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Fifteen years ago today, I was standing in my office at Oklahoma Christian when one of my colleagues rushed in and said, “A bomb just exploded downtown!”  I thought, “That’s interesting,“  imagining something like a small letter bomb or something that blows up an office, set by some disgruntled employee.

Of course, within minutes the reports started coming of what was until 2001 the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil in modern times.  Now fifteen years later, the country has experienced worse, so it is easy to forget what we learned from Oklahoma City.  Here are a few of my thoughts:

  • Home-grown, flag-waving extremists are just as dangerous as foreign jihadists. Immediately following the bombing, reports of Arab-looking suspects were all over the news; the real bomber, however, was born in New York of Irish Catholic parents, voted “most promising computer programmer” at his high school, a decorated veteran of the first Gulf War, and an outspoken anti-tax, pro-gun, anti-government proponent.  The current extreme political rhetoric and hyper-polarization frightens me!
  • The use of war metaphors does not justify killing innocent people. McVeigh declared war on the federal government, so killing kindergarten children in the Murrah Building was for him an unhappy, but acceptable consequence of his military objective. Neither as individuals nor as countries should we be confused about the morality of killing innocent people for our own benefit.
  • Average people are amazingly good and amazingly brave in a crisis. Immediately following the bombing, police and medical personnel rushed towards the bomb site. One of our church members was among the first police officers to arrive; he crawled into the rubble to pull out a baby covered in ash—but alive.  Vendors brought bottled water, sandwiches, blankets, medical supplies; people of all sorts came to help however they could.  Students at OC with just minimal training in first aid rushed to the scene, wanting to do something to help.  I’m not sure I have ever experienced a greater sense of community.
  • Everyone is damaged; the world is diminished by such acts of violence. Our friend the police officer was so traumatized by what he saw and experienced in the first hour after the bombing that he spent months –maybe longer—seeking help and attempting to recover.  Not only the families of the victims, but the friends of the families of the victims, and the relief workers, and those who narrowly missed being victims just by “chance,” and the man who rented the delivery truck, and people who sell fertilizer, and everyone who works in a government building who goes to work every day, the whole community has been damaged. There are no armies, no federal agencies, no screening devices, nothing that can restore this world to wholeness. We can only forget–which we will with time.

But Christians must live in certain hope, participating with God to transform this world from being a bombed-out shell to a place where swords have been beaten into plowshares and lions lie down with lambs. What we can’t forget is that we belong to the Prince of Peace!

The Game of Death

On the drive to work this morning, I listened to a radio commercial for a fire ant treatment that made me cringe. In a typically ironic way, the voice was warning fire ants to prepare for excruciating pain, horrifying deaths, mass murder, and violence beyond compare.  Now I’m no friend of fire ants, but something about this commercial offended me greatly. It seemed the emotional appeal of the commercial was to a violent, sadistic pleasure that someone believes is common enough among people to sell their product.

Then I remembered a report in March on a French documentary called Le Jeu De La Mort (The Game of Death) that explored the same idea.  Eighty participants were recruited for what they believed to be a TV game show. With gala décor and typically sexy host and hostesses, these “contestants” were asked to inflict electrical shocks to another contestant when a wrong answer was given.  The intensity of the shocks increased until the tortured contestant quit screaming and simply went limp—died—maybe.  The tortured contestant was an actor and no real shocks were administered, but the eighty contestants did not know this until afterwards.

Of the eighty contestants, only sixteen refused to inflict pain. The others followed the instructions given them and inflicted pain on the victim to the point of death.  Unbelievable!

I wanted to dismiss this as filmmaking—smoke and mirrors—but then I had a flashback to psychology classes at Harding, and with the miracle of internet, I found reference to the Milgram Obedience Experiment in the 1960s, which in a more controlled environment and with a more scientific protocol performed the same experiment in the same manner. The only real difference was that instead of a TV host telling a “contestant” what they should do, it was a “scientist” in a white jacket giving the orders at Yale.

