the seven churches of Asia is not only a great wake-up call for modern churches, but also a sign of true hope. If there were neither hope nor means of recovery, then why the warning? Just blow the candle out and put out the light!

No, our God is One who heals the sick and raises the dead! If you are afraid your church is deathly ill, turn to God and ask Him to intervene! “Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. (Luke 15:4-5)

Next time, I will offer you my list of the church diseases that are silent killers!

 

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13 Reasons Church Leaders Cannot Recognize That Their Church Is Dying!

January 25, 2011 by Mark Woodward

!Years ago, I was a church leader in an ill church, and I really didn’t even know it! Certainly I had my concerns about different issues and challenges that we were facing, and I threw my influence as far as it would go to help enliven the church, but never did I think that the church might be in a death spiral!

Now, many years later, I ask myself why I did not recognize the very obvious signs of terminal decline. As I have searched my own soul, the following seem to me to be some of the reasons why church leaders do not even sniff the rottenness that is corrupting the Body!

1.     Too inexperienced. Few of our church leaders are trained church leaders. They are usually excellent volunteers, but how many would let an excellent hospital volunteer examine and diagnose you?  What if they couldn’t tell a mole from melanoma?

2. Too busy leading the church! The more rapid the decline, the more work there is for those trying to keep it alive! Hard to see imminent danger because of all the people needing your immediate attention.

3.     Too optimistic! Optimism–trust in God’s victory—is a highly desirable quality, but look at how difficult it was for Jesus to convince His closest disciples that He was going to die! Facing reality is also highly desirable.

4.     Too invested! Your family is in this church; your life-long friends are in this church; you grew up in this church! Unfortunately, none of these investments will save a declining church!

5.     Too satisfied. You have a great group! The building is paid for. Sure, you are a little smaller, but it is still alive for you!

6.     Too comfortable. It takes a lot of time and energy to change things. It is MUCH easier to just keep on doing what we have always done—and maybe it will work out!

7.     Too fearful. You can’t even go to the idea that this church might go away—too much pain involved!  Too many unanswerable questions about the unknown future.

8.     Too proud. After all, you are one of the leaders and things don’t fail that you are a part of! Not on your watch!

9.     Too tradition-bound. We’ve always done things this way and we’ve had rough days in the past, so if we just keep on course and not mess with the formula, we’ll be OK!

10.   Too much ownership! Granddaddy was an elder, Dad was an elder, and now I’m an elder. This is my church and my family’s church, and we will never let it fail!

11.    Too influenced by others. We’ve talked it over at the elders’ meeting, and the consensus is that  we are OK.  The members aren’t complaining.

12.    Too short-sighted. Even if it were true, what can anyone do about it. Might as well just ride to the end of the road.

13.    Too power-oriented. I’m one of the leaders. I can’t imagine not being a leader, so I think I’ll just keep on being a leader!

Rarely is leadership blindness the result of just one of the above Such lists are always an oversimplification of complex bundles of ideas and emotions, but no item on the list above allows church leaders to see clearly the plan of God for the people entrusted into their care.

I’ll end by just challenging church leaders to search their hearts and look for symptoms of reality blindness.  It’s not a fatal disease. Leaders can discover their vision and wisdom in time to take responsible action.

“If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt.”   James 1:5-6

 

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The King’s Speech: A Movie Review

January 23, 2011 by Mark Woodward

George VI, King of England

For those of you who never watch R-rated movies as a matter of principle, this film is an example of why I differ with you.  No sex, no violence, no battle scenes, no mafia—in spite of all of these deficits, The King’s Speech (2010) is a movie you need to see!

It is not for children, but only because the film addresses adult issues in a thoughtful way. And I am not using the word adult as a code word for anything immoral. You may be offended by some of the language, but if you can get past that, you have the opportunity to be inspired.

The King’s Speech is based upon the true story of Albert Frederick Arthur George, Duke of York, who became King George VI of England quite unexpectedly! He was the second son of King George V and second in the line of succession after his older brother Edward.  Upon their father’s death in 1936, Edward ascended the throne as Edward VIII, but in less than a year, he abdicated the throne in order to marry the twice-divorced American Wallace Simpson.  That is about as racy as this story gets.

Colin Firth does an outstanding job of playing the stammering duke and reluctant king. He brings to the role both the inherent haughtiness of royalty as well as the naiveté of royals about the common life and life of commoners.

