DAD

This past week, my father, who has struggled with a form of cancer known as Multiple Myeloma for the past three years made the decision to discontinue treatments and to go home with hospice care. I made a quick trip to Oklahoma to be with my dad and mom for the weekend and to spend some time talking to my dad while he is still lucid. At moments such as this it is interesting how conversations become more focused on what is important. I know that we took every opportunity possible to let each other know how much we cared for them.

An Umbuto, Zulu proverb says, “A person is a person through other persons”. When the moments of life are measured we realize how much our lives are formed by the relationships we have with others. In the case of my father, I took time to tell him how much his life has influenced my life and how much I thank the Lord for an amazing father, through whom I can easily understand get a glimpse of what a heavenly Father must be like.

I trust that you will take time this Christmas season to focus on important things in life. And by the way, if I haven’t said it before, I thank the Lord for your life and for the opportunity to journey together with you during this time that we have the tremendous gift of life.

The following is a reading from George Carlin that he wrote just after the death of his wife:

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints.

We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time.

We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years.

We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space.
We've done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait.

We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships.

These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes.

These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.

It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete...

Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.

Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side. Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.

Remember, to say, "I love you" to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Saint Sabina

This past Sunday I was in Chicago and attended the Saint Sabina Church located in South Chicago. St. Sabina is a Catholic, African American congregation. When I arrived at the St. Sabina church, at approximately 11:20 am, I parked one block from the Sanctuary on the opposite side of the main entrance. I parked in front of a bar, and within one block walked past a store front African American churches which was in session and the preaching could be heard from the street as we walked by. As we approached the church, I first noticed a large lighted sign with the words: “Stop the violence, our children are dying”. Walking closer, I noticed a playground at the front of the church which had 31 wooden, mock coffins, each with a wooden cross and plastic flowers on top, which surrounded the playground. After the service, I noticed a woman standing and looking at the coffins. I asked her why there were 31? She told me that when they put the display up a few weeks earlier, “31 of our innocent children have been killed by guns this year”. I asked her, “31 from your church or from your community?” She said, “31 from the community, but since the display had been put up, 3 or 4 more children have been killed as well”. She said that just last week a young boy was sitting on his porch when he was hit by a bullet.
As I approached the main entrance I noticed a line of youth waiting to enter the sanctuary. Each were wearing a red T-Shirt which said, “Young Warriors for Christ” in the middle of the shirt, just under the word “warriors” was a crusader shield. As I entered the sanctuary, which was quickly filling to capacity (I would estimate 500-700 people were in the service) the service was already started. I first noticed several TV cameras along the sides, and also that Jessie Jackson was speaking from the front with the priest and a couple of other people at his side. Jackson told about the experience of him and the priest being arrested the day before as a result of a boycott of “Chucks Gun Store” . "Jobs are going out, guns are coming in." was a theme which Jackson had the congregation repeat with him. Jackson tied his comments to a history of African Americans who have had to fight to gain victory over slavery and in battles. As Jessie Jackson left the sanctuary, he shook hands with people, and held up a small boy.
The 3and half hour service which started when Jackson left, was an experience easier experienced than described. The mixture of Catholic and African heritage was quite unique and blended together in a very natural way.
The mission of the church is making disciples of the believers. The whole thrust of the service had a tone of moving the church outside of its walls and making an impact on a destructive society. In every sense, I would call St. Sabina a missional church. Their primary focus is not being relevant in order to get people to come into their church, but rather mobilizing the believers in the church to go out and change the world. I would encourage you to look up the website for St. Sabina, and get an idea of what a missional and yet contextualized church looks like. While you are on the site, listen to some of the sermons of father Pfleger. http://www.saintsabina.org/index2.htm (if you would like a complete ten page description of my visit along with cultural observations, let me know and I will e-mail you a copy)

Dr. Paul Hiebert

During the past two years I have had the privilege to get to know an incredible person. On several trips to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School I struggled to find economic housing in the area. Dr. Paul Hiebert, generously opened his home to me and several others as well. In the evenings we would share a meal together, and then return to work. At about 9:00pm we would gather in the living room for ice cream and for a time to talk about anthropology. To have the opportunity to sit down and talk about current trends in anthropology with Paul Hiebert is about as good as it gets for a missiologist. I would compare it to sitting down to talk with the apostle Paul about the New Testament.

