"Way of the Master"

A friend sent me a website that I've been pretty impressed with called the Way of the Master. Kirk Cameron (remember Growing Pains?) is heavily involved in all of their materials and even directs (if I read correctly) the videos that they do. It's definitely worth your time to check it out, read their material, and watch some - if not all - of their videos. They will certainly challenge you to re-think the way you share Christ with others.

Vicki and I have been talking about that site for a few days now. I must say that it convicted us to watch the clips and hear peoples' responses to the Gospel presentation. It's funny (I'm about to be very transparent here) but many times it feels extremely difficult for at least these missionaries to share the Gospel in such a bold way. To be honest I think that the enemy builds up preconceived notions in our heads about how such encounters/conversations will go so that we sometimes avoid them altogether.

We've got a great friend in another city in Poland who is one of those get out there and just share the Word guys. He does it...he lives it. He's a real inspiration to me. He talks about how we all so often spend our time talking about making friendships that will *hopefully* lead to witnessing opportunities and sooner or later we find ourselves some time down the road and still haven't shared anything about Christ...still waiting for the right time.

This is a pretty difficult line to walk, isn't it? It does seem that there are times when we will only be able to share the Good News in an effective way through a relationship. But my friend is right. What about all of the time in between? Are we wasting time and in a sense not trusting the power of God's Word to convict our lost friends and loved ones...rather, depending more on our own powers of persuasion which will be put to work after we have established trust in relationship?

We are definitely called by Jesus Himself to share the message of the need and availability of peace and reconciliation with the Father through the Son. While I am not saying that I think we should disregard any attempts to build "spiritual friendships" (in the words of Brian McLaren), I am just thinking aloud that maybe at least I sometimes find myself working harder on that relationship building than on sharing the Good News itself.

Examining our trajectories

Hey everyone (at least those who are still around). I've been on a little break, dealing with some mental/spiritual things. I think I'm on the "up-road".

I'm re-reading Kyle Lake's book, Re-Understanding Prayer. This little statement caused me to want to blog again this morning/afternoon:

...I examined the trajectory of my life and didn't like where it was headed.

That's an interesting thought...examining the trajectory of our lives. If we look at where we are now we can get a really good idea of where we're going down the road. Of course this doesn't always mean location but more about character, as a follower of Christ, dad, employee, etc.

I'd invite you to think about examining the trajectory of your life this morning, as I have been as well. The most incredible thing can occur if we find that our trajectory is not really in line with our character as Christ followers. In His unlimited grace and mercy, God is able to help us re-orient ourselves. We just have to admit that we're off course, ask for His help to make all of the necessary changes to get back on track, and then begin the process of re-aligning our lives with the character of Christ.

Newsflash: I'm not a balloon

I was doing some much needed reading this morning on a website about coping with stress, depression, and other such issues and came across a very interesting thought and wanted to write about it to give myself some time to allow it to really sink in.

The past year has been a really tough one. Full of joys as well as hardships. I'm not interested in listing them as it only causes others to compare their "lot" to mine which then leads to one of us saying "I've got it worse". Let's just say it's been one of the toughest years of my life. And when the struggles come I find myself fighting that daily battle of "bouncing back". I blogged about this awhile back when talking about going down the spiral staircase and having a hard time (if not lack of desire) to work my way back up.

Well, it's that bouncing back idea that really seems to grip me at times. I go through whatever it is I'm struggling with and constantly think "why can't I just get over this?" -or- "why can't I just tell myself to be happy and it is so?" -or- "why can't I just pray or fast or whatever and it's all just better again?" Are you following me?

Well, this site gave me some needed insight into the answer to all of those questions. While I've been thinking of myself as a balloon...something without much substance, able to be stretched, poked, and prodded and then able to bounce back into shape/form with ease. Instead I am like clay (read Jeremiah 18 if you're not familiar with it).

I'm not a sculptor but I have had several chances to work with clay over the years, especially as a child. I remember the way it felt in my hand as I tried to make things of it (generally soccer balls and snakes). It was pretty tough to mold. When I pressed into it the clay would give into the pressure but would not spring back. If I smashed my clay soccer ball I would have to start the process of re-forming it...clapping it in my hands over and over, rolling it out, forming the smooth curves, doing everything needed to make it wanted I wanted it to be.

I know that God is continually in the process of making me who He wants me to be. There are a lot of stresses in life...things that press in on me (us) which seem to break my form. I am seemingly come to understand that when that happens I, by my very non-balloonish nature, am unable to immediately spring back, especially when the impression which has been made on me is deep. Rather, I must trust that my Sculptor is actively working to remove those impressions, those imperfections and that it is going to take some time before that process is completed.

E-Confess and some other thoughts

I was chatting with a friend yesterday and we were sort of laughing about the idea of having a website where people could sign-in, confess their sins, and somehow leave seeing them all erased...receiving that visual representation of how God forgives us and wipes the slate clean.

Well, I did a some googling for sites using this idea and actually found a few. I'm not going to list them here but if you're interested you can do your own research. Reading some of their homepages and trying to figure out who was sponsoring the sites was pretty sad. Really I didn't find any denominational or even religious affiliations...except one that said that confessing online could not take the place of confessing officially to a priest (I've got a good guess who's behind that particular site). One of the sites even asked for visitors to help them build their "sin database". Interesting.

Some might argue this, but I feel like we're living in very uncertain times. The term stability seems like a word that is far from most people. Especially the younger generations move so much, take different jobs every few years, sell existing and buy newer/bigger homes. Things inside many churches aren't even "stable". Ministries come and go, ministers come and go, people are always moving around looking for churches with bigger this and better that. I don't even have to expound on the instability found on the global scene.

