Church Planting Lesson Eleven

Pastor Jeff continues to take his class at Calvary Chapel Bible College through a study in biblical church planting.

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Advice for New Missionaries

The following post comes from the Paradox Uganda Blog. This is one of my favorite missionary blogs. Authored by a missionary doctor to Northern Uganda, it is always full of great stories of ministry, insight, and wisdom. The Myhres are true veterans of the field that have sacrificed worldly treasure to lay up treasure in heaven.

This morning's sermon from Acts 21 compared the advice given to Paul as he came to the Jerusalem church to that the Babwisi would like to give new missionaries.  In the Bible, there is tension between the ancient culture of Judaism from which the first believers are emerging, and the question of how much of that culture should be part of non-Jewish Christian practice, and which pagan rituals are acceptable or unacceptable for Christians.  It is fascinating to consider these cross-cultural issues which arose from the very beginning, and to see that most of the direct written-in-Scripture commands of the new Kingdom are heart-level principles about love and humility and service and obedience and holiness . . with the specific application to various cultures left to councils and consensus of leaders.  In Acts they decide (1) it is good for Paul to participate in a traditional Jewish vow ceremony so people can see he respects the old laws and ways, so the Gospel does not negate all pre-existing traditions, (2) the believers from other cultures should not be required to become Jews, so the Gospel does not create a monocultural standard, and (3) there are a few things that the leaders deem worth taking a stand against in the prevailing Greco-Roman culture like sacrifices to idols and sexual promiscuity, so the Gospel does impact certain aspects of every culture it enters.  So much of the New Testament deals with the practical outworking of these issues, with where to draw the lines, and who gets to draw them.  Respect for the old ways (even recognizing God's presence in them), embracing diversity, and taking a stand against evil:  finding the balance between these three values threw the early church into turmoil, and continues to haunt missionaries today. 

So the preacher's advice to new missionaries was this: 

1.  Know our culture.

2.  Bear with us because we are poor and not so much educated.

3.  Learn our language, either Lubwisi or Lukonjo.

4.  Know our beliefs, because sometimes we believe in these small gods.

5.  Know what type of food we eat.

And his example was, that if you come to a home and find the kanumba (small shrine to ancestral spirits) out back, do not kick it down.  Instead, sit and talk to the owner, and be patient, until he decides on his own to dismantle it.  Excellent advice.  It is always a danger to think we see the evil in another culture, and find too many things that fit the third category above.  Instead we should look for more ways to honor the culture, to enter, to redeem, to strengthen its uniqueness. until the believers themselves sort out which aspects of their past were oppressive and wrong and should be left behind.  God is merciful, both to us missionaries who have over-westernized too much of the world  by painting in clear black and white strokes,  and to indigenous Christians who cling to their views in tones of grey. 

And lastly, it was a fascinating morning, because almost any other sermon I've heard on these Acts/Galatians type passages have interpreted them in light of a defense of salvation by grace (you don't have to be circumsized, or it's 20th century American religious equivalent of morality, to be saved) rather than as a defense of preserving old cultural ways (it's OK to keep circumsizing, to shave heads and pay vows, that Christianity is compatible with most aspects of cultural tradition).

 

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English classes as an outreach

This month I began teaching classes in English pronunciation and communication. The class is full, I have about 25 students, some are from the church and some not. We are hoping to be able to minister to them as they come to the class. The point of the class is to reach out to university age students, which is exactly what we have. I have one problem, the church is overfull and if they come they will have no where to sit. So please pray for these lost souls and pray continually for the Lord to provide us a new church building. Our children's ministry is overflowing and people are standing outside in the hot sun on Sunday mornings. Please pray with us. We are currently talking to someone about another building on the main ave, it used to be a Radio Shack. Please Lord provide for your church.