The last time I stayed with Dr. Hiebert was in October. At that time he knew that his cancer was progressive and that he might not survive it. After teaching PhD courses all day, he worked until 9:00pm each evening in order to complete two new books. He completed these books during the last two months of his life and they will probably be published later this year. During the last two months of his life, he also completed a graduation address which I have copied below from the Trinity web page. http://www.tiu.edu/tiu/newshiebertcommencementaddress
Dr. Paul Hiebert's Final Message to Students Read at Commencement
The late Dr. Paul Hiebert, a renown missiologist, missionary to India, and distinguished TEDS professor of mission and anthropology, was invited to deliver the Commencement address for Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Trinity Graduate School on May 12, 2007. Dr. Hiebert died of cancer on Sunday, March 11, 2007, but his message was read at Commencement by his close friend and colleague, TEDS Academic Dean Dr. Tite Tienou.


TEDS Academic Dean Dr. Tite Tienou reading Dr. Paul Hiebert's Commencement address on May 12, 2007.
A Rapidly Changing World
The world in which you minister is radically different from the one Frances and I entered in 1960. Then it took us three months by ship to reach India; three weeks for mail to go and return, and three days to book an underseas cable to phone the U.S. People returned once every seven years on furlough. Today transcultural flights and instant communication have become routine.
Every few centuries, we seem to pass through an "Alice in Wonderland's mirror" and enter a world radically different from the one we left. In the past we adjusted old theories and methods of ministry to a changing world. Today we do not need old theories and methods. We need new kinds of ministers and missionaries who learn to think in new ways, to exegete their social and cultural contexts as well as others, and faithfully communicate the Gospel to our new world. Most of us leave seminary with a deep understanding of the Gospel, but with few ways to exegete humans. The message we preach often touches the surface of people's lives but does not transform them deeply. We must develop more effective methods of understanding and go deeper to understand the central questions people are facing. We need to show them that the Gospel provides definitive answers to their felt needs and their deep theological needs. In other words, we need theologians and missionaries who do both theological and anthropological reflections on the human scene more deeply and who learn how to incarnate faithfully the Gospel in contemporary human contexts.
Our Unchanging Lord
In our fractured, changing world, the great news is that Jesus Christ, the lord of all history, and the commander in world mission is the same today as he was with Adam, Moses and David. He is the Lord who took on human flesh to bring us salvation, and a new creation.
We who have walked before, commend you into God's hand. We have lived in changing worlds, and have experienced our Lord's faithfulness and constancy throughout our lives. If you asked us: if we had the chance would we live differently, I know most of us would say no, not at the deepest levels of our lives. As we grow old, we can look back at the story, "the plot" of our lives, and see that God has been writing a drama in our years of living. When we were young we sometimes saw our life stories as detective stories, as mysteries, as tragedies, possibly as comedies, but in looking back we realize that these are great Love Stories. He who created us is coming back to bring us home as his bride.
Our Challenge to You
We who have gone before today charge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus: be ready to minister in season and out of season; reproving, rebuking and exhorting with complete patience and teaching. Like Paul we encourage you to share the Gospel you have heard among us… with the world. YOU are already the leaders of the world church in the 21st century. Remember, central to your task is to train leaders who will, in turn, train leaders—not followers. Remember that God is writing a story in your lives as you minister in his kingdom, but your story takes on meaning because it is part of an eternal story. Paul received that Gospel and passed it on to Timothy, who passed it on to those who followed . That Gospel has come down through the centuries through our spiritual genealogy, and we must pass it on to those who follow us. When Christ returns, he will continue establishing his eternal reign of peace, justice and love over the universe.

A WESLEYAN MISSION OF JUSTICE

By David Wesley
Nazarene Theological Seminary

There are very few movies which I have attended that people actually applaud as the ending credits begin. The movie, “Amazing Grace” was one of those movies.

In the early 1800's William Wilburforce was an up-and-coming member of the English Parliament, when he was converted under Wesley’s ministry. He couldn't see how he could ever remain in the parliament while being committed to Christ. His uncle, John Newton (writer of the song Amazing Grace) and others encouraged him to stay in politics and see what God might have him do. Little did he know that he would be called upon to lead the fight for the abolition of the slave trade which led to Parliament finally outlawing England's participation in the slave trade in 1807.