In the 60s, sixty-two percent of the people administered electrical shocks to the victim. In 2010, over 8o percent complied.  The frightening fact is that we live in a world de-sensitized to torture and horrific violence through every form of mass media that we experience.  From Jack Bauer to anime to computer gaming to WWF, inflicting pain and suffering is as common as . . . turning on TV.

If we laugh at an innocuous commercial about insecticide, how far are we from pulling the torture switch ourselves?

If we make it to Sunday, Sherrylee and I will have been married thirty-nine years.  It was a beautiful Easter Sunday April 11, 1971, in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.  My best man—my brother Gary—got sick from the ham at the rehearsal dinner, so he was violently sick during the wedding and could not participate.  This left us one groomsman short to walk out with the bridesmaids, so we replaced Gary with Joe Earnest–Sherry’s high school boyfriend—and a good friend to both of us then and now.

Well, Joe didn’t have any dress shoes, having just come from the beach, so we borrowed Don Samanie’s shoes in an effort to make him my brother-in-law.  He sat at the back of the church in sock feet throughout the entire service.

These are the funny things. At little earlier that morning, my so-called friends Randy Bostic and Roger Lamb “stole” my car while I was at breakfast.  Unbeknownst (a KJV expression from the 60s) to them, Sherry’s wedding dress was in the backseat of the car, so they had fun driving around and hiding from us—but Sherry wasn’t able to get dressed until they showed up again!  She still hasn’t totally forgiven them for that!

Sherry’s father Max, the preacher for the Ft. Walton church, was performing the ceremony. She and I had gone over all the do’s and don’ts with him. We did not want all the clichés, we did not want a sermon on marriage, we wanted something spiritual but personal, etc—typical kids of the 60s.  He did a great job!  He first addressed me personally and told me some things—which I hope I have practiced although I have forgotten what they were—but when he got to Sherry, his youngest daughter, he started with, “And, Sherrylee . . . and that’s as far as he got before he choked up.  I love him for that.

Our wedding party sang “The Lord Bless You and Keep You” as our recessional–of course, with the seven-fold AMEN!!  Great reception with Aunt Grace playing the piano—and then we left—married—for thirty-nine years.  I lost my wedding ring the next day in the ocean. We rushed out to buy another one at Edisons for $29.00! We had our portraits done in pastels in New Orleans on our honeymoon.  When I look at that picture, which has always hung in our bedroom, I think of how young we were, how innocent about life—but how thankful I am that God created our marriage in heaven.  A good marriage is a gift from God.

Well, thank you for letting me share a nostalgic moment with you.  Maybe I’ll be more reflective later, but right now it feels good just to smile.

On May 24, the eight-year run of 24 will come to an end.  Since November of 2001, U.S. viewers as well as millions around the world have watched Jack Bauer save the world one more time—and all in a twenty-four hour time period.  The fast-paced, twisting, often tortuous plots kept audiences returning week after week, sometimes even after long pauses between series. How will we survive without 24???

Sherrylee and I discovered  MI-5 a couple of years ago, and through our Netflix subscription have rented seven out of the eight series made. Let me recommend it to you as replacement therapy.

MI-5 is the U.S. title for the British series produced by BBC One titled Spooks.  (MI-5 is the counter-terrorism group of the Special Intelligence Services (SIS) in the UK.  James Bond worked for MI-6—the international branch.) First airing just a few months after 24 began, it met with the same kind of reception in the UK, but not always for the same reasons.  Since you are undoubtedly familiar with 24 if you are reading this, let me mention some of the key areas where MI-5 is different.

MI-5 is not constrained by the ticking clock. One of the reasons for the demise of 24 is the ticking clock. The show has always strained credibility because everything had to be accomplished within twenty-four hours. Kim was kidnapped two or three times in the first 24 hours. Jack is often shot and tortured and must recover instantaneously for the clock to continue.  Freeing the scripts from this artificial restraint allows for much greater complexity.