http://trshelley.blogspot.com/2010/01/english-classes-as-outreach.html

Shelley Missionary Page

Blessings Abound

December was our annual Christmas Outreach to the poorest children of Jaco. We have held this outreach for the last 4 years in the park where we hold our weekly Kid’s Club. This year we felt led to branch out and bless even more children. We have had the opportunity from time to time to minister in another bario where the people are almost all Nicaraguans who have simply “squatted”. They have no “rights” to the land and have erected make shift homes from salvaged materials one on top of another . This bario has its own set of winding alley ways where we have found hundreds of children. We have built some relationships with a few people from this bario, and we wanted to do more to help build trust in this community. We traveled to a town about an hour away to purchase the gifts. Then, held a wrapping night, and in about 2 hours we had 200 gifts packed and tied and ready to go thanks to our wonderful volunteers! Each child received a Capilla Calvario (Calvary Chapel) T shirt, a toy, a gospel coloring book, crayons, and a bag of candy. We found a Missionary Clown family from San Jose to perform. We started with our first outreach in the morning in the neighborhood we work in weekly (INVU). This is also the bario where we lived for the first 3 1/2 years here in CR. The park is just 2 doors down from our old house where the church began. After the outreach in INVU, we took a break and all had lunch together. In the afternoon, we drove over to our second location (Copey) for the second show. The clowns performed first and then I (Revae) told the Christmas Story with large picture cards. Next, was refreshments and finally the moment they had been waiting for…the Gifts! The volunteers were so touched to be a part of giving a gift to so many children who would have not have otherwise received a gift… and best of all to be sharing with them about Jesus Christ who is our greatest gift of all! We are still praying to see how God wants us to work in this bario in the future. We would love to see a regular Kid’s Club just like the one we host in town each week.
In His Grace,
Revae

Check out more photos from the event.

http://ccjaco.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/blessings-abound/

Lawrence, M. & R. Missionary Page

Time

 

Here in Puerto Viejo, life moves along at it’s own pace.  It’s one of those immutable laws of nature akin to night following day and day following night.  There’s no changing it so you just have to learn to roll with it.  Case in point: at church, we have repeatedly emphasized how important it is for us to start “on time” (meaning within at least 1/2 hour of the official start time) so that new people who are being invited, along with everyone else, can have some idea of what to expect.  

Something about the tropics though; schedules seem to be dictated more by the quality of the surf or the sunset than by a clock or watch.  No one else seems to mind... why should we, right?  Well, after five years of “learning to roll with it”, I still stress out every Sunday evening when no one is there “on time”.  It makes me start doubting our calling, my abilities, etc... everything short of my salvation.  It never ends and it never gets any easier for me having grown up in a very time oriented family.  For those of you that know my dad, you know what I’m talking about.

The Sunday evening after Christmas was the most recent example.  We had been inviting people for the past month to come celebrate Christmas with food, friends and a great message on hope.  Our “official” start time is 5:30 pm but by 6:00 there were only about 4 people there (which included Amy and me) along with a large amount of food that was getting cold.  Like every Sunday, I began to wonder if anyone was even going to show.  Suddenly, by about 6:15 people started trickling in and by 6:30 we were up to a total of 21 people (a mob by Puerto Viejo standards).

We enjoyed eating and spending time together and then got into the message.  I spoke about the reason that we, as Christians, celebrate Christmas... not because a baby was born but because of the hope that His birth brought to the human race.  Hope for today and for eternity.  Following that, we watched the second part of a video series by Louie Giglio entitled “Hope When Life Hurts Most” which led to some thought provoking discussion afterwards.

Our church is the only church in the entire community that is specifically reaching out to the third culture of foreigners that have have made Puerto Viejo home.  Because we are non-denominational, people feel more comfortable.  The fact that we don’t even have a name for the church is a plus in a town where people have fled institutions, structure and labels.  We are Christians that love Jesus and want others to come to know him as revealed by the Bible.  We have an opportunity here through the skatepark and church to share the good news of Jesus in a way that reaches out to a very non-traditional, un-churched crowd without compromising the message.  We need your help in doing this.  Pray with us as we make visits to people’s houses and places of business in an effort to build relationships with them.  After 5 years of living here, inviting people, etc... we have come to learn that there is no substitute for time.  The most effective way to share the message of Jesus is through personal relationships and that can only happen with time.

Cruce Missionary Page

4 Cruces: Time

God brings comfort in our pain.

The following comes from Shepherd's Staff Missionary Barrett Cruce. Barrett and his lovely wife, Amy, moved to Costa Rica about five years ago to live with and serve among the poor along Costa Rica's Caribbean coast. Barrett is a natural evangelist. You can't go anywhere with Barrett where he doesn't get into a conversation about the Lord. Everyone Barrett meets becomes an instant friend. 