It is interesting that the last letter that John Wesley wrote was to William Wilberforce. The letter concerns his thoughts upon slavery and encouragement for Wilberforce to take action for change.

While this is fascinating history, I am not sure how to process it. Perhaps I have more questions than answers at this point, but in this year of the 200th anniversary since British Parliament abolished slavery, wouldn't it be ironic if Wesleyan Christians were more excited about what God did through William Wilberforce and John Wesley to fight slavery in 1807 than about what God wants to do through us to fight slavery in 2007?

There are incredible similarities in the world of Wilburforce and Wesley and contemporary global society. According to Gary Haugon, founder of International Justice Mission (IJM), “there are more slaves in the world today than were extracted from Africa during 400 years of the transatlantic slave trade. More than 25 million human beings are slaves in 2007. They are not slaves in a metaphorical sense. They are held in forced servitude by other human beings”
( http://www.ijm.org/NETCOMMUNITY/Page.aspx?&pid=178&srcid=-2) .

If we interpret our mission to actually be participation in God’s mission, we have to ask ourselves the hard question of “what is God’s mission in our world which is plagued by slavery and genocide?” and “how do we participate in what He is doing?”

I would be the first to say that I don’t have an easy answer to those questions. I do know, however, that we cannot answer with indifference. Perhaps God is calling you, or calling me to be a part of His mission and to be the voice of “Real Christianity” in a desperate world.

I invite your thoughts and reactions!

The following is from the last letter of John Wesley written to William Wilburforce:

Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be fore you, who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? O be not weary of well doing! Go on, in the name of God and in the power of his might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it.

Global Mission Conference

On March 30th, I will be in Amsterdam for the first Global Missiology Conference that, to my knowledge, has been organized for the Church of the Nazarene. The conference was born out of some conversations that several of us were having in relation to a dream to form a network of Wesleyan Missiologists who could share resources and ideas.

Papers have been written for this conference which deal with the realities of Globalization, Global changes, Anthropology of Globalization and of a flat world which affect every aspect of the world and time in which we live. These changes whether they are just a popular trend or whether they are indicators of greater changes to come are causing many to rethink paradigms of transnational organizations including mission organizations which deal directly with people in a variety of social situations. Mission organizations are forced to address how an increasingly interdependent world is changing the dynamic of mission organizations themselves. While these dynamics do indeed have a great impact on sociological, financial and structural implications of organizations on a global scale, the anthropological issues of individuals and local culture are essential aspects which missions cannot overlook.The purpose of this conference and the papers which have been written is to address how the Mission of God is carried out by the Body of Christ in this context. Our particular focus is on the role of the Church of the Nazarene.

It will be fascinating to listen in and participate in the conversations with missiologists who teach in various educational settings around the world, with mission administrators, as well as missionaries who live in the reality of a changing world. Hopefully the diversity will bring greater depth to the conversation.

I would invite you to read the papers for yourself in order to get a good idea of the discussions. You can locate the papers at the NTS Center for Intercultural Studies Site (see link on the right side of this blog). Shortly after the conference I hope to post photos and follow up conversations about the conference on the same site. I welcome any comments that you may have about any of the papers posted for the conference.

Should We Continue to Send Missionaries From The U.S.?

David Wesley
Nazarene Theological Seminary


In a last minute effort to put together a workshop for the M7 conference, I am wrestling with the theme which has been given to me. The theme comes from a common question in the U.S. “If the need is so great at ‘home’, why do we send missionaries?” For my own purposes, I have reduced the title to just “Why Send North American Missionaries?”

In my grandparents, or parent’s generation, this question would not have even been asked. The question, more, likely would have more to do with sending people who are not North Americans.

The map of global Christianity that my grandparents knew, however, has been turned upside down. At the start of the 20th century, only ten percent of the world’s Christians lived in the continents of the south and east. Ninety percent lived in North America and Europe, along with Australia and New Zealand. But at the start of the 21st century, at least 70 percent of the world’s Christians live in the non-Western world—more appropriately called the majority world. Just to give an idea:

- There are more members of the Anglican churches in Nigeria than all of the Episcipal and Anglican churches in Britain, Europe and North America combined.
- There are more Baptists in Congo than in Britain.
- Ten times more Assemblies of God members in Latin America than in the U.S.
- From the Nazarene World Mission Website: “Statistics indicate that World Mission can anticipate church membership in excess of 1 million members in World Region areas by September 2007” (there are currently 640,000 Nazarenes in North America).
- The growth rate of the Church of the Nazarene in the U.S. last year was 0.59%, in world areas it was 5.58%.