MI-5 develops more deeply the personal lives of the characters. The attempts to give Jack feelings and/or romantic involvements have been mostly just distractions from the action. MI-5, on the other hand, actually uses the virtual impossibility of serious relationships with anyone outside of the spook business as an artful way of developing even secondary characters and making the audience care about them. From the first season until the last, the private lives of characters are played out against the backdrop of terrorist threats to Great Britain in a very satisfactory way.

MI-5 is an ensemble of characters, not just a support team for one main character. In certain episodes of MI-5, it might be the Jack Bauer counterpart Tom Quinn (Matthew Macfadyen) or Adam Carter (Rupert Penry-Jones) that the plot revolves around, but other episodes will focus more on the Director of MI-5 Harry Pierce (Peter Firth) or it might even be a lesser character like Jo Portman (Miranda Raison). More interesting characters provide more storyline possibilities, which are exploited very effectively in MI-5. And since danger is at the heart of the profession, the series continues then courageously, even when major characters are suddenly. . . . killed.

MI-5 explores more realpolitik. 24 has been good with exploring some moral questions that combatants always face, i.e., can bad things accomplish the greater good, the use of torture for obtaining information, the question of personal responsibility to do right in the face of orders to do wrong?  MI-5 explores all of these topics as well, but is also able to ask questions about specific government policies, like extraordinary rendition, covert operations of terror in other countries, political cover-ups, even economic policies and their effect on international relations. Some of the most interesting episodes have been the racial conflicts reflected in UK society, especially home-grown radical Islamists.

I will warn you that Americans, often referred to as the Brits “special friends” or their “cousins,” are rarely portrayed in a favorable light. If you are squeamish about how even our foreign friends really feel about us, you might best stick with reruns of 24. On the other hand, if you can bear it, it is an interesting lesson in perspective.

MI-5 is currently running on many PBS channels, but I suggest you either purchase the series online or get it through a subscription service like Netflix.   My one piece of advice, however, is to use the subtitle routine on the disk, at least until your ear becomes accustomed to the accents.  I do believe the British series will do a brilliant job of weaning you off of Jack Bauer—so you can survive to fight another day!

Yesterday, Sherrylee and I had the perfect day at a theme park with our two California granddaughters Anna (7) and Olivia (5). Such days are rare, so I thought I’d share with you some tips about what happened that contributed to this perfect outing. You can extrapolate from the park to life or faith if you want.

  1. Allow plenty of time.  We left the house at 10:45 and the park didn’t close until 10pm. We didn’t have to rush the girls out of the house, and we decided not to start home until we could do it without any disappointment.  At 8:30pm, we said, “Are there any other rides, and both the girls said, no, they were done!”  Perfect.
  2. Set reasonable financial boundaries at the start. I have to admit that I am often the one who spoils days like this because I reach my mystical spending limit before anybody else. After that critical point, either I’m unhappy or they are unhappy. This time, on the way to the park, I said to Sherrylee, “You’ve got to help me keep the spending down because these tickets were not cheap!” She agreed, so we did not go into souvenir shops, we ate our main meals outside of the park, and we did not play arcade games. Rather, we stopped twice for snacks and only once did I pay $2 for a little game so Olivia would have something to do while Anna was riding a roller coaster too big for Olivia. Perfect.
  3. Make your first answer “YES”—so that the few times you have to say no are accepted easily.  We rode the splash ride four times—even after dark when it was pretty cool, retraced our steps several times (as opposed to an orderly approach to the park!), and drove through both McDonalds AND Taco Bell for lunch—just a few examples of saying “yes” instead of imposing my own sense of what should be done!
  4. Do the most important things first! Olivia had always been too small to ride a roller coaster, so her single goal for the whole day was to be big enough to ride one. Fortunately, of the several roller coasters at the park, the SideWinder, the first one we encountered would allow her to ride with an adult. And fortunately for Olivia, Sherrylee loves roller coasters, so off the three of them went.  Instead of spending all day anxiously searching for the mountaintop experience, we accomplished the main goal in the first 15 minutes in the park.  The ecstasy of the goal fulfilled carried through the whole day.
  5. Know when to rest! About 3pm, we were getting hot and hungry, so we planned a strategic stop to snack on popcorn and peanuts and watch one of the park musical shows in an air-conditioned venue. The 30-minute break revived us and kept spirits high for about another three hours, when we stopped for ice cream sandwiches–which kept us going until the end of the day.
  6. Finish strong! About 7pm, I signaled to Sherrylee that I was about ready to go. She, wisely, said, “Let’s make sure we have the most fun here at the end!”  So we asked the girls what their favorite ride was—and then rode it two more times!! Fortunately, the lines were very short by then, so we could make them doubly happy very easily!