Helena Bonham Carter plays a winsome Elizabeth, Albert’s beloved wife. She is extraordinary in those scenes where she is mistaken for Mrs. Johnson and then in that moment where she is revealed as the queen to the wife of Lionel Logue, the king’s speech therapist.

Lionel Logue, played magnificently by Geoffrey Rush, would steal the show in any other film without Colin Firth. While the king’s stammer is the problem, Lionel Logue is the character that moves the entire film along, ultimately, bringing all things to resolution.  His grandson Mark would describe him as the man who saved the British monarchy.

Director Tom Hopper once again, as he did in the fantastic John Adams mini-series, brings the humanity of his characters to the forefront without diminishing the historical context within which they lived. Ultimately we realize that the king’s impediment has much more to do with his self-image than anything mechanical. All who know him see his strength of character. I especially love the scene when his wife returns in their conversation to their days of courtship and talks about the wonderful, stammering man she fell in love with!

It is just these touching moments—completely British, i.e., understated and devoid of anything maudlin—that makes this such a classy film.  Another such moment is the first meeting of the new king with his daughters Elizabeth and Margaret.

But the unexpected friendship of the king of England with a most common, untrained but highly inventive and extraordinarily intuitive speech therapist is the crux of the story. The unlikely relationship is as it should be: unlikely, unpredictable, embarrassing sometimes, painful, and often rocky as these two men look for what they need.

How they help each other is a matter of history, so there are no surprises, but it makes the film all the more pleasurable that it is based on fact, not fiction.

The reason it is rated R is for some use of dirty words, which is part of the duke’s speech therapy and one of the most comical scenes in the film.  Even the children in the story who overhear the patient swearing are offended, so it is not meant to be titillating.

With just enough humor and with great wit, and perhaps even better pathos, a wonderful story is told of a historical time and place, of class struggle, but primarily of the human need for love and friendship. This film deserves all of the honors and awards it will certainly receive.

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Church Resurrection Requires Radical Action!

January 20, 2011 by Mark Woodward

Resurrection Requires Radical Action!

Sherrylee and I were just in California for a week, doing Let’s Start Talking Training and visiting with good friends and family—many of whom are church leaders in their respective congregations.  Much of our conversation revolved around the situations in which their local congregation and other congregations in California found themselves.

For instance, one congregation—very stable and financially secure—was struggling with being very stable and financially secure! Being comfortable may be the most precarious situation of all. At least one of these churches had recently hired a new preacher that was thinking out of their box, getting involved in the community and not staying put in his office!

The question for these kinds of churches is: who gives up first? Do the members give up the comfort of predictability and familiarity or does the New Guy give up . . . .just give up?

Then there were the churches discussed that had had glory days 10-20 years ago, but today they are either below or about to slip below a critical mass of members. They may have had as many as several hundred, but now they are in double digits—low double digits in some cases.

The leaders of these churches are burdened with their dilemma. They know that to do nothing is to die. They have been trying everything they know to do these last few years, and nothing seems to have stopped the constant seepage of members, moving away or going to other churches—usually the lively community churches.

The question for these churches is: in spite of the desire of the few remaining, can this congregation be resuscitated or is it time to pull the plug? As painful as it sounds, even Jesus said that sometimes death must precede life.  If planned well, the death of one congregation might even spawn multiple new congregations that have a chance at life.  But something radical must happen or life will just slip away.

What kinds of radical actions might result in resurrection of a dead church to any kind of new life?

1.            Close the doors for a year. Re-start with a new name, a new concept—and new leaders!

2.            Import new people as “missionaries.”  Do whatever it takes to support them, both financially and with permission—no, begging them to be as aggressive as they will in penetrating the community.

3.            Liquidate the assets and distribute them to new church planting efforts.

4.            Seek out a healthy church and either merge into something new or unconditionally submit to the leaders of the healthy church!

Radical is the operative word here!  Nothing less will succeed.

The faithful few who keep a church’s doors open are almost never the ones to resurrect it in any form. Regardless of the magnificence of their service or generosity in previous years, there comes a time in almost everyone’s life when they have to step back and let others lead the way. Those who do that graciously finish as great leaders and are well-loved! Those that cling to power or reputation are destined to wither with the congregation or even worse—be asked to leave by the new leaders.