We Christ followers really need to think about things like this, understanding that the world is looking for answers. So many people are looking for ways to understand their lives, how they fit into the bigger picture. And when I say "many people" I'm not just talking about people on the other side of the world (where we live). I'm also talking about your friends...the people next door that you keep talking about going to meet...maybe someone in your family that you feel so burdened for yet so afraid to approach.

Don't know about the e-confess idea. There actually might be some cool things that could happen through such a site. What I do know, especially after looking through a few of these sites, is that there are a ton of people out there looking for answers and for ways to feel comfortable (sometimes anonymously or otherwise low-key) to explore the things that are going through their minds.

I want to be...I try to be the kind of person that people can approach and talk to about the spiritual questions they might be having. Of course I've come to realize that before we get to those conversations a lot of relational groundwork must be done...trust must be established. And sometimes it takes A LONG time before folks come to the point where they find answers to their questions.

Just felt like talking a bit about this today. Just another way to think about our role in peoples' lives. It's awesome to be used and to be a part of peoples' journeys of discovering who God is and who they are in His eyes.

Music in missions

Been doing some thinking about how to use something I'm passionate about here on the "mission field". Specifically, how does one build a ministry around playing the trombone? (I'm laughing now thinking about how this could easily turn into a comedy spoof or something very easily...inviting all sorts of comments from the peanut gallery.)

Really, though. I'm coming at this from this angle: God gives us gifts, talents, passions. Several authors I've been reading recently (and I agree) promote working with these gifts, talents, and passions to form ministry opportunities...to give more opportunities to build relationships with and minister to the people around us.

But how does one do that with a trombone (again chuckling)? I've honestly thought of so many angles on this. Forming a quintet, quartet, brass ensemble, trombone choir, giving private lessons (more just being an ear to give budding players more exposure), etc. I even called the (there's only one) music school in town to talk to them about any possibilities. [By the way, this is the 2nd time I've tried to get something going.] The vice-director explained how they do things differently than we do in the US. To save time, I'll just say that this means that they are extremely closed in Poland. They want their musicians working ONLY with certain people and that's it. In the states musicians are so hungry to play and get exposure that they'll do just about anything to form and play in different groups, have different teachers, etc. Not the case here.

So, where does that leave me? Thought I'd just post this and let you read some of my thoughts about this issue. This is definitely part of the ministry development process as we think through the possibility of new ministries. Let me know if you have any ideas!!

Being incarnational vs attractional

I've talked a little bit about the book The Shaping Of Things To Come previously. I'm still reading and thinking through a lot of the concepts in this great book (it's worth taking your time with). This idea of a believer or the church being incarnational vs. attractional is something that the authors spend quite a lot of time with and a topic which came to mind this morning when listening to an online sermon from a big, well-known American church this morning.

The theme that was spoken over and over is that we, as believers, need to give our whole selves into bringing our spiritually paralyzed friends to the feet of Jesus. There were many examples given of how this idea could look. These examples were all alike in that the believers were giving invitations to their friends to come to church. Every time it ended the same way...not in sharing spiritual truths about reconciliation and relationship with Christ, but rather about what is going on at their awesome church so that the friend(s) would decide to come and check it out.

This idea seems to still be stuck in the attractional mode of ministry/evangelism. This is the come and see (or hear) approach. We come up with brilliant ministries, programs, studies, attractions, etc to attract people so that we can share spiritual truths with them. I'm not saying that this doesn't work (neither are the authors of the book I'm referring to). But rather it does not seem to be a very effective overall strategy when so much of the growth that these churches are experience is transfer growth -- people attracted by the cool stuff going on.

No, I'm not calling for the breakup and disposal of any style of church. I'm calling for a rethink. Let me just ask you to think about what things could like like if we stopped putting the focus so much on what happens inside the church. What if (ooh I like those two words) we put our attention on what happens outside the church...we spend much more of our time there anyway.

The incarnational approach defines itself in our being Jesus in the community. Much like Col. 1:15 says -- that Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God -- we need to be that same image to the people of our communities. We need to just learn what that means and come to a better understanding of our role in God's redemptive plan for humanity.

Instead of going on further here I'll stop for now and revisit this tomorrow or shortly thereafter. As always, it helps me work through my ideas when I blog about them. All the better if there's anyone out there thinking through these things with me!

Snow!!

I added a feature on our site's picture page that updates a picture out of our office window every 5 hours. This is the picture from tonight...notice the streaks in front of the van lights? Yep, first snow of the season. Winter is here!

All Saints Day

Today, Nov 1, is All Saints Day. Poland hasn't really gotten into Halloween yet, although from time to time you can see some kids trying to milk the imported holiday for some sugary goodness. :-)

All Saints Day, though, is a big national holiday here. People will be busy today going to Mass (it's one of the "Holy Days of Obligation" for Catholics), going to deceased family members' graves, and spending time with the rest of their family.

The sad thing is that many Poles believe today is a special day to help the souls of the deceased. You can do a quick google and read a lot. But basically they spend time praying for their friends and relatives souls, that they would be released from purgatory and be allowed to enter into heaven at last. They also place special long-burning candles at the graveside which are traditionally thought of as allowing "departed souls can find their way through the darkness".

This holiday is yet another example of how culture and tradition make it so difficult for Poles to unlearn the unbiblical teachings that keep them from freedom in relationship with Christ. If you're Polish, you do all of these things, period. You don't question. [A lot of these traditions, though, are losing strength with younger generations...but they are going further and further toward atheism and agnosticism like the rest of Europe.]

Pray for Poland today...for the people we have contact with who are seeking, trying to wade through everything they have grown up with that so easily clouds their vision. Pray that TRUTH will reign and that they will be open to it!

Here are a couple links about All Saints Day that you might be interested in looking at:
http://polandpoland.com/allsaintsday.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Saints
http://culture.polishsite.us/articles/art10fr.htm