I’m sure that other days would not have turned out perfectly, no matter what we did—we don’t have that much control in this world—but that is all the more reason to give thanks for those times when we are allowed to taste perfection!

The Pew Forum recently surveyed the changing religious scene in America, and although not highlighted, one of the obvious conclusions from the report is that most religious decisions, including conversion, abandonment, and switching, are made before a person’s 24th birthday.  (http://pewforum.org/Faith-in-Flux.aspx)

My own experience is the same. Other workers in Germany often teased our mission team about not having planted a church, just a youth group! (Notice the just in that sentence!) We did have mostly children, university students, and young working adults.  But ten years after we began, we had a church of young marrieds, which after another few years was a church of young families. The church had matured into a vibrant community of faith.

Great churches focus evangelistic efforts on young people! Most churches focus on 30-50 year olds and then wonder why they don’t grow. Most people have already made their religious decisions and very few—comparatively—are in a searching mode any longer.  Here are my suggestions for focusing on young people:

  1. Every new church plant should be near a university and should include a campus ministry as one of its main thrusts. I would include a particular outreach to international students on that campus.
  2. Churches should plan events like camps, weekends, concerts, for highschoolers from the community, not just church kids (but these are great for church kids too!) These should have priority over gospel meetings, lectureships, and potlucks for adults.
  3. Worship services do not have to be completely focused on youth, but if your services are exclusively for the 50 year olds, then that is who you will attract (Not!).  What can you do for the teens/college-aged youth in your service?
  4. Youth mission trips should be a high priority for your church, and you should take non-Christian youth with you! There is no better evangelism than an unbeliever seeing a believer in action.
  5. Special Bible studies for youth—and not just a Sunday school class—are essential. Unaffiliated youth are not going to get up and come to Sunday school, but they might meet you at Starbucks on Thursday afternoon after school for a small group study.
  6. The minister and church leaders other than a youth minister MUST be involved with this outreach. Especially 18-24 year-olds want to be considered full members, fully adult, but in some ways, they don’t even understand what that means yet. Mentoring groups are great for this age group.
  7. Church budgets should reflect the emphasis on seeking young people.

I’m sure many of you have other ideas which I would love to see you share. Remember, I’m not talking about maintaining the church kids—although that will be a byproduct—but rather, reaching out to younger people during their age of decision.  If I were going to the mission field now, I would focus 80% of my time and energy on people 25 years old or less.

Question: What portion of your church’s time, resources, and energy are focused on evangelistic outreach to young people?

As a young missionary, I remember (with embarrassment now) my own disappointment the first time I visited a mission church in Paris and realized that although there were 40-50 people in their worship service, virtually none of them were Parisians, only a handful were even French, and the rest were internationals from the French-speaking world.

Let’s Start Talking, which Sherrylee and I direct, works with many Japanese churches, who breathe the air of a culture with strong tendencies toward uniformity, conformity, and all things Japanese. Some Japanese leaders are very hesitant to invite foreign Christians to work beside them and reticent to think of the international communities in their city as a mission field. They want national churches—churches that look like them. I have seen the same prejudice (and I use this word consciously, but not pejoratively) on every continent, including North America.  Such churches rarely thrive.  Great churches overcome prejudices and present the Gospel to all people whom God brings into their lives.

