VBS at Church of the Open Door

It was our privilege to help with a VBS last week. We really enjoyed the time we were able to spend with the families of this church. They were exceedingly kind to us. (They fed us so well that I might have to roll home!)

I had a good class (teens) ranging from 3 to 8 participants. I think God gave us a good time together and I trust that he will bless the sowing of the seed in their lives.

The Lord gave us several opportunities to get to know the people of the church. We are humbled by their generous hospitality and kindness toward us. Not only did we enjoy excellent food and fellowship, at one house Viviane was able to sit on a horse! Although she was initially timid, Viviane really enjoyed the horses and Liz and I enjoyed watching her.

We finished the week with a program during the Sunday PM service. That just happened to be the night that Mt. Carmel had its organizational meeting (for the VBS we are now helping with). So, after preaching at Mt. Carmel's service, I drove over to Church of the Open Door to take part in their program. The Lord brought several visitors, some of whom were not Christians. I had the privilege of presenting the gospel to them and pray that God will give the increase.

Liz, Viviane, and I are grateful for the time we had to meet the Christians at Church of the Open Door. Thank you for your kindness to us. God bless you till we meet again.

On Commissioning the Bixbys

We said goodbye to our coworkers, Tim and Ruth, on June 21. Several strands of thoughts ran through my mind as I meditated on the fact that I would not see them again before they left for France. I attempted to channel those thoughts into this poem. I trust that it communicates biblical truths about love for coworkers and love for the gospel despite its shortcomings.

The service sneaked up on me

like a long-assigned project's due date

startles a procrastinating student: Already!

So soon! Its coming and won't wait!

For months and years we've prayed, planned,

prepared-for a mission in the distant future

that now extends its grasping hand

to claim you for its treasure.

Upon bowed shoulders elder hands descend,

deigning to set apart and send away

brother, sister, cherished friends

for sake of a coming glorious day.

Can we rejoice concerning this commission?

How can we feel happiness and joy

at this severing, this removal, this amputation

of those whose vital gifts we enjoy?

Delightful songs about sending out our own

clash dissonantly with the silent, constricting

dirges that grip the throat, turning to stone

joyful thoughts once upward spiraling.

Can it really be that we, the body, are gathering

to celebrate such a separation, the undoing of a union,

which is no less traumatic or agonizing

than the loss of arm or leg by amputation?

A sudden thought impedes dark despair's progress:

"Are you the first to suffer thus?"

The pain remains, but we can't claim this duress

is unique to us.

Long ago a greater severance took place-

when the God man walked this world.

The Father and the Son, eternally face to face,

fellowship cruelly crushed, salvation unfurled.

Far from glory this cherished Son righteously

lived doing good and preaching

good news to crowds persistently

refusing to see in him the Father abiding.

Until one morning the Son was dragged

up a hill to bear full force the anger

of his own dear Father, all communication gagged,

eternal fellowship could not endure.

Why must grief sprout from separation

for both deity and humanity?

This suffering is the price of reconciliation;

temporary sundering brings union for eternity.

Again, can this commissioning lead to joy?

Yes, if despite heartache and sorrow

the body rends itself to send a gospel envoy,

dividing itself so others can know.

And so within the assembly smile and frown mingle

as tears of sorrow and joy freely blend.

Mourning and grief are embraced in full.

Sweet proximity temporarily relinquished.

Go with the blessing of the church,

over every obstacle and resistance advance

until you return triumphantly from the search

for souls to swell Christ's inheritance.

Foolishness to the Greeks-Part 2

Chapter 2 of Foolishness to the Greeks is entitled "Profile of a Culture." Building on the truism that a missionary must know his culture, Newbigin wonders how a missionary from Western culture can reach the nations characterized by Western culture. He suggests that listening to other cultures is a beginning point, but acknowledges that language barriers make this an unlikely place to start. So he suggests analysis of Western culture's genesis: the Enlightenment.

Newbigin describes the Enlightenment as the collective sigh of Europeans (at least the thinking ones) as they were liberated from the darkness of superstition and ignorance that characterized much of the Medieval period of European history. There were many contributing factors to the Enlightenment such as the translation of Aristotle into Latin, the rise of universities, renaissance learning, reformation tumult, advances in science (particularly by Newton), and Descartes' philosophy. In the author's opinion, Newtonian science is the most important. His discoveries in science based on cause and effect forever changed the way humans looked at their surroundings. According to Newbigin, the result of Newton's work was the rejection of "purpose" as a category for understanding physics and astronomy. The new means of explanation came from cause and effect, so much so that identifying the cause became synonymous with explanation. There was neither need for or ability to identify the purpose behind natural occurrences that operated according to mathematical laws. Scientists could discover these laws by the use of reason: analysis and mathematical reconstruction.

This method of analysis soon spread to all levels of society and all aspects of life. No longer was it only applied to science; soon every area of life was subjected to the scientific method. Newbigin thinks this is the key for understanding contemporary (as of 1986) Western culture. The basis for all that we see is the dismissal of "purpose" as a valid category for interpreting reality. All that humans are left with is cause and effect. And yet, Newbigin points out, purpose remains a vital aspect of human existence. So, modern Western culture is forced to make a division between public and private, fact and value. The cause and effect process of science leads to hard, "value-free" facts as opposed to the intensely private values of individuals. The one (fact) holds absolute sway and authority in the public arena while values are relegated to the private sphere and wield no universal authority.

This absolute dichotomy robs modern Western culture of any basis for making value statements about how citizens "ought" to behave. The right to pursue happiness takes as many different forms as there are people--and no one has the right or ability to distinguish what is good or not. Scientific "fact" must be submitted to by all, but values must be restricted to personal preference.