Last night Juan (not his real name to protect his privacy) gave his life to God sitting in our living room.  It was an incredible end (and a new beginning) to a long and sometimes painful journey.  I first met Juan about two years ago when we went whitewater rafting with a visiting mission team.  Juan was one of the guides on the expedition.  Not long after, Juan and his girlfriend moved to Puerto Viejo.  I began to see them around and now and then he asked a few questions about the skate park.  One Friday evening he dropped by with his girlfriend to check things out.  As he asked questions, I told him why we were here, about the skate park, the visiting mission teams and I invited them to our church.  At the time, they didn't really seem too interested.  We would see each other around town and in the water and I always made sure to speak to him and to let him know that he was welcome to come anytime but he never seemed to want to take it beyond a surface level.

Fast-forward almost two years to this past Thanksgiving.  Juan had long since broken up with his girlfriend and was now working with a local company that runs the zip line tours, taking tourists on a flight through the jungle canopy in a harness connected to a very thin cable.  After our ride through the jungle, Juan and I began talk.  He asked a few more questions about the skate park and then asked about the church.  He wondered if we were still meeting together.  As we spoke, he asked what time we met.  I told him and invited him to join us some time.
The next Sunday he showed up, right on time (very unusual) and even though he had to leave early, he thanked us and said he'd be back.  He has come every Sunday since then and has also started to come to our mid-week bible study.  This past Sunday, I asked him if he'd like to come over to the house for dinner some evening after work.  Last night, he came over and we had a chance to sit and talk.   

At some point, trouble comes to all of us.  The important question is, where do we turn when that trouble hits?  A couple of months ago, Juan hit a major breaking point in his life.  One day out of the blue, his new girlfriend called him to tell him that she had aborted their baby because she didn't want to quit her drug habit.  This took place even after he had told her that he was willing to take the baby and raise it himself.  His pleading fell on deaf ears.  She went ahead with her plans and more pain was brought into the world.  This was too much for him to take alone and the places he had turned in the past didn't offer anything that could help him face the unexpected sense of loss that he suddenly experienced.  He told me that he was numb... almost paralyzed.

Other than some brief conversations at the beach, I've never really had the chance to talk much with Juan.  Not for a lack of trying, it just takes time to gain people's trust and get to that level.  That all changed last night when he came over.  Juan was about to burst because he wanted to talk so badly.  He had to get the story of his lost child off his chest and he wanted to tell me.

Referring to a Louie Giglio video series called "Hope When Life Hurts Most" that we had recently watched at church, Juan explained, "That video really helped me understand.  I figured that if Jesus went through all of that suffering and pain, then he could understand what I was going through.  He could relate to me and I can relate to him.  I had never looked at it like that before.  I never really knew much about him but now I know that He's not just some religious figure that had a perfect life and never had any problems.  He actually died after he suffered and he did it for me.  I figure that he can understand what I'm going though."

We simply sat and I listened.  He told me that He believed that only God could help him and he asked me how he could turn to Jesus.  What did it really mean to follow him and how could he have God with him in his suffering?  We read through the first half of John chapter 3 and talked about what it meant to have God's forgiveness and an opportunity for a new life.  Since he's never been to church or read the Bible before, this was all new to him.  He said that he didn't totally understand it but that it felt true.  It matched with the reality of life that he had experienced.  Sitting on our couch, Juan told God in his own words that he was finished living for himself and that he wanted a new start.  He wanted to experience God's forgiveness, peace and the restoration that is made possible through Jesus.    
As he was leaving, he explained, "This didn't just happen today.  This started a few days ago and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it."  The truth is that it started 2000 years ago and hasn't stopped since.  Over and over we have prayed that God would bring us into contact with people in whose lives he is already working.  Over and over again, He does.  I am so thankful that God has placed us here and that he is working through all of you... through your prayers and financial support... to reach out to the Juan's of this broken town. 

Please pray for Juan as he begins his walk with Jesus.  Pray that he will experience God's peace and the hope that he'll see his baby again one day.  We ask you to continue to pray for us as well.  This town is full of broken people looking for answers but it takes time to build those relationships.  For Juan, last night was the right time.  The time will come for others as well and with your prayers and support we will be here waiting and ready to share the hope that is in us.  As we continue to reach out, please ask God to give us patience.  It is a continual process of both movement and waiting.  We always want to be moving forward, doing what we can to meet new people, get the word out about church, etc... while at the same time waiting on God to move in people's lives.  The key to this is being here.  One day Juan will be able to thank you personally for making it possible for him to meet his Savior... Jesus.

Cruce Missionary Page

Church Planting Lesson Ten