  1. 1. Great churches see their community as it is today, not as it was! From the US 2000 Census data:  Between 1990 and 2000I the foreign-born population increased by 57 percent, from 19.8 million to 31.1 million, compared with an increase of 9.3 percent for the native population and 13 percent for the total U.S. population.  A small Texas city has a colony of Armenian Turks. A Michigan suburb is home to thousands of Albanians. Chinese residents are the second largest number of foreign-born population after Hispanics.  The neighborhood has changed!  The world has come to our doorstep. Has the church body changed with it?
  2. 2. Great churches find strength in diversity. The church in Paris that reaches out to Africans and uses them as well as other Internationals in church leadership has created “growing edges” for greater outreach and service. Instead of serving one community, this church now serves at least three—and sends the message of “welcome” to even more.
  3. 3. Great churches find resources in diversity. No longer (if it ever was) is the U.S. church the headwater for all missional gifts; African churches, Korean churches, Brazilian churches, yes, Chinese churches are sending resources and people out throughout the world with power, vision, and the gospel. These precious resources are used by great churches—regardless of nation of origin.

I’m just pretty sure that the greatest churches will reflect “the glory and honor of the nations” which the Apostle John saw in the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21).

Questions:  Does your church intentionally seek to reflect “the glory and honor of the nations?” How?

Our ninth grandchild was born just hours ago. I thought I would just take a moment and share with you some thoughts.

1.  With each grandchild, I think I became more aware of the inherent danger of childbirth to my daughters.  We hardly think about this anymore, but have you noticed how in the old western movies, it is always the old men who are looking for a young bride. Historically, one woman died in childbirth for every 100 live births. It was a fact of life.  Some think that was part of the curse at the fall. We are blessed with great medicine now, and in developed countries, the dangers are handled almost routinely. In sub-Sahara Africa, one woman in 16 will die from childbirth.  Thank you, God, for every safe delivery of every new life.

2.      God has a plan for this child. I am strong believer in the Psalmist words 

My frame was not hidden from you
       when I was made in the secret place.
       When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

            16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
            All the days ordained for me
            were written in your book
            before one of them came to be.  (139:15-16)

This means for me that there are no children who are “surprises,” that each is on a path from Day One, and that God is the Guide. For me, this insight took away much of the fear involved with “what if I am not a good parent.” This is God’s child first and foremost. It is His Will that this child has everlasting life, and He will do everything necessary for this child to be saved.

3.     A Plan does not mean Protection from every evil. Two of our nine grandchildren have needed medical intervention in their first days of life in order to keep them alive. There is no right to life. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

 4.     Some grandparents are very influential; others less. With each grandchild, my role may be different—I don’t know and it is usually not my decision—but whether for more or less, I want my impact to be for God. That is the only legacy that really matters.

5.     The ninth one is just as exciting as the first one! Now Sherry’s dad and Opal have 33 grandchildren, so I don’t know if this holds true for everyone. The creation of life from nothing is perhaps God’s greatest work. Our oldest grandchild has been born again! It’s the same miracle.

Unfortunately, many of the phrases, like multiplying churches, discipling churches, or change agents, that best describe great, growing churches have fallen into disrepute in many church circles. On the other hand, some phrases, like conservative churches or mainstream churches, are very comfortable descriptions, but often do not describe great, growing churches.  Can we lay aside all the labels for a moment and just talk about what it takes to have great, growing churches?

In previous blogs, I have given you four observations about great, growing churches:

#1 – Christ owns the church, not anyone else.

#2 – Prayerful vision and strategy are essential.

#3 – Growing churches is a process that takes time.

#4 – Groups working together are more effective than individuals working alone.

Today I offer you the observation that great, growing churches are constantly creating growing edges. Growing edges for churches means new doors and new windows for new people.

New church plants have an immediately recognizable vigor and an attractive freshness that attract new people. A new church plant is a growing edge. But even new church plants do not remain new (nor fresh or attractive), so what does a church do that is no longer new in order to re-new itself?

1. Great churches create new doors! Doors are entrances into your congregation. Most churches rely on Sunday services, midweek Bible study, ladies class, and a handful of special events each year (special series, VBS) to serve as doors. These are probably the same doors that came with the original building, if you know what I mean.  Many mission churches have the same doors as their American counterparts, which means that they stop growing at about 35-50 people. They only have doors for that many people.  Growing churches, on the other hand, think constantly about new doors! It might be a new service, a new time, a new activity, a new site, a new church plant, a new ministry, a new outreach, a new service in the community….but whatever it is, it will be new ( for a while) and it will invite new people into your renewed church.