The last of our church groups are those new churches, either new plants or migrations of people wanting a new start. The heady first days of these churches are full of great promise, new ideas, experimentation, fresh wind and fire.  I’ve experienced this as a church leader, and I would wish it for everyone.

Nothing is more exciting than a fresh new congregation birthed out of a desire to expand the Kingdom of God.

There are big questions for these churches as well, but for the moment, it feels like enough just to celebrate them!

Thank you for launching out, thank you for accepting the challenge of starting ex nihilo! Thank you for the courage  to risk failure. Thank you for the boldness to follow God into the Unknown.

Does your congregation fall into any of these categories? If so, what radical action are you going to take?

Posted in Church Leadership, Other, Uncategorized | 6 Comments »

MLK and Lofty Words

January 17, 2011 by Mark Woodward

In anyone’s list of great American speeches, Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech is among the very best.  As I thought about great modern speeches, I thought about Franklin Roosevelt’s “The Only Thing We Have To Fear Is Fear Itself,” delivered early in the Depression that brought America to dusty knees.

 

I thought about John Kennedy’s “Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You” speech, delivered when a country was afraid it might be losing its place in the world to Communism.

Then, in a very different time, Ronald Reagan lifted a nation’s broken heart after the Challenger disaster in just about four minutes of carefully planned rhetoric, including the final words about the ill-fated astronauts who “slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God.”  He also is created practically with the fall of the Berlin Wall with his “Tear Down This Wall” speech.

I wonder if we will ever have another speech of this caliber by an American statesman?  Bill Clinton was a great speaker, but both his most famous as well most notorious speeches seem to all deal with infidelity.  Both Presidents Bush could occasionally produce a reasonable sound bite, but I don’t believe either will make the rhetorical Hall of Fame.

President Obama has great moments!  His eloquence is apparent, but history will judge if his words and ideas inspire future generations as great speeches do!

Of all of these, I believe Dr. King’s is the one that will last the longest. His words are not pretentious; the metaphors are simple, but the power of his rhetoric stirs people to tears even now, some forty-eight years after that day in Washington D.C., on the mall.

If you just think about each of the speeches above, some commonalities are strikingly obvious:

1              The address is unashamedly bipartisan—universal. King does not talk only to or about African-Americans. He talks about “all of God’s children!” Kennedy talks to “my fellow Americans.”  Strident, partisan rhetoric may capture the votes of the masses, but the words have no lasting power.

2.            The words are all meant to bring people together, to unite people behind great ideals! Freedom, universal needs, human rights, these have been ideas that have inspired great work and great words since men could speak. Petty people have petty ideas. Great people rise above pettiness.

3.            Lofty language carries lofty ideas. Sherrylee and I visited the JFK Presidential Library in Boston last year. I remember clearly reading the instructions that JFK gave to his speech writers for his inauguration. He asked for brevity, he asked for simplicity of ideas, but he also asked for memorable language.

We do not live in an age that appreciates lofty language. In fact, perhaps the opposite is true. We are suspicious of rhetoric and we don’t understand metaphor.  Brief attention spans, 24-hour news cycles, and information overload have made extraneous words obsolete!  But are the right words ever unnecessary??

President Reagan could have closed his Challenger remarks by saying, “We are all saddened by their death!” instead of quoting the poetic lines about touching the face of God, but would anyone have remembered it?

President Kennedy could have said, “Don’t expect government handouts; get busy and accomplish your own goals and we’ll all be better off!—but who would remember what he said?

Dr. King could have argued legally the case for civil rights, or simply scathed white Americans for lynching the civil rights of Black Americans. Instead he found rhythm and poetry that lives on!

They all chose lofty words, inspiring words, words that were delivered to bring people together, words that captured people’s imaginations with images they understood.

I have a dream that we can talk civilly to each other in public, that we will expect our leaders to do the same, that we will vote out abusive rhetoric in politics.

I have a dream that we will allow sublime language back into our churches to lift our spirits, to inspire us, to unite us, to help us imagine God, to help us hear His Spirit.

“In the beginning was The Word, and The Word was with God, and The Word was God!”