What used to be the peripheries of the Church is now the center. The old center of the church is quickly becoming the periphery.

Philip Jenkins book, The Next Christendom which describes the realities of a southward movement of Christianity, has brought this reality to popular attention in the past few years.

While many would argue that “Christendom” in reality does not exist, and the “Majority world church” is not clamoring for some kind of political or church power (on the contrary, many desire to help the U.S. in the struggle to shift from survival mode to mission mode) the reality of an enormous shift in Christianity is, in fact a reality. This is partly because of the incredible success of the mission movement of the past 100 years.

With enormous sacrifice on the missionaries’ part as well as the sending churches part, the church has been established throughout the world. While it is popular to evaluate and critique the mistakes of colonialistic missionaries (and there were many mistakes that we can learn from), the missionary movement of the 20th century was an enormous success. It was such a success that today there are more Nazarenes outside the U.S. than within the U.S.

This brings us around to the question, “so what?” What does all of this mean for mission?

In such a changing and unstable global environment, there are a few ‘indicators’ which serve to guide us.

1) Our mission and our mission strategies (including where we send missionaries from) must be addressed from a theological and scriptural reference point.

Jurgen Moltman said: “It is not the church that has a mission of salvation to fulfill in the world; it is the mission of the Son and the Spirit through the Father that includes the church” (1977:64)

There are various implications of this statement. One of these is that the church does not organize itself and it’s strategies in order for God to move in our world (that is magic). Instead, we ask; “what is God doing in our world?” and “how can we open our church structure to participate with God in His activity in the world” (that is true worship)?

We often ask, “Where does God fit into the story of my life?” when the real question is, “Where does my little life fit into the great story of God’s mission?”

In all of our discussions of the “emergent church” we wrestle to “make the gospel relevant to the world.” But God is about the mission of transforming the world to fit the shape of the gospel.

Lesslie Newbigin has prophetic words for the church in this regard:

We are being called to reclaim the church for its missionary purposes…there is a fatal dichotomy that marks Christendom ecclesiology: church and mission. Mission is often treated as a stepchild or, even worse, in some cases an orphan. That is to say, traditional ecclesiology has no place for mission. Yet the church was instituted by Jesus Christ to be a sign of God’s reign and the means of witnessing to that reign throughout the world. The church that refuses to accept its missionary purpose is a deformed church.

Paul Orjala definitely had it right when he said, “God’s Mission is my mission”. Mission is the nature of God, and the church reflects the nature of God as it participates in His mission.

2) We will increasingly need to realize that Christianity does not have a territorial or national center. Our center is God, and His passion for a lost world.

Mission begins anywhere there are believers who follow the passion of Christ, who reach out to areas where people do not know Christ.

The church has always been multidirectional in its mission. We often use Acts 1:8 as an argument for concentric circle type of mission, but if we look at Acts closer, we notice that Jerusalem was just one of the sending points for the church.

- Peter goes from Jerusalem to Samaria, to Gaza, to Azotos, and to Ceasaria (Acts 8).
- Believers from Cyprus go to Antioch and initiate a multiethnic church there (Acts 11:19-21).
- Barnabus goes from Antioch to Tarsus to get Saul (Acts 11:22-26).
- Priscilla and Aquilla come from Italy and end up in Corinth (Acts 18)
- Apollos comes from Alexandria to Ephesus, then ends up in Corinth (Acts 18-19)

What held this early, multidirectional church together is found in 3 John where you will notice the use of letters of recommendation and the exhortations to treat traveling church planters and teachers “in a manner worthy of God”. In this we see a sense of cohesiveness in which the church is not separated independent sending nations, neither is it a church dependent on the church in Jerusalem. It is, however, an interdependent network which is centered in Jesus Christ.

The real mission boundary is not between “Christian countries” and “the mission field,” but between faith and unbelief, and that is a boundary, according to Christopher Wright, “that runs through every land and, indeed, through every local street.”

What does this mean?