2. Great churches build new windows! Most people want to look before they buy. How can someone who knows nothing about your church and who will not visit you (because you are a total stranger to them!) find out about you? Churches need lots of windows for people to look in on them.  You don’t need just one window that looks at your Sunday service (like a broadcast of a Sunday service), you need lots of windows for lots of people. What about your website? Is it for “lookers” or is it for members/visitors? Where can the community see you? Doing what? How will they know you are Christians and not just a humanitarian organization? Are you ever in the local newspaper? Do you offer (not wait for requests) your building to your community? The more windows you have, the more people will be able to see who you are—and the better you will become because you know the world is watching!

3. Great churches are always meeting new people! While this seems integral to the previous two points, I’d say many older churches basically reach a point where they say, “Everybody knows us.” Great, growing churches intentionally meet new people. This begins with church leadership: ministers, staff, pastors/elders.  If these leaders find all of their energy consumed by current members and their needs, they may have a good church, but not a great, growing church.

New people looking in new windows, then walking through new doors—the vigor in such a church attracts new people—looking in new windows, then walking through new doors—the vigor in such a church . . . and the multiplying begins!

I went to Barnes and Noble on Saturday and bought a copy of Alice In Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.  I grew up first reading the book, then seeing the movie, but I suspect that for my children and grandchildren, if they read the book, it will be after they see the movie—and why not? I hope our children can grow up without feeling like there is competition between these very different media.  Ice cream and strawberries are not in competition.  Anyway, I’ll let you know about the books later; for now, let’s continue looking at what to talk to kids about after seeing the current movie. 

Disney’s animated Alice was based on the first book when Alice is a very young girl and full of spunk. Tim Burton’s story finds Alice engaged to be married and torn between what she wants and what others want for her—not an unusual situation for young women.  The following ideas may be more for parents of young girls to think about and parents of older girls to talk about. Use your own judgment!

1.       “Whhhooo are you?” This, for me, is the defining question about this Alice.  Her adventure in Wonderland is all about a search for the “real” Alice.  I just heard Scott Adair at Harding University give an extraordinary lecture on our own adolescents and emerging adults, all of whom are engaged primarily in trying to figure out who they are going to be.  What would happen if we parents were to occasionally simply ask , “Who are you?”

2.       “You’ve lost your Much-ness.”  I can’t forget this moment of truth! That our culture encourages girls to lose their muchness is well documented. Strength, intelligence, independence, imagination, basic integrity are abandoned in favor of popularity, faux dependence, and physical sexuality at the expense of emotional sexuality. (If you want to read more on this, you might try the classic Reviving Ophelia by Mary Pipher.)

3.       Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast!  As Alice begins to define herself more clearly, she discovers strength in this adage she remembers from her father.  She begins to believe that she can do things that she previously thought were impossible. What are the “impossible” things that your kids could do if they believed they could?  Adding a sincere belief in what God could do through them would be even more defining, wouldn’t it.

4.       The Courage to say “No.”  The most important word here is probably courage, but one of the most difficult expressions of courage is saying “no” to what friends expect them to say “yes” to. Alice’s ultimate expression was rejecting her arranged marriage and launching out on her own voyage. Maybe your starter questions would be: Do you ever have to tell your friends you don’t want to do something that they want you to do with them? . . . . What do you say to them? 

I raised the question at the LST office a couple of weeks ago as to what today’s younger children confront in which they learn that because they are Christians, they will have to say no and be different from some or all of their friends. When I was a child, we had long lists of things we couldn’t do, but almost all of those taboos are gone now. Nevertheless, somewhere, somehow, kids need to learn to step out of the crowd and make strong Christian choices.  How do you teach your children to be strong?

I’d love to hear your stories of teaching, preserving, nurturing “much-ness” in your children/grandchildren.