We once made the acquaintance of a young Greek girl named Mary. She was a wonderful person, but unchurched, so we gave her a copy of the New Testament in Modern Greek. When we gave it to her, we opened it to the Gospel of John and asked her to read these first verses. As she did, she began to cry. She said, she had never read anything so beautiful!

She did go to church with us, but then we lost contact, so I don’t know if the beautiful words became saving words for her or not. I have no doubt, however, that salvation is beautiful, that it is lofty! After all—The Word IS God!

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Stories of Wine and Romance!

January 15, 2011 by Mark Woodward

I promised to tell some of the stories behind the LST Expectations and Commitments, formerly known as the Guidelines.

First, I want to say that almost all of the stories come from the 1980s when Let’s Start Talking was just beginning, and we were learning how to do short-term missions in a very new way!

Secondly, all of these stories revolve around people who were 19 or 20 years old and have since become very mature, responsible people.  These early stories should not reflect on them anymore than they do on Sherrylee and me and Let’s Start Talking now.

Too Much Wine

At the same time when most of the home churches of our students still preached and proscribed total abstinence from all alcoholic drinks,  Western European Christians virtually all drank beer frequently and had an occasional glass of wine.

Almost without exception our first workers were offered beer and/or wine during those early LST projects by their hosts!  One of our young women who had never even tasted wine before saw a glass poured for her at her host’s dinner table one special evening. Panicking a little, she decided that she would just down that one glass quickly and get rid of the problem. Of course, her host immediately poured another glass, which the student chugged as well!  She really doesn’t remember much of the rest of the evening.

After hearing this story, we decided it was just better to insist on abstinence, thus Expectation #7 – Protect the integrity of your testimony!

Too Much Romance

It was the very day their team was leaving for Germany on an early LST project.  They had been dating for some time at college and had come to a critical point in their relationship.  He was ready to ask her to marry him. She was trying to figure out how to break up with him!

As it sometimes happens, she found exactly the right moment to break up with him just before they boarded the plane for their six-week LST project together!  He cries for the entire flight, while she talks to a young Air Force officer that she just happened to be seated next to.

After this team had been on the field for about a week, Sherrylee and I get an emergency phone call! Come to Hildesheim! The entire team is engulfed in civil war, with the guys on His side and the girls on Her side!

Sherrylee and I drove up from Mannheim, met with the team, laid His and Her’s relationship out in the open and tried to bring some peace and harmony to the team. By the end of a very long evening, everyone is crying, everyone is hugging, so sorry for the trouble that has been caused. Everyone is going to do what is right. He is going to be stronger!

We leave, but before the second week is over, we get another emergency phone call from the team! It’s not working! He can’t eat; he can’t sleep; he is so heart-broken that sometimes he can’t even get through a conversation with His readers. She on the other hand is just having a great time—which makes Her team members mad who now almost all feel sorry for Him.

We drive up there and offer Him a little break—a few days away from the team so he can pull Himself back together!  He accepts, and we make the arrangements for Him and take Him to a friend’s home for a few days.

In the meantime, we learn that it makes all the guys mad that He is “punished” by being taken away from the team, when She is the problem!

Anyway, after just 24 hours, He calls us and says he feels so much better and has rejoined the team. Thanks for having given Him such good advice and support!”  So, we think, maybe they will hold together until the end of the project, which is now just three weeks away.

Three or four days later, we get the call and NOTHING is working right, so we drive back up to Hildesheim, move Him off of that team permanently, and place Him with another team about four hundred kilometers away.  It’s not ideal, but it is the best we can come up with.

The Hildesheim team seems to improve with some of the tension relieved. We visit the young man on His new team, who, in general, is better as well—especially since one of girls on the new team has started paying Him special attention!!

Well, two weeks later, all of our LST teams meet at a Frankfurt hotel for our EndMeeting before we fly back the next day. We meet together, pray together, and just celebrate what God has done during the summer!

After the meeting is over, He comes up and wants to talk to me privately. As He explains it to me, before He and She ever left the States on this project, they had planned to travel around a little together, visiting friends in Italy. He wanted to know what I thought He should do in light of the current situation.

I told him, “GO HOME! Are you crazy? After all you guys have been through—what are you thinking??

Against my advice, He and She traveled together to Italy.

Three months later, they were engaged.

In May of the next year I performed their wedding ceremony!!

Unbelievable!