Since M7 is primarily comprised of people from the U.S., I will frame the questions in relation to that perspective:

- Is there no longer a need for the U.S. to send missionaries? (Is the task done?)
- Should we focus on sending missionaries from other countries to the U.S.?

If we looked at the church as a business that was ours to control and run like machinery, one could possibly say it would be more practical to declare a moratorium on U.S. missionaries. There are many denominations that have been doing just that over the past 15-20 years. The interesting phenomenan is that these denominations have consistently decreased in the U.S. as they brought missionaries home. One of these mainline denominations had a goal of have a decrease of only 5% in the U.S. last year.

Why??

I believe that is because of the fact that mission is God’s nature. God is a mission God, and if the church is focused on itself and not outwardly toward the lost that God is seeking to redeem, it no longer functions as the healthy body of Christ.

Are ‘missional’ churches the answer?

I have found, as I have come back to the U.S. after 14 years that the word “missional” is in vogue. At first, I thought this meant that the church was actively focused on God’s mission. I have found, however, that:

- We often use the term “missional”, but that usually means that we are about relevant communication.
- “Missional” language is used to infer that we are all about living incarnationally, which means having real conversations with people that are similar in a postmodern, secular society. That is relevance, and is a need in our world today.
- This is not, however, taking the kingdom of God across cultural boundaries, or going to people who are nearby, but who are culturally or socially different and who are separated from God.

Although cultural relevance is necessary, the key which will awaken the Church in the U.S. or in any other part of the globe is to seek God’s holiness. I am not, in anyway, trying to use that phrase as a cliché or “Nazareney” term. What I am saying is that the life of the church can only be found in being in the likeness of God. This means that we reflect “His glory” and “His passion”.

So to finally answer the question: NO!! In no way can we afford to stop sending missionaries from the U.S. or from any point where the body of Christ find’s itself. There are many motives for which people become missionaries, but it has become increasingly evident that we do not go because of nationality; we do not go because we are more intelligent or resourceful. We go because we are called of God to participate in His mission, His salvage operation to restore broken and lost people.

"A Salute to All Nations....but Mostly America"

David Wesley, Nazarene Theological Seminary


In an article posted on January 22, 2007 in Christianity Today, Christopher J.H. Wright has a fascinating article which he titles “An upside-Down World”. His primary argument is that Christianity has always been polycentric, and gives examples of that from the New Testament. A great quote in the article, although it is not cited is from Andrew Walls:
“The emergence of genuine world Christianity and the ending of Western assumptions of heartland hegemony simply marks a return to normal Christianity, which looks much more like the New Testament than Christianity ever did.”

Wright says that “the language of home and mission field is still used by many churches and agencies, but it fundamentally misrepresents reality”. This is not a new concept and in my opinion is in line with the whole tone of scripture which emphasizes mission as God’s nature and God’s activity in which the Church is called to be “co-workers with God.”

While the article represents the heart of missional thinking, there are some pragmatic issues which are difficult for our post modern ears. In a time when being “purpose driven” is the norm, Wright states, “we want to be driven by a purpose tailored for our individual lives, when we should be seeing the purpose of all life, including our own, wrapped up in the great mission of God for the whole creation.” Issues of contextualization and “user friendliness” are also difficult to synchronize with Wrights statement, “we wrestle to ‘make the gospel relevant to the world.’ But God is about the mission of transforming the world to fit the shape of the gospel.”

Without doubt, mission never has never had a territorial center, and it was never meant to be a gospel from the “west to the rest”. Colonialism and nation pride, sadly to say, many times overshadow the mission of God. I am reminded of the American eagle of the muppets who is quoted to say, “a salute to all nations of the world…but mostly America”. We want to be inclusive, but we end up with “mostly America”. When we sing “we’ve a story to tell to the nations”, we often think that it is “mostly America” who has a story to tell to the nations. We put together mission statements which state that our mission is to make disciples of all or in all nations, and yet we often mean that it is “mostly Americans” who are to make disciples of all other nations.

To quote Wright (again), “the real mission boundary is not between ‘Christian countries’ and the ‘mission field,’ but between faith and unbelief, and that is a boundary that runs through every land and, indeed, through every local street.”

I welcome your comments about Wrights article as well as my thoughts. Wright's article can be located at http://www.christianvisionproject.com/2007/01/an_upsidedown_world.html