This, Newbigin, argues is the modern Western mindset that has grown out of the Enlightenment. Reason reigns and everything else must submit. But, Newbigin asks, "what if this is not reality?" What if there is a God who has made all things and is calling every person to loving devotion? Could it be that modern Western culture for the past 250 years has been living in an illusion? Is the present decay of society a sign of that illusory dream?

That is as far as the author takes us in this 20 page chapter. Next, Newbigin explores the Bible and its authority.

Foolishness to the Greeks Day 1

This morning I began reading Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture by Lesslie Newbigin. Although this book is dated (published in 1986) I thought I'd give it a read since it deals directly with one of my main concerns: the evangelization of France. Newbigin served as a missionary in India as well as in England and was considered to be a leader in the world of Ecumenical missiology. The fact that he functioned within a more liberal sphere does not negate necessarily his insights into missions in Western Europe. Let's see what he has to say.


Chapter 1: Post-Enlightenment Culture as a Missionary Problem

Newbigin sets out to answer a very specific question: "what would be involved in a genuinely missionary encounter between the gospel and this modern Western culture" (3). He defines culture as the "sum total of ways of living developed by a group of human beings and handed on from generation to generation" (3). This includes religion. That definition is pretty normal. A little less clear is his definition of gospel: "the announcement that in the series of events that have their center in the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ something has happened that alters the total human situation and therefore must call into question every human culture" (3-4).

He offers Paul's speech before Agrippa as a paradigm for what is involved in the cross-cultural communication of the gospel: 1) must take place in receptor language, including the intellectual framework of the culture, 2) must be confrontational in nature, calling for "radical metanoia," and 3) must rely upon supernatural working for results (5-6). Concerning this work of communicating the gospel cross-culturally, he includes a caveat that remains true today: "In the attempt to be 'relevant' one may fall into syncretism, and in the effort to avoid syncretism one may become irrelevant" (7). He also warns missionaries that the Jesus received by their converts is the Jesus they present. By this he intends to call attention to the fact that far too often the Jesus and his gospel preached is in fact a very culturally influenced Jesus and gospel (8).

He pinpoints the Enlightenment as the beginning of a self-conscious Western thought that disallows identifying the Bible as the Word of God (10) and then takes up the analysis of Western culture set out in The Heretical Imperative. Basically, Berger (author of The Heretical Imperative) argues that since there is no viable "plausibility structure" (read absolute by which to judge) in Western culture, this culture demands that every individual be a heretic; i.e., each must determine for himself what he will believe (11). Newbigin agrees with this aspect of Berger's analysis, writing that it is natural "in a culture controlled by this kind of experience, for religion also to be a matter of personal choice, unconditioned by any superhuman or supernatural authority" (13). But he disagrees with Berger's insistence that there is no "plausibility structure." Instead he asserts that Western culture's insistence on "facts" in the public venue (as opposed to the private realm) is the new plausibility structure. This dichotomy between private and public is integral to understanding Western culture. On the private level, pluralism and an absence of any plausibility structure is accepted and required. But on the public level of "fact," Western culture does not allow for the same level of choosing for oneself. Newbigin correctly (and colorfully) identifies "facts" as the "center of the temple" for modern Western culture [an interesting word picture in light of the French revolution's idolization of reason]. Based on this dichotomy, Newbigin decries attempts to offer Christianity as a legitimate topic for study within the existing structure of thought because doing so "leaves that world-view unchallenged. The autonomous human being is still the center--with total freedom of choice" (15).

He believes that Protestant churches have accepted Western culture's relegation of religion to the private sphere. In his opinion, accepting a place in the private sphere may have gained churches ongoing existence in the modern world at the expense of "surrendering the crucial field" (19). He then ends the chapter with a sobering quotation of W. E. Gladstone, part of which reads: "Should the Christian faith ever become but one among many co-equal pensioners of a government . . . this will prove that we are once more in a transition-state--that we are travelling back again from the region to which the Gospel brought us, towards that in which it found us" (20). Newbigin concludes that this is exactly what has happened, but that the result is not a secular state that was once predicted. Rather, "It is a pagan society, and its paganism, having been born out of the rejection of Christianity, is far more resistant to the gospel than the pre-Christian paganism with which cross-cultural missions have been familiar. Here, surely, is the most challenging missionary frontier of our time" (20).

Catching Up

It is hard to believe that just about a month has passed since we last posted a comment. This will be a quick update to let you all know what has transpired over the last several weeks.

Michael participated in the Bob Jones University commencement on May 9, where he had a Ph.D. in Theology conferred. Both our sets of parents joined us for the ceremony, and then we had the opportunity that afternoon to spend time with many of our friends at a drop in reception. The Lord gave us an exciting and enjoyable day. We are so grateful for his kindness to us throughout the process.

We left two days later for a family vacation--our first true family vacation since we've been married. The Lord provided this vacation free of charge to us and we are so grateful for the generosity of our family members. We had a great time together and were able to catch up on some sleep after two very hectic weeks.

We were at home for a week before we left for Tennessee to present our mission to Life Gate Baptist Church in Hixson. Pastor Dunn and the people there were very kind to us and we enjoyed making some new friendships with brothers and sisters.

Presently, we are working on projects at home, contacting pastors, getting ready for a short trip to PA to help 2 churches with VBS, and preparing for our long deputation trip this Fall.

Finally, but definitely not lest, Liz and I are anticipating the birth of our second child this coming December! (Viviane would also be excited, but she doesn't understand yet.)

As you can see, we have had quite a bit going on. Thank the Lord for his goodness.