But as we have pointed out to our workers each year since, what was the effect on the mission project? So, because of this incident—and many similar others, LST has a very strict no Romance policy—sometimes called affectionately our NO LOVE policy.  Today it is Expectation #5 – Use all of your time for developing spiritual relationships and none of it for romantic relationships.

Btw, He and She had many happy years of marriage until He died of a brain tumor just a few years ago. They were faithful Christians, leaders in their churches, all of their years together.

Lord, forgive me the sins of my youth!

 

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A Fifty-Pound Pink Suitcase for Short-Term Mission Training!

January 13, 2011 by Mark Woodward

Sherrylee and I have been traveling all day yesterday and today, visiting with LST board members and with LST leaders.  We are now in Santa Barbara—what a beautiful place—and finishing preparations to host an Intensive Training Weekend for several teams from Pepperdine University that begins tomorrow.

Intensive Training Weekends have been part of the LST training plan since the very beginning. The very first one was held in the winter of 1982. One of the team members had a cousin who had a “lake house” that they would make available to us.  My experience with lake houses was that they were luxurious recreational homes, usually in a resort-type setting.

This lake house was on Voss Lake in western Oklahoma, a man-made pond without a tree within 100 miles! The house did have plumbing, but it was separated from the main house, and the wind came whistling down the plains right through the outer walls of this lake house!  And it was in the single digits outside and sometimes in!

Nevertheless, we had a great time and most of the training elements that we still use would found their genesis at this first primitive retreat. We passed information about Germany to the team members, we did team building activities, we had very meaningful devotional time, and we built stronger relationships.

Thirty years later, our Intensive Training weekend is much better conceived, but quite similar to the original. Teams experience about 36 hours of LST project simulation, designed to help them understand who their team is, why they are going, and how they can have a successful mission project.

As team members come in the door, they are met by “customs officials,” who check their passports, their paperwork, and who see if they have brought too much luggage! At their orientation, they reset their watches to “LST Time”—about four hours later than local time—and the fun begins!

Because the teams are going overseas, no overhead projected songs are used for worship and  no checking email or texting is allowed; in addition,  a fifty-pound pink suitcase is awarded to teams that must carry  it around for a while, just to learn how heavy and burdensome too much luggage can be.

The highlight of the weekend may be the field training, when each team is given about fifteen tasks to accomplish on their own (This is why we try to get away from their home city, so that they will be unfamiliar with local sites and resources). They may be asked to interview a stranger and ask them what people in their country think about Jesus. They likely have to find out how much it costs to take public transportation for the retreat center to the local airport, or they may have to find the address and phone number of the nearest American embassy—without using the internet.  Every task has some parallel to either a task or decision that the team might be confronted with on the mission field.

They have a very small budget for lunch and they have to all agree on what they will eat. They also have to all try some food that they have never eaten before. It’s all fun, but it’s also a little challenging.

As the hosts of the weekend, we are not only hoping to create an environment where teams get to know each other better, where they catch the LST spirit (which we pray is the same as the Spirit of Christ), but we hope also to  observe which teams might have issues.

For instance, one year, a student arrived at the weekend who had totally disregarded the luggage limit that we had imposed.  When he was told that some of his stuff was going to be “confiscated,” he got angry and left!  Better to deal with that kind of spirit in training than have the same spirit create an incident with the mission church in some foreign country!

We often have interpersonal team issues that have been mostly ignored when people are not together every day, but that surface pretty quickly under the pressure of sitting together, eating together, and sleeping in the same room in sleeping bags on the floor of a church building together. Better to deal with them here than in the pressure cooker of the mission field.

At most of our Intensive Training weekends for students, we gather at 6am on Sunday (10am LST time!) for multi-cultural worship. We start with a Herzlich Wilkommen, and then proceed to a song in Portuguese.  Scripture may be read in Spanish, followed by a prayer in Japanese.  At some point, where we can arrange it, someone preaches for 10-15 minutes in a foreign language, followed by an English explanation of the lesson.

Communion is often taken by coming to the front as a team, praying with your arms around each other, sometimes sharing one cup—or a few! This hour is precious and one that impacts everyone!

The only major element of the weekend that I have not described is our session on Expectations and Commitments. That particular session comes with so many stories that it deserves its own post!

Look for the next post on “Stories Behind the Expectations and Commitments”